He refused, of course.

  No matter how you look at it, Eleanor is problem incarnate; Who would want to take her anywhere?

  Oh, Sincir admits she’d be a powerful ally, given enough time to grow… And she’s not exactly ugly, either…

  But Ena would probably kill him for even suggesting the idea, and that’s not to mention trying to convince the ice queen herself to listen… From what Sincir has seen, Eleanor seems determined to enter the church’s ranks, and coming with him would mean she’d have to give up on that.

  He doesn’t care for her heritage all that much, but her personality and goals make it impossible for him to convince her.

  He did, however, promise Father Anders he’d at least talk with her before leaving.

  After what happened, he’d have felt guilty refusing the old man outright. But it doesn’t matter, since Eleanor herself will never agree with it…

  Problem child aside, Sincir didn’t have a chance to talk with Ena for the rest of the day, either. Having been assigned to kitchen duty for the rest of the month for what happened, he won’t have a free afternoon for as long as he’s still here.

  The best he could manage was an apologetic smile when she came to pick up her food, during dinner.

  Well, they’ll still see each other in the morning, so it’s not the end of the world. And he’d be here only for another five days, regardless…

  Since he didn’t have a chance to leave early as usual, during dinner, Sincir has to wait until the children are asleep before he has a chance to go through his usual mana-exhausting routine. And, having gone to sleep a lot ter than usual, he’s barely able to drag himself from bed by the time his rune goes off, the next morning.

  Outside, he’s still in the midst of a yawn when Ena crashes against him, wrapping her arms around his body tightly enough to hurt.

  “You idiot!” she whispers, “Sincir, I was so worried they’ll kick you out!”

  “E-Ena…”

  “Shut up!”

  Sincir smiles, deciding not to struggle against her. And finally, after another moment of agony, she releases him, quickly stepping back as though having been burned.

  Even in the dark, he can tell her face is heated.

  In order to break the awkward silence, Sincir clears his throat. “Sorry, but I’ll be on kitchen duty for the remainder of the week, both lunch and dinner… So, I guess we’ll never have a chance to sit together.”

  “What?! But… That’s so unfair! They’re the ones who messed with you first...!”

  Sincir shrugs. “Forget it. Come, let’s start... We might not be able to train properly for a while after leaving, so I want to make the most out of the time we have left in here.”

  Ena frowns, her expression making it clear she doesn’t want to forget anything, but she does comply.

  Once they arrive at their usual training spot, he tells her to begin her usual warm-up.

  “But I thought we weren’t doing physical training today?”

  “Some warm-up is a good way to wake up, and you’ll need your brain at full capacity for this,” Sincir expins.

  Ena nods.

  Meanwhile, Sincir occupies himself by drawing characters on the ground, using a basic earth spell. More specifically, he draws a hundred of them.

  “What’s that?” Ena asks curiously, as she approaches him, having finished her warm-up.

  “Magical characters,” Sincir expins, “You can think of them as a different nguage, like math.”

  “Math?” Ena repeats, eyes gleaming as she inspects the character with obvious interest.

  “Yes, math. You know some of it, yes?”

  Ena nods absently. Her eyes are still fixated on the ground, and it is obvious she’s somewhat entranced by what she sees. “Sincir, do you mean… If I learn these, will be able to use magic?”

  “If you learn how to use them to command the mana within your body, then yes, you’ll be able to use magic. Excited?”

  Ena looks at him, blinking as though having been awakened from a dream. “Isn’t that… Too easy?”

  Sincir cocks his head. “What did you expect?”

  “I’m… Not sure, honestly. Aren’t you supposed to test my potential and affinities? That’s how I always hear everybody starts…”

  Sincir chuckles. “You have the potential, and your best affinity is Wind Magic.”

  Ena blinks, then shakes her head. “How do you-”

  “I already told you; When I treated your body, I inspected it.”

  Ena’s look of dissatisfaction has Sincir ughing out loud.

  “I’m sorry if you were expecting some sort of grand ceremony,” he tells her.

  “…Fine, I suppose I should be happy to have the potential.”

  Sincir shrugs. “Considering your heritage, it was basically a given. The hard part comes now… Becoming a mage isn’t as simple as it seems.”

  Ena takes a deep breath, then nods, determined-looking. “I’ll learn it. I don’t care if my people forbade it… If they wanted me to obey their ws, they shouldn’t have disowned my existence.”

  Sincir smiles. “Well said.”

  Unfortunately, a single hour is wholly insufficient to even scratch the surface of a magical education.

  Still, Sincir does his best to expin to Ena the basics, and he starts by telling her spells are nothing more than formus; Instructions given to mana in order to make it move, and transform, as a mage wills it.

  Second, he expins that said formus are created from the characters he drew for her, put together in specific orders.

  “Are these all of them?” Ena asks once he’s done, hopeful sounding.

  Sincir snorts. “Of course not. These are the basic characters for Wind Magic spells that I know of... However, you’ll see many of these repeated throughout the other elements, carrying simir meanings, or sometimes even the same.”

  Sincir points toward the first character he drew on the ground.

  “This one. Does something come to your mind when you look at it?”

  Following his finger, Ena narrows her eyes, and then blinks.

  “I… A breeze? Something… Wind?” she murmurs at st, shocked sounding.

  Sincir nods. “Roughly speaking, this is the magical character for wind, and it’ll appear many times in any wind-reted spell.”

  “But I… I swear I have never seen this symbol before in my life…”

  Eyes wide, Ena finally moves her gaze away from the ground, throwing Sincir an utterly confused look.

  “Don’t worry, you’re not insane. Having an affinity for the wind element means many of these will come naturally to you. Depending on how high your affinity is, some of the formus might even seem as though they’re writing themselves… But it’s a bad habit to depend on that, as it’ll make you more or less incapable of casting any other magic.”

  “But… How? Aren’t these just characters? How are they affecting my thoughts?”

  Sincir smiles; Teaching kids who ask the right questions is always a pleasure.

  “These might be just characters, but remember, they hold within them the power to command mana… And your mana is a part of you. Some call it a mana whisper, some call it being loved by a particur element… You get the point. But like I said, even if it might help you initially, it’d be best to not get too caught up in it.”

  Ena nods, looking slightly overwhelmed as she continues to study the hundred magical characters before her.

  “Sincir, how many… How many elements do you have an affinity for…?”

  Heh. Affinities? In his previous life, that was fire, shadow, and electricity. In this life, only water... Also, humans can’t use shadow magic, annoyingly enough, and that was his best element, by far. But a mage of his caliber doesn’t need to worry about such things; Whether they like it or not, the elements obey his commands. In Sincir’s opinion, a mage’s study is never-ending... Though he has to admit he grew rather x in his magical training during the ter periods of his life in Hell.

  “…I can cast a bit of everything,” Sincir finally tells her, “At least when it comes to elemental magic. But my greatest affinity is water, if you must know.”

  Ena shifts her eyes from the ground, staring at him humorlessly. “And you were born knowing how to do it? Isn’t that really stupid? How long do normal mages have to spend to learn these formus, usually?”

  Sincir clears his throat. “We’re getting sidetracked. Here, I’ll tell you what these mean, for now, but don’t worry if you can’t remember everything on your first try...”

  Ena rolls her eyes, clearly not having been fooled by his obvious change of subject, but she does pay attention once he starts pointing toward the characters, giving a brief expnation for each of them.

  In short, some of them mean directions, some of them mean control, some of them mean creation, some of them mean warm, or cold… And those are the most basic ones. Casting a spell requires writing a complete formu made of such characters, which, when done incorrectly, might cause all sorts of misfortune.

  Sincir is about halfway through the characters when he notices the sky growing brighter above them, signaling the end of their time together.

  “I guess we’ll have to stop here, for today. If we had some parchments and ink, I’d have you rewriting these in your spare time, but…”

  “I could try to steal some,” Ena offers, to which Sincir shakes his head.

  “Not much of a point, when we’ll be gone soon. For now, think of this as an introduction to magical study. Next time, we’ll have you begin to learn to circute mana throughout your body… Though that’ll be after tomorrow, I suppose.”

  Ena groans. “Does that mean you’ll torture me again, tomorrow?”

  “Maybe. How do you feel? Ready for another physical session?”

  Having sat on the ground at some point during the lesson, Ena stretches her arms above her head, then smiles at him... Cute.

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “You always have a choice,” Sincir tells her, “I’m not forcing you to do anything.”

  Ena bites her lower lip. “Sincir… I’ve thought about your kingdom idea.”

  Sincir grimaces. “It has been a day. I thought I told you to think on it throughout the week?”

  Ena shrugs. “I can’t sleep very well, so I have a lot of time to think about things.”

  Sincir sighs. “Fine. And? What of it?”

  “It’s lunacy… But I think if it’s you, you might be able to found a vilge or two, somewhere.”

  …A vilge.

  Sincir gres at her, but then stops himself, averting his gaze while reminded that she does not know of his past, or real identity.

  Still, how insulting. Certainly, he can do better than a vilge or two?

  “I’ll admit the death stuff goes a bit over my head… I mean, it’s scary to think about it, but I… I want to continue learning magic from you. I want to become strong… Strong enough to protect myself, and the things I care about…”

  Ena’s voice shakes, and as he shifts his eyes in her direction, Sincir realizes her eyes are downcast, arms wrapped around her knees.

  “There’s a big world out there, and even if it’s scary, I want to give it a try…”

  “Even if there might be insects?”

  Ena shudders. “I’ll need to grow up, right? Children die, out there.”

  “…Yeah.”

  Sincir could’ve lied to her, but she’ll see it for herself soon enough, so there wouldn’t have been much of a point to it. He could promise to protect her... However, he’s far from all-powerful, and if she’s not able to handle herself, chances are, she’ll die, or worse.

  Well, she is his first ally in this life, so he’ll do the best he can not to lose her.

  Sighing, Ena rises as she stretches herself some more. “Are we done with the sermon, Father Sincir?”

  Sincir groans. “You ever call me that again, and you’ll come to think fondly of the times we used cold water as a training method, young dy.”

  Ena sticks her tongue at him. However, before she can go, Sincir beckons her to come closer.

  “What?” she asks.

  “You’re going to hate this,” Sincir warns.

  “What?” Ena repeats.

  “...Eleanor might be coming with us.”

  Ena freezes, her reaction, Sincir suspects, no different from what it’d have been had he tossed a water spell on top of her head.

  He sighs. “Look, it is unlikely, but-”

  He doesn’t get a chance to finish his sentence, before she steps back, turns, and runs away, at full speed.

  In fact, his mouth is still half open, as he watches her go.

  …Sincir is sure there’s a joke here somewhere, about women running from him, but he can’t be bothered.

  Well, this went about as horribly as he expected. It is a good thing he waited until the end of their time together to give her the news. Hopefully, by tomorrow, she’ll have calmed herself enough to hear his expnation, at least…

  As Sincir drags his sleepy body throughout the day, one slow hour at a time, it doesn’t escape his attention that he has given up his mourning physical training in pro of teaching magic to Ena, and that, because of having associated himself with her, he’s now also a target for bullying.

  And let us not forget the fact he missed an extra two hours of sleep per day as punishment for having defended himself.

  Has he always been this much of a white knight…? No. Of course not. As Varzath, he... He did a lot of bad things to women, more often than he helped any of them. His hatred for Ig’droren... Well, it’s in the past, now, isn’t it?

  ...Working in the kitchen is, put in simple terms, hot and tiresome. Cooking for hundreds of orphans is far from an easy task, and Sincir would’ve lied if he said he enjoys the experience.

  He is so damn tired…

  By the time his lunch shift is over, he realizes Ena never showed up to eat. If not for what happened in the morning, he might’ve been concerned for her well-being, but in this case, he assumes she’s still too upset to eat...

  Afternoon shores also go by slowly, and by the time the night shift in the kitchen comes around, Sincir is ready to kill the first kid to cross his path, as long as it means he’ll be finally kicked out of this pce.

  Certainly, there should be ws somewhere forbidding children from being overworked like this? What will they do if this stunts his body’s growth…?

  When Ena shows up for dinner, Sincir releases a small sigh in spite of himself. In the end, he still ended up concerned for her.

  What if she had been jumped on by some of her bullies? She can fight now, but not well enough to fend off more than one or two boys her age, in a real scuffle.

  Still, to his annoyance, she avoids his gaze the whole time, and he never manages to get a good read of her expression.

  That night, afraid he might not wake up in time if he pushes himself further than he already has, Sincir decides against going through his mana training.

  His sleep is restless, to put it lightly, as he’s assaulted by dreams of Hell, sex, and death; Ig'droren’s face fshes through his mind, her smiles, and her eyes, still so vivid, even after his reincarnation, even all of these years.

  Why? Why won’t she just leave him alone?!

  …Sincir awakens drenched in sweat, eyes wide and breath heavy as he sits up abruptly.

  The room is dark and silent around him, but he still finds himself sweeping it from corner to corner with his gaze.

  What was that? Just a dream?

  But… He could’ve sworn he felt Shadow Magic being…

  Sincir shakes his head, smiling bitterly as he rubs his eyes and sighs. The only way Shadow Magic would’ve been used in here is if a demon contractor was nearby, or their contracted demon themselves.

  Then again, he’s sure he’ll come across them eventually, so the notion isn’t exactly inconceivable…

  Having grown used to Itera’s sky by now, Sincir can tell his rune is still an hour or two from going off by looking through the window.

  However small the possibility… A demon contractor wouldn’t have anything good in mind if they’re casting spells. Demons are the bad guys, after all.

  Sighing, Sincir waves his hand as he casts a mind spell to clear his thoughts, then rises from his bed, and heads toward the window.

  He’ll have to pay the price for this ter, either in the form of a small headache or some amount of grogginess throughout the day, but unfortunately, facing a denizen of Hell while sleep-deprived and half-awake in his current form would most likely send his Soul on a one-way trip back home…

  He opens the window as usual, then climbs through as he heads for the ceiling above the orphanage’s main building.

  Now, how should he do this?

  If the spell he felt was strong enough to awaken him from his sleep, then it must have been something big.

  Still, he doesn’t want the enemy to catch wind of his presence, which means any wide-area search spells are a no-go… And he wouldn’t have the mana for anything particurly grandiose, anyway. Considering as much, his only option is using Mind Magic for a wide area search, instead.

  Ugh. Anyone who has ever had the thoughts of a stranger in their head, let alone hundreds of them, would understand why Sincir hesitates to employ Mind Magic, unless absolutely necessary.

  Interacting with friendly mages is one thing, but touching an unprotected mind is something else entirely; There’s no way to tell what manner of deprived, manic, or idiotic thoughts he’ll come across.

  Useful as it may be, in truth, Mind Magic is often more of a pain in the ass than it is worth. He still has the occasional nightmare from the st time he was forced to kill an enemy by making use of it…

  Having an enemy’s thoughts as your own while you crush their minds is far from what Sincir would call pleasant. Still, he’d do it if he must, or as a st resort, such as in this case.

  The possibility of a demon contractor being near the orphanage is too dangerous to simply ignore. And even if the enemy might still notice his thoughts being probed, Mind Magic is much harder to pinpoint…

  Sincir grunts softly as he finally pulls his body atop the orphanage main building’s ceiling-

  However, his eyes immediately widen as he notices the buildup of a spell nearby, and he barely has time to jump away before something white fshes past his body, disappearing into the night.

  A dark silhouette against the sky is all Sincir has time to notice before firing his own wind spell, effectively interrupting his enemy’s rather slow casting by throwing a wind ball against their stomach which sends them rolling over the orphanage’s ceiling.

  Of course, he could’ve used something lethal instead, but, unlike the idiot over there, he doesn’t kill without at least confirming the enemy’s identity first.

  “Who are you?” Sincir asks, quickly casting a voice-altering wind spell as he also creates a small amount of mist to obscure his form through a water one, effectively hiding his identity. “The first was a warning shot, but were I to attack again, you won’t escape with just a few bruises, that I promise.”

  If he’s not mistaken, the enemy attack was a holy spell, which would make them a member of the church… Somebody who was chasing after the demon contractor he sensed earlier, maybe?

  If so, they’re not his enemy. But why would they have attacked without even confirming his identity? Do they not know this is a religious orphanage, funded by Estrein’s church? What would they have done if he was just a normal orphan?

  Sincir frowns, staring toward the silhouette of his assailing as they attempt to rise while clenching their stomach, the pce where his spell hit.

  But still, they’re quite small for a full-fledged member of the clergy.

  A woman? And quite a bloodthirsty one at that, for having attacked immediately.

  “K-kill me if you must, demon! You won’t get anything from me!”

  Sincir blinks. That voice…

  “…Eleanor?”

  The silhouette freezes.

  “…Who are you?! How do you know my name?!”

  This… Sincir is simply speechless.

  What the fuck does she think she’s doing out here? Had he been an actual demon, or a demon contractor, she’d already be dead by now; Had he been one of the orphans, he’d be the one on his way to a rather early reincarnation, instead!

  Well, since she hasn’t uncovered his identity, there’s still time to knock her out and leave.

  Right, he’ll just return to bed, and pretend this never happened…

  “Kill me, monster! What are you waiting for?!”

  Sincir flinches, then clenches his teeth. “Not so loud, you idiot! Are you stupid?! Are you?!”

  Argh! How is he supposed to knock her out when she’s so obviously crying her eyes out?! And then what, he’d just leave her here, to maybe fall and break her neck?!

  With a wave of his hand, Sincir disperses the mist created by his spell, then summons a small fme above his palm, which illuminates the both of them.

  Eleanor’s blue eyes widen as she spots him. As he noticed from her voice, her cheeks are covered in tears; She is also still clenching at her stomach from the hit she took from him.

  After a moment of awkward silence, Sincir clears his throat. “…Look, I’d appreciate it if you remained from raising your voice, or casting dangerous spells in my direction. Has nobody ever taught you the minimum amount of decorum among mages?”

  “You… Just what…?”

  Sincir rolls his eyes. “I should make you climb back down naked for that… You’re lucky you’re a kid.”

  “Kid…?”

  “Name’s Sincir, thank you. What are you doing here? Because if you’re thinking of chasing that spell, then you’re stupider than I thought. There are easier, and less painful ways to die, than by the hands of a demon.”

  “No, I wasn’t calling you-”

  “Shut up. What would you have done if I was just another kid from the orphanage, or one of your friends, who climbed in here after seeing you sneak out in the middle of the night?”

  Eleanor’s eyes widen, but then she shakes her head. “I made sure they were really sleeping, and I locked the window, after I left…”

  Sincir points a finger at her. “So, it was okay so long as it wasn’t one of your friends? Would you have been fine with killing a random kid, instead?”

  Eleanor pauses, pressing her lips together. “I was on edge, and I never thought somebody else might come up here.”

  “Of course you didn’t. Had you stopped to think, you wouldn’t have come here in the first pce.”

  Eleanor clenches her teeth. “You have no right to-”

  Sincir creates a wind bde which gashes the tiles near her feet, then one which leaves a tiny cut against her cheek; The casting of his spells being fast enough to make it seem as though the wounds simply appeared out of nowhere.

  “I wished we lived in a world where being a spoiled kid is okay. But out here, it might kill you, or somebody else,” Sincir says, “Eleanor, had I not held my hand after you first attacked me, you’d be dead, right now. Do you undrestand that?”

  Eleanor slowly raises a hand toward her bleeding cheek, eyes still wide in shock as she inspects her stained, trembling fingers, before shifting her gaze to him once more. “…What are you?” she murmurs.

  Sincir smiles. “None of your business. Want to fuck around and find out? I wouldn’t hesitate to kill you to keep my identity secret, or any number of people, for that matter, but I’d prefer not to. Killing brings me no pleasure...”

  ...Anymore.

  “Why… What do you want? This pce doesn’t have anything of importance…”

  Sincir grimaces. “Me? I wanted a full night of sleep. Then, I wanted to kill whoever cast that shadow spell earlier, but thanks to your interference, they’ve almost certainly gotten away or hidden themselves, by now… That, also, means somebody could die tonight, somebody whose death I might’ve been able to prevent.”

  Eleanor’s eyes widen, and she steps back. “No, I…”

  Sincir sighs. “Well, what you did was many accounts of reckless and stupid, but I suppose I can’t judge a child too harshly. Get back inside, Eleanor, and go back to sleep. I’ll do what can to find our infernal friend, if they’re still around... Don’t worry, I know you can keep a secret.”

  Eleanor lowers her gaze, looking shocked and as though the ground has been removed from under her feet.

  Sincir frowns. Will she be okay, going down like this? The things he said were harsh, but they were the truth, and considering she could’ve killed somebody, or herself tonight, he considered it appropriate to shake her up a bit.

  Still, the idea that the demon might kill somebody tonight because of her interference seems to have really distraught her…

  “Are you okay?” Sincir asks, which seems to awaken her from her trance, as she shifts her gaze to rest against his once more.

  “…Could you really defeat it? The demon?”

  “Depends on the demon,” Sincir confesses, “But I could probably defeat most things that would bother crossing to this side to become a human’s underling.”

  “…A human’s underling?”

  “Don’t,” Sincir tells her, sighing, “I’ve already warned you once, and I hate repeating myself.”

  Eleanor stares at him for a moment, then shakes her head as she turns, walking toward the ceiling’s edge.

  However, she stops just before reaching it. “I hope you can find it,” she says while throwing him a sidelong gnce over her shoulder, “And if you do, I hope it dies painfully.”

  JBDantas

  Additional Info I: When a magician casts a spell, big or small, it causes a disturbance in the natural mana flow other nearby magicians might be able to pick up on (through which tell might even be able to follow a teleport spell, for example), though, doing as much requires great expertise as a mage.

  Additional Info II: Magical tomes are rare to come by, as most powerful mages tend to be reluctant to share their knowledge around. For this reason, many young mages find their progress barred by a simple ck of characters and formus to study, having to rely on what little magic they're able to cast naturally in virtue of their affinity to a particur element.

  Furthermore, even if one possesses some of the characters for a particur school, joining characters at ramdom might have disastrous consequences, which means finding a spell as a finished product is a great boom for any mage, and being able to create new spells, a sign of great mastery over magic.

  Additional Info III: Runes are different from magical characters; Or, you could say they're a type of magical character, except, a complete rune would be considered a spell formu in and on itself, rather than a single character.

  [colpse]