Lord of Charm

Gale was lying in bed the whole day doing nothing. He kept replaying in his mind the day he spent with Rachel. He couldn't believe it was all fake, and he didn't even know what to do with all the gifts he bought her.

"Busy pitying yourself, Lord Gale?"

Nina came in and looked at him wasting his time.

"Yes, I feel like I'm a hypocrite for expecting a girl I was taking advantage of to love me."

"You didn't try to make her fall in love with you, she simply acted like it and you fell for her act. You have nothing to feel ashamed of; you're still young and inexperienced in interacting with others who have ulterior motives in approaching you."

"So should I be ok with being tricked and manipulated?"

"No, you should move on and learn for the next time. Test their sincerity before you truly trust them and try thinking if they might have other reasons to associate with you. When you have power, many people will aim to use you for their needs and goals."

"I think I still prefer to spend the day in bed."

"I'm sure you do. You might not know it, but Lena is disobeying our master by being here. She was supposed to go back a few days ago, yet she chose to risk getting kicked out to stay here and help you get stronger."

"I didn't know it. Will she be ok? She shouldn't risk her future for me!"

Gale became worried for Lena and felt guilty for falling to pieces when Lena was doing her best for him. Truth be told, Nina exaggerated in her words, she just wanted Gale to get up and improve himself instead of getting depressed over something he had no control over.

The Fire Witch wouldn't kick out Lena as long as she doesn't disappoint her; her monstrous talent was worth repressing some negative feelings and ignoring small wrongdoings like being a month late. Or at least pretend they were small first, and then ignore them altogether.

"If you want her to feel reassured enough to go back, then get up and get stronger."

Nina said all she had to say, so she left the room to let Gale think it through. Gale got up from bed and stood in front of the mirror for a few minutes. He still admired himself every time he saw his figure.

"Ok, it's time for you to move on. You still have the dark element to absorb even if you don't want to see Rachel anymore. With the next woman, I will just do what I came for and leave. This time I won't delude myself and get humiliated again."

He spoke to his reflection in the mirror and made up his mind to move on.

He left his room and found Lena meditating in the living room on the sofa, while fire snakes slithered around her. He watched with wonder in his eyes as he saw the fire snakes move around Lena without scorching anything around her. He didn't understand how it was possible for fire not to scorch what it touches.

"What are you staring at?"

Lena felt his presence and opened her eyes.

"Why isn't the fire burning the furniture around you? Isn't this spell useless?"

"You're useless. Didn't I tell you mana becomes your friend when you get to the Mage Phase? Would your friend burn your furniture when they come to visit?"

It made sense when she put it like this, but he couldn't see the fire as his friend no matter how he looked at it. He decided to shut up to avoid additional bullying.

"I'm ready to move on, but I won't absorb the earth mana affinity from Rachel, please introduce me to the next woman."

"It's ok. I knew you'd feel like that, so I sent Rachel back to her cell and called the next woman to the room."

Lena didn't hesitate to lie about Rachel's whereabouts, she wanted to be done with it without having Gale throw any tantrums about Rachel's death, or worse, think about Mira's fate.

"Let's head to the jail, just please refrain from making any emotional attachment with her. She's a darkness magician. Her name is Celty Stur. She lost hope in life and I promised her to solve her problems if she is willing to give up her magic for you. It's a fair trade and you don't have to worry about it; she'd probably commit suicide without it."

Gale shook his head. He didn't want to absorb Celty's magic yet. He felt like he needed a break from these women, and chose to use this opportunity to learn first how to control his magic and strengthen himself. During his session with Rachel, she could roll him over any time she wanted and dominate him, which he didn't like. It could be hot to let his partner take control sometimes, but it wasn't hot to be helpless about it.

"I hope you can first teach me how to use my fire magic and strengthen myself."

"Are you sure? You can do it later with both darkness and fire. It is indeed more effective to strengthen yourself as early as possible, but a few days wouldn't change much."

"I'm sure, I want a way to protect myself."

It would be awkward to hide under Lena's skirt if a random True Magician threatened him only because he didn't learn how to use his Advanced Magician powers.

"All right, let's go to the backyard, there is an empty place for training there that we can train at without worries."

They went together to the training area in the backyard and Lena instructed Gale to sit down and listen.

"As I already told you, mana allows you to make requests to it when you're in the Magician phase. The more talented it assesses you, the better the requests it would let you make. Since you stole the affinity and connection of an Expert Magician, and the mana started sensing you only a few days ago, I'd say that the mana thinks you're an Advanced Magician baby on the verge of breaking into the Expert stage. This is normally a perk only animals have, making mana strengthen them far more than it would strengthen a body of a magician of the same stage."

"Does it mean my body will be strengthened far beyond the normal standard of humans?"

"That's my educated guess, but we will see if it's true later. Remember you'll have to strengthen yourself with other types of elements later, too. Even if you strengthen your body with an element at a young age, the benefits of one element are limited."

"So you've strengthened yourself with 2 elements? Wouldn't it mean that if I strengthened myself with 4 elements in my current stage my body would be as strong as yours?"

"Get off your high horse. Although I prefer using Wind and Fire, I have a passable affinity with the four basic elements and with the light element. In fact, my light element might be the best of all my elements, but there is nobody who can teach me using it in our kingdom. I will try to find a teacher or learning materials when I travel the continent one day."

He finally understood why his sister was considered a monstrous genius; she was strengthened by 5 elements! He felt he might've underestimated the other magicians other there.

"Nobody in the Mage Phrase was strengthened with only 1 element, the requirement to become a mage is being strengthened by at least 2 different elements. Even my master, The Fire Witch, has an affinity with earth and wind besides fire. She has the word 'fire' in her name because it's the main element she uses when she fights, and the others only boost it and her physical body. There's a rumor one needs to be strengthened by 4 elements to advance to the Magus Phase, but we don't have any Magus in our kingdoms so nobody can confirm it."