Miss Hawkings’s Study

  The wooden games went flying out of Ivan’s hands clattering on the floor near the children’s feet but being otherwise undamaged as the man ended up going through the door

  “For Luminance!” Miss Hawkings seemed worried no doubt thinking about the possible consequences of attacking someone sent by the Lorens themselves, but such worry died out in less then minute as Ivan had just stood up and got back in through the broken down door, dusting his clothing as if nothing had happened

  “That was such a magnificent use of Skills! May I ask what combination brought this result?” Ivan had asked looking genuinely happy about it

  “My Skill is quite a private matter” Miss Hawkings was quite ticked off and irritated

  “Skill? As in singular? Fascinating!” the man didn’t seem to take the hint and kept digging “I suppose you served with the Royal Knights then”

  “That’s none of your business Sir” Miss Hawkings had brushed his questions off

  “What’s this supposed to do?” Rhea had asked Veronique, catching her attention by grabbing on her dress after she had got her hands on the toy, seeing it up close the redhead noticed that there was a glass panel over it instead of the thin plastic she was used to

  “It’s a labyrinth, there should be a marble inside you got to guide to the other end without making it fall in the pits” Veronique had responded taking the other one to demonstrate and tried to tilt it to make the marble pop up but it never did “but they forgot to put it in?” she even shook it near her ear to be sure, but heard and felt nothing.

  Rhea copied her and got the same result making the both of them confused

  “It is actually there” Ivan exclaimed having overheard their conversation, he took the one Veronique had and held with both hands while keeping it pointed towards them to make them see and to their amazement the green outline of the marble appeared in the top left corner “A couple of formidable Unique Skills went into making this marvel” he explained as the marble started moving without him tilting the toy “The Skill -Light Reflect- straight from one of the Lorens themselves and the Skill -Root- were both applied directly on the marble so that it can’t be seen or moved” he explained and added another bit of information “You know -Root- had also been used on this very Estate so that the building would stay still even if there was an earthquake”

  ‘That didn’t seem quite useful when there were those giant Scorpions trying to eat our face’ Veronique thought with twitch of her eye, realizing that they would have probably noticed those monsters if this skill hadn’t stopped the building from shaking as they burrowed their way right under their feet

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  “So how did you make the marble move and appear? Is it a Skill?” Veronique wanted to know more about it

  “No, this is just what mana can do” Ivan had said

  “I thought mana was just for using skills” Veronique asked for clarification

  “A common misconception, but it can do much more” he explained sounding fascinated “like negating the effects of other Skills by simply making it run over the affected object”

  “That sounds complicated” the redhead pointed out

  “It is in practice, but the goal of this instrument is to teach on how to manipulate and move your mana so with the Skill -Transmit- , which was applied to the shell of this instrument the whole process is greatly simplified” Ivan countered the observation without missing a beat

  “But what do we need it for?” Rhea had asked out of the blue sounding genuinely curios

  “A good mana control greatly facilitates learning a new skill” Ivan had explained sounding right into his element “think of it like a musical instrument, would it make sense to try to play a song on the violin after only learning how to read a music sheet?” he questioned at that Rhea just shock her head after thinking it over for a few moments.

  “So this is what I want you both to do for the next week” he declared as gave the toy back to Veronique “Try to make the marble appear”

  “Wait, how do we do that?” the redhead protested holding it in both hands

  “Just try to guide the mana to your hands and slide it out into the marble” he instructed “Since neither of you are using a skill there is no danger in this exercise” at those words Veronique concentrated and tried to do exactly as he said right away, her brows frowning out of concentration “I appreciate the enthusiasm but I doubt you will…eh?” Ivan was out of words as the marble appeared right before his eyes…yet its green glow was so much more intense then when he did it.

  ‘I made it, now let’s try moving it’ Veronique had thought satisfied

  “Wait don’t!” Ivan tried to warn her as he had sensed her intentions, but he was too late the marble had flown out at an high speed and had almost ended up hitting Veronique straight on the forehand had it not been for Miss Hawkings’s quick reflexes in catching it with her bare hand

  ‘Jeez that was a close one’ Veronique broke in a cold sweat already envisioning how that marble could have gone through her forehand like a bullet from a gun ‘wait if Miss Hawkings caught it with her hand it mustn’t have been that fast’ she had assured herself, before she remembered the older woman had killed a giant Scorpion with a single kick.

  “Lady Veronique has anomaly high mana, which is why we still haven’t got to the practical use of skills” the woman reprimanded him and inquired outright annoyed “Did you even bother to read your assignment?”

  “no, it seemed like a waste of time” he had answered looking towards Miss Hawkings in complete awe

  “Of course you would think this way, well now that you know you should take your time and prepare yourself accordingly, the Duke will understand” Miss Hawkings had suggested to him “Now if you don’t mind I got a lesson to finish”

  “Actually I got a question” Ivan had asked making the woman sigh out of annoyance

  “What is it?” Miss Hawkings had urged him to pose his question and was left puzzled as the man got on one knee

  “Madame seeing you use your Skill is so magnificently I couldn’t help but fall for it deeply, so would you mind marrying me?” and with that said Ivan ended up flying through the door again.