Chapter 135: Chapter 135

“Mate”? thought Elise.

It wasn’t an unused word in this world, but it wasn’t one she had expected to hear from the red-haired woman. It was a term more often used by laymen, and until that moment, Elise had been under the impression that the other woman was a poorly disguised noblewoman, but either this woman was a great actor, or she was no true noble.

“And who, exactly, are you?” asked Young Master Grane, turning to her with a haughty expression.

“Samantha,” said the woman.

At that, the young nobleman started laughing. Meanwhile, Samantha’s two guards surreptitiously moved forward to stand on either side of her.

Is this guy stupid? Elise wondered.

The answer was obviously yes, but she still found herself a bit flabbergasted. Sure, his position as the son of a duke might have been high, but here was a highly conspicuous woman flanked by two poorly disguised guards talking back to him with obviously no fear of the repercussions. Did that not raise any alarms in his mind? Did he not think that maybe the reason that these people were standing up to him was that they had enough backing that they could afford to?

“What is it with you commoners today?” he said aloud. “What do you want? Trying to look brave for standing up to the big, bad, scary noble? You made it into Jelor University and now you think you’re some kind of bigshot, huh? I am sorry, but you don’t qualify to stand up to me yet.”

Elise had many ways of dealing with the current situation, but she was struggling to come up with one that wouldn’t make things worse. Violence was out, obviously, as she didn’t want to deal with whatever political fallout might result from hurting a powerful noble. She couldn’t use her new royalty skills without outing herself as a royal, which was completely counter to what she was supposed to be doing here. There were too many witnesses for unsubtle uses of {Fey Bargaining}.

“Why not?” asked Samantha.

“Are you joking right now?” asked the young master.

“As far as I know, there are no laws or rules saying that we have to let you cut in line,” she continued. “You showed up late. Why do you get to get in first? We’ve been waiting for hours?”

There were some murmurs of assent from the onlookers, but no one dared speak up, and the young master simply scoffed.

“Do you not know who I am?”

“Are you not Liam Grane, the infamous delinquent fourth son of Duke Lance Grane?”

“Delinquent?!” he exclaimed, his face turning red. “Where did you hear that ridiculous rumor?”

“Yeah, I just made that up because you seem like the type,” she said with a smirk. “But you are Liam Grane, aren’t ya?” Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on ɴovelfire.net

“Yeah, let me tell ya something, you dumb cunt,” said Samantha, stepping forward.

Liam’s guards stepped forward to stop her, but Samantha’s intercepted them, giving her a clear path to walk forward and clamp a hand down on his shoulder. She leaned in close and began whispering in his ear. Elise didn’t hear a word she said, but whatever it was, it must have been important. At first, he looked surprised and indignant, but as she continued speaking, his face turned to shock, then a trace of fear appeared as his face paled.

When she finally pulled away, he stumbled back a few steps, staring as if he was looking at a ghost. He opened his mouth to speak, but apparently decided against it. Instead, he turned to Sophie, who was still being restrained by Nick.

“I’ll be seeing you later!” he said before stomping off toward the back of the line.

Elise watched him the whole way back until he stopped at the very back of the line with crossed arms looking very displeased. Only when he stopped moving did she breathe a sigh of relief. She had thought of a few ways that she could try to get out of the situation without suspicion using purely social skill, but the best option was seduction, and the thought of trying that filled her with disgust.

“Thank you,” she said, turning to Samantha.

“No problem,” said the redhead. “I didn’t do much though. Felt more like I was helping him than you. Seemed to be getting dangerous, and I didn’t want to be in the middle of a political nightmare.”

“Well…” said Elise, not sure how to respond to that.

“Name’s Samantha Kipper, if ya didn’t hear,” said Samantha, holding out her hand. “Nice to meet ya.”

“Eleanor Gray,” said Elise, shaking the outstretched hand. “Nice to meet you as well.”

Elise felt oddly at ease with the other woman. Maybe it was her casual demeanor, or the way she had stepped in to help them without a second thought, but something about her felt trustworthy. Elise double checked with {Aether Sense}, but either Samantha wasn’t doing anything, or whatever she was doing to hide her aether hid the ways she used it too.

“What did you say to him, by the way?” asked Elise.

“Ah, trade secret,” said Samantha. “Might tell ya later though. When there are less people around.”

Elise glanced around at the dozens of other people whose attention was fixated on their conversation.

“Yeah, fair enough,” said Elise.

“Thank you for helping us,” said Nick, stepping forward to shake Samantha’s hand after Sophie calmed down enough to be released. “I am Sir Nicholas Gray of the Steel Serpent Order.”

“You’re the hero guy, right? Nice ta meet ya. Congrats on makin’ it back alive.”

“Thank you,” said Nick.

“And you must be the fiancee, Bianca, right?” said Samantha, turning to Bianca. “Heard you had a bit of fun over on Carsas.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it fun, exactly…” said Bianca. “But it was interesting.”

She’s oddly well-informed, thought Elise with a frown.

She had seen a news article or two about Bianca’s time in Carsas, but compared to Nick, she got much less press, not even being the main character in most of the articles involving her. Most of the focus on her adventures was spent on the professor she travelled with and the discoveries he had made.

“And if I heard right just now, you’re Sophie?” said Samantha to Sophie. “I assume you’re his sister?”

“Yep!” said Sophie, her anger apparently forgotten in the face of this interesting newcomer. “Your eyes are really pretty!”

“You’re like the opposite of- of Eleanor.”

Elise narrowed her eyes as Sophie tried to play off almost using the wrong name.

“Yeah, I noticed that,” said Samantha, looking back at Elise. “Funny coincidence, huh.”

“Yeah,” agreed Elise. “Well-”

At that moment, the doors to the building finally opened, revealing a pair of smiling attendants beckoning the new students inside.

“Well, that’s us,” said Samantha. “Nice talkin’ to ya. Talk more later?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” said Elise.

Elise took one final look at the back of the line, where people were graciously stepping aside to allow the clearly furious Liam to step forward. He clearly held a grudge, and was going to target Sophie. Elise couldn’t have that. It might be hard now when he was probably living with his father, but once classes began… She would have to pay him a visit. That was a long way off though, so she mentally set those thoughts aside and turned toward the building.

The entire line of students and families slowly filed into the building, following the attendants as they got a brief guided tour. The lobby was nice, but Elise didn’t find it particularly special. Maybe she was just spoiled after spending most of her time in this new world in and out of castles and palaces though…

The building had four floors, each reserved for a different type of class. The bottom floor was set up for core classes and more academically focused classes, with a few tables set up for new students to register for their required classes. Depending on which general field they enrolled to take, the core classes varied slightly, but History of the System and Modern Language were universal classes, and were the first ones chosen.

On either side of the main lobby, there were tables set up, each reserved for the main fields of study, and as the students filed in, they were split up by focus. Elise and Sophie both were under the Magic field, so they were sent to the left, and Samantha was apparently in the Social field, whose table was right next to the Magic table, so they both ended up going the same direction.

In addition to History of the System and Modern Languages, those in the Magic Field were also required to take Introduction to Mana, and Elise scheduled all three of these classes to be in the mornings. Sophie didn’t actually register for any of them. She had a special pass, since she would be attending the Academy and learning the basics in the mornings, and only in the afternoons would she come to the University to take the more advanced elective classes.

Sophie waited impatiently as Elise filled out her time slots, then practically dragged her past the table toward the stairs at the end of the hallway. The rooms on this bottom floor were filled with representatives from history, language, and other classes that Sophie deemed “boring” because they didn’t use magic.

The second floor held the representatives for students seeking more physically oriented, and while Elise wanted to take a look through them later because she didn’t want to be completely helpless in a melee, she let Sophie take her to the third floor, which contained the magical classes. On this floor, Sophie was like a kid in a candy shop, running from table to table, barely giving the representatives a chance to give their pitches before a new table caught her eye.

Elise found herself a bit jealous, since Sophie had true {Mana Manipulation}, meaning she was not restricted to any single element, while Elise was stuck with just Nature. There were plenty of things to do with Nature, but she also kind of wanted to be able to make a fireball. Was just one little fireball too much to ask?

Because of this, Elise spent her time on this floor searching for classes that would hopefully give her a clue on unlocking {Mana Manipulation}. She found a few that looked a bit promising, but unfortunately, most of them focused on acquiring rare Classes to reach {Mana Manipulation}, rather than finding a Skill Quest for it or something.

Does a {Mana Manipulation} Skill Quest even exist? She asked the System.

“I’m sorry, but you do not have access to that information.”

As Elise spoke to the System and it responded to her, she noticed something interesting that she hadn’t before. The System’s communications used aether. She pulled up her Status window and noticed that it too used aether. She supposed that made sense, since aether was used for mental magic, and the System interface clearly only existed in her head, since no one else could see it.

Tell me anyway, she commanded it.

She sighed. The System had stopped even apologizing for rejecting those commands after she started the Alpha Test. It was a bit of a shame, but oh well.

She wasn’t the same Elise from a couple weeks ago. Not only did she have significantly more aether, she was also a princess. And not just any princess. She was a princess of the fey. The queen of the fey was a goddess. The gods and goddesses were in charge of the System. Wouldn’t that mean that she ranked higher than the System?

Tell me whether a {Mana Manipulation} Skill Quest exists, she said, activating {Royal Decree} while targeting the System.

To her surprise, the Skill actually activated.

“Yes, a Skill Quest for {Mana Manipulation} exists.”

Yes! Now, how do I unlock it?

“To unlock the Skill Quest for {Mana Manipulation}, you must-”

Suddenly, with a sound like a record scratch, the voice cut off, and a moment later, a new voice replaced it.

“Very clever, but you’re going to get me in trouble.”

Elise froze as a wave of vertigo hit her from the voice of the goddess touching her mind, but a moment later the sensation passed.

Guess I can’t do that anymore.

She had at least gotten some useful information though. The Skill Quest did exist, which meant she could probably unlock it somehow. And if that failed, maybe she could unlock Skill Quests for enough basic mana Skills that she would be able to complete the Recipe for Mana Manipulation.

Actually, that’s a much better idea.

There were classes available specifically to unlock basic mana spells, and if she took enough of those, she could just create the Skill from the Recipe. She started looking closer into unattributed mana classes specifically for that, and as she did, she thought about the implications of when the Alpha test went live in the full System. It was actually an extreme change, and the more she thought about it, the more she realized how much the world was about to change. This would revolutionize magic. Suddenly, {Mana Manipulation} wouldn’t be a rare Skill provided only to the powerful or lucky. It would be something that anyone could get at any point just by completing Skill Quests.

And I get to be an early adopter, she thought excitedly.

That also reminded her that she needed to check the Recipes later to see if there was a solution to her aether problem. She had meant to do that sooner, but the distractions of preparing for registration day had kept it from her mind. That would have to be on her schedule tonight though, in addition to doing some soul meditation.

The halls gradually filled in with other students and families the longer they waited, so after about half an hour, Elise decisively added some of the Classes she thought would be best to reach her goals. Basic Unattributed Spells was a class that was supposed to allow her to learn {Magic Missile}, {Mana Shield}, and {Telekinesis}. She already knew two of the three, but the representative for the class assured her that if she figured out {Mana Shield} quickly, she would be able to test out of the class and move on to Intermediate Unattributed Spells, where she would learn more complex variations. After that was, of course, Advanced Unattributed Spells, and if she completed all three of these classes, she would have all 10 unattributed mana spells she needed to craft {Mana Manipulation}.

With that taken care of, she also enrolled in A Mage’s Guide to Defensive Gardening alongside Sophie. Sophie had no use for the Unattributed Spells class, but Defensive Gardening not only sounded fun, but Bianca also said it was one of her favorite classes. In this class, they were joined by Isabelle, one of the friends Sophie had made while they waited outside. She was interested in alchemy, but her plan for the first year was to master Nature Magic so that she could create a garden and procure her own ingredients. Apparently, alchemy was an expensive career, and having a personal garden was a necessity.

The only other class she chose on this floor was Basic Magical Combat, which Sophie also enrolled in. There were a few other tempting classes, but none quite as important or interesting as those three, and Elise still needed to pick a few of the social classes. They let Sophie work off a bit more of her excitement running around and looking at every table there, enrolling in probably a few too many classes before heading upstairs to the fourth floor where the social class representatives were.

This floor was very different from the magic floor. Rather than chaos, everyone present carried themselves with an air of confidence and poise that Elise and the Grays immediately tried their best to imitate. As they looked around, Elise noticed that just about everyone on this floor had an unusually large amount of aether. A few of the class representatives—all older people who were likely the teachers themselves—even had more aether than Elise when she was unrestrained. Theirs was nowhere near as chaotic as hers though, and instead gently spread throughout the entire floor, drawing people subconsciously toward them.

Elise spotted Samantha far down the hall, and considered going to talk to her, but decided against it. She needed to pick a few social classes before the good ones all filled up. Besides, Samantha had already disappeared into some room far down the hall, and there were too many people walking around for Elise to see exactly where she had gone.

She gravitated toward the classes taught by those with the most aether, but found to her dismay that most of those classes were already full. It made sense, as anyone with that much aether had to be at least late 7th tier, more likely somewhere in 8th, and in the humanoid territories, anyone at that level would have at least some level of notoriety. Not to mention the fact that all of them were intentionally trying to draw people in.

Instead, Elise decided to focus on those who had the most controlled, orderly aether. She probably should have been doing that in the first place, since control was what she needed most, but the temptation of lots of aether was too great. As she looked for this, she found something odd. From one of the rooms, a lot of aether was flowing out, but no one was entering the room. In fact, they seemed to be avoiding it unknowingly.

Elise walked toward it, curious, and as she got closer, she began to hesitate. Why did she want to go into that room anyway? If no one else was there, it probably wasn’t interesting. There had to be a good reason no one wanted to enter. She was probably just wasting her time.

She shook her head to clear it. Those thoughts weren’t right. Now she was certain that there was something interesting in the room, and she marched forward with renewed conviction, ignoring the doubts that plagued the back of her mind. The rest of the Grays were distracted by one of the more powerful representatives giving some kind of speech, so they didn’t notice Elise walking away.

A few seconds later, Elise entered the room, and the subconscious feelings vanished. The interior was disappointingly boring, but the people in it were not. There was a single desk at which a bespectacled elderly woman sat. No, she wasn’t elderly, she was young. And she wasn’t a woman, he was a man. A tall man. With a beard. Now a bearded woman.

Elise blinked a few times, trying to make sense of what she saw, but found herself unable to. Instead, she looked at the others. Samantha was there, reclining on a chair, both of her guards missing. There was an unassuming bespectacled young man sitting in a chair in the corner trying his best not to get noticed, despite his immense aether. It wasn’t as much as Elise, but it was more than just about anyone else in the building.

The last person in the room was a woman whose face was shrouded in shadow. She wore all black, from her hood to her gloves, and not a sliver of skin was showing. The shadows over her face, Elise found, were not actual shadows, but rather something perception-warping like the person behind the desk had, but to a lesser extent. She nodded to Elise as their eyes met—or at least Elise thought their eyes met—and Elise returned the nod before looking back to the desk.

She still couldn’t make out any features of the person sitting there, but the sign on the desk was quite legible, displaying the name of the class.