Quinn
At exactly two o'clock, I opened the door of one of the classrooms up on the third floor of the common building, and the girls and women filed in, looking as excited as could be. I recognized the young mothers, too. They must have left their children in the childcare center to be here.
Everyone took seats and some stood since there weren't enough chairs to go around. To aid in this class, I had Maria and Elizabeth, as well as Eden, Sara, and Frances. Of course, my in-laws had never used makeup before, and they certainly had never heard of it either, having lived all their lives in Norsewood, which was so isolated and far away from anything and everything.
Apparently in Athol, only the noble ladies and the very wealthy could afford makeup, and that only contained face powder that was filled with toxic materials such as lead, arsenic, and mercury to achieve that flawless, pale, silvery, gleaming complexion, lip rouge with one color to give that perfect red tinge, and liner which was made of ink to enhance the eyes. Nothing as modern and fancy and safe as my magic version.
Once the room was silent, my students waiting with expectation, I cleared my throat and began. "Welcome, everyone, to the skincare and makeup class." I summoned my magic circle and conjured a range of products: face wash, toner, moisturizer, eye cream, face mask, BB cream, foundation, eyes shadows, blushers, and lipsticks as well as various makeup brushes.
All eyes automatically turned to the products on the table, and since the beauty pottles and bottles looked so elegant, they couldn't help but marvel at them.
I said, "These are skincare and makeup products. The skincare products help in keeping your skin clean and moist and some may even reduce wrinkles and dark spots."
There was a lot of awed expressions at hearing this, and I continued. "The makeup products are to make you look radiant. Although if you don't like the strong look, you don't have to wear it."
Rosie put her hand up.
"Yes, Rosie?" I asked.
"Does my lady use both the skincare and makeup?"
I nodded. "I use the skincare products all the time, twice a day, once in the morning after waking up and once at night before going to bed. The makeup, I use them most of the time, although I haven't been doing that since I've been here." As in waking up to find myself in this world.
"Remember, it's also a good idea to give your skin a breather. Let it rest for a couple of days of the week. I usually do this on the weekend unless I'm going out or have dates with friends." Turning to the others, I asked, "Anyone else have any questions so far?" When no one raised their hands, I said, "Now I'm going to show you how to use each product."
It was an hour later when practicing began with a lot of giggling and laughter as faces were being cleansed, moisturized, and painted, and two hours after that when everyone took home a basket filled with skincare and makeup goodies, and by then, it was dinnertime.
The dining hall was loud and busy, as usual, as everyone lined up to get their food. It was pumpkin soup, roast pork and root vegetables served with gravy, and fresh green salads along with berry puffs and apple pie as dessert tonight, a favorite here in Norsewood Lodge.
I was just sitting down in my allocated spot, smack-dab in the middle of the many seats along the lord's table on the dais, when the children came running up to me.
Abi raised her hands, and I knew exactly what she wanted. Chuckling, I lifted her up and then plopped her on my lap. Alex climbed on the chair next to me, which had two cushions to add height, and noting that he was struggling, the nursemaid, Martha, helped him. Jonah, on the other hand, took his seat on the other side, next to the one that was Aldric's. Soon, the other Templetons came in, too, and the table was quickly filled up.
The maids brought out our meal—elegant large silver serving bowls of pumpkin soup and trays filled with neatly and artfully arranged with the dinner, and we started digging in. Of course, as usual, there was no formality here as everyone began to eat when they got their food. I was just starting mine when I saw Aldric and his men come into the hall, and boy, did they draw attention. Aldric, at the head of the crowd, was simply tall and ripped, even though he was wearing sweatpants and a sweater. His godly form just refused to be hidden away under loose clothing, eh?
As for the rest of his men... Wow! The soldiers changed that much, became that shredded and looked so strong and powerful with only one month of training so far. Especially when most of them, those from the northern station, had been in dire condition, health-wise, after the monster subjugation. But of course, I knew that my wonderful, personalized magic pills played a huge role in their dramatic transformations, of which I was damn proud.
While his men lined up to get their meals at the buffet station, Aldric came to sit beside me, and after giving me a brief kiss on the forehead, which pleasantly surprised me, he started gathering the array of delicious food on the trays onto his plate and then digging right in. He looked starved.
Clearing my throat, I asked, "Will you be doing more work after dinner?"
He nodded. "Mm-hmm."
Again, huh? I returned my attention to my meal, and after I finished, I excused myself. Since Aldric was going to be late again tonight, I was determined to stay up waiting for him, and to do that, I'd need to keep myself busy. Since tomorrow, Monday, was the day when the residents' follow-up health checks began, as it had been well over the seven days—and it had been over one month for the first lot, since they had had their first health examination and started taking the supplemental pills—I thought about getting everything prepared early.
I went to one of the consultation rooms in the health clinic and began chatting with Vicky.
"What do you think?" I asked.
It is a sound idea, Vicky stated. A portable blood analyzer and pharmaceutical magic circle would be very efficient.
I nodded. "If we can create more than one, then others can use it and treat patients, which means my workload will be reduced. I think it'll be especially nifty when we have more citizens returning to Norsewood."
Aldric was confident that those who had left after the raid would undoubtedly return come spring, and I hoped he was right. We both wanted Norsewood to grow and prosper, and to do that, we needed citizens, and the more, the better. Besides, I already had a vision of Norsewood's future.
The land would be lush with fields of rice as well as vegetables and fruits, especially those from Earth. There'd also be animals as well as aquatic farms and a town lined with shop buildings and cozy houses—a mixture of this world's cottage and Earthly villa style with all the modernism inside. Of course, Norsewood wouldn't be Norsewood without a manor, and it'd be one that was far better than the older version, one with character and charm and simply grand. I could just see it in my mind's eye, and I was quite excited at the thought of getting started when spring arrived.
Back to the important matter at hand, I said, "Of course, those operating the portable magic circle and treating patients needs to be qualified. Perhaps there's a way to measure a person's aptitude for using a magic circle?"
There is, Vicky stated. Via your appraisal skill.
"Ah, yes, of course, my appraisal skill. I had forgotten about that," I said, chuckling awkwardly.
I heard Vicky sigh in exasperation, and I dare say if she were present here in human form, she'd probably roll her eyes, too, at my absentmindedness regarding the list of my magical abilities. I admit that I sometimes didn't remember the skills I had, and since I hadn't been using the appraisal one for a while, plus being super busy at that, it couldn't be helped that I'd forget about its existent entirely.
Every individual has a certain affinity with magic, and this can be done via secondary means, which is through a contract.
Via a contract? I said, "There's something like that?"
Only an individual with high-tier magic ability with a high mana level could form a contract with a subordinate.
Since I had never seen anyone who was blessed with a contracted subordinate before, I hesitantly asked, "Just how high is high?"
To form a contract with an individual, a mana of one hundred is needed. As for abilities, there needs to be at least a level one hundred.
Ah, that would explain why a contract with a subordinate was few and far between.
I said, "Open status."
A screen popped up, and I scrolled to check my status. Of course, my health was at one hundred, my strength still at the pathetic number of twenty, and my mana had now turned into 10B, which must mean ten billion, instead of the number nine followed by many more nines. Clearly, I could have a few contracted subordinates where my mana was concerned.
I scrolled further down to my abilities, and since I was more interested in the healing skill, I checked that first. Similar to the mana, it sat at a ridiculous number of nine followed by more nines.
"Looks like I can have contract subordinates for healing," I said. "Which means I can have staff working in the health clinic." I tilted my head to one side. "Would it be possible to measure an individual's aptitude for magic usage as well during the health check tomorrow, Vicky?"
Yes. Would you like to add it to the blood analyzer and pharmaceutical magic instrument or create another device?
I thought about this for a moment and then said, "Another device would be best. Oh, and while you're at it, would it be possible to create a gadget to test eyesight? I notice some of the adults and children are having a hard time seeing."
Allan, Miles, Leo, Nick, and Michael were the people I noticed so far. Allan tended to draw back whatever he was reading at arm's length and squint. As for Miles, he had the habit of frowning hard whenever he stared off into the distance. Eden had told me her husband couldn't quite see as clearly as he'd like a few feet in front of him. And Leo, Nick, and Michael seemed to always run into things, and I suspected they had inherited their farsightedness from one of their parents—Nick and Michael from Miles, and Leo, possibly from Frances because I sometimes saw her squinting.
Apparently, they called it the fuzzy eye condition here for bad eyesight, and they considered it a curse by the devil. If I happen to give them prescription glasses, would they consider that as lifting the curse? I wondered.
An eye examination and eyeglasses making magic circle device will be added.
"Sounds good," I said. I frowned for a moment, thinking about the elderly such as Grandpa Keith and Grandma Ada as well as Grandpa Joel and Grandma Liz and the others who had cataracts, which appeared to be very common here as one aged. "Vicky, would it be possible to perhaps create a magic circle that could do delicate eye surgery? I know it's very complex and far-fetch—"
It can be added.
I jolted, my eyes widening. "Really?" I asked hesitantly. "You're not pulling my leg?"
The sound of a soft snort echoed around me. A skill doesn't know how to pull anyone's leg, my dear lady.
"Then...?"
It's an affirmative. An eye surgery for sight correction, astigmatism, cataract, and glaucoma can be done via a magic circle. Magic healing will also be added as part of the procedure. For sight correction, an individual must be at least twenty years old for the surgery to proceed.
"Yes, of course," I said. "Eyesight doesn't mature and stabilize until then. Let's get started."
I summoned my creation magic circle, and the signs, symbols, and scripts started turning. Within moments, materializing were three five-by-five-inch-sized silver tablets—one a blood analyzer and pharmaceutical magic circle, shortened to a Health Check Tablet, and the other an aptitude magic circle which was shortened to an Aptitude Tablet. The last one was the eye examination tablet, which was simply that, an Eye Examination Tablet. It appeared I had to hold this one up for several seconds while the circle examined the patient's eyes. Of course, for the eye surgery, a patient needed to lie down and keep still while the circle did its magic on the delicate area, hence, a fancy patient chair was also created with an attached magic surgery tablet.
Now that the devices were created, I dusted my hands with a job well done and headed out the door.