Black Magus

After receiving a few more books on noble hierarchy, political science, economics, and a few other topics, I left our appointed classroom and immediately moved toward the object of my current interest.

The library.

As one would have expected, it was filled with rows upon rows of towering bookcases coupled with busts and carved murals. The entire outer wall was lined with shelves that extended to the height of the three-story ceiling with about eight more in the center of the room, all accented with booths and plush chairs to service the many patrons within.

I immediately moved toward the nearest shelf and began scanning the endless spines for any topics of particular interest. An endeavor that took next to no effort.

While the first section of books I laid my eyes on were mostly records and biographies of how the many counties in our empire came to be and of the individuals who lifted them to their current status, the adjacent section contained what was essentially a bestiary of all the non-humans encountered over the ages. Neatly arranged into sections by what I assumed were the worlds they came from.

Without hesitation I grabbed a ladder and started crawling all over the shelves, pulling spines from their places so that they could plummet into my awaiting shadow. Nothing was spared. Even after moving past the bestiary and onto the geology and geography of the world itself. Every text, document, or strange title was deposited into my Shadow Pocket until my curiosity got the best of me and I climbed down the ladder to see the gaping holes I'd left in random sections of the shelving.

Satisfied with my work, I retreated to an unused desk in a quiet corner and dove into my endless bounty of information.

In truth, I didn't know how much time I spent reading, scanning, and analyzing the literal mountain of words before me. I only knew that a few of the books had been skimmed over with little interest. Books that told of etiquette and the limited knowledge of arithmetic and science in this world. Others, however, I paid close attention to as I thoroughly read each line. Those about the many different creatures found in this realm; from dragons to anthropomorphic animals and beings of stone to majestically massive trees that gave birth to entire dominions of life.

Most fascinating of all was the structure of this world. Or rather, plane. It was so large, so vastly mind-breaking that I had to reaffirm the claim with anyone of scholarly merit as soon as possible. Thus I hastily loaded the mountain of books back into my shadow before hurriedly trotting up to the desk.

"Well, if it isn't His Grace." A woman with horn-rimmed glasses beamed after settling her large, pitch-black irises on me. She had black curly hair that was draped neatly around her head and ended at the shoulders, framing her motherly face like that of a picture. Her skin was light brown like a terracotta pot and wore a smile that instinctively made one want to adopt their own in the same style. "How can I honor you this morning?" She so bubbly asked.

'Morning?' I internally recoiled. It was around nine at night when I began reading, placing my reading binge at around ten hours. Minus the few obligatory minutes for bathroom breaks. 'Whatever.' I shrugged, lifting my shadow-flooded arm to cause a wall of darkness to befall the return desk and outputting the books I'd already read. "I'm only here to return these." I amiably said.

She had a look of obvious shock on her face but gave hints of nothing else but pride as she giggled. "Wow! I had no idea His Grace was such an avid reader!"

"It's the best way to learn." I shrugged, then turned on my heels to begin scouring through the next section of books. While I was sure at least some of my burning questions could've been answered by Mr. Brooks, I found myself unable to resist the abundance of wealth that surrounded me. Thus, operating under the logic that he would send for me come time for my studies, I dove back into perusing through the rows and rows of literature.

Days must have passed in that fashion; as it was easy to lose track of my now abundant free time when paired with my extended range of movement through the estate. Reading continuously and only stopping for the occasional trip to the service wing to grab a plate from Gerolt before immediately heading back.

Not only were there details about my family, so too were there tales of the House of Deapou, along with one other in our empire. I learned of their magics, customs, languages, and laws. Of what morals were accepted here and what was considered taboo. Which wasn't much different from what I was used to, unsurprisingly. But I was glad to see slavery, incest, and the other usual deviant acts were on the prohibited list.

Most fascinating to me in this session was the discovery of the surprisingly high level of technology this world had developed. If credited mostly with the elves and their knowledge of enchantments. In addition to the hints of modernity I'd already seen, boats, trains, monorails, and all other forms of transportation short of cars, rockets, submersibles, and planes were all commonly used. And all of them were powered by enchantments or sometimes even outright magic.

The last section I scoured was dedicated entirely to mystics, might, and magic. Or more importantly, how they were ranked and classified. Essentially, an individual's power level was recognized by the size and density of their mana well and included both unevolved and evolved mystics. Frustratingly, however, I found little detail regarding anything about classes. Only the fact that they existed.

The rankings of the so-called Guild Association, on the other hand, were; from what I could gather, more of a charisma-based ranking system. Although there were certain tasks mentioned for each rank, it was mostly based on notable accomplishments, valor in battle, magical or physical prowess, the favor of the citizenry, fame, or even infamy. The repertoire of an individual itself was the basis of their ranking, and that rank granted an individual status higher than they otherwise would have; granted they weren't born with high status in the first place. In fact, it went on as far as to say that anyone who was born with an affinity core or granted one later in life were regarded as highly as a knight and given the title, Initiate.

On the contrary, a Magus was at the far end of the spectrum. Described as an individual whose power could rival that of a powerful nation's military might, they held the same rights as a sovereign nation. Not because of power, though. Because they personally changed the course of sentient history through their actions.

It was something I immediately aspired to become.

After perusing through all I'd cared to in the library, I sat at my table for a moment to go over everything I thought I knew regarding how this realm operated.

Magic aside, humanity lived in an area equivalent to roughly two earth radii. Inside of which were four continents. The volcanic, boreal Deapou Island, which in itself was akin to the size of Australia. The Pangaea-sized supercontinent to the southeast of us, Epethia. The largely uninhabited roughly boot-shaped landmass called Phaegrath to the east of that. And the monster-infested wilderness of Ulai, contained by a single, measly magical barrier. Outside of that were realms that contained everything from frost giants living in ice-covered realms plagued by perpetual storms and cryovolcanoes to hellish realms of metallic rain filled with devils, demons, and vampires. Areas that uncountable guilds have dedicated themselves to exploring since the dawn of recorded history.

To facilitate that, a screening process was added to the core awakening ceremony. Those who passed would be granted entry into some sort of magic academy and later graduate to join a military or guild post-graduation. If they didn't create one themselves. Meaning, if I were to explore these realms on my own and learn as much as I could along the way, attending the academy was my best course of action; though I had intense reservations about joining any military or guild. Thus the only logical course of action would be to form a guild of my own and explore these realms to my hearts' content. And I figured I had the perfect plan to do it.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say His Grace has read through every book in this library in just under a week." Caia, the librarian beamed as she pulled out the large box she'd started using to check in my books.

During my extensive stay in the library, I've gotten to know her quite well and learned that her hereditary affinity was ink magic. An ability she and her ancestors have used for generations to keep the House of Cole's records in order.

"Not quite." I beamed back. "I found next to nothing on enchantments."

"I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere for those, Your Grace." Caia sighed apologetically. "Such things are hard to come by. It's a highly guarded art."

"No matter." I waved it aside before turning on my heels back to my little nook to attend to my next order of business.

Once situated, I pulled out the stacks of paper given to me by Jaimess and recalled all the military knowledge I'd ever received throughout my first life before beginning the arduous task of transcribing the information by hand. While many things had to be omitted or altered due to the lack of firearms and the addition of magic, many things such as combat and parade drills, training regimes, first aid, survival training, and other things were able to be copied verbatim.

It was agonizing work for sure, but with a veritable server in my head, the only other alternative was to have Caia copy my spoken word as if she were a scribe. Though with things like diagrams and models, that would've been hard to accomplish. Besides, it was a good way to practice my handwriting. My penmanship was comparable to chicken scratch in my past life. And I was aware that such things simply wouldn't suffice for the status I held in this life.

In the end, I wrote three books for them. One on leadership and military order, discipline, and training. Another on small unit tactics, guerrilla warfare, and survival techniques. And the last book was focused entirely on espionage and subversion. While they were somewhat dumbed down to make them understandable to someone of our age, I didn't go too far with dumbing down the information, as I intended for them to refer back to this information many times throughout the course of their lives.

"Good morning, Caia." I smiled as I approached the desk once again. "Could I ask you for a favor?"

"Anything for His Grace." She beamed in her usual sunny disposition.

"Can you use your ink magic to copy these for me?"