“So, what now?”

“What I just told you would freak most people out, yet you don’t seem to care.”

“I don’t remember seeing something like that around me and believe me when I say that it’s better that I didn’t.”

“If you don’t want to talk about it then it might be worse than I realized.”

“Last time I saw a human figure made out of black, magical smoke meant I was at the death’s door.”

“I’m sorry but I don’t understand what you are saying.”

“Ellen told me that a human figure appeared out of nowhere every time I was badly injured. I saw it once and I my body stiffened up, that’s all I know.”

“The only thing you can do is to learn to control your new technique. You will have to continue using it until you figure out what’s wrong; in the meantime we will restart the training from square one. Go and rest for today.”

“Very well.”

She wants me to rest but that might be out of the question. If what Maria saw is what Ellen saw then I’m either getting better at this or I’m dying. I’d better try to get some sleep before my body breaks down.

I spent almost month and a half training with Maria. The training was working but not the way it should. Despite training like crazy all night the only thing that improved was my magic consummation and my vision during Shadow Dash. The smoke around me made it almost impossible for a normal mage to see who was coming at them before it was too late.

Now we were on the twelfth dragon’s month, their equivalent of December, around Christmas Eve. Since there is no concept of Christmas in this world we usually wouldn’t be on a break, however the 24-th and 25-th were free days for both the students and the teachers. During these two days the headmistress has a lot to do such as taxes, plans for the upcoming year and take care of all the things that happened this year. Since those days were at the end of the week Liliana gave everyone a one week vacation.

There weren’t many people willing to stay on campus despite the heavy snowing outside. The snow was at least ten centimeters high which made any outdoor activity impossible to practice.

Jaden, Ren and Saya went home and I didn’t care about the rest of the students. Maria was responsible for both dorms.

It would take too long for me to hitch a ride home so I decided to stay behind helping Liliana. My new body was able to handle calculations and manual labor very well. The costs for the school were higher than I thought. There were a lot of taxes that didn’t make any sense and the ones that made sense were too high; that might be the reason there aren’t many schools around.

“I understand why you need to pay a tax for running a school but why do you have to pay one for the building itself; this is a private property right?”

“Yes it is but those are the king’s orders.”

“At least there’s no tax for the land… Nope, I still think a yearly tax is too much.”

“Why would you pay money for a property you built on your land?”

“I almost lost this school once; I don’t mind paying the taxes if that keeps the idiots away.”

“It’s your decision; if you are fine with this then I’m going to insist.”

“How are the papers coming along?”

“Almost done. When is Maria coming back?”

“I sent her to do a damage report, it will take a while.”

“Damage report for what?”

“You spent most of the time in the library so you don’t know but there are a few classes who blew up this year and there’s also the magic cell in the basement.”

“Magic cell, what’s that?”

“A prison cell designed to hold demons. Since the school is built in the middle of a forest containing a demon doesn’t inconvenience many people and also reduces the risk of casualties.”

“By killing the students, how is that better?”

“The teachers here aren’t pushovers and even if they fail Maria and I can handle it.”

“So are we getting a pet demon?”

“That’s supposed to be a secret but yes, we are.”

“Nice, what kind?”

“I do not know; we will see when it gets here.”

So we are getting a pet demon. This may sound like my usual pessimism but I have a bad felling about this. The basement wasn’t big enough to hold anything but a humanoid demon or smaller; this might be one of those size doesn’t matter situations.

Using a small table for all these papers sure is tiring; Liliana uses the desk even though she only signs some papers. I’m the one doing the work, I demand better working conditions.

“How is it going?”

Maria arrived holding a tray in her hand. There were three cups of tea and some sweets on it.

“Welcome back; did you bring it?”

“Yes.”

Maria took something out of her pocket. It was a fire magic crystal which was bluer than the usual ones. If my scan is right this type of crystal generates heat not fire.

“Talk about commodity, that’s artificial; why would you do that?”

“There’s no reason for us to stay cold, if you want you can leave.”

“I’m fine. I will stay here; I don’t want to be outside in this weather.”

“Do you need any help?”

“I’m almost done. You can check the ones on the right to see if I made any mistakes.”

Maria sat down next to me and started checking my work. I’m pretty confident in my math skills but I don’t know much about economy and accounting.

I stayed with Liliana and Maria until evening to finish all the work. It took them more time to check the paper than it took me to finish them.

After work was snack time, it’s a good think that the crystal kept the cups warm.

“You look tired Maria; are you all right?” asked Liliana.

“I’m just sleepy. I think I will rest a little.”

Maria leaned on my and closed her eyes. I know that I am approachable but is it really necessary to act as her pillow, not that I mind.

“She has grown quite fond of you.”

“This is the most obvious sign she has given me.”

“Both Maria and Jaden’s maid were female assassins; they went through a lot of pain and developed a fear of men. Jaden helped his maid get rid of hers but Maria remained in that state until you came.”

“So you decided to trust something Ellen said and risked her Maria’s sanity in hopes that she would get better.”

“It was a risky gamble; it seems my luck hasn’t run out yet.”

“It’s just hormones and the fact that I know I will make any friends being a bitch. Someone I respect once said: “If you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. Simple as that!”. This is one of the things I think about when I interact with other people.”

“Then I should repay you for what you did; how about teaching you a spell?”

“I can only use dark magic and I don’t think black magic would work anyways.”

“You could at least give it a try. I’m going to teach you a vision spell.”

Liliana told me about the spell she wanted to teach me; it was a ritual called Oculus. The ritual enables a person to have a bird’s eye view of his surrounding as long as he supplies magic to the mark. While we were talking Maria woke up.

“How long was I asleep?”

“Almost two hours. Anyway, Liliana wants to teach me Oculus.”

“Are you sure headmistress?”

“Yes.”

Liliana took me and Maria too the basement. There was another level below the basement; a big chamber. The chamber had a few books about black magic and medicinal plants.

“Is this some kind of secret room?”

“It’s a training room.”

“So that’s why everything here has magic protection enchantments on it.”

“Now pay attention.”

Liliana drew a circle on the ground, an octagon inside it, a star inside the octagon and inside the star a symbol of an eye. So the drawing was the first part of the ritual.

“Step inside the circle and let your magic flow in it.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Do what you did with the Shadow Dash, if I’m right it will work.”

Maria suggested I try to let my magic flow from my feet. When I let the magic flow I suddenly felt like I flaying. In a moment I realized I was looking at the whole campus, damn it’s heavily snowing. I tried zooming in on my location but it didn’t go as planned. Instead of focusing on one point the Oculus descending without narrowing my field of view; that combined with my scan power apparently working created an information input so high and so fast that my brain couldn’t handle.

“AAAAAAAH” I screamed. My head was hurting like hell.

My brain must’ve shut down for a few moments since I don’t remember leaving the circle or getting on my knees. I also don’t remember Maria holding me like I was about to die.

“Alex, answer me!”

“I’m all right… I think.”

“I’ve been calling you for a few minutes but you didn’t answer; you were just staying here with your hands on your head.”

“I tried to look a little closer but my focus wasn’t working and my eyes were exposed to too much information and I think my brain stopped functioning.”

She breathed in relief.

“For a moment I thought you were dead.”

“If you want to make sure I’m dying look for a humanoid figure made of black smoke in the area.”

“We should stop for today. You are in no condition to continue.”

“No, I want to know why that happened.”

“Fine, I will watch over you but the headmistress will not draw the mark again.”

“I can handle that.”

I activated my black blood, took a dagger form the Null and cut my hand. With my dripping blood I remade the mark exactly how it was before and tried again.

When Oculus activated the bird eye’s view I had before became much clearer and it looked like time was moving much slower. I could see every snowflake. I hope I don’t screw up this time.

I focused my vision on a single point until my field of view narrowed enough for me to descend. I descended until I arrived in the training room. I couldn’t see much because of the bird eye’s effect…or not? Somehow I was able to see things normally. Damn man, I look like a monster; good thing that my face didn’t change. From the looks of it the circle is going to disappear so I will end this here.

“I look really weird.”

“It looks a lot better than before; at least they are not bulged anymore.”

“How was the spell Alex; did you succeed this time?”

“For some reason time moves slower when I use Oculus.”

“So you already managed to control it; as expected.”

“It didn’t last as long as before but it certainly was easier to control.”

“Then let’s call it a day.”

“Can I sleep here; I don’t want to go to my dorm; it’s already a snowstorm outside; there are some rooms here can’t I use one of them.”

“Most of the rooms are reserved to the teachers.”

“Oh well then I suppose I have to go back.”

“If you don’t want to leave you can stay in my room.”

Maria offered to let me stay with her.

“I would like that.”

“Alex, Maria; I will be going on ahead.”

“Good night headmistress.”

“Good night Maria.”

After Liliana left Maria and I cleaned up the room. On the third floor was a staircase that I though it led to a storage room but apparently the building had a fourth floor where some of the teachers sleep. I didn’t bother to circle around the school building, since there are rooms there have to be windows too. I should start paying attention to details.

Maria’s room was on the left side of the hall. Her room had a double bed, two wardrobes, a big desk, a shelf next to the bed and a wall mirror; considering that there aren’t many decorations available the room is well decorated. Like the other rooms this one also had a bathroom.

Maria went to the bathroom to change her clothes and I decided to browse the books on her bookshelf. There were some books about medicine and potion ingredients, which will be useful if I decide to make potions in the future.

“Aren’t you going to change?”

Maria changed into a red, one piece pajama.

“I’m fine sleeping in my uniform.”

“Very well. Which side of the bed do you want?”

“Right side is closest to the wall so I’m taking it.”

Liliana said Maria is no good with men so I’m leaving her closer to the exit. I was facing her but she literally turned her back on me, isn’t that called being open for a surprise attack. I don’t want to destroy my friendship with her so I’m going to refrain from doing anything and just go to sleep.

Since this body doesn’t need much sleep I have a habit of waking up a few times during the night. Each time I woke up I saw Maria trembling.

I woke up early in the morning by Maria who was trembling and sleep talking. I don’t understand what she is mumbling but I can’t leave her like this; I have to wake her up.

“Hey Maria, wake up.”

She wasn’t facing me so I can’t see her face. I put my hand on her left arm and tried waking her up. If I keep trying she will wake up sooner or later.

“Hey, wake up-”

And I think I fucked up. A half-asleep Maria pulled a dagger presumably out of the Null and tried to attack me. I was once again dragged in my inner world. This is the same as the situation with the black wolf, I’m in a pinch and I’m normally to slow to act.

I usually sleep with one hand under my pillow so my right hand is immobilised and that dagger is close to my neck. I have to find a way to block her attack then disarm her. I’m not good with weapons when I’m using my right hand. The fact that she does this on reflex is troubling; if I don’t do this right I might get injured.

I am going to do the same thing I did last time, blocking her with the pocket watch.

I returned to the real world, blocked Maria’s attack with the watch; when the dagger bounced off I hit Maria’s hand with the back of mine. She wasn’t completely awake so the shock made her drop the knife and woke her up.