After finishing breakfast, Zich and Lyla left their lodging. From today on, Lyla was going to begin teaching Elena, so they headed towards the magical tower. They originally thought about teaching Lyla outside the city in an open field. Since magic was a subject that could cause a lot of damage to its surroundings, it was difficult to practice it in the city.
However, Elena’s position made this impossible. Since Elena was the granddaughter of the master of the magical tower, she was not allowed to go outside the city without permission. The only reason why she was able to sell her incomplete artifacts in the streets was because of her father’s support—but even her father didn’t allow her to leave the city. For these reasons, the three of them unanimously decided to practice magic in the magical tower.
The magical tower was built for mages, so anyone could pay a set amount of money to borrow a room in the tower. This was a system built for wandering mages visiting Sunewick. Of course, the magical tower was able to economically benefit from this as well.
“She managed to borrow a room in the magical tower. Didn’t she have to resort to selling incomplete artifacts in the streets because she lacked money?”
At Zich’s murmurings, Lyla replied, “It seems like she has some money as a lady from a rich family, but it just wasn’t enough to fund her magic studies.”
“Ugh. Even though she needed that much money, she tried to gather money by selling incomplete artifacts?”
“That’s how desperate she is.” As a mage, it seemed as if Lyla was impressed by Elena’s passion for magic since Lyla spoke extremely favorably of Elena.
“I’m here!” As soon as Lyla and Zich arrived at the magical tower, Elena waved her arms widely. Even though people stared at her, Elena paid no mind to them and ran towards Lyla.
“Hello, Teacher!”
Lyla made a bittersweet smile. “Hi, Dwayne.”
Even though they decided to become a teacher and student, Lyla still felt awkward at being called “Teacher.” Moreover, it was even more awkward because Elena looked at her with overflowing respect and admiration. On the other hand, Lyla also felt bad for Elena. How badly did she want to learn magic that she would act so friendly towards a stranger who was willing to teach magic to her?
‘I really have to solve Elena’s problem properly.’
Even though Lyla’s meeting with Elena Dwayne was completely planned, Lyla sincerely hoped that Elena’s dream and hopes would come true.
“This person is…” Elena stared at Zich who was next to Lyla.
Zich offered a friendly smile and said, “We meet again, Ms. Dwayne.”
“Yes, hello. You said you were Mr. Zich, right?”
“Yep.”
While greeting him, Elena stole furtive glances at Lyla. It seemed as if she was asking for an explanation as to why Zich was accompanying them.
Lyla chuckled and said, “He’s our helper. Shouldn’t we have some kind of target when practicing magic?”
“A t-target?” Elena was horrified; were they going to practice magic on humans?
However, the person labelled a practice target didn’t look surprised. Instead, he smirked and whispered to Elena as if he was telling a secret. Of course, it was still loud enough for Lyla to perfectly hear his words. “As you can tell, her personality is awful. She’s a very cruel person who would even make a living person a target to practice magic. So don’t ever lower your guard and if I tell you to run, immediately start runn—”
“There should be a limit to your nonsense.” Lyla grabbed the collar of Zich’s shirt and pulled him away. In addition, Zich squinted one eye for Elena to see.
Lyla said, “As you can see, this is our relationship. The reason why I brought him was because I thought he might be helpful with our magic lesson. I can attest to his skills.”
“Is he also a mage?”
“No, he’s a sword-user. But don’t worry. Even though he’s a sword-user, his control of mana is on par with mine, so I’m sure he’ll be helpful in our lesson.”
Elena was surprised. By sword-user, he probably was something like a knight or sword fighter. However, it was astonishing for someone like that to be on par with a mage like Lyla in mana control. Elena had yet to awaken her mana, so Zich seemed like a very amazing person.
“Since we can’t just keep standing here, I’ll leave the guiding up to you, Ms. Dwayne.”
“Ah, I’ll do that!” Elena hurriedly nodded her head at Zich’s words and guided Zich and Lyla inside the magical tower. As soon as they entered, everyone’s gazes fell upon them.
“Wow, we’re really the center of attention. But this time it doesn’t seem like it’s because of you, Lyla.”
Since Lyla was inhumanely beautiful, people’s gazes followed wherever she went. However, the attention they got this time wasn’t the same as usual.
Elena slowly said, “…It’s probably because of me.”
“As expected, is this related to your last name being the same as the master of the magical tower?”
“He’s my grandfather.”
“Hmm, I can roughly predict what happened.” Zich rubbed his chin and murmured, but that was the end of the matter. He didn’t ask any more questions.
“…Aren’t you going to ask more questions?”
“Do we really need to? It’s fine since I roughly know why people are staring at us. But it feels crappy that people seem to be looking at us with ill intentions.”
“That’s because…”
“It’s fine. I can predict what happened, but you don’t have to tell us the reason. We’re just here to teach you magic. So stand tall, Ms. Dwayne.” Then Zich grabbed onto Elena’s shoulders and put pressure as if he was trying to pull her up. “You at least don’t have to feel guilty about us. We care about other people’s gazes towards us as much as a passing pebble.”
“That’s only you.” Lyla scolded Zich, but to Elena, she made a gentle expression. “He’s right. It was my decision to teach you, so I don’t care about how other people see us. So you should stand tall, okay?”
“…Yes!” Elena straightened her back. She widened her stance and also waved her arms with confidence. In the first place, Elena Dwayne used to be a woman full of confidence and high self-esteem. Even though her circumstances pushed her to a corner and she lost a lot of her former self, with just a bit of push, she was able to recover her confidence a bit.
Elena leaned towards the counter and told the employee, “I made a reservation.”
The employee behind the counter seemed to have instantly recognized Elena, but they didn’t show it. Instead, the employee focused on doing their job. “Ma’am, what name did you use to make a reservation?”
“Elena Dwayne.”
The employee went through several documents and took out one from the pile. “Please sign here.”
Elena grabbed a quill and after dipping it into ink, she wrote her signature. During that short time, the employee took out a key from the shelf. Elena pushed the signed document towards the employee, and the employee took the document and handed her the key in their hand. While Elena was pocketing the key, the employee explained to her about the room she borrowed, how long she could use it for, and the basic rules of this system.
“Let’s go!” Elena moved forward, and Zich and Lyla followed behind her. Many people behind them looked at them with curiosity. Elena and her companions went up the staircase. They were able to pass the third floor, which was open to the public and enter the fourth floor, which could be considered the “real” magical tower.
Since the rooms assigned to mages were based on their skills and status, the rooms that mages could reserve were on the lower floors. The room that Elena was assigned to was on the fourth floor.
“It’s over there.” They passed a narrow corridor, and Elena found their room.
Creak! Elena opened the door, and a small room appeared in view.
“I’m sorry. This was the best room that I could afford…”
“It’s alright. This is enough.” Lyla comforted Elena and entered the room first. Zich followed behind Lyla and Elena.
Thud! He closed the door and scanned the room. The walls and ceilings were made out of stone. The room was rectangular, and it looked very ordinary. As expected of a room in a magical tower, however, it was not an ordinary room at all.
Zich put his hand on the nearest wall. “There’s mana coming out of it.” He felt the mana flowing clearly through his hands.
“I heard that they built it like that since they first designed the magical tower. Low-grade magic can’t harm this building because of the flowing mana in this room’s floor, wall, and ceiling.”
With Elena’s explanation, Zich nodded. It was a small room but there were several desks and chairs. The three of them all pulled out a chair for themselves.
“First, I have to know the extent of your knowledge.” After saying this, Lyla began throwing questions at Elena. She was good at replying, but for a few questions, she was confused or was unable to give a proper answer.
“You mostly studied fire-related magic?”
“Yes. Since my grandfather is in that school of magic, I got a lot of influence from him.”
Zich nodded while listening to their conversation. Even before he regressed, fire magic was Elena Dwanye’s specialty.
“I’ve already seen more than enough of your skills with the magic circles from the incomplete artifacts you made, so how about showing me your incantation abilities?”
“Yes, Ms. Lyla!” Elena closed her eyes. Her mouth began moving, and unknown sounds began flowing out of her lips. As a non-mage, Zich had no idea what the hell she was saying. However, Elena, who was chanting the spells, and Lyla, who was listening to her, seemed to have no difficulty understanding what the spells meant.
“You’re good. Your pronunciation is good, and you don’t stutter at all.”
At Lyla’s compliment, Elena’s cheeks turned pink. After that, Lyla asked Elena to do various actions, and Elena was also able to easily do them.
After a bit of time passed, Lyla nodded and said, “You’ve got the basics down pat, and your ability to apply them in real life is great. You really are amazing.”
“Thank you so much!” Elena felt as if she could fly. It seemed as if all the effort and time she spent towards her goal was getting recognized.
However, her spirit died down at Lyla’s next words. “Your mana is really the only problem.”
“…Yes.”
“Would it be all right if I scanned your mana?”
“Yes, but it’ll be useless. My grandfather and father tried several times, but they failed every time.”
No matter how little mana she had, those two were fully capable of detecting any mana inside of her. However, they couldn’t feel any trace of mana inside her; this was perfect evidence that her mana hadn’t been freed yet. Despite this fact, Elena obediently offered her hands to Lyla; it was her desperate attempt to even grab at straws.
Lyla gently allowed her mana into Elena’s body and began exploring around. However, Lyla’s mana was able to easily flow around Elena’s body without any obstacles at all; this meant that there was no mana in Elena’s body.
Elena carefully asked, “…How is it, teacher?”
Lyla shook her head. “I couldn't find anything as well.”
Elena’s head plummeted down.