Music Room

  Veronique could hardly keep the smug smile out of her face since by the time they arrived Rhea had eaten all of pastries just like Veronique had thought she would do.

  The look on the old hag was priceless.

  “Don’t worry Miss Hawkings, Margaret went to get more” Isabella tried to reassure her

  “More? Isabella the point isn’t that we don’t have enough pastries” Miss Hawkings was a bit outraged that the maid thought she was mad about not having pastries “Lady Rhea wasn’t supposed to eat that many before lunch that’s why I only set out a few on purpose” she clarified her complaint

  “Ah so it wasn’t a mistake” Isabella would distractedly say out loud then flinch and dunk at Miss Hawkings displeased’s expression, at last the older woman just let out a sigh

  “Fine, since it wasn’t like Lady Rhea got hold of too many I will let it slide this once” she conceded, meanwhile Veronique was pleased to see Rhea didn’t seem apologetic at all.

  ‘So she didn’t get completely brainwashed into acting like an adult’ she thought ‘pastries must be her weak spot and she probably doesn’t get to eat too many, I kind of feel bad for not taking it longer to come back’

  “We still got time for some tea” Miss Hawkings would say as she sat down and murmured to herself “thinking about it there must be some that decrease mana, I need to look into this”

  They had their tea, had a walk in the garden to help Rhea get down from her sugar high and headed to lunch, since due to the skill assessment Miss Hawkings had already canceled the first half of their lesson of the day as part of the small celebration she had set up for that morning.

  Main Wing, Dinning Room

  Rhea had calmed down enough by the time they arrived to lunch, however this didn’t mean she would stop herself from being a little chatter box.

  The events of the day had been way too exciting for her, after all she was just a child and the skill Madame Luise had shown her was quite impressive to look at…even if Rhea also made it known that the woman was rude.

  “Did Veronique even get a skill?” Alexander had to interject into Rhea’s telling of the events, up to that point the child had only focused on her experience

  “Shouldn’t you ask her?” Rhea asked back, not wanting to take all the spotlight

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  “You are the one telling the story” the boy retorted back

  “But-” “I don’t mind if you tell my side too” Veronique intervened, she truly had no interest on retelling the event, mostly because thinking of Madame Luise was enraging her and till she found a way to lower her excess mana it was better to avoid upsetting situations.

  “Are you sure?” at the redhead nod Rhea continued “Her mana goes up even if it’s full”

  “Excuse me?!” her brother couldn’t believe what he just heard

  “It’s just like I said, we all saw it go up” the child insisted

  “That can’t be possible, people can’t produce more mana then they can store” Duchess Lucretia intervened, she too couldn’t believe her ears and was looking at Veronique for an explanation

  “Madame Luise informed me of it, it’s not Veronique producing it, she’s adsorbing it” he paused to take a bite out of his fancy salad, swallowed and continued “which makes her work around the limit”

  “Such thing is not normal” Alexander would say sounding a bit perturbed about the news

  “Neither it should be normal to make lights out of your hands” Veronique would respond in kind

  “Veronique is right there is nothing normal about skills” the Duke interrupted Alexander from responding “So Rhea, I heard you have an affinity with wind” and with that Rhea took again the reins of the conversation, the Duke unspoken order to drop the subject of Veronique’s skill had been heard loud and clear.

  Miss Hawkings’s Study

  “Today we will do something different” Miss Hawkings had announced “I decided to teach you a basic skill for a start, something simple”

  “You teach skills too?” Rhea asked innocently out of wonder

  “Are we doing the light thing?” Veronique wondered out aloud

  “Basic skills are easy to learn with the aid of a book, but anything more advanced would need a proper specialized instructor” the woman clarified as she browsed the pages of the book in her hands “and no we are not doing the light thing, we need something discreet that can be done at any time discreetly!” she stopped at page and laid down the book between the two of them “this should do”

  “Hover, allows small objects to slightly lift in the air” Veronique read the description right out of the book, then grew confused as she took a peak at the wall of text under it “err what do those instructions even mean? Intent?”

  “Yes, intent, It’s the base to acquire any skill, without a clear intent the skill wouldn’t even manifest” Miss Hawkings would explain

  “So we need to put feeling behind hand movements?” this reminded Veronique of a show with ninjas and just thinking of trying to do those moves with her hands was giving her cramps

  “The hand movements are usually an aid, but with practice you won’t even need them” the woman informed her “Madame Luise was mostly putting on a show, but the last thing that you should do when casting a skill you don’t know is to put a strong feeling behind it” Miss Hawkings warned them “It makes the skill hard to control and gives unexpected results”

  “If its so dangerous maybe we shouldn’t mess with it without a qualified teacher?” Veronique suggested already imagining worst case scenarios like accidentally exploding a chair or worse someone.

  She was feeling quite angry. It could happen.

  “Those basic skills don’t have enough power to do anything I couldn’t deal with myself” Miss Hawkings confidently claimed “and for now we are just going to learn the theory to make a solid base in preparation of learning Hover”

  ‘Oh joy’ Veronique wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea of more things to study, but she couldn’t deny learning a skill like Hover could be really useful to her since she could just have some object levitate and drain up her mana without doing much else.

  ‘Too useful’ somehow she doubted Miss Hawkings’s pick was up to chance ‘where does the old hag really stand? Is she against me or with me?’ the woman’s behavior was confusing to her, so Veronique got her reservations in trusting her.