Arcane Innovator

"...Since you seem to be so good with the fire, I will now teach you an incantation for the most common fire spell of the second tier - Fireball."

I eagerly leaned forward as the promise of learning a tier two spell left me waiting in nervous anticipation.

I knew it wouldn't be anything groundbreaking as Fireball was still only a basic spell after all, but nonetheless, it would give me a tremendous advantage over others who would enroll in the Grand Tower in the same year as me since not many commoners could afford to hire a private tutor to teach them the basics in advance.

We moved to the frosty garden for the demonstration. As we walked, our steps were leaving deep footprints in the freshly fallen snow. I shuddered in the cold air, tightening my coat around my body.

The trees glistened in the glimmering light, their branches draped in a thick white blanket of snow. We trudged through the narrow path cleared by the gardeners toward our usual spot some distance from the house, which was hidden from prying eyes and where nobody would disturb us.

The ground crunched beneath our feet, and small streams of steam escaped from our mouths as we breathed in the frigid air. Luckily, it wasn't snowing today, and the rare winter sun rays shone gently upon the snow-laden garden, which created a glistening spectacle in front of us.

But I didn't have time to admire the beautiful sights all around us as Lily began casting as soon as we arrived at our destination.

I held my breath, observing Lily's hands, which moved gracefully as she slowly articulated the incantation so that I could repeat it afterward.

Each word seemed to carry an unmistakable power that resonated in the surrounding air. Soon, a bright torrent of flames erupted in front of us into a beautiful stream before quickly compressing into the shape of a small ball.

It would surely be a powerful and mesmerizing spectacle for most people. I, however, couldn't help but blink a few times in confusion. 'Huh, is that it?'

This tiny ball of fire looked exactly like I imagined a fireball would look like. But despite it being a tier-two spell, the result turned out to be quite underwhelming, to say the least.

Still, I couldn't stop looking in wonder at the tiny fireball as I found myself weirdly fascinated by the small sphere of flames that formed almost a perfect globe - something I never attempted before.

I quickly realized that despite its small size, it holds more power than it might seem at first glance. Indeed, it was much more powerful than a flame this size ought to be.

Not to mention its spherical shape that I wasn't even sure if I could accomplish something like this without an incantation with my current understanding of magic.

Not that I ever tried, as I always preferred raw power compared to trying to form such exquisite shapes with my own spells.

The fireball lingered in the air for a short moment before bursting forth at tremendous speed, hitting the large pile of snow nearby, which was left over by the gardeners when they shoveled the snow earlier.

At impact, the fireball exploded, scattering the snow all over. 'Wow!' I stared at it in surprise, not expecting it to be so strong at all. 'So this is a tier two spell, huh...' I pondered silently.

Lily turned over, and seeing my surprised face, her lips formed into a subtle smile. "...Your turn."

Full of renewed anticipation, I hurriedly began casting myself fascinated by the small fireball whose power seemed to defy the laws of physics.

I wanted to experience its might for myself, and before long, a similar-sized ball of fire as Lily's appeared in front of me.

Lily seemed surprised that I managed to cast a tier two spell on the first try, but I didn't pay any attention as I was entirely focused on casting.

I aimed the fireball at the remnants of the same snow pile Lily had shot at previously, and it burst forth, hitting its mark within the blink of an eye.

The poor pile of snow exploded in an avalanche of snow and water, erasing any notion that there was ever any pile at all.

I beamed with pride, feeling my chest swell with a sense of accomplishment as it was the first time I had ever cast a spell of a second tier myself.

Lily looked at me with what seemed like approval in her eyes and said. "...Well done." She then pointed at another snow pile and said: "...Again."

I sighed as I realized she wouldn't let me off the hook that easily and started casting fireballs until I was left panting with exhaustion.

***

Over the next few days, I practiced the incantation over and over until I knew it by heart, as I knew Lily wouldn't teach me new spells until I perfectly mastered each subsequent incantation.

Thus, when I finally felt like I had it perfectly engraved in my memory, I immediately went to seek out my hard-to-please master, but as I came to her room, I quickly found out she wasn't there.

'Hmm, that's weird... Where could she go?' I wondered. I threw a look outside the window, and it was snowing again, so I was pretty sure she wouldn't go outside in such weather; thus, I went searching for her.

I arrived downstairs and immediately overheard Helga's melodic laugh coming from one of the salons to my right. Feeling a slight intrigue, I decided to check it out. However, when I entered, I stopped in surprise.

"Huh? Myra... What are you doing here?"

The two girls immediately stopped their excited chatter and turned their heads toward me with widened eyes.

"Darian! What are you doing here? Weren't you just now holed up in your room studying?" Helga hurriedly blurted out.

Myra, on the other hand, showed me a bright smile. "Oh, Darian! It's good to see you after so long! Helga was feeling lonely, so I suggested we should organize another tea party!"

I was glad to see Myra after so long. I haven't seen her since the Harvest Festival. I wanted to leave her out of the mess created by selling our potions; thus, I didn't seek her out previously, but now that she was here, I was glad I could catch up with her.

Still, I couldn't help but furrow my brows. "But how did you get here in such a blizzard? You shouldn't leave your house. You could easily get sick..."

"Don't worry about it! Our houses are very close, and Sebastian accompanied me the whole way here."

"Hmm, if you say so, but still be careful out there..." I replied, deciding to not dwell on it. If she had Sebastian with her, then it was fine.

Instead, I decided to change the topic. "So, what were you two talking about?"

I was curious as when I entered a short moment ago, I noticed that they were leaning close to each other while whispering something seemingly important, given their focused expressions.

They exchanged startled glances before nervously fidgeting. Myra tried to salvage the situation, so she raised her hands dismissively and hurriedly exclaimed. "Oh, nothing, just some girl's talk!"

I raised an eyebrow in amusement as how they were acting was highly suspicious. Still, I decided to leave them to their shenanigans as I turned toward the doors, remembering my previous task of finding Lily.

"Alright, then, I will leave you to it. Just remember to get home before it gets dark..." I said and continued in my search.

Since they were making sure I didn't hear what they were talking about, and with only a few days remaining until my birthday, it was easy to figure out what they were most likely discussing.

I couldn't help but smile seeing them acting like that. I quite liked that they managed to become so close as Helga will benefit from having some friends on her own when I go to the Grand Tower.

While pondering this, I meticulously searched every room but couldn't find my master anywhere. 'Where could she go?'

Despite the bad weather, I began seriously contemplating that she had left the house altogether. Not that a bit of snow would hamper a mage of her caliber that much. Still, I couldn't find a single reason for her to go anywhere.

In the end, I decided to even check out the kitchen to see if she perhaps got hungry, yet I couldn't find her there either. But from the servants there, I finally learned where she was. Lady Lilian was apparently taking a bath and was not to be disturbed.

'Huh?' I blinked a few times as this was the first time I ever heard that she took a bath. Since she rarely left her room, I always thought she was cleaning herself with magic somehow, but apparently, she sometimes partakes in human pleasures like the rest of us.

As I was returning to my room to wait for her to finish, I sighed with relief. 'Good thing I didn't think about this possibility myself and didn't go check out the bathing chamber...'

If I barged in on her bathing, I couldn't begin to imagine how she would probably react, but it would undoubtedly be quite awkward between us afterward...

I shook my head deciding to quickly put such dangerous thoughts out of my head, and I contemplated what the girls were probably discussing.

'Hmm, I wonder what kind of surprise they are planning for my birthday...'