Lord of Charm

Lena headed to the building mentioned in Alessa's message to meet with the magi and the academy's head. While in Gale's academy the buildings were recognized by their shape, in Moon Nova Academy the buildings were numbered and were all in the same rectangle shape.

Lena went to the first building, which was like the Square Building, and found the room. She knocked on the door and waited for a reply.

"Come in."

She entered the room and found herself in a large meeting room, with 8 people sitting around a large table, with an old-looking woman at the end.

"Hello, professors."

She greeted them and stood in place while their gazes checked her out. A few seconds later, the old woman nodded and spoke.

"You do seem talented. Finding a higher elite human in our world is rare, and I never expected to find one in a kingdom. But what makes you think you're eligible to become my student?"

"Because I'm the best you got in your school unless you have a ruler human here."

Lena said her reasons straight. Lucas already explained to her the uniqueness of mages who advanced early without boosts from potions.

"We don't have any… well, let's check your affinities then. I've heard you have affinities with 5 elements. Which one is your main?"

"Light."

The old woman gave her a yellow orb. She only cared about the main affinity since it was the most important one when measuring one's prospects. The rest were only important to measure fighting prowess.

Lena took it and channeled her mana inside the orb, until it shined with a powerful golden light.

"That's…"

The magi were speechless when they saw the light. Even the academy's head couldn't remain composed.

"SSS-60!"

Lena already learned about the concept of affinities in her week at the academy, so she just smirked at the old woman.

"So, am I eligible?"

"…Yes. You can call me Professor Daphne."

Daphne said with an annoyed voice. She didn't like Lena's smug face, but she also couldn't deny that Lena could theoretically get to the ninth stage. Even though it was only a potential that might not come true, nobody would give up on nurturing such talent. If she succeeded, she'd turn the scales of war between the empires.

"However, don't be mistaken. You're not the first nor the last to have an SSS affinity. All three empires had such talents, but the best they could reach was the eighth stage. I will nurture you with the hope you can become a ninth-stage mage one day, but if I see you don't work hard enough, then I will stop investing in you."

Daphne quickly added a warning. One problem with talented youths who had it easy was that they weren't hard workers. Since there were people as talented as Lena before but they couldn't break through the wall of the ninth stage, it meant that being talented wasn't enough to get far.

"No problem. I've always worked hard, and I won't stop now. I plan on getting past the ninth stage and finding what's beyond."

Lena declared her dream with a confident voice, and Daphne nodded with contentment. Although she didn't believe Lena can achieve it, if one aims for the stars, they will at least land in the sky.

"You can find me here every Wednesday. Make sure to work hard and digest all your gains from each lesson before the next lesson arrives. You may go now."

"Thank you, Professor Daphne."

Lena nodded and left the meeting room. Wednesday was tomorrow, so she planned to train until her next meeting with Daphne.

In the meeting room, the magi sat in their seats with solemn faces while waiting for Daphne to decide how to keep this matter a secret.

Daphne thought for a minute and came to a decision. She took out seven inscribed scrolls made of seventh-rank beast's leather and handed them to everyone in the room.

"Take an oath not to reveal any information about Lena, and specifically not to reveal her affinity and talent, or tell outsiders about her potential."

She instructed the magi and they put their palms on the open scrolls.

"I swear not to reveal Lena's affinity to anyone, not to tell anyone that we have a student with SSS affinity in our school, not to recommend anyone to be careful of Lena's potential, not to…"

The first person to take the oath was a young-looking female magus. She took a long oath that included all aspects that could lead Lena into danger if revealed, and the rest of the magi repeated after her.

When they finished, each scroll's magic circle shone with light and injected mana inside their bodies. If someone broke their oath, their scroll would burn and notify Daphne. Additionally, the mana in their body would explode and lead to grave injuries.

Even though it wouldn't kill a magus, if they were tracked down before they could heal, it'd lead to their death. They could safely break the oath only if they broke through the eighth stage and could overpower a magic circle from a lower rank.

Lena woke up the next day and went to meet with Daphne first thing in the morning after having breakfast. Since Daphne said she will be there the whole day for her, Lena preferred to take advantage of the whole day instead of going late.

She noticed that all the food of the fifth rank was open for her to order freely after yesterday's meeting with the magi, so she ordered a few dishes of different elements and started eating.

As she ate, the mana in the meat entered her body and started affecting it, invigorating her and even giving her a slight increase in power. It didn't make a big difference, but it was always better to get a little stronger.

The most important aspect was that she got to sense the mana moving, and it was a movement on the fifth-stage level. After finishing her meal, she went to Daphne's personal training room and found her meditating inside.

"Good. I would be disappointed if you came only at midday."

Daphne opened her eyes and looked at Lena who just entered. Lena on the other hand, was excited by the amount of mana in the air.

"I see you already feel the mana's density here. It's 90 MDU in here. The magic circles were made by eighth-stage magi and their design was found in ruins from before the Hatred Era."

Lena didn't really see the importance of knowing history, so she didn't care enough to ask for a lesson in one. The most important thing for her was to improve and get stronger.

"How do we start training?"

"Just attack me with your best attacks. I will always manipulate the mana just slightly better than you so you can adjust and improve as fast as possible. After seeing your shortcomings today, I will be able to make a better plan for next Wednesday."

And thus, a day of restless fighting between Lena and Daphne began, with short breaks only to replenish Lena's mana with fourth-rank potions and a few other short breaks when Lena needed to meditate whenever she felt enlightened.