The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

Well... this is awkward.

This is maybe the first time humans and beastkin are allying in all history?

It's probably the first time this many beastkin are received in a human settlement not as slaves, but as friends.

And neither of the two groups knows how to behave.

They are just standing, staring at each other, wordlessly.

The first one to break the silence is Ingela. She takes a step forward and bows.

"Welcome, fierce warriors of the beastkin. We humans have wronged you all for such a long time. I ask not for forgiveness, for it would be more than what we deserve. But I hope that we are able to usher in a new era, together."

The one from the beastkin to take a step and speak is Yaci.

"Well said. What humans did to beastkin is not forgivable. But we're here not as beastkin and humans, but as a group of people trying to make things differently. And as Aurea's army."

Hey hey Yaci, not exactly my army. But I appreciate the feeling.

In any case, I need to say something. But Lovelace takes the front before I can say anything.

"There is a very long story of an asymmetrical relationship between humans and beastkin. We won't ignore it or pretend that it doesn't exist, but our goal here is to work for a new, more symmetrical relationship."

I just now noticed that while the beastkin know that she's not human and that she was once the lover of the goddess, who was betrayed, none of the humans know it.

"And this new relationship begins in this place, at this moment. There are fifteen hundred beastkin coming to join the five hundred humans that are already in this army. You will be living together, training together, and soon fighting together."

The beastkin brought their tents with them, and they are used to living with minimal space, though I really don't like it.

I would prefer to have them inhabit proper houses, but the truth is that the arena doesn't have that much space, and we can't have them living outside because of the laws that are still in place.

It was all talked about and agreed upon with both groups before. We plan to start the war by outlawing slavery, which is a move that will trigger a violent response by the Church.

Until that moment, this army is to stay hidden. Which means no proper housing. I guess war is warm after all.

At least they'll have good food and won't need to constantly worry about monsters or about not being able to have the lights on at night.

:::

The two thousand soldiers of our army are lined up in the fighting grounds of the arena. It's big enough for all of them to be comfortable, though not for all of them to train at the same time.

Lovelace came up with a training plan that includes having one-fourth of the troops training at any given time, day and night, exploring her lessened needs for sleep.

I want to complain that she needs to sleep more, but I'm not having enough sleep as well, so I can't really say anything about it.

There are just too many people to train and too many logistics to take care of. Seufroy and Ingela have been helping a lot with the training of new recruits, but it's not like they don't need to also train themselves.

There's a logistics team that was formed by some aides personally picked by uncle Jyllian, but they aren't spellcasters, so they depend on other people to open the portals for them to pass through.

And I still am not able to make portals permanent. This has been the focus of my research lately.

Damn, so many things to do, I can't catch a breath. And the Academy semester is right around the corner.

:::

"Your Highness. I have news that the king has fallen ill again."

A knight has just come from the palace with an urgent message.

"He's ill again? The same symptoms?"

"Yes. It seems that the vampire has struck again."

Lovelace has been training a group of promising recruits in mana sensing, and they've shown good progress, so I call for her to come.

After two minutes, Lovelace stands in front of me.

"Yes, Your Highness?"

"Lovelace, the vampire attacked again. He has probably sensed that you've been away lately, so he felt safe to come by. Maybe your group could rotate with you and me in guarding the king? It would be a good test for their training."

"You mean the group with Ingela and the others?"

"Yes, the one you've been training more thoroughly in mana sense."

"Sounds good. And we could test your message sending as well."

"The message sending? Why?"

"Because when they are on guard, the vampire will still feel safe, thinking that I'm not around. So when they sense him, they could just call on us, and we teleport in."

"Ohh. That's a good idea. We'll bait him into showing up so we can finally catch him."

"Exactly."

I've been testing a new idea with spatial magic, which is the transmission of sound instead of simple teleportation.

It works through two objects that are connected together. When the person with one of the two chants an aria, the object starts collecting sound from around it and sends it to the other object, so the person on the other side can hear it.

It's a very rudimentary walkie-talkie, though it has virtually infinite range. It will help us a lot with the covert missions during the war as well.

But it's over time we catch that damn vampire. He's been eluding us for years now. And every time Lovelace spends some nights away from the palace, he strikes back again.

It's like he's always waiting, somewhere we can't find him, and always observing us. The mere thought of it is unsettling.

And if he really is working with the Church, we'll be able to extract some useful info from him. The fact that vampires don't die so easily will play in our favor there.