"I am here to prove my Competence, just as Young Master had ordered me to."
*Thud*
Seraphina spoke as she placed 5 big notebooks she was carrying on the nearby Table.
"…"
Vaan blinked a few times to show his surprise. Seraphina stood with her hands behind her back so Vaan knew she was trying to hide something, but 5 of these big books,
How did this fragile looking even lift them?
Vaan wondered in his head, Seraphina, however, was oblivious to what he was thinking and picked the first three notebooks.
"These three books contain Spell Directories of around 50 young Mages I know. This one contains the Spell Directories of all the members of the Stormweaver Family. Since most of the Mages in my Family are Wind Mages, some of the Spells might seem similar to Young Master Vaan, but they are not, there are some slight differences in those spells and honestly, those slight differences become quite major in the grand scheme of things.
Young Master can be assured that I have not copied similar spells in the notebooks, since I deemed them useless, however, if Young Master Vaan wants me to, I can bring the Patterns I have left out the next time I come here." Seraphina reported everything clearly.
Then, she picked up the last notebook and
"This one contains all the spells my Father, a 5th Circle Mage uses, his spells are the strongest in our family, so I am sure Young Master Vaan would benefit from them. I have also put in some spells that the previous generation Family Heads used, although I can't find their complete Spell Directories, some of their strongest spells are in there.
In total, there are around 1000 Spells in these 5 Notebooks, it took me 2 days just to copy all these spells from the directories to these notebooks.
Young Master might find that the handwriting in each of those notebooks is different, that is because I had some servants help me copy them. Please be assured that these servants are trusted and I have personally double-checked each of those notebooks for mistakes around 5 times, there should be no mistakes there.
If there is still something I missed, I seek for Young Master's forgiveness."
Seraphina concluded her report with a slight bow and Vaan…
"…"
He was speechless.
Of course, Seraphina had no clue how Vaan's ability worked, so she wouldn't know that spells without the complete spell directories were useless for Vaan. However, this didn't make things any less surprising.
To think this woman would even bring the Spell Directories of all her family members, including the Family Head… not to mention those 50 other Mages' directories she had brought. One had to know, it had only been a week since Vaan had ordered Seraphina to gather spell directories and she had already placed a thousand spells in front of him.
Just…
Just how did she do that…?
"You did well."
Of course, no matter how surprised or impressed Vaan was, he knew he couldn't show it here. Not right now, he still needed to keep a strict front for at least a few more days.
Seraphina was perceptive, she could sense what Vaan was thinking so she didn't react unnecessarily either.
She knew what she had done was risky as well, giving out the Spell Directory of all the members of her family to Vaan was no different than opening up all their secrets in front of him. If these Directories were revealed, Mages could simply prepare a perfect counterattack for each of the Stormweaver Family members' spells, making them absolutely useless in a battle.
This was the reason why rarely any Mage created a Spell Directly even for his or her own reference. A mage with a revealed Spell Directory is no different than a Mage who is full of openings with no defense whatsoever and what Seraphina just did could possibly turn all her family members into such mages, especially when she was not ordered to do so.
Seraphina, however, had a different opinion.
Vaan came from the Vesta Family, he had no reason to study his random Mages' Spell Directories just to study their weaknesses. Seraphina was sure that Vaan was using these Directories for something different, something that is most likely benefitting him a lot, to the point where he even hosted an open challenge to gather more of these Spell Directories.
Seraphina had made up her mind, she would use these directories to get into Vaan's good books. Since Vaan needed these Directories, she would do everything in her power to get them and overwhelm Vaan with so many of them that he wouldn't need them anymore and win some of his trust in the process.
As for revealing her Family members' weakness, well, wasn't Vaan already holding them through their necks? How could things possibly get any worse?
Seraphina was in a position where she didn't have much to lose and this made her plans even bolder than before.
So bold that even Vaan was surprised by her actions.
"Anyways, from the next time, keep the directories you gather to yourself, only bring them to me when I order you to."
Vaan spoke, 1000 was too big of a number, even if only 10% of those spells were useful and belonged to the current elements he had, that was still 100 spells.
There is no way Vaan could learn that many spells when he already has so much to deal with.
Therefore, rather than piling up his room with these spellbooks and feeling nauseous seeing these books all the time, it was better to just let Seraphina keep everything in her place. She would manage it much better than him anyway.
"Also, divine the Directories according to their elements and the tier of the spells."
"I understand." Seraphina nodded in understanding.
"Good job. Keep up the good work."
Vaan praised. Seraphina nodded again.
Then, Vaan glanced at Seraphina for a while and started thinking. This woman was definitely capable, although he couldn't trust her right now, getting her input on certain things might help him.
Who knows? Looking at things from her perspective might help in certain ways.
"Seraphina," Vaan called out.
"Young Master." Seraphina bowed.
"What do you think about the current state of the Vesta Mansion?"
"I heard that Young Master's siblings are back from the academy, there is also the upcoming Elemental Clash that the Young Vesta Mages must be interested in. Then the-"
"Talk about the Battle of Heirs. Skip the rest." Vaan ordered.
"I apologize, Young Master Vaan, but since my or my family's status is not enough for us to be involved in it in any way possible, I have no opinion of the Battle of Heirs of Vesta Family because the information I have on the matter is severely limited."
"Is that so…"
Vaan nodded in understanding.
He was a little disappointed because he felt like Serpahina's opinion could have been valuable, however, in the end, there was nothing he could do.
"Who do you think has the chance to win the Battle of Heirs according to whatever information you have?"
"That would be Young Master Vaan, of course."
"I think I have already made it clear before, I don't want you to lick my ass, give me the real answer, if you don't have any, just say so," Vaan spoke.
Seraphina glanced at Vaan, then, she replied,
"I am not trying to flatter Young Master here. What I said was truly what I felt. While it would have been impossible before, considering Young Master's attitude towards Magic, now, however, things were different.
First, Young Master Vaan has created a never-before-seen Magic Circle.
Second, Young Master is the only son of the current Family Head.
And last but not least, Young Master is Lady Elara's future husband, and from what I have seen, has a good relationship with her.
With so many reasons in favor of Young Ma-"
"Elara? Where did she come from in this equation?"
Before Seraphina could even complete, Vaan interpreted. He couldn't be blamed either, ever since last night, he felt like he had come closer to Elara, therefore, he was much more reactive to her name now than he was before.
"In my opinion, Lady Elara's being Young Master's fiancé is a great advantage the Young Master has."
"Why is that?" Vaan questioned.
"Because of Lady Elara's extreme talent."
Seraphina answered.
"Explain more clearly," Vaan ordered and then, Seraphina took a deep breath.
"I may not know much about the details, however, one thing that I do know is that, the Vesta Family is trying to find the next heir and no current heirs meet the desired expectation. Some even say that this generation of the Vesta Family is the worst there ever was.
The Vesta Family's silence in this matter only confirms these points even further and in such an uncertain position,
There comes Lady Elara.
The pupil of the current Family Head, a Magic Prodigy whose talent even surpasses that the Lady Astra, one of the most successful Family Heads the Vesta Family had ever seen. A girl like that exists in a time where none of the current Prospective Heirs are capable of even inheriting the Family Head's position.
Lady Elara may not have the Vesta Blood flowing in her veins, but her existence alone shifts the entire dynamic of the Battle of Heirs towards Young Master Vaan just because she is your fiancé. After all, who wouldn't want to support an heir who is supported by one of the most talented mages the world had ever seen?
If capitalized correctly, just Lady Elara's presence is enough for Young Master Vaan to create the strongest faction to support him."
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