episode_0024

There weren’t many people in the restaurant at breakfast time, probably because it was a little late. I quickly ran to the senior sitting in the corner and sat down. The fairies swiftly served the meal, and I slowly began to eat.

“You didn’t seem to eat well.”

“I usually eat when there are no people around. I’m not fond of attention.”

“But by this time, wouldn’t the food be cold?”

“If they really pursued taste, they would have used teleportation to go to Ignolia for every meal.”

“How many magicians do you think can do that?”

“I can.”

She smiled and cut her steak with the knife in her right hand, then put it in her mouth. I stabbed my fork into the pumpkin pie that came out for breakfast and took a bite.

“So, how was watching the duel? Wasn’t it your first time seeing one?”

“If what happened behind the tavern is considered a duel, then it’s my second time.”

“That wasn’t a duel; that was suppression. How dare you raise your wand against a 5th-year student from the Academy? Let’s skip that. I want to hear your thoughts on the duel. It was between higher-level magicians than you.”

“To be honest, it was too fast for me to properly see, and maybe because I’ve already seen the senior’s magic… I didn’t feel much excitement.”

“It’s relative. If you were to see Leonardo’s fire magic, you’d find most fire magic used by other magicians lukewarm, wouldn’t you?”

I wanted to retort that both the senior and Leonardo were also 5th-year students, but I held back and looked at the senior.

“Why did you stop, though? Even I can see that the match could have gone on longer.”

“The magician committed two acts that should not be done.”

“What are they?”

“First, allowing the first strike. Second, not valuing the staff. As you know, a first strike is not just about using powerful and fast magic in a duel without considering defense; it’s about stopping the magic and choosing defense instead of trying to strike first. From that moment, the outcome is determined. The success of the first spell affects subsequent spells.”

“And secondly, it was good to use the staff to cast magic by planting it in the ground, but even though the attack of the task horse was approaching, you focused on attacking without pushing away the task horse. You knew that the shield would not break from the task horse’s attack, so it was good to develop defense and attack simultaneously… But what if the task horse were stronger? What if the task horse were faster?”

“You lost.”

“There are complex reasons, but the biggest reason for stopping the duel was when you planted the staff in the ground. If you were going to freeze, you should have frozen the ground except for the staff. If you couldn’t use the staff by freezing it with the magic you created, could you have dueled? In the first place, according to the rules of the Rune Duel, dropping the staff means defeat. Even if you can use magic with your hands… It was unavoidable according to the rules.”

I nodded and took a bite of bread.

“Are you satisfied now? Let me hear your thoughts now. Even if you don’t feel much, there must be something to learn.”

“I think I’ve gained some insight into using magic with the surrounding water droplets, as you mentioned, but I still don’t know how to designate a focal point, and whether I can follow the spell I heard… I’m not sure, but it seems possible to adapt something similar.”

“That’s not a thought.”

At Erica’s words, I slowly spoke up.

“It was about the slow activation speed of ice magic. Of course, I knew that lightning magic was faster, but I definitely need to find a way to bridge that gap in speed.”

“Other than that?”

“It was more important to attack than to defend. I felt once again that the basics of a duel are in attacking, as my senior said. I should quickly launch multiple attacks to shake the opponent and use powerful magic.”

“But what happens if you don’t consider defense?”

“You end up giving the initiative, right?”

She smiled at my words.

After finishing the meal and entering the classroom, all the seats were already taken, and I carefully sat in one of the remaining seats. As I sat down, I overheard a whisper from the adjacent seat.

“Are you late?”

I turned my head at the voice and saw Cerestia sitting there. I didn’t realize it was Cerestia’s seat, as it’s usually not occupied… So I thought I must have ended up sitting here and, without saying anything, took out my textbook and quietly opened it.

“I was late because I was watching a duel.”

“I heard there was a duel among the second years; was it fun?”

“Not particularly.”

“It’s about time for the first years to start dueling lessons too.”

“I will refuse to duel.”

“You’re stubborn, Astan.”

I remained silent and looked ahead at the classroom. The professor entered the classroom slowly and greeted us, and we returned the greeting lightly.

“Well, let’s start energetically today as well. Did we learn detection magic last time? This class is faster than the others, so I keep getting confused. Today, following detection magic, let’s learn one of the attack magics, the magic arrow. Then let’s meet at the training ground.”

Then the professor disappeared, and the students quickly got up from their seats and moved to the training ground. Thinking that I should also get up slowly with the flow, I looked to my right and saw Cerestia looking at me.

Her distinctive red eyes were staring at me.

“Why do you think that?”

“Sometimes I wonder, Astan, you don’t seem like an Araelian.”

“Hmm… I can’t say for sure, but there’s a unique energy from the Aralerians. However, I don’t sense that from Astans.”

“It’s surprising that you can sense such a thing.”

She smiled at my response. Looking into her crescent-shaped pupils, as always, it felt like a hint of fear was creeping up. Why does she take an interest in me? That curiosity wasn’t easily erased.

I arrived at the training ground in the evening after the class ended. Ironically, it was the shop’s holiday today, so in the spare time, I wondered what to do. After applying for the use of the training ground to practice the magic arrow I learned in the morning, I arrived at the empty training ground and slowly gripped the staff in my right hand, aiming at the target.

“Mana, pierce the enemy.”

At my command, the mana-generated arrow swiftly pierced the target, and I fell into deep thought. Should I change this into ice magic after it’s created?

“Mana, pierce the enemy, ice, rise up.”

Continuing the incantation, the arrow became imbued with cold. The chilled arrow pierced the target, and I continued by forming the incantation for a shock spell.

“Mana, shatter the enemy before me, ice, rise up.”

This time, the shock spell contained cold. It felt like a ball made of ice was flying towards the opponent. While using magic was possible, it definitely felt like the amount of mana used when casting spells had increased compared to before, causing my energy to diminish.

To simplify this, I should summon the ice first.

“Ice, pierce the enemy.”

At my incantation, an ice arrow was created and pierced the target. I succeeded up to where I had planned. Can I reduce or use this faster?

While thinking about that, I sat in the training ground for a moment and looked up at the sky. The moon was shining brightly. Magic that gathers cold at its center, magic that freezes surrounding water droplets to create ice. That was the spell I needed to find from now on. When I tried Torun’s spell, ice fragments formed around me and pulled in the surrounding water.

I can apply this spell. “Frost, ice, appear before me now.” Frost and ice are specified, location is in front of me, so how should I fix this part?

Surely, “Ice, rise up.” I surrounded myself with the spell. How do I know this spell?

As I let out a long sigh between thoughts, a voice came to my ear.

“Taking a deep breath is a bad habit.”

Startled by the voice, I turned my head and heard footsteps. Cerestia was entering the training ground.

“How did you get here?”

“Is it wrong to come to the training ground to practice magic?”

“Not really… but… I was afraid.”

As I spoke, she smiled and walked towards me, extending her right hand to hand me something, which I cautiously accepted.

“It’s a mana potion. It’ll make you feel better if you drink it.”

“You can meditate as well.”

“You’re not going to spend the whole evening in this training ground, are you?”

“Then, thank you.”

I unscrewed the cap of the potion and drank it. As soon as I drank the potion, I felt my mana recover throughout my body.

“So, what were you doing? You just got here and couldn’t practice magic.”

“I was practicing imbuing elemental properties into regular magic.”

“Did you succeed?”

“Overwhelmingly.”

“That’s great, but you seem to have a lot on your mind. Are you stuck somewhere else?”

It was impossible to hide the truth from her. I was indeed stuck. Spells for gathering ice at a focal point and expelling cold to freeze surrounding water droplets didn’t come to mind.

“You can just say it directly, can’t you?”

“Then won’t the spell be too long?”

At that, her finger jabbed my forehead.

“Are you trying to use a shortcut? A human unfamiliar with magic? If you only learn spells without creating them, eventually your limitations will show.”

I felt a rush of embarrassment at that moment. She had always been one of those who shattered my thoughts. I had thought about changing the spell just because it was difficult to create. I had tried to imitate someone else’s spell. Naturally, a sigh escaped me as the overwhelming embarrassment washed over me. I wanted to run away somewhere out of embarrassment.

In response to my reaction, she smiled slyly, then moved her hand from my forehead and opened her mouth with a bright smile.

“Shall I help? Friend?”

Carefully, I opened my mouth in response to her words.

“If you’re not busy.”