58 A Friendly Sparring (1/2)
Honestly, even with the knowledge of how everything happened, Leilade was still a bit perplexed by the absurd reaction of Istuienn. Her rational mind could understand intense fear, anger, hate and what those lead to. She was far too used seeing her enemies trying their best just to kill her, with careful planning or their last effort before dying. But the feeling of love, that is something she saw, but never truly understood. But whatever was afflicting the princess, it couldn't be anything else, even if it was weirdly fast. ”Shouldn't this take like years or something?” She asked the Viscount what was bothering her, since Istuienn was just staring at her, doing nothing.
(Love is a fickle blessing or a never-ending curse. I was once lucky to meet my loved one and enjoy those decades of happiness. But I already knew her, she was my childhood friend and we were never really separated by anything. Unlike me, the opposite still happened to a lot of people I knew. Just one gaze in the eyes of the others, and they were struck with that sentiment, longing for the presence of their soul mate. And that small little damsel in distress play at the beginning could have made that possible. But what she is currently experiencing is just a kid love, if someone put a stop to it, it won't aggravate to a point of no return.)
”Too bad I am not here to deal with that. Who she will sleep with is not my main concern but it's good that the magus still took care of that. By separating the two as much as possible, it will be fine, or he hoped so.”
As she was conversing with the soul inside her, she distanced herself from the princess and the latter was doing the same. Little by little, they were getting the same distance between each other that the two duellists previously had. Contrarily to what Leilade expected, Istuienn didn't make a long monologue about why she should be punished or some dumb stuff she could think off. Because they were in a remote location, logically to be chosen for a duel, the surroundings were awfully silent. Only the sounds of the small footsteps could be heard, breaking the precarious silence. Well, actually, there was a sound of wind right behind Leilade, something unusual.
”Hohoho, already battling in this fine day. I thought I was tasked to teach you two, am I not supposed to teach you? Just tell me, that old statue just grabbed me and told me to get here.” A sympathetic but quite lethargic voice resonated nearby, prompting the two girls to turn around to see the incoming magician. Istuienn slightly tilted her head, not recognizing the young man, but it was another story for Leilade. She recognized him instantly since he was the one supposed to watch over them when she first arrived, the sleeping student or that's what she thought.
The sleepy man still had two enormous pouches of black skin under his eyes, meaning that he was really not sleeping very well. And as expected, the first thing he did was get a little bit closer and cast a strange spell, so quietly that even Leilade had a problem hearing what he said. The soil under his feet suddenly turned comfy and he put his head on the magical pillow of dirt he just created. The abnormal girl had to resist the urge of sighing in exasperation because if it was the teacher that will take care of them, she will never learn anything. Except, maybe, the best positions to sleep and how to create a bed in a hostile environment.
”Oh, don't mind me, keep doing what you want. Since you didn't answer, I took that as a yes, I mean, a no. I won't have to teach you, I can finally sleep for a few hours and you will have a free afternoon. Oh, by the way, I am truly a 3rd Circle magician, and near the 4th Circle. So, whatever you ask, to it now and quickly, that way it will end faster.”
He said that with a straight face while having his eyes entirely closed. Because both of them were baffled by such a shameless behavior, especially from the one chosen by Arthar that had an entirely different comportment, none of the girls asked anything. In truth, they had no idea what to say, one was disguised as a human while the other was confident of her own skills and liked to discover everything by herself. And therefore, the kids returned to their original positions and prepared to battle, for real this time.
”Oh, sorry, give me a second. [Wind Shield] and [Wind Shield]. There you go, that way, you won't kill each other. Because you didn't want to do that, right? This time I would really want an answer. For my sake.” At first, he only thought that it was a friendly spar like everyone did. But the intense concentration was tainted by a wave of small anger in one side, making the magician a little bit fearful. From what he knew, the smallest of the two girls was just a lucky one, that still had a trash talent. So, if they truly battled, he had no hope for her, especially since she was pitted against the princess, universally acclaimed.
”[Fireball]!” Instead of words, Istuienn replicated with actions. The small deadly ball she formed was proof of why she was highly valued. It was already the same size as her own head and had no leakage of mana. But because she never truly fired that spell, it was way off the mark, ending up twenty meters away from her target. Making Leilade laugh really hard.
”Hahahaha.” In truth, she was prepared to just sidestep the projectile, but it was not even needed. And seeing the supposedly genius in front of her, her only possible reaction was just mocking her. After escaping the dark magicians that tortured her for years, she casted the [Bone Arrow] and managed to aim it accurately immediately. Just with a book as a teacher, not even having a week to perfect it in the most advanced school she saw on this planet. The difference now was plainly obvious.
But Istuienn didn't know that, and the loud laughter that resonated only reinforced her anger and her hatred against Leilade. The magician was perplexed, but about the reason why someone would deliberately anger the genius princess for basically nothing. A new volley of fireballs was launched, but albeit they were a little bit more accurate, none of them even grazed the boy's clothes of the smallest girl.