The Secret Private Tutor
“Are you a mage?”
Ellen’s question was sharp as a blade.
Her silhouette stood out against the moonlight.
There was no trace of her usual childish air now.
The oppressive bearing of someone born to the bloodline of House Valderk, Rowen’s most illustrious family.
“……”
I swallowed dryly.
If I botched a lie here, it would only deepen her suspicion.
“……I only know how to imitate one, really.”
“I knew it.”
Ellen folded her arms and stepped closer.
“But how? It isn’t easy for a commoner to learn magic.”
“When I worked as a library assistant, I studied old discarded tomes on my own. I tried it out of curiosity, and by sheer luck, a little mana actually moved.”
“You taught yourself?”
Ellen’s brows twitched.
“Don’t lie to me. Magic isn’t something you can learn just by reading books without a teacher.”
She pulled the cloth off the worktable.
The magic circuit beneath was now fully exposed.
“Especially not a formula this complex and precise. You expect me to believe you learned this on your own?”
“Hard as it may be to believe.”
With a bitter smile, I spread out my palm.
“My mana is pathetic. That’s why I have no choice but to make circuits that let mana flow for me to work.”
I deliberately opened my mana core so she could feel it.
A truly feeble amount of mana.
Ellen closed her eyes for a moment and sensed the fluctuation.
“……That’s true. Your mana is only slightly better than an ordinary person’s. With this, you couldn’t make a Blaze spell, let alone a Fireball.”
“Even with the circuit helping me, I couldn’t dream of combat magic. I only barely manage —household magic for stitching cloth or removing stains.”
“You’re using magic circles to make up for weak mana and mend clothes? I’ve never even heard of that being possible.”
Even now, the suspicion in her eyes hadn’t faded.
After studying the magic circuit again, her eyes suddenly lit up.
“No matter how I look at it, this isn’t a normal 1st Tier formula. It almost seems like 2nd Tier.”
“Good eye. It was originally 2nd Tier, but I changed it so that someone like me, who’s only 1st Tier, can use it.”
Ellen stared at me with a dumbfounded expression.
“You’re saying you can take a 2nd Tier formula and turn it into 1st Tier, even if it’s just household magic? That’s ridiculous. Even academy professors couldn’t do that.”
“It’s not as impressive as it sounds.”
“Not impressive? Fine, then answer this.”
She suddenly traced a shape in the air with her finger.
“Mana backflow caused by interference between multiple attributes. I tried applying three auxiliary formulas to control it, but I couldn’t solve it. It’s an academy assignment. Can you work it out?”
This was a test.
She wanted to know whether I truly understood magic on my own or whether I was lying.
I smiled inwardly.
She’s asking about something this basic?
Still, I pretended to think it over, rested my chin on my hand for a moment, then picked up a quill and scribbled formulas on a scrap of cloth.
“If you use three auxiliary expressions here, the circuit gets too heavy. Don’t block the backflow—circulate it instead.”
“Circulate it?”
“If you reverse Formula Three, the backflowing mana actually gains momentum and converts into output. Like this.”
Scratch, scratch.
I condensed three complicated formulas into just two lines.
Then I wrote them onto the worn cloth so she could see.
“......!”
Ellen snatched the cloth up and hurriedly scanned the equations.
“How could this be... Wow, it really is!”
The suspicion in her eyes was instantly replaced by shock.
“It really solves it this simply?”
Ellen’s eyes were wide on me now.
She looked like a miner who had just discovered a giant diamond in the dirt.
“You... are you a genius?”
“A genius? No. Just a little quick on the uptake. I only learned tricks like this because I kept trying to squeeze out as much as I could with as little mana as possible.”
I gave an awkward laugh.
Ellen swallowed hard.
For a while, she said nothing, as if deep in thought about something serious.
“Hans.”
When she finally spoke again, her voice had risen with excitement.
“You’re my secret private tutor starting today.”
“A tutor? I’m just a tailor.”
“What does that matter? You have to do it. I’m begging you—raise my grades. I want to knock Sophia’s nose down a peg on the exam.”
“Sophia? You mean the young lady of House Bergen?”
Felix’s older sister.
I’d seen her a few times at the library before.
“That’s right. And it’s annoying, but my magic grades are worse than Sophia’s. I’m behind her in both theory and practicals every time.”
“Then why not find a better magic instructor?”
“You just explained things in a way I could actually understand. You’re the first person who’s ever made magic theory this easy for me. The academy professors just spout words I can’t make head or tail of...”
She grabbed my hand in her excitement.
“No matter how I think about it, Hans, you’re the only one. I’ll make the terms outrageously good. In return, I want one promise.”
She pressed her index finger in front of my lips.
“The fact that you can use magic. That’s a secret. No one can know, especially Sophia. If she hears about you, she’ll try to steal you away. Or bribe you, at the very least.”
Suddenly, her expression hardened and she glanced out the window.
“No good. Come with me.”
“Where to?”
“Here.”
A worn rug lay in one corner of the room.
Ellen casually pulled it aside and felt along the seam between the floorboards.
It was an ordinary floor, with nothing remarkable about it at all.
But then—
Tsuuut!
When she pressed a knot in one particular plank and poured mana into it,
Kuuuuuung—!
A section of the floor sank downward, revealing a dark stairway into the basement.
“This is...!”
“It’s fine. Don’t be startled—just follow me.”
Ellen went down first.
I followed after her, still half-stunned.
After descending for a short while, we reached a rather spacious underground chamber, maybe a hundred square feet or so.
Soft magical lights glowed overhead.
A desk and chair.
Boxes of emergency rations stacked neatly in one corner.
“What exactly is this place?”
“It’s a secret room belonging to House Valderk.”
Ellen brightened the magical lamps as she spoke.
“My grandfather made this shelter in deepest secrecy when this manor was first built. Even within the family, only a very small number of people know about it.”
I looked around.
On the walls, I could see cave openings branching off in several directions.
“Those passages are emergency exits. They connect to the outskirts of the city, the sewer system, and the study in the main house.”
“So if something dangerous happens, you can hide or escape.”
Ellen nodded with an air of pride.
“Don’t go wandering into them carelessly. You could get trapped in a maze or walk straight into a trap.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“From now on, tutoring will happen here. And your magic experiments, too.”
“Down here, hidden underground?”
“The detached annex upstairs can’t completely block out smell or sound, no matter how well you lock it up. If Sophia has spies keeping tabs on me, we’d be exposed in no time.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Deep underground like this, neither sound nor mana fluctuations leaked out.
It was a perfect secret base.
But then a chill ran down my spine.
Looking at Ellen, I asked, “Why are you telling me about such an important secret place in the family?”
“......?”
“Knowing a noble family’s deepest secrets means... you could be silenced at any time.”
My voice had begun to tremble slightly.
This was a matter of life and death.
No matter how kindly they treated you, people who knew too many secrets eventually got eliminated.
“I understand why you’d be worried. But our House Valderk has never, in its history, abandoned a retainer who helped the family.”
Ellen smiled as if to reassure me.
“More importantly, now that you’re my secret private tutor, I have to pay you, don’t I?”
She rubbed the ornate ring on her left hand.
A subspace ring imbued with spatial magic.
A top-grade artifact that only the highest ranks of nobility could possess.
Pop!
The space shimmered, and several stones that glowed with blue light appeared.
“Will this do?”
Ten low-grade Magic Stones.
And not drained scraps, but genuine stones packed full of mana and shining blue.
My God!
At market price, they were worth one gold each.
Ten gold in total.
“Are you really giving these to me? That’s far too much for tuition.”
“Don’t worry about it, just take them. For someone with your talent to be using Spent Magic Stones is what makes no sense. And honestly, if my secret private tutor were using trash like that, my pride would take a hit.”
She set the stones down on my worktable and said softly, “Hans. Your talent is real. Right now your mana core is too small, so you’re stuck at household magic... but if you break through that limit and learn combat magic someday—”
Her gaze sharpened, blazing with a fierce light.
It was no longer the look of a spoiled young lady, but the eyes of the future head of a great house.
“As you know, I’m the only daughter of House Valderk. The day I become head of the family, I’ll appoint you as a knight in my name. I mean to make you a retainer of Valderk, not just a commoner tailor.”
Thud.
My heart gave a heavy beat.
Rising in status.
A path to becoming an official noble of the empire.
For a commoner, it was the kind of outrageous offer that would make them bow their head to the floor in gratitude.
I swallowed a wry smile inwardly.
A retainer, huh...
It wasn’t a bad offer.
But my goal wasn’t to spend my life bowing under someone else’s authority.
I wanted a place higher than a knight’s title—true freedom and wealth.
For now... there’s no reason to refuse.
This was the best shelter I could ask for.
A safe hiding place, abundant funds, and Magic Stones.
There was no better fence to grow behind than this.
Just as she was using me as her secret private tutor, I could use her backing in return. That was all there was to it.
“That’s an offer far too generous for me. While I’m here, I’ll do my utmost to make sure I don’t fall short of the young lady’s expectations.”
“...While you’re here? Then you mean to leave someday?”
When I didn’t answer, Ellen narrowed her eyes.
Then she smiled oddly.
“If you were a normal commoner, you’d have started by saying all the flattering things and promising to serve me for life. You’re interesting. I like that.”
With a cheerful look, she walked toward the secret passage connecting to the main house.
“It’s late today, so I’ll be going. We start lessons here tomorrow night. Be well prepared.”
Swish, thud.
She disappeared into the secret passage, and the wall sealed itself again.
I was left alone in the empty underground chamber.
On the worktable, ten low-grade Magic Stones gleamed brilliantly.
I picked one up and held it to the light.
The blue radiance of mana shimmered with a mysterious glow.
“Knight, huh...”
I gave a quiet laugh and tossed the stone into the air before catching it again.
“Well. By then, I’d probably have bought this family and still had change left over.”
I don’t become anyone’s retainer.
I never planned to.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
The magic circle drawn on the floor was dozens of times more complex and intricate than the one I’d shown Ellen a moment ago.
With this, I might even be able to go beyond 2nd Tier.
I erased it at once.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
3rd Tier won’t be a problem either.
Swish. Swish-swish-swish.
Limited, but even 4th Tier...
A few 4th Tier magic formulas I’d learned from Professor Keil’s notes.
For now, mana makes it impossible.
But someday, it would happen.
For the time being, I’ll grow my mana core here as much as I can.
This underground chamber.
For me, it was the finest testing ground there was,
and a training hall.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇