“Okay.”

“Alright, let’s start with letters.” She went in front of this thing called a blackboard and wrote down things on it, although I didn’t understand them at all. But she explained to me so that I would understand, it seems that there are ten letters which are the basic sounds, they are called vowels. But then we have another twelve more symbols which we combine with the vowels to get a hundred-twenty letters in which twenty of the letters are used to make sentences make sense.

They are a bit confusing but it wasn’t that hard to learn them all, and since I already knew all the words, reading shouldn’t be hard. Once she was done teaching all the letters, she let me take a small break to rest a bit. She ordered tea from Alf and drank that at the table, while I took a random book from the library and started to read.

“H-he screamed, what ko- could ja- have possibly ha- hap- happened.”

Suddenly Elena looked at me and said “Do you think I’m a joke boy?”

“H-huh? What do you mean?”

“You can already read? Do you really think I wouldn’t be able to tell that you’re faking it?”

“I- I swear to you, I really didn’t know how to read before now.”

“Don’t think I’m stupid kid-”

“Dame Elena, with all due respect, the young master truly does not remember anything. Please do not be so quick to jump to conclusions.”

“Tch. Fine, but please, explain to me how he was able to memorize all those letters within just less than an hour.”

“I.. do not know.”

“Thought so.”

“Okay kid, let’s assume you have a good memory. In that case, I will recite a poem, if you’re able to repeat it, then I’ll apologize.”

“Okay! I’m ready! Go ahead!” I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited for this, it was so fun learning the letters, I’ve always wanted to read whenever I was in the capital.

Oh little cloud,

Where have you been?

I can’t find you in this big crowd,

You always put a grin,

On my little little face,

It was as though I was stunned, her poem simply froze me, it was as though I could sense regret in her voice yet I felt strangely at peace. But nonetheless, I repeated the words exactly as she said, but I couldn’t replicate what I felt with my own voice.

“So you really do have immense memory. I’m impressed. Also, I’m sorry about getting angry before, Even though everyone else already told me that you forgot, emotions just got the better of me.”

“It’s okay.”

“My lady, may I interject for a moment?” It was Alf.

“Sure.”

“How were you able to verify that he had great memory? I am extremely curious, because what if he had read that poem already.”

“Well that’s because he can’t. I wrote that poem, haha.”

“Ah I see, well then, excuse me, I will be going now.” Alf then left the room.

“Mam... That poem, was it about someone who isn’t here anymore?”

“Mm. I loved her but.. Anyway, even though you remember the letters, you should practise writing them so that you have a good handwriting. After all, it's essential to being a noble.”

“Okay on the topic of nobility, what do you think our job is?”

“Uhm.. I don’t know..”

“That’s fine, we’ll take it slow. Anyway, our responsibility is to make sure our people are safe and happy within our territories, well that’s what it’s supposed to be. Now then I’ll ask you a question, why did blood purity become an obsession for nobles?”

“Because of mana?”

“Right. But how does that relate with blood purity?”

“Maybe it’s because when powerful people are together then they’re children will be powerful too right?”

“Mhm, that’s right. But what's more important than mana saturation is, mana affinity.”

“What are those..?”

“Ah sorry. Mana saturation is more or less how much mana you have in your body. But mana affinity is the element of mana that you use. For instance you’re probably a fire and light user...” She suddenly started staring at me. 

“Mam?”

“Ah sorry. Anyway you should be able to use light magic at the least.”

Elena slowly explained to me about how magic works, it seems that there are currently five elements: fire, water, air, earth, and light. There’s also a sixth element which is called dark, but it seems that only demons have had that element.

But as a noble one has to fulfill three duties that are laid out in the constitution of our kingdom, which is what the dukedom is a part of. They are: To honor one’s subjects. To realise one’s subjects. To help one’s subjects.

Although the dukedom has been in decline for a few generations for now, and that’s what seemingly led to the current state of the dukedom riddled with corruption and unfair politics. I’ve never thought being a noble would be such a task.