episode_0046

Private training rooms available to the Academy’s top students.

There, Alice was telling Arthur several things to help him.

“Now that it’s vacation, let’s try to increase our mana as much as possible before the next semester starts.”

“Yeah!”

Arthur answered Alice’s words with an expectant expression, and Alice began talking about the basics.

“First, let’s talk about the amount of mana…”

“In the case of ordinary people, they grow to a certain extent without doing anything special.. In your case, you’ve been weak since you were young, right? That’s why you have very little mana.”

Arthur, who had a complex about his low mana, quickly became sullen at Alice’s explanation.

“You don’t have to make that face, there are two ways to increase your mana!”

“Really?”

Arthur was worried that it was too late, but when Alice spoke with a confident expression, Arthur’s eyes sparkled again.

“First of all, let’s start with the first method.. You know that mana gathers in the heart? That’s why there’s a term called mana heart.”

“Yeah, I know that.”

“Then what do you think I should do to store more mana in my heart?”

“Hmm… Shouldn’t your heart be strong?”

Arthur thought about it again and felt that his answer was too simple, so he blushed in embarrassment for some reason, but contrary to his expectations, Alice looked satisfied with Arthur’s answer.

“That’s right! Then what do you think I should do to make my heart stronger?”

“Exactly, ‘exercise’. In other words, if you exercise and train your body, your heart will become stronger, right? Then, even without separate mana training, you can see the effect of increasing your mana to some extent.”

Arthur also let out a short exclamation of admiration as he seemed to have gained insight from Alice’s explanation.

“Ah..! So that’s why I said that normal people’s mana grows to a certain extent. Usually, physical abilities naturally increase as they become adults.”

“On the other hand, I was very weak since I was young, so my mana was very low..”

“Well… You don’t have to worry about that anymore. You’ll feel your mana better now, and if you exercise, your stamina will grow quickly.”

“And before, if you drank the potion, it didn’t work, right? Now that’s been fixed, so you’ll be able to see the effects properly from now on.”

Arthur’s eyes grew wide as he heard the part about potions that Alice had mentioned at the end, because it was the first time he had heard of it.

“Really? So now when I get hurt, I can just take a recovery potion like everyone else and get better?”

Arthur asked again with an expression of disbelief, and Alice nodded in agreement.

“I see… So I’ve become somewhat normal like everyone else?”

A weak body that is insensitive to mana and whose stamina does not increase, and a body that cannot even properly receive the effects of potions.

The three things I just mentioned were the chains that had tormented Arthur his entire life, and Arthur, who thought he would never be able to escape them, looked at Alice with a face filled with emotion at the thought that he was now free.

“It’s all thanks to you, Alice.”

Alice also turned her gaze and answered as Arthur looked at her with a loving face.

“Hey.. It’s nothing? And stop thanking me! This is really important, so focus!”

For a moment, Alice showed her embarrassed appearance, but then she became serious and continued explaining about Mana.

“Anyway! The first method I mentioned earlier isn’t very efficient for you to use right now. That’s because you were weak, but your mana wasn’t as low as your weak body.”

“To put it simply, your current mana amount is much less than your weak body. If I were to express the difference between your body and mana level in numbers, I think it would be about 10 times.”

Well.. if you look at Arthur’s status window, his magic power is 1 and his other abilities are 10, so we can say it’s certain.

But Alice felt Arthur looking at her with an expression like, “What does that matter?” and added some further explanation.

“I said earlier that if your heart gets stronger, your mana increases, right? Let me elaborate a bit on this.. When you train, your heart gets stronger, and the mana that flows from that heart makes your body stronger. When these three things repeat, you get a synergistic effect..”

“Arthur, even if you train, your muscles won’t grow properly because you have too little mana in your heart. In fact, most people don’t need to worry about this, but you’re not in an ordinary situation right now, are you?”

“Then what should I do?”

As Arthur asked with great tension, Alice answered with a snicker.

“So I’m going to tell you the second method!”

“That method is… It’s…! Mana training!!”

“…?”

“It’s so sudden that I don’t understand. Can you explain it in more detail?”

“Ah.. Sorry. The problem right now is that your body and mana levels don’t match, right? So, you just need to train your mana and increase your mana until your mana and body are in balance. Simple, right?”

“I see!! Then how do you train mana?”

At Arthur’s words, Alice held out her hand to Arthur, and at the same time began to release blue mana into the air from her hand.

“Just take out all the mana in your heart and send it out like this. Then you will fall into mana exhaustion, but as it recovers, your mana amount will increase significantly compared to before. Of course, this method can only be used in the beginning. Later on, you will need to increase it in other ways.”

“Isn’t mana exhaustion dangerous?”

“It’s dangerous to do that while fighting the enemy, but usually, even if you get Mana Taljin, you’ll just pass out for half a day and wake up, so it’s okay if you do it in a safe place. And before, you were too weak to be dangerous, but now that you’ve returned to normal, you’ll be okay. I’ll be by your side if necessary.”

“Then shall we start right away? Since the vacation is about 2 months, it would be good to start working diligently from now on.”

“Okay.. Okay!”

“Then, even if you fall, I’ll be there to catch you, so should I send out Mana first?”

As Alice spoke, Arthur closed his eyes and began to concentrate, and a very small amount of mana was seen flowing out of Arthur’s hands.

Usually, it takes a long time just to recognize mana… A genius is a genius after all… Did it take me a week? Including moving mana, it seems like it took a month…

After a while, Arthur’s whole body was covered in sweat, as if he had let out all his mana, and he closed his eyes and collapsed into Alice’s arms.

“Fortunately, my breathing is fine, and I think I’ll be fine as long as I sleep well.”

After checking Arthur’s condition, Alice carried Arthur in a princess-like embrace, then went to Arthur’s dormitory room and laid him on the bed.

“… ”

Come to think of it, if I do this in the morning, Arthur won’t be able to wake up until dinnertime, so our time together will be reduced… I don’t know how much time I have left to live, and if I want to spend more time with Arthur, I should make him do mana training in the evening so that it overlaps with his sleeping time.

-side.

After kissing the sleeping Arthur on the forehead, Alice left the room.

“From now on, I have to steadily build memories with Arthur. Arthur has to keep living without me.”

Alice, who felt bitter, only thought positively. After all, the water had already been spilled.

… … …

A few days passed, and with no classes, Aris and Arthur, who lived in the dormitory, began to spend each day in a similar routine.

We woke up in the morning, had a meal together, left the academy in the morning, walked around the streets of the capital, and spent time on ordinary dates, going to good restaurants or seeing famous sights.

From the evening, Arthur’s mana amount could not be increased much, but his basic physical strength was important, so he steadily practiced swordsmanship and training, and before going to bed, he practiced mana next to Alice.

Arthur felt the greatest happiness in this ordinary daily life, but recently he began to think that there was something strange about Alice.

Because these days, Aris never left his side. Of course, he didn’t hate it, he actually liked it, but Arthur often felt a sense of impatience towards Aris whenever he saw her.

There were times when I wondered if something was wrong because she seemed to be trying to spend as much time with me as possible, but Alice just brushed it off as being in a bad mood.

Of course, Arthur had one thing that pricked him. After being beaten by those women, he never had a night with Aris. It wasn’t that he hated Aris or anything, but whenever he tried to do it, he felt uncomfortable and his anxiety got worse. Aris apologized and said that he didn’t have to do it, but…

“No way…Iris has so much sexual desire…”

I could only guess that perhaps, instead of being able to satisfy her sexual desires, she was still by her side to satisfy them emotionally.

… … …

“Haa…”

It’s nice to spend a lot of time with Arthur, but… what should I do when it becomes harder and harder to endure every day?

In the past, Aris never felt stressed because she would periodically use Arthur to release her, but recently, she has been in a state where she feels like she might explode because she hasn’t done it for a long time.

“Huh? Alice, what’s wrong?”

“Ah.. Arthur, by any chance..”

No… Let’s not make things difficult for no reason. It must be traumatic for Arthur, so there’s no need to bring back painful memories.

“Nothing, why don’t you start now?”

“Yeah.”

Arthur began to practice mana with the answer, and as usual, he lost consciousness and collapsed in Alice’s arms.

Since the mana training was done in Arthur’s room, Alice laid Arthur down on the bed right away.

-Glance.

Alice’s gaze was directed to a part of Arthur who was lying down.

“Am I crazy..?”

I guess I’ll have to sleep in my room today… I think Arthur might have a big accident if he sleeps next to me.

Anyway, I just have to endure it a little longer.

Just a little more…

Just a moment..?

How much more..?

1 week? 2 weeks?

Or a month?

Maybe a year?

But I might die tomorrow…?

Wouldn’t Arthur regret not being able to do it when I die?

Yeah.. you’ll definitely regret it..

And after spending so much of my life, I can only do this much.

I should be compensated too.. Since I’m getting it for cheap, Arthur can’t say anything.

Alice turned around and went to Arthur’s side, where he was lying.

“Arthur, sleep?”

I called out quite loudly, but Arthur was in a deep sleep and did not wake up.

-Shake, shake.

Alice grabbed Arthur’s shoulders with both hands and began shaking him roughly.

“… Arthur..! This is really urgent, wake up quickly!!”

But of course, Arthur, who was in a state of mana loss, ‘could not’ wake up.

-Gulp.

It doesn’t matter if Arthur doesn’t notice anyway, right? As long as you clean up after yourself…

“This is the last one, Arthur. If you don’t get up now, who knows what will happen?”

After confirming that Arthur would never wake up, Alice could no longer bear it, and the sound of undressing and stripping could be heard in the room.

“… ”

-Creak, creak, creak, creak.

That day, the only sound in Arthur’s room was the creaking of the bed, echoing throughout the morning.