"Fucking… old… son of a…"
"Oh? You still got breath to spare for curses?"
A flash of silver blinked in existence and a second later I moved my own rapier to try and parry, only to be flung by the force of the hit.
At the very least, I had saved my hand this time.
Yes, this time.
The demonic incarnation of a butler actually cut my hands clean during my training and called it "accident because I'm not completely aware of your stupid movements.".
As if that explained everything.
What's wrong with holding a rapier like a dagger anyway?
However, once my hand had been cut 3 times I tried holding that metal stick normally, it still felt weird, but I could manage.
From then on, miss. Anne could finally catch her breath since I was able to get injured less and less.
But clearly the Demon King of wrath had other plans.
"Since you seem allergic to normalcy, try changing your holding again, or I don't know, use your other hand."
He really enjoyed cutting my hands, didn't he?
"It's not an excuse to cut you up again, I could have done it countless times. But after your hand to hand combat I realised that there's no way your body can learn the standard way."
No shit, Sherlock.
Either way, call me a maso at this point, I gave in.
Since clearly the dagger form didn't work, I switched to my left hand and something immediately clicked.
The weight that should have felt like a burden, was actually comfortable and it must have shown on my face since I heard giggles in the background and a heavy sigh in front of me.
"Boy, this doesn't make any sense."
"…"
I get that my path is the Error, but this is really going too far.
"Anne dear, stop laughing, it's rude."
The giggles stopped, but my pointy ears were already red for every one to see.
"Let's do it this way mr. Crow. Holding the rapier with your left hand, do the most instinctive attack you can do. Don't think, just do it."
I didn't waste anymore time. My hand flashed in a downward slash that was anything but it. The flat of my blade was in the direction of the movement and just when everyone thought I was nothing but a dunce, my hand thrust forward.
The result?
A downward thrust that actually managed to pierce right above the Demon's knee.
The sensation of piercing flesh echoed in my deepest core, I was turning green.
I might have been mischievous, a liar and everything bad in the book; but I never hurt anyone.
I then felt a hand resting on my shoulders and there he was. The head butler I had just hurt, smiling at me like I had done a good job.
"Get over this sensation quickly mr. Crow, the world will eat you otherwise. And… splendid job, completely irrational and unexpected."
I nodded weakly, but didn't have much time to dwindle introspecting myself, my instinct flared but I was too late, my left hand was already flying.
"Anne dear, if you could."
"Of course, sir."
That's how the rest of the morning went, no drills, no forms, pure unadulterated swordplay, limbs getting cut and reattached, but I was no longer able to cut the bastard down.
And I was grateful for that, at least all the action allowed me to getting used to the sensation of pain and flesh tearing apart.
_________________
Lunch came and went in the blink of an eye with only little to no correction in the way I was eating and it was finally time to start magic training.
"We will not undertake all the subtleties and rules of spellcrafting, that is the job of the academy and no main family can cheat into preparing their heirs."
"But I'm not an heir."
Mr. Brown and Anne both had one glaring thought in mind: yeah, sure.
But nobody spoke up and the lesson just started.
"I have been told that you were already able to create a spell on your way here, care to describe?"
"Well, Théo said I must have mistaken something during the creation since I was under stress and attack, however the spell is called [Mirror] and I used the runes for confusion, record and reflect; it's a counterspell to mental attacks."
The best lies are always those blended in with the truth hehe.
"Well, you have of course made a mistake somewhere, but since you won't be able to enter your see of consciousness to see the actual formation, let's leave it at that."
"Wait what?!?!?!"
Sea of consciousness??? Spell formation??? What were these new informations?
"Right, a lost dog. Whenever you cast a spell for the first time successfully, it is inscribed in your sea of consciousness, a metaphysical place you could conveniently describe as a mental grimoire, its also the place your connection to the system is established, that's why once you use a spell, you will not need to create the rune formation every time and just need to call for it, of course supplying the right amount of mana."
"Then what was that about formations?"
"Oh? You must have really been under heavy stress. Formations are the basic lines connecting runes, with the precise construction of runes within the formation, you have different effects."
"Is that so…"
"That is also how we know the runes you told us are not correct, something with those runes already exist and is a spell called [forced mask] you record the face of someone and force someone else to look like them, of course it's all fake, they would just be confused."
I shut up after that and let the man go on about how precision is of utmost importance and whatnot, how a catalyst was a good boon, but unnecessary, I on the other hand, was spiraling.
"Is that right? Are all this informations correct? System?"
-generally, yes.
"What does that mean."
-Walker of illusion, your body, in the entirety of human history of this world, does not form a Sea of Consciousness.
Things were getting more confusing by the moment. What did it mean for me to not have a sea of consciousness? And…
"Wait?! Then we're is my mana stored?
-you are an ancient high human, of course you have what was known as the first spark.
"What about spellcraft?"
This time however, the stystem didn't answer. I was left with my own thoughts for a second and when I thought I had asked something out of my authority to the system, I gave up.
The world system was, after all, not a research assistant, it was merely a tool to explain the most basic of things and only gave rewards and answers after completing quests.
And both my quests were still pending.
Giving up on my existential crisis, I tried to focus on the lesson before me.
The head butler's back was facing me and he was fervently drawing basic formations for tier one spells, when I heard a melodious and deep voice, something that felt completely out of time and reality, illusory.
"Our magic does not follow those mortal's rule. We are loved by mana. It responds to our will, not mere rules."
My eyes bulged from shock, thankfully the instructor wasn't facing me, but my heart was still thundering nonetheless.
"Who… who are you?"
"You'll know tonight Last Error, there's nothing to fear."