The academy library looked bigger than I remembered. Not that it meant much, considering the old me had barely paid attention to anything.
Still, it was undeniably massive. Even the library assistant at the front desk looked at me like he’d seen a ghost, adjusting his glasses before checking my ID and letting me through.
I really was a celebrity, huh...?
I headed for the magic section and picked up a beginner-friendly book that looked similar to the one Annabele had used to tutor me, along with an even more basic magic textbook.
My goals were simple: learn more spells, and figure out how magic was actually trained.
Better yet, I wanted to understand how I could maintain my spells while sleeping, and why my rate of development confused even Annabele.
But until I found a better answer,
I had no intention of stopping my training.
I kept the healing spell active just beneath my chest, hidden and out of the way, along with a small, concentrated ball of light that barely glowed at all.
"These look good..."
Magic came first. Once I had a proper grasp of it, and enough confidence in my control, I could redirect my focus to physical training.
Doing both would have been preferable, but with classes later that afternoon, it wasn’t an option. The last thing I needed was to show up exhausted and worsen my reputation as a bad student.
✧ ✦ ✧
I started with the basic magic textbook, and I hadn’t even reached page twenty before I found my answer.
Apparently, I was something close to an empty vessel and a dual-soul combined, two phenomena the book described as the kind that always produced legends.
An empty vessel was exactly what it sounded like. The moment a child was born, they were considered empty, untouched by magic. Any spell used in that state counted as training twice over.
And Reyn was one of them. Not because he was young, but because he had never once used his magic seriously.
Which effectively made him the oldest empty vessel the world had ever known.
Next was the dual-soul phenomenon, a rare occurrence born from the world’s natural latent magic, where a child entered life with two souls. It granted twice the magical capacity, development, and comprehension of magical phenomena.
The problem was... the second soul was supposed to be a blank slate, formed from magic and attached to an existing living soul.
That was nothing like me. My two souls were both living, both complete. And according to the book’s own theories, if such a thing ever existed...
It would be a...
"Miracle..."
I grinned. So I was a miracle child now, huh?
But even if I wasn’t, it confirmed at least one of my theories.
My magical training was working, and because of my status, the results were effectively tripled.
I could live with that...
Now, it was time to move on to the light textbook—
"Lord Reyn?"
I turned to the side and, to my surprise, found Trish standing at the edge of the table.
"Lady Trish?"
"Ah, it really is you!"
Her gaze shifted to the two textbooks spread out before me, and a pleasant smile formed on her face.
"I wanted to thank you for what you did, but it seems you’re busy."
She dipped into a graceful curtsy.
"I’ll thank you properly another time, then. I’m rooting for you."
With that, she turned and walked away.
Looks like my first impression had definitely worked.
Well... that wasn’t surprising. In her eyes, what I’d done was practically the difference between her family collapsing and being saved. Even if I knew my act would end up being pointless.
She didn’t.
I guess that made two ’villainesses’ who were now somewhat interested in me.
✧ ✦ ✧
Next was the light magic textbook, and to my surprise, my progress was even faster than when Annabele had been helping me.
After two hours, I was already on page fifty, learning about radiant spears, glowing chains, and several other new spells.
Most of them, I had already begun stacking.
More specifically, I had managed to create a miniature glowing necklace, its design shaped around a small spear dangling just below the neck. I dimmed the light enough that it looked like an ordinary golden necklace.
Apparently, sleeping through the night with my spells active had done more than enough to effectively double my mana capacity from the previous day.
I was even half-tempted to conjure a ball of light using my maximum mana.
But I’d rather not terrify the entire library with a miniature sun.
DING!
DING!
DING!
The academy bell began to ring, and the others inside the library started packing up and leaving. It was lunch now, and afterward, it would be time for me to head to class.
P.E., luckily enough.
I really am a miracle child. Even luck is on my side...
"Guess I’ll go grab a—"
"Reyn, what are you doing here?"
Annabele had spotted me from the other side of the library. Lucius stood behind her, along with a particularly familiar, heroine-shaped woman.
"Lucius, you two go to the cafeteria without me."
"Are you sure, Anna? Reyn doesn’t have the—"
"I’ll be fine, I promise! I’ll catch up with you two afterward."
Lucius only sighed before smiling and gesturing to the woman behind him.
"Let’s go, Celeste."
Annabele had already started running toward me. She reached me quickly, her eyes going straight to my forehead as if searching for some sort of dent.
Finding nothing, her gaze shifted to the table.
Two textbooks sat there.
Almost immediately, her smile widened, and before I could react, she rushed forward and wrapped me in a hug.
"So yesterday wasn’t just an outlier! You really are changing!"
She pulled back, grabbed the two books, and began dragging me toward the library exit.
"Lunch is on me! You have P.E. afterward, right? You’ll need a good meal if you want to perform well."
"H-How do you know I have P.E., Anna?"
The moment I said that, Annabele’s face flushed. She let out an awkward laugh and looked away.
"T-That isn’t important, okay? Just think about what you want to eat. It’s on me."
Well... now that was interesting.
She wasn’t even insane yet, but she was already becoming stupidly observant.
And a little stalker-ish.
Now that’s what I call my kind of woman!