Chapter 41. Fiery Morning

“That’s it… keep it steady…” I softly said to Nicole’s back.

She was currently trying her best to keep a steady flame mid air. I could tell that it was difficult for her as she was already sweating while the flame was no larger than a fist.

I was standing behind her, both to help her focus and to keep her safe in case there was a misfire. For that, I had created a Mana Barrier around us that covered us in every direction for a few steps, ensuring that no fire would hit the walls or anything inside the room. And if there was a misfire, I could quickly grab her and cover her with another Barrier.

But so far, the worst thing that happened was a few small fireballs hitting the barrier, which barely did anything to shake it.

“Nhg,” she struggled and the small fiery ball became unstable.

“Calm down, don’t let it lose its connection to you. Mana is as much a part of you as the blood flowing in your veins,” I softly said, trying to calm down the girl.

The fire took shape once more, expanding slightly with each passing breath. I waited for a moment, letting Nicole control the power in silence, but after a few more seconds, the fireball suddenly lost shape, growing larger, and quickly misfired, hitting the barrier once more.

She sighed and her head and shoulders sagged. “It’s too difficult.”

“It is. But you’re quickly getting better. It’s been only a few minutes and you’re already managing to get a better grasp of the fire,” I replied with a nod while crossing my arms under my chest.

It was clear for me now that she wasn’t a normal mage.

At first, my senses made me think that the mana was quickly transforming into fire when she used it, but after watching her for a while, I realized that there was no trace of pure mana in her process. The fire mana at the start was just so small that it was easily confused for pure mana. I could only notice that fact for being close to her and paying attention to what she did.

Which mostly confirmed that Nicole was likely a Fire Deviant… However, only my mana master would know for sure, but getting them to meet each other… I think it wasn’t going to happen.

As I was pondering these things, Nicole shook her head. “It’s no use, Althea. Even if fire is supposedly my special power, the ‘phoenix’ is a B ranked spell. My Magic Power is only at D. It won’t allow me to learn it.”

“Hm? What does that have to do with learning a spell?” I asked with my head tilted to the side.

“Haven’t you browsed the stores for Skill Books?” she replied with a question of her own as she turned to look at me. “All of them clearly say that you have to have a certain Magic Power rank to be able to use it.”

I remembered that from the spell that Bo’guth showed me while we were in the Tainted Land, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with knowing how to use mana.

“I don’t think that’s right,” I said, before pulling my Watch once again to show Nicole the list of skills on it. “I have a lot of spells here that are higher than the letter of the rank for me, and I didn’t have any issue learning how to do them.”

“Huh?” she exclaimed and looked closer at the watch. “How can that be?”

I thought about it for a moment. “Could it be that you’re confusing learning a spell with using a Skill Book?”

“No, but… even in class they only try to teach us skills that are only in our rank level…” she said while placing a hand on her chin.

I nodded in agreement. It made sense that it was the easier way for someone to learn magic without any issues. “While that might be true, I think that one should push oneself beyond one’s boundaries to become truly powerful.”

Nicole looked at me with a forced smile. “Hardcore…”

“Hm?”

“Nevermind!” she exclaimed after saying a weird thing before turning to look out the window. “What time is it?”

I reached for the phone. “It’s almost six.”

“Still early to go to the Institute… lucky you, you get there in less than fifteen minutes,” she said and plopped down on the mattress.

She was right that there was still some time before we had to leave, which made me think of her glistening skin after that short training session. “Perhaps you should take a shower after all.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I told you I’ll do it after getting home,” she replied without moving from the mattress.

“Are you sure? Because you’ve been sweating quite a bit for a while now,” I said, pointing out in my face the trails of sweat that she would have on hers.

She froze for a moment as she realized that she wasn’t quite as clean and proper as she thought she was. “U-um, I-I guess I’ll take you up on that offer after all hahaha…”

* * *

“It’s so uncomfortable to wear the same thing you were wearing after taking a shower…” Nicole said with a sigh while we were walking to the Academy.

“Would you have preferred to be in a closed room after sweating that much?”

“No… but still… I’ll have to change as soon as I get home…” she continued with a sigh. “But I guess you’re on the same boat as me, as you still have to wear that uniform.”

“It’s hardly been worn and I have to use it today, at least according to what that elf said,” I replied and looked down at the clean red jacket.

“An elf!? You’re having class with an elf?!” she exclaimed, her eyes almost shining as she turned to look at me. “I’m going to have to sneak into your class one day. What’s his name?”

“Stormwind. He seems strong, but I don’t know what his true nature is.”

“Ah! He’s the one with the light green hair,” she said, placing a finger on her chin. “I’ve always wondered if that’s his natural hair or if he’s just dyed it.”

“Elves do have colorful hair, so it’s likely natural for him.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Really? But why is that? Doesn’t seem that normal to me,” she said while tilting her head from one side to another.

“What the teachings of the Holy Gods said was that they got their appearance due to excess love from the Holy Gods when creating them, giving them the closest image to how They look,” I replied, trying to remember how the Gods looked, but in the short time that I laid eyes upon them, I was already being killed by them.

However, from that short meeting, I think that those legends might be true.

“Is that so? Then why do those Followers of Leyfall and the people that really, really believe in those Gods sometimes hunt them?”

“That is…” my fault, I thought, but I wasn’t going to confess that part. “Because in the Final War, they betrayed the Holy Gods and joined hands with the minions of the Darkness and Hellfire God.”

“‘Minions’? you mean like Bobby?”

“Yes, him and his kind.”

“Hm…” she hummed for a moment while looking at the floor. “Bobby seemed like such a nice… demon… so I can see why they would want to join him instead, even if it’s against the Holy Gods.” She looked at me with a serious expression. “Do you know why they were at war? As far as I know, the reason was that the Holy Gods demanded it, and the Hero of the Holy Gods led the empire, but why did They really want that?”

“Because… Because…” I trailed off with a grave expression.

I didn’t actually know why They wanted that. All I know is what Salrak told me after the fact, but during my time serving Them, They never said why I had to fight the Dark God. All I remember was being told that they were evil, and that they were going to bring the world to complete darkness and misery. I believed it even more after my father and older brother died in one of the many battlefields, so I just did my best to stop them and bring everlasting peace by killing Salrak.

“Althea?” Nicole asked after I didn’t answer.

“Hm? Oh, no, I don’t really know,” I replied after shaking my head.

“Really? I’ve read online that it was because the Gods actually wanted to destroy their world, but that’s only said by the people who used to live in Tenebreius, back in your world, so I was hoping that you’d know more,” Nicole replied with a disappointed smile. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Only the Gods actually know, right?”

“Right…” I replied, unsure on if I should tell someone what really happened or just keep it for myself.

“Oh, hey!” Nicole suddenly exclaimed while pointing at something. “Aren’t they your classmates?”

I focused on the direction that she was pointing and noticed that it indeed was Steven and Brian. They hadn’t noticed us, and since we were already close to the entrance of the Academy, we decided to approach them.

As we were getting closer, however, I noticed that they didn’t look in good shape. The two of them had bandages and band-aids on a few places of their body—mostly their head and face.

“Hey!” Nicole called out to them and they turned to look at us. It was then that she also noticed all the bruises, causing her to gasp. “Oh my, what happened to you?”

“H-hey… Nicole, right?” Steven replied while Brian simply looked with a forced smile. “This is just… the results of yesterday’s training…” He turned to Brian, matching the other young man’s expression. “Brutal training, as you can see…”

“Really? What kind of training was that?” Nicole asked, quickly moving her hands over their faces as if wanting to inspect the wounds, but didn’t touch them.

“Erm…” Steven trailed off and just looked at Brian.

“Let's just say that David’s coach is a… beast…” Brian awkwardly responded.

“Does it hurt?” Nicole asked and the group kept walking to the Academy.

“A little, but they already gave us something for the pain, and told us that we should be back to normal in a couple of days, so no problems here,” Steven replied.

“Hm…” Nicole turned to look at me for a moment, then back to the young men, and finally back up to me again. “Can’t you heal them like you healed me this morning?”

Both young men turned their heads to me with an inquiring expression, with Steven speaking up before Brian could say something. “You can heal?”

I hesitated for a moment to answer, since I knew that it could turn to people begging me to heal them all the time, but I didn’t see the harm in it with these two, so I nodded. “Yes.”

There was a look of surprise on the two of them.

“Really? That’s a fairly rare skill to have. A lot of people focus their magic on trying to be traditional mages,” Brian said.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind it if you could help me with that. I don’t want to—”

Suddenly, I felt someone rushing our way from behind Steven and Brian’s back, and without waiting for that someone to attack us, I shoved the two men aside and prepared to defend.

This person, however, noticed that I had reacted and stopped short a few steps away from me. I caught the man’s features now that he was close and couldn’t help but feel annoyed at him trying to do the same thing he did yesterday.

“And here I was hoping I would be faster this time,” David said with a smirk.

“Why do you try to attack us all the time?” I asked without letting my guard down.

He shrugged with his hands to the side. “I think it’s fun to scare people like that.” His expression then turned serious as he looked at me. “But with you around, I’m starting to feel like I’d rather try to beat you.”

I remained quiet as I returned a glare to the confident smirk he was now throwing my way.

The group of people behind me moved around to see who it was.

“Oh! David, good to see you again,” Nicole said with a friendly smile.

Steven and Brian, on the other hand, seemed to be avoiding David’s smirk, so he shifted around me to try to get a better look. “What’s wrong with you guys? Didn’t you enjoy yesterday’s training?”

“It-it was a very…” Steven trailed off.

“Very interesting teaching experience,” Brian finished off with a forced smile. “Didn’t think that the coach would go that hard on us.”

David laughed out loud and decided to walk with us to the Academy. “If you enjoyed it, then you’re free to join us as many times as you please!”

Steven and Brian froze momentarily before slowly looking at each other. They maintained their look for a moment, and then shook their heads.

“I think we’re not ready for it just yet…” Steven confessed with Brian nodding along.

David seemed surprised as he raised his eyebrows and looked at the two of them. “What? But you entered with Althea and Vicky to the C ranks. Surely you’ll be able to handle it. Hell, I’ll even ask the coach to come get you each time we’ve got training,” he said, but I couldn’t tell if he was doing that from the kindness of his heart or if he just wanted the young men to suffer whatever training they were put through.

“O-oh.. I don’t know…” Steven said and looked around. His eyes met mine and his expression brighted as if the Holy Gods had spoken to him. “I know! What if you join us for the training? You’re strong, so you won’t get hurt, and since you know healing magic, you can keep us in good shape!”

Before I could answer, David suddenly stopped with a grave expression on his face. “That’s a no-go.”

“Hm? Why not?” Nicole asked with her head tilted as she tried to look at David’s face.

“Healing magic is good for when you really need it, or when the injury is so small that it can be healed in a few seconds. But not for training,” David replied before looking seriously at me. “I guess I don’t have to tell you about the dangers of unnecessary healing, right?”

I was surprised to see that he knew about such a thing, but the feeling quickly passed and I nodded in response. “Yes. You are correct. I cannot heal the pain of training. That is something that you need to become stronger. And, daily healing could lead to addiction, so don’t rely on it.”

“A-addiction?!” Nicole exclaimed before looking at me with fearful eyes. “T-Then! What you did this morning—!”

“That’s a minor thing that isn’t likely going to repeat itself very often,” I said, shaking my head. “Right?”

“R-Right! It won’t!” she exclaimed while the men looked at us with a confused expression.

“Well, whatever. Just remember to train hard, and be prepared for the next session, boys!” David exclaimed, wrapping his arms around the two young men’s necks as he dragged them forward. “Now! Let's go to class!”

The young men seemed uncomfortable as David was pulling them along, and I could tell that he was intentionally gripping them so they couldn’t shake off.

Nicole sighed and walked behind them. “I wish I could join you but… boring class for me today…”

“Right, then I guess we’ll see each other later,” I said to her, and the two of us parted ways after entering the Academy, where I just followed behind the struggling young men.