Chapter 77

Of course, if we quickly complete the quest of accepting Bellen as a mentor, it will accelerate Leana’s growth, which is beneficial for me as well. However, knowing the likely outcome, I hesitated to respond.

“Are you suggesting we just leave Miss Bellen as she is?”

“Do you think telling you would change anything?”

Comforting others is something that must be done with caution. Especially in Leana’s case, since she has a bit of an awkward streak, there’s a high chance she might make mistakes if she tries to do it clumsily.

“You won’t know unless you try,” Leana said sharply.

I looked at her, scrutinizing her intentions, and replied.

“Fine, let’s say I told you. What do you think you’ll do next? You’ll probably approach great-aunt and awkwardly sympathize, saying such sad things happened. Then you’ll keep repeating to cheer up. You won’t realize that you’re roughly tearing open painful memories.”

Leana’s shoulders slightly flinched.

“I do have basic social awareness.”

…That’s a lie. At least look me in the eye when you say that.

“Everything has a process. If you truly want great-aunt to function properly as a person, don’t give up and ponder on your own. Who knows? Maybe she’ll open up to you directly.”

Still, I didn’t want to give up on the rapid growth of a playable character.

“Hmm, it’s not much, but I’ll give you some help.”

However, there is no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

“Of course, I’ll expect some compensation.”

Leana seemed intrigued, her eyes widening.

“Compensation?”

“When the time comes, just fulfill one request from me. It’s a very simple task.”

If Bellen stands up again, she might tell Aol about my admission to the magic department. To prevent this, having Leana’s influence was the best option. By then, Bellen would consider Leana like a granddaughter and would easily comply with any request from her.

In summary, I plan to ask Leana to ensure that the fact of my enrollment in the magic department remains a secret, even asking Bellen to keep it buried forever.

However, Leana seemed very concerned about my request, her face showing clear distaste.

“A request? Surely, it’s not something like…”

Ah, right. If a request comes from my mouth, she probably thinks it’s something vulgar.

But I can’t reveal something that might become my weakness before receiving a definite answer. I needed to reveal a bit about myself to persuade her.

“Don’t worry. I don’t know about the past, but now I live with basic common sense. I won’t make any strange requests.”

Since my reincarnation, I’ve lived a decent life. I haven’t particularly harmed anyone, and the only murder I committed was of an assassin who tried to kill me.

Moreover, I’ve done a lot of good deeds.

When I smiled gently, Leana looked at me with wary eyes.

“I heard you hit a man on the day of the second test. I also heard that during the third test, you violently robbed coins from those you led and even dropped a third-year student off the wall. All this happened in less than a month.”

Well, there were valid reasons for that.

“I didn’t want to associate with bad groups. In the case of Bidon, he provoked me first. As for the incident at the Buerger Hall, I only fought back against their severe bullying.”

All those incidents were unintended.

In the case of Lethe, it was a coin snatching battle that was allowed. If they had been volunteers, I would never have touched them.

Despite my fervent explanations, Leana’s suspicion didn’t seem to fade.

“It just sounds like a plausible excuse. Even if what you say is true, given your previous actions…”

“Bring proof before making such accusations. Prove I did anything with malicious intent.”

Leana pointed her finger somewhere.

“Then what is that?”

When I slightly raised my head, I was momentarily speechless.

Leana was pointing at a five-meter-tall ice sculpture.

A full-body sculpture that seemed to be modeled after my face.

…These bastards.

No wonder there were so many ice sculptures piled up in the front yard on my way to the dormitory.

“So what?”

“It’s your face.”

“It doesn’t look anything like me.”

I was about to brazenly move past it when some clueless guys shouted loudly, ruining the timing.

“It’s finally done.”

“Hey, Hersel! Look at this! I was too shy to show you before, but this is the finished work! Doesn’t it look just like you?”

When our eyes met, the senior guys waved and shouted loudly.

“Of course, we need such a symbol.”

“Next, we should put a statue at Buerger Hall too, since they lost to us.”

“That’s a great idea. If we take over Adelle Hall as well, it’ll be our third.”

Leana asked me with a trembling eye.

“Are you here to conquer the academy?”

Her gaze was mixed with contempt and disdain.

“As I said before, let’s stop talking about this.”

The deal with Leana was concluded. There was a condition that if it was a strange request, she could cancel and ask for something else, but that was fine.

“You just have to make sure that my enrollment in the magic department doesn’t get leaked to my father.”

I used the word ‘cooperation’ to bind not only Bellen but also Leana herself to keep this secret.

And the help I was going to give was just some simple advice.

“From tomorrow, there will be classes hosted by my great-aunt. Start preparing for them.”

“Can Miss Bellen handle classes?”

“She’s here as an instructor, so she has to at least pretend. Though there’s not much to expect. She’ll likely just kill time initially.”

Bellen had no enthusiasm for teaching. Moreover, she was so eccentric that students who applied based on her past reputation all ended up fleeing.

“Still, do everything she asks. For a while, she might just tell you to bring large ice chunks from the snowy mountains. Bring the largest ones you can carry. Prepare gloves and spiked shoes. And hide them well.”

With the right equipment, you can bring larger ice chunks. If Bellen finds out, she might nitpick, but as long as you’re not caught, it’s fine.

The quest’s concept was to increase her favorability. The more profound the impression, the faster you achieve it.

It’s a win-win for me. The rapid growth of a playable character who would struggle to prevent destruction is something I must welcome.

“I can’t believe it. How do you know about Miss Bellen’s classes?”

“You’ll see tomorrow.”

***

That was the end of my conversation with Leana.

And now, in the present.

Arriving at the classroom, I stared intently at Hetherson, who was supposed to teach me.

He seemed exhausted, with deep dark circles under his eyes and yawning repeatedly to the point of tears.

He must have looked into it diligently, so I was curious.

When I stared blankly, Hetherson pulled a grumpy face.

“I found it, but you might be disappointed.”

I narrowed my eyes and asked.

“Why?”

“Because it’s magic that can hardly be called magic.”

I had no idea what he was talking about.

In the end, isn’t magic just magic?

“Don’t stall and explain it in detail.”

“What I’m about to teach you is magic I learned before I joined the Watchers of the Shadows.”

Hetherson suddenly began recounting his past with nostalgic eyes.

“During my fiery youth, I went around conquering back alleys of cities and met a gang leader who claimed to be a magic swordsman.”

A magic swordsman is a class achievable only by those who develop a rare magical talent first through their sense of smell. It’s also a class that’s more dedicated to the sword than magic, making it even rarer.

It’s said that they can cut without using a sword.

Defeating such a person, indeed, not just anyone can become an officer of the Watchers of the Shadows.

“I was scared, but a man lives and dies by his pride. I didn’t back down and raised my staff. Then suddenly, the guy cut my hair without even drawing his sword.”

Hetherson pulled at his front hair with his index finger.

“He cut my hair like a fool, and I went crazy with anger. Moreover, the guy smugly asked, ‘How was that? Did you see?’ so I pounded him with magic and punched him in the face.”

Suddenly, my interest waned.

“He must have been a con artist.”

“Indeed. He was a con artist. But he was quite an intriguing one. He cut my hair without a sword or a spell. So I tortured him to find out.”

Hetherson placed a small glass vial in front of me. The contents looked like milky white liquid, like diluted milk.

“What is this?”

“It’s called Liquid Gold, worth hundreds of gold. Open it.”

When I brought it closer to my nose, there was no scent.

“In the slums, there’s always smoke because of the drug addicts. He used this to cut my hair hidden in the smoke.”

If it’s neither a sword nor a spell, then it means…

“Can this be controlled without a spell?”

“Exactly.”

Hetherson drew something wavy on the blackboard.

A body with four long legs and dotted lines inside it.

“A jellyfish?”

“…It’s a human.”

“Good heavens.”

After a brief cough, Hetherson insisted the jellyfish was a human.

“Ahem, look closely at the shapes inside the body. Listen carefully from now on.”

Hetherson’s explanation was very basic.

Just as a knight uses aura in their dantian, a magician uses mana in their brain to draw spells with intent. This was common knowledge.

Though I found it odd, there was a reason for his basic explanation.

“After all, drawing a spell involves emitting mana imbued with your intent from your brain to your fingertips. Mana inside the body is like paint. A staff or your fingers are like the brush.”

In simple terms, he was saying to use Liquid Gold as the brush.

So, if we take a martial arts example, it’s like using aura to control a sword.

Except here, you use mana imbued with intent instead of aura, and it’s water you control, not a sword.

“Of course, there are steps to this.”

Hetherson pointed to the dotted lines, insisting it was the brain.

“When drawing a spell, mana from the brain is emitted through the fingertips, right?”

He then pointed to the jellyfish’s tentacles and continued.

“Put Liquid Gold into your hand. It will infiltrate as soon as it touches. Then, you can control it with your intent.”

‘I hate the idea of putting this inside my body.’

“How is this different from telekinesis? Why not just float it with magic?”

“You know one thing but not the other. You’re just like that con artist.”

Hetherson closed his mouth, seemingly urging me to ponder the application.

Wait a minute, if it’s water, can’t it change shape at will?

“Can you make tools with this?”

“Yes. You can shape it like clay into anything you want. It’s incomparable to simply moving objects with telekinesis. Although it depends on your proficiency.”

Surprisingly, it’s quite a useful weapon.

“How about it? Even if you’re terrible at mana control, this will work. It moves as you wish, without any waste.”

That alone is impressive.

But Hetherson surprised me even more.

“Moreover, you can draw spells. Liquid Gold is a rare metal that resonates with mana.”

Draw spells with it?

That means you can cast spells in mid-air, not just with a staff or hands. You could also launch surprise attacks.

“Do you have any more?”

“Greedy kid. I told you it’s rare. I squeezed out everything from my body.”

So it came from someone else’s body.

“…Ugh.”

“Look at your face. Even when given something good, you react like this. If you don’t want it, don’t take it.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

But it’s a rare item.

I carefully poured a single drop of Liquid Gold onto my right hand. If it were harmful, ‘1-second invincibility’ would nullify it.

Ssss.

The Liquid Gold, like mercury, seeped into my skin. Fortunately, no system window appeared.

It seemed it wasn’t harmful to the body.

Gurgle.

I emptied the vial, imagining a ball. A ping-pong ball-sized object floated in the air.

Hetherson grinned as if he had given a child a toy.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s interesting.”

Moving the ping-pong ball in the air felt like controlling a drone.

“Try shaping it into something.”

“Alright.”

I recalled the drawing on the blackboard.

Then a jellyfish floated in the air.

Hetherson was impressed.

“You imagined a jellyfish, huh.”

“No? It was your drawing.”