Bella, completely missing the irritated expression on his face, looked even more excited. "You must accompany me to the lord, so we can tell him this good news! Maybe a head mage could be assigned to teach you… I am surprised that the other mages didn't learn of this fact before now."
Arthur's irritation grew at her suggestion to tell his father.
"Bella… you must keep this a secret. This is a very important secret for me, please do not tell anyone, especially father. For now, only you and I know, so you must not make any mistakes. I do not have time to deal with what will happen if you tell him."
"I don't understand," Bella said, her brows furrowed in confusion. This was supposed to be a good thing, a great thing for him, but he seemed angry at the idea. She stood there, her mouth slightly agape, trying to understand his words.
This was a boy that was spoken ill about in conversations and taken very lightly, brushed off as a weak, illegitimate son. She had spent a year up in the barracks, listening to conversation about the young master's character, so she didn't know how to react to him. For a black sheep like him, this should be one of the greatest things to occur.
Suddenly, Arthur's whole demeanour changed. His expression became cold and hostile and his tone turned as sharp as a sword.
"Speak a word about this to anyone and I will make sure you disappear from this world." Bella flinched back, her eyes wide, but ultimately she knew to keep quiet.
'A boy that's younger than me, without even having one mana circle, threatened me. Though normally I would just scoff, why am I hesitant. He is a young master, but he doesn't have any backing or significant status. Then why am I so…'
"I understand." Bella slowly nodded, "But as a mage, it hurts my heart to see wasted potential. It's already rare to have a mana heart and if you don't progress it would be a waste. Please let me teach you!"
Arthur was surprised at her determination. He was initially going to simply refuse because he did not need any help, but the sincerity in her voice made him pause. After all this could prove useful to keep his eye on her.
"I will think about it. For now, let's keep this between us. Meet me here tomorrow." He said this as he walked off, leaving a flustered Bella, who was now happy she was able to convince the young master.
Later that day Arthur was in his room, sitting on his bed in concentration.
'I've got to create my first magic circle as fast as possible, It shouldn't be too hard. I just have to avoid the mistakes I made in my previous body.
He focused on his beating heart, mana heart, guiding it with the knowledge he had from his past life. First step for all mages was clearing the impurities inside and create a network of connections to parts of his body that he wanted to use mana. In his previous life, his body was more suited to just be a mage, but this body was special. Truly, this body constitution was extremely rare. This time Arthur didn't need to limit his connections to his palms, as a magic swordsman he could make connections to every part of his body. Naturally every human had tiny amounts of mana in their bodies, as their hearts would produce it, but only people blessed with a mana heart could produce sufficient quantities to perform spells.
'This is unprecedented…'
Arthur, upon starting the first step realised something dangerous. The mana heart in his body was so overwhelmingly strong that it cleared the impurities on its own. Without knowing, people would generally be happy with this, if it even occurred in actuality, but this actually had a big problem for Arthur.
'I'm going to die… the mana output is too pure, and too much.' The raw mana surged through his body making connections on its own. It just needed to be released. His insides were a chaotic storm threatening to tear him up. At this rate he would die before even reaching the first circle. He frantically tried to control the mana inside, focusing harder. Pain shot through his body as he guided the man to the rest of his body.
After a while the chaotic mana flow finally began to subside. Arthur was laying back, panting and completely covered in sweat. He had coughed up blood many times, turning his bed into a spotty, red mess. In a few hours, Arthur was now a 1-star mage with connections all over his body, but most importantly Arthur should have a tattoo somewhere on his body that signified what his affinity was. Arthur forced himself to get up, afterall he was most curious to see what kind of mage he would be.
He sat on the edge of his bed, scanning his hands and legs to find the symbol. He even took off his bloodstained shirt to find it, but nothing.
'Wait… don't tell me…'
Embarrassed he slowly took off his pants to verify, and this time he was glad there was no symbol there either.
'Where could it be? Could it be possible that I failed?' Arthur thought tho himself as he got up, still shirtless. 'There's no way I failed, I am truly a 1-circle mage. Anyway, I'll find it, but I have to wash up first.'
Arthur was covered in sweat and blood, naturally this would not look well if someone walked in and saw him in this state. He went to take a bath at the bathhouse, but before he went he realised he hadn't seen a single one of the maids that were supposed to be attending to him. It seems they had been instructed to leave him to his own devices. 'That's a good thing', he thought to himself, 'It would be bad if they saw the mess in my room.'