Together Forever
On the way to Jeseong Hall.
"Come to think of it, Aria."
"Yes?"
Leon asked her.
"That… you did it, right?"
He pointed a finger at Aria's heart and drew a little circle in the air.
Aria smiled sweetly and nodded.
"Yes. I wove one more ring."
"Damn."
Leon was genuinely impressed.
What he meant by "weaving a ring" was that she had added another core — the kind mages used — inside her heart.
In other words, Aria was now…
"…a five-circle mage."
She had stepped into the fifth circle. Among the entire first-year class, she was the first — and only — person to reach that level.
Five circles was a lofty realm. Anywhere on the continent, a mage of that caliber was treated as a seasoned expert.
She's insane.
Leon marveled at her talent all over again. When he first met her, she had been nothing more than a two-circle mage. In a little over a year, she had woven three more rings.
Even children born into prestigious magic houses — raised sensing mana from the cradle and learning spells before they could walk — hit a ceiling at four circles by the age of eighteen, no matter how gifted they were. Liana, who truly was talented and came from an excellent family, had been stuck at four circles since the day she enrolled.
Aria's family circumstances, by contrast, had been wretched. And yet she had taught herself to the second circle by reading a few basic magic texts, then passed the Elprime Academy entrance exam at that level. After meeting Leon and receiving his support, she had grown like a madwoman — weaving two more rings in just six months.
…Isn't this Billy-level talent?
It was an absurd, unreasonable gift that defied common sense.
"Anyway. Well done."
Leon clapped her on the shoulder with genuine pride.
Aria beamed.
"It won't be long now, Master."
The sudden remark made Leon look at her.
"Hmm? What won't?"
"Hehe. You'll see."
Something dark and dense stirred deep behind those blue eyes.
"…"
Leon shut his mouth and focused on walking.
Creak— thud.
Once inside one of Jeseong Hall's high-grade training grounds, Leon spoke.
"Me first? Or you?"
He was asking who would absorb their elixir first. One of them would have to stand guard — that was why they had come in together. Even inside the Asonia estate, Sahyang was no joke. Getting ambushed mid-absorption would be a catastrophe.
"You first, Master."
"Okay."
Leon sat down without protest, settled into a cross-legged posture, took a few deep breaths, and tossed the Kwaeinsokhaengdan into his mouth.
Sweet and bitter.
A unique energy he had never felt before. He carefully melted the elixir's power and spread it through his entire body. He could feel his nervous system strengthening from head to toe.
Completing the absorption that way took roughly five hours.
"Hoo…"
"Are you finished?"
The moment Leon opened his eyes, Aria — who had been waiting demurely — asked the question. Her voice sounded extraordinarily slow.
"Oh?"
Leon whipped his head around and rolled his eyes, surveying the room. The difference in perception was absurd. The world registered as if he were watching a video played back at half speed.
"Aria. Hit me once."
"Excuse me?"
"No, I don't want to get hit. I'm going to dodge. Just do it."
After a brief hesitation, Aria trusted him and threw a punch.
Focus.
Leon slipped into extreme concentration. For an instant, time itself seemed to freeze. Aria's pale hand, the tiny scrapes, the scars, the calluses embedded in her knuckle plates, the veins, every single spark leaping from the current coiled around her fist — all of it filled his vision in crystalline detail.
He opened his palm and gently closed it around her fist.
"…Huh?"
Her punch was caught so effortlessly that Aria looked stunned.
A broad grin spread across Leon's face.
"Man. This is really good. His Majesty handed me something incredible. I feel like I could last five more exchanges."
He muttered it with a spar against Cheren in mind. And Goren — he could probably thrash that guy with just his feet now.
"Congratulations."
"Your turn. Eat up."
"Yes."
Aria settled into a meditative posture and gulped down her own elixir. The Heavenly Thunder Sacred Water she had received was a potent tonic for mages who primarily wielded the lightning attribute.
Leon began dancing around her with a dagger in hand, standing guard.
Before long, the sun was sinking low. Crimson dusk leaked through the small skylight set into the training ground's ceiling.
Leon found himself staring past the window. The sky was clear — not a single cloud in sight.
The moon will be bright tonight.
He fixed his gaze there for a moment, dazed. The sunset deepened to red, and darkness began to bleed into the blue of the sky.
Eat dinner, then maybe head outside the capital for a bit.
He was roughly sketching out the rest of the evening's plans when it happened.
The flowing light of the sunset trembled — just faintly.
"Hmm…?"
Leon blinked.
They actually came? Is Count Philtron out of the house right now?
Seeing Aria's brow slowly furrow, he spoke.
"Ignore it and keep going. It's nothing serious."
"…"
Her brow smoothed out again.
In a single motion, Leon spun and hurled the dagger in his hand.
Whoosh— thock!
The mana-charged blade flew like a bullet and buried itself in a corner of the training ground wall.
—Thud!
A human figure dropped to the floor nearby, the dagger's hilt sticking out of its forehead like a decoration.
Leon carefully tracked the presence of more figures crawling in — front, lower left, upper right, rear, in that order.
"What the hell are these idiots doing…"
He stared straight ahead and let out a hollow laugh. By now he could tell just from the eyes visible above their masks. These ones had taken Black Sand too — the pill form, the kind with a strong awakening effect.
"If you're going to take something, at least take a different stimulant."
The funny part was that this wasn't a drug an assassin should be using. An assassin's life depended on concealing their presence and striking from the dark. Black Sand, though, flooded the body with excitement and made the energy ferocious — broadcasting killing intent in every direction. In other words, every scrap of presence was laid bare. Stealth and infiltration became impossible. That wasn't an assassin.
Judging by the fact that they had made it this far, these people must have been skilled. But they had taken a useless drug right before the attack and instantly given their positions away to Leon.
"Stupid bastards. Blame whoever handed you that crap. Wait — was it a woman? That old fox hag sent you, didn't she?"
The next instant, Leon's eyes flashed. He stepped into the Heavenly Spirit Steps and glided forward as if sliding across ice. Closing the distance to the enemy's face, he swept his dagger from upper right to lower left, scattering blade energy as he went.
A blue arc of sword-ki cut a diagonal line through the air. Only then did the enemy register Leon's proximity and start to move his weapon.
Shlick!
The man was carved apart mid-motion, still in the posture of raising his straight sword. Before the severed body even hit the floor, Leon executed two actions at once — throwing a dagger with his left hand while forcefully batting aside a flying projectile from the opposite direction.
Thud!
The dagger punched into the heart of the enemy coming from the upper right.
Crack!
The projectile Leon had deflected reversed course and pierced the eye of the one approaching from the lower left.
Three dead. Only the one coming from the rear remained.
Leon flicked a glance that way. Aria sat in front of him, and behind her the last enemy was charging in second by second. Something off radiated from the man whose eyes had gone completely wild — he wasn't even drawing a weapon.
"Oh, for fuck's sake. That lunatic."
Mana concentrated in Leon's legs. Explosive force surged up through every circuit in his body. In a fraction of a second, he covered more than fifteen meters in a single step. To the enemy, it might as well have been a Blink spell.
Instantly taking position behind Aria, Leon used the momentum to drive a side kick — angled slightly upward. The sole of his foot met the enemy's solar plexus. A grotesque impact sound that defied description rang out. The enemy's body folded in half like paper, launched high into the air.
And then—
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
A monstrous explosion erupted from the floating body. Flame, shrapnel, and shockwave expanded in a circle, crashing over Leon and Aria.
Ah, shit. I should've brought a real sword.
A flicker of regret crossed Leon's mind. He immediately detonated a burst of internal energy, raised a dainty blade-barrier with his short dagger, and simply dumped raw mana into the air — every desperate measure he could think of. The absurd volume of mana he hauled up from his dantian began to cancel out the blast.
WHOOOOOOSH—!
The wind pressure whipped Aria's hair backward. The roar thundered against her eardrums. Resonance made her long eyelashes tremble.
"…"
But the serene, beautiful face with its eyes closed showed not the slightest disturbance. She paid no attention to her surroundings at all. Even with a catastrophic explosion going off right beside her, she trusted the man in front of her and did not so much as flinch.
Because she trusted Leon.
If he said it was fine, it was fine. If he told her not to worry, she didn't need to worry. Even if he made a mistake and she died right there, it wouldn't matter.
He was the one who had given her a new life. He was the one who had pulled her out of that nightmare of a world. Her life had been entrusted to him.
That was why she served him as her master. That was why she threw herself into magic to be of use to him, and why she wore a bomb choker she was perfectly capable of disarming on her own.
She could follow any word of his. She could do anything for him. Everything else was worthless and meaningless. She existed because he did.
And so her feelings for him — her obsession — only grew larger, until she could barely contain them.
Together with Master… for a lifetime…
That was Aria.