“Bea, what are you doing?” Robin asked in panic that he forgot to use an honorific to address me like he usually did. Notthat I minded; I preferred it, in fact, if not for the stupid social norms. I should ask them to drop the honorifics, honestly.
But at this moment, I was in pursuit of knowledge. “I will test my theory,” I announced, moving the tip of my little finger to the fire before any of them could protest.
It hurts.
I threw the match onto the sink as I keeled over and clutched my burned finger with my other hand, trying not to cry. They all rushed to my side, while Mia detoured to get the medical kit for emergencies.
“Are you stupid?” Reuben yelled, snatching away my wrist with the burned finger. They inspected the burn, grunting and growling at the damage.
Well, judging by the turn of events, Iwasbeing stupid. But I genuinely believed I was immune because what could be the other explanation? I needed to know the truth immediately, and the method was accessible to me, and I only tried it on a little bit of skin!
Before Mia could return with the medical kit, someone burst through the door and ran towards where I sat on the floor, surrounded by my knights. Robin was about to push the man away but stopped himself when recognition dawned on us.
I looked at him through teary eyes. “Derrick?”
Chapter Nine
Master Derrick, our family physician, was here at the magic academy, tending to my tiny wound. How did he know I was injured? How did he get through the door when the dorm was magically spelled to only let select people inside?
He finished casting the healing spell, and when I glanced at my finger, there wasn’t even a scar left, although I felt a little weaker.
“Side effect of healing spells,” Derrick explained when he noticed my lame expression. “The magic needs to use the patient’s vitality to repair the damage.”
“How did you know I was injured?” I voiced my thoughts as I leaned against Robin’s chest, who had taken a spot behind me on the floor. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m sorry for the surprise, my lady,” Derrick smiled sweetly, which looked quite silly as he knelt beside me. “The Crown Prince has called for me personally to teach future healers of the academy. The Lord and Lady permitted me to do so, since I promised I’ll watch over you while I’m here.” He glanced at my knights, at Mia, then back at me. “I had detection magic spelled on you that alerts me if you’re injured or in mortal pain.”
I gaped at him. “Like, permanently spelled?”
“No, it’s more of an enchantment,” he admitted, gesturing to the bracelet Mia had been making me wear every day for the longest time. It was a gift from my mother, if I rememberedcorrectly. Master Derrick lifted his arm to show a similar bracelet.
Oh, so it was a magical fitness tracker. Interesting and very useful. I wondered if it could also pick up my elevated heart rate and breathing, like earlier —
As if Derrick could read my mind, his cheeks flushed as he cleared his throat, prompting my knights to narrow their eyes at me. Nothing got past them, didn’t it?
“How did you manage that?” Reuben asked Derrick, folding his arms over his chest and standing menacingly over us. “You’ve only been with the household for a little over a year, and you already have the Lord and Lady’s trust to watch over Bea?”
Derrick brought himself up to match Reuben’s intimidating posture. “I grew up in Baybluff. I'm one of the best healers in the Kingdom. The Lord sent me to this academy to study when it was discovered I had an affinity with Recovery magic. I owe my future to them. I believe you both know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Robin snaked his arms around my waist and held me tight, while Reuben’s eyes flashed down at me.
“Thanks for helping me, Master Derrick,” I spoke up to break off the weird energy of the room. “I have a question though. Is it possible I can be temporarily immune to fire?”
“You’re still on that?” Robin chuckled, nuzzling me with his cheek.
Derrick tilted his head. “Temporarily immune? It might be possible, although extremely rare. It could be your Unique if you had one.”
“I’m just glad there are extra eyes to keep watch on my lady,” Mia cheered, clapping her hands. “I feel like she’s a trouble magnet. There’s something strange about this school.”
“It’s not the school, but the people around her,” Reuben grumbled, glaring at me as if it was my fault all these strange events kept happening to me.
And to finally conclude my hypothesis, unfortunately I couldn’t have immunity to fire as my Unique, because I might already have one.
In this realm, aside from the concept of magic existing and defying the laws of physics, there was another miraculous thing that manifested among its dwellers — Uniques.
Not everyone had a Unique. Unlike magic, which had the potential to be learned by anyone and your only hurdle was the amount of mana inside you, a Unique was something you were born with. It was called a Unique precisely because it was very likely you were the only one in the world with that special ability. Others could have a variation of it, but the specific configurations were unique to you.
For example, a person could be born with the ability to move twice as fast as a human possibly could. Another person could have the “speed” Unique too, but maybe they would be 1.5 times faster, or three times faster. No Unique was exactly alike.
