Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

Bokuboy

The next day, both Tabitha and Sara were back early in the morning. It was the last day before the school week started, so I had the entire day off to play around with ingredients and potions. After breakfast with everyone, I was given another full bath and both Sara and Tabitha giggled and laughed as they competed to see who could scrub me the best. It ended in a tie and Tabitha motioned for Sara to go ahead with her ritual.

“Thank you.” Sara said and performed spectacularly.

“Ooo, you have to show me how you did that.” Tabitha said as she leaned in close to watch. “I do it like this.” She said and showed Sara her tongue and how she moved it.

Sara eased off and the ritual became a teaching lesson and an exchange of techniques. They both had things they knew and had learned from different teachers, so I had an extra long ritual that morning that was almost as long as the bath was. I didn't mind and neither did they.

I was dried off and dressed in a casual outfit by their expert hands right afterwards. “Thank you.” I said to the both of them.

“You see? I told you that he appreciates our work.” Sara said and pat Tabitha's shoulder. “Let's get you settled into the communal room for personal maids.”

“That is such a great idea to bunk personal maids together.” Tabitha said as she left the bedroom with Sara. “At the old mansion, we were all in our own rooms, even if we were taking care of the same person.”

“If you're a normal maid back at the house, you get a lone room unless you want to share.” Sara said. “Most of us share anyway.”

“I would, too.” Tabitha said. “It's much better to...”

Their voices trailed off as they went down the stairs and out of my hearing range. I went to my vault and took out the stacks of papers I had. I was tempted to get to work on those cleaning potions and contact Mage Marks for the things I needed, then decided that it could wait.

I had found a variant of the cleaning potion in my fancy book that was exclusively for cleaning wounds. The ingredients were nearly the same, except for some differences in the brew times and the effects, the amounts, and when they were added.

After I made the proper substitutions for the ingredients I had available, it only took me two tries to get it worked out and I wrote out the alterations. I was sure that the healer would want this new potion if I ever brewed it. The thing was, with those alterations fresh in my mind, I had another variant on cleaning that I was thinking about.

If the variant cleaning one could clean the dirt out of wounds and the normal cleaning one could clean any surface, what would happen if I combined them? I asked myself and then got to work.

I spent the whole morning with my papers and lists as I worked through both recipes to see if they could be combined properly, or if I would have to brew one and then figure out where to add it like I did with the fortifying potion and the waterproofing potion. When Hope came to retrieve me for lunch, I had finally figured out a very long and complicated recipe using two pots and also a very simple one.

The complicated one was guaranteed to work every time and took three times as long to brew, while the simple one took the same amount of time as the original cleaning potion and had a 70% success rate. At least, that's what my math told me. The variation of time when to add them together was the deciding factor. If I was off by a few minutes, it would be weaker and might fail the infusion. The problem was, I didn't have the ingredients to waste on a possible 70% success.

I went to lunch and we all ate. I was still by myself at the main table and Hope, Sara, and Tabitha did their best to keep me engaged in conversation from their table. I thanked them for their efforts when the meal was over and went back up to my work room. I knew I could do better than 70%, I just knew it, so I went through my lists of ingredients again and their properties. It took me another hour before I realized the solution.

“I can use the general health potion as the binding agent.” I said and quickly went over the new recipe again. With the general health potion to hold and bind the two different cleaning potions together, I eliminated several redundant ingredients and brewing stages. It paired the whole endeavour down to a more manageable level and I smiled at the result. If I was reading the results right, then this potion would do much more than clean and would only take twice as long to brew.

“I have to make it.” I said and went into my potions room to get to work. Thanks to my ingredient copying technique, I managed to make my remaining ingredients stretch out to just enough for a single large stew pot. I worked for the rest of the day and ignored the call for supper, because I couldn't let the potion out of my sight, not with the delicate management I had calculated.

I managed to complete it an hour after I was supposed to eat and stood back and stared at it. It was a complete success on the first try. I filled a vial with it and left it to simmer on low heat to keep it viable, then went downstairs to the kitchen. I ignored the other's words to me and went right over to the sink of soaking dirty dishes. I grabbed a glass and dipped it into the dirty water and heard a gasp.

“My lord, if you're thirsty, I can get you anything you want to drink.” The kitchen helper said.

“No, this will do.” I said and turned around to put the glass of dark and soapy water on the counter. Hope, Sara, Tabitha, the cook, and the kitchen helper stared at me with concern on their faces. I opened the vial and let a single drop come out. As soon as it hit the water, the entire glass glowed for a second and then all of the soap, dirt, food bits, and discoloration disappeared from the water to leave it completely clear.

“Oh, my god.” Several of them whispered.

“You see? It's perfectly fine water.” I said and took a drink. “It would be better cold.” I said and held my hand over it and a little bit of frost formed on the glass as it glowed.

“My lord!” Tabitha exclaimed. “How did you do that?!?”

“You taught me how.” I said and took another drink. “That's much better.”

“No, I... I taught you how to heat...”

“I just reversed it.” I said and she stared at me like I had two heads. “It's pretty simple. I'll show you later.”

Tabitha shook slightly and then nodded her head several times before sat down on a chair. She looked really shaken for some reason.

“Does anyone else want to try this?” I asked and held up the glass. None of them said anything, so I held my hand over it and warmed it up, then dumped it back into the sink.

“I... I think we need to go.” Sara said and pat Tabitha's shoulder.

“Yes, we... we should.” Tabitha responded.

“I need to write a letter for Helena before you do.” I said. “Can I eat while I do?”

“Of course, my lord.” The kitchen helper and the cook said.

I went out to the dining room and I was served supper as I wrote. I finished the letter and my meal at almost the same time and handed the letter to Sara. “Thank you for waiting.”

“I would wait for as long as you wanted, my lord.” Sara said and took Tabitha's hand. “See you tomorrow afternoon.”

She and Tabitha left and I heard the carriage leave with them.

“Now you have two people that are sad that they can't stay here to do their chosen jobs.” Hope said with a knowing smile. “Let's get you upstairs and changed for bed. You have school tomorrow.”

Almost as if my mind was waiting for her to say that, I let out a yawn. Hope laughed and led me up to my bedroom and changed me out of my casual clothes. I was dressed in night clothes and tucked into bed a minute later, then I closed my eyes and the whole night passed before I knew it.

I was up the next morning and Hope helped change me into my academy uniform. We had breakfast and I carried my small pack with the day's books and my small enchanting tools with me. The morning classes were for basic spellwork composition and I was still completely lost. Even when Mage Sanchita took me aside and talked to me about what Mage Marks had told her, her instructions were just so much gibberish.

I didn't tell her that my new maid had taught me better than her, though. That would have been a bit too insulting for her to accept, even if it was the truth. Her teaching methods were too constrained by how she was taught, so I went back to my desk and pretty much just sat there for the rest of the class.

Vanessa did her best to show me the things she was working on and I whispered to her a reminder that it was too different from my ingrained knowledge. Trying to memorize chants for orders to give my magic when I used it, was too much of a waste of my time when I could just will my magic to do what I wanted when casting a spell. I thanked her for trying and told her I appreciated her attempts, then I let her be to do her own work.

I went home for lunch to avoid the cafeteria, much to Vanessa's disappointment, and we met up again to go to practical mathematics class that afternoon. Mage Quintos gave me a peculiar look when I sat down at my desk next to Vanessa.

“No, I won't give you the recipe for the potion I used.” I said to him and he seemed to deflate a little.

Vanessa gave me a questioning glance and I explained in a whisper about what happened during my civil construction class last week. She laughed loudly for her, which was barely above a breath, and she leaned her head onto my shoulder.

“I wish I could have seen their faces when you showed them up like that.” Vanessa whispered.

“Why didn't you?” I asked in a whisper. “There wasn't a single girl in the class.”

“We have different classes and learn different things.” Vanessa responded. “It's always been that way.”

“What if you want to build a house for yourself?” I asked.

“We would get someone else to do it, of course.” Vanessa said, as if that was the only logical answer. She also didn't seem to want to know how to do it herself, which confused me a little. It took me a few minutes to realize the fundamental shift of knowledge between the sexes.

Men were taught certain things and a lot of it overlapped that of the women. Not all of it, though. We each learned some very different and very specific things and those subjects almost never crossed. Women were taught proper etiquette and how to host parties and guests while the men were taught how to build the places where they did those things.

Women were taught how to dress appropriately and to help men, while men were taught how to treat women and to give them the respect they were due, as well as how to provide for them. There were exceptions to some of that, considering how several women took it upon themselves to teach me what I needed to know to survive in noble society. I had thanked them at the time; but, I hadn't realized how important that knowledge was.

The practical math class ended and then the spellwork math class began. I was lost once more, since none of it made a lick of difference to how I cast magic and was directly applied to what I couldn't learn from my basic spellwork class that morning. I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes to wait for the class to be over.

“Mr. Drake, could you answer this question?” Mage Quintos asked and pointed to the board.

I opened my eyes and looked at it. “No.”

“Come now, Mr. Drake. Surely, if you were paying attention, you could easily guess the answer.” Mage Quintos said, a bit of an evil gleam in his eye.

“I wasn't paying attention because it's a waste of time for me.” I said and a few of the girls took in sharp breaths. “It's just meaningless to me. All of it.” I motioned at the book on my desk. “It's pointless.”

“Even a young child can do simple math.” Mage Quintos said.

“I told you before. If I was younger, I could change and try to learn the wrong way to do it, just to get people like you off of my back. I'm twenty years old and I've been casting magic for far too long to change now.”

Mage Quintos sighed. “Mr. Drake, if you keep being confrontational, I'm going to have to report you to the administration building.”

“You're the one causing this confrontation. You know full well I can't do any of this the way you want. You're just rubbing my face in it and making me look bad in front of the other students for your own personal satisfaction.”

Mage Quintos frowned. “Mr. Drake, this is a basic... basic... fire spell. Everyone can cast it!”

“I didn't say I couldn't cast it.” I said as I stood and waved my hand across the front of the room. I unleashed my magic and used the fire starting spell on everything inanimate that I could see, including the teacher's desk.

“AHHHH!” Mage Quintos yelled as everything around him lit on fire instantly without me saying a word or having to cast it on each item. All of the girls in the class gasped and a few jumped as if the fire was going to come after them.

I waved my hand again and extinguished the fires a second later. A few things were charred a little; but it was all just surface damage. “I only said that I can't cast it the wrong way.”

Mage Quintos stared at me as if he had never seen me before.

“It looks like your secret is out.” Vanessa whispered.

“Lots of people can pretend to cast wordlessly.” I said out loud and she smiled at my cover-up. “Even my new maid can heat food with a wave of her hand.”

“Get... get out.” Mage Quintos said as he looked around at the slightly burned things on the desk and the things behind him. “I'll be sending the bill for repairs and replacements to you.”

“I could remove the surface damage right now and repair it all for free.” I said as I packed my books away. “Make sure you don't overcharge me to replace it all.”

Mage Quintos squinted his eyes at me.

“You know I can build a better and much more expensive desk in under ten minutes.” I said and bent down to whisper to Vanessa. “See you tomorrow.”

“Bye, David.” Vanessa whispered back.

I gave her cheek a kiss to make her blush and left the class with my head held high.