[Lifespan Remaining: 2 days, 23 hours, 21 minutes.]
“If anyone asks…” Noelle said from behind him.
“What should I tell them?”
Noct, who was currently being pushed out of his room in a wheelchair, weakly replied.
“That I want to watch you practice, that’s all.”
“Mmm, alright…”
It had taken quite a bit of convincing before Noelle agreed to bring him outside.
But even then, she had insisted on helping him change, wrapping a blanket around his legs and checking his forehead one more time.
Noct leaned back into the headrest, trying to conserve as much of his energy as possible and allowing himself to simply observe the place.
Despite being the side palace, the place was far larger than anyone could reasonably need, especially when it only housed one member of the family.
Tall windows lined one side of the hallway, while paintings and wooden doors occupied the other.
Even the carpet looked expensive enough to feed an ordinary family for months on end.
And there were servants everywhere, an excessive amount of them…
Two maids were busy replacing flowers in a vase near the staircase while a man carried folded sheets out of one of the rooms.
Yet the moment they spotted Noct, everyone stopped.
“Young Master.”
The man with the sheets quickly stepped aside and lowered his head.
The two maids followed, abandoning their conversation halfway through a sentence.
Noct glanced between them.
‘What…?’
He was about to respond when one of the maids hurried to move the vase out of the way, almost as if hiding it from his sight for no particular reason.
‘Ahh, that’s right…’
Noct had forgotten that he was supposed to be the irritable Young Master who would lash out at anything that didn’t go his way.
Throwing things to the ground, pulling curtains off, and even breaking windows…those were things that happened within his memories.
Though he could understand why.
Each time he breathed felt like someone was punching him in the stomach, and everyone’s pitiful stare definitely did not help.
He thought about continuing the act to not look suspicious, however, the thing he needed the most right now was allies and those willing to trust him.
So instead, Noct simply nodded his head, speaking softly.
“Good work.”
Noelle pushed him past before he could say anything else.
As they rounded the corner, he heard the soft whispers of the servants behind him.
“The Young Master didn’t…”
“Is something wrong with him today?”
Noct turned to Noelle, who had also overheard the same conversation.
“Do servants usually talk behind their master’s back?”
“…I’ll discipline them later.”
The training grounds occupied a small courtyard behind the side palace.
Luckily, it was quite enclosed enough so that no one would be able to see what happened within.
Noct expected people to be around, but then again, most would rather be training at the main estate rather than here.
Though out of nowhere, his chest suddenly started hurting once more.
Instinctively, he clutched his hand there.
“Young Master, are you alright?!”
“…Po—tion.”
The maid understood quickly, scrambling to open the potion he had asked her to prepare before.
Red liquid sloshed inside as she brought it to his lips.
“Please, drink slowly.”
It was bitter, but definitely effective.
As soon as the liquid ran down his throat and began spreading through his body, he could feel the pain subside as well as a bit of energy start flowing back into his body again.
〔The following STATUS EFFECTS have been temporarily removed.〕
[Body Fatigue Lv. 1]
[Chronic Headaches Lv. 1]
[Weak Bones Lv. 1]
“That’s one hell of a potion,” Noct said, wiping his mouth.
“What did you get?”
“A Greater Healing Potion, Young Master.”
“Aren’t those things pretty hard to find? How did you—?”
“Please don’t worry about it,” she shrugged off his question.
“We need you to be in tip-top shape for training.”
Noct slowly opened and closed his hand, before using them to pull the blanket on his legs off.
He stared at them for a while.
‘Maybe now…’
Gripping the armrests, Noct carefully pushed himself up.
His elbows trembled, but this time, they just barely held.
And before he knew it, he was standing on his two feet once more.
Noelle stood beside him with one hand hovering over his body just in case he buckled.
Noct took a small step forward, followed by another.
His knees felt stiff, and he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that he was about to trip over his own feet.
Still, he was walking.
‘Thank god.
I was starting to think I’d have to fight from the wheelchair.’
After another few steps, Noct stopped beside the covered walkway and rested a hand against one of its wooden pillars.
His breathing had already grown heavier, but at least it wasn’t painful anymore.
“The potion will only last so long,” Noelle reminded him.
“Please tell me if anything starts hurting again.”
“How long?”
“It depends. You should make the most of it while you can.”
Noct glanced at the corner of his vision.
[Lifespan Remaining: 2 days, 23 hours, 17 minutes.]
His body felt better, but the numbers were still counting down.
‘Of course.
If a healing potion could fix this, I wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.’
Behind him, Noelle placed the bag she had brought onto a nearby bench.
From inside, she withdrew a thick book bound in dark leather, its corners reinforced with small metal plates.
Noct watched her set it down.
“A grimoire?”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Faded gold lettering covered the front.
“Fundamentals of One-Star Magic”
He moved closer, running his fingers over the title before opening it.
The first page contained a diagram of the human body, with thin lines connecting several marked points.
Beside it were paragraphs written in a language he had never studied, yet somehow understood without any difficulty.
‘At least I don’t have to learn how to read again.’
“Before we begin,” Noelle said, “there is something I should make clear.”
Noct looked up.
“My starting class was Rogue. I can help you practice against an opponent, but I cannot teach you how to use your own class.”
“Mage…”
She nodded.
Well, that made sense.
In Ending Fantasy, the two classes had entirely different ways of fighting.
Even their beginner skills had little in common.
So this part he really had to figure it out himself.
Taking the grimoire and having a seat once more, he began reading it.
The first few passages explained how a Mage should begin sensing mana.
Apparently, awakening the class didn’t mean a person knew what to do with it.
Some never gained the ability to recognize mana, while others were never able to guide it without losing control.
Noct read the instructions carefully.
Then he read them again.
‘Wait…’
Ever since waking up, there had been something strange brushing against his skin.
He had barely paid attention to it, considering everything else that had been hurting at the time.
But now that the pain had subsided, the sensation was much clearer.
Something faint drifted through the courtyard, passing between him and the open book.
And when he concentrated, he could feel something similar moving inside his own body.
Noct slowly raised a hand.
‘Is that…mana?’
He read the passage one more time.
“Close your eyes, empty your mind. Search for the foreign sensation beyond your five senses…”
‘Foreign sensation?
It’s fucking everywhere?!’
Regardless, Noct decided that he was well past the starting line and flipped the book to its middle sections to learn some actual spells.
“To cast a spell, one must imagine the function and input of said spell,” Noct read aloud.
“In modern magic, thanks to the First King of Rexford, this process has been simplified to three components; the function of a spell, its input, and the incantation.”
‘That’s awfully convenient.’
He scanned through the examples below, trying to choose a spell that was simple enough to learn and useful in a battle.
After a while, he chose an appropriate spell for the occasion.
Slowly raising his right index finger out, he felt the sensation gathering toward it like ants drawn to sugar.
“Alright, function, input, and incantation—”
“O fire, burn and cinder…”
〈Ars Flare.〉
〔Skill Acquired: Fire Magic [★]〕
A small flame flickered above his outstretched finger.
Noct held his breath as it gathered into a ball, barely larger than a marble.
It floated there for a moment, trembling a bit before shooting toward a nearby wooden target.
Well, it was less of “shooting” and more of “drifting through the air”.
It was slow enough that Noct could follow it with his eyes.
And just before it reached the target—
Fsssst—
It disappeared.
“…That’s it?”
He looked down at the grimoire, then back at the completely untouched target.
For someone with three magical traits at their maximum level, he had expected something a little more impressive.
“Congratulations, Young Master.”
Noct turned toward Noelle, wondering whether she was making fun of him.
But the maid looked genuinely pleased.
“On what?”
“On casting your first spell.”
“It disappeared, though?”
“Even manifesting something on your first attempt is already good enough,” she explained.
“Most beginners would struggle to gather the mana in the first place.”
Noct glanced at his fingertip.
There hadn’t been much of a struggle.
If anything, the mana had gathered so readily that he barely had to do anything.
‘Did I lose control of it halfway through?’
He tried recalling the sensation, following the faint connection that had stretched between his hand and the flame.
“For now, you should take a moment to rest,” Noelle continued.
“Then we can try—”
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!
A brilliant flash of orange swallowed the wooden figure a moment later.
Noct flinched, throwing an arm in front of his face as a wave of heat swept across the courtyard.
Something caught the back of his chair and dragged it away from the table.
By the time he lowered his arm, Noelle was standing in front of him.
One hand held a dagger he hadn’t even seen her draw.
Fragments of wood clattered against the stone behind the target.
The grimoire’s pages fluttered wildly before settling open, while a thin cloud of dust spread across the training grounds.
The wooden figure had vanished from the waist up, and under it, a shallow crater smoked in the packed earth.
“…”
‘You really are a genius, aren’t you—?’
‘Noct de Arcadia…’