(POV MC)
"So are borrowers the reason magic has its sigma? Wait, you said it's all them, so are most evil magic users a type of borrower?" I asked in a serious tone as he looked at his Mom.
"Yes, Sweetie, and before you ask if I hate them, I do, Lucas.Don't let anyone tell you who we are Son when it comes to loving dirty hollows. The Heads of everyone in the magic community won't accept those dirty hollow magic bastards anytime soon!
Lucas, to love magic you must learn to hate borrowers for what they did to humanity, in forever separating the magical from those without it!" Mom's voice was filled with anger... No, a stronger word would be HATE. But under all that, I could have sworn I heard a bit of a sad undertone in the last part.
"Sweetie, don't look at me that way. You need to understand son that those hollows all deserve to die by King Solomon's word, all who pride themselves in magic would agree!" Mom said as she placed her hand over her chest right above her heart.
Mom then pointed towards me as she kept ranting about her beliefs.
"Those dirty hollows don't deserve to enjoy the blessings of mana and feel the power that comes from the Arcane Truth. Sweetie, we don't hate those dirty hollow bugs, because of something as shallow as skin color or race, NO.
A proud noble magician has to be above such archaic means. True followers of the Arcane Truth don't hate because of how they were born, but because of how they act." Mom said as she threw the blue leather book she was holding before to the floor hitting a bookshelf nearby.
"WE HATE THEM ALL FOR WHAT THEY REPRESENT!!! Lucas, even talented wizards who are blessed by the mana can also become a disgusting hollow when they seek shortcuts to power!" Mom said as she looked like a completely different person than the one I remembered with how she was acting..
"No matter the country, culture, or whatever we call ourselves, be it the magic users, magus, magicians, mages, wizards, witches, and more. Like I told you, son. Those who walk the path of a true user of magic and follow the Arcane Truths hate those dirty hollow bastards." Mom's voice kept getting louder and louder as it seemed Mom was going into going into a frenzy.
. . .
(POV Narrator)
Emma's inner hate towards those dirty hollow bastards had been touched. It wasn't going down anytime soon! Emma kept cursing those who were hollow! She had even said she would hang them if she ever saw them!
This rant interrupted Lucas's learning experience as it kept going for 30 minutes straight. Emma was so zealous in her hate for the dirty hollows, that one might mistake her for a zealous believer of an evil cult.
Soon enough, it had come to an end, but Lucas's opinion of his mother had changed after this entire event.
. . .
'My memory has been improving since the awakening. I could remember most things said or told around me... I thought it was a joke three years ago. But, I could've sworn Mom & Dad said they were still living it good by selling a goblin tribe at the market that year.' My mind wandered a bit more as I thought about this further.
I looked around the room in horror at my sudden realization getting all the evidence I needed.
'If my memory serves me correctly the library didn't have as many books, compared to just three years prior before Mom and Dad said that. I thought my mind had seemed to pause when faced with this dark, cold reality.
My eyes glowed as they looked around to see all the books less than three years old in the library. All of them were magical books with hidden titles.
'Family trauma... That would get in the way of my Lady's game... Let's suppress those memories and emotions for now... Let your older and more mature version of yourself deal with all that nonsense later boy.' Arachneras Rachnee thought as she gave him a helping hand dealing with this sudden realization.
'Damn, Mom is racist towards hollows, I mean borrowers.
Wait, are they a separate race or a subgroup of magic users? Mom said they aren't true magic users but hollows. Hmm, you know all her talks got me thinking about borrowers, how one might break the contracts that bind them.' I thought as I asked my Mom first to see if my hypothesis was possible.
'Hopefully, she opens her mind a little to think of the benefits.' My mind started racing, I feared my Mom would scold me for thinking about these things.
"Mom, is it possible to make a deal with a weaker entity to gain more power? Then, use your upgraded power to devour them and make their power your own. With the death of that entity, wouldn't the contract be destroyed with their death?
If I'm right, any price you have to pay doesn't matter since the contract is gone right?" I asked, trying to mix the topics I had read about into my arcane studies.
"Don't be silly, that's impossible...." My Mom paused for a minute soon enough she retracted her previous answer with her next statement.
"Sweetie, what you just described is an advanced technique. Using, creating, and discovering loopholes in the system, while using it to your advantage are common abilities at the peak of power." Mom responded with a clear answer surprising me.
"Those who go beyond have the power to bend, break, and rewrite the rules of the system itself. Those who go beyond are often called Gods as most of them are such." Mom said as her eyes sparkled at the word God.
"Yes, sweetie, if you ever find an entity that is stupid enough not to include some kind of fallback or protection in the contract. What you just described is a very possible reality.
It's probably why demons and other deal-making races are all magical lawyers in supernatural laws." Mom replied in a shocked tone.
'I guess my baby boy really is a genius... Huh, what a small world. He's just like Gwen when she was growing up. Chances are my baby's talent is even higher than hers from the looks of it.' She thought as her mind added new plans to her agenda.
. . .
(POV Narrator)
Emma and her son kept talking about some possibilities Lucas thought of, Emma would either deny his outlandish questions, or she also got surprised at his advanced ideas. Lucas had some even more outlandish ideas, but they were held back since his Mom was clearly a bit closed-minded toward borrower-type ideas.
For the entire night till 2 am Lucas worked with his Mom about the ins and outs of magical locations around the world with local dangers, typical common sense. She also drilled into him some general rules of magic with some stories of her past while teaching him to keep him engaged in learning.
Before long Lucas went to sleep by 3 am only to wake up by 11 am for breakfast. Then Lucas would eat, shower, and get ready for his Dad's training at 1 pm.
After a few hours of training outside he would sometimes spar with his Dad or some magical golems his Mom made. His training would last till 4 to 5 pm, and by 6 pm he would have already eaten dinner and had his shower by then. From 6 pm to 7 pm, he would always be in the library with his Mom studying magic and more. And this entire cycle would repeat every day.
Sometimes the schedule would change where he was training all day, studying all day with his Mom. Other times they would team up in a combined effort to train him. Sometimes that showed by pulling out the golems and having his father lead them as a leader with his Mom as support. Those special joint ventures were always the hardest types of training.
During this time James had taught his son some beginner information about his forging techniques. Lucas had been forced to use his Mom's magical flames those times as a substitute during those days he was in the basement forging.
Other days he was taught more advanced spells or just the pass codes to the safety system in the house. It even went so far that he was learning about runes as a complex subject.
The constant cycle of it all continued for three months with not much changing within that time. His training consisted of exercise, forging with his father, beating out his weaknesses, learning more about magic and the hidden side of the world, and setting up a normal daily routine.