The Undying Magician - Book 1 - Chapter 33 - Another One (Patreon)

                                                                                        Nathan

                                                     Year 2849 | Month 5 | Day 15 | Saturday

The first thing I hear when I enter the Magical Warfare classroom is shouting.

“That’s enough!” Instructor Leo’s voice echoes through the room before I turn towards the main area of the facility to see him glaring at a woman wearing the exact same uniform as him, except fitted for a woman instead. “If I had any say in this, you’d never get within a mile’s distance from my apprentice!”

Apprentice? Wasn’t that supposed to be an act for the students?

Anyways, the woman he’s talking to has a very easy-going look on her face and posture and appears to be about the same age as Instructor Leo. She has her hips cocked slightly to the right, with one hand on them as she grins at the man, completely ignoring his shouting. She has surprisingly gray eyes – considering how easygoing she seems – with long black hair, and a sword strapped to her waist.

“Oh, c’mon Leo!” She starts, reminding me slightly of Aidan for a single instant, “I’m very interested in meeting your little apprentice!”

Leo’s gaze suddenly snaps towards me before he begins to calm down a little, likely for my benefit. The woman notices this and turns to look at me.

But instead of calming down as well, she actually begins to look even more excited and rushes over towards me whilst drawing her sword.

What the fuck?!

I draw my sword a little sloppily before raising it to block her strike, only for her to suddenly pause and loop around me too quickly for my eyes to trace. The only thing I manage to see is a faint orangish-gray magic circle appear where she was standing before she reappears in the corner of my vision and slices straight through my shoulder from behind me with her blade, causing me to drop my own sword and let out a cry of pain.

“Hmm,” she hums while I kneel on the floor holding my shoulder as it reverts back to normal again, “uh huh, certainly not normal.”

I cautiously climb back to my feet again before taking a few steps away from the woman, who I find looking at Leo.

“The immortality thing aside, he has a little promise in swordplay, and he didn’t run away and instead tried to draw his sword and fight back,” she begins before glancing at me with that same grin as before, “even if he did a terrible job at it.”

The woman then turns back to Instructor Leo whilst sheathing her sword as she finishes speaking, “So I’m willing to train him.”

Instructor Leo glares at the woman with utter hatred as he practically growls out, “You wouldn’t have been able to say no to the psycho even if you didn’t approve of him, Anabel.”

The woman – apparently named Anabel – just shrugs and says, “Probably not. But I would at least be able to take out my irritation on the kid.”

My eyes widen at this before I shake my head slightly and continue holding my sword up at the ready position Instructor Leo taught me before.

Instructor Leo continues glaring at her for a few seconds before sighing and turning to me as he says, “This woman is Anabel Walker, and she is the closest Class C magician in the military at this current time to reaching Class B. She is also a swordplay instructor at the academy, along with her role as the internship supervisor.”

Class… B?

I turn my head to look directly at the woman, only to find her casually walking around the room whilst swinging her legs here and there with a child-like innocence. An innocence that is completely at odds with the image of her attacking me whilst enhanced with her magic.

Does that mean that the rumors about stronger magicians being eccentric and even sometimes a little insane is actually true?

Because this woman doesn’t look particularly sane to me.

I glance at Instructor Leo to find him silently shaking his head no before I look at Anabel again.

“Aaanyways,” Anabel suddenly says, drawing the beginning of the word out whilst spinning on her heel in a circle, “I’ve looked over your schedule already, and decided that your sword training will be right after your Tactics and Battle Strategies class. Every day.”

Before I can say anything, she continues talking, “And I’ll be cutting off one of your limbs every time your late, starting with your head if you miss even a single training session entirely.”

The impact of her words is lessened due to the playful skipping she’s doing as she jumps around the training facility like a little schoolgirl. But despite that, they still send a shiver down my spine.

I jerk my head to look at Instructor Leo, only to find him shrugging his shoulders with a helpless look on his face.

Oh, right. She’s stronger than him isn’t she?

At least, she should be, if he cared enough to mention how close she was to Class B.

“Do you know if the doctor is planning-” I begin, only for Anabel to interrupt my question towards Instructor Leo by saying, “The doc said he wouldn’t get anyone else involved unless it was needed to protect his test subject’s secret, so don’t worry about that and instead focus on training.”

My eye twitches at being called a test subject before the woman suddenly stops spinning and pins a stare straight at me as she says, “And if you try to stumble your way through our training, then I’m going to make you wish you could die.”

“Yes ma’am,” I reply, almost on instinct.

She continues staring at me for a few seconds before going back to skipping around as she adds, “Also, call me Anabel. Formality sucks, so I’m gonna forgo that crap.”

I furrow my brows slightly.

That’s not a common mindset in the Republic.

And it would be refreshing if the one who has it weren’t so… terrifying.

“Remember to see me half an hour after your last class today!” she says, suddenly giving me a friendly wave before practically dancing towards the entrance while throwing one last comment over her shoulder, “And if anyone learns about your secret and it creates issues with our training, I’ll kill em!”

Before I can so much as react to her words, four orangish-gray magic circles flash around her and she vanishes from her spot, moving straight through the portal and closing the door behind her in an instant.

“She’ll what?!” I practically shout in shock.

“Calm down,” Instructor Leo says, placing a hand on my shoulder, “she said she will only do it if it creates issues for your training. So if you ever tell your friends, then don’t let them stop or come in the way of your training and it should be fine.”

I stare at the closed door for several seconds as the instructor continues speaking, “That aside, Anabel is a little…”

He doesn’t elaborate further and instead takes his hand off of my shoulder and begins walking over to the magi-tech board.

“The only person that woman seems to fear is that psychopath doctor of yours,” he says, stopping right in front of the board and turning back around to look at me. “No matter who else she’s dealing with, she doesn’t care about what sort of consequences her actions might cause. But when it comes to that man…”

My eyes widen slightly as I see what looks like a flash of fear cross the instructor’s face before he shakes his head and continues, “Regardless, she won’t tell others about your secret.”

Okay, seriously. Why do so many powerful people seem terrified of the doctor?

The only thought that comes to mind is that he might be a Class A magician or something.

But the doctor? Really?

If that were the case, then why’s he working in my neighborhood’s clinic?

It just doesn’t make any sense. And these instructors are too terrified of him to say anything to me…

“Go ahead and practice your shooting while you’re here,” Instructor Leo suddenly says while pointing towards the shooting range.

“Yes sir,” I answer before mentally slapping myself for accidentally saying sir again.

The instructor raises an eyebrow at me before actually smiling as he says, “Just call me teacher whenever we’re in private, until the others find out about our relationship.”

My mouth parts slightly open in surprise before closing again as I nod.

That’s surprising.

I guess he’s really accepted me as his apprentice at this point.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord Invite:

https://discord.gg/R7M6QNRm7y

Top Web Fiction Link:

http://topwebfiction.com/listings/the-undying-magician/