Supreme Magus novel Chapter 47

It was in moments like that that Lith felt how heavy a bottleneck was. Normally, in such a situation, he would use Accumulation, turning a downtime into a training session while also studying how his body was developing.

But now that option was unavailable, and being stuck in such state for almost a year, he knew his body inside out, to the point of memorizing where every impurity was located.

After half an hour, he was about to fall asleep.

"Hope the Count doesn’t mind me snoring a little."

"Lith, why don’t we open Nana’s goodbye gift? I’m really curious." Solus said.

"I’m not. That stingy old hag just gave me a piece of paper. I bet it’s a list of souvenirs she wants me to buy for her."

A small friendly bet was better than doing nothing, so he took out the small envelope and read its content. Lith had lost the bet, it was a brief letter.

"Dear Lith,

Now that you are going to a Magic Academy, away from the prying eyes of your parents, you deserve to know the truth. Chore magic holds a forbidden spell that I never taught you. Now you are old enough to know."

It followed a short but precise description on how to use darkness magic on himself to avoid unwanted consequences from the intimacy with girls. It was a birth control spell. The letter closed with a

"Remember to always be a gentleman and have fun! You’ll thank me later.

With love, Nana"

"What a dirty old lady. I’m not even twelve." Lith couldn’t stop from laughing out loud. The idea of Nana being the one worrying about his sex life was hilarious.

"It’s this about something Lady Nerea wrote? An anecdote? Can I see it too?" The Count was very curious, seeing Lith laugh was a rare occurrence.

After reading the message, Count Lark became purple from embarrassment. The scene made Lith laugh even louder.

"Oh my, the Count is such a softie. Getting flustered by such stupid thing. Sometimes he seems straight out of a manga."

"Lith, this is no laughing matter." The Count said.

"I appreciate Lady Nerea concern, but I still find it ill-timed and vulgarly expressed. The matters of the heart should be treated with more tact, especially with someone young as you are."

Lith couldn’t help but renew his laughter.

"He really called it ’matters of the heart’! It’s just sex, man!"

The light mood didn’t last long, the long trip soon made both the men fall asleep.

When the coachman woke them, they were already arrived.

The sight of the Lightning Griffon academy was truly impressive.

The building itself seemed an enormous castle, straight from the wet dreams of a medieval engineer. Yet it was impossible to see it clearly, they were still too far.

The academy was in the center of a huge forest that extended in all directions as far as the eye could see.

"That explains why it’s so distant from populated areas, is basically a County of its own. The forest may even have an extension superior to the Trawn woods." Lith thought.

"Why do we stop here? We are still very far, how are we supposed to reach the academy?"

The Count was excited like a kid in a candy store.

"Don’t worry and follow me."

He brought Lith to a small brick house on the edge of the forest, were two men were sipping tea while idly chatting.

The Count introduced himself and showed them their permits.

The man that was now holding the papers whispered a few words, the ink rearranged itself, coming out of the sheet and forming some kind of magic circle on the ground.

"Even the permits are a magical item?" Lith was shocked.

"I sensed some mana coming from them, but I supposed it was just some kind of magical seal of authenticity, not something this complex." Solus explained.

"Sh*t! We are completely in the dark about magical items, and there’s no mention of it in any book we read so far. Either we find a way to correct this situation, or our travels will be much more difficult in the future."

Following the man’s instructions, Lith and the Count stepped inside the circle, that instantly became a translucent yellow sphere.

It gently rose up in the air, before starting to fly at break-neck speed toward the castle. Despite it was moving faster than Lith ever did before, they felt no different than standing on the ground.

"This thing is like gyrostabilized! What a brilliant idea!" For the first time Lith was almost regretting is choice. Almost.

The trip was short, but Lith still managed to see many huge magical beasts running inside the forest. They even almost collided with an eagle the size of a piper aircraft. Its eyes were full of scorn, shrieking at them something that sounded a reprimand.

"Is it me, or there are only magical beasts in there?" Lith asked the Count, who nodded.

"Yes, magical beasts and monsters, off course. They’ll explain everything to you once you enrol." The Count had a fatherly tone, but Lith could clearly hear a hint of condescension ’I told you so’-like.

The sphere landed on a balcony before dissipating. A twenty-year-something girl wearing a magician robe was waiting for them.

She guided them through magical escalators and corridors, before leaving them into the Headmistress antechamber. She had talked via a small communicator amulet the whole time, giving orders about menial duties.

In Lith’s experience, that meant bad news. Whenever he had a job interview, the secretary attitude towards the applicants was a tell about how the company treated his employees and what where their expectations about a candidate.

She had ignored them the whole time, not giving them a tour or an explanation about any of the magical marvels they had encountered.

For someone who wanted to be rejected, though, it was good news.

The Count was too mesmerized to notice, his eyes were moving to every single piece of furniture, his mouth agape in admiration. The room itself was a prodigy.

Despite no visible source of light, be it windows, torches or light stones, every nook and cranny were lighted as the morning sun was shining above their heads.

"What do you think of this?" The Count asked as a rhetorical question, expecting Lith to show an enthusiasm equal if not superior to his.

"Honestly? I find it pretentious and stuck-up. Everything in the room feels like his master is looking down on us, trying to intimidate the guest and put him in his place."

"Really?" The Count’s dream bubble popped up abruptly.

"Yeah. I mean little splendour is fine, but this? It’s too much." He pointed at the gold decoration that kept shifting to silver and platinum, and at the gemstones embroidered at every corner, like shining eyes staring at them with contempt.

"Also how do you explain otherwise that girl rude attitude? She barely looked at us at all."

"Oh dear." The Count gulped. "Now that you point that out, this room resembles very much the King’s antechamber for the unwanted guests."