Ignorance is Bliss, My Dear Jade

It's quite later than normal for most people at this time. All the classes were finished forever ago and even the extra credit classes finished some time ago. Most of this school has become quite silent.

Even I have not stayed up this long, when I'm not in my room with Kira or in the dungeon that is. At this time only maybe a cleaner or two can be heard. 

Jade and I, mostly Jade, came up with a plan on how I will teach her how to silently spellcast. It's in the sparring class I beat Jade in a few days ago. The deal is that we can use it but we must clean up afterward. Also, we are also limited on how long we can stay, maybe only an hour or so?

It all works for me but I do fear for Kira. She seems like the type to figure out I'm walking in an hour later than I normally do. Somehow I feel it will all be fine.

And how could I not? Watching Jade's comedic time failing to cast anything is hilarious. Apparently, she was quite mediocre at casting any magic in the first place. On top of that the only element she knows, fire doesn't help her very much.

It's one that is dangerous to practice with. The chances of you burning yourself are quite high. Not like she could even get that far anyway. She would much more likely die from freezing in the winter because she couldn't make a fire to keep warm.

"Would you stop just looking at me and help?" She says somehow figuring out I must have realizing I've been spending the time making fun of her.

With a humph, I get up and stand beside her. She keeps a close eye on me and my movements.

"Hand out, imagine the thing, then just let it out." A small ball of fire forms in my hands that soon fizzles out. "Simple."

Jade watches intently but seems really annoyed.

"I've been doing that for the past hour! It's not working. Can we try something else?!"

It's already been an hour?

At first, I ignored her request but after she started straining her hand and tensing up her body to the point it looked like she might break something I caved.

In a more commanding voice, I command "Arm fully out palm facing forward." I watch her do this at speed and with precision, her movements robotic.

"Hey, what are you doing? Why is my body moving on its own?!"

"It's part of the contract but more importantly you need to start focusing." I come up behind her with my arm right next to her outreach one touching it side by side copying her pose.

"Wait a minute what are you-"

"You wanna shortcut or not?" I ask

With a pouty face, she nods. 

"I want you to focus on fire. Not only what it looks like but how it feels, smells, and sounds. I want you to imagine the actual breakup that makes it itself."

"I guess I can try…"

She closes her eyes in concentration. Once I know she's ready I begin moving mana from my arm to her. I watch her facial expression change to surprise. 

"Once you feel it you need to imagine the feeling every time you have chanted."

I watch her arm start to tense up but this time it relaxes back to normal. I continue to add as much of my own mana to guide her along.

Before long small sparks fizzed at the edge of her fingertips.

"Like that just a bit more"

The sparks become more aggressive now. Lost in the moment I add more and more mana without caring about how much I am truly transferring.

And the moment I start to see the start of a formation of fire it all goes wrong. Instead of turning into a flame, the spell became unstable. The thing is when you make a spell with these circumstances it may go unstable and cause some unforeseen events.

Like an explosion? In a terrifying moment, both I and Jade saw our work expire right in our faces.

At that moment both me and jade fly back at an unknown speed and direction. The fear of the moment intensifies as I hit a solid surface.

Luckily neither of us was in any true danger. True, we may be lying on the floor feet away from where we were. And the explosion was loud and violent but really-

"Outch, damn it." I hear Jade say.

Well, technically it was the best outcome for the situation. Normally something like that would…

"What the heck was that? That's not it at all!" Jade whines on the floor.

"To put it simply, your spell became unstable and went boom. Though if you would look at the bright side for once you would realize we are both fine."

That is probably due to the healing circles placed in the room. It still seems like there was some damage to the floor itself so I might have to fix that.

"Ya, obviously genius, I want to know why!" Jade says struggling to get up.

"Don't know, maybe it's because you decided to cast an unstable fireball instead of a normal one," I say, preparing to cast some earth magic on the floor.

It's then I find myself lifted off the ground. Jade has grabbed onto me and held me in the air just above the ground.

"You're really getting on my nerves." She says with a scary-looking face.

I watch Jade's surprised face as her grip on me almost magically disappears and I am once again back on the ground. Her hand lingers in the air, not moving. Well, that is until I let it move.

"What are you doing???"

"Simply what I am allowed to do under the contract we both agreed to. The fact I won our match also means I only have two conditions I must follow. I guess a snobby rich girl like you forgot about that though."

I decided to continue to try and fix the floor. The hole left behind is not that big but the floor looks obviously damaged for quite a distance. Using earth magic I attempt to fix the cracks in the floor with some difficulty.

With earth magic being the only element I can handle more freely it comes in useful for situations like this. That doesn't make it any less difficult. The structure and patterns in the floor are much more complicated than just some dirt.

With a lot of work, the floor starts to come back together. I also use another element I have been working on controlling for freely to seal the cracks. I use fire magic in a concentrated beam to seal the floor as if it was never there.

I'm not sure how long that took me but it must have been at least 10 minutes yet Jade still has not moved. She's just standing there like some child that's having a tantrum. Head down, hands balled into a fist, basic baby stuff.

It kinda ticks me off a bit.

"I bet you thought it would come so easily just because of who you are." I taunt.

I turn around. I guess tomorrow is always a new day. Hey and good for her to in a few weeks she's almost there, maybe give her a month and I bet she'll be casting effortlessly.

Surprisingly I hear Jade say something "What's your deal with the upper class?"

Has that thick skull of hers finally realized my obvious distaste for people like her?

"Hmm?" I turn around.

"What did we ever do to you?"

"Ha, what didn't you dumb ignorant money-obsessed fools do? Are you seriously asking me this?"

Jade lifts her head to stare at me. Her eyes held back tears.

"Maybe you should actually make some real points instead of baselessly insulting us… You know I heard treating an entire group as one isn't the best. It's a sign of a lack of intelligence."

Is she arguing with me? About this of all things. Interesting.

"I doubt anyone around you even takes the time to learn anything. If they already know they are going to be living somewhere rich with a husband that will take care of them." I argue back.

"Do you think it's that nice to be forced into a relationship you never wanted?"

"It's better than dying on the cold ground begging for scraps…"

"If I had the choice to do so I would take that reality! It's the fact that I will never have the opportunity to be a pampered girl all my life, that is so suffocating!"

"I doubt you even care or know how hard it is. Have you ever wondered how hard it is just to get by while you are looked down upon and ridiculed by everyone just because of who you are?"

"Where is this coming from Akari? Don't you yourself realize what a great position you are in? You are not royal, you have no money, you have no connections to anyone but here you are with us. What makes you so different?"

Hmm, I guess I'm leading this argument as persistence but if I were Akari none of this would make any sense. It seems like the people I used to be with before Akari have left a warped perception of anyone close to the high class.

It is impossible for me to not think of them especially now. I haven't bothered to count but sometimes I wondered how many Vessels were killed due to the upper class…

I think it's better to try and get under her skin.

"I want you to try and claim we are similar when the country you are bound to marry someone who will kill and destroy helpless towns and families in the name of conquest…"

I did not know much about the boy Jade had her problem with him. The few things that I did learn about was that he is part of a family of commanders. The fact Jade is bothered by him plus the fact that the empire we live in is a war-mongering one really shows where her future lies.

"You think I want that!" Jade yells as she jumps on me.

Surprisingly I am unable to dodge her sudden attack. It's only when I realize I can't move out of the way do I decide to try and move her with the power the contract gave me but I'm only able to adjust her slightly before she tackles me.

The tumble continues for a few rolls until it stops. Jade is below me, myself above her on my hands and knees pinning her to the ground. Even though I accidentally did this, it's great for keeping her where she is.

Which just so happens to be right below me… 

I watch Jade's face change from a range of emotions starting at anger and ending on embarrassment.

This might be bad if…

With a slam, the doors to the training room open, and with it comes a unique scene.

A large group of students come through the door almost tripping over each other while they stumble in. 

Ahh great…

Both me and Jade get up quickly. However, everyone had already seen the scene both me and Jade were in so I can assume they had a horrible idea of what may have happened.

Though from what it looks like I'm guessing they were here longer than we would have thought. My guess is eavesdropping. Why? Not sure as of this moment possibly to try and gain intel on our training technique.

But if that was the case why are they all girls and why are they acting so odd? 

Jade seems to be explaining something to them but they continue to giggle and joke with themselves. Well hardly any of them seem interested in me, plus it's about that time so I better get going.

And I was just about to do just that but it would seem somebody was interested in talking with me. It's some small girl with blue hair. Not sure why they even let kids this young in this school.

"So this is what Master was doing so late…" She says.

Oh is this Kira by chance? How interesting. Her human form is much more realistic now. Almost everything is no different from a normal girl. Well, except maybe one or two areas that droop down a bit or show some blue coloration.

"Oh sup Kira? I was just hanging out with a friend."

She doesn't respond for a moment.

"If that's what you want to do it's fine…" She says in a sad tone.

It seems Kira has too fallen for the scene she saw before her. It's unfair for her to feel so upset over nothing.

"Oh come on Kira you think I would do anything with that rich girl? Come on especially when I have someone as cute as you around? Your human form is so realistic I almost didn't recognize you at first."

Kira's face glows when I say that.

"You really think so? Well, I guess it's fine then it would make sense if Master had multiple wives anyway." She says giggling.

I seem to have not fixed the problem.

Now it seems Jade is having a misunderstanding because she is now looking at me weirdly and is approaching. Well, I would normally love to explain everything to Jade then again I can think of one thousand reasons why I don't want to stand here and explain it to her for an hour.

So grabbing onto Kira's hand I leave the ruckus Jade now has to deal with.