Draconia Offline vol. 1

33.3. Reality of Being the Emperor - Part 3

"Your Majesty, it's good to be finally here," a Celestial with grey wings and black pattern greets me when I appear in the fitness suite just as Luviael promised the delegates. Erik went to the Royal Office to work on his own tasks so that we can also train to be separate from each other.

"You're...," I study his wings. The face is also familiar because I was talking to a lot of my former guild mates through video calls. "Taranah?!"

"Yep, that's me," he smiles and happily flutters his wings. They're much smaller than mine but he was level 80 in the game and his VR combability must have been high so I guess it's only a matter of time before his growing spur comes.

He's not wearing a Celestial robe and I realise how strange it is to see a winged person in casual clothes. Did my perception of fashion change without me knowing again? As much as I was initially against wearing 'cosplay,' I think I wouldn't be able to switch back to human clothes again.

"You don't have to address me so politely, you know," I say quickly because we were quite close ingame. Not as close as with the gang but we frequently played together and went for countless raids. Besides, he looks at least ten years older than me.

"I know but it just feels weird not to," he shrugs. "This isn't a game anymore and you're our Emperor. And I can feel your mana which makes it super hard to address you casually, Your Majesty."

"Is it that defining?" I doubt. I try focusing on my mana circuit but I don't feel anything especially formidable. I feel completely normal, to be honest.

"You have no idea," he laughs. "Anyway, I hope you have nothing against me reassuming my former position of the magic development head?"

"Oh... I... of course not," I nod. Right, training spellcasting in the real world also means researching it while doing so because we still don't know how everything's going to work.

"We lost the system's assistance, obviously," Taranah says. "Which means that we'll have to learn everything by heart and seriously train mana channelling. I think spellcasting in real life is so much easier for you because you never relied on the system's assist."

"I think so, too," I confirm, not wanting to admit to myself that it might be connected to my weird telepathic brain.

"Which spells have to tried so far?"

"With Liana, we managed spells up to level 3 so far," I reveal.

"It wouldn't sound like much if the rest of us weren't still struggling with level 1 spells," Taranah sighs. "But you also did that healing spell, right? I saw the video. And that's level 10."

"I don't think I'll be able to recreate it anytime soon, though," I shake my head. "I'm not sure how I've managed it in the first place, to be honest. It must have been adrenalin or something."

"Noted," Taranah nods. "It could have been adrenaline combined with pure luck but it still shows that you're certainly our Emperor."

"So... how do we go about it?" I'm curious because it's clear Taranah has a plan in mind.

"We'll train spellcasting for two hours each day," he says. "Every time we make a breakthrough, we'll post it for all Celestials. Hopefully, people experimenting on their own will be also eager to share their discoveries. The IT team is already working on a platform where we could safely share our knowledge. Of course, safeguarding comes first."

"That should make the EU and the rest of the world happy," I'm glad. "Still, don't you think it odd that we're not as eager to use magic all the time? Even if mana equals calories here."

"Not really," he shrugs. "I was eager in the beginning, trying out all sorts of level 1 spells. After I ended hypoglycaemic and my family found me collapsed on the floor, I reconsidered and became much more careful. Besides, we have modern technology which wasn't in the game so we don't have to rely on our abilities that much."

"I guess that's a serious thing to watch out for," I agree. "Aren't two hours a day too much then?"

"We'll be training mana channelling and focus in the beginning so we should be fine," he assures me. "It often takes many attempts to even do the spell unsuccessfully. You, Her Excellency and me will be training every day from three to five. Do I have your permission to create other teams and assign them time slots here?"

"Sure, go ahead," I allow, wondering if Celestials will be asking me about every little thing from now on. I hope not.

"Levelling in real life will be rather tricky without system windows and charts," Taranah recalls nostalgically. "But I guess we can safely claim that whoever mastered spells of a certain level attained that level. Can you show me some level 2 spells, Your Majesty? I'd really appreciate your guidance."

I show him three basic elemental spells we've mastered together with Liana and he should work on. As one of the best players, Taranah has no problem gasping concepts that come with spellcasting but he struggles with mana channelling which is something that was done automatically in the game. Basically, you did a spell and it took some mana points. No such luck here in real life.

"Can you tell how much mana I have?" Taranah asks me resignedly after half an hour without any results.

"Lots, trust me," I assure him. "You're just struggling with getting it out of your body."

"Ehm!"

Somebody coughing makes me flinch. I was so absorbed in teaching Taranah that I didn't notice that the guards let a person in. I turn around and spot Dubois standing at the door. What the hell is he doing here?

"Oh, don't mind me," he says in a honeyed voice. "I'm here to just watch your progress."

"And report it to the EU no doubt," Taranah mutters with badly hidden aversion.

"Naturally," Dubois doesn't deny it and sits on the bench in the corner, in a safe distance away from us.

What should I do? Pretend I'm struggling or impress him? I decide to do nothing for now and continue instructing Taranah who seems to be set on impressing the EU delegate. Because we've already covered preparatory mana channelling exercises before Dubois showed up, Taranah manages to cast a level 2 flame after five more attempts.

"Oh, dammit!" he cries because he made the same mistake as me the first time—forgetting that he can't produce it on his skin even though I did warn him beforehand.

I don't have time to think about how it'll look and instinctively put out the flame with the water from the nearby containers that was meant for our water magic practice. Then I quickly freeze some of that water to relieve the pain in Taranah's burnt hand.

"No way!" Dubois finally loses his confidence and almost drops the tablet he's holding for taking notes. "You're that far ahead?"

"We're posting everything online. It was no secret," I set the record straight.

"But seeing it with my own eyes...," Dubois is still taken aback and forgets his overly pleasant conduct. "And that's only around level three? What kind of monster are you going to become?"

A monster? He calls me a monster? I feel my anger rising and there's nothing I can do to stop it. I was concerned about my humanity before, thinking that my telepathy makes me a freak, but I'm no monster. And now I don't even consider myself a freak anymore either.

I step closer to Dubois to properly face him. I don't know if it's Erik's absence or the fact that I've managed to impress this pompous douche but for once I feel confident. Powerful even. And for once I don't want to be toyed with or offended—that's unbecoming for the Celestial Emperor.

I'm a bit smaller and much thinner than him but when I fluff my huge wings that are getting bigger and bigger by each passing day, I can sense from him that he sees me as truly impressive. I pierce him with my golden eyes and this time I don't hide my aversion towards him. I leak my mana and even though he can't perceive it directly, it gives him goosebumps nonetheless.

"Well, good for you that I want peace then?" I say darkly and it's my pure Celestial nature speaking, looking down at him. This puny human.

Something within me curls when I say those words. I really meant them and I didn't at the same time. Because for a second I feel that conquest would be much more fun than this political bullshit.