“Hey Sekh, is it alright if Minerva sleeps with us tonight?”

Around an hour had passed since Minerva and I had our little moment after I gave her my late gift. And now I was in my room with Sekh, making an unusual request. 

“I don’t mind,” Sekh began while tilting her head curiously. “But you know that means we won’t be having sex tonight.”

“Yeah, I know,” I replied while patting Sekh’s head. “Sorry if it’s disappointing for you, but I really just want to cuddle tonight.”

“It’s fine,” she consoled me with a smile. “Though are you feeling really down right now Azel? Or are you just in the feels more than usual?”

“I’d say it’s the latter,” I answered while scratching my cheek. “Well thanks for understanding.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sekh assured me, reaching her hand up in an attempt to rub my head. “Shit, can you bend down a bit? You’re a just bit too tall.”

I smiled before stooping down so that Sekh could rustle my hair, prompting a jubilant look from her. Afterwards, I went over to Minerva’s room to tell her about the development. 

“Are you sure about this, Azel?” she asked when I finished speaking.  

“Yeah, I’m absolutely sure,” I asserted. 

Hearing this, Minerva went over to her wardrobe and began digging for clothes. Within seconds, she pulled out a rather revealing silken nightgown, the chest area being particularly pronounced. 

“I’ll wear this then,” Minerva declared while blushing nervously. 

Frowning slightly, I walked over to her and affectionately bopped her on the head. 

“I’d prefer that you don’t. And I’m pretty sure Sekh is going to make fun of you if you do wear that, she won’t be able to resist.”

“R-right, right. I’m so sorry for trying to take things too fast,” she replied while rapidly waving her hands about in front of her.

“It's fine, but is something wrong?” I asked. “You’re normally not this bold. Wait, do you think that I don’t find you attractive enough?”

Minerva blushed and looked away for a moment before speaking. 

“Actually it’s the opposite. It’s because I know that you find me attractive that I want to wear something like this.”

“I see,” I replied before hugging her. “But I have a better idea. How about you dress up when we go on a date with each other? I think the atmosphere would be better in that case.”

While pressed against me, Minerva squeaked her approval before nuzzling her cheek against mine. Afterwards, she went back to her wardrobe and pulled out one of her usual sets of nighttime clothes, which was a very comfortable shirt and pants combo. Although she considered it to be a rather boring set of clothes, I don't quite hold the same opinion. 

“I actually think you look incredibly cute in those,” I told Minerva with a bright smile. 

She blinked for a bit before smiling warmly.

"Thanks Azel. You’re one of the few people to ever compliment me about my looks.”

“Seriously?” I asked in surprise, before my eyes lit up. “Oh. Right. I remember now. You aren’t usually like this.”

“Yeah...that’s probably why,” Minerva sighed. “But it’s not like I prefer one aspect of myself over the other. I just behave how I do because it works best for the situation. Because let’s be honest, I can’t be like this around my workers without lowering the work rate.”

“That’s true,” I chuckled. “Well, feel comfortable to behave however you want with me at least.”

In response, Minerva gave me a light peck on the cheek, which elicited a rather happy smile from me. It was only some time after this that Minerva and I got back to the room that Sekh and I were sharing. 

“I don’t mean to complain but you two really took your time,” Sekh remarked with a mischievous look. “So tell me, have there been any new developments?”

“I wouldn’t consider it to be anything new,” I replied. “Just some regular sugary flirting.”

“Congratulations then,” Sekh giggled. “Now let’s go to sleep. Minerva has a busy day tomorrow.”

Obliging, I slung my arm around Minerva and pulled her onto the bed with me. Naturally Sekh crawled right over to me and immediately started to treat me as a second pillow. So just like the night before, the three of us fell asleep together in a big warm clump. And I got to be in the center of that wonderful warmth. 

The next morning, I woke up to a beautiful sight. Sekh snoring peacefully while nuzzling against my chest while Minerva was using my left arm as a headrest. Well, it was nice until I realized that Minerva had made my left arm completely numb.

But as I was busy trying to get my left arm to start feeling something again, I noticed that Minerva had woken up and was now rubbing her eyes. 

“Is it time for your morning practice already?” she asked in a daze, clearly still sleepy. 

“Mmm,” I hummed happily, giving her a customary head rub. 

Minerva bobbed her head a bit, her silver hair tossing about with each movement. 

“Alright, I’m going back to sleep then. But can I get a kiss before you go?”

My day has already been fulfilled. It’s a bit of a shame that hardly anyone else can ever witness  this super cute Minerva. Though I think that the balance of the world is maintained by keeping this side of her a secret.

Regardless, I gleefully pecked Minerva on the lips, which prompted a happy expression from her. Once I was ready to leave, I made sure to also give the peacefully sleeping Sekh a kiss on the forehead. 

Like the day before, Zeph had already woken up early, ready for the regular morning practice. 

“Did something good happen?” Zeph asked me when she met with me on the first floor. “You’re smiling more than usual.” 

“Minerva was being really cute this morning,” I replied cheerfully, Zeph sighing upon hearing my answer. 

“Well that’s nice,” Zeph said while leaving for the door. “I just remembered that we have another couple living with us as well. But they mostly keep to themselves so I’m stuck seeing you three flirt most of the time.”

“Justin and Irene are pretty much just tenants,” I explained. “They’re living here since it’s nice to have people to help with cleaning, cooking, and Bureau work. So I don't think they feel too comfortable flirting in front of everyone else.”

“That's true,” Zeph remarked. “Though I'm surprised you haven't gone out drinking with Justin yet. I guess you have more important things now.”

“It’s a case of oversaturation,” I informed her. “Before I came to Stygia, I was spending most of my time doing things with my friends doing stuff like that. I’m sure I'll return to an equilibrium at some point.”

“You think you’ll visit your friends in Megara at some point?” Zeph asked me. “I know that you already sent a report about what happened here, but do you think the emperor will request your presence in the capital at some point.”

“I’m sure of it,” I answered. “I just don’t know when. So for now, let’s just enjoy our time here in Damask.”

“We?” she wondered. “Does that mean that you want to bring me along?”

Smiling at Zeph, I resisted the urge to flick her on the nose. 

“Well of course. You’re a close friend, remember? Plus having an actual experienced mage with us will do wonders on the road.”

“Hopefully the number of mages in our group increases soon,” Zeph remarked. “So make sure to be at our practice spot this afternoon.” 

The rest of the morning went on as it usually did. Zeph and I fought with sticks, rode around in circles, and rode around while hitting targets with sticks. While Zeph continued to train for a bit longer, I went back home to wash and make breakfast. I also ended up washing Sekh this particular morning so I consider that to be a bonus. 

While I waited until it was time to learn magic from Zeph, I busied myself with taking care of small tasks at the Bureau. Sekh seemed particularly thrilled by this since she not only got to spend more time with me, but she also had far less work to do. 

Just like the day before, Zeph moved the mana around me while I tried to determine if anything was even moving to begin with. And unfortunately, things progressed the same as they had the day before. I couldn’t feel anything before Zeph got tired and had to call it quits. 

For the next two days, this continued, much to the disappointment of Zeph and I. But neither of us had any intention of quitting, at least until the week was over. If a week did pass, however, then we planned to test it from time to time in case I awaken late. 

But that wasn’t necessary. Because three days after my second practice, I felt something incredibly peculiar at the start of our practice. 

“Hey Zeph, mana is supposed to feel like a fluid right?” I asked while trying to get a better grasp of the “thing” I could suddenly sense. 

“Yes, exactly!” she replied excitedly. “You feel it?”

“Yeah,” I answered. “It’s definitely strange, so I want to try getting accustomed to it more.”

It was an odd feeling to say the least. Although my mind perceived the raw energy as an almost liquid like gas, it was a sort of phantom feeling. My skin clearly couldn’t detect it, but my mind almost warped reality to feel as though I was in physical contact with it. I guess it is technically around me since it can't penetrate into living things, at least without the being manipulating it, but it has no physical effect on my body if it's outside, nor is it really "touching" me. 

“Right, the weirdest part is getting accustomed to the feeling,” Zeph told me. “It took me about 10 minutes to mostly get used to it.”

As for myself, it took half an hour. While it was still strange to feel as though there was unseen force moving around everyone that only a select few could sense, my mind began to process it on a subconscious level at least.

If I were to make a comparison, the mana circulating around the world feels like a sort of lake. Mana was everywhere, at least to my knowledge, though the main issue was that in some areas it moved a lot and in other places the circulation was almost stagnant. Well, I would compare it to an ocean but I haven’t really been to the ocean before. 

So now I knew that I had some capacity for magic. Whether my capacity is even high enough to be useful is still unknown. In fact, I have absolutely no clue how to manipulate mana as of now. All I know is that Zeph was doing some extremely heavy lifting for all five of those practices that we had. 

Still, I decided that it was necessary to announce to the people staying at the Bureau that I at least had the ability to sense mana. 

“I’m going to be honest, I have almost no clue how magic works,” Sekh stated after I finished speaking. “So just let me know if you can blast people with fire.”

“I do not know yet,” I told her. “Hopefully the answer will be yes.”

“Well he’ll find out about his mana threshold first,” Minerva informed Sekh. “After that he’ll find out about what his ability is. Or at least that’s how it should work.”

While Zeph confirmed Minerva’s statement, Irene piped up with a question. 

“If you don’t mind me asking, what are you planning to do when you find out what your magical ability is?”

“I’ll just continue how I’m living as of now,” I answered. “Since I don’t know what I can do specifically, I intend to follow a general plan of improving the lives of those I care about. Well, that might be a bit difficult since my ability should be something along the lines of causing mass destruction and havoc.”

“So you’ll probably be using it on monsters then,” Justin commented, earning a nod from me. 

Nonetheless, I would have to learn about my mana threshold first. On a simple level, mana threshold is just another way to say mage stamina. The higher it is, the more mana you can manipulate. However, it functions more like a resistance to poison. Since mana is somewhat toxic, the mana threshold is each person’s individual capacity for how much of the toxin they could circulate before suffering negative consequences. And similar to a poison resistance, it could be developed, at least to a degree. However, one could not go far from their natural resistance, similar to ingesting poisons. Thus, one’s initial threshold gave a very good measure of what one’s threshold should be. 

However, before I could find my threshold, I needed to actually be able to circulate mana through my body. And the best part about this? It was something almost completely based on instinct, at least the discovery was. There is actually quite a lot known, and even written, about the best ways to circulate mana. But no one knew a good way of awakening the ability.

I think it's a bit like walking. People have tested and debated the best ways to position the foot and other mechanisms related to running. But our first steps are made almost out of instinct, with some help from others if the situation allowed it. No one explained to a small child how to move their legs. The child simply relies on visual cues and instinct. Or at least that's what I believe.