Chapter 109 - No Land (Patreon)

Gilly Sunderhall
Blonde and slender. Competitive, energetic, and very serious about magic. Daughter of Kevin Sunderhall. Fire and Water Aspects.

Madri Sunvalley
Curly, fluffy hair. Bookish and curious, with a strong interest in artifacts and how magic works. Daughter of inventors. Earth and Fire Aspects.

Leli Vathan
Dark complexion, attractive. Confident, socially ambitious, and from a wealthy shipping family. Has shown a particular interest in Arien. Water and Light Aspects.

Sebastian Vintey
Black hair and grey eyes. Reserved, analytical. Comes from a wealthy aristocratic family and is currently ranked just behind Reyna. Water and Earth Aspects.

Matt Stonewall
Brown hair, tall, broad shoulders. Combat focused, stubborn, grounded, and loyal. His father is a general. Fire and Earth Aspects.

Meliana “Mel” Rath
Honey colored hair. Quiet, shy, and diligent. A close childhood friend of Pori. Water and Air Aspects.

Porietta “Pori” Miley
Long, fluffy chestnut hair, a round face, and hazel eyes. Gentle, well mannered, and socially perceptive. Sole heir to an aristocratic family and a close childhood friend of Mel. Earth and Air Aspects.

For the first time since Reyna had handed everyone information about the Arena, the whole group had managed to meet again.

Actually, more than the whole group. Leli had brought her new boyfriend from the sixth year, Oswin, a tall, handsome, broad-shouldered boy from a wealthy merchant family who fit her type perfectly. Nobody seemed particularly bothered that she'd invited him without asking. Everyone was simply happy to get out into the Port and forget about the Academy for a few hours.

By the time everyone had arrived, found seats, and ordered, nearly half an hour had passed. Arien didn't mind. The tavern was lively enough that he was perfectly content to nurse his beer and watch the room.

Most of the customers were older students from other Houses. He didn't spot a single fifth-year from the House of Magic, which wasn't particularly surprising. Most were probably training or watching higher-league duels in the Arena.

“You have no idea how much I've missed this,” Matt sighed once everyone finally had drinks in hand.

“I think we actually do,” Arien replied.

Several people nodded. Every one of them looked exhausted.

“I agree with Arien.” Sebastian raised his wine glass. “I propose our first toast to nobody getting expelled from AMM recently.”

Everyone eagerly joined in, clinking mugs, goblets, glasses, and cups together.

"It only just occurred to me that I never saw many fifth-years from the House of Magic in the Port," Pori said, gently swirling her wine.

"At least not those who have AMM with Vizimir," Leli remarked. "The classes taught by Master Fangrath don't go through the same slaughterhouse. What was it like for your class, Oswin?"

"Yeeah," the boy laughed. "I got lucky and ended up with Velindra. She's not exactly easy either, though. Sometimes it feels like she's only so demanding because of pressure from Vizimir."

"Did you have to learn the Basic Five all over again too?" Madri asked.

„Yep." Oswin chuckled. "But only for one semester. By the second semester we'd already moved on to more advanced material. From what I've heard, Vizimir doesn't allow that until sixth year."

"That's not fair," Leli groaned. "I've had enough already. He showed us his methods. Can't we just agree that we've learned them reasonably well and move on to something more interesting?"

"For him, I don't think there's such a thing as learning a spell 'reasonably well,'" Sebastian observed. Then he turned toward Arien. “By the way, what did he want from you that day?”

Several people turned toward Arien.

“He asked whether I was really studying Life Magic, and if I was, how Madri had figured out the principle behind Fusion before I did.”

It wasn't a particularly elegant lie, but the contract he'd signed left him little choice. Most of the group seemed to accept it. Reyna kept watching him.

"Wait," Oswin suddenly said. "Aren't you the guy who beat Hordel recently? And you study Life Magic too?"

"Yep. Arien is our miracle child," Pori answered.

"Oh ho.” Oswin sounded impressed. "Hordel's in my class. I haven't seen him that angry in ages. I wish I'd watched the duel. I heard it was very short."

"When you're fighting mages who battle the way Hordel does, you either beat them quickly or not at all," Arien replied.

"That's absolutely true," Sebastian agreed.

„Hey!" Matt looked offended. "Are you still sulking about our duel? We ended up in the same league anyway."

"What league are you in?" Oswin asked.

"They both made it into the Eighth Division," Leli answered. "Besides them, only Pori managed it. And both Arien and Reyna are in the Seventh.”

“Princess Reyna,” Arien corrected, barely keeping a straight face.

“Arien!”

“Reyna, the Princess of Fire?” Oswin asked.

Most of the table burst out laughing.

“If I find whoever came up with that, I'll kill them,” Reyna growled, covering her face.

“Three Princesses storming through the leagues!” Arien declared dramatically. “Will anyone be able to stop them? Will they unite against evil? Or perhaps— Oww! Reyna!”

A spoon bounced off his forehead.

“You were asking for it!”

"What? That's what people are saying!" he replied indignantly.

Inside, though, he was dying of laughter. Someone had come up with the brilliant idea of calling the three fifth-year girls who had blasted their way into the Seventh Division the Princesses of Fire, Ice, and Light.

Besides Reyna, the other two holders of these illustrious titles were Efie and Celestine.

"I have to admit, your year is pretty strong," Oswin said. "Six people in the Seventh Division, only three months into the semester? I'm honestly starting to feel glad I'm only in the Eighth. That way I won't have to fight any of them."

As the evening went on, the conversation split into smaller groups and eventually drifted away from the Academy. At some point, Arien remembered the question Sammy's story had left him with.

“Hey, Rey.” He leaned toward Reyna, Pori, and Mel. “What's the deal with colonizing the Wastelands?”

"In what sense?" Reyna asked.

“I recently had an Explorer as a patient. He said Wyndor is giving people land near the borders of the Wastelands.”

“So?”

“Is that actually true?”

Reyna looked at Pori. “Did you call him a miracle child or a defective child?”

"Oh, Rey, you know Arien. If it's about anything other than magic, he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.” The girl sighed.

„Well? Would someone kindly enlighten me?” Arien asked, sounding slightly offended. After all, until he was eight years old, his entire world had been a tiny town and the surrounding countryside.

"We covered this in the third semester. The Kingdom of Wyndor: Opportunities and Threats.'"

"Rey? Please?"

"Fine, fine. Wyndor has been pursuing a colonization policy in the Lost Provinces for decades,” Reyna explained.

“Where does that name even come from?”

“Arien...”

“Rey? Please?”

She sighed.

“The Lost Provinces are parts of the Wastelands that once belonged to the Empire of the Three Suns. After the kingdoms controlling them collapsed, Wyndor began claiming the territory. Since it's crawling with monsters, there aren't exactly many competing claims. From the kingdom's perspective, the policy is pretty obvious. We expand our territory while simultaneously easing the land crisis."

"Land crisis?"

“Pori, please save me.” Reyna sighed dramatically and looked pleadingly at her friend.

"For decades now, Wyndor has struggled with access to arable land," Pori explained. "Most of the territory suitable for farming is already occupied. And the population keeps growing. Returning to the Lost Provinces seems like one of the better solutions."

"Not counting the monster casualties."

"Not counting the monster casualties," she agreed. "But the alternatives are either war or famine."

"Can't they just increase production on the existing farmland somehow?" Arien asked. He remembered that on Earth, humanity had massively increased agricultural output through improved organization and technology.

"How?" Reyna asked.

"I don't know. Magic? Technology?"

Reyna raised an eyebrow. “How exactly would you increase crop yields with magic?”

Arien fell silent.

Water Magic might help with irrigation, but that would require far too many Water mages, and he wasn't even sure magically created water worked the same way for plants. Light Magic seemed even less practical. Plant Magic might work, but the Aspect was rare.

The longer he thought about it, the less obvious the answer became.

“Oh-ho,” Reyna said. “Not as simple as it sounded?”

“So there's really no practical solution?”

“Not one anyone has found yet,” Pori replied. "And a lot of very intelligent people have worked on the problem and continue to work on it. It's the same reason why people don't build things using Earth or Stone Magic. Mana eventually dissipates, and when it does, the structures created with it fall apart as well."

"I don't believe there's truly no solution."

"Maybe there is," Pori admitted. "But nobody has discovered it yet."

"The same problem exists in artifact production," Madri said, apparently having been listening to their conversation.

"What do you mean?" Arien asked curiously.

"The development of artifacts with civilian applications is limited," she explained. "For hundreds of years, nothing truly revolutionary has been invented. Things that improve comfort? Sure. But something that fundamentally transforms an entire industry? No. My parents spent several years trying to create tools that would speed up the construction of seafaring ships. And even when they succeeded, the devices consumed so much mana that they became economically unviable."

“I've never heard about any of this,” Arien admitted. That probably had something to do with how little attention he paid in theoretical classes that weren't directly related to magic, Portals, or geography. History was especially bad. Even when he tried to follow along, lecturers constantly explained one event by referring to three others everyone else apparently already knew.

He tried. Really. The problem was that most historical texts seemed to assume the reader already knew half the context. A passage about the Twenty-Year War, for example, would casually mention the Trian Edicts, the Pact of Temples, and the organizational structures that followed without explaining any of them.

"Impossible," Reyna commented sarcastically.

“Don't worry about it, Arien,” Matt said. “Reyna's just upset because she's no longer part of your elite club of students who haven't been kicked out of AMM.”

“I'm not upset.” She crossed her arms. “Throw me out for an entire week? Who does he think he is?”

Matt laughed. “How did it go again? ‘I didn't ask for definitions.’”

“Very funny. We'll see how well you do in the Arena without my information.”

“Rey! I was joking!”

“Did any of you see Arvennor's duel with Edras?” Oswin asked.

“I didn't,” Arien replied. “But the fact that you have time in sixth year to watch fights from the highest divisions gives me some hope for the future.”

Oswin snorted. “Sixth year is better mostly because we've already gotten used to the endless grind. And when it comes to watching the current Champion fight, I consider it an opportunity to pick up a few tricks.”

Gilly leaned forward slightly. “And what did you learn?”

“Not to fight Old Houses,” Oswin said with a laugh.

“Edras was doing pretty well,” Sebastian objected. “If Caelric weren't a walking mana battery, we might have a new Champion.”

“Edras isn't from Wyndor, right?” Gilly asked.

Pori shook her head. “He's a refugee from Khaerlon Valley. It's hardly surprising that he knows how to fight. His homeland has been a battleground between the Old and New Empires for centuries.”

“I heard the King himself is paying his tuition, hoping to use him someday in negotiations with both countries,” Sebastian said, glancing at Reyna.

She shook her head. “I have no idea. The King plays so many angles in foreign diplomacy that half the time nobody knows what he's actually trying to achieve. If I had to guess, I'd say he doesn't know either.”

That earned a few laughs, and the conversation soon drifted to other subjects. By the time anyone noticed how late it had become, midnight had already passed.

Nobody seemed eager to be the first to leave.

Arien couldn't blame them. Once they returned to the Academy, it would be back to classes, training, and trying to find enough hours in the day for everything else.