Chapter 355 - First Class

After chatting with the two demon siblings for a bit it was time for Mercury to teach his first class in chantless magic, understandably a lot of students had shown up, this was after all a legendary lost technique, Mercury walked into the class and waited for the students to quiet down, this was of course very naive of him and he acknowledged this, still he stood at the podium and waited in silence as he gazed at the students and waited for them to stop chatting, from the around a hundred students Mercury emitted a silent pressure which gradually got them to stop chatting and soon all eyes were on Mercury that showed a smile before he began speaking

"My name is Mercury and I'll be teaching you about chantless magic, but in order to understand how chantless magic works I'll have to talk about chanting magic, or as you see it normal magic, but first I'll briefly introduce myself… As I said my name is Mercury, despite my appearance I am non-human and as for my age… I'll leave that to your imagination, questions?"

A few hands were quickly raised, Mercury looked at one of the students with questions and nodded, then  the student asked her question

"What kind of magic affinities do you have Mercury?"

Mercury raised his hand with his palm facing upwards and a bolt of lightning appeared along with an icicle as the students were amazed over his casual display of chantless magic he spoke

"Besides Ice and lightning, I can also use earth magic"

Then he nodded to another student that asked

"Which noble house are you from?"

Mercury felt the underlying tone of that question wasn't very good, still, he answered the question honestly

"I am not from a noble house… but some of you may know one of my girlfriends, Julia, as she's the 3rd in line for the throne"

A wave of quiet mutters quickly passed over the hall, then another student raised his hand and when Mercury nodded at him he asked

"Since your magic affinities are ice, earth and lightning would a fire mage still be able to learn how to use chantless magic from the class?"

Mercury nodded before he explained as he picked up the chalk and drew on the blackboard

"Think of chanting magic as its own system, it's used by all affinities right?"

"...Well yes? But what does this have to do with chantless magic?"

Mercury then pointed to the circle he had drawn around the word 'Chanting' before he drew another circle with a little overlap to the 'Chanting magic' bobble and wrote 'Chantless magic' as he explained

"Chantless magic is like chanting magic in the way that both of them is a system used to cast magic, the affinities play some role sure, but they aren't critical in understanding the framework of the system"

The students showed some amount of understanding, Mercury nodded before he continued his class, as he did he scanned the crowd and spotted Max and Magnus, but Annabell was missing…

Annabel couched violently after she was done coughing she kneeled down again, blood leaked from the side of her mouth as unwillingness flashed through her eyes for a moment before she answered the figure in the mirror in front of her

"I'll do it… For the sake of my family, I'll do it"

[Family? Oh, those… I had nearly forgotten them, don't look at me like that, I'll stick to the deal as long as you get me what's mine…]

Annabel nodded as she spoke as respectfully as she could

"...I will fulfill my role"

[That's what I like to hear… Go now, bring me what's mine!]

Annabel stood up again before she left the dark room with heavy footsteps, what she was about to do would likely condemn her to a fate worse than death, still, she would do it for the sake of her clan, her family who was held hostage by that thing in the mirror

'I wonder if Max will forgive me…'

Behind her, in the dark room the dragon spirit swirled around in the mirror before it disappeared with a burst of chilling laughter…

The next day Mercury had decided to walk to the academy along with Max, Julia Marie and Asma also followed along, after Mercury had told about how he had become a teacher they had decided after a long discussion to become teachers at the academy too, Jey and Ben were there too as they were Julia's escorts and Naila followed along because she was bored, more precisely she had been bored ever since she beat the royal guards in a practice match yesterday and not just one of them, all of them, at once, of course, Nailia wasn't the only one that was capable of this, everyone in the group could pretty much do the same, suddenly a figure blocked the road ahead of them, though she was familiar to Mercury and Max, Mercury greeted her

"Good morning Annabel"

Annabel showed a smile, it looked very strained as she put a hand on her stomach, Mercury felt something was very wrong and he quickly kicked off the ground as he rushed towards Annabel, the next instance a flash of light blinded the group, then they disappeared from the busy street…

Mercury's vision quickly adjusted, the group had appeared in open grassland, Annabel stood in front of them still, only she appeared very pale as tears of blood flowed from her eyes as she muttered

"I am sorry…"

Then her eyes seemed to lose their focus as she slowly wobbled and fell to the side, Max appeared and caught her before he quickly shook her

"Annabel? Annabel!"

Mercury gazed around, this was clearly not the city of Juliantia, then he looked up at the sun before he muttered

"No way…"

Marie that stood next to him quickly asked

"What's wrong Mercury? Did you discover something?"

"Yeah… Look at the sun"

Marie looked up in the sky before she shuddered and mumbled

"Where are we..?"

The problem with the sun was simple, it was morning in Juliantia and they had been on their way to the academy, but the sun from their new position was around in the middle of the sky, in other words, it was noon where they found themselves now, Mercury muttered

"I have a bad feeling about this… But first, we need to move, a spell of that magnitude will definitely have attracted some attention"

The girls looked slightly uneasy but still nodded while Ben drew his sword and looked around, Mercury quickly asked

"How many?"

Ben quickly responded

"Over 10… They're magic beasts"

Then he looked to the side and pointed

"Over there!"

Mercury looked and saw a pack of minivan sized wolves that were running towards them and sighed before he asked himself

"Why didn't I bring my gauntlets today of all days… Julia you wouldn't have to bring your crossbow with you today?"

Julia sighed before she asked

"Is now really the time to be sarcastic?"

"No, I guess not… Who happen to have brought their weapons?"

Asma raised her hand, so did Maire and Jey

"Well then… Wait where's your spear, Marie?"

"I didn't bring it, I brought my tail, or rather I forgot to take it off yesterday..."

Mercury nodded before he spoke

"Alright, Ben, Jey in the font, Marie, Asma, and I will provide support!"

The four of them quickly nodded before Jey and Ben kicked off the ground and lead the charge, both of them were wielding swords and wore their knight armor as Ben ran a red aura appeared around him as he let out a beast-like howl, Max was about to follow after Mercury when Julia stopped him

"Stop Max"

"But I'll help out!"

Julia showed a smile and spoke

"Have some faith in your dad… Besides you have to watch over miss Annabel, you still remember the diagnose method Mercury thought you?"

"...I got it"

As Max began to chek over Annabel Ben made contact with the first of the giant wolves, he slashed out with his sword and cleaved straight through the wolf as the red aura around him seemed to feed on the blood that splattered all over Jey also made quick work of the first wolf with a few well-placed slashes of her sword she managed to cut its throat however just as she landed the fatal blow another giant wolf pounced on her from behind as the wolf was still mid-air Marie appeared in-between it and Jey as a robotic tail folded itself out behind her, the tail was connected to the bottom of her artificial spine via the Universal Tail Connector or simply UCT which Mercury had installed, it had a spear tip on the end that glinted in the sunlight, she quickly dashed forwards before she sild under the giant wolf, as she did her tail slashed open the wolf's stomach and quite literally spilled its guts as it let out a howl of pain something flashed over its neck and cut right through it, Maire quickly thanked Asma

"Thanks for the assist, what about Mercury?"

"Over there… He's fine"

Marie glanced over and saw Mercury appear over a wolf before he spun in the air and delivered a punch to its skull that instantly carved inwards before he disappeared from view again