Chương 88: Book 2 Chapter 40 - Free Magic Class

Belliston really meant it when he said he would rest until nighttime. He didn't come down for lunch, and only made an appearance halfway through dinner. When Kiara asked how his head was feeling, he smiled and thanked her for her concern, saying he was feeling much better now. Kiara had spread the word amongst the staff throughout the day that she had a very special announcement for them tonight.

Once Belliston had met with all the servants that lived at her estate, she planned to extend the offer to the house employees who lived off-site as well. There were some who lived on their own in Easton, but worked in one of the many small shops Dustin had started in the city. There were others in the surrounding cities, all of which would likely jump at the chance to receive magical instruction, or at the very least to give their kids that chance.

For now, they would start with the staff living here, since logistics were easier that way. They all gathered in the dining hall, the only room in the estate large enough to house everyone comfortably. The guards came too, excited to see what the announcement would be. Apparently they had drawn lots to see who would stay on duty on the estate grounds, and who would get to come witness the announcement.

Some of them had even bought and sold shifts after the lots were drawn, a very short-lived mini black market forming to accommodate the sudden demand for being off-duty tonight. Kiara had a good laugh when she overheard them talking about it, since by the end of the night everyone would know the details of the announcement anyway. Those that arrived early were able to snag chairs, while the latecomers had to stand.

They had offered to bring in extra chairs, but Kiara had assured them that the meeting wouldn't take long enough to warrant bringing in any extra seating. She later realized that if enough people wanted to participate in the magic classes, they might need extra chairs in the dining room every night for a while. Based on the level of interest, she would see about purchasing some stackable chairs that would store easily in the corner.

She had seen something along those lines at the Marsant ball a few months previously. Once it looked like everyone had arrived, Kiara cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"Thank you all for making time tonight, I promise I'll keep the announcement short, and then I can answer any questions you all may have. I'm sure many of you will be quite pleased with what I'm about to say." Kiara had to add that last bit in due to the rumors she had been hearing around the house all day.

They had ranged from fearful: 'I wonder if some of us will lose our jobs', to hopeful: 'Maybe she's giving us all a pay raise', to outlandish: 'I heard Lady Yountal wrestled a Xiladian ice wyvern and wants to display the skeleton here at the estate'. She was pretty sure that Dustin had purposefully started that last rumor, although she hadn't been able to trace it back to its source for proof. She motioned to Belliston.

"This is Belliston… uh, what's your full name again, Belliston?" she turned to him apologetically.

"Belliston Montreal Ventrillion," he filled in helpfully, without a trace of offense.

"Yes, that," Kiara followed up, none too gracefully.

"Belliston is a private magic tutor, he helps guide people through their first experiences with sensing ambient mana and drawing it into their bodies to begin forming a mana core." Whispers of excitement bubbled up throughout the room, speculating on what that could mean for House Yountal. From what Kiara could hear, the general sentiment was that they assumed she was simply introducing him as the newest member of the staff, but they had no idea as of yet why he was here.

"Belliston will begin teaching a nightly class about general magic theory here at the estate," Kiara continued, ignoring the whispers.

"Anyone who would like to attend is welcome to, free of charge." The whispers gave way to initial shock, followed by exclamations of surprise. After the noise died down slightly, Kiara held up a piece of parchment.

"Anyone who wishes to attend will need to fill out their name on this piece of parchment, so that we know who is interested. One of the first steps of learning magic is forming a mana core, which will require considerable one-on-one time with Belliston in private tutoring sessions. Once we have a general idea of who all would like to participate, we can figure out what order everyone will receive their private instruction from Belliston." She paused, looking each of the gathered staff in the eyes.

The looks on their faces spoke of bewilderment and disbelief, as if they couldn't accept that an employer would do this for them, especially not free of charge. This was a privilege usually reserved only for the children of the wealthy. The children of a ruling noble received the best of magical instruction, and often served in administrative positions within the ruler's domain. Even grandchildren and great-grandchildren received similar benefits. Love what you're reading?

Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Once a ruling noble died or was replaced in some other fashion, their descendants were still seen as nobles, and the family wealth generated during the ruler's tenure continued to support the education of the family's descendents. They would oftentimes get jobs in whatever industry the family head decided to pour their inheritance into.

Generations later, that family wealth and prestige became diluted enough that the resulting descendents, while still considered nobles, made up more of a middle class rather than being part of the upper class any longer. They by and large made up the majority of 'nobles' in society, filling out the rosters of the kingdom's magic schools. Those that either progressed to tier 3 or higher or married into a wealthy family earned their place as true nobles, maintaining positions of power and influence.

The rest were rarely, if ever, invited to the events of high society, and had to make a living working normal jobs. All of Kiara's guards, except for Zoey and Jaden, were part of this second group. While their magical talents qualified them for higher paying jobs than most commoners could ever hope to achieve, they weren't seen as true nobles. Their family wealth was a thing of the past, and they worked to support themselves and their families like the majority of people in the kingdom.

Their level of income would oftentimes allow them to still send their children to magic school, assuming they saved up for that purpose, which helped perpetuate the economic system into the next generation. All of that being said, Kiara's guards had all attended a magical school at one time or another, which is where they learned about magic and progressed to their current tier.

She had kind of assumed that because of this, they wouldn't participate in Belliston's nightly class, and was surprised by how many of them signed up. In fact, very few people didn't sign up, Dustin being one of them.

"You're not interested?" she asked him with a quirked eyebrow while everyone else was filling their names out on the parchment. He shook his head.

"My family paid for a tutor when I was young, but I never made any progress. Maybe it was a lack of affinity or natural talent, or maybe it was a lack of interest, I never could tell. I dreaded the magic lessons, and spent the whole time wishing I was learning about something else, instead. After a month of no results, my parents realized it was a waste of money."

"Ah, I see." Zoey and Jaden also didn't sign up for the class, likely because they both already had a good idea of what they needed in order to continue progressing. Captain Soren didn't sign up, claiming that he was stuck at tier 1, and there wasn't anything he or anyone else could do about it. He did, however, go outside to fetch the guards on duty so they could come fill their names in if desired. Pretty soon, Kiara had a piece of parchment with the names of almost every single staff member on it.

She held it up.

"I'm feeling inspired by the way the guards decided who would be on duty tonight: they drew lots. To determine the order in which you will all receive your one-on-one instruction from Belliston, we'll draw names." She carefully ripped the parchment with everyone's names on it so that each name ended up on its own little piece of parchment. She folded them, put them in a bowl, then had Dustin draw names out of the bowl. She wrote the results on a new piece of parchment as he read.

The guards who had signed up, while they already had mana cores, were interested in seeing if Belliston could help them determine why they had plateaued, and if there was a way around it. He didn't seem hopeful that many of them would find a path forward, but agreed to help them try. He assured Kiara that those one-on-one sessions with the guard would likely be very short, only an hour or two each, so they wouldn't hold up the other staff from receiving their instruction by too much.

He also said that he could probably juggle three students at a time in the private sessions, and would help them after the nightly class on magical theory. The announcement and name drawing took longer than Kiara had intended, but Belliston still offered to hold the first class that night, which earned him a thunderous cheer and round of applause. He kept it short, talking mostly about the general nature of mana.

He explained that it was a form of raw energy, omni-present in the environment, but seemingly more heavily concentrated in the oceans than it was in the air, although no one quite knew the reason for that. He also said that was why the ocean depths were full of large, magical creatures whose power and abilities were beyond even the most powerful of mages, which is why ocean voyages were non-existent. Mana, as Belliston explained it, was something wild that needed taming before it could be useful.

The purpose of a mana core was to purify the mana a mage absorbed from the environment, and attune it to the mage's spirit so that they could shape it to their will. Once mana had been cycled into the core, it could be used to cast spells, providing both the energy and structure for a mage to exert their will on the environment. To form a mana core, he would help the students experience what it meant to feel the mana around them.

He would send some of his own mana into their bodies, helping guide it and cycle it for them so they could acclimate to the process. This was the purpose of the private tutoring sessions that he would hold with each student. Most students would be able to form their mana core within one to two weeks, although some took longer for one reason or another.

He indicated that he would spend a maximum of two weeks with each student, helping them learn the process, after which it was up to them to continue trying on their own if they hadn't succeeded yet. Once they were able to form their core, he would spend a few additional days showing them how to shape it and control it. He would help them learn their first few spells, after which they would spend time practicing on their own.

He emphasized that his instruction would only serve as a foundation, and anyone with a strong affinity for magic would likely need to attend one of the kingdom's magical institutes to continue learning. Anything else would monopolize his time too much, to where he wouldn't be able to help the rest of the students. After that first brief introduction to mana, Belliston ended the class, due to the late hour.

He pulled the first name off the list, one of the gardeners, and took them to a separate room to help them begin learning about forming their mana core.