NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 49
I officially started teaching intermediate magic.
Having mastered beginner magic and contracted with a spirit, or maybe it’s just her ridiculous talent, Lena’s absorption rate was incredible.
“Fire Wall!”
–Fwoosh!!
Especially for fire magic, which works well with wind, her absorption was off the charts. Just by teaching her the spell and explaining the flow of magic once, she was already casting magic like this.
At this rate, graduation didn’t seem far off at all.
“S-Sensei! How was it?!”
“Excellent.”
“Hehehe~.”
What Lena just conjured wasn’t just a simple intermediate Fire Wall. She summoned a Sylph and linked it with her wind, making her Fire Wall wider and more powerful than the typical one.
Seeing her effortlessly coordinate with the spirit filled me with indescribable pride as a teacher.
“We should really work on other elements too, right?”
“Y-Yes!”
High-fiving the Sylph in joy, Lena nodded and raised her hand. Next up was the Water Ball.
“Water Ball!”
Shadow Spear perfect, multi-magic impressive!
In an instant, five water balls floated in mid-air.
She shot them at a tree, and the tree shattered immediately from the direct hit, leaving enough force to smash the surrounding trees as well.
“Is overlapping still tough?”
“A-A little. I think I can do double overlapping…”
Hey, double overlapping is amazing!
Petting Lena on the head as she muttered with a nervous expression, I continued teaching her other spells.
By the time today’s lesson ended, it was around then.
“I found you here!!”
Here they come! Experience points!
Shadows gathered from the forest.
It was the Asura sect members who came every few days since the first time.
These guys were a little stronger than the first ones, and they were great opponents for Lena, who was mastering intermediate magic.
“Get ’em!!”
“Yes, sir!”
Now, Lena boldly stepped forward without any fear.
Thus began the fight between Lena and the Asura sect members.
Hmm… Multi-magic is great, but the accuracy needs work.
From tomorrow, I should focus on accuracy in class.
I watched Lena battle the Asura sect members, and when the time was right, I intervened and took them all down with her.
“Great job today.”
“Yesss!”
Lena was now accustomed to killing.
As she completely burned down one Asura sect member with the Sylph, I gathered all the bodies and burned them up while calling the exhausted Lena over.
“The enemies are getting stronger.”
“Y-Yeah…”
I’m grateful the Asura sect members keep coming a bit at a time, but if we stay like this, Lena might find it hard to handle the number and strength of the enemies that may come next.
Thinking about that, it seems we should change things up a bit.
“I think it’s time to leave the hut…”
“Y-Yes?”
“Running away may be shameful, but it can be helpful. The gaps between their arrivals are getting shorter. If we keep this up, you might not be able to train properly.”
Of course, fighting enemies is also training.
But what’s important for Lena now is how many more spells she can make her own.
If she doesn’t master a certain number of intermediate spells, she won’t be able to learn advanced magic.
“If we run away while fighting, the Asura sect members won’t catch us easily. So…”
“Running away is… really the answer…?”
“Exactly.”
Lena’s gaze landed on the hut. As she softly stared at it, she slowly shook her head.
“B-Before meeting you, I… always lived by running away.”
“…..”
“Thanks to meeting you, I’m… changing. I’ve gained the strength to protect myself… and the strength to protect others.”
“So?”
“Oh! Um, I don’t want to run away anymore.”
Her voice trembled, but it contained determination.
Clenching her fist and looking directly at me with her sapphire-like blue eyes, Lena shone brightly.
She had changed a lot.
The timid Lena who used to avoid my gaze and only show fear was nowhere to be found.
Now she was like a star, shining as she walked her own path.
“It won’t be easy.”
The Asura sect is a strong force that’s related to the true ending.
If they come at us with determination, facing them will indeed be a challenging path.
If there’s a comfortable way but we purposely choose a path of hardship and adversity…
“Still, if you think you can do it, we’ll start tougher lessons from now on. Are you ready?”
“Yes!!”
Lena’s expression was serious.
In that case, it’s time for me to get serious too.
I held my staff while watching her nervously.
“Eh?”
“From now on, you’ll fight me. Once a day.”
“H-Huh?!”
“Seriously.”
The moment I finished my sentence, I took a Powerful Step.
At the same time, I started releasing killing intent, causing Lena to shiver. But despite that, she didn’t stop emitting her own killing intent.
“I’m coming. If you can’t block it, you’ll die, so give it your best shot.”
I quickly rushed at her, swinging my sword.
Her face turned pale as she froze in place, but her hands started moving.
She created a wall of wind.
“Whoa!!”
Unleashing my Moonlight Sword Technique, I sliced through the wind barrier and got close before executing the Moonlight Dance.
“Hiiieeeek!!”
Using Haste, Lena backed off, tears forming in her eyes as she conjured a wall of fire.
It was more than five layers of fire, but with the Moonlight Wave, breaking through was a piece of cake.
“Haah!!”
I annihilated the powerful magic with my powerful attack and raised my left hand.
“Wind Javelin!!”
The wind spear shot forward but got blocked by the barrier.
That was expected. I took the opportunity and moved my sword.
Moonlight Slash.
The surroundings darkened as the full moon appeared in the sky.
Did Lena realize that the sword energy created by the moonlight was aimed at her?
With tears streaming down her face, she began to counter my sword energy with magic.
“Haa… Haa…”
The duration of Moonlight Slash ended, and the sky returned to normal. Barely managing to block all my attacks, Lena let out a rough breath, her eyes sparkling as she pointed her staff at me.
“I-I can’t do this…”
But in the end, she lowered her staff.
She really is too sweet.
No matter how much training it was, she wouldn’t use magic against her teacher, huh?
Certainly, during our fight earlier, Lena only used defensive magic passively.
As I watched Lena sobbing, tears streaming down her face, I sheathed my sword and approached her.
“Hiiiiik…”
She seemed to think I’d scold her.
Hunching her shoulders, she looked even more frightened than during her battle with the Asura sect.
“Stop crying. Enough.”
I wiped her tears with a handkerchief.
Finally feeling relieved, Lena stared blankly at me, before suddenly hugging me and bursting into tears again.
After crying for a while, she eventually calmed down but still tightly held my hand without letting go.
“I-I really… was… scared…”
“Yeah, I understand. But this is also training.”
“I can bear everything else, but… but I was afraid you might hate me…”
“Me? There’s no reason for me to hate you.”
Especially since I’ve been treating you so well.
I patted Lena’s head, and she leaned against my side, resting her head on my arm.
The scent from her soft silver hair tickled my nose.
As she nestled against me, letting out a heavy sigh, she said,
“At this rate… I won’t be able to fight the Asura sect… Should I really run away…?”
“You can’t expect to be full from your first meal.”
Up until now, Lena always ate her fill from the first meal, though.
“Get used to killing intent. The elite of the Asura sect have this much killing intent as a basic requirement.”
“Killing intent… isn’t a problem, but… yours is… different…”
“There’s no way I’d hate you. No matter what happens.”
I held Lena’s hand tightly. With her eyes all swollen, looking up at me, she hugged my arm again and began to rub her face against it.
Well, how are we going to fight the Asura sect like this?
“I’ll make something delicious for you today, so let’s call it a day and rest.”
“Y-Yes…”
“From tomorrow, we’re going to get serious. You need to learn intermediate magic faster.”
“Yes!!”
“And we’re definitely doing this again.”
“Ugh, y-yes…”
Hearing we’d have another match tomorrow, Lena seemed intimidated, but she nodded, perhaps mustering her courage.
Such a brave girl.
*
Sitting at the table, watching Lee Hyun cook, Lena thought back to what happened earlier.
She was scared.
Her respected and beloved teacher really tried to kill her.
Of course, it was just training, but what if that were real?
‘Ugh… I-I hate it…’
That’s the one thing she really hated.
Everything else was fine, but being hated by her teacher was worse than death.
Lena buried her head in her arms on the table, overwhelmed by her thoughts.
And then, she remembered what Hyun had said to her earlier.
– There’s no way I’d hate you. No matter what happens.
‘Is that really true? No matter what I do, will my teacher not hate me…? Huh?’
As she pondered over this, Lena tilted her head.
Not being hated means liking her, right?
Of course, it might not be the case. Not being hated doesn’t have to equate to liking, and that like could be different from her feelings of liking.
But even so, a warm feeling blossomed in a corner of Lena’s heart, and she couldn’t help but break into a smile.
“Hehe, I hope that’s the case…”