The door clicks and shuts to. She was practically running away at the end.

Oh man, I totally fucked up. I feel like a right prick. I mean, I know she’s 18, but… well, you know, you expect girls of 18 years to have at least kissed their playground crushes and had their first boyfriend and stuff.

That’s why I didn’t hesitate, but of course, I’m still bringing across assumptions from my version of the world. If marriage is twice as sacred, three-times more required, then it follows kisses are as well. Of course, they would be. It’s just common logic. I just lost it completely when she kept battering my sense with all the proclamations of fidelity and assurances of right.

Hah… well, the least I can do is… take responsibility. Excuses are just that at the end of the day. I was merely lacking in discipline.

First of all; reply to her father. I boot up my PC. It deserves my full attention rather than just giving it a half assed attempt on my phone.

FROM [email protected] >

{Thankyou for marrying my daughter. Please reply ASAP.}

Dear Mr Corwin.

Please accept my congratulations and thanks for seeing potential in my relatively low-powered daughter. It is my families honour to provide you with a suitable partner for your new family line.

I have deposited £65,000 as thanks for this transaction into the account listed as linked to your Ember profile. This is the least I can offer and hope it suits this situation but please do not hesitate to reply to discuss any further tribute I can offer you for accepting this disadvantageous partnership.

Kind Regards

Flint Maximillian Myneris

I’m shocked. Its… just a business transaction for him! What happened to escorting your daughter down the aisle? Fatherly concern? No?! I feel sorry for Lapis. Its like she’s a madam in a Wuxia novel, something just to be given away to young masters.

Urgh… I’m angry actually. I immediately type a polite reply stating nothing else will be necessary. What a dickhead. I hope I don’t have to interact with my father-in-law too much in the future. By the sounds of it, she’s almost severed from the family.

Hah… I guess the fear in her voice wasn’t just me? Was she truly scared of me rejecting her and going back in shame to that? It… that explains some things, but it also makes me even more upset.

I should also… read my marriage certificate.

FROM [email protected] >

{Your Marriage eCertificate. ID 45006921ABS12. Do Not Reply.}

Congratulations on your Matrimony. Please note that an official printed document will be dispatched with a unique magical signature in 10-14 days. In the interim period, this document is legally binding in its place.

This certificate is celebrating the noble bonding of:

[[JIM ALBERT CORWIN]]

[~Healing Mage (Regeneration), LMP 31, Aged 31~]

AND

[[LAPIS SERENA FITZGERALD MYNERIS]]

[~Thunder Mage (Polarisation), LMP 18, Aged 14~]

My head slams my keyboard.

God DAMMIT! She’s actually freaking 14!?! Holy shit I also assaulted a minor. Oh, my fucking god! What the hell EMBER!! WHY THE HELL DID IT SAY SHE WAS 18…

Of fucking course; it’s an app for Mages. Of course, they don’t give a shit about age. It all about her 18 ‘LMP’. That’s what the 18 is for. Oh god. And coincidently I happen to have an LMP equal to my age.

What the fuck is LMP? I immediately search it on Moogle, and it gives me the Chikipaedia entry. I click it.

(Redirected from “LMP”) “LATENT MAGICAL POTENTIAL” or colloquially “POWER” in common terminology, is a method of gauging a mage’s base power level that was introduced as a new global standard by the Global Council of Magistry, following the Geneva Convention in 1946. Prior to, and during, the Second Global War, countries had unique methods of measuring magical aptitude, with a wide variety of (sometimes ineffectual)1 tests.

LMP measuring is based on effective tests developed by the armed forces of Brittania and the Free American Territories for the wars 2. It assumes a sentient being to have a baseline potential ‘level’ ranging from 6-9, and with most animals (Fae Beasts and Wildwood Creatures not inclusive) having less than this 3. Humans with 10 or higher in the LMP scale are able to manipulate what mages call ‘The Vis’ to achieve pseudoscientific (sic. Magical) effects, which, among other things, have direct effects on known and unknown subatomic particles, forces, and the electromagnetic spectrum.4

As of the 2018 GLOMAKO survey, it is estimated that 49% of humanity can claim to have an LMP of 10 or higher 5, with 28% having an LMP of 15 or greater, which is enough to qualify one as being a ‘Mage’ and being able to manifest non-trivial effects. Those with an LMP of 30 or higher are considered ‘Magisters’, and 40 or higher is an ‘Arch-Magister’. The gains suggested by rising LMP are non-linear, arbitrary, and typically multiplicative, so cannot be directly measured, but on average 6, a baseline (30 LMP) Magister will be around 16 times more adept at manipulating Vis than a baseline (15 LMP) Mage.

Of course, each user has a very specific affinity, and as such, a Mage with a focused specialisation will be superior at that specific field than a Magister with a general or adjacent specialisation.7

The article continues to dive into very specific divisions and exceptions, but I get the jist of it.

Basically, she’s decently powerful, and very good at, presumably, altering the polarisation of magnetic fields. I’m apparently a fantastic regenerator.

Which is why her father is falling other himself to give me money, I suppose. Hell; he’s probably cackling in glee that I’m didn’t haggle over the matter. Whatever. No. I’m not going to ask for more. Honestly, I did consider returning the 65k because it seems wrong to me, but that’s probably an insult or something. I can still use that money on her, so its fine.

I spend a good hour researching topics that are probably common sense to people of this world. Thank god this world has the internet and developed technology in conjunction with magic!

I become more and more surprised by the minute, the more I learn. My own parents are dead, of course. They died in a car accident when I was med-school. Many a year ago now. My dad was an engineer, and my mum was a receptionist. But in this world; they were ‘normies’, it seems. This is a sort of offensive term used by the mages, who are very much elitists.

As I should have guessed from seeing my £5 notes, this Britain, or rather Britannia, is actually an oligarchic empire, run by a ruling parliament of powerful arch-magisters. It seems that Good Queen Bess was the last monarch, and chose to hand the reigns over to the Magisters, who exponentially grew in power during the 1500’s

Britannia is still a superpower. It seems that much of the empire that was normally lost throughout the 1900’s was actually kept here. It still includes India, Australia, and has even added on parts of East Coast America and Indonesia. The Second World War, or rather the Second Global War, was mostly a brawl between us, the New Holy Roman Empire, and the Greek League. No Nazi’s were involved. They exist, and so did Hitler, but it seems they were mostly minor footnotes in history.

Discrimination seems less in general, at least when it comes to race and religion in this world. But instead, it’s very classist. Britannia does seem to at least have the MHS, as well as equal opportunity education and welfare programs for ‘normies’, but in some places, it seems they are treated quite poorly.

Hah… what’s most depressing, though, is that marriage is almost bereft of ceremony with mages. Her turning up and giving her greetings is basically it. And, uh, I was supposed to basically peck her on the cheek and let her go. Just keeps feelin’ bad man.

Well, I’m going to keep it steady and pace out a more standard relationship from now on. She deserves that much at least. I order an engagement ring for her, set with a Lapis-Lazuli and a Peridot (my favourite stone) on a white gold band. It’s actually pretty cheap; as engagement rings are for ‘normie’ ceremonies, and the gems involved have no enchantments. I’ll collect it tomorrow morning from the store.

She said… she would be back at midday? I need to take an hour nap, in that case, and then I’ll make some lunch for two. A midday candle-lit dinner… might actually work considering how dark it is outside today. The fun of the British midwinter, eh?

As I go to have a nap, I suddenly realise I still have a single bed. Shit. Well, maybe that’s for the best. I’ve already gone too far with the kiss. I’m not going to force myself on her. Ever. Period. I’d prefer for her to be another year older at least, that would help sooth my conscience to be honest. But given how aggressive she was earlier; I can’t guarantee anything. Urk.

Still, I should get used to the sofa for a while…