Ivan Doppelganger’s Study

  The last thing Veronique had expected to see after entering the study was Alexander seated at the desk that she usually occupied with a sly smirk on his face.

  “What is he doing there?” she had asked immediately irritated at her spot being taken

  ‘Alright keep calm he probably ended up sitting there by mistake’ she reasoned with herself, taking a deep breath as she pushed down her anger, it didn’t help that she was particularly vulnerable to such emotion since it was the end of the week.

  Meaning her mana was at an all time high till she got her tea at the start of it.

  “Lord Alexander has expressed interest in joining us” Ivan had said “I saw no reason to refuse a curious mind”

  “But he already knows how to cast Skills” Veronique protested, not wanting to be in Alexander’s company for so long.

  “More knowledge has never hurt anyone, the only limit I have from the Duke is to keep you kids away from learning offensive Skills” the Skill teacher didn’t seem to care

  “Afraid I will do better then you?” Alexander taunted her

  “As if” she denied such claim

  “Did you even manage to cast a Skill yet?” the boy had asked then said after Veronique stayed silent “I knew it” he arrogantly smirked at her.

  “Don’t argue you two!” Rhea had complained which stopped Veronique from saying anything back as she went to sit down at the exact opposite of her usual spot leaving Rhea in between the two of them.

  ‘I am wiping off that smirk off his face if its the last thing I do’ she had thought while Mr Doppelganger was explaining to Alexander how the Artifact worked

  In no time they were all practicing with their Artifacts

  ‘That labyrinth toy must be quite common if he got another one for Alexander so fast’ Veronique had thought feeling not too happy about it

  It wasn’t that Veronique didn’t want Alexander to learn about Skills too, it’s just why did she have to suffer in his presence? Couldn’t he have a different schedule? He doesn’t intrude in their lessons with Miss Hawkings on the subject and from what she understood he had already an instructor.

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  “Alright let’s not waste time let’s see how you do your exercises” Ivan had told them as he started to inspect what they were doing

  She suspected the only reason Alexander had to join their class was their teacher, she really doubted Mr Doppelganger would agree to redo the same lesson at another time and the boy probably got fixated on having the man teach him too

  ‘I hope Alexander’s usual teacher didn’t get offended’ “Veronique! Stop daydreaming, focus!” the Skill teacher had reprimanded her, at that Veronique concentrated on the task after a quick apology, her focus went all on her mana flow she imagined she was turning it in a fine line as she let it sink into the marble inside the labyrinth’s toy, which had faintly grew.

  This was the part she had got down so far

  “Good now try moving it slowly” the man encouraged her, while readying himself just in case things went wrong and he wasn’t the only one.

  Veronique tried to ignore as both Alexander and Rhea took cover under their desks as soon as Mr Doppelganger had said those words.

  She did her best to lightly nudge the marble forward with as little mana as possible, and she thought was getting it right when the thing actually moved.

  Too bad the marble suddenly caught on fire.

  “Stream!” water came out from Ivan’s hands stopping the flames before they got the chance to really erupt leaving the toy only sightly singed “I guess I will have to add some skill to have it fireproof as well” the man had said picking it up

  “What happened?” Alexander had asked out of surprise “What did you do?! We could have died!” he accused the redhead

  “Are you saying I did it on purpose!?” who didn’t take it well to it and the duo seemed on the verge of arguing

  “Veronique your mana has an affinity for fire, right?” Ivan had inquired stopping that possibility from occurring

  “Yes? But I wasn’t trying to roast us!” Veronique had said defensively ‘was I? I know I am not sound of mind’

  “You see mana kind of has a mind of its own and yours wants to burn, so you got to take that in account” the teacher had slowly explained before asking “What were you thinking about?”

  “I was just picturing a thin wire” Veronique had no idea how such thing turned to fire

  “Then it must have got too heated” Ivan didn’t take more then a few moments to answer “you can’t condense your kind of mana for a long period of time, and that counts double in your case because you got too much of it”

  Veronique tried to push down her sudden fear of herself, knowing that it would do her no good to start spiraling

  “Are you saying that if I had an ice affinity it would have been fine?” she tried to defuse the situation with a nervous laugh, still not quite believing it had happened in the first place

  “There is no such thing as an ice affinity” he seemed offended by such thing “but yes you would have gotten a different result if your mana was different, however your real trouble is that you got to learn to tame a large quantity of it” he answered anyway even if he had to reformulate the question “so it’s quite normal for you to get more accidents then an usual student, someone else doing the same thing would have got the Artifact heated at best”

  “Who cares?! She’s shouldn’t be learning this stuff if it’s so dangerous for her to practice them!” Alexander insisted and Veronique didn’t want to admit it but he had a point.

  Maybe she should just drink more of that disgusting tea and be done with it before she hurt someone.

  “No sense kid, it would be far dangerous if she didn’t and she can’t keep drinking that contraption forever, it will be bad on her in the long run” Ivan dismissed the notion in an instant then proposed “but maybe it would be for the best if Veronique trained alone, as good as I am accidents can still happen”

  The mere thought of accidentally hurting someone made Veronique feel sick in the stomach.