The Tyrant

V: Element, Origin, Assassin

Circe was a harsh teacher. While she had yet to create the formal craft circle, it didn't stop her from teaching me what she could about Magecraft before we could determine my origin and element.

It wasn't so much that Circe wanted perfection, she just didn't want you to make mistakes. You might think there's no difference, but there actually is. Perfection meant you always got things absolutely right, no matter what. Not making a mistake meant you didn't do the wrong thing. You didn't have to be perfect to not make a mistake, and that was all Circe asked: to not make mistakes.

If I did end up making a mistake, she would turn the look on me. It was a look of sheer disappointment, as if all the expectations she had expected of you had crashed, burned, and turned to dust in that one moment. It was an awful look that I never wanted directed at me again for as long as I lived.

Still, I thought I'd done rather well for my first session in proper Magecraft. At the very least, my unique Magecraft finding ability that manifested in sight was now more controllable. I couldn't shut it off completely, but I'd only see wisps of energy from people instead of a full-on aura from them.

She'd also begun teaching me the bare basics of Magecraft: Structural Analysis, Gradation Air, and Reinforcement. In her words, Gradation Air was worthless unless you 'had the disposition for it,' and she assured me that I definitely didn't. On top of that, it was a more advanced but useless version of what would be our main focus, so we decided to only bother with it for the sake of training.

Our main focus was going to be Reinforcement; a Magecraft that would be used to strengthen objects and, with a high enough level of mastery, could even be used to strengthen one's own body. The beautiful part about Reinforcement was that it had a deep secret nobody considered, the power to strength the concept within objects. For example, you could reinforce a sword's sharpness, or the nourishment of food.

The concept in question, however, had to be concrete. It couldn't be something vague like power, it had to be something specific that could be 'improved' upon, which was why sharpness was viable.

I felt I was doing rather well in my Magecraft training, and my physical conditioning with Caenis was also going well. She was no great teacher, but she had learned under a great teacher in Chiron and had definitely picked up some things. At the very least, she was able to teach me how to properly through punches and kicks with maximum power and minimal strain.

She was a strict teacher, but I didn't mind at all. I wanted to be pushed to do better and having her threatening to kick my ass if I didn't do the last few push ups or pull ups certainly helped with that.

It also helped that she tended to wear shorts and a sports bra when we were training that gave me a fantastic view no matter what angle I looked at her from.

God bless the man who invented those shorts and sports bra... Or woman, I don't discriminate.

Sadly, my summoning for Assassin was delayed, but only by a couple of days as I decided it was better to determine my origin and element first, then summoning Assassin. It only took two days for the lead-based paint to arrive, something Circe proudly proclaimed at breakfast the morning after it arrived.

"I finally got my hands on lead-based paint," she said proudly over the breakfast table. "Which means I can finally make a formal craft circle, and we can determine Issei-sama's origin and element! Which means I will finally know just what direction that I should take his Magecraft in! Basically, we can move on from 'beginner' to intermediate."

"That is good news," Caenis nodded, looking at me. "Aren't you happy, master?"

"Yeah, I am," I nodded, and I meant that. I was looking forward to finding out just what my Element was, since I wasn't going to be allowed to learn what my origin was.