Chapter 13: Year 5 Begins, P6

~13.6~

*****

“You saved me,” Shiori said. Sayaka had teleported them away from the palace into an empty building. “And with such a grandiose display of power.

Sayaka was looking out of the window. “After all you’ve done for the people, I couldn’t just let you die. That monster is not the Shiro we knew as children.”

Bells started ringing, and the guards started running about. The two could hear them shouting about traitors.

“We need to leave Yamato for now,” Sayaka said. She prepared to cast a teleportation spell, but Shiori grabbed her hand.

“Sayaka,” she said with tears in her eyes, “does the name ‘Maya’ mean anything to you?”

The brown-haired woman’s eyes widened. “What did you just say?”

Shiori smiled. “You have your memories. You awakened Kaede back there.”

“You know her name, too?”

Shiori nodded. “We need to go get my sister. She’s Azalea.”

Sayaka’s eyes widened again. “Eli?”

“I missed you, love.”

*****

“Those people...” Tears streamed from Elliot’s eyes.

“Do you understand now?”

“That was undeniably my lord. But... how could he? He has only ever preached justice... that he did nothing but care for the masses! That you are a danger to everyone!”

“Now you know what he was like then, and what he’s done in this life,” Alethea said. “You saw how he tried to kill the very woman who sought to save the people. I had hoped even at the very end that he would prove himself, yet instead of commending her... he condemned her. After that, we fought a long war that ultimately ended in Shiori killing Shiro. The world healed after that. The starving people were given relief and a proper civilization was born. We worked tirelessly to ensure the people wanted for nothing, but even we were not without faults.”

“Yes,” Kye continued. “I...” She sighed. “Suffice it to say that we created a monster of our own, lost our lives to stop it, and now have the opportunity to make good on that mistake.”

“Do you see the difference between him and us? He has created monsters in this world while we are seeking the opposite.”

Elliot looked away. “I... need time to think. This is a lot to take in. My lord... he’s...”

“Take all the time you need, Elliot. However, you shall be confined to the academy and monitored at all times. Is that acceptable?

“I accept.”

Kye nodded. “Very well. Continue your duties here as normal. You had business with Allison?”

“I did, yes.”

Kye stood up and left with Alethea and their attendants. Outside, she asked, “What do you think?”

“I feel like we just destroyed a man’s world view.”

“Heh.”

“Hopefully he makes the right choice. Mother will execute him for treason if he chooses wrong. I don’t want anyone to die because of Shiro.”

“Yeah.” Kye sighed. “I don’t either.”

“Princess, you have an invitation for lunch,” Liliana said. “From Adele. She is eating at the food court soon with Michelle and their siblings.”

Kye smiled and exchanged glances with Alethea. They nodded and the group of four headed to the food court.

*****

“When you unleashed Kaeshi?”

I never asked, but I always wondered what she thought in that moment. When I unleashed Kaeshi that day to protect her. We were not yet dating, but I was in love. She was only fifteen when she made the declaration to help the people. At the time, I thought she spoke out of childish ambition, but she knew what to do to back it up and lead the effort herself. I was five years older in that life. At twenty, I didn’t view a fifteen-year-old as a potential love interest. Yet, over the few years after she declared to improve the people’s standard of living... my view changed. Before she was arrested, I viewed her more than as simply a potential love interest. I was in love.

“I was shocked. When you leaped in to save me with your own barrier, I was happy to think that you weren’t just acting the part of a friend until then. When you unleashed Kaeshi, I knew that you were an ally. I knew who you were. I instantly felt safer.” Kye smiled warmly. “It was... nice knowing that for the first time, another one of us was there.”

“Then what happened?” Michelle asked, making the hand motions of eating imaginary popcorn. Both raised their eyebrows at her. She looked around the table and saw that even Adele, Yami, and Zen were making the face. From the next table over, Danielle had buried her head in her hands. “What?”

“The popcorn shtick again?” said Michael.

“Oh, you all are disappointed that I’m doing that?” Michelle continued eating her imaginary popcorn without the slightest concern. She even held her hand out as if offering some to the only one that spoke up. “Want some?”

“You completely ruined the moment!” Danielle scolded. “The look in Kye’s eyes and the hope on Alethea’s face... star-crossed lovers are reminiscing about an important moment of budding love and... you’re pretending to eat popcorn...”

“Mimi, you’re despicable sometimes,” Elizabeth said with a scowl.

Kye and Alethea stood up and teleported away together. Adele sighed and returned her and their trays to the food court shop they were eating at. She looked back at Michelle, sighed again, and left. Everyone else left one by one, leaving Michelle sitting in the food court alone.

“I’m sorry!”

*****

The next day, Kye dragged the class out to the training grounds. “Greetings class. Today, we’re going to go over using mana efficiently in live combat. Alethea will assist in the demonstration.” She glanced over at her pink-haired partner, who nodded and stepped forward. “What do I mean when I say efficiently?”

Alethea smiled and said, “Using no more mana than is necessary.”

“Correct.” Kye formed her aethersteel weapon into a simple stick, as did Alethea. “But what do you mean by more than is necessary?” Kye fetched a bracelet-like device from a box and tossed it to Alethea before grabbing one of her own.

“The most basic principle of efficiency can be simplified to this: when you attack or are attacked, use enough mana to ensure it works. If you use more than that, you’ll tire yourself out in a long-drawn-out fight.

After equipping the bracelet, a display appeared for the entire class through their NeuraPhone’s augmented reality function. On the left was Kye’s name with a number below her named reading 0, and on the right was Alethea’s with the same.

“What is this?” asked Isabel.

“A new toy my mother invented. It allows-”

“That your mother invented with your help,” Alethea interjected.

“Well... yes. It reads your mana output like the testing orbs.”

“That sounds incredible!” said a classmate. “Why not use them for testing?”

Kye held up her hand and channeled a significant amount of mana. The reading showed 1000M. “You should see 1000M.”

“Yes.”

“I’m outputting ten times that.”

“Oh.”

“These devices are new technology and need more development time, but they will do fine for our purposes today.” Kye turned back to Alethea. “Start off small.”

Alethea nodded and began channeling mana. The device displayed 1000. Kye also began channeling, but her reading displayed 5000.

“As you can see, I am channeling five times more mana than Alethea. If she attacked me right now,” and Alethea did as Kye spoke. Kye blocked her attack, and the displays showed an additional number. “The second number is the difference. That is how much extra mana I am channeling that is not being used.”

Alethea jumped back and began channeling more mana, increasing her reading to 6000. She attacked again, and Kye was pushed back when she blocked. Alethea’s device read 1000 for excess and Kye’s read -1000. After the demonstration, both returned their weapons to bracelet form on the arm without the device.

“The more significant the difference, the more significant the effect. We’ve covered this topic in class in previous years, so I won’t linger on the basics. TLDR, you usually do not want to channel more mana than is necessary to block an attack or to ensure your attack succeeds, which only Alethea did just now. I blocked her first attack with far more than was needed, and I failed to properly block her second attack. Blah blah blah, anyway, now that we’ve reviewed the basics, we can move on.” Alethea removed her device and tossed it back to Kye, who placed it back in the box. Kye turned back to the class and continued, “Efficiency is great, but how do you know how much mana to channel? You need to read mana around you. That is the primary topic we will be working on this term.”

*****

Revision: 2024-4-25