Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 313: A Lesson

There were still a few days of the mid-year break left and the academy was relatively empty. It meant that we could enjoy breakfast in the mess hall in peace, until a maid informed me that the headmaster would like to see me.

Soon afterwards I stood in his office and saluted.

"Sir."

"At ease, do you know why you are here?" Erik asked.

"No." I replied. "Is it because of the attack at the capital?"

"What attack?" He asked.

"We were ambushed in the street, sir. One attacker escaped but some were taken alive, I am hoping they have some useful information." I reported.

"I see. No, I have not heard anything about that. Is the large corpse you stored yesterday part of that?" He asked.

"No sir, a different incident on our way home. Adventurers were transporting the beast and it broke free. We saw the fight and rescued the surviving adventurers, then we claimed the corpse. We have reported this to the guards."

Erik stroked his beard. "I see. You had an interesting trip it seems but let's talk about this corpse. It was an orthos, correct?"

"Kaito believes so, it is not a monster I am familiar with, sir."

"Orthos are interesting creatures, there are not too many monsters who boast two heads. To take down a mature one you generally want a group with an experienced senior mage. To capture one alive is even harder, so there is a limited number of adventurers who could achieve this." Erik explained.

"Sir, they were not that competent." I replied.

Erik nodded. "Hiring a group to capture a beast is expensive, to save cost the transport was likely handled by someone else. However, someone spent a lot of money and they will not be happy with this outcome."

"Sir, we acquired the corpse legally." I stated.

"Oh, I am not admonishing you. I just want you to be prepared for some angry noble to start asking questions. The law is on your side and you had nobles in your party, which does matter quite a bit. Now, am I correct in my assumption that you will try to raise it?" He asked

"Yes, sir."

"As a tier three?"

"Yes, anything else would be a waste, sir." I replied.

"Would you have informed me of your plans had I not called you in here?" He asked.

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"I, um, I would have consulted Gronir…" I mumbled. "Sir."

He stared at me. "Gronir has not returned from the capital yet. Would you have waited for his return or rushed into a lab?"

"I am not sure…" I admitted, my ears dropped.

"Mhm. Make sure to inform me, or an appropriate teacher, before you raise a two-headed monster."

"Yes, sir!"

"But don't worry, I do have something for you!" He said with a grin.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Irene will give you a special lesson today!"

My ears dropped further. "Yes, sir. What is it about?"

"You will see, dismissed."

As I left his office a maid handed me a piece of paper with the location and time of my special class, our special class. It stated that my friends would have to attend it as well. I sighed and went to deliver the news.

One hour later we sat in a small classroom. I had brought my tier three undead, maybe it was a lesson they could profit from as well.

Irene entered with a smile. "Hello class, how nice of you to take some time to learn during your break!"

She looked at our faces, then chuckled. "No worries, you might even enjoy the lesson. Today's topic: Orthos."

I perked up, maybe I would enjoy the lesson.

"Helena, what can you tell us about those beasts?" Irene asked.

"Not much, some of them live in the mountains. They are comfortable in the cold and are not common monsters." Helena replied.

"Wait, we were travelling south. If they caught the beast in the north we would have never run into them." I pointed out.

"That is because they are rare in the mountains." Irene replied. "Orthos can have different affinities, not all of them are water and cold aligned. They generally prefer forests and hills and they are most commonly found south-east of Neth. Some of them lead packs consisting of other wolf monsters and they usually stay inside their territory. If someone was specifically looking for a water-aligned orthos, or if they just wanted any kind of orthos, is hard to say."

"What about the two heads? Do they have two personalities?" Cassie asked.

"Not quite." Irene replied. "The heads can sometimes express an inner conflict more openly, it is like you arguing in your head with yourself, not like you arguing with another person. But they do not possess two souls, they are very much just one being. However, they are very good at multitasking, especially at combining their inborn powers with physical fighting."

"So we can't give the two heads different affinities?" Cassie asked.

"No." Irene replied. "However, an orthos with two affinities has an easier time combining them than most."

Now that sounded interesting.

"By combining them, do you mean like blood magic?" Skadi asked.

"Partially." Irene replied. "Blood magic is the combination of earth and water but it is an internal combination. By using both affinities you can almost create a new element: Blood. But that is not the only way to combine magic." Irene opened her left hand and summoned a ball of water. Then she opened her right hand and summoned a flame.

"Fire and water, they can be used to create steam." She levitated the ball of water in her hand a bit higher and placed the flame from her other hand beneath it. The water started to bubble and evaporate. "As you can see the water boils rather quickly, because I still have some mana inside it." She dismissed her magic.

"Is that useful? Why not just burn someone with fire?" Cassie asked.

Irene smiled. "You are an alchemist, so you should be able to figure it out."

Cassie pondered that while I was at a loss.

"Ohhhh! Because it sticks! But can you make steam remotely?" Cassie asked.

"Huh?" I said.

Irene summoned a blob of water, then she shot it at the floor. I watched the wet patch as it began to steam.

"Cassie is correct. Water is easier to attach to things, like your enemies. Often because they don't see it as a threat. But I can have my fire mana inside the water, the flame earlier was just a visual aid. It is not a true fusion of the elements, I can simply stick fire mana in a delayed form into my water spells. They behave like a normal water spell at first, then the fire triggers and turns it into steam. Rather unpleasant if your clothes got soaked. This counts as an external combination of elements." Irene explained.

I shuddered at the thought of drenched clothes suddenly starting to boil.

"Curious. Is my frostfire an internal or an external combination of elements?" Kaito wondered.

"That is an excellent question! First I have to say that the classification of some combinations is debated. Frostfire almost acts like a new element. Some argue it is just air infused with water mana, however it does act differently than normal air. I would consider it an internal modification." Irene replied.

Then Irene smiled. "Can any of you think of a good external combination?"

"Death water? Koyuki could try to add her death mana to her water spells, right?" Helena asked.

"Exactly! Since Koyuki is a very curious student I believe it might be time for her to train that." Irene suggested, with a smile that promised extra lessons.