Lilith had been pondering Reed for over a week.

 

She had contacted all her spies, dug up every scrap of information on him she could. She even went so far as to corner the crown prince and try to get him to spill the beans. Alas, he simply stated that Reed was a matter of kingdom security and only the king could reveal certain facts about him.

 

None of it made sense.

 

Reed was rude, crude, and at times down right savage. He made no attempt to be likable and showed contempt for everyone. He flaunted his relationship with the king without mercy and few nobles seemed to have any respect for him.

 

This is what she had been told.

 

However, when she contacted her sources among the commoners and the maids of various households, there was a much different picture. Many of his professors originally hated Reed purely for racial reasons. The headmaster was an exception who judged him only on his results. The first semester in the school was lackluster, but since Reed's transformation, the headmaster had come to respect Reed's intellect. In short order, not a single professor cared he was half-dwarf.

 

In fact, the weekly facility meeting had 100% attendance ever since the headmaster started including reports from his weekly tea with Reed. Everyone was always hoping for new insights into the nature of magic or science or biology or even philosophy. The debate between ethics professor Loch and Reed derailed an entire class, but was praised by Loch as being life changing. Loch had begun a new book detailing the combination of ethics, politics, and economics based on the ideas of Reed. Reed didn't give Loch all the pieces, but enough suggestions for him to fill in the rest.

 

If his professors weren't greedily trying to pry more knowledge out of him, they are showing off what they learned. Papers were submitted. Bragging in the staff lounge increased. There were world altering announcements at staff meeting. Everthing happened with increased frequency. The headmaster was worried there would be conflicting egos, but Reed defused any situation by stating, "These weren't my ideas to begin with. If you can add to them and make them your own, then they are yours. Knowledge wants to be free."

 

'Knowledge wants to be free' became the mantra of the academy staff. Never before had the faculty worked together so smoothly. Nobody was concerned with department budgets or status or pecking orders anymore. Lilith's informant suggested it was because nobody could claim they came up with their latest development or theory on their own, so they stopped fighting over the credit. Once everyone stopped caring about getting kudos, it turned into a free for all of ground-breaking advancements.

 

"We can reach so high, because we stand on the backs of giants."

 

Lilith spent an hour just contemplating the meaning of that off handed remark attributed to Reed. He seemed to always have some sort of zinger, or comment with deeper meaning than first appeared. People would praise him for his insight, yet over and over he'd blow it off. His answer was always the same; He heard it somewhere else and it wasn't something he came up with. Don't praise me for plagiarizing.

 

The magic departments were the ones that had gotten the most out of Reed's presence. The solving of Burnelli's folly opened up a whole new world of possibility. Because of the new three dimensional nature of these magical circles, it was difficult to work out the new magic formulas. Reed solved this communication problem by writing a book that created a new 'language' for representing how magic circles and spheres could be expressed on paper. He called this concept 'Circuit Diagrams'. Once you learned the short hand, it became much simpler to write out the actual functionality of a 'Magic Circuit' as it came to be called. The new procedure was to work out the functionality, then design the actual Magic Circle or Magic sphere as needed.

 

Rumors were that Reed had developed a sphere that had three circles interlocked. What it was for was unknown, but apparently the professors of the various departments weren't talking about it. This puzzled Lilith because it didn't make any sense. A magic sphere with a circle along all three axis wouldn't be able to have any effect on the world. Once activated, it would run but couldn't do anything.

 

Lilith sipped tea as she reviewed her research and wound up spitting all over the floor. She figured it out. Reed had created a containment sphere. It could only affect what was inside, but if properly managed might run with minimal mana loss for... hours? Days? Years? Had Reed created the low mana cost food preservation spell he’d been talking about? Or did it have military applications for the holding of prisoners?

 

She searched through her notes for something she remembered reading a few days ago. A quote about Reed from one of her many spies she had watching him.

 

"Can you make fire that only heats up what was placed inside the magic circuit without any heat being lost to the surrounding area?"

 

Burnelli, considered by most to be both a visionary and a mad man, would never have thought up something as crazy as this.

 

Reed's circuit diagrams became the raw information on how magic circles functioned. The headmaster wrote a section of the booklet on how to visualize a magic circuit diagram and make it into an actual magic circle or sphere. The rest of the faculty had all contributed to finish this joint effort and translated the old magic circle text books into the new shorthand and systematically worked out every possible permutation they could come up with. All this was finished in the dog days of summer.

 

It wasn’t well known, but the third prince barged into the project. Instead of trying to steal credit, he genuinely wanted to work on the book. He wasn’t that good a conjuror, but his knowledge of magic circles was second to none. The comments from her informant implied he actually contributed a great deal to the final product. The informant also suggested that he wanted his contribution to be kept secret for unknown reasons.

 

Despite Morgan’s past actions, was it possible he had gained respect for Reed?

 

The 'Magical Circuit Primer' was finished in time for spring semester. The final product was rather thick, but it was one book that replaced over a dozen others. Because it was so ground breaking, copies were limited to the school library and only allowed to be examined in a guarded room. Both the king and the headmaster agreed that this sort of knowledge wouldn't just make better mages, but could revolutionize war. The Burnelli Sphere was rather limited in its use, since it could only manifest its magical effect in a linear fashion, but that made it perfect for the process of delivering effects at long distances.

 

One rumor had it there was a number of fire mages that had been sequestered to work on something called, Project Herecomesthe, whatever that means.

 

In short, the professors currently love Reed. More importantly, he seemed to respect them in turn. They wanted to fan his ego, but he instead treated them as equals. He celebrated with them as they created new ideas based on his suggestions. Sometimes Reed was wrong about something. That was when the professors would all jump in to try and help. Often it turned out the core idea was sound, it was just Reed didn't execute it quite right.

 

One expected Reed to be some arrogant brat, but instead of showing everyone else up, he helped those around him reach greater heights.

 

The professors and the headmaster eventually adopted Reed's 'tip' policy. Apparently it was based on some concept called 'Random Reinforcement'. You'd think getting inconsistent rewards might bother the commoner staff, but you'd be wrong. Staff not only was more productive, but they came to enjoy their work more.

 

As a whole, everyone who worked at the school was happier.

 

Everything was sunshine and kittens... until you get to the students.

 

That part took a while to put together.

 

Reed's first semester was a nightmare and the headmaster didn't know. The second semester was equally a mess until halfway through. At which point he transformed into his new self.

 

Reed pissed off the students just as much as he made friends with the faculty and staff. They countered with humiliating him at the freshman end of year dance. Recently someone managed to 'lose' Reed and his roommate's application to fight in the Spring tournament. The fact it was traced back to Lilith's supporters was a terrible blow to her reputation.

 

For some reason Reed didn't come to the headmaster to fix the situation. He just let it slide and instead started selling concessions to the crowd. Reed had a tendency to let people get away with screwing him over. He could easily fight back, but usually he didn't. He lived by some strange personal code that only he understood. Reed might let you win the battle, but he never let anyone win the war. People mocked Reed because he didn't have a chance to participate in the ranking system, which was important for impressing future employers. Not being ranked hurt your prospects.

 

Reed cared so little, he went around selling finger foods like a commoner.

 

However, right at the end of the tournament, the demons attacked, blocked everyone's mana, and tried to kill everyone. Yet, somehow, Reed could STILL use his magic, even in a suppression field. He absolutely decimated the demonic attackers, saved multiple lives AND helped bring someone back from the dead. The official statement from the king was that his blessing from the All-father was what allowed Reed to ignore the suppression field. There were some rumors that there was another darker reason, but... well... there will always be those sorts of rumors.

 

Lilith made a note on her timeline that this was where Reed's reputation became too big to control.

 

People started asking why he hadn't participated in the tournament. Rumor got out it was because people hated him for being a halfling. Next thing you know, the commoners viewed every noble who attended this school as a coward. The word was the nobles were too afraid to face off against Reed. They sabotaged him going to the tournament because he would have defeated everyone without even trying.

 

That last statement might actually have been true, mind you.

 

The rumors got worse and worse. Reed was becoming the hero of the people. Reed's vocal approval of the King kept the royal family out of harm's way, but every other Noble was up for grabs. The whole incident with the Baron Akar and his secret slavery prison didn't help either. One might think that Reed, a noble, doing good deeds would make all nobles look better, but it was Reed's steadfast refusal to let people treat him like a noble that was the problem. Reed distanced himself from the other nobility, so the other nobles did not gain reflected glory from Reed's noble acts.

 

The commoners in general were unhappy with how Reed, chosen of the All-Father and hero of the people, was treated by the kingdom. Only the king rewarded him for his deeds. Only the king thanked him. The nobles couldn't even be bothered to say they were sorry. It didn't matter that Reed steadfastly refused all gifts and apologizes. Most nobility were completely ignorant of the growing dissatisfaction. Reed wasn't accepting their insincere acts of contrition? Screw him. Which unfortunately was what was leading to the growing divide. There were those who believed that Reed was a godsend and those who couldn't see past the fact he was a halfling.

 

Which raised the question, why was the king allowing it to happen? The answer being, of course, it was to the king's benefit. The more Reed did, the worse the nobles looked, the better the king appeared and the more popular the king became in the eyes of the commoners. Lilith knew about the growing problems between the royal family and the nobility. How they had been slowly, ever so slowly, chipping away at their authority. She had made many plans to address this problem when she had become queen herself. She wouldn't be so crude as this, but she had to admit, as dangerous a game as this was...

 

It was working.

 

Lilith sipped her tea and regarded her sprawling notes, wondering again just how much of this Reed was doing on purpose. It seemed like Reed was the type to hold a grudge, but he was also very practical in how he handled revenge. His unwillingness to accept praise, gifts, or apologizes was a slap in the face in the way society handled things. Simply put, he didn't have any control over anyone around him, so there is a good chance that all his good fortune was a happy accident.

 

On the other hand, things were beginning to snowball. People were seeking out his favor. He had real power to offer people. Not just borrowed power, or social influence, but ACTUAL power. Perhaps this whole thing had been a long con. A high stakes gamble just now beginning to pay off. If you were willing to submit to his insane training regimen, he could turn you into Aldelmo.

 

Ah... the Aldelmo problem.

 

Aldelmo was a completely different matter. Aldelmo wasn't as strong as Reed, but he was certainly stronger than everyone else in the school. The tattoos were a bit off putting, but Aldelmo, unlike Reed, knew how to behave. He could still be polite. He accepted any offered apology and he didn't deliberately piss people off with rude behavior. He knew how to play the game and was infinitely more approachable than Reed. This was leading Nobles to think that he'd be an excellent 'replacement' for Reed as far as 'Hero of the people' was concerned. Rumors were that Reed was in fact leeching off of Aldelmo. Aldelmo was the true hero of the people and he was using Reed as a front.

 

Complete nonsense, of course.

 

Aldelmo was fiercely loyal to Reed and refused to stab his friend in the back. He followed Reed's lead on just about everything and Reed spent a great deal of his spare time just wandering the Capital helping random people. The two had a positive reputation. The time spent during the summer subjugation established their reputations.

 

The two of them were loved by the people, adventurers, the working class, the poor, the intellectuals, and the king. Reed was hated by traditionalists, all three princes, and their supporters. As Lilith stared at her diagrams and drew lines to connect people and events, it became quite clear that Reed could actually win over everyone if he just played the game, but his internal bigotry was the problem. It was quite clear he just flat out hated nobles. She wondered if it had something to do with his poor relationship with his father.

 

As she reviewed her notes and thought and thought and thought some more, something occured to her, ~What if I am over thinking this? Maybe...~

 

 

~Maybe I should just be direct.~