episode_0015

“Kuha~! This feels good!”

“Hey, Duncan. You seem to be in a good mood these days. What’s wrong?”

Duncan, who was drinking with his former colleagues at a local bar, seemed in a good mood as usual these days, but today he seemed especially happy.

“There’s this disciple I said I’d raise before.”

“Ah, that guy you said was so great.”

Duncan was teaching Theo for the first time and had bragged about him to his colleagues who were staying in town for the first time in a long time.

This was something of a long-standing habit of Duncan’s, but it was also a habit that only came out when he found a disciple who he really liked.

“Yeah, that guy Theo finally learned all my techniques today.”

Today, I playfully told Theo that I had nothing more to teach him and that he should get off.

Although the words were playful, Duncan’s words were actually sincere.

It took me half a year, just half a year, to learn everything about him, who was once a successful prosecutor.

“What? You learned all your skills? It hasn’t even been that long since I started teaching you.”

“Yeah, it’s only been half a year. And you’ve already absorbed all my skills.”

Duncan was just proud of Theo like that.

“I’ve taught people a little bit so far, even though it’s not much, right?”

“That’s right. Didn’t you raise a few of the ones you liked and send them to the academy?”

“Yeah, all those guys are famous in swordsmanship.”

All of the disciples he had trained with great care had already graduated from the academy and were all famous in swordsmanship.

Some became adventurers, like Duncan and his companions before, while others went straight to the imperial family and became imperial knights.

“But when you compare them all, there’s no one like this guy. Theo is truly a talent among talents, absorbing in just half a year what it took other guys years to do.”

It seemed like he didn’t really know his own worth.

Duncan, who is clearly not the type to teach swordsmanship and talk softly, is not very good at talking about such talents.

But I thought that someday, no, very soon, he would eventually come to know about that skill.

‘That’s because it’s a talent that can’t be helped.’

If you don’t know that, then it really is…

‘You must be an idiot.’

It was Duncan who thought that way.

***

Estelle, who taught Theo magic just as Duncan taught him swordsmanship, felt the same way.

‘Theo’s magic… is getting faster and stronger.’

It was an excessively fast speed.

Theo’s ability to learn magic was so extraordinary that it could be said that he had acquired destructive power and speed that could not be achieved in just half a year of learning magic.

‘If I think about it, I didn’t even know I had magic powers until then…’

One of the things that made the most sense was that Theo wasn’t someone who had always been working with magic.

Anyone who used magic to some extent in their daily lives would have been able to at least try to understand it to some extent, but this was a different case.

Yet he was still confident that he was superior.

Of course, it was a position that would be caught up with sooner or later.

“Ice Slasher!”

So, without realizing it, Estelle let her guard down.

“Shield!”

Because I let my guard down, I was late in using shield magic, and ended up getting injured by the magic that had already gotten in between.

“Ouch, I got hit in the arm.”

In fact, it was an injury that was difficult to pass over as just a slight hit to the arm.

It was an injury that could have been serious if it had been an ordinary person, but she was a saint after all.

“Huh? Are you okay, Estelle?”

A saint who can heal her own arm using divine powers before it causes too much trouble.

Paat-

“Yeah, it’s okay. Just use healing magic! ”

I was smiling and talking playfully, but my arms were really shaking just now.

It was a power that made me feel like I was frozen and about to be cut off.

Ice Slasher is basically one of the light attack spells that throws ice chunks to inflict damage or wounds.

‘But the Ice Slasher that Theo just used had a freezing status effect attached to it that could freeze people.’

It wasn’t easy to use the freezing status effect that would freeze you from the bone by attaching it to a simple magic spell.

Theo was already doing things that would only be possible if he were as proficient in magic as a high-level magician who could use magic so freely.

‘I thought I knew to some extent that you had talent. But this doesn’t seem to be the level of talent we know.’

Estelle’s healing ability was so strong that she could be called a saint, so she was able to overcome it without much trouble, but when it was pretended that it was a high-level magic, an ordinary magician might not have been able to handle the magic power and would have vomited blood.

“You’re not badly hurt, are you?”

“Yeah, I let my guard down a little.”

This situation occurred because I let my guard down and Theo was growing faster than I could have imagined.

‘I want to bring Theo as my personal knight or wizard. I guess Estelle would be against it?’

Iris was also one of the people who saw the whole situation, so at this point, it wasn’t a problem of entering the academy right away, but rather the Imperial Knights.

No, I could say with certainty that her skills weren’t bad enough to become Iris’ exclusive knight or magician.

‘But I still want to enjoy the academy together.’

The school days spent together at the academy were something that only those of that age could experience.

As such, I’m quite excited about the Academy days where we’ll be spending time roaming around campus together, so I’ve decided to put off hiring someone as my personal knight or magician for now.

‘It might not be a bad idea to spend a little more time enjoying yourself with Estelle.’

If it were the first time, he would have thought that he wanted to monopolize it all by himself, but now, even just a little bit of the daily life he spent with Estelle, even the dirt on his fingernails, was something he was looking forward to.

“Estelle, are you okay?”

Iris, who arrived late, asked about Estelle’s well-being.

Actually, I wasn’t that worried.

Estelle was a true saint with incredible divine powers that were skilled at healing people.

“Yeah, of course. Why are you asking when you know my healing powers?”

Estelle’s expression was the same as usual as she spoke teasingly, but Iris noticed that her arm, which had recovered using her healing power, was shaking slightly.

‘… Certainly. This is likely to be traumatic.’

The tremors caused by trauma were not something that could be cured with healing powers.

As such, Estelle was trying to hide her trembling hands.

‘If Theo finds out, he’ll definitely feel sorry.’

There was something unnatural about Estelle’s appearance as she tried to hide her trembling hands as much as possible, but Theo was actually quite oblivious and did not notice it.

***

One day, Estelle gets hurt.

The day has finally come for the Academy Commoner Admission Test.

The Academy Commoner Examination was being held in the Capital Academy branch, and since it took three hours just to get there by car from my house, I was in a hurry from the morning.

“Um, why are you in such a hurry.”

But this damn saint girl just won’t move on time.

“No, I have to go to the academy to take the test!”

Eventually, it got to the point where my voice was raised.

“Why is that? It’ll only take a minute anyway.”

“What are you talking about, holy woman? It takes three hours to get from our house to the capital by car.”

I feel like my head is going to explode, but I try to explain as calmly as possible and dress neatly.

“Wow! Theo looks so cool today?”

Iris had to attend the Academy’s Commoner Exam as an audience member, so she went back early last night. Today, all I had to do was take care of this lazy saint, so it was better than nothing.

“If you don’t get dressed and ready to go while you’re talking like that, I’ll really leave you behind?”

I had 30 minutes to spare, but I had to move as fast as I could because I never knew what would happen on the road.

“Theo, don’t rush too much. I’ll teleport you there in one minute with my teleportation magic.”

“Huh? Is it possible to move that far with teleportation magic?”

I ask with a puzzled expression, since my movement magic is now only enough to move from one end of the field to the other.

“Yeah, that’s possible. When I first came here before, I used teleportation magic from my room in the Holy Empire to get here?”

“Crazy, is that distance possible?”

Wow, I was thinking that to be able to use high-level magic, something suddenly popped into my mind.

“Wait a minute, then why have you been staying at my house until now?”

“Huh… ?”

He kept insisting that he wanted to stay at my house until he entered the academy because the commute was too long and it was annoying, so I gave him a guest room…?

“You little punk, you could have gone comfortably and kept it a secret until now?”

“Oh, no, that’s not it… .”

I could only sigh at the sight of Estelle trying to avoid eye contact.

Why on earth did you leave that comfortable room and live in this uncomfortable country house?

I really can’t understand it.