HP: Sacred Gear Chat Group (2) - Chapter 22 (Patreon)

Chapter 22 - Tutoring and Plans

“Are you trying to kill us?”

“No?” I replied with a hint of annoyance and once again a small flicker of genuine worry, for what felt like the umpteenth time.

“Then tell me, Mr. Lestrange—”

“Davis…”

“Mr. Lestrange, what do you think you are trying to accomplish by restructuring this Rune Array for a Light Charm into a spherical shape?” My ancient-looking Rune Tutor asked in a completely nonsensical tone.

“See what happens? I want to turn it into a long, contained spherical cylinder for now,” I explained honestly.

“I see…” The old man sighed. “And what did I tell you about your ‘see what happens’ approach or experimentation in general?”

“Not to?”

“Because…?”

“One wrong Rune makes everything go boom? And those burns hurt like hell while also being a pain in the Ass to heal?” I finished his sentence for him.

“Exactly! You may be an exceptionally gifted Student, but it is far too early for any form of Experimentation! One unstable Matrix and the entire Magic will be discharged in a volatile explosion! Even worse, you don’t follow any commonly established conventions. Instead, you play around with completely new Matrix Shapes and Structures. Do you have any idea how risky that—hold on. How do you know that those magical burns are hard to heal?” My Ancient Runes Tutor asked suspiciously.

“I read about it?”

The old man looked at me with exasperation. “And why does that sound like a question? If you were any normal Student, I would have cancelled this job after your first lesson! You were ‘creative’ from the beginning. But out of respect for your Grandfather, I remained your Teacher. This is your final warning, Alistair! Wait with your experimentation until we are through, or I will end this.”

“Fine… but if we just follow the standards, there will be no progress,” I grumbled in annoyance. That old man is too much of a pain in my Ass.

‘Don’t replace the Runes in this Standard Matrix to see what happens!’

‘No, you should never reverse a Matrix to see if you can cancel out an existing Enchantment with it!’

‘No Experimentation!’

‘No, we can’t create Artificial Life with Runic Enchantments!’

‘What by Merlin’s Saggy Balls were you thinking by intentionally creating an unstable Matrix to see how big of an Explosion you could make!?’

‘Don’t try to make any more of your so-called… Mini Nukes.’

“You are clearly not ready for experiments! Runic Enchantments are dangerous! What even is the use of Light contained in a Spherical Shape?”

“Oh, that’s just the first step! I want to add a ton of heat and plasma to it so I can use it as a blade. The Light is just so it looks cool, and I can add custom colors to it!” I explained eagerly, my eyes shining with excitement.

The man stared at me as if I were a…

“Idiot!”

Seriously, that man is such a buzzkill.

My Grandpa went through with hiring Tutors for me, and now I am pretty much already at School without even having set foot in Hogwarts.

In the mornings, I train with Ghislaine using the Sword. Gramps likes me staying fit while also getting some martial training, and he actually agreed to my suggestion of hiring her as a Sword Tutor. She now gets a nice Paycheck as a Tutor for the Lestrange Family.

Unfortunately, since Grandpa took a personal interest in my education, the rest of my day is filled up too. After Training and Breakfast, I have to Floo to the Lestrange Mansion for my Lessons.

Besides Lessons in Pureblood Houses, Politics, and Etiquette from Gramps, I now get tutored in all the common Hogwarts Subjects and electives, except for Muggle Studies. The Core Subjects are mostly meant to help me catch up with the Theory, since I can already cast the majority of the required Spells, even silently, much to the shock of my Teachers.

No idea how they would react if I showed them the Wandless version. But I don’t want too much information about me to become public knowledge. And while they are hired by Grandpa, they are still outsiders.

Potions, in which I am far ahead compared to my peers since it was the only Subject I could practice during my early life, is mostly about covering Potion Recipes that require some form of Magic.

Besides that, my Tutor is really cool and has already recognized my talent. For the most part, he is showing me how to brew some more obscure Potions that aren’t part of the standard curriculum while also covering the history of how different Potions were created. Basically, we are retracing the experiments that led to their creation.

That Guy has completely realized that I am planning to conduct my own experiments in the Future, so he decided to prepare me as best as he could.

Arithmancy, on the other hand, is not nearly as interesting. It’s Math… just with some Magical Numbers and Symbols. And that’s pretty much all I get taught.

While the Subject can be used for Divination, Spell Creation, Potioneering, and Enchanting, my Teacher won’t even branch into those applications until I have covered the more advanced topics.

In other Words, I should complete High School Math first. Yeah, apparently that is the highest level of Magical Math. I wonder what can be done with University-level Math.

Unfortunately, I am quite far behind with my Math education. Turns out that if you don’t use a Subject like Math, you forget quite a lot. And as a University graduate, I apparently hadn’t even used that much Math in my first life, not to mention the 18 Years I lived as a Squib in the Wizarding World.

What makes it even harder is that Magicals call their Stuff in Magical Math by different Names than Muggles do! That makes remembering my old Knowledge even harder.

So far, it is my slowest and most disliked Subject.

Divination, on the other hand, is a different story. While I am not planning to take it as an Elective, we are still trying to see if I can actually learn the Subject thanks to my Bloodline Ability, ‘Magic,’ despite our Family having no Seer Ancestry.

It’s an interesting Topic, but it’s not really to my liking. There is too much talk about opening your inner eye, and it feels like I am pretending to be some fraud at a Muggle fair, tricking people into having their Fortunes read.

And I haven’t really made any progress learning Divination without the Gift. Maybe it is a mental thing?

Care of Magical Creatures is mostly about covering Theory, with a few live Subjects that actually live in the Garden of our Mansion. Mostly small Magical Animals like Nifflers, Bowtruckles, Jobberknolls, Pixies, Gnomes, Puffskeins, and whatever else can be found there or happens to pass through.

The most exciting Subject among the common Hogwarts Classes, much to the dismay of my Tutor, is Ancient Runes.

While the Class itself consists of different fields, it mostly starts with translating ancient magical languages used by very old civilizations. Later on, it moves into the fields of Enchantment and Ward crafting. There are also approaches where Runes are used in Spell Crafting, but that hasn’t even become a proper topic yet, aside from a passing mention.

From the very moment I was introduced to Runic Enchantments, I became completely engrossed in the topic. It’s the first form of permanent Enchantment I have ever learned. Other forms of Enchantment are NEWT Level.

Well, Rune-based Enchantment is also NEWT Level, but I pretty much rushed through the material thanks to a pair of Gale-Force Reading Glasses with a 128x boost that Irene sold me from her World.

If someone was more eager than me to learn a new form of Enchantment, then it was her. Irene Belserion is the foremost Master of Enchantment in the Fairy Tail Universe. In general, I can’t think of any Character better than her at Enchantment. If there were someone, it would have to be on a conceptual level or involve some kind of godlike Ability rather than superior knowledge.

She is the Person giving me a ton of ideas about what to try. Even if she isn’t really familiar with the Wizarding World’s branch of Runic Enchantments or their Enchantments in general, Irene is still so knowledgeable about Enchanting that she can easily comprehend my lessons, even the parts I am struggling with.

We are pretty much studying together, and she is helping me out. Once I have a solid grasp of my own form of Enchanting, based on the Wizarding World and Mushoku Tensei, she will start teaching me hers from the Fairy Tail Universe.

But she wants me to develop my own Foundations and Ideas first, based on a different form of Magic than her own, so I won’t end up as just a copy of her.

She also doesn’t want to teach me until I visit her in her own World. She is pretty adamant about it and kind of pissed off.

We had quite a heated discussion about it, after all.

[ — Private Chat — ]

[ … ]

[ Irene Belserion: Are you serious right now? ]

[ Alistair Davis: Pretty much? Please don’t be mad. I really can’t do anything about it right now… ]

[ Irene Belserion: Do you have a death wish? ]

[ Alistair Davis: If you kill me, you will remain like that! ]

[ Irene Belserion: Oh, now you are threatening me! So you really do have a Death Wish! ]

[ Alistair Davis: I don’t! ]

[ Irene Belserion: It sounds like it to me! I’ve been suffering for centuries, and now you tell me you may have the solution to free me from my Pain, yet you expect me to wait because you can’t travel to my World right now! ]

[ Alistair Davis: But I really can’t! There is a six-Month cooldown on my Ability. ]

[ Irene Belserion: That may be true, but you are telling me to wait for over a Year! ]

[ Alistair Davis: Well, I will be at School… ]

[ Irene Belserion: A School whose education you will easily surpass. That School won’t give you anything! You said it yourself, the Library of your Family probably goes deeper than the one at your School! ]

[ Alistair Davis: Sure, that may be true. But I waited all my Life to go to Hogwarts! And there are a ton of Secrets I would miss out on if I don’t go there. For example, there is an enchanted Room that can take on any form you need it to! Right now, there is the unharvested Corpse of a thousand-year-old magical snake! There may even be books there that I don’t have in my Family Library. ]

[ Irene Belserion: So what! Take a break and go there once you’ve picked me up! I will make sure it’s worth it! ]

[ Alistair Davis: I can’t just take a break. Also, it’s a social obligation. Not attending Hogwarts would hurt me socially, and my Parents and Grandfather would be disappointed in me. ]

[ Irene Belserion: … Hold on a Second. Didn’t you mention a tournament happening this year? And the participants of said Tournament are free to move as they like as long as they are there for the Tasks? ]

[ Alistair Davis: Uh, I think so? Those were the Rules of the Past Tournaments, at least? ]

[ Irene Belserion: Then participate in that Tournament and come get me in between those Tasks! ]

[ Alistair Davis: Now hold on! There is no Guarantee I would even be picked for the Tournament! ]

[ Irene Belserion: Your explanation was that the Artifact picks the best Candidate from each School. You are a Devil who is, by nature, magically more powerful than any other Wizard, have the innate Ability to learn any form of Magic and most common Magics with ease, and are in possession of an Artifact that has the potential to kill Gods while connecting you to other Worlds. Is there anyone comparable to you? ]

[ Alistair Davis: Cedric Diggory, maybe? He may be a glittering Vampire? ]

[ Irene Belserion: What? ]

[ Alistair Davis: Forget that… But that doesn’t change the fact that there is only one or two Months between mandatory events. I don’t know if the three Months I spend in your World will translate to only two Months in mine, and depending on the exact time frame, it may not be enough. ]

[ Irene Belserion: Can’t your Sacred Gear tell you that? ]

[ Alistair Davis: Give me a moment… ]

[ … ]

[ Alistair Davis: Okay, it can calculate the Time Shift, but I will still need the exact dates of the Events first, as well as being picked as a Champion. I won’t necessarily be able to come and pick you up in between Tasks. ]

[ Irene Belserion: Then just come directly after the Tournament. <Screenshot> You mentioned that the Participants would be exempt from Exams. ]

[ Alistair Davis: Normal exams… I will have OWLs this year. Those are mandatory exams held by the Board of Education and required for me to even pick my classes next year. But I think I will have two or three Months after the final Task to pick you up. ]

[ Irene Belserion: See, was that so hard? ]

[ Alistair Davis: We don’t even know if I can reincarnate you into a Devil! It is based on our relative strength and the value of the Piece I use to reincarnate you! And you realize that you will have to become a member of my Peerage then! ]

[ Irene Belserion: I am already serving Zeref, and he just gave me a human-looking body. If you really can return my Sensations to me and stop this suffering, I will easily agree to serve you. So you better work hard to become stronger until then, or I will whip you into shape myself. ]

[ Alistair Davis: Fine! I just can’t win with you! You do realize that Yamato is still suffering as a Prisoner of her Father, and I could easily and guaranteedly free her with a simple Transfiguration? She will now have to wait several more Months! Meanwhile, I have no guarantee that I can even help you or that it will work! ]

[ Irene Belserion: She has no problem with it. <Screenshot> I already spoke with her. After all, she isn’t suffering every moment. ]

[ Alistair Davis: The Screenshot doesn’t say anything about her agreeing. It’s just you bribing her with Food cooked by your best Chefs… ]

[ Irene Belserion: Oh, sorry, wrong message. That is completely unrelated. Here is the correct one. <Screenshot> ]

[ Alistair Davis: … ]

Yep, I will have to visit the Fairy Tail World rather sooner than later. At least I will get an insanely powerful Peerage Member out of it.

Hopefully, she will keep to her agreement and follow me after I give her what she wants.

But Irene isn’t my first Peerage Member. In fact, I already recruited the first one.

Ghislaine has become my first Knight. Since she is already following me, I saw no reason not to make her join me. She is a crazily talented Swordswoman, after all. Now she will be able to surpass herself in the future.

I may also be able to take her with me to Hogwarts, since she has Devil Magic now, which is a higher form of Wizarding Magic.

Besides starting my tutoring, I also used the Gacha I got for completing my first World Travel. I found the Notification in the logs after having it ignored when my Eye got overloaded by all the Magic in Diagon Alley.

I didn’t even know I had Logs before that.

[ Feat Achieved: Survive a different world! (1 Roll) ]

This time, I received something from a new Category I hadn’t gotten before.

[ Rolling… ]

[ Congratulations! You received an Uncommon Artifact! ]

So there are not only Magic Tomes and Knowledge, but also Artifacts.

[ Alchemy Jug - Uncommon Artifact ]

[ A ceramic jug that can hold a gallon of liquid. Once per day, it can be used to create a non-magical liquid that the user knows, filling to the brim. ]

Nothing too special, since most non-magical liquids aren’t very rare, but it is still useful for getting something like Coke at Hogwarts, or if I am too lazy to make purified Water for a Potion that needs it or something.

[-- End of Chapter --]