I Refuse to be Captured - Chapter 2 (Patreon)

My past life ended the same way my current one began, with a bolt of lighting.

One second I was trying to get out of a particularly nasty storm and the next I was waking up in an unfamiliar bed being told my magical awakening was successful but there had been complications.

See, in this world bloodlines could be jump-started by exposing yourself to a strong natural source of elemental mana. For example, a fire bloodline could be awakened by spending a lot of time next to a volcano. A water one by submerging in a natural spring. Earth by meditating on certain types of rock. And so on and so forth for each element. Of course the better the source the better the results.

My dumbass of a past self thought that it would be a wonderful idea to turn himself into a lightning rod and sit in the middle of a thunderstorm only to get hit by one of the biggest bolts of lightning ever seen.

Not only did it kill him and get me pulled into his body, it actually caused some physical changes. My hair turned bright yellow and I had some pretty rough looking scars going down the right side of my body.

Frankly I was just relieved to be alive and resolved to do my best in my new life.

I spent a few years learning everything I needed to know to inherit my new father’s dutchy and even kept on the lookout for ways to exploit my past life’s knowledge for my family’s benefit. But general knowledge from the modern world was surprisingly useless in a magical fantasy setting. Sure I vaguely knew how a lot of things were made, but they relied on having the raw materials supplied in sufficient numbers.

It’s hard to plagiarize inventions when even basic chemistry and physics are different. Like gunpowder was a thing here, but it was mostly used in fireworks because gunpowder had high concentrations of fire mana and could spontaneously ignite for no reason. Steel could actually be cut by an iron knife if it had enough Earth Mana in it. And then there is the BS that is Manacite. A crystal that melts like metal at high enough temperatures but can be infused into things like paper to increase mana conductivity.

I did have slightly more success in a fully mechanical printing press, but that was mostly ignored by most people since it was slower and bulkier than the magical one. So while interesting to a few commoners that wanted to print their own books most major companies ignored it. I admit, I was a little discouraged by it and largely gave up trying to be an inventor.

So I devoted my time back into learning under my father, practicing my family’s lightning magic, and training with our guards.

It was when I was around fourteen that my routine was shaken up and something new entered my life.

As expected of a member of High Society, Mother spent a good amount of time networking with other noble houses. Occasionally I would join her and spend the evening in a backroom with the other undebuted children while the main party continued elsewhere. Of course being mentally several years older than all of them meant that after a while I grew bored with whatever game they decided to play and would distract myself with the homework that never seemed to stop coming from my tutors or my father.

And it was during one of those times that I met Alice Gale.

It was a rather unique experience.

-o-

“That is wrong and you have left several problems unanswered.” A voice interrupted my work, rather rudely too. “I would have thought this would be easy for the son of a duke since it is merely applying the correct formula but apparently I was wrong.”

I turned to face the intruder with an incredulous expression. Who in their right mind would walk up to someone of my status and call me an idiot, child or not?

It was a girl around my age with pale blue hair indicating a strong affinity for wind magic and deeper blue eyes. It was also someone I hadn’t met before but that wasn’t too much of a surprise, not every noble family decided to bring their children to these gatherings and it wasn’t like I attended every one of them myself.

“I…excuse me?” I said out of disbelief. “Who are you?”

Disappointment of all things flashed across the girl's face as she glared at me.

“Is it not common etiquette for the male side to introduce themselves first? Are you sure you are the son of a duke? Your education seems lacking.”

“...”

If I was a normal fourteen year old my impression of this girl would probably have been the worst. Luckily for her I wasn’t, so I just stared oddly at her while she slowly grew more and more uncomfortable.

Either she would leave me alone or explain why she thought this line of approach was a good idea.

“Well? Answer me!” Ah, she must have been more uncomfortable than I thought. She was actually starting to tear up.

I shouldn’t bully her anymore than this or Mother would get mad at me.

“Why should I? You were the one that approached me first.” I replied bluntly. “And that etiquette only applies to debutantes.”

The teary eyes were replaced by a look of confusion. “Yes? But the purpose of these backrooms is to practice for our debuts…”

Was this her first time at one of these gatherings? “You’re right, but only if your conversation partner agrees to it. You actually need to ask them to practice first.”

Oh, that’s an impressive blush. I guess this really is her first time.

“I see…” She mumbled softly. “In that case, please forgive me. I haven’t been to one of these before and thought you would be a good place to start since we are both related to Ducal houses. My name is Alice Victoria Gale.”

“Maximilian Augustus Storm.” I said shortly. I was still annoyed, okay?

“Ahem, yes, well…” Alice floundered for a second before glancing back at my incomplete worksheet. “Right! You were working on basic thaumaturgical equations, but those should be easy for anyone with a basic understanding of it…”

My lip twitched. This girl seemed incapable of not insulting someone when she opened her mouth.

“I know. But when I follow the formula given the answer is always incorrect. Even if I can find the right answer in other ways.” I was planning on bringing it up to my tutor later because my pride was taking a beating.

“Well let me see then, I just finished this lesson myself last week and found it easy enough.” Alice said happily and I felt another twitch.

The blue haired girl poured over my work with a smile on her face. At least one of us was enjoying this. But the longer she looked, the smaller her smile became. I was about to mock her back about not being as smart as she thought she was when her words stopped me cold.

“Your given formula is wrong.” She pointed at one of the symbols in the equation. “This should be inverted, that’s why you get the wrong answer all the time.”

I blinked and looked at it. Then I ran one of the problems through the new formula, and go figure, I got the right answer.

“Huh, you were right.” I grumbled. “Thanks I guess.”

“It was no trouble!” Alice said with a smile, like she hadn’t been insulting me this entire time. “I was happy to assist you.”

My plan was to ignore her and go back to my work, but she remained by my side the entire time looking over my shoulder. Eventually I decided enough was enough.

“Did you not want to talk to the others?” I not so subtly suggested.

“Oh, no. I, uhm, do you mind if we speak casually?”

“You never asked to speak formally.” I pointed out. “It’s normal to speak casually in this environment.”

“...right.” She slumped dejectedly. “Well, as I said this is my first time at one of these. Would you mind explaining what the proper protocol is?”

It was then that I felt a revelation. Alice wasn’t an arrogant noble girl looking down on everyone. She was a socially awkward idiot that didn’t know how to function outside of a formal setting!

Oh, I could abuse this SO much. A slightly sadistic smile appeared on my face. But not too much. She was still a little girl after all, and she did help me…

“Sure…I’d be happy too.”

-o-

On the carriage ride back home my mother decided to ask if I met anyone new and what I thought about them.

“I met Duke Gale’s daughter.” I informed her. “She was rather rude, but not too bad.”

“Is that so? Disappointing, I was hoping you two would get along…”

“Well I never said we didn’t get along. Though she might not say the same.”

“Max…what did you do?” Mother demanded. Oops, shouldn’t have said that out loud.

“Nothing!”

“Maximilian!”

“Okay, okay! I might have played a little prank on her…”

Mother just stared pointedly at me until I cracked.

“I might have told her it was normal to introduce yourself by giving two hobbies and a lie. And to make the lie the most outrageous thing you can.” I swiftly held my hands up in my defense. “I did make sure to let everyone know she was joking.”

Oh, no. That’s the ‘disappointed’ look.

“Max, it was her first gathering. Couldn’t you have just been nice to her?”

I winced. “Maybe, but she started it by calling me stupid.”

“And you decided to get back at her…I swear, you and your father.” Mother sighed. “When we get back I expect an apology letter to her explaining what you did.”

Oof, second time through childhood and I still couldn’t say no to my Mother.