‘Of course, if I assume those dreams were not just full of horseshit.’
Zich wasn’t sure yet if his dreams about Brave were real. No, it was more accurate to say that he didn’t want to give up his hope yet.
‘Please let them be nonsensical dreams…’
Zich didn’t want to admit to himself that Zich Brave, who acted like some kind of hero, was one of his past selves. However, just because his dreams didn’t fit his tastes, Zich couldn’t just dismiss his dreams as false. In a way, his dreams might be connected to his regression, Lyla’s knowledge about possible futures, and Glen Zenard’s secret scheme. Zich’s personality could not let go of something like this.
‘I sometimes hate this part of myself. It would be better if I could just ignore such an unpleasant thought and move on.’
Even though this part of his personality had saved him many times before his regression, he disliked this trait right now.
‘If that shitty dream is real, then would Walwiss Dwayne become a trustworthy person?’
Zich thought that if Walwiss really was the mage among Brave’s companions, he probably wasn't a bad guy. Lubella and Leona were Brave’s other companions, and they were both on the good side.
‘Then there’s a high possibility that the huge man and the mage on Brave’s team are also good.’
Then there was one person left.
‘Is it Orland Dwayne?’
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
Zich woke up from his deep contemplation at Lyla’s voice. “I was thinking about how to falsely accuse…no, make them the culprit…no, that’s not it. I was just thinking about how to find more clues and—”
“Just go back to your room.” Before Lyla even finished her sentence, she had turned her back and gone into their lodging.
Zich cried out loud in response to how cold she was to him. However, even with such a playful attitude, there was a deep, thoughtful look in his eyes.
* * *
Since Elena had gotten past the biggest hurdle to her magic studies (Walwiss Dwayne), nothing could stop her now. She no longer went to the magical tower anymore. Since Walwiss had formally given her his permission, there was no need for her to go all the way to the magical tower to pursue her studies.
As expected of the master of the magical tower, the Dwayne mansion had extremely high level research and training rooms. Of course, Walwiss didn’t let his granddaughter use these facilities without another motive. Lyla assigned work to Elena and moved a bit away from her to where Zich was standing.
She asked, “How is the surveillance?”
Zich sipped tea that a servant gave him and replied, “They’re stationed in several different areas.”
“As expected, he didn’t just let us use the training grounds.”
“Of course. It’s not like Walwiss Dwayne knew us for a long time to have any strong trust in us. On the other hand, if he hadn’t provided security measures like this to protect his granddaughter, I would have been suspicious about his sanity.”
Lyla nodded in agreement.
“E-excuse me.” An awkward voice interrupted their conversation. Zich and Lyla turned their heads toward the speaker.
“Why was I brought here?” With a confused face, Snoc was sitting next to Zich and looking all around him.
Koo…
Nowem was lying down on Snoc’s shoulders, and he cried out in agreement.
Lyla pressed down on Snoc’s shoulder and said, “I want you to help us out with Elena’s lesson.”
After Walwiss gave permission for Elena to study magic in his house, Lyla began calling Elena by her first name; Zich also did the same.
Snoc replied, “Me? But Ms. Lyla, I hardly know anything about magic.”
“I know. Don’t worry. Do you honestly think I’m going to ask you to teach magic? To be more precise, rather than you, I need Nowem’s power.”
Koo!
Nowem immediately got up from Snoc’s shoulder. He looked at Lyla and then Elena. A past memory flashed past his mind.
-Could I perhaps dissect this being a bit?
-If someone is going to dissect Nowem and research about him, I’ll be the first one in line.
Kooooooo!
Nowem let out a scream and hid inside Snoc’s clothes. Snoc also looked at Lyla with caution.
“What’s wrong?” Lyla had no idea why they were suddenly acting like this.
Zich’s voice was mixed with laughter as he answered her question. “He probably got scared because of what you said about dissecting him.”
“Oh. You still kept that in your heart? Do you honestly think that I will dissect Nowem?”
With Lyla’s firm denial, Snoc felt a bit relieved and Nowem poked out his face a little bit. However, one really had to finish listening to the end.
“Don’t worry, as long as we don’t become enemies, I will never dissect Nowem.”
Snoc thought, ‘I just wanted her to say that the whole thing about dissecting Nowem was all a joke!’
‘Koo!’
One person and one magical beast let out silent screams.
“Teacher! I’m done!” Elena quickly ran towards Lyla as if she was a dog bringing a stick. She was holding the assignment that Lyla had assigned her.
“You did a great job. As expected of you.” Lyla brightly smiled and said, “Good, Elena. Then why don’t we actually try using magic?”
“…What?” A small break appeared in Elena’s smile. “Teacher, my mana is…”
“I know. As your teacher, how could I forget that? So, I brought someone who can help you.”
“Someone to help me?”
Lyla stared at Snoc, and Zich also stared at Snoc. Naturally, Elena’s gaze also moved towards Snoc.
“…Huh?” Snoc was baffled as three pairs of eyes all stared at him at the same time.
Lyla said, “This child will take care of your mana.”
“What?”
“…What?”
Elena was the one who first expressed her doubt, and Snoc blinked his eyes and replied a few seconds later.
“Teacher, is there a way to use magic by using mana from another person?” Even though Elena had learned under Walwiss when she was young, this was the first time she heard of such a method. No, in the first place, Elena thought that this kind of method was impossible. The only thing that was similar to this was using a mana tuning device to increase one’s amount of mana for a short amount of time. Moreover, such devices had many limitations, and most of all, the user had to at least have a minimum amount of mana.
“If I’m being precise, you will be using Nowem’s mana, not Snoc’s mana.”
“Nowem?”
“It’s the magical beast that this guy is always carrying around.”
Koo?
As soon as his name was called out, Nowem cried out in confusion.
Snoc realized what Lyla was trying to do, but another question soon popped up in his head. “But Ms. Lyla, if she uses Nowem’s mana…” Snoc was unable to continue his sentence, but Lyla could fully understand what he was trying to say.
A human could use mana from a magical beast. Of course, the will of the magical beast was important and if the person was not the magical beast’s contractor, the effectiveness of using the magical beast’s mana was extremely low. However, people were still able to use it. On the other hand, since Snoc knew what happened to Nowem’s past contractor, he was unsure about letting another person use Nowem’s mana.
“It’s all right. Lyla is not stupid.” Zich continued, “She’s really just showing a slight taste of mana to Elena. Since they are not in a formal contract, Nowem’s mana won’t continue residing in her body.”
“Well, then…” Snoc moved Nowem into his hands and met Nowem’s eyes. “That’s what they are saying. What do you want to do?”
Even though Zich, his master, was telling him to listen to Lyla, Snoc thought that Nowem’s will was more important. Snoc would never force Nowem to do something he didn’t want to do.
Koo!
Fortunately, Nowem nodded his head. Nowem jumped off from Snoc’s hand. Then he climbed onto Elena’s shoulder as she watched him curiously.
“Kyah!” Elena made a small scream at the unfamiliar feeling of a small animal climbing on top of her. However, before she realized it, Nowem was on top of her shoulders. While looking at his bright eyes, Elena carefully moved her fingers closer to him.
Lick!
When Nowem licked her fingers, she giggled.
“Well, let’s play with Nowem a little later and focus on our lessons for now.”
“Ah, yes!” Elena quickly straightened her posture.
“Nowem, you put some mana into Elena. Since she’s unable to awaken her mana yet, if you allow the mana to flow into her too quickly, it’ll hurt a lot for her. So do it slowly, ok?”
Nowem raised his front leg and shouted, “Koo!”
“And Elena.”
“Yes!”
“Even though it’s mana from a magical beast, it’s much more difficult for humans to use it compared to their own mana, unless their affinity is very compatible.” Lyla glanced at Snoc. “Moreover, it would even be harder for you, because you’ve never used mana. So do your best to focus.”
“Yes!”
“The magic you have to use should be earth-related magic. Is there an earth magic spell you know?”
“Would I be able to use fire-related magic instead?” As expected, it seemed as if Lyla wanted to use magic in her school of magic.
Lyla shook her head. “Nowem is a magical beast of the earth, and his mana is obviously filled with earth properties. Forcefully changing that property is too difficult for you right now. It also doesn’t fit with this lesson when you’re just trying out mana for the first time.”
Elena regretfully answered, “Yes, teacher.”
“Think of it this way Elena,” Zich intervened. “Won’t it be better to do magic that you really want to do with your own strength? Why don’t you try doing fire-related magic when you’re able to control mana? Won’t that feel much more worthwhile?”
“…Now that you phrase it this way...” Elena was able to get her spirits up again.
Zich winked at Lyla and moved back.
“Then, let’s begin.” With Lyla’s signal, Nowem slowly began to infuse mana into Elena’s body.
Elena opened her eyes wide. She clearly felt the force flowing inside her body.
‘This is mana!’
Elena engrossed herself in the joy of feeling mana for the first time until—
“Elena! Focus!” With Lyla’s voice, Elena quickly regained her focus. Then she tried moving the mana inside her body. How long had she waited for this moment? How much had she wanted to feel this feeling? How hard had she worked to grasp this power?
‘I can’t fail!’
Elena’s attention reached the maximum level; with her will, Nowem’s mana began to slowly move.
“Wel! Win! Udu! Dura!” Elena began saying her incantations. It was much harder to make her incantations while moving the mana inside of her. It felt as if her tongue was going to twist.
However, she slowly but surely let out her incantations. This was the same for the mana. It was very difficult to move the mana at first; however, as she continued to force her will into the mana, it slowly moved accordingly. The mana didn’t move as well as she imagined; it moved much more slowly and stiffly than what she expected. However, the images she had in her mind slowly turned into reality.
Crunch!
A dirt pile next to her soared up and began gathering in front of Elena’s outreached hand. It slowly grew into the size of a fist.
“Won!” Elena let out her last incantation.
Flash!
The dirt ball flew into the air.
Thud!
It hit a tree trunk and crumbled back to the earth. It was really an insubstantial and meager spell.
“Ah!” However, to Elena, this spell was more priceless than any other spell. She looked at Lyla. “…Teacher.”
“You did it.” Lyla smiled patiently.
Tears began to well in Elena’s eyes. She ran towards Lyla and jumped into Lyla’s outstretched arms. While she was in Lyla’s arms, Elena cried. She cried her eyes out as if she was letting go of all the misery and humiliation she had experienced while studying magic.
Zich, Snoc, and Nowem quietly watched the scene in front of them. Zich had his arms folded to not ruin this moment, and Snoc, influenced by the atmosphere, rubbed the ends of his nose. Nowem had climbed back to Snoc’s shoulders in the middle, and he also watched the scene in front of him with soft eyes. However, Nowem slightly tilted his head as if he had felt something somewhat strange.