Selfless Love

The Tutor

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to my friend, Chi, who came up with this adorable chapter idea. Enjoy!

I trust her ladyship completely, Ruth thought to himself as he stood in front of an instructional board, except when it comes to self-preservation and forcing me to do things that are beyond my comfort and expertise.

He slowly turned to face his singular pupil, who continued to stare at him wide-eyed and utterly confused.

Instead of hiring a proper tutor for the young lady, Maxi insisted that Victoria study under his guidance.

Her ladyship had tried to argue that he had done a wonderful job teaching her magic, and what better way to learn than from someone Victoria already knows and trusts?

He had thanked her for her praise and noted that she was a formidable mage, but he had taught her when she was an adult, mature, and eager to learn. Victoria was restless, like her father, and a dreamer, like her mother. Ruth didn't foresee this ending in a productive way.

But when her ladyship wanted her way, there was nothing stopping her, and so here he stood before the little lady, desperately trying to keep her attentive and on task.

It was far more challenging than when they had started, as Victoria had been curious and excited to learn the basics of magic, assuming she would begin her training with mana, as her mother and brother had done.

However, she quickly realized that this would not be an enjoyable experience; in fact, she would dare to claim that she was downright miserable.

Ruth said that he was tasked with teaching Victoria basic skills, more specifically, addressing the subject she dreaded above all others: mathematics.

Victoria had argued that, as a mage, she would learn as she went along in her training, not in a traditional classroom setting.

"No school," she pouted, crossing her little arms. "I wanna learn mana now, math later."

"In order to understand the intricacies of magic, you must first understand the basics of arithmetic in order to properly calculate and draw the runes," Ruth explained.

Victoria raised her eyebrows and nodded slowly as though she understood, but Ruth could still see the confusion in her eyes.

Rather than arguing with her, which as a child of Riftan and Maximilian was nearly impossible, he decided to jump right into the lesson and write out some basic rules of addition and subtraction along with some practice problems for her to solve in her little notebook.

He turned to the board and began writing and explaining the fundamental rules of addition and subtraction. When he turned back to see if she was understanding, he found her staring out the window longingly. He quickly recognized that far-off look on her face; it was the same one Maxi had gotten when she was lost in her own thoughts, daydreaming of missions or worrying about Riftan. Judging by the proud smile that had crept onto the child's face, she was likely fantasizing about slaying a drake or a dragon.

Ruth strode over to Victoria and lightly tapped his boney knuckles against the wooden desk, trying not to startle her. She jumped anyway.

She turned and looked up at him, the far-off look in her eyes slowly receding as she gazed at him in confusion, as though she had forgotten he was there.

"Please, my lady," Ruth implored, concerned that they were already off to a rough start, "try to stay on task and absorb what I am telling you."

She looked down and stared intently at her paper with her notes. Satisfied, Ruth returned to the board in front. He pivoted slightly to glance back at her and smiled proudly as he saw she was still on task, looking over her work. She may not understand it fully, but reading over her notes should help her understand.

He turned back to the board and began writing out a few more examples.

He whirled around when he heard an odd noise behind him.

Now it was his turn to be perplexed. He witnessed the small child, who had picked up her notes and was sniffing the paper. Her eyes were closed, as though she were concentrating. A fond warmth formed in the base of Ruth's heart at the sight. Perhaps she finds comfort in the sweet scent of old paper, as he and Maxi did.

That whisper of contentment turned to horror as he watched the child swiftly crumple the paper and pop it into her mouth.

"Lady Victoria! That is not food! Please spit that out! If you are hungry, we can take a break, and you can get a snack from the kitchens," the mage said nervously.

Victoria looked back at him and blinked owlishly.

"I na hungi," she said around a mouthful of paper.

"Then why on earth would you eat your notes?!" he chided as he quickly strided over to her, ready to use force to remove the foreign object from her lips.

"Yoo sa absor it," she said with a cough as she tried and failed to swallow the worksheet.

Ruth gave her a swift pat on the back, causing her to expel the paper from her mouth. He took a cloth, picked it up from where it had plopped onto the floor, and quickly disposed of the item in a waste basket. He looked back at the child, who stared at him expectantly. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, releasing a tired sigh.

He took her notebook and wrote out ten problems of simple math based on what he had taught her and what she already knew.

He placed the book back on her desk.

"Don't eat this, please," he said sternly. "I am going to read for a while. Work on this at your own pace and let me know when you are done."

He turned and left the child to her own devices. He presumed that perhaps he was hovering, and she didn't want him breathing down her neck with all these rules. Maybe she learned better on her own. Some learned better from hearing the instructions and formulas; others learned from seeing examples worked out on the board. Perhaps Victoria's learning style was something different; perhaps she learned best by doing.

Ruth settled into a comfortable chair by the fire and began reading. He was more than a few chapters into his novel when he decided to check on her. She should have finished by now, so what was taking so long? He stepped over to her quietly so as not to disturb her concentration.

Ruth was forced to do a double take of her page. He looked over her shoulder and saw that she was not in fact working on her assignment, but that she was drawing a picture. What had first caught his eye was the color. It was a rainbow of hues on her page, and yet he had only provided her with a quill and black ink. Where did the color come from?! Perhaps Maxi had taught her daughter simple harmless enchantments like changing the color of ink.

"That is not your assignment, my lady." Ruth said dryly.

Victoria remained silent, choosing to ignore him as she continued drawing.

"Seeing as you've drawn all over your work, I will have to provide you with another worksheet," the mage grumbled as he moved back over to his workstation to start another assignment for her.

He was nearly done when he heard the ear-splitting sound of the legs of a chair scraping against the tile floor and then the unmistakable pitter-patter of small feet.

He looked up and saw that Victoria was no longer in her chair. He glanced around quickly and saw that she was nowhere in the room, but the doors to the library had been flung wide open.

"HEY!" Ruth shouted as he shot to his feet as he hurried towards the door, "COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!"

But Victoria did not stop. She didn't even turn around to acknowledge that she had heard him speak.

"You will be in big trouble when your father hears about your misbehavior!" Ruth scolded.

High-pitched peels of laughter and a few squeals echoed down the halls.

Okay, I'll admit that was an empty threat, Ruth chidded himself. The Lord would just as soon cut off his own arm than see his daughter unhappy. In fact, Ruth would probably be severely punished for causing the child to flee.

"We'll try again tomorrow," he grumbled as he closed the doors to his sanctuary behind him.

He sauntered over to Victoria's desk to put away her paper and writing utensils. As he cleaned up, he took a closer look at the drawing she had left behind.

Ruth clutched at his chest as he felt his heart dissolving at the adorable image in front of him.

Victoria had drawn a picture of Ruth and herself, dressed in mage's robes, holding hands. There was a colorful ball drawn over where each empty hand should have been. A spell. They were using pure mana in a spell of some sort. It didn't look like a battle, based on the bright smiles plastered across their faces. Perhaps she had drawn Ruth teaching her to use mana, as she had asked at the beginning of their lesson. He couldn't help but smile as he followed the gaze of the drawing of himself, who looked down at Victoria with unmistakable pride.

"Never doubt that I am proud of you, Victoria," Ruth mumbled. "You will make a fine mage someday."

----

The following day, as the sun set gently behind the mountains, Ruth was making his way through the corridors of the castle. Riftan had requested that he bring some of his plans for an improved defensive mechanism for their next monster raid.

As he made his way down the hall towards the war room, he passed by Victoria's room. The door was open, and he caught a glimpse of her studying something very intently. She was so absorbed in her work that she failed to notice that Ruth had walked by.

Ruth paused and stood in the doorway for a moment.

Shouldn't she be in bed? What is she working on?

He stepped a bit closer and saw that she had a large book open in front of her. Ruth felt his jaw go slack.

Wait. Is she...studying?

Ruth felt a bit dizzy and elated all at once.

That's not possible. She detests any form of studying. Then again, this is the child of Maximilian. She certainly inherited her mother's inhuman stubbornness, and perhaps the work she left behind in the library plagued her because she left it unfinished.

Ruth was truly touched by his niece's newfound studious tenacity. He moved to stand behind her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"I've always been proud of you, Victoria," he said with an unnatural layer of sweetness in his tone that he himself did not recognize, "and seeing you not give up on your work makes me so happy. If you keep up your studies with this much determination, you'll be a skilled mage in no time. However, it is getting late, and you should rest so that..."

Ruth's voice trailed off as his face grew pale.

"M-my lady," he gasped. "What have you done?!"

Ruth had stood close enough to see what she was working on and saw, to his horror, that she had scribbled upon one of his most beloved ancient texts.

Upon closer inspection, he saw that she had drawn piles and piles of gold coins and other treasures in the margins of the page. In the center of the page was the image of a ferocious dragon that knights and mages had fought against many ages ago. Some even surmised that the deadly dragon Sektor was a direct descendant of this beast. The dragon on the page roared angrily as it perched on a mountaintop in the midst of a powerful thunderstorm, ready to devour the knights in the valley below.

"He looked so grumpy," she said simply. "I thought since dragons love treasure, riches would cheer him up."

Ruth was beyond baffled. He stood, mouth agape, probably looking like a fish out of water.

He reached around her and pointed to the small gray creature Victoria had doodled in the bottom right corner of the page.

"And what is that?" Ruth asked numbly.

"The treasure didn't make him happy," Victoria said plainly, as though it were obvious. "Then I figured out that he was angry because he was sad. He lives in the mountains all alone. So, I drew this little rabbit. I wanted him to have a friend."

Ruth was quiet for a while. Then he released a long, heavy sigh.

Note to self: Before we begin our next lesson, I need to speak with her about vandalism.