That was the only possible answer. To be able to emulate taste through illusion, I needed to taste as much different foods as possible, to analyse their reaction between taste buds and nervous system.
So when I stood up in my new gained enlightenment, I was surprised to see shocked elders looking at me like an alien and a smug duke nodding approvingly.
In all this chaos, Yom still looked at me like I was the most delicious snack in existence, it gave me the creeps.
"What's wrong?"
The elders continued to keep their stunned look and refused to answer me, so I turned to the Duke himself.
"Nothing wrong, what was that about delicious food?"
"Ha! I'm lacking in too many experiences! [mirage] magic needs a lot of knowledge. How can I fake something I have no experience about whatsoever?"
He nodded thoughtfully, then looked at his son and at me again.
"You are hereby excused from your butler duties, if you stand too close to Yom we don't know what will happen. In a week there will be a banquet with the 12 heirs of the main families."
"And that's my time frame gotcha! Can I go to the library now? I need to hammer this iron while it's hot!"
I felt like a kid entering a candy store for the first time in his life. The possibilities of [illusion] were basically infinite, but I needed to put the effort or nothing would come out by itself.
He nodded and I run away, uncaring of who or what I had left behind.
"He forgot to dispel the flames, well… they will run out eventually."
"Patriarch. That boy… how was he able to stay hidden for so long without nobody noticing?"
"Yes, that talent, the way his thoughts process develops. He's born Disorder and nobody noticed?"
Duke Morvane stayed silent for a while.
It really didn't make sense that such personality could go unnoticed for so long, but then he remembered the reports brought in by his personal butler.
On how he had lived until the day before his link with the system, how he probably had lived a life so poor that he needed to even count the steps he took to save energies.
And his physical built.
"Did he say his ears had always been like that?"
"Yes patriarch."
"There you have it, people probably thought he would be part of some branch of Prosperity. You know, resembling an elf and all that shit about living as slowly as possible."
It still didn't make complete sense, but everyone decided to bite the bait and let the young man that was bulldozing through the ranks of life like he was taking a stroll to his own affairs.
While this discussion was taking place, I had already reached the library and demanded, yes demanded like an entitled brat, access to ancient magic tomes, neurology, anatomy and biology.
The librarian gave me a key and pointed me to a personal study room, it seemed my contract with the big boy himself was already known.
He probably has an army of shadows working for him 24/7.
With this notion stored in my mind I began what could only be described as a mad run through the mysteries of ancient magic and human nature.
I had a week to master sound illusions and there was no way, I, the literal Walker of illusions, would fail.
The first day was about to end with me only being able to study the biology and chemistry related to the five senses of humans, this was cool, sufficient.
If I was only to deal with normal people or Walkers at most, but the more powerful someone became, the more another sense took root into their being.
Instinct.
"How the fuck do I even tackle instinct? Can I even fool something I don't understand?"
"Isn't that a little too advanced of a question?"
"Absolutely not! If I don't even know how it works and against what it works, how could I ever prepare normal and basic spells to trick people? I need to rework on [Foxfire] as well."
In my absolute madness, I didn't even realise someone was sitting at the table with me. Until I did and jumped up.
"The fuck?!"
"What?"
"Who are you? How did I not even feel a shift in the air by your presence?!"
The young man in front of me smiled and with effortless ease stood up, every movement he made was accompanied by the wind itself, masking his presence and making it hard to notice even if he was in front of me.
"I'm one of those shadows you were blabbering about 9 hours ago, I'd be fired if you could notice me."
"What? Then why did you reveal yourself?"
He shrugged without a care in the world.
"Orders, it seems the butler has gotten an excellent butler himself. I'm to make sure you follow up your new schedule."
"What schedule? I'm obviously going to live in this study until I succeed."
"You will not. Today was an exception, but from tomorrow, things will change."
My eyes widened, jaw slacked and heart pounding. Could I really make it if I didn't focus only on this?
"Now it's midnight, so eat something and get to bed, mornings, after a scrumptious breakfast, you will be allowed to study from the moment you finish eating until 2.00 p.m. you can have your lunch whenever you want, but from 2.00 to 9.00 p.m. is physical training. Then you can study again if you want, until midnight."
"PHYSICAL TRAINING? Can't we leave it for after I'm done with the [sound mirage]?"
"No, you're extremely lacking."
Fucking bastard.
"We were also instructed to serve you every possible taste of food known in the duchy, so be ready to eat everything with attention."
That was wonderful news at least.
"You may be a better magician then young master Yom, for all I have seen today, you may even have more talent than those pricks from the path of Moon, but your body is useless."
"That's not true."
"It is, your body lacks the very thing you were asking the gods about. And by the gods, in this week you will develop it."
I'm royally fucked, am I not?
"Will there be a healer on standby?"
"Yes, of course. Your personal healer, miss. Anne has been made aware of the changes."
"Then… is there a Walker in the shadows that is willing to help me experiment?"
"That would be me."
"Perfect! Let's start immediately!!"
"No, you need to go to sleep, we can try tomorrow morning."
"Can you promise you wiLL nOT let me experiment tonight?"
The unnamed shadow promised and I was already on cloud nine.
I jumped on him and hugged him tightly, action that left the young man bewildered.
"What are you doing young master Crow?"
I was so happy I didn't even notice the way he addressed me, I just snapped my fingers and a familiar mirror appeared before the shadow.
* "Can you promise you will let me experiment tonight?" *
His face turned bright red, his eyes bulged and his jaw might as well have dislocated, but I didn't care one bit.
It was only two words, well, one if we were to be precise, but I had already succeeded.
It took all my possible focus just to echo a "not" in between words? Sure.
But progress was progress.
While I was already jumping with joy and laughter hugging the stranger that was still trying to understand what had happened, the duke with his son and the elders, were looking through a mirror what had just happened.
They were all speechless, except for poor Yom that was about to burst out with jealousy.
"He succeeded in creating a [sound mirage] in 9 hours."
The duke was ready to jump through the mirror himself with a bottle of aged whiskey, but he needed to keep up some kind of status and even if the elder's word were like a bomb exploding in his mind, he needed to stay calm.
"Impossible my ass. That boy will master [mirage] magic in way less then I year, I should have made a different contract."
The elders were nodding violently, the glint of greed in their eyes was visible to everyone.
"Lucky me, I will adopt the poor orphan."