Magic Life in the Empire

Cyril agreed with her. He always took pride in his martial prowess, and testing his strength against someone of similar age was a good idea.

So he moved to the weapon rack near the wall. Cyril just picked up a spear when he noticed someone had chosen the same weapon.

It was that girl with auburn hair. She familiarly grabbed a spear and faced him.

"Cyril, right? Good to see someone with the same weapon. It's fitting we have a duel; what do you think?" Her tone was friendly but confident.

Cyril remembered seeing her yesterday at the entrance. Some old professor was singing her praises. Her name was Myra.

"Sounds good." Since someone else challenged him, he could only accept it with a nod.

They made their way to a marked area for duels and stood on the opposite sides.

Under the eyes of the professor, they bowed to one another and readied themselves.

Soon he gave a signal to begin, and they quickly approached each other.

Cyril attacked first with a flurry of thrusts. Each strike was fast with great force behind it, but Myra with minimal movement dodged all of it and responded back

There was some weight behind her confidence. She was experienced and calm.

Cyril was surprised to find out that in their exchanges, he was inferior when it came to skill. The only advantage he had was strength.

As the fight continued, it became clear that he was losing. He has yet to land a solid strike, while Myra has already landed several. 

Pain clouded his judgment, and his attacks became more desperate. which only seemed to aid Myra, as she continued to dodge his attacks.

"Stop!" Soon the booming voice of the professor signaled the end of the duel. "The winner is Myra."

"I'm glad to find out we have some good students here. This fight was exceptional. Myra's skill with a spear is that of a future knight. Cyril is pretty good too, and he has the spirit of a warrior. I hope the rest will not fall too far behind." His loud voice was tinged with satisfaction.

The announcement brought Cyril back to reality, and he sat down on the floor from exhaustion. I can't believe I lost so easily and to someone wielding a spear too... The thought of his peer being so much stronger came as a shock to him, who was always praised as a genius.

"It's too early to give up, Cyril. You will get stronger." Rhamn crouched down beside him. 

You are right. What's wrong with me? It's no big deal. He had to admit that it was weirdly good to hear such words of support.

Cyril got up from the ground, gave a nod to Myra, and headed to the bench to rest.

She soon joined him and sat not too far away; they watched the rest of the duels together.

"You fought well. If I relaxed for even a second, you would've won. How did you learn to fight like that?" Myra tried to initiate a conversation.

"Trained with a teacher" While he tried to be rational, Cyril still had some misgivings about talking to Myra, so he replied briefly, obviously not intent on having a conversation.

As a result, they spend this time mostly in silence.

In total there were 2 other fights. The first one went through steadily with a clear winner after an energetic fight; Rhamn commentated the whole event, much to someone's dismay.

The last one was between the young man Cyril wanted to fight earlier, whose name was Cedric, and another student.

The difference in skill was too much, so Cyril was not able to properly rate his strength, but he was not too concerned with that right now.

After some additional speeches and exercises from the instructor, they were dismissed. 

Most of the students were too tired already and nagged about how they just wanted to go to bed now.

Now that I have some free time. I need to quickly find the healer now. They are not far from here. Cyril never forgot his original purpose. He was constantly reminded by the presence of his new friend.

Without wasting time, he headed for the infirmary. Thankfully, the healer was currently on the spot. It was a kindly-looking older woman, sitting behind a cluttered desk, writing something on a piece of paper.

She was actually someone he knew. Her name was Bessie, a popular healer in the capital. She was also an acquaintance of his father, and Cyril had often been taken to her after a training session went wrong.

Cyril didn't want to share his situation with someone he knows, and thoughts of slowly going out surfaced in his mind.

Unfortunately for him, just as he started to turn around, she noticed him and got up from the chair.

"Cyril, good to see you. Your father did say you'll be going here, but I didn't expect to meet you so soon. Did something happen on your first day?" Her weathered voice sounded fittingly sweet.

He organized his words for a second before speaking, "Hello, Miss Bessie, I just wanted to get familiar with the way to the infirmary. Why are you here? What about the clinic?"

"Oh, the clinic will be fine. I am not the only good mage in there, and I found a replacement before I left. Don't think I believe you are just here to sightsee; you probably got hurt but are too embarrassed to tell me, right? Let's see here..." 

She got close and stretched out her palm in front of him. A circle of blue light appeared, filled with a complicated pattern.

Soon Cyril felt a wave go through his whole body. A familiar sensation: through this quick method, the healer was generally able to find out the state of the patient's body.

"Hmm... A few bruises here and there, nothing a healing spell can't fix. Other than that, you are in perfect health." As she was saying this, the pattern inside the magic circle changed, and soon Cyril no longer felt the lingering pain after the duel.

"Very convenient." Rhamn was still here.

She didn't detect anything with that... "Because there is nothing wrong with you, she said that herself. 

"It's alright now; don't hesitate to come here if anything happens. Healing people is my job." After that, she sat back down and continued writing. 

Cyril didn't want to stay here longer than necessary, so he said goodbye and left.

Once outside, he found out that someone was waiting there. It was Myra, and she immediately approached him.

"Did something happen during the duel? Why did you go to the infirmary?" There was worry in her voice.

"Why is she following you around? So suspicious." Rhamn stared at his classmate with clear hostility.

"Nothing serious; I was not hurt during the duel. You can relax." Cyril was still reluctant to speak with her.

"Really? That's a relief." After saying that, Myra remained silent for a few seconds. She looked like she was contemplating something.

Finally she opened her mouth. "Well, see you tomorrow." Cyril felt that was not what she wanted to say, but it was not his concern right now, so he gave a nod and left. 

Arriving at his dorm, Cyril put away the Spell Making textbook, sat on the bed, and began thinking about what to do next.

I can only seek a mage outside of the academy, or maybe there is more than one healer here? No, even then, it's better I find someone in the city. The problem is that I don't know anyone... Maybe I can try asking Ed. Right, I still have some time now.

"Might as well; he is supposed to be your friend, but you don't really interact with him much, but maybe that's for the better. I think he is a bad friend to have." 

Ignoring her complaints, Cyril got up again and went to find Edmund's dorm. It's room 317; it shouldn't take long to find it. Let's see how he likes his new life. 

It wasn't that hard to find the right place, but it still took about 40 minutes as the building was surprisingly far from where he was. Does he have to walk all this way every day? 

Arriving before the entrance to the dormitory, there was a problem that Cyril didn't think about: the doors were locked; he didn't have the keys for them to open automatically.

Luckily another student was about to enter, so he tagged along with no problem.

After finding the right door, he knocked on it and soon saw his friend again.

He looked tired as usual, with a rare hint of annoyance on his face; that soon changed as he noticed his guest.

"Cyril! You actually visited me! I am truly touched that someone as proud as you took the initiative to find his longtime friend. So, what do you need?"

Looks like he is holding on alright.

"It's nothing big; I wanted to ask if you know any good healers in the city. I want to find one tomorrow." Cyril didn't stand on the ceremony and went straight to the point, but Edmund was used to it.

"What's wrong with the one here? If you don't want to answer, then never mind. I do know a few; it's not a problem to tell you; just come find me sometime to hang out." 

After Edmund told him the right address, Cyril thought it was fine to talk for a bit, so he asked him about his class.

After some time he left, followed by Rhamn, who was sitting with them this whole time listening to their conversation.

"It's way too late now; let's go to the city tomorrow. How about walking in the Academy park for the rest of the day?" 

It is too late, but I have better things to do. If I want to get stronger, I can't slack off. We are going to the training grounds. Cyril felt he still had a lot of energy left.

So Rhamn spent the rest of the day watching Cyril train with a spear. She didn't complain much.

...

The next day began peacefully. The first lesson was Spell Making again, where they still didn't cast a single spell. 

Under the students protest, the professor promised that the next lesson will be a practical one.

Students were forbidden to try casting spells on their own, but, of course, Cyril saw some who disregarded that, but he didn't mind waiting.

The next lesson this time was demonology. The purpose of this class was to educate the people on all the demons one needs to be wary of and their weaknesses.

It was a useful thing for Cyril, who thought he might have to fight demons in the future, so he listened patiently to the beautiful and comparatively young professor standing before the blackboard with something projected on it.

"As I hope you are all aware, this is how a ghoul, the most common demon, looks: a deformed humanoid creature with sharp claws and reddish skin; some have feathers, horns, tails, or other animal characteristics. Alone they don't pose much of a threat to a soldier of the empire, but their kind always comes with great numbers. Don't get careless when fighting them; they can be a tricky enemy to deal with." 

With a wave of her hand, she changed the image on the board into different examples of ghouls.

All of them were quite ugly, and some of the more softhearted students struggled to keep looking at them.

"Despite their somewhat humanoid appearance, they behave more like beasts, and you must approach them as such." The rest of the lesson was dedicated to describing their weaknesses and common tactics one could use against them.

"What a disgusting creature; looking at them makes me even a bit sad. How can something like this exist?" After the end of the lesson, Rhamn immediately began sharing her impressions.

Demons are all weird like this; I don't think anyone knows where they came from, thinking this. Cyril calmly went to the next lesson of the day: history

Cyril never liked this lesson back in school and didn't expect that it made a resurgence here. The whole lecture went over his head, but he tried his best to retain any information.

Is this the professor's fault or the local curriculum's? Somehow it all comes down to how great the Empire is or how bad the Kingdom is. Suffice to say, Cyril was not a fan of this lesson, "It's just so boring," and neither was Rhamn.

After what seemed like an eternity, they were finally free. Cyril could feel that this lesson would be a struggle in the future.

He went back to his dorm to store all of his study materials and prepared to head into the city. 

Cyril didn't change out of the school uniform and went towards the station.