Almost smoothly

On the eve of your sixteenth birthday your father presented you with something you have never expected to happen. Whilst you were aware that your father, and you by extension, were nobility you have never engaged with any of that aspect of your life. In fact outside your father you had never even met another noble. All of your friends were your tutors, or staff members not even people your chronological age.

Actually, leading up to your sixteenth had been a lot of unexpected things. You had gone through puberty once so knew what to expect. But it is amazing how hormones can effect even your adult consciousness. It also presented something of a rather confusing moment for you. Your mind was pushing forty at this point but you were pushing sixteen so who were you attracted you? All the staff and your teachers were at, the lowest, in their thirties. You had met people your age but only in passing moments mostly the kids of staff members, no one you actually interacted with, too busy with your self development. Plus not knowing much about the nobility meant you had no idea how permissible relationships with none nobles were.

So you followed your fathers lead. Professional friendship, if anything more could have ever developed with someone you restricted yourself. Your hormones did not agree and you had to mentally wrangle yourself more than once when someone was being nice to you.

Which led to this.

"Do I really have to?" You ask reticently putting down the newest book your father had procured.

It was the first religious book he had given you and you were endlessly curious to see how this world had incorporated religion and magic. Though as you read you questioned if it is religious. There was little to no mention of rites, prays, or even regular religious events but those that were showed a clear love of gold and what you thought was supposed to be a depiction of womb but it was rather crude, little more than a upper case T with spheres on the ends of the cross line.

The book was mostly about the history of the church who created it. According to their doctrine twenty gods had appeared on Calitain, you presumed this was the world at large and not a kingdom or region of it based on how the story was worded. Of these gods one was the Mother; interchangeably Mother of All; Mother of the Chosen; or Mother of Ruten, you weren't sure about the last one and were planing on asking about it once you finished reading. This Mother somehow stopped the other gods from fighting and created the Church of Nurture. The actual stopping of the supposed conflict seemed rather incidental given how little information there was about it.

"Were you listen?" Your father asked, taking your attention back from the book you had reopened and been reading of more without even noticing.

You put the book down. "Sorry."

Your father smiled at you. "I am immensely proud of you and I had been hoping to avoid this but you are turning sixteen and that means you must have a debut."

You had put together the obvious fact that in this world the gender dynamic was flipped. That your father had never attempted to remarry, or even develop a relationship with someone else, had led you to concluded that, though not close to as **** as the gender dynamic of your previous world, in this world women had the primacy.

"I know dad." You smile back at him, even now you were still just average but you never questioned the truth of his opinion of yourself. You would always have his total support no matter if you did nothing truly impressive.

"Plus a sponsor could get you into the Royal Academy." He grinned as he said it.

That got your attention. The Royal Academy had held your fascination since you learned about it. You didn't know if there was any sort of meritocracy in this world but the Academy's existence suggested there was. It also might just give you another chance to develop beyond average.

"How?" You asked, your previous interest in the religion of this world totally gone.

"Just impress the women there. I have no doubt you will." He might not have but you definitely did. Though that he had confident at all was enough for you to relax a little.

The next few days were spent in a whirlwind of activity. The staff apparently shared your fathers opinion as every single one offered to help you. Their eagerness did make you think that maybe you weren't as professional in your friendships as you thought.

Nonetheless knowing they appeared to care for your success made you happy. Though you think that got a little strained as, while you were being fitted for your suit by some of the female staff members, you had some very awkward, thankfully unacknowledged, moments. Though you did notice more than a few of them smiled a little too knowingly at you as your preparations continued.

And so here you were. At your debutante ball. Surrounded by a dozen other guys between sixteen and seventeen all as nervous as you yet all apparently well socialized. It had never occurred to you that not having noble friends would impact you so dramatically. Standing in a room full of nobles your age for the first time in your new life, you had no idea how to talk to any of these people. They were largely making small talk about the other nobles but you had nothing to add or ask. At least your new suit meant you fit in in one respect.

Well you call it a suit but it was actually a grey tunic with somewhat billowing grey trousers intricately stitched with gold threaded patterns, in your previous world it would barely be smart causal, aside from the purely decorative arming sword at your hip that is. The clothes are significantly more confining than your usual attire leaving you almost constantly fidgeting. You're used to loose shirts you could move in and tighter pants that wouldn't catch on anything as you did. Your house emblem was present on your right breast, something you hadn't known was a thing until it had been stitched on, a Phoenix with wings spread, at least you hoped it was a phoenix and not some poor bird being set of fire. Below it was your house motto in a very old language that amounted to 'Not all forged in fire are strong.' There was undoubtedly some more meaning to it but you hadn't had the chance to ask your father.

"First time?" The question came from your left and you turned to see a taller man wearing a similar outfit as you.

You immediately see that his suit had been enchanted to imitate a patterned aura. You had still never figured out how to control your own aura but did have it explained that it is possible to imitate the aura with various enchantments. You rejected having your current attire so enchanted. While you were sure the offer was supposed to make you less embarrassed about having no control over your aura you could instantly see any enchantment so it was likely everyone else would as well.

"Yes. Is it yours?" You ask nervously as the attention of the rest of the room is draw to the pair of you. Unlike the man next to you all of the others had a natural aura, though none of their natural aura were as controlled as his enchanted one. You guess that is one use for an enchantment of that nature, it shows a talent you couldn't dream of attaining.

He laughed. "No. It's my third. Just waiting for a marriage offer fitting my standing." The rest of the room seemed to murmur in some sort of agreement.

Yet another thing you hadn't considered. You might have to get married in this world. You should have spent more time focusing on this places political landscape. You knew you were a part of a kingdom but couldn't even remember its name. You hoped their wouldn't be a pledge of allegiance or something of the sort.

"Don't be nervous." Your companion laughed again. "I doubt you will get many looks." The rest of the room laughed but you didn't get why.

Since you haven't really interacted with anyone your age you had no really way to gauge your attractiveness. It is likely he was referring to such. Adequate in all other respects also applying to your appearance made sense.

"Who knows." You idly say in half-hearted agreement as your hormones protested the idea that you would be unattractive and took partial control over your mouth.

"I do. So keep in your place and out of my way. Same goes for everyone else." Your companion growled at you and the room, gripping the hilt of his sword as he did.

Everyone in the room cowered slightly from him including you. You really wanted to be able to use a sword but were just fundamentally unable. You'd never even been in a training duel before because even a friendly sparring match could fatally wound you. Since you couldn't imbue anything with magic without it catastrophically failing your swordsmanship was purely physical. You thought you were pretty good but any of your tutors who could imbue their weapon set your reality rather firmly. You can swing a sword and slash a dummy, they can swing a sword and cut a tree vertically in half. You did learn how to imbue your own body at least, though you were only ok at that so it is likely any fight would be extremely one sided.

As far as defense went physically getting out of the way is your only option, you can't block a tree splitting swing with a non-imbued sword and if someone can move faster you are basically screwed. Though you did have some ideas on how you might be able to improve you had yet to put any of them to the test.

Your rather unpleasant companion grinned at the show of deference and strode over to the door you would be leaving from.

"Don't worry about Jason." The surprisingly high voice came from one of your quieter fellows. You turned to look at him and then down. He was a head shorter than you with messy black hair, very clear light blue eyes and soft pale features. His tunic was even more plain that yours, a deep blue almost black with no pattern at all and a swan as his emblem. "He says that to every new comer."

You relax your vision to view your new companions aura. It was both natural and remarkable controlled, floating off his body in patterns similar to waves, with the main source being his lips and eyes. It was remarkably fascinating to watch and you stared at his lips for possibly a little too long. You quietly envied the extraordinary control he had over his glow.

"I'm Edin by the way." He offered his hand in this worlds equivalent of a hand shake, open palm up hand that you should place your own over and relax your control over your magic.

The idea was to feel the other persons aura. From your lessons aura is a good indicator of intention, even controlled aura reacted to your emotions. If someone wants to stab you in the eye you could get a feel for it. That is for most people. Like everything aura related you have no control at all. The last time you tried was two years ago and apparently it was like you have set the persons skin on fire, needless to say they did not want to teach you after that no matter how much you tried to explain you didn't want to actually set them on fire. "Christopher and sorry I don't have control over my aura." You say as earnestly as you holding your hand back hoping he'll believe you.

"Oh ok." He takes his hand back and you get the feeling he didn't. "Are you looking for a marriage?"

Panic sets in as he says that. "NO!" You certainly didn't want to get married. The best outcome from this is a sponsor the worst would be a proposal. Your rushed statement got a laugh from the guy who threatened everyone. His grin back at you probably meant he was assuming your rejection was because of his actions. You saw no reason to correct him.

"Oh so you're looking for a sponsor for the Royal Academy as well." He brightened up as he said it so no great assumption as to his own marriage intentions.

Based on what your father had mentioned the Academy was a matter of money. It took no feat of intellect to put together that your father was spending a small fortune for your education. You went through teachers two or three a season, the moment you couldn't learn any more from one another was on their way. Books were hand written so clearly expensive and he had to look after his land as well.

"Hello?" Edin asked snapping you back to him. Probably should have socialized more because mentally wondering off on tangents is not good for conversation.

"I guess so." You answer honestly eliciting a laugh from Jason.

"Smart to not get your hopes of marriage up at least." The rest of the room laughed and you felt embarrassed.

"Leave him alone Du Vet." Edin said before suddenly turning pale. "No sorry I –" Before he could finished Jason stalked over.

The naming scheme in this world worked both similarly and differently from your previous. Here the first name is what most people call you as expected. However, your family name is reserved for very specific circumstances and an inherent honourific, calling someone by their last name and not being close to them or without the proper phrasing was deeply insulting.

Jason put a hand on the hilt of his sword as he neared and Edin tried to flatten himself against the wall. "What the fuck did you call me you little fuck–"

He was interrupted by you stepping between the pair. You can not express how much you did not want to risk a fight with anyone, much less someone apparently quick to anger. At the same time Edin had been nice to you and you couldn't just do nothing. Plus Jason certainly appeared to be a bit of a dick.

"Got something to say Altera." Jason spat into your face as he used your last name. Rather than retort you decided to use a personal failing to your advantage. You held out your hand for a hand shake. It was about as submissive a gesture as you could make since it basically gave Jason a way to hurt you without risking physically hurting you. But bullies tend to be easily led.

He laughed at your gesture and took his hand off his hilt to offer his own. The look of pain, shock and confusion flashed across his face so fast you barely had time to read them. You weren't even able to feel his aura but he sure felt the utterly uncontrolled yours. That he wasn't screamed likely meant you had actually managed to get at least a tiny grip on your aura just with age, so that was cool. But that wasn't your goal.

With your other hand you used a handy little spell you had been working on over your years. As Jason recovered from the surprise but before he could do anything his pants fell to the ground as the buttons holding them up disintegrated.

"You might want to run to the dressing room we are about to go in." You say as calmly as possible. The room is silent as everyone put together what happened. Then every bursts into laughter as Jason tried to whirl on them only to fall over his pants. His bravado thoroughly disbursed he scrambles up and out of the room.

"How did you do that?" Edin asks in apparent wonder.

"Just an easy spell with the free hand."

"B-but his button–"

He was interrupted from further comment by the appearance of the Attendant. "Where is Jason?" Everyone give a non-committal shrug. "Fine he'll have to go in last. Line up, you are being announced and remember eyes straight and only accept an offered hand never offer one yourselves." The Attendant turns and you all hurriedly dash into your position. You at the end of the list Edin in front of you.

Perhaps you should have spent more time trying to talk to other nobles. Hopefully this goes smoothly.