The war is over.
Lorraine’s neck was immediately sealed into a completely vacuum-sealed barrier.
I guess I have to show the emperor something like my neck.
And the suppression army held a ceremony throughout the day, moving around four castles to change the flags.
During that time, nothing like terrorism or assassination attempts occurred.
It seems Lorraine firmly instructed them not to take revenge.
The captured prisoners were released after a simple, essentially formal examination.
Initially, it was almost impossible to gather and feed so many people in one place…
“Are you leaving?”
“Yeah.”
As I was packing, Pellain unexpectedly stood at the door.
I wasn’t really leaving; I was escaping.
With the aftermath piling up like crazy, staying here would mean taking on all the responsibilities…
I had to hurry and slip away, making use of the fact that I was just a volunteer soldier.
In wartime, I wielded power as an unofficial figure above the Commander in Chief without taking any responsibility…
Saying that makes me sound pretty pathetic.
“The Holy Knights might have to stay a bit longer. I think they’ll be in charge of maintaining order until the order to disband the suppression army comes down…”
“I guess they have more work to do then.”
“No, thanks to you, we achieved a miraculous victory. There have been so many things in the past week that it still feels like I’ll wake up and realize it was all a dream.”
“It’s not a dream. I can assure you of that.”
“That incident in the bathhouse that day… it wasn’t a dream, right?”
“…”
*Clank!*
I felt pressure from behind and heard the clatter of armor.
Pellain had wrapped her arms around my waist.
In that position, I could see her looking up at me, pressed close.
She gently closed her eyes, as if familiar, and leaned her head towards me.
“Hmm… Ugh… Ugh…”
*Swish. Whoosh.*
As I brushed aside her messy hair, pleasantly soft sounds escaped her lips.
Every now and then, the warm laughter made me want to grin.
Her large ears trembled, brushing against my hand, which felt wonderful.
Is this what it feels like to have a pet?
“Yeah. That wasn’t a dream either. You can rely on me anytime. I’m always on your side.”
Those words I would never say to anyone else.
I would have urged them to pick themselves up again after falling many times, never comforting them.
But with Pellain, knowing how strong-willed she is, I felt confident that it would be okay to say this.
She would be the type to bury her face in my shoulder for a moment and cry but then get up by herself again, not someone who would continuously lean on me due to weakness.
At least, for this world’s Pellain, it would be fine if there was someone she could depend on.
*Tap…!*
“Ahh! Ahem!”
Just then, hurried footsteps could be heard from the door.
It seems someone was peeping and ran away…
When I came to my senses, Pellain had pulled away from me and was wearing her usual fierce expression.
The face that had just been smiling and purring was now completely different.
“Anyway, thank you for your hard work, Schlus. Please be careful on your way home.”
“I’ll take my leave first.”
I shook hands with Pellain, who had a slight smile.
Knowing this wasn’t goodbye for good, I waved with a grin.
*
Cain had the knights line up to send me off, but once I left the castle, the carriage was filled with silence.
Erica was drooling on Iris’s shoulder, fast asleep.
Aintz was practically knocked out beside me.
Iris was sitting neatly, so I thought she was fine, but she was actually asleep with her eyes closed.
Did everyone but me get wiped out?
After all, the volunteer soldiers who contributed greatly to the victory were probably exhausted from running around the castle showing their faces.
I was just about to shut my eyes too.
“Schlus, Schlus. Now’s not the time, is it?”
“Hm?”
Trie was softly whispering to me.
“Not now?” What the heck does that mean?
“What? We said we’d start the magic lessons after the midterms. It’s already been a week! Isn’t this the perfect time to catch up?”
“Now…?”
I was tired to death.
But I couldn’t refuse with the eager look in Trie’s eyes.
There’s no guarantee this enthusiasm will last until the institution resumes.
It’d be better to start while the interest is at its peak.
“Trie, I think you have the basics down when it comes to magic.”
“Really?”
“But everything seems to stop at the basic level.”
“…”
I hadn’t had many chances to see Trie’s magic, but that was my assessment so far.
She had a basic understanding, but that was about it.
She had the ability to construct spells when given explanations, but her ability to come up with spells herself was minimal.
I deemed it incredibly important to help her develop that skill.
“Let’s first go over the basic structure of spells and how to combine them.”
“Eh? That’s fine. I learned all that when I was little. Can’t you just tell me what Professor Ludwig teaches in elemental magic?”
“…”
Let me correct that.
Her basic level was even subpar.
With that mentality, there was no way what I taught would have any effect.
Should I break down that arrogance first before we start?
“Sigh… Have you heard of magic tug-of-war?”
“Is that the one kids do when playing?”
“Exactly.”
Magic tug-of-war.
It was a game where you write a simple spell and compete for control over it.
Of course, if it was done without rules, the side pouring in overwhelming mana would win.
So, to keep things fair, they set a line (channel) and limited the amount of mana that could be supplied per hour, competing on computational power.
“That’s such a low-level game. I’ve graduated from that already.”
“Hah. Did you just call it low-level?”
“Of course. With the limited possibilities, it’s basically a sure-win game for the one who attacks first.”
“You’re going to regret saying that. I’ll only use one channel. You connect three on your side.”
“Huh? Is that even ok? It’ll be settled quickly, you know?”
Not even funny.
I drew a circular spell shape in the air.
It was just a basic form where mana circulated, with no additional effects whatsoever.
Trie looked at me in disbelief as if I was joking, but I proceeded without a care.
Like inserting a straw, I prepared to link one line from my side to interfere.
Then Trie connected three lines.
All preparations were made.
“I’m ready to start when you give the signal.”
“Okay, got it—”
“Start.”
With penalties stacked up, it’s a bit sneaky, but I thought I’d pull off a false start.
As soon as I opened my mouth, I tried to cut off Trie’s channel linked to the spell.
However, the mana pouring in from Trie’s three directions fended it off, coming in like a tidal wave.
Even though my computational stat was high, it was still not enough.
The simple circular spell was swiftly reverse engineered, and I lost control.
“Wah…?!”
The circular spell transformed as branches sprouted outwards.
I had arbitrarily modified the spell, making it more complex.
In other words, I was increasing the security level by complicating the reverse engineering.
At elementary levels, magic tug-of-war is like tic-tac-toe, a game with limited options.
But once you begin to tweak the security of the spell, that tic-tac-toe expands into a three-dimensional scope full of endless possibilities.
Trie probably hadn’t played magic tug-of-war in this way before.
“Ugh! How am I supposed to deal with this?!”
“Well, you should’ve maintained control better. I only have one channel, which limits the speed of the spell. So the way to win would’ve been for you to develop your spell first and bolster your security.”
“Let’s do it again!”
Was she frustrated? Trie, who had been whispering just moments ago, raised her voice.
Of course, I could do it again.
But even after two, three, … ten rounds, Trie still couldn’t win a single match against me.
Every time Trie tried to strengthen her spell, she ended up losing control and I would seize it back.
“I’m not doing this anymore. Are you using some kind of cheat?”
“Cheat? That’s a funny thing to say.”
“Then why do I keep losing? My spell development speed is faster, my mana transfer speed is better!”
“Trie, the spells you’re developing lack the necessary complexity. You know the basic structures completely, but you don’t know how to combine them. If your basic structures are just lined up in parallel, it’s worse than deploying just one.”
“But…”
“You said you learned the combinations. Why aren’t you using that knowledge?”
“…”
Trie clamped her mouth shut.
The reason was obvious.
She didn’t know what would come out of combining them.
Once the initiative is taken from her, she’d have to reverse engineer her own spell, something Trie wasn’t confident she could do.
Image training to reverse engineer complex spells was a basic training method in magic.
This revealed just how negligent Trie had been with her magical training.
“Knowledge itself isn’t that important. How you utilize that knowledge is far more crucial. From now on, you will learn from me starting with what you thought you already knew.”
“Okay…”
Finally, that arrogance seemed to deflate a bit.
Now, I felt like I could start teaching her.
