Arthur's First Lesson

After I release Arthur's mouth and he calms down properly, he stares at me in silence. Still sitting in front of him on the table, I begin to tell him my plans.

"You have to remember that mana is not something that can be suppressed. If that were the case, that would mean that mana has an inherent recalcitrance toward anything and anyone. Only in that scenario, would you be in serious danger. I don't think it would be possible for anyone or anything to suppress the amount of mana that you have- except me and Heaven itself, of course."

Arthur's brows furrow and he frowns, but he does not yet say anything.

"Now that we have gotten past that, let's talk about how to rectify this little issue. First, I need to assess how you utilize your mental energy. It's likely that you have an abundance of mental energy, but that you aren't using it as effectively as you can."

"Right," he says, seeming somewhat skeptical, "but before any of that, you need to tell me something."

"What's that?"

Arthur shifts and straightens up in his chair so as to get a bit taller, but he still has to look up to me with my smirk plastered on. His solemn look amuses me; I expected him to eventually question me.

"How do you know all this? Just who are you?"

Wearing Razalith's smile, I shake my head and say, "You know who I am."

He pauses and considers what I have just said, expending his mental energy in the attempt to find what I mean.

"A perfect example," I say as I place my feet on both sides of his chair, "is what you are doing right now."

"Mental energy is exactly what it sounds like. With proper focus and concentration, the energy inherent in your mind is spurred to action. Your mind directs everything because of the mental energy it contains."

Arthur leans forward and his eyes never leave mine. He is directly between my legs, and I see him blush upon realizing the position he's in. Even so, he pretends to be unaffected.

"So, thinking is possible because of mental energy?"

"More or less. Some animals have little to no mental energy and aren't capable of what we call thought, but they can be manipulated by one that does- like an ant colony and its queen."

Arthur falls back and looks away from me. "What about directing mana? Isn't it supposed to be as easy as thinking, then?"

I cannot contain my laughter upon hearing this. When he sees me laughing, Arthur's face reddens and he lowers his head.

"What made you think that? What part of directing the flow of mana and thinking do you believe is similar?"

I have not had such a grand belly-laugh in quite a while- or perhaps ever. Eventually, I get it out of my system, and clear my throat before speaking.

"Mental energy, despite what I have told you, has nothing to do with thinking. At its core, mental energy is a representation of your mind's capability, and is often used to measure your potential as a magus."

Arthur sighs, sinks in his chair and is suddenly dejected. "If that's the case, there's no way I have an abundance of mental energy."

I know where this is going, but I play along. "What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you get it? I'm eighteen and still an apprentice. I might know some stuff and be able to theorize, but I can't even compare in that aspect to someone like you who's never even been to starting school."

I smile on the inside; he couldn't compare to me even if he was a college student.

"I'm just a failure... I'm just a ...Dunce App-"

"Oh really?" With a quick movement, I stand on the table before him. I grab his attention, but his eyes dart toward my legs. The nightgown has bunched up, and did not fall as I stood up.

"Focus," I say while shaking my leg for it to fall and cover me. He nods and looks me in the eye again.

"Have you ever succeeded at simple kinetic magic? Like moving a tiny object through the use of mana?"

Arthur nods, and for a moment seems to understand why I stopped him from denouncing his talent. However, he does not seem to want to believe that he is, indeed, talented. He lets out a breath and says, "Yeah, but that's not really anything special."

"Bullshit!"

He is surprised by my sudden shout, and he jumps in his seat.

"Stop being an idiot. I already told you: it's nearly impossible to manipulate the kind of mana that you have without an insane amount of mental energy. The fact that you succeeded at kinetic magic proves that you can manipulate your mana, so that proves that you do, in fact, have a massive amount of mental energy at your disposal."

"Yeah, but-"

"No buts! Accept my praise!"

His mouth remains open for a second or two, and he closes it after uttering a defeated, "Thank you."

"Right! So, back to what I was saying earlier. If anyone with the slightest bit of common sense had tried to measure your mental energy, they would understand what I'm trying to tell you. As far as I know, they use a whole new criteria to measure your potential these days."

When he hears me say, 'these days,' Arthur's eyes narrow just a bit.

"So, for my first lesson, I'll have you learn just what it means to use your mental energy."

Razalith's evil smile peaks through, but the innocence of Rachel's face acts as a counter to it. Arthur looks at me, unsure of whether I am about to kill him or hug him.

In my analysis, Arthur has grown used to trying way too hard to utilize his mental energy. In order to maximize it, mental energy requires tranquility of being and unbreakable focus. Instead, he mistakenly puts his effort into forcing a reaction from his mana, which is, in and of itself, counterproductive.

He needs to learn to relax and to trust his own capabilities.

Finally, we get back to the runecrafting.

"Just as I said before. Gather a small amount of mana, then separate it into enough parts to be distributed among the symbols."

I come down off the table and return to my chair in order to demonstrate. Arthur follows my movements with his eyes and gulps audibly; he is completely focused on what I am about to do. I see him looking at my every movement; the way I tie my hair up so that it doesn't get in my face, the frequency and intensity of my breathing- even the slightest change in the position of my hands.

I almost want to mess with him a little bit and go through an entire 'abracadabra' scene, but I change my mind. I want it to look as though what I am doing requires very, very little effort- which it does.

Arthur needs to get this through his head. Manipulating his mana does not necessitate any kind of intense exertion.

With my eyes open, my body relaxed and my breathing partly shallow. I draw a bit of mana out using my mind- in other words, my mental energy- and then touch each of the symbols on the paper. After each moment of contact, the symbols glow in a soft black color and emanate a very minuscule iciness.

Arthur's jaw drops. "You've done it already? When did you even gather the mana?"

I snicker on the inside.

"I just did. Before I touched the symbols."

Arthur looks at me as though I am speaking another language, or as though I am from another world. "Huh!?"

"Enough of that. Your turn."

Shaking his head all the while, Arthur begins his attempt. He shuts his eyes and takes deep breaths, balls his hands into fists and tenses up in the chair. All of these are signs that he has not taken a single hint, and they make me adopt a deep and dissatisfied frown.

For this, he will be punished. I cast another sensory spell, ensuring that I am alerted of the slightest trace of mana arising from his body. Once that happens, the spell will then subvert itself into another spell, then auto-cast in order to disperse all of his gathered mana.

This is a special technique of mine, but we shall talk about it later.

For now, Arthur is sweating profusely as he tries to force out a tiny amount of mana- much like a constipated person on the toilet, trying their very best.

Eventually he succeeds, but it has taken longer than the first time. I see a smile creep onto his face, and I flash my very own wicked grin.

"Wha-" I hear him mutter.

His mana, which he painstakingly gathered, was suddenly dispersed and lost. Now, if he wants to regather this mana, he has to start all over. He fumes and take several deep breaths to calm himself down, then he starts again.

His teeth clench and grind, his veins pop and eyes are shut far tighter than ever before. I sigh and repeat my past actions, and so, when he finally succeeds again, the same thing happens.

"Fuck!"

The more he continues to try too hard, the harder it will get for him to keep at it. His eyes are now bloodshot and his breathing is erratic. At some point, he started biting his lips to reinforce his effort and focus, so they are now bleeding. Even so, I do not let up. I keep dispersing his ill-gotten mana over and over again in order for him to realize that he is doing something wrong.

He does realize this, but he thinks his mistake is in drawing the mana out. He thinks that that is why the mana is dispersing.

So, I have to change that.

This time, after he takes half an hour to gather a tiny amount of mana, I say, "How many times am I going to have to do this," just before his mana disperses. Even though he is in pain and exhausted, his mental energy is essentially untouched and he is easily able to process my words and the situation.

Instantly, he realizes that I am the one that has been doing this to him.

"You! What the hell is wrong with you!?"

Nonchalantly, I look him in his reddened, veiny eyes and say, "What do you think? Now hurry up and get it right, you idiot!"

Arthur's scream fills the library, and I am pretty sure I hear one of the maids drop something just outside the door, startled by his roar of rage.

Time and time again, now that he knows it is me negating his efforts, Arthur shouts and screams in an unintelligible language.

A few hours pass in the day and the afternoon sets in. Arthur is laying on the table, head flat on the smooth wood surface. If not for the fact that I can hear the wheeze of his breathing, I would think that he's dead.

I sigh. After all that time, he still couldn't get it. As I am about to get up and return to my room, my sensory spell goes off. My body jerks and I turn my head, seeing him still there in that half-dead state.

Quickly, I stop the spell from dispersing his mana and walk over to him. To my utter shock, Arthur's limp hand moves sluggishly toward the paper with the symbols on it.

It seems that there truly is hope for Arthur West.