episode_0078

How many times did Cosette roll on the floor after that? After quite some time, to the point where Mathias and Ayla, who had been lying down comfortably, began to doze off with even breathing, Cosette finally succeeded in resisting my technique.

“Ba, did you just do it? Did it work?”

“That’s right. I finally got the hang of it.”

I tried to turn Cosette over again while answering, but Cosette only flinched and tensed up, not flying through the air as spectacularly as before. I nodded in satisfaction and let go of Cosette’s hand.

As soon as I let go of her hand, Cosette ran away, looked around the floor, and picked up a stone. Cosette, who had been concentrating with her eyes closed and her fist clenched, opened her hand. The stone was fine.

“..Huh?”

“Just because Cosette succeeded in feeling and controlling magic doesn’t mean she can handle it properly. First, try focusing your strength on your hands.”

Cosette closed her eyes again after hearing what I said. She kept her eyes closed for even longer than before, and when she opened her hand, this time the result was different from before. Although the lumps were quite large, she had succeeded in breaking them anyway.

“Okay, okay!”

Cosette threw a stone and jumped up and down in place. Ayla, who had been lying down, rubbed her eyes and got up, and Mathias clapped his hands softly.

“I was going to throw it a few more times because it failed just now. It’s too bad.”

“Hey, can you please stop making jokes like that?”

“Are you kidding? As Cosette has already experienced, this method is the fastest to learn. Please practice hard in your daily life so that I don’t have to suffer.”

Ayla yawned loudly as she watched Cosette diligently shaking off her disheveled clothes with a tired look on her face. She seemed quite sleepy.

“..I guess I’m still tired. I’m so tired.. Let’s go back quickly once training is over.”

“There’s nothing I can do since you’ve been through so much. You two, don’t push yourself too hard for a while.”

We cleaned up and slowly headed down to the village. There were quite a few people in the village who saw Ayla and whispered to her, or even asked her when she became so strong. Ayla made an awkward face but answered appropriately, and the villagers smiled, patted Ayla on the shoulder, and left.

As we were walking so slowly, we had no choice but to stop again because none other than Cedric was blocking Ayla’s path. Cedric was not the confident and cool young man he was last time, but his eyes were dark and dead, as if he hadn’t slept properly.

“..Cedric, are you okay? Are you sick or something?”

“I’m fine.. I heard that Ayla caught an ogre. That’s amazing.”

Cedric muttered darkly. He was a man I had only recently met, and I didn’t know him very well, but… I could easily tell that the way he spoke to Ayla, the way he acted, and the emotions in his eyes were completely different from before.

Whatever the reason, it seemed clear that Cedric had completely given up on Ayla. As someone who supported the relationship between Ayla and Mathias, I should be happy about this, but for some reason, I felt quite uneasy.

“I didn’t take it down alone.. Mathias helped too. If it were me alone, I might have died.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s not great. I ran away to live alone instead of helping you. Anyway, I wanted to see your face and see if you’re okay, so I came to talk to you briefly. You must be tired, so get some rest.”

Cedric didn’t even make eye contact with Ayla, just quickly blurted out what he wanted to say and left. Ayla raised her hand as if to grab him to say something more, but Cedric didn’t even look back.

Ayla awkwardly lowered her raised hand and scratched the back of her head. An awkward silence enveloped us, and no one opened their mouths until we returned to Ayla’s house.

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.

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The aftereffects of Ayla and Mathias lasted for two more days. Of course, it wasn’t simply due to physical injuries, but Yugram said that it was most likely due to exhaustion from using too much magic in an inefficient manner at first.

When I was young and trained hard, I often had the opportunity to experience a state of magical exhaustion. Even though I was clearly not physically tired, my whole body felt heavy as if it were covered in iron bars and I wouldn’t listen to what I said. That feeling of exhaustion was something that I couldn’t easily recover from or get used to.

Anyway, we enjoyed a life where we didn’t go out of the house as much as possible for the sake of those two. We forced Mathias to study common subjects, bought various board games and played them with Linny and Lenny… Surprisingly, there were quite a lot of board games. It was to the point where I thought it would be impossible to make something and sell it and immediately get money.

In fact, even in the case of Gidbin, which I and Agnes sometimes play and which I have never lost to, it was almost the same as chess in my previous life. Considering that I can recall the name chess, it must be a reasonable suspicion. There were some minor differences, but… that’s okay.

Playing with the twins until they passed out from exhaustion, or occasionally observing with fascination how their mother would try to inquire about the progress between Ayla and Mathias when the whole family, including us, was gathered together, or buying clothes and various toys for the twins and Rudiger as Ayla re-established her dignity as an older sibling.

Even after the two were able to move normally, their ordinary and somewhat fun daily lives continued. As they happily spent each day, the muggy weather began to ease up, and the mountains began to turn a beautiful variety of colors, but those colors had all disappeared long ago, and now it was snowing.

“It’s already winter..”

“That’s right.”

Ayla muttered blankly as she watched the falling snow. The snowfall was so light that it didn’t seem like it would pile up, but it was important that it was falling anyway. The weather had gotten chilly, so Agnes wore some kind of outerwear over her uniform. I don’t feel the heat or cold that much, so I went about normally.

But whether it was important that it was snowing or just that she was excited regardless, Cosette was running around the vacant lot with the twins. Leni, who had a blank expression on his face but was running around with his hands up, was quite cute. Anyway, it was winter. It was time to go back to the Academy.

“I guess I should go back soon? I guess.”

“Sisters, are you leaving already!?”

Liny, who had been swinging a whip at Cosette with one hand, suddenly ran over and hugged Ayla as if she had heard about it. Ayla squatted down and smiled bashfully, stroking Liny’s head.

“Yeah.. right. Sorry.”

“But I promised my sister before, so I’ll wait.”

Liny smiled brightly and said. I don’t know what she promised, but anyway, Ayla hugged Liny tightly and patted her on the back.

As I was watching, someone grabbed my sleeve. It was Lenny. He had a blank expression on his face, but his eyes and nose were bright red, so it looked like he was holding back tears. I also hugged Lenny.

“..Sister, come back.”

“Yes, Lenny, don’t fight with Linny, listen to your parents, and don’t cause trouble.”

“Lenny is good. It’s always Lenny who gets in trouble.”

Lenny said that confidently, but seeing the two of them always hanging out together made him think that the probability of that actually happening was very low. Didn’t they always do the same thing and get in trouble together? Ayla’s mother would know the truth.

We quickly returned home because of the slightly chilly weather and told our parents that we would soon be returning to the academy, and as a thank you for their help, we bought them some pretty expensive alcohol. It was a choice since we couldn’t accept cash. Ayla also told us that her mother liked alcohol quite a bit.

The next day, we woke up a little late, having somehow managed to sleep together as women, putting two beds together as our last night. We all finished eating at Ayla’s favorite restaurant, and got on the carriage that we had previously discussed. Linny and Leni came to the entrance with their parents and waved.

“Goodbye, Sister!”

“Hello.”

The twins who had become quite close to us were twins, but they were not the only ones who saw us off. There were quite a few mixed voices.

“Aila, please come back!”

“Ogre Slayer Ayla is coming out!”

“Aila, you are our village’s benefactor and hero!”

Ayla was showered with compliments mixed with a bit of humor. Most of them were villagers who seemed to be friends with Ayla. Ayla shouted angrily at her, telling her not to do something shameful, but there was a genuine smile on her lips.

The townspeople also wanted to praise and applaud Ayla for defeating the ogre, but it was clear that they were a little embarrassed and spoke teasingly, and Ayla seemed to react the same way.

As this farewell died down, the carriage slowly moved forward. Ayla’s village was gradually moving away. This is how we began to return to the Academy.

The fourth grade was approaching.