“Oh, I had a question. How do you rank talent for magic? What’s the scale? 1 to 100?”

Lucinda looks at me with an intense stare.

She loves talking about magic, that’s apparent. But she’s also smart enough to know that I’m hiding something. The bit about having a skill that makes a rose didn’t really convince her. She clearly doesn’t have any other explanation, though, which makes it impossible for her to even think that I would craft that on my own.

“What do you mean by ‘scale’?” Lucinda frowns at me.

“Huh? Didn’t you say that you wanted to test my talent the first time we met? And I asked you if I had to hold your hand or something? How can you tell if someone’s talent is high or not?”

Unless they cannot tell whether it’s high or not.

“We cannot tell whether it’s high or not.”

Huh.

That’s something.

“So, wait, how does it work? You put your hand on a stone and if it lights up then you are good to be a mage?” I ask while laughing because it sounds a bit stupid and oversimplistic for a society that prides itself in magic.

“That’s exactly how it works,” Lucinda says flatly.

Once again, Huh.

How powerful is that stupid—what’s the name? The Omnium Compendium? Is that it? I think so?

Anyway, how strong is that thing? How much knowledge am I currently wielding?

“Oh, so no one knows what—”

Wait a second.

Oh, good God, I’m an idiot.

It just came to me.

How could I ignore it?

“I noticed that there are 23 Cantrips only. Is that number important?” I ask offhandedly, trying to sound as casual as I can. The good thing is that they don’t have a system, so she doesn’t know that I’m asking because that’s my talent rank.

Lucinda nods.

“Twenty-three is the most important number in magic. It’s a prime number of deep power. There is a lot of research about why that is. But currently, it’s just empirically proven.”

Oh. My. God.

“Huh, that’s cool. And people use Cantrips to try and understand how much talent a person has, correct?”

“Correct. The faster you can learn the Cantrips, the better. There’s also a qualitative aspect to it. There are standards issued by the Nine Towers Academy on what your Cantrips must look like. For example, your [Light] orbs have to spin at least five times to meet the minimum requirements. Other institutes around the country just require you to complete the Cantrips, but the Nine Towers Academy is the most demanding.”

Ok, Joey, breathe. Don’t choke and give away secrets that would probably get you killed or worse.

“So, what’s the general difference between someone who’s less or more talented?” I keep asking questions.

Lucinda is much more relaxed compared to this morning. This is her life and the fact that she can nerd around is obviously putting her in a good mood.

“Well, there are different theories. The most accredited one is that talent influences how well you can visualize a spell matrix. The more you can flesh out the details in a spell, the faster you will progress in your path to become a true adept of magic.”

“Isn’t there a way to directly visualize spell matrixes? Like, some magic goggles or something?”

She laughs out loud.

“Oh, Joey, I wish! You are really silly sometimes. It’s impossible to do that. You have to study really hard before you can try and visualize a matrix in your head. And even then, you have to guess how it changes based on the environment. There are entire courses at the Nine Towers Academy where you do that all day! It takes years before a mage can visualize and reproduce a very powerful spell with ease!”

“Can [Archmages] see their spells and stuff like that? I mean, can you see matrixes at some point?”

“You wish!” Lucinda shakes her head with a good-natured smile.

She probably thinks I’m dreaming about making my life so easy that it would basically be a cheat. Yes, an existence-cheat.

Well, I’ve discovered that I most likely have some kind of God-forbidden-civilization-ending talent and that my book is so advanced I could probably nuke the entire world and enslave its entire population in a way that would let me be their eternal-Tyrant.

I look around, suddenly recognizing the street.

“Yo, let’s stop for a second. I’m a bit hungry.”

…

What?

Did you expect that I would be interested in becoming an [Archmage]?

If I could, I would probably burn the goddamn spellbook! I mean, I would like to. I wouldn’t, though. It’s still fun to learn magic. Plus, the book would zap me to death if I tried to burn it or something.

Anyway, while I get some food from a stand on the street, I keep my casual conversation with Lucinda going.

As a short summary, we kissed, I got mugged, I told her boss we’d kissed, she wanted me to disappear. The fact that we are back to casual conversation is a big, big point for me. If she had really closed the door on me for forever, I would have been done with her. Once you are cut off, there’s no way back, sadly.

But I’m getting good vibes so far. She clearly must like me a bit to put up with my stupidity. Man, I still want to punch myself for that thing with Captain Drusillus.

“You bastard! You dare showing your cheating ass around?!”

I look up to where the entrance to Happy Bakery is.

Clodia is being tackled by Flaminia and two other girls, while Amelia, Flavia and Camilla are all standing there.

“Cheating?! Are you still going on with this madness?! We had already been done, you said!”

“And you didn’t wait for a second before sleeping around, you lidulae-sucking tramp!”

What?

Aren’t lidulae those the eggplants Lucinda cooked for me? Is that an insult?

“What did you call me?!” this time Camilla and Flavia had to pin down Amelia, who clearly felt like it was indeed a grave insult.

“You slept with that flat-eared bastard behind my back, and you dare showing your dry-snout in front of me?! I’m going to beat some manners into that flat ass of yours! Flaminia, let me go! I’m going to kill her!”

Camilla finally notices me while she’s trying to stop Amelia from escalating the current shouting match into a full-fledged fight.

I’m chomping on a weird fried stick, and I instantly see a malicious stare from the pink-blonde short Elf.

Is she still angry about me not wanting to work for the Three Roses? Well, it’s not like she can do much while she’s holding Amelia, right?

“Joey! You are finally here! Why don’t you come and help us solve this moral quandary!”

In an instant, everyone stares at me, and I can feel even Lucinda’s eyes prickling the back of my neck.

What the—