Chapter 249
Chapter 249
Chapter 249
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 249: Lan Qi’s Work Proceeds Extraordinarily Smoothly
The winter sun gradually climbed higher, and the sunlight in the lord’s manor courtyard shifted from a slanted angle to a more vertical one, bathing the whole room in warm brightness.
The slow exchange of words between Zestira and Lan Qi, mixed with the sound of turning book pages, blended with the rustling of leaves outside the window.
Whenever Lan Qi raised a question, Zestira would listen attentively and then share her own understanding with him.
Although Lan Qi found it very difficult to learn practical magic, Zestira taught him with remarkable patience, never showing even the slightest sign of thinking him clumsy.
She hadn’t given much thought to magical affinity, however.
Since her own strongest attribute was fire magic, she began teaching Lan Qi how to cast fire spells.
For Lan Qi, his affinity ranked as Light > Fire > all other elements, but even so, his compatibility with fire wasn’t particularly good.
The final result was that after more than two hours, under Zestira’s patient instruction, Lan Qi’s progress in learning the first-tier Fireball spell advanced by roughly one-tenth.
For an average first-tier magic beginner, this was already quite a decent pace.
But Zestira had no idea that Lan Qi was actually a fourth-tier magician.
As the bells from the town tolled melodiously in the distance, their sound reached the room. Only then did Zestira notice that the clock inside now pointed to twelve o’clock sharp.
Unknowingly, the lesson had already lasted nearly three hours.
“You can go now,” Zestira said.
She figured that was enough time, and this tutor should be able to report back to her father.
“Thank you. But with my level of magic, even if I learn the most basic Fireball, at best I’ll only be able to help someone light a cigarette. It’s just wasting your precious time.”
Lan Qi sighed with a smile.
That was the harsh truth his family’s maid had once told him, and now he was convinced of it himself.
“Isn’t using your finger to light a cigarette with magic very useful?” Zestira glanced at him.
On the sea, the winds and waves were strong, and her father, Viscount Francis, had the habit of smoking. If he had such a spell to light his cigarette, it would indeed be convenient.
As for her, since she had trouble controlling her own mana, she couldn’t use micro-magic in such a delicate way.
When she was little, she had once burned a family servant because she couldn’t control her mana.
From that time on, many of the household servants looked at her with fearful eyes.
“I see.”
Lan Qi nodded thoughtfully.“Then, Miss Zestira, see you tomorrow.”
He pushed his chair back into place, and when he reached her door, he turned with a smile.
At the desk, Zestira was silent for a moment, then gave the slightest nod.
She wasn’t sure what meaning there was in wasting her morning with this so-called tutor.
But somehow, without realizing it, she had already talked quite a lot with him.
…
In the upstairs hallway of the manor, Lan Qi had just stepped out of Zestira’s room when he unexpectedly met Viscount Francis’s gaze.
The viscount was standing in the second-floor hall, watching him with a complicated expression.
“Viscount Francis, today I not only failed to teach Miss anything, but instead wasted over an hour having her teach me magic.”
Lan Qi bowed respectfully.
“No, no, that’s not a problem,” Viscount Francis waved his hand quickly, then hurried over to Lan Qi’s side.
“As long as you can keep interacting with her, that’s already wonderful. I’m very happy to see her willing to talk with someone. Whether there’s an actual lesson or not doesn’t matter—just being a friend who talks with her is good enough.”
The viscount’s weathered eyes could not conceal the deep relief in his heart.
He had once thought Zestira would completely shut herself off forever, but unexpectedly, someone had managed to open even a small crack in her heart.
This young man from across the southern sea was truly a pure, genuine, and good person.
If he weren’t sincerely earnest, there would be no way to win Zestira’s acceptance.
“Alright, I’ll do my best to help her so that she can complete the preparatory exam of Protos Royal Magic Academy and successfully advance into the first year.”
Lan Qi promised earnestly.
“Then I leave her in your hands, Mr. Rocky.”
Viscount Francis thanked him with sincerity.
In truth, he didn’t dare to hope for more.
Even to wish Zestira would accept formal instruction was already too much—just the present situation filled him with satisfaction.
…
Back in Zestira’s room, after Lan Qi left, she sat silently at her desk reading once again.
Just like in the morning, she was alone once more.
Only now, at noon, the furniture under the bright light appeared more vivid, adding a soft layering to the room’s atmosphere.
When the household staff delivered her lunch and left it at the door, she stood up to bring it inside.
As she crossed her room, she noticed something.
By the chair Lan Qi had used, on the low cabinet beside it, lay a textbook of Protos Royal Magic Academy’s Magic Genealogy.
“…”
She subtly shifted her steps in that direction.
That guy had forgotten to take the book with him.
She remembered he had been writing in it earlier.
Surely just boring notes.
She flipped it open casually as she thought so.
Nothing unusual—just annotations.
But what surprised her a little was that this tutor from the southern continent, though he had a translation spell, rarely wrote in Protos Empire script.
Instead, in many places, he had written clear, beautiful Demon Magic Script.
The Protos Empire did not forbid using Demon Script, since in the capital many legacies of demon kind were heavily studied.
Zestira’s own shelves were full of books written in Demon Script.
“I didn’t expect someone from the southern continent to know this too… Are there demons there as well?”
She murmured to herself.
As far as she knew, demons wandering the southern continent were few and far between, and humans proficient in Demon Script were even rarer.
Unlike the Protos-modified version popular locally, which was streamlined for human use, his writing retained more reverence for the achievements of demon ancestors, integrating human insight while preserving an ancient style.
A soft breeze drifted through the window, bringing faint natural sounds—the distant chirp of birds and the rustling of leaves.
Without realizing it, Zestira had already followed Lan Qi’s handwriting through several pages.
But further on, there were no more annotations.
“…”
She closed the book and looked at the door.
For a moment, she thought about walking out to return it to him.
But then she reconsidered.
That guy would probably come back tomorrow.
In the now-brighter room, Zestira finally put the book aside and opened her heavy door.
(End of Chapter)