Beyond?

“Magical contracts are on the boundary to dark magic since they are able to enslave the contractor and rob him of his free will. Many magicians voiced the wish to ban them throughout the years, but since they are so convenient to ensure that someone holds his word, their use is still widely spread.

They originate from the arts of mind magic and manipulate the contractors' mind in a way which forces them to adhere to the contract. There isn't much difference between a magical contract and an enslavement spell. The only difference is that a contract affects both parties who agreed to it. The objectors of magical contracts are right when they say that there is no difference between a one sided contract and enslavement.

While useful, someone has to be careful with setting up magical contracts. That's because the nature of their magic makes their implementation very literal minded. A contractor can circumvent his contract when it isn't set up properly.

The punishment or effects for breaking the contract can be set by the contractors. The possibilities range from a simple notification to all parties that the contract was broken, to a forced action, to pain and to death.

A contract is set up between two parties by infusing their mana into each other and casting the required spell while adhering to the contract. That's the reason why contracts aren't seen as black magic, since both parties have to agree.”

-Papyri magicae.

***Free City States of Nict, Capital***

***Azir***

It's been a week since my betrothal to Stella was announced. We live like a newly wed couple and let our hormones run amok. Well, we are practically already wed. It works well between us and I can't imagine anything that would change our relationship. On top I finally got a decent laboratory for my hobby. I believed my life to be heaven... until now!

“I won't become a tutor!” I shake my head vehemently while looking at Professor Agate Eddin. We are in her class and she just confronted me with the fact that I need to spend at least five hours per week as a tutor if I want to graduate.

“There isn't much choice. The curriculum dictates that a graduate of the magical university shows that he can implement what he learned and teach that knowledge to others. It's right here in your curriculum. Didn't you read it?” Agate looks at me questioningly.

I take the sheet she is waving at me and read for myself. After the incident which threw us to another world I thought that she had finally given up on pestering me. At least she stopped annoying me with her stupid tests. But now it seems like she found a new subject to pester me with.

Indeed, there is a sentence like that in the curriculum. I don't remember reading it at the beginning of the year?

Agate takes the sheet back. “Since we are on the same terms now, here is your schedule and the locations where you hold your lessons. And about your subject, I'll leave that choice to you. Be careful to attend your own lessons, I'll drop in from time to time to take a look.”

“Can't I take some kind of test instead. I've my own stuff to do.” There are tons of experiments on my list. And I have to repair the little device which I brought with me from my old world.

“It can't be helped. So which subject do you choose?” Agate takes a pen to note down my choice.

“They can ask whatever the fuck they want. I don't care.” Is she serious with her question?

Agate sighs and notes down 'General studies course'.

“One question. What happens if there are no students in my lesson to tutor?” Do I have to be there and wait for someone to arrive?

“Then you can go home.” Agate shrugs her shoulders.

“So all I have to do is to shoo them away.” I nod satisfied.

Agate looks up. “I hope you realize that you'll fail your tutorship if someone complains about you.”

I click my fingers and excuse myself. Looking at my schedule, I find out that my first lesson is already in half an hour. For a moment I consider ditching the whole university issue, it's just a title after all. But when I consider how much time I invested into this...

The least I can do is to take a look. So I walk to the indicated classroom. It takes me some time to get there since the classes for the younger students are located in another building.

Arriving there I find out that the door to the classroom is slightly open. So I push the door and step inside.

From one moment to the next my vision darkens and I feel cold water splashing down my body. I hear snickering from several young people.

Slowly I raise my hand and take the bucket from my head. There are two boys and ten girls in the classroom. All of them are from different semesters as far as I can tell.

All of them were grinning when I took the bucket off, though some of them stopped when they recognized me.

“So you guys like to play games?” I smile and close the door behind me. “I'll play a game with you.”

***

I have my legs on top of the desk and smile while reading a book. Agate enters the classroom and takes a curious look at my twelve students. All of them are lined up in front of me and hastily solving some complicated formulas or answering a tricky question.

Agate whistles and corrects her glasses. “This is the first time that I've entered a tutored lesson and the students are actually working. What did you do?”

I shrug my shoulders. “You just have to give them the right motivation.” All of them look up, but a single glare of mine sends them back to their work.

Agate nods and checks a box on her notes, then she leaves again.

My gaze wanders to one of the boys. “You have to write faster, Martha. I can't switch you back if you don't solve your question or until the lesson is over.”

One of the girls farther left looks up. “But that's my body! And I am almost done with my question!”

My gaze turns to the girl. “Poor Frederik, the world isn't fair. This is a punishment for the whole community. Maybe you'll learn something from this experience. And isn't it cool to belong to the stronger gender from now on?”

The boy shrieks and starts writing faster.

***

In the end I switched them back to their original bodies when the lesson was over. If it hadn't become so late I could have enjoyed it more.

I yawn as I walk down the alleyway towards the park and my house. It's already dark and the university changed to its typical night-time atmosphere. Probably I should reintroduce electricity and proper street lights.

The magically fuelled candlelights which are spending light leave much to be desired.

Suddenly something small blinks up under one of these candlelights in the alleyway ahead of me and I raise one hand in front of my face. My reaction was an unconscious act.

The blade embeds itself in my opened hand. Hadn't I raised my hand it would've hit me in the eye. I start gathering mana from my environment and slap another throwing knife out of the air, using my already wounded hand.

I am rewarded with a nasty cut and it finally occurs to me that standing under one of the magical candlelights might not be so smart. Despite activating my mana sight I can't sense the offender.

So I point one finger at the street lights and destroy them with small bursts of concentrated mana. I press myself to the left wall of the alleyway, evading another knife. Feeling for the mana around me I realize that there isn't much to gather.

There are areas on university grounds which are very rich in mana, it takes almost no effort or concentration to gather power there. Of course the opposite is also true. And my enemies seem to know that. Or are they simply lucky to attack me here? I doubt it.

Finally my efforts to gather some mana from my surroundings pay off and I force the gathered mana into a thin layer around my body. A third throwing knife is reflected by my new protection. The attacker threw it with unerring accuracy despite the bad light conditions.

Then I sense movement in the alleyway in front and behind me. Seven hooded people in dark clothing are closing in on me. Three from the front and four from behind me.

Pulling the knife out of my hand, I infuse mana into my legs and jump up to the left wall of the alleyway, pushing myself off once again I travel all the way up to the roof of the house to my right. Stella taught me this neat little trick and I really like it because it's easy and fast to accomplish.

I summon five arcane lances and set everything that appears in front of me as a target. My attackers follow me within moments and the first who pulls himself up the roof dies without a sound.

His head rocks backwards as one of the arcane lances travels right through his brain, spraying a fine mist of blood and tissue onto the people behind him. My mana vision enables me to see in the dark, but the attackers aren't less proficient.

They didn't even twitch when their comrade died. The second attacker barely evades the same fate, but the third catches one of the spears in his chest.

I see fire gathering between the hands of the hooded person who made it onto the roof and fire all three of my remaining arcane spears into him. He loses control of his spell and I throw myself to the ground as he disappears in a huge explosion and a large part of the roof is blasted apart.

The mana, which is gathering around me, is slowly increasing. The longer this continues, the better for me. The nature of my ability increases my defence and offence over time. Even in an area without much mana.

Getting to my feet I realize that it's not only dark, but there is also dust and smoke around me. I cough and sense something approaching from above. This time I use my own mana and cast an area effect magic, adding speed to the movement of all physical objects within the area.

Being very careful not to overdo it I move very slowly to step out of the way. Someone crashes into the roof where I stood a moment ago and I hear bones breaking when the enemy penetrates the roof. A scream from farther away tells me that at least one more opponent got caught by my buff.

I dispel the spell and kneel down to listen for the other attackers, but there is nothing. Their ability to hide from my senses disturbs me. Or did they run away?

One of the tiles on the roof makes a scratching sound and I turn just in time to block a knife coming down at me. To do so I used the throwing knife which I pulled out of my own hand earlier.

The black figure kicks me and I take the blow, relying on the layer of mana around me. While doing so I grunt as the foot hits me with much more force than I expected, locking my wounded arm around it.

I hurl my leg at the opponent's supporting leg and am rewarded with a crunching sound. He topples over and I shove his weapon aside and let go of his leg.

He makes a futile attempt to hit me. The impact makes my head shake as I drive my own wounded fist into his chest, pouring mana into my hand. The pain is like a searing fire, but the adrenaline in my body lets me ignore it.

His chest caves in and he is flung away like he was kicked by a horse.

I don't wait for another attack and drop myself into the hole which was created by one of the attackers.

Down in the house, complete darkness awaits me and I rely entirely on my ability to sense mana while I get up and hurry into the next room. It is a university building and it's not surprising that there is no one here at this hour.

In the next room I relax for the first time and activate a healing spell to repair the damage to my hand. Then I wait. I don't think that it's wise to go out there and follow two people who can hide from me like ghosts. In here I have the upper hand because I can concentrate all my attention on the doors and windows.

Plus, the longer they wait, the stronger I get.

The minutes tick by, but no further attacks follow. After a while I sense multiple people encircling the area. Finally one of them decides to check the damaged building I took position in.

He jumps down the hole in the roof and lights the area with a light globe.

I recognize him through the open door to my room and decide to show myself. “Karsen.”

.