However, Elena soon raised her head. She had already heard this exact speech so many times and had been hurt by them that they had now formed scabs on top of another, and now, she didn’t feel much pain from it.
Thus, Elena could indifferently say, “It’s all right. I expected this.”
However, the two people who watched Elena knew she was still hurt. Lyla and even Zich clicked their tongues inside their minds.
‘No matter how many times you’re hurt, there are pains that you can never get used to.’ From what Zich saw, Elena perfectly exemplified that statement. Even though Elena was saying that she was used to getting hurt, it was as if blood was flowing out from her heart. Even though Zich called himself trash and a villain, he never stopped people from doing what they wanted. That was the reason why he was raising Snoc and Hans even though they would probably become obstacles to him if he decided to go back to becoming a Demon Lord.
Therefore, Zich felt a bit sympathetic towards Elena who was unable to do what she wanted—but that was only a little bit. Zich was still Zich. “Could I perhaps also check out your mana?”
“Yes?”
“Since all the people who checked were all mages, maybe a swordsman like me can provide a different perspective.”
“Ah, yeah, that could be true!” Even though Elena just got hurt, she quickly grabbed onto the next hopeful idea.
Elena reached out with her hand, and Lyla gazed sharply at Zich. Even though Zich’s words had a point, honestly, there was an extremely low chance that he’d be able to find anything new. Instead, there was a very high possibility that Zich might just crush her hopes again; for that reason, Lyla looked unfavorably at Zich’s decision to scan Elena’s body.
However, she didn’t stop him. Zich was not the type to stop even if she said something, and he also had a point. In Lyla’s perspective, she had already agreed to completely follow Zich’s plans.
“I can’t find anything as well.”
“Ah, I-I see.”
As expected, Zich also couldn’t find anything. Elena tried to control her expression, but she couldn’t stop her voice from trembling slightly.
Lyla let out a sigh. “Should we stop for today? Since today is the first day, I think we should stop for now.”
Elena nodded.
* * *
After separating from Elena, Zich and Lyla went back to their lodging. Lyla looked at Zich with annoyance, but she just let out sighs and didn’t say anything. All she did was lightly tap Zich’s shoulder when he made an innocent expression as if he wasn’t aware of what happened with Elena.
Zich asked, “How was it?”
“She’s really good. I thought this before as well, but I think she’s even more talented than I thought when I last talked to her. If she just had mana, she might really become an amazing magician.”
“No, I’m not talking about that.” Zich knew better than Lyla how powerful Elena Dwayne could get in the future. “Did you find anything special inside her body?”
“Honestly, no.” Lyla shook her head.
“I scanned very carefully, but there’s no trace of mana development. It’s the perfect example of a person who hasn’t awakened their mana yet. Or she might innately have no mana inside her body.”
“However, the latter is definitely not the case.” Zich was sure of this.
“Then the only possibility left is that her mana has yet to awaken.”
“But that’s also not true. The amount of mana she has is not that extraordinary.”
Since Lyla and Zich both knew information about the future, it was pointless to discuss the possibilities that Elena had no mana or she was yet to awaken her mana.
“What about you?” Lyla asked the same question to Zich this time.
“It was the same for me.”
“Hmm, we’re back to square one.”
“Well, I didn’t think that I would find an amazing discovery even from the very beginning. We have to slowly observe her body from now on. We also have to observe her father and grandfather.”
“So, I just have to continue teaching Elena Dwayne for now right?”
“You seem happy. Are you very pleased about that?”
“Well, she’s at least cuter than you.”
“What, Elena Dwayne is cuter than me? How can you ignore my cuteness? Come on, I’ll show you my cuteness that I trained as the Demon Lord of—!”
“Ah, come on!”
* * *
Zich and Lyla continued to teach Elena for several days. Elena absorbed everything that Lyla taught as if she was dried earth sucking in water. While they admired each other, their lessons continued. However, compared to their growing respect and admiration, there were more and more people who looked at them unkindly. Lyla and Elena thoroughly ignored their gazes, but even if they did nothing, their opponents could not be trusted to do the same.
“In the end, an unpleasant event occurred.”
“Let’s talk for a bit.”
Although they planned to go to the magical tower, Zich, Lyla, and Elena all turned back toward the sound of the voice. There was a young man standing in front of them. He looked very young, but anyone could see that he was a mage by the way he dressed. He wore a long robe and a staff with crystals encrusted in it. If he just had white long hair and a long robe, he would be invited to take the mage’s role in any play—that was how much he looked like a traditional magician.
Zich asked first, “What’s the matter?”
The young man looked at Zich, and then his gaze moved back to where Elena Dwaye was standing. Then, he looked back at Zich. “Mind you, I have business with the person behind you. Can you move away a bit?”
“I refuse. As you can tell, we’re busy right now.”
The young man looked at Zich with annoyance; Zich could tell what type of person he was just by his expression. ‘It seems like his parents have a high status, and he’s from a highly esteemed family.’
The young man looked at Zich as if he was annoyed that someone was blocking him. Zich’s head quickly spun around to assess the situation.
‘It seems like he has some kind of complaint against Elena Dwayne, and the reason for his complaint is obvious.’
Just the fact that Elena was walking in and out in a magical tower even though she received a death sentence as a mage irritated other mages.
‘But that’s not a good enough reason to start up a fight like this.’
Another reason must have been tied to this. Zich’s gaze went back to the young man again.
‘It seems like he has a complaint against Lyla and me as well…’
No, rather than complaint, his eyes were full of suspicion; Zich immediately grasped their current situation.
‘It seems like he thinks Lyla and I are swindlers, and Elena Dwayne is an idiot who is getting swindled by us.’ Then, everything made sense now. Zich roughly finished assessing the situation, and now the problem was how he was going to deal with this matter.
‘Should I let him go? Or should I increase the stakes?’
If he wanted to let it go, they could just ignore the man and go. No matter how great the mage’s family was, they had Elena Dwayne on their side, so he probably couldn’t continue to pick a fight with them. However, Zich didn’t think it was a bad idea to increase the stakes.
‘I observed Elena Dwayne for several days, but I didn’t find anything special.’
Their situation with Elena Dwayne was at a standstill. Therefore, it was not a bad idea to create a huge event at this point in time.
‘Let’s increase the stakes!’
The latter also matched Zich’s personality better. Zich lifted one of his arms and signaled for Lyla to stand still. Then he looked at the young man. From the back, Elena did not know what to do; she thought that a fight happened because of her. In order to stop the fight, she was about to step forward, but Lyla stopped her.
“Teacher?”
“It’s all right. Let’s see what happens.”
Like this, Lyla and Elena took a step back.
“…While I’m speaking nicely, you should move away.” The young man said with threats laced in.
“While you’re speaking nicely…I guess speaking nicely means something a little bit different in Sunewick. No matter how I see it, sir, it seems like you want to kill someone here.”
“I have no intention of exchanging wordplay with you, so move right now!”
“If you have no intention to exchange words with me, you should just go on your way, sir.” Then Zich lifted his hands to the side as if he was guiding the young man out. The young man’s harsh gaze became even more vicious.
“Dwayne!”
Elena was surprised by his shout.
“When are you going to stop following your unobtainable dream! Aren’t you embarrassed towards your grandfather and father!” Since it seemed as if Zich had no intentions to move, the young man seemed to have decided to loudly voice his opinions. At the young man’s words, Elena’s head dropped down.
“Ah, sir, you are really loud. Did you perhaps chew and swallow a dragon’s vocal chords?” Zich complained while blocking his ears in an exaggerated manner. “Moreover, it’s not just your voice that is so loud, but you are also very rude. Sir, are you so great that you can raise your voice at my friend’s disciple?”
“…Disciple?”
“Yes, sir. Disciple.” Zich nodded his head roughly. “My super beautiful friend at the back is acting as a temporary teacher for Elena Dwayne. So that’s why I can’t just let your verbal abuse go.”
The man stared at Lyla. Without a change in expression, Lyla accepted the man’s gaze.
“Hmph! How can someone who looks like they just reached their twenties teach anyone? Rather than pretending to be a teacher to look cool, you should work on growing your skills!”
“That’s for the two of them to decide, sir. Also, my friend is an extraordinary genius. There’s no problem at all for her to teach Ms. Dwayne.”
“A genius?” The young man stared at Lyla; anyone could see that his gaze was full of mockery.
He let out a sigh and looked back at Zich and spat, “Hey, you swindlers.” He didn’t even pretend to be polite now. “I don’t know where you guys heard about that punk’s situation, but wake up from your dream and quietly go back to wherever the hell you came from. If you think you can trick her by offering magic lessons…well, honestly, seeing that idiot seems to have completely fallen for your trap, I would say your plan is overall quite okay. Or maybe that idiot is even more idiotic than I thought.”
The young man coldly glared at Elena. “But the magical tower nor Sunewick is not so easy that low-lives like you two can just wander around. Obviously, that dunce’s family is also no laughing matter. This is a warning. If you guys drop your plans and quietly disappear, we can still act like this was a ridiculous but random happening.” The young man spoke as if he was a very generous boss.
However, Zich had no desire at all to feel touched by the young man's “generosity.” Instead, he wanted to pay back the young man’s generosity by the full amount.
For that reason, he began by saying, “Hey, you moron.”
The young man’s face distorted.
“I don’t know which upper-class family you are from, but judging by how you accuse people you’re meeting for the first time as swindlers, it seems like your family hasn’t taught you all that well?”
“This punk…!”
“Whatever. It seems like we share the same opinions about each other. Then there’s only one way we can solve this matter. Hey you, judging by what you said, you seem like quite a talented magician among your peers, right?”
The young man proudly replied, “Yeah. I guess, since you are a swindler, you at least have a good eye.”
“Then why don’t we stop tiring each other out and settle the matter like this?” Zich pointed his thumb behind him specifically to Lyla. “Check it out for yourself—whether we really are swindlers or my friend here really has the qualifications to teach Ms. Dwayne.”