Giana got 1 more tutoring session before our week was up. She knew half of the basics, so she should be able to answer simple questions about this topic.

  “Deca, someone is at the door, go [Transform]!” Giana said as she tried to separate me from my pizza. She had already transformed into Athena and was ready to open the door.

  Ugh, they better give us a top tier lab, worth missing this pizza for! Niilah, hat!

  I transformed twice and put Nilah on my head. We opened the door and a well-dressed Misha stood in front of the door.

  “Your house… is impressive, did you two really did this in just a week?” She asked as she enviously checked out our house.

  You can look, but you can’t touch!

  “It took a lot of effort but we’re proud of it.” Athena said, devoid of her usual liveliness.

  She finished the exterior of the house yesterday and had a long tutoring session after that.

  “Did your sister drive you crazy?” The Misha asked quite rudely. I’m not a handful!

  “No, she had me go through some research material as my knowledge was lagging behind…” Athena said as she shook her head.

  “So, the crazy one is the genius, eh?”

  Hey! That’s rude! And normalcy breeds mediocrity! To advance or progress, requires eccentrism or insanity to some extent!

  “I agree, but keep it a bit down Minerva, let this Misha show us our lab…”

  We got showed inside the academy. Nothing seemed familiar, which made perfect sense, besides the lower floors where the labs were. It was relatively close to a corridor with labs. Only 3 seemed occupied, but the other 27 were empty.

  “Pick one, they should all be the same. We also offer free education in case you are interested. Do you two want to enroll in the academy?

  Oh, hell no! I can nap at home!

  “No, but thank you for the offer, Minerva had shown interest in the library though, can we access it?”

  The Misha handed both of us a strange card. “These are library passes you have access up until ‘level 3’ information. You will have to put in special requests if you want to access ‘Level 4’ or higher. There will be one exception, the headmaster will deliver the level 5 research paper, [Hattrick] to you in several hours.”

  Wait! I have a question! This place burnt down, right? How did that research paper didn’t burn down?

  “It had been stored into the ‘information vault’ which is next to the taboo section. Nothing can destroy those, so they got spared.”

  Keeping the taboo magic in case our race has to endure a lot of pressure, eh?

  “That seems to be the case, I wish you good luck in your research.” The Misha left and I was trying to make sure that it didn’t show on my face that I was happy that the taboo section survived.

  “Which one should we take? They all look the same. How about the one in the corner? It would have less people looking at how we unlock our lab.” Athena said as she pointed at the end of the corridor.

  That’s a good idea.

  We entered the lab, and we had to do the same as we did to our house. Giana had me be more involved into the decisions this time.

  We need a lot of space in the center. I don’t think I can copy Azu’s contraption so I will have to create one that works for us. So, you go practice while… never mind. Let’s go to the library, gather some books that could give me ideas for this contraption, and return to our lab.

  “Aww look at you being considerate!”

  It seems you want an extra tutoring session!

  “I know that you do it for a good reason but… it’s difficult to control myself when you do that…”

  It wasn’t excitement that she showed, it was difficult to place.

  I know… I’m ‘feeding the vixen’ in a proverbial sense, but I can’t think of another way, you can devour me after I’m done tutoring you.

  “I just feel bad, it never occurred to me how dangerous vixens could be for you. Why is our race so messed up…”

  Probably for good reasons. I don’t think that a chick without charm magic would ever be able to grab my attention.

  I pulled the downcast Athena along toward the library. The old academy had half the building being taken up by the library, if this academy is similar, it should be the same.

  As expected, the library was easy to find and we got easy access. We looked through the categories and landed in the section that contained information about magical apparatus.

  Wow so much junk, where did they get this from?

  “I don’t understand any of this…” Athena sighed and put a paper down.

  Well, that’s because they don’t adhere to the standards! It’s all over the place! Don’t tell me the Misha are regressing! What’s the point of stealing information if they’re starting to become like humans?

  I said as I grabbed my head in despair.

  “Hey, not so loud! People might hear you!” Athena said as she attempted to calm me down by humming.

  Thanks.

  “Is it you who was so loud? And you sure have guts, accusing us to become like those inferior humans!” A short green haired Misha said as she appeared with 2 others.

  Whoa, those are ugly hats, no wonder you guys look so grumpy!

  I got hit by a headlock. “Forgive my sister, she has no manners. Hey, Minerva can you stop making enemies left, and right?”

  What will they do? Defeat me by ‘uglifying’ my hat?

  The headlock weakened. Is she holding in her laugh? “You can’t just make up words like hat.”

  “We can see that both of you are making fun of us! We’re in the library! Stop being loud!”

  Hey, Athena, was I as loud as this shrimpy?

  “I’m sorry, Minerva, could you repeat that? My ears were ringing from her loud, shrill voice.”

  The Misha didn’t like this at all and started to become loud. Apparently, I insulted a paper their friend had written. Do friends accept mediocrity? I’m sure that Raishin could have written this, and he isn’t educated on this.

  It looks like they’re going 1 step forward and 2 steps backward.

  Let’s go Athena, there is nothing we can learn from these clowns.

  “Weren’t you a bit mean there?” Athena asked on the way back.

  Perhaps but Misha are stubborn and asking nicely isn’t going to have them improve… moreover… If you met a vixen which has extremely weak charm magic, and can’t use [Transform] at all and prefers to not seduce or deceive, what would you think?

  “Huh? How did she even survive like that?”

  Thank you! That’s the same that’s going on with the Misha, they’re losing grip on the things they should excel at, and it seems either by choice or sheer ignorance and incompetence. I have no mercy for them, as Azu had been kicked out and ostracized trying to solve this, similarly to Remi. I have also personally warned them. If they don’t get the message by now, there is nothing more I can do.

  We had arrived at our lab and Athena closed the door behind us. Since nobody could spy on us, we reverted to our original appearances.

  This all causes me to lose all respect for them. Here we are, the 9t struggling hard and doing our best to survive and improve our race, while they destroy everything that wants to help them to get better.

  “I see, but is it their fault? As those Misha specifically?”

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  In the end, oneself is only to blame for ignorance. I don’t have the time and energy to investigate anyone’s stance on this. I will put them all in the same category until they prove otherwise. I will give the headmaster a piece of my mind, I’m even willing to blow my cover and go Silver Menace on her.

  I shattered illusions and created [Illusionary Daggers].

  I don’t want you to get caught in my selfishness. I might talk shit about the Misha, but this place is still the best city to study magic.

  Giana clasped my hands. “I will stand by you, whatever you choose.”

  How bright! So, dazzling!

  “Ugh, do you really have to do this every time?! How about this!” Giana winked and used some unknown charm attack, and my heart started beating like crazy, and I collapsed to my knees.

  “Heh, so weakr.” Giana said as she looked down on me. It seemed as if this situation pleased her. “You’re lucky that I held back, do this again and you will get a full dose.”

  And you accused me of brainwashing…

  “Deal with it!”

  Giana helped me up, and we continued fixing our lab until something akin to a doorbell rang.

  Oh, you ordered pizza for me? thank you!

  “Don’t be silly, wouldn’t the headmaster visit us?” Giana said as she prompted me to [Transform] after she turned into Athena and walked over to the door.

  Right, time to give her a piece of my mind.

  The headmaster and 2 other Misha walked in. “I do have to say you two do move fast, I’ve already received envious comments about your house.”

  Pff, that’s because most Misha are scrubs.

  The familiar headlock appeared. “Ugh, would it hurt you to stay mannered? I apologize, headmaster, my sister is out of control.”

  “Don’t mind it. I admit that she is strange, but she is manageable, I’ve had to deal with waves of disrespectful students and Misha for a year now. Minerva is actually a breath of fresh air, as it’s either disrespectful or incompetent Misha or Misha that treat me like a god or are afraid of me.”

  Ha! See Athena! I’m a breath of fresh air, which means that you’re a breath of stale air!

  “If I wouldn’t know better, I would think you’re doing this on purpose!” The ‘0 damage’ headlock turned into a ‘1 damage’ headlock.

  “Maybe I should check on you two regularly, it surely brings color to my dull days, we’re here to deliver the research paper on [Hattrick]. I will warn you, though. The magic circle of this is folded 18 times for as much as our experts can tell. The most complicated spells we have in our possession only go up to 9… Also, I don’t have to tell you that this is a closely guarded paper by our community. We will put you two under watch until after you’ve studied it and returned it.”

  Athena raised her hand. “Why didn’t you ask the author for help?”

  The headmaster sighed. “The author is near impossible to catch, and he seems to have no intention in helping us directly… he had given us tips but… it only caused us to discover 6 more folds… it did give a more complete picture of the skill, but it added more complexity…”

  Wow you guys really seem stuck!

  “Minerva! But 18 folds…” Athena looked down to me. “Is that even possible?”

  The 2 Misha next to the headmaster seemed confused. It's fine for other races to be unaware of this, but the Misha’s specialty is magic itself, they should be aware of it to some extent. It’s similar to a book, not all content fits on 1 page, that’s why there are multiple pages, the folds work the same, they are hardly visible when magic circles appear though. Using magic and showing the magic circle is akin to showing a summary.

  Not my discovery, all credit goes to Azu. But they found only 18 folds… oof.

  The research paper got handed over, and the Misha produced some potions that promoted focus and could keep us awake.

  Giana and I are 9t, we don’t need to sleep every night, so that was unneeded, but it would be suspicious if we don’t address this.

  Uhh, Athena and I are gamers, we’re used to pulling all-nighters while being focused.

  We sat at our desk, Athena started reading the paper and I pretended to read it. It was encoded like most Misha do with important papers so that not just any incompetent Misha can steal, copy it and pass it off as her own.

  My first ‘tutor’ session had made Giana proficient in decoding papers I have written. After that, she can get to the contents.

  “Uhhm, Headmaster? You said you found 18 folds? I’m 30 minutes in, and I count 90…”

  I don’t know why, but Giana just got hotter by finding this so fast. It shocked the headmaster, though. “Huh? What? How?! I’ve read it countless times!”

  She came over and Athena pointed at the section where she found out.

  “This part here… it seems like a mechanism to compile folds. It looks like a fold, but if the whole magic circle was like a book, this would be an index. I don’t know what the experts have done, but they might have been looking at the ‘index page’ as there are 18 ‘chapters’ the first chapter has 90 folds…”

  Sounds mostly correct to me.

  “What? How… where did he even learn all this?” The headmaster said as she pulled the paper in front of her and looked at it herself.

  Dunno, might want to check out the references.

  “We know what references he has used, but the Misha who has written that has disappeared, and we have yet to find the referenced research paper in the taboo section. I did get met with a lot of opposition as many were against using magic labeled as taboo…” The headmaster gave a tired sigh.

  It seems that she’s trying.

  “I can’t recognize these ‘chapters’ at all… where did you two learn all this?”

  Athena gave me a hopeful stare as she expected me to have an excuse.

  Huh? It’s not obvious?

  Athena facepalmed. “Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything less from my sister… She is a bit weird, but she has taught me much of what I know about magic. She just gets strange ideas about magic, and I can’t follow it most of the time.”

  Nice save Giana!

  The headmaster kept rereading the paper. “I have a copy in my lab, you two, keep watch, it seems that I have some studying to do.”

  The headmaster gracefully left and left the 2 clueless Misha behind.

  No wonder they didn’t crack it yet. Thinking that a ‘compile fold’ is a fold, oof that’s not getting them anywhere. Wait till they find that every ‘compile fold’ gets different context and meaning depending on the most dominant 3 mana runes occurring in the several sections in the Misha hat. Azu didn’t delve deep in this, so I had to research this myself, but I had identified 25 patterns which meant that there are 25 versions of every ‘compile fold’. I wasn’t joking when I initially stated that this skill was complex.

  “Minerva, what is this madness?” Athena asked me an hour later. “I don’t think I know enough to follow all this…”

  Well, it has stumped the experts for 6 years, so it wasn’t going to be easy.

  But this is the reason why I needed to return to Witchav…Mishaspire to improve [Hattrick]. I need Azu’s contraption, else it might take forever. If it was less complex, I could do without.

  Athena put the paper down. “I’m done, thank you.”

  “Doesn’t your sister need to read it too?” One of the clueless, Misha asked.

  I have a good idea of how this skill works.

  “Oh! So, you can solve it?!” Thye asked hopeful.

  Don’t be ridiculous, look at us, we’re fresh out of our diapers and even the experts are struggling with it, the best we could do is create some clarifications to make it easier for the experts.

  “Ah… Makes sense, good luck, this paper has driven many Misha mad…” The clueless Misha took the paper and left us alone.

  “Minerva, our house, now!”

  We returned home and canceled our disguises.

  “W…what was that? Did you really write that? Can that even be called magic?” Giana jumped in the fluffy failed couch I gave her. “My head hurts…”

  Well of course it's magic. The problem with current day magic is that it’s too close to things like math, physics and chemistry. But it’s magic, it should be able to do more than just break physics as shallowly as it does now, and besides that it often even adheres to physics beyond its initial cast. I know, as I’ve applied physics and chemistry to magic before and it works. Shouldn’t that be impossible if it was truly ‘magic’ something that defies logic?

  I sat down next to Giana.

  Why do 9t have the monopoly on breaking reality, why magic in itself should do exactly that? Breaking reality?

  “That… I never thought about that…”

  I don’t blame you for that, as the majority of the population is the same. As far as I know, I’m the 3rd person who has actively done something about it. Sure, more people might have wondered it but neither had the time, energy nor resources to do anything about it. And…

  Giana cocked her head. “And?”

  Now that you are a part of me, I also want you to be ‘free’ in using magic, as current day magic has so many restrictions.

  “And I guess I need to know how to read and manipulate mana runes for that?”

  Yup! So, it’s time for some tutoring!

  “Uhh, how about tomorrow?” Giana said, as she made a futile attempt to flee. Damn she’s slow.

  Nope!

  I shattered illusions and created my [Illusionary Daggers] and started chucking them at Giana.

  I hope you’re ready!

  The tutoring caused Giana to lose control over her charm magic, but I didn’t stop her this time. It was time to give her what she wants. That was when I truly became a man.

  ?

  ?

  follow if the story is interesting enough.

  Ayaru Mistflower