"Hey Nathen are you ready!?"
A few years ago an odd boy had appeared on our land. He seemed to be only nine or so in age but he had the eyes of a dragon slayer. Sharp golden eyes that seemed to pierce through ones nature with just a glance, that combined with his extremely calm demeanor disturbed me to my core.
My daughter had reassured me with her words that he meant no harm but I could only think otherwise considering the circumstances. After I had a few days to consider the situation it only seemed weirder for a dragon slayer to pretend or hide, In the end I could only trust my daughters eyes.
Though my usually aloof daughter had changed after meeting this child, brightening up her personality whenever he was near. We had to put on a slight play that we were a close family to make him feel welcomed since he could be a dragon slayer but that eventually became a reality as he was there at the center. The castle of ice warmed up and melted into a warm puddle.
As the years passed we eventually stopped caring about if he was truly a dragon slayer. Seeing Serena act so bright made us brighter too. I'm thankful that he had shown up, if not we would have just stayed in the same rigid atmosphere. My wife would be painting alone while my son would be shut in his room only experimenting or studying. I would be in my office just focusing on work and my daughter would be alone and aloof.
These were our roles or rather what we placed onto ourselves, tricking us into thinking we were too busy for each other. Even if Nathan hadn't meant it, it caused a ripple that spread out.
'Today they're going to academy, it's already been two years huh.'
Time passes by so fast as you enjoy it. Just as we had grown closer to each other we would have to separate. My research on Nathan had come to a screeching halt as I no longer cared. He hadn't caused any harm yet and the constant reassurance from my daughter: especially when she possessed those eyes, assured me that he held no malice.
"He should probably be receiving that soon." The present I had made for Nathen was soon to be finished. It should arrive when Nathen reaches the academy.
[Pov Switch]
I gathered the papers across my table and gathered them up into my briefcase. It was finally time to make the trip towards the academy with Serena.
"Hm."
I ran my finger across the table and looked around my room is nostalgia, although it was only 2 years it was the best 2 years of life. I would heavily miss this place, I hoped I'd be able to come back sometime soon.
"COME OUT NATHEN!"
A loud bug was whizzing outside while I was enjoying my nostalgia.
"I'll be right out!"
I opened the door of my room and looked back one last time before closing it. After meeting up with Serena and her family outside I made my way into the carriage and waved her family goodbye with her and her brother.
"Stay safe you guys!"
"Wilhelm keep your sister safe!"
Wilhelm seemed to still be fatigued and he weakly nodded towards them as they faded. We eventually were able to settle comfortably into the carriage with Serena on my sad and Wilhelm on his own side as it seemed he was going to fall asleep soon.
"Wake me up in like 3 hours or so Nathen." And he did indeed fall asleep leaving only me and Serena in the silently rocking carriage. The rocking was slight though as this carriage was high class.
"What type of people do you think will be at the academy Nathen?"
"The academy only accepts those of high status or talent so I would expect many nobles." I crossed my legs and gently pulled out a book to read.
"Do you think they'll accept me?"
"They'll have to, you're ranked higher than most of them socially."
The true question would be if they would be willing to accept a commoner like me as a teacher, especially when I'm this young. I'm probably going to be youngest person on campus too. I'd expect most of them to well-behaved though as they are children of strict noble families rather than shabby ones.
"Hmm." I roused up my mana while reading and started circulating it. My own magic excluding the library was still at a very low level, although I could command and manipulate it fairly well, there wasn't much to use as my pool was still very small.
Even the basic generation spells anyone could use drained my mana by a fair amount. I could still use my magic though if it was the last resort, but I wouldn't let it come to that. My mind was overclocking itself constructing and deconstructing spells, the spells in my library and their firepower depended on how well I built them so I was constantly revising the magic circles making up the spells and enhancing their power.
The negatives of the library though were that I couldn't adjust the power of the spells while using them, it was exactly like using magic from a scroll except it could be reused. Currently though all my spells were at their theoretical limit, I could no longer enhance them. I spent the rest of my remaining time in the estate constructing, 3rd class [Steel Skin] and 5th class [Blink].
[Blink] is the most useful weapon for a mage in the current era, as we needed to concentrate to cast spells and evading was hard. [Blink] solved that as it was a short range teleportation spell that any battle mage must learn. Even if a mage didn't know any other 5th class spells, they must learn blink.
[Steel Skin] was just something I added into my arsenal to add another layer of defense. [Wind Wall] Could be set in front of [Earth Wall] to diverge attacks from it and if it gets though [Wind Wall] and [Earth Wall] I could rely on the durability of my body. If I didn't believe [Steel Skin] would protect me I could use [Blink] to get away.
Thinking to myself I blanked out everything around me so when I looked up I could see Serena playing with my face. I looked at her in the eyes and pinched her left ear pulling on it slightly.
"Ow." She moaned in pain softly.
"What are you doing?" I asked Serena.
"I got bored and you weren't listening to what I was saying." Serena stopped playing with my face but then grabbed my hand from her ear and held it firmly.
"I was thinking about the academy, what were you saying?" I tried to pull my hand away gently but she kept holding onto it while stroking the back of it. I could pull it out if I wanted to but decided not to, although Serena was physically stronger than me currently I could tell that she would stop if I wanted her to.
"What classes should I take for the academy?" She said as if insinuating something.
"Probably not my class Serena, you've always been bad with magic theory."
"Muhhh... okay." Serena turned away and looked out the window.
The class I would be teaching would be [Advanced Magic Theory], and as stated its the advanced course for excelling students. Serena although talented wouldn't be better in the normal magic theory classes.
"Haaaah." I stopped circulating my mana and leaned my head against Serena's shoulder as she looked out the window and closed my eyes.
"I'm going to be sleeping for a little Serena, wake me up when Wilhelm wakes up."
"Mhm, okay." Serena gently stroked my hair as I fell asleep.
[Pov Switch]
Nathen was now asleep, I softly transferred his head from my shoulder to my lap and separated his bangs. Listening to his soft breaths I gently pat his hair and playfully placed the tip of my pointer finger, onto the tip of his nose causing him to squirm slightly and turn his to the side.
It felt like it was only yesterday when we were around the same height but now I had grown past him by a significant margin. Although Nathen seemed mature on the outside, his small peeves and occasional cute reactions revealed the youth he seemed to be trying to hide.
"Is the future still not matching up?"
Wilhelm had woken up from his short nap and stared at us with a small grin.
"No... it-" I tried to speak some more as I realized how curt my reply was but Wilhelm just waved it off.
"It's fine. Even if we've grown closer you don't have to force yourself." Wilhelm seemed to breath out a sigh of relief before continuing.
"That ability better stay mute, after all it's done to you."
Although I had barely interacted with my brother and family in the past, in just the years Nathan had spent with us we had already grown so close. No rather, we always wanted to be closer but we could never find the time nor reason. Nathen became that reason even if it was false at first.
I looked down at Nathen's face again and activated the ability innate to me. The scenery shifted and in my vision sat my brother and I, the atmosphere was awkward and we barely acknowledged each other's existences. Most importantly though, Nathen was nowhere to be found in this vision, as if he didn't even exist.
It had always been like this, in the past I could always predict the future to a perfect degree as my visions showed what exactly would happen, but I could never change what happened in the vision. It caused a loop of seeing the future and returning to the present again and again, my abilities didn't even need to be used manually as they would constantly activate by themselves.
It resulted in a fairly boring life that I couldn't really enjoy, as I would be able to predict anything but could change nothing. Nowadays though whenever Nathen was near, my visions would be heavily inaccurate and even wrong sometimes. The future was constantly changing due to his existence.
My brother came up with a theory that he was probably a great mage that detached himself from the fate of this world and had somehow been afflicted with amnesia. There were many other theories he had too but that one was usually related to the rest too. He hadn't come to an answer after all his research so he had put it on pause for a while.
I couldn't really care who Nathen was in the end though, he was someone who could change the future I thought was set in stone. Aside from what he had unknowingly done for me, he was also like a younger brother that I could occasionally tease and mess around with innocently.
At the academy I could also see other students messing with him, I was okay with that as I was a very understanding sister. But if they go to far, I would have to step in personally.
I looked into Wilhelm's eyes and he nodded with understanding. Far before the academy was in Nathen's schedule, we had already decided to claim him as one of the Schrift's. He could wield our name without being reserve if he needed to. I wouldn't allow anyone to touch him or disrespect the Schrift's.
"Haaaah~." Wilhelm let out a heavy sigh before closing his eyes and taking another nap.
'Wait, am I still supposed to wake him up?'
Nathen had told me to wake him up when Wilhelm had awoken himself but he had gone back to sleep.
"Mmm... more sleep, is probably better." I decided to let Nathen sleep until the next time Wilhelm would wake up.
