Chapter 64: Another Student…?

*** The Day After – Academy Training Grounds

In the end, I ended up rejecting the girl’s offer, while gaining another servant at the level of Kevin seemed great on the surface. Logically, however, it was improbable at best.

Kevin was a prodigy. As for her, she wasn’t even mentioned in the novel.

I had zero reason to trust that she would be useful in the future, even if I ended up accepting her offer.

Besides, my choice benefited her as well, saving her the disappointment of wanting to get to Kevin’s level and failing horribly due to a lack of talent.

[Major Healing]

“That should do it for the day…”

I muttered tiredly after closing a self-inflicted gash on my arm.

My light magic training was progressing smoothly, my breakthrough from before, and my balancing of my attunement, making it a cakewalk compared to before.

It wouldn’t take long for my dark and light energy to finally match.

And when that time comes, I’d no longer need to weaken myself with darkyte and can finally use it for its intended purposes.

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

“Huh…?”

I glanced through the small glass pane in the door and saw Bright outside, his arms crossed and his expression reluctant.

Does he plan to have a rematch? Because if he did, he sure as hell is going to get it.

I owe him that much after yesterday.

“What is it?”

I opened the door, and to my surprise, Vivianne was beside him, clearly the one who forced Bright to meet me.

“So… uhh, how do I say this…” Bright scratched the back of his head, not sure why Vivianne would even bring him here.

As far as he knew, I absolutely hated him.

He was knocked out by me yesterday after all, but despite that, he didn’t seem to mind it that much, probably because I didn’t do much damage to his face.

“Can you… accept my friend here as your student, or something?”

Bright awkwardly smiled. While he was a busterous student, negotiating for a friend was not his strong suit, especially when the person he had to talk to absolutely hated him when they first met.

“And, why did you bring him?” I sighed and stared at Vivianne, she as well didn’t know if she planned to go to work, she had just brought Bright with her, just in case he would somehow make me accept.

“I thought you’d be more willing to accept if a stronger student vouched for me…”

Vivianne’s explanation was decent enough, I guess, but her execution was definitely horrible. Luckily for her, however, Bright was now my unofficial best friend.

“Sure.”

I cross my arms.

“See, told you he wouldn’t—” Bright stopped. “Wait… did you just say yes!?”

“Why not? I owe you that much.”

“H-huh…? What did I do?”

I placed a hand on Bright’s shoulder, giving him a genuine smile, one that was received very awkwardly by Bright.

“A lot.”

“Well… glad to help?” Bright chuckled awkwardly, not sure what he did to even gain my favour, but he sure as well won’t reject it.

He’s smart enough to know that having someone as powerful as me as an ally would be beneficial in the long term, even if it would terribly hit his reputation in the short term.

“Enough!”

Vivianne pushed Bright to the side, her eyes sparking with excitement at my acceptance.

“Are you really going to train me!? We can start now if you’d like!”

“The least I could get is a thank you, you know?” Bright sighed on the sidelines, but in the end, seeing Vivianne in a good mood was enough for him, leaving the two of us alone.

“Feel free to ask for anything else.”

I waved Bright off, catching Vivianne’s attention.

“Are you two close?”

“You could say that…”

“Guess I really hit the jackpot on who to ask for help, huh?”

“You have no idea…”

Vivianne straightened her posture instantly, hands clenched into fists at her side like she was about to be knighted.

“So!” she said, far too enthusiastically. “What’s the first lesson? Magical formula solving? Combat drills? Sparring? Secret techniques?”

I stared at her.

Then I glanced around the training grounds.

Then back at her.

“…Run.”

Her smile froze.

“…Run?”

“Yes.”

“That’s it?”

“For now.”

She blinked. Once, twice, thrice for good measure to ensure I wasn’t joking.

“I’m an air mage,” she said carefully, like a reminder.

Maybe I just forgot she wasn’t a fighter, she thought to herself.

“I specialise in crowd control, positioning, long range—”

“Mhm,” I interrupted. “Then you’ll be excellent at running.”

Her eyebrow twitched.

“Run where?”

I pointed at the outer perimeter of the training grounds.

“Circles until you collapse from exhaustion.” I grin ominously, glowing white light emitting from my hands. “Don’t worry, I’ll heal you to repeat the process.”

Silence.

Vivianne’s mouth opened, closed, opened again. Finding the right words to try and rebuke me, this wasn’t the training she expected when she first heard Kevin describe his own.

“…This is a joke, right?”

“No.”

“That’s barbaric! I’m a noblewoman and a mage!”

“Don’t care and probably never will.”

She stared at me like I’d just personally insulted her bloodline.

“I came here to become a stronger mage,” she said. “Not…! Ugh… Why would that even be important!?”

“You sound like an irritating mosquito buzzing in my ear,” I replied calmly. “You want to get stronger, or not?”

I leaned forward, flicking her forehead enough to bruise slightly.

“Answer me.”

That shut her up.

“…Air mages don’t train like this,” she muttered.

“Neither do dark mages,” I said. “But that didn’t stop me, didn’t it?”

She hesitated, her gaze flicking to my arms and stomach, shocked to find abs and muscles that shouldn’t belong to any mage at all.

’H-Holy… he’s buff…’

Then, teeth clenched, she turned and took off.

She lasted exactly one lap before the complaints started.

“Why… huff…why physical training!?”

“Because you panic under pressure,” I replied, watching her breathing already destabilise.

“I do not!”

“You overthink,” I continued. “You freeze when plans break. And when someone stronger steps in, you step back.”

She stumbled slightly, glaring at me as she passed.

“You don’t know me!”

“No, but I could guess that much.” I arrogantly grinned. “Was I right?”

“Shut up!”

Lap two.

Her form was sloppy. Air magic leaked unconsciously into her legs, trying to give her an artificial power-up to make things easier.

“Stop using magic,” I called out.

“What!?”

“Run like a normal person.”

“What’s the point of magic if I can’t use it!”

“You’ll figure it out soon enough.”

Lap three.

She was sweating now, breathing hard, hair sticking to her face. Her noble composure was cracking fast.

Somewhere in the distance, meanwhile, a few students stared. The sight of such an important student taking orders from a lunatic like me was a sight to see.

“Did he blackmail her or something…?”

“Let’s tell the professors about this.”

Seriously?

That’s their first thought upon seeing Vivianne and me?

“Bastards… all of them.”

I sighed, well… as long as Vivianne keeps her promise after this, I won’t have to worry about weird looks like this ever again.

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