The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

Life runs without waiting for us. That's an undeniable truth.

We barely managed to complete the moving in of the beastkin to the arena when we received news of the reappearance of an old foe, Martius, the vampire.

I've barely had any sleep in days, and my head is already in pain. I can't take any more problems to deal with.

But this is grandpa's health in play here. If I can't take any more problems, I can even less not take this problem into my own hands.

Heh.

It's fine.

Let's just keep pushing on.

The training is going fine. It's nice to see more people picking up on the gravity and spatial spells. I feel like those magic schools are my children, and I'm very proud of them.

Ingela is the most avant-garde of all our troops. She picked up not only the systemless magic but also the military way of life in the blink of an eye.

She has also taken to herself the teaching of newer recruits in magic.

Yaci doesn't seem to have much talent for casting, but on the other hand, she's unmatched in physical combat. In the first sparring match between beastkin and humans, she took five knights all by herself.

In the first days there were some comments about most of the beastkin warriors being women, but they were quickly silenced by the power trio, Yaci, Kwarah, and Yauarete, as they gave the men a run for their money.

It was well deserved, if you ask me.

With Lovelace, me, the three beastkin chiefs, and Ingela, the men have no right to say a word about being stronger.

It isn't like there aren't strong men. There are, and Seufroy is one of those. It's just that the six of us are in a whole other tier.

It's like we're five-star characters and they are all four- or three-star. In any case, they are strong and are getting even stronger.

I think that in one year this small army will be ready for war. I just hope that we manage to stall the beginning of the war for that long.

If that was all my worry, it would've been all too good. But no, the vampire had to appear right now.

Well, at least it isn't in the middle of the war proper, right?

:::

We have teams of two taking turns on guard duty in the room next to the king's. As Ingela and the others don't have the same depth of perception that Lovelace has, they need to not be too far away from him to be able to properly guard him.

In the meantime, both I and Lovelace are avoiding going to the palace ourselves to give Martius a false sense of security. Our hypothesis is that he is able to tell the presence of our magical bodies from a distance.

And as every other time he appeared we came running to the palace, we think that not going will embolden him.

And we'll be ready to strike.

:::

PoV: Yaci

"I'm worried about Aurea."

Ingela nods at Yaci's words and complements them.

"Yeah, agreed. She's forcing herself too much. Today during our training she even dozed off during the meditation."

"I'm glad we finally managed to convince her to go to sleep. I can get by with almost no sleep, but she's a normal human."

"Should I take that to mean you aren't a normal human, Lovelace?"

Yaci giggles at their words.

"Maybe being too sleepless is also affecting your brain, Lovelace? To have a slip of the tongue like that."

"Ugh. I completely forgot that Ingela is not in the know. Well, you got me. I'm not a human at all, but this is another secret of state. Just imagine the uproar if people learn that the court wizard is not human."

"Are you a beastkin, then? Are you using some illusion?"

"No, no... I'm an elemental being that has taken elemental form, that's all."

"That would explain the extremely high affinity with mana... It did really strike me as odd; it's way beyond what any human being would be able to have, even Aurea."

"Yeah, and speaking about her, we should get back to the main topic at hand. How to deal with that little workaholic."

"Maybe we should change the timetables so she gets less training time and make her go to bed early even if she fights back."

Yaci readily agrees to Ingela's proposal.

"Yeah! If she struggles too much, I can put her to sleep with a good knock on the head."

"Hahahahahah. As much as the idea is interesting, I doubt it would be effective, Yaci. Her defense levels are just too high."

"Yeah, you're right, Lovelace. Well, we can just make sure nobody contacts her before she has had at least eight hours of sleep. Worst case scenario, I'll tie her to the bed."

"I didn't know you were at that stage already, Yaci."

"Shut up! It's not like that!"

The two burst out laughing, while Ingela looks at Yaci, and her face gets a bit red.

Suddenly, the communication device that's on the teatable in the middle of the room transmits the sound of a voice.

"He's here. The vampire is here. Please come immediately."

Lovelace catches the device and speaks the command to send a message.

"Received. We're going."

She then turns it off and runs to the main hall, followed by the other two.

:::

"Theobald, I'm going to the palace to chase the vampire. Stay with the communication device; we'll send a message when we have news."

"Roger that. Should I wake Aurea up?"

"No, let her sleep. Don't wake her up for anything, and don't let everyone wake her up, do you understand?"

"Yes, Milady."

"Good."

"Lovelace, I want to go too. I want to see what a vampire looks like. And I might not be as good and experienced as Aurea, but I can be of help in combat."

"Taking out a vampire? I want to go as well, though there's the whole beastkin thing."

Lovelace stops for a moment and looks at the two of them.

"Ingela, this would be your first real-life experience with combat, and a vampire is a formidable opponent. Are you sure you want to come?"

"Yes! I crave some real combat. I want to truly unleash everything I've learned in the last month."

"Okay, you might come. Yaci..."

"I know. Beastkin."

"It's night, and you probably won't be seen by anyone besides our target. But, if you wear this fake collar, people will just assume you're my slave or something. You won't need to act it, of course; it's just to ease the chase."

Lovelace takes a normal goth collar from her pocket dimension and hands it to Yaci, who takes it without hesitation.

The three of them enter the portal to the palace.