Lyla and Elena’s conversation continued. Elena had already thrown away the awkwardness she felt at meeting a stranger for the first time. Extremely talented in magic except for mana, Elena realized a significant fact.
‘This person is a really amazing mage!’
Talking to Lyla felt like talking to her grandfather, who was praised as the most skilled mage in Sunewick. Of course, Elena was talking about events that happened in the distant past. After it became clear that Elena had no mana, Walwiss no longer talked about anything related to magic to her anymore. Even though Elena was still able to talk to her father, Orland, about magic, her conversations with her father unfortunately didn’t satisfy her thirst for knowledge.
Right now, a person who could perfectly satisfy Elena’s desire had appeared in front of her. The wariness she felt towards Lyla melted like a piece of dropped ice. If Elena thought deeper, this was definitely a suspicious situation. An amazing mage suddenly appeared in front of a young woman from a highly-regarded family desperate to study magic. This was too much of a happy coincidence. However, Elena was so engrossed in her conversation with Lyla that she was unable to ponder about her strange circumstances.
Lyla picked up an incomplete artifact. “You made this one with completely traditional methods.”
“Yes, it’s because I should make changes after perfecting my basics. The foundation has to be strong. Even when I make many experimental artifacts, I try to make at least one artifact using completely traditional methods.”
“That’s smart of you.” At Lyla’s compliment, Elena’s mood went up. However, her mood plummeted at Lyla’s next words. “An excellent teacher must have taught you.”
“…Yes.” Elena’s voice became noticeably lower. It was different from when she was eagerly talking to Lyla with great animation. Elena first learned magic from her grandfather, Walwiss Dwayne. Whenever someone talked about this topic, she couldn’t help feeling down.
Lyla’s conscience ached. Her conscience was not plastered in orichalcum like Zich. Moreover, Lyla enjoyed conversing with Elena.
‘It’s easy to talk to her, and she’s also talented.’
It was as expected of someone who was part of a party that killed Zich when he became a Demon Lord. However, as much as she enjoyed talking to Elena, Lyla felt guilty about tricking the latter. However, this was a necessary job, which would also eventually help Elena in the end.
‘For now, I have to strengthen my heart!’
With this in mind, Lyla asked, “Why do you suddenly look so down?”
“Ah, no, it’s nothing,” Elena quickly replied, but Lyla stared directly into her eyes.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s nothing. Did something bad happen to you?”
“T-that…” Elena glanced furtively towards Lyla. ‘Would it be okay to tell her?’
Even though Elena had quickly gotten close to Lyla, she was not sure if she should suddenly begin talking about a sensitive family matter to Lyla. Of course, she would not have usually pondered about this. However, Elena enjoyed talking to Lyla, and she didn’t want the atmosphere to become awkward.
In the end, she compromised; without giving specific details, Elena briefly explained her situation. “It’s because I’m no longer able to learn magic from that person.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I spoke carelessly.”
“It’s all right.”
“You’ll be able to find a good teacher soon. I’m sure that a lot of people would look favorably at such a talented person like you.”
Elena lowered her head even more.
“D-did I say something wrong again?”
“…There’s no one who wants to teach me. It’s because I’m not talented at all.”
“Is this related to what that mage said to you the last time we were here?”
Elena nodded. “It doesn’t matter if I’m talented in other areas. No matter how good I am in making magic circles for artifacts and memorizing incantations, without mana, they are all useless skills.”
The content of Elena’s words were miserable, but Elena’s voice was very calm. However, her indifferent voice revealed how hopeless she felt. In order to talk so calmly about her lack of talent, Elena must have gone through so much pain and agony. How much did she cry and fall into despair to reach this point? Yet despite everything, Elena loved magic so much that she was unable to let her dream go. Lyla felt that Elena’s desperate cries were clearly ringing in her ears. “…But you haven’t given up yet, right?”
Elena looked up at Lyla; the bottom of her eyes looked lack-luster and tired.
“That’s why you’re still trying to study magic like this.” Lyla’s gaze landed on the magic book that Elena always carried about.
“…Yes, that’s right.”
“Am I right to think that you’re also doing this to get money to study magic?”
Elena nodded.
“Then why don’t we do this, Ms. Dwayne? Why don’t you learn magic from me?”
Elena dumbly replied, “What?”
“What do you think about learning magic from me? Ah, do you not have faith in me cause I’m a wandering mag—”
“Ah, no! That’s not it at all!” Elena quickly denied such claims.
“Then it’s decided!” Lyla replied with a smile.
“But my mana is…”
“Even if you can’t use mana right now, you might be able to use it in the future.”
“But my gran…the person who taught me magic said that if I still haven’t awakened my mana until now, I just don’t have mana at all or my mana is the size of a dragon’s. And the latter is unrealistic.”
“Yes, that’s true, but there might be another reason why your mana hasn’t been awakened yet. Moreover, it would be a very rare event, but you might really have the same amount of mana as a dragon.”
“…Do you really think that’s possible?” It had been a really long time since Elena had heard a hopeful word from a person other than her father.
However, Lyla shook her head. “Honestly, that’s an extremely low possibility.”
Elena hunched her shoulders.
“Didn’t you already know this? Yet you still didn’t give up, right? So, I will at least put my hands out for all your hard work. Ah, but I won’t be able to help you for long since I’m a wandering mage. How about it?”
Elena hesitated, but not for long. The only person who supported her dream was her father. However, her father had a different affinity than her and he was also extremely busy, so it was hard to learn magic from him. Now, she had a new chance to learn magic again from someone. In a way, this was not even a matter for her to ponder about.
“Please look kindly upon me!” Elena made a deep bow.
* * *
After changing their relationship from customer and seller to a teacher and disciple, Lyla continued conversing with Elena. Then, a shadow came closer to them.
“Have you finished talking?” It was Zich.
“You’ve already arrived?”
“What do you mean already? Just look at the sky. The sun is going to set soon.”
True to his words, the sky was now a deep orange and red color.
“Were you so focused on your conversation with Elena that you lost your sense of time? You guys must have connected well.”
“Ah, that’s right. I have something to tell you.” Lyla moved Elena next to her. “I decided that I’m going to be a temporary teacher for her.”
“Mister, I’m E-Elena Dwayne!” She bowed towards Zich, and Zich blinked his eyes in surprise.
But he soon smiled and put his hand out. “Ms. Elena, I heard your name the last time, but it’s not bad to hear it once more. My name is Zich. I don’t have a last name, so please just call me Zich.”
“Mr. Zich, since you are Teacher’s friend, you don’t have to speak so politely to me.”
“Should I do that? Then okay. I also seem to be a bit older than you.” Then Zich shifted his gaze to Lyla. “I’m a bit surprised. You went to just talk to her and now you’ve accepted her as your disciple.”
“It’s temporary.”
“But a disciple is still a disciple.” Zich turned his gaze towards Elena and said, “You’ll probably suffer a bit as her disciple, but since her skills and teaching abilities are impeccable, it’s not a bad idea to learn from her. You should work hard, and if it seems like she’s teaching anything weird, you should tattletale on her to me.”
“Something like that won’t happen!” Lyla’s anger at Zich looked so natural that despite not knowing them for long, Elena could not help but laugh. Like this, a new disciple was quietly taken in as the sun began to set.
* * *
Zich and Lyla separated from Elena. Since it was getting late, they decided to meet again the next day. While heading back to their lodging, Zich stretched out his two arms and exclaimed, “So easy! If life goes on like this, it’ll be no fun!”
Lyla complained, “…Only you would say it’s no fun in a situation like this.”
“What happened? Why are you so down?”
“Unlike you, I feel guilty, because I actually have a sense of conscience.”
“As expected, it must be uncomfortable as hell? You should throw away something like that. Even if you keep it, there’s nothing good that can come out of it.”
“A normal person can’t just throw their conscience away whenever they want to!”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m telling you to put in some effort. You should put some effort into throwing away your conscience. Do you think I became trash like this with just one or two days of hard work?”
“Who the hell is going to work hard to become a trashy human?”
“Hey, watch your words! Are you ignoring all the trash everywhere in this world? Moreover, how could you insult my hard work! In order to catch up to people born as complete pieces of human trash, you don’t know how hard I worked! If I’m being specific, I worked several times harder on becoming trashier than gaining strength to become a Demon Lord!”
“Ah, so loud! Shut up! If I talk to you, my mind becomes a mess, so just shut your mouth!”
Zich withdrew, but his chuckling was even more annoying. “Lyla, you’ve worked hard. You were able to smoothly grab a position as her teacher. As her teacher, you can carefully scan and research her body with the excuse of teaching her magic.”
Then, they might find out why she was unable to use mana. “Rumors will probably also spread. Since Elena is very famous around here, the rumor that she’s following a mysterious woman will spread like wildfire. Then, there’s a high possibility that we’ll be able to come into contact with Walwiss Dwayne and Orland Dwayne.”
Afterwards, they would be able to observe two suspicious suspects. “So don’t think of this as just tricking her. This is definitely a kind thing we’re doing for Elena Dwayne’s good.”
“Yeah, that’s the only saving grace of this situation.” Lyla let out a sigh.
“It seems like you have talent though.”
“…What the hell are you talking about?” What kind of nonsense was Zich going to say now? The intensity in Lyla’s eyes amplified as she stared at Zich.
“While I was gathering information around here, I went to check up on you guys a few times. And woah, I was so impressed. Regardless of how much Elena let down her guard, you did such a good job tricking her.”
Then Zich wiped the smile off his face and put his hand on Lyla’s shoulder. Completely serious, he said, “You have talent. Insane talent in conning people. Your ability to get an innocent kid over to your side was just like a professional swindler.”
“I learned it all from you!”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. I didn’t specifically teach you anything. You’ve just learned from watching me and you used it in real life without trouble, and it worked so well like this. Perhaps, your ability to con people might be even comparable to your magic ab—”
“Shut up!”
Bish!
There was a heavy thud of someone getting hit. Then, a boisterous and loud laugh followed right after. Under the sky that was starting to turn dark blue, two people chattered loudly while walking the streets.