“At its core, glyph magic simply is a mode of imparting instructions to change the fabric of reality around it,” Wilhelm explained to the class. “Normally, we utilize magic circles to manipulate the world by giving the mana from the magic circles in our hearts commands, then by casting that activated mana out through our gate.”

  The students in the classroom, most of them boys, listened intently to Wilhelm's speech.

  “However, this is not the only way to impart these instructions. Glyph magic is that alternative. Instead of sending instructions using our mind, we draw these instructions using a magical medium—objects that hold mana, which when activated, execute the glyph instructions to manipulate the world.

  “Every day, glyph magic is becoming more and more important in our daily lives. Using mana ink produced from mana crystals, we place glyphs on our tools, weapons, carriages, homes, and everything else. Unlike magic from one’s body, glyph magic is only limited by the amount of mana in the medium used to draw it, thus, its potential is exponentially growing.

  “We see this in true combat against demons today, where glyph magic is used as powerful spell traps in the battlefield, or as heavy long-ranged firepower in the form of shützes. Yes, I hear your budding questions, and I’ll answer you. Individual magic, used by caster units, however, is still extremely important, as they represent a more flexible aspect to utilizing magic.”

  Wilhelm slammed his ruler on the blackboard to gain the attention of those dozing off.

  “But that’s not the focus of this lesson. Because we won’t be discussing maneuver warfare today, but positional warfare.”

  Alexa strained her eyes as the discussion continued. To be honest, this elective wasn’t something Alexa needed much, assuming she’d focus on getting her magic circles after a formation ritual.

  Still, glyphs already fascinated her. Besides, she wasn’t entirely sure if Mr. Scary Face over there or her knight could meet their promise of getting her an aiding elixir for her formation ritual. This elective therefore served a purpose. She wanted to see how glyph magic worked in practice.

  And for two hours, Wilhelm’s dreary lecture went on and on. Even the boys in the class seemed bored by it, all of them questioning the utility of ‘positional warfare’, of ‘staying on the defensive’, or of something as simple as ‘giving up territory’.

  One boy even asked why the Empire’s soldiers could be so dishonorable to retreat at times and treat it as a ‘tactical decision’, boasting that he, a third-circle mage, could instead use his magic to push back against demons, and that it would be better because his skills would benefit from practice and levelling up.

  Of course, Wilhelm stood there, took the questions, answered them honestly, but the students, nobles, all of them doubted his answers. They soon left the lecture hall, most of them laughing at the absurdities being taught by this instructor.

  Until it was just Alexa and Phoebe sitting in the side of the hall.

  “That was a fun lesson, Mr. von Eisen,” Phoebe said with a bright smile as the tired Wilhelm walked to the two. “I learned a lot. Our soldiers up north sure fight hard.”

  “It’s not supposed to be ‘fun’,” Wilhelm groaned, before turning to Alexa. “Now, princess, I know you want to continue the lesson we had about sigils last afternoon, but I’d probably be too busy today.”

  “Is that so?” Alexa asked, quite disappointed. “Then I demand you give me access to your office. I wish to take temporary possession of those books you showed me yesterday.”

  “Don’t you two have better things to do for now? I’ve heard that a test for your etiquette lessons is coming up soon,” Wilhelm shook his head. “Look, I’m going to be leaving the academy for a bit. Focus on other things for now.”

  “But we’ll only briefly stay at your office!” Phoebe excitedly suggested. “I’ll keep watch over Lady Alexa, and we’ll only take what we need then leave. We won’t mess with anything.”

  “Tsk. Don’t suggest that to me with an innocent smile. I don’t want brats running around my office without my supervision—”

  Alexa, this time, decided that there was only one trick she could use on this nerdy soldier jerk. She bit her pride for once, and instead of giving him a sassy reply, she softened her cheeks, gave him the best puppy eyes she could muster, and stared at Wilhelm’s eyes directly so he’d feel it piercing his soul.

  Finally, I get to use my beauty and charms! You’ll let me in, and I’ll practice on my own.

  Wilhelm stared at Alexa blankly, his single eye unblocked by his eyepatch seemingly disappearing from the shadow of his hair. Then, he straightened himself and looked at the door.

  Heh, no more tough act, edgy guy. You can’t fight back my inherent cuteness when I use it—

  “...Disgusting.”

  “Peasant, you will begin to cough in three days!”

  “Wait, Lady Alexa, you can hex people? You truly are amazing!”

  +++

  In the end, a lowly instructor couldn’t override a princess’ demand. Served that jerk right indeed, as Alexa managed to gain access to Wilhelm’s office. Opening the door with Phoebe and, this time around, Areya, Alexa immediately ordered the two to begin taking the books she wanted.

  “Quick, quick,” Alexa clapped. “Make haste. I intend to waste not even a single minute. I need to chase all the levels for my skill from now on.”

  “These are all quite thick books,” Phoebe said, coughing a bit as she piled the books she picked on top of Wilhelm’s desk, the dust getting to her nose. “Are you sure these are the books you need?”

  “...Hmm,” Alexa stared at them, as Adele silently placed another pile on the desk.

  She remembered Wilhelm sternly telling her to only take what they used yesterday, before he had to run out of the academy, seemingly worried that he would be late for something.

  She tried to remember the titles of the books that Wilhelm said she could take. But, her memory wasn’t the brightest. She’d probably remember them later though, once she sits down and begins reading them.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Therefore…

  I’m just taking them all! Serves that peasant pig right. How dare he consider someone else’s appointment as something more important than mine? Like, is he blind? I’m the princess, so I’m supposed to be his priority!

  “I’m sure all of those are important. Please, take them!” Alexa ordered, and the two practically saluted and resumed work.

  Then, she began to impatiently tap her feet on the ground.

  Where the hell is my knight? He’s taking way too long for this. Does he expect the three of us to carry all these? At this point, I’m starting to wonder where all the handsome gentlemen of this world went.

  Then again, she’d been mostly interacting with the mob characters for a while now. Not the main love interests. Well, maybe Alfred was one of them, but even in the story, he was considered the worst one.

  He was a side dish at best.

  Even Phoebe here, already dragged into Alexa’s daily business, seemed to have so far avoided gaining the original main cast’s attention.

  Instead, so far, the two of them, villainess and heroine, have only managed to get the attention of a certain type of men, and they were…

  “Garbage,” Alexa shot in the direction of the door, as if she just sent a knife flying using her words, straight to Alfred’s heart as he appeared in the doorway.

  “Even the most hardened men can be hurt by such piercing words, Your Highness,” Alfred tiredly said. “Have your manners been on the decline? I’ve warned you that taking the company of a rotten commoner will do this.”

  “Hmph! For a mule, you certainly run your mouth too much,” Alexa snapped at him, her arms crossed. “Kindly stay in your lane and carry those bags into my room.”

  Alfred inspected the books on the bags. He sighed.

  “Glyph magic, huh?” he laughed. “Seriously, that thing is teaching you this? This is for common workers, not for high nobles.”

  “Why is that?” Alexa asked, narrowing her eyes.

  “Focusing on glyph magic is for skilled artisans or menial workers who produce magically enhanced tools en masse,” Alfred explained. “My brother certainly has quite the audacity to try molding you away from the path of a proper mage into that of a lowly laborer.”

  “But Sir Alfred,” Phoebe spoke up. “Lady Alexa suffers from a severe health problem. Wouldn’t it be a prudent measure to give her an alternative for now? Even if glyph magic is considered as magic for commoners, it’s still magic, and at the end of the day, Lady Alexa yearns to cast magic herself, no matter which type. That’s what Wilhelm kindly offered her, and one should thank that, not scoff at it.”

  “Right,” Alexa frowned. “Look, you can say those words once you get me my aiding elixir. For now, as far as I can see it, that peasant’s being more helpful to me than you.”

  Alfred gritted his teeth as his hold on the bags tightened.

  “I said I am working on it. My connections in the Imperial Army and the Royal Guard are moving, trying their best to scour the entire Empire for the ingredients needed to treat you. Just because it’s only available in overrun territory, does not mean there are no samples left somewhere. We will find those samples…”

  He then took the bags and looked down at them.

  “Then you’ll become a proper mage. Not some substandard mage. That, Your Highness, is this knight’s vow.”

  “I suppose it’s a race between the two of you then,” Alexa smiled. “I’d like to see which one of you twin brothers will prove most useful to me. Now carry those things to my room. You’re lagging behind a peasant lower than you, and you better catch up.”

  +++

  “Fire…” Alexa’s eyes widened as she finally activated her first glyph. It was small, and it burned quite weakly that there was barely any heat that she could feel when she ran her hand on top of the fire.

  Regardless, there was finally magic in her room. She almost felt like she would tear up as she watched it.

  She struggled for nearly an hour trying to pick which sigil she should try to desperately copy from Wilhelm’s books. Deciding to copy the simplest fire sigils, she placed a symbol of a small fire on the top part inside of a tiny circle she drew.

  Then, on the bottom sides, she placed on each side the number for the activation time in seconds, and the radius of effect in inches. With a drop of extra ink on the paper, a fire was created.

  She was elated!

  Even her skill level now went up too, so that was good. She felt like she could create more, so she began tirelessly drawing the same glyph with the circle and sigils for fire combined.

  As she managed to make headway, each succeeding glyph becoming more refined in their quality of drawing that they started to truly resemble the glyph she was copying at the most minor details, she couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Finally! My grand plan to have my magic is coming along well, mwahahahah!”

  “Lady Alexa, why the evil laugh?” Adele asked from behind, curious.

  “You do understand what this means, do you?” Alexa asked, turning to her friend as she stopped the 9th replication of her first successful glyph. “This, if you aren’t aware, is the first step to acquire what is rightfully mine.”

  Alexa curled her fist as she grinned.

  “The Holy Mandate.”

  “I see.”

  “Please act more amazed, dear Areya.”

  “Your Highness, that’s such a grand plan. I would have never conceived an idea so ingenious!”

  “Indeed. You are most agreeable as always, Areya,” Alexa excitedly nodded along, and she returned to her practice papers.

  She remembered earlier that Mr. Scary Face kept telling her to only use normal ink while trying to perfect drawing glyphs, so that she wouldn’t have potentially dangerous glyph papers in her room lying around.

  But Alexa already bought a carriage’s worth of mana ink yesterday!

  That entire supply was, and she was being a bit modest here—probably worth the income of a small count’s estate in a year. She wasn’t exactly sure, because she just told her servants to buy her one with a quarter of her monthly allowance, and she didn’t care about the details.

  What mattered was that she had mana ink now in huge piles.

  It was only proper to put them in good use, so she decided to step on Wilhelm’s ‘safety measures’ by turning this otherwise mundane practice session into something more grand.

  “Now that the small fry is done, I’ll try drawing a powerful fireball glyph!” Alexa declared, as she readied an entire mana ink bottle, filling her empty fountain pen with its contents. “Then, I’ll try placing as much mana as I can on it. My, this will be so amazing!”

  “...We’re doomed,” Adele turned pale as she stepped back. “Your Highness, please, be careful…”

  “What? Sorry, I have to focus on this one. We’ll drink tea later if that’s what you want.”

  “No way…now she can’t hear me too?”

  Preparing an entire paper, Alexa drew a massive circle on it, enough that it took almost all of the paper’s space. Then, copying a fireball glyph from one of Wilhelm’s books, she began placing the sigils on it one by one, even if her drawing was crude.

  Areya, her eyes now practically trembling, now fully retreated meters away, as Alexa finished the glyph’s activation sigil, excitedly raising her fountain pen with a smile.

  “There, now we shall test this outside and show the entire campus how amazing I am—!”

  That notification was the last thing she saw when an extra drop of mana ink accidentally dropped on the glyph, causing it to glow red.

  Bizone's Patreon