I have to say, it’s quite surprising for a potion mistress to be so skilled in battle magic. I would have expected her to be more restricted.

  Orion jumped out of the way of a silver beam of light and forced himself to focus on what was happening in the real world.

  His mother’s repurposing of potion-based spells into dangerous offensive magic was not a valid excuse for remaining still while she wielded that very same magic against him.

  “You have to retaliate, moonbeam! I know you can!” Asteria called, curling her finger and causing the spell to curve mid-air.

  Confronted with an impossibility to escape, Orion summoned his Light Shield, concentrating on making it as refractive as possible.

  Given the nature of the magic she was using, that wasn’t as hard a task as he’d feared, as was demonstrated when the beam not only bounced off his golden dome but also whizzed back toward her, forcing Asteria to dismiss it mid-air to avoid being hit by her own magic.

  “Like that?” he called, not above childish taunting if it meant having some time to think.

  It wasn’t so much that he lacked the processing power. He could calculate every part of her spell’s trajectory in an instant, but his body simply didn’t have the speed to keep up with his mind.

  I can already tell that it’s going to be a rather annoying problem to solve.

  Before she could pin him down as she had done several times, Orion summoned a laser, angling it to bounce off a window and reach her from behind.

  The power had to be reduced to execute such a maneuver. Otherwise, the heat would simply melt through the glass, reinforced or not. However, since this was a sparring match rather than a real-life or death battle, he didn’t mind.

  Unfortunately, Asteria didn’t even blink; she merely reoriented herself without looking back, allowing the laser to pass her by harmlessly.

  Orion tried again, unleashing several multicolored lasers and flooding the room with a Torchlight, but no matter what he did, his mother always seemed to know exactly where she needed to be to avoid getting hit, or she could simply tank the hit.

  At one point, she even went so far as to slap a laser out of the air! Slap it! Although the heat they packed wasn’t enough to burn her flesh, they still moved at the speed of light, which should have made them impossible to counter!

  She either knew beforehand where they would land or had a way to track their trajectory from the moment he started casting.

  While Orion attempted to adjust his offensive once again to account for that information, he saw her move for the first time, and he knew she was finally about to retaliate.

  Asteria’s next attack didn’t look much different from her previous one. This spell leaned more toward white than silver, but Orion was confident he could manipulate the physical properties of the Light mana it was made of to send it back.

  That was why he was so confused when his shield simply fell apart upon impact. The spell hit him squarely in the chest, sending him sprawling to the ground.

  Orion grunted, expecting pain but feeling none. When he looked up, however, he saw a glowing finger pointing at him, and behind it, his mother’s amused smile. “Just because your shield works against some kinds of magic, doesn’t mean there isn’t an appropriate counter. Especially when dealing with such generic magic, you should always expect your opponents to have a way around it.”

  “Ugh, counter spells?” Was that even a thing? A way to disrupt a formula’s connection with the Mana Field, perhaps? But how would that even work when active spells are not connected after?

  “Come on, you won’t learn anything from down there,” Asteria smiled, pulling him up as if he were as light as a feather. Now, Orion wasn’t exactly a musclebound giant, but he had gotten taller lately, and for her to lift him with just one hand…

  “How strong are you?” He asked.

  Asteria’s smile widened, “However much I need to be to handle unruly ingredients.”

  With that being the last bout of the day, they left the training room behind—easily accessible thanks to her accreditation—and strolled back toward their flat.

  Orion felt exhausted. When he had asked her for help in learning to defend himself, he hadn’t expected her to put him through such a rigorous training. He didn’t know exactly what she aimed to teach him—perhaps a better shield spell or a suite of defensive magics to cast before a fight—but Asteria had insisted that there was no better teacher than experience.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  And in a way, she’d been right. Orion’s shields had transformed from standardized, reliable spells into easily adaptable pieces of magic. His offensive lasers had yet to hit her, but each time he tried, he calibrated them a little better.

  He had not expected the counterspell today, but her deploying it meant he was making progress.

  “So, tomorrow you’ll meet your new classmates,” Asteria began, side-eyeing him.

  It took Orion a moment to realize what she was talking about. With all the excitement of the class ceremony first, and the harpy debacle second, he had somewhat forgotten that he would soon begin an entirely new cycle of lessons and, furthermore, receive a slew of new classmates.

  This was something that happened every year, but he had never been particularly interested in meeting the “older” kids, so he had yet to speak with any of these newcomers. Usually, they were pretty quick to adapt to the Sanctum’s rules and expectations.

  “I suppose so. We were told there would be a dozen in total, so it shouldn’t be too disruptive,” he commented.

  He didn’t understand how these kids were expected to keep up with the Sanctum-born, considering they lacked the decade-long immersion in both culture and education.

  Sure, the real magic had been kept from them thus far, but some things had been absorbed through osmosis, and others were learned by watching the witches at work. That was something none of these newcomers would possess.

  Oh well, if they fall behind, they will get pulled out of class.

  “I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss them, you know,” Asteria smiled mysteriously. “They are the best of the best from all around the province, after all. Sons and daughters from noble houses and the smartest among thousands are handpicked to join the Sanctum. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were already capable of more magic than you.”

  Orion blinked, processing that. “I guess we’ll have to see.”

  “Don’t look now, but I think you may already have a hit,” Dorian said with a smirk.

  Orion sighed. He had been perfectly happy being oblivious to teenage romance so far, especially considering that he had absolutely no interest in any regular adults, much less the even more annoying immature ones.

  Regrettably, his “friends” found it unacceptable for him to continue dismissing all the recent advances he received. It began with their classmates, at least three of whom expressed interest in him.

  He’d hoped that pattern wouldn’t repeat with the newcomers, but if Dorian was right, it might have been wishful thinking.

  Still, Orion didn’t turn around. He truly had no interest in watching a lovestruck girl make a fool of herself. “Ignore it.”

  Dorian grinned wider, reveling in how the attention clearly unsettled him. “Oh, but those silvery locks, that smoldering amethyst eyes…”

  Elbowing the boy in the ribs hard enough to draw a gasp, Orion barely held back a sneer. Not only was he forced to bear the curse of looking ridiculous, but insult was added to injury. He had gone from a cute kid to a pretty boy, the worst of all possibilities.

  I’d like to go back to being cooed over by old witches, thank you very much.

  Today marked the first day of full lessons. Over the past couple of weeks, the students had begun their courses, but that period had served as a trial to allow everyone to test the waters and determine if their course choices were truly what they wanted to pursue for the foreseeable future.

  It was also necessary, as travel times between the outer province and the coven could be lengthy without the advantage of a flying carriage.

  Children from across the Lunar Sanctum’s fief had received invitations based on the recommendations of the local witches, who managed temples dedicated to the Moon Mother throughout the region. While some had sought help to arrive here, others chose to spend their remaining time with family.

  Now that everyone had finally arrived, the year could truly begin.

  Magistra Eire was already seated at her desk, perusing a series of official-looking documents as she waited for the hour to strike.

  Orion chose a seat at the front, not wanting to miss anything now that [Verification Principle] allowed him to break down traditional magic into comprehensible science. However, this decision backfired as he became easily visible to everyone in the classroom.

  Worse, his friends seemed entirely too gleeful at the prospect of him having fans.

  This is my fault. I should have just let them all die. And I even saved them twice. What an idiot.

  Despite his grumbling, most other students seemed to have recovered remarkably well after the harpy incident. No one seemed traumatized by the very real danger they had faced, even though Orion had noticed more than one girl gazing out of the windows, where a broken mountain loomed in the far distance.

  “Students!” Eire called, and the room immediately fell quiet. Though she hadn’t done anything magical that Orion could see, her presence was undeniable, and it alone was enough to command the class’ attention.

  I wonder if she’ll give another demonstration. I still remember the light show she put on during that first lesson three years ago, and I know she’s not above some theatrics.

  “Welcome to Light Magic, where we will study in depth both the applications of the Moon-Mother’s Blessings and its underlying concepts.” Waving her hand, a sphere of pure Light mana materialized.

  This, Orion knew, was not an ordinary Torchlight spell, although it certainly looked like it. [Verification Principle] told him that something about how it reflected the electromagnetic spectrum didn’t align with the variations he knew could be done with the basic spell.

  That looks more like Asteria’s counterspell, now that I think about it, but in a more generalized way. Huh, so it does have a disruptive effect on the Mana Field; however, rather than targeting a spell’s formula as I expected, it makes the Field too fuzzy for energy to travel through, effectively preventing other spells from coming to fruition. Did she know this would be the topic of the first lesson?

  “All of you should be familiar with the very basics of Light mana by now. You can no doubt recognize a Torchlight spell in your sleep,” Eire continued, gesturing with her other hand as the air warped.

  That spell was much simpler, yet Orion still observed how she manipulated the air inside to create a compact bubble of swirling winds.

  From the gasps behind him, it was evident that the others had realized what that was meant to replicate.

  The harpy’s magic hadn’t been very refined. It had been wilder and more chaotic, but it also managed to keep them all trapped, so Orion couldn’t exactly disparage it.

  Eire then brought her hands closer together. If what she held in her right hand had been a regular Torchlight, it should have fallen apart under the much stronger wind magic; instead, the opposite happened.

  The instant the two spells touched, the buzzing sphere simply ceased to exist.

  In a way, it resembled what Seraphina had done to the harpy, and it made Orion wonder whether a counter spell could exist for living beings.

  The rest of the class oohed at that, watching the sphere of light remain untouched. “As you can see, the higher applications of Light magic are varied and very useful in every circumstance. By the time you graduate this class, you will be prepared to handle all kinds of opponents, for the Light of the Goddess cannot be denied.”

  That was pretty cool.