If It Doesn't Break, We Keep Going
"Then we keep going."
"You want me to draw the formula differently here?"
"Yeah. That way the performance gets amplified even more. Put power where it needs it, and sketch the rest roughly."
"Like this?"
"Yeah. Not bad."
After handing Nya-nya her quests, I decided to watch her magic for a little while.
Just a moment ago she'd looked ready to die, but once training actually started she kept up surprisingly well. I'd thought she'd spent all her time wandering around looking for me, but between that and managing to form three stars, her talent clearly wasn't lacking. If she kept growing steadily like this, her magic might even reach a Legion Commander's level someday.
As my disciple, that much was only natural.
Heris nodded with a pleased smile.
"Hero Nya-nya does tend to overdo the theatrics. Hohoho."
"…It really was hard, though."
"Then can you do this too? Linking two magic formulas together…"
I pulled out the former Magic Tower Master's staff and summoned the spells with a casual click.
Fwoosh!
The seventh-rank fire spell Fireball, and the sixth-rank wind spell Wind.
Ranks different, attributes completely different — yet the two locked together without a single gap, as if they had always been one.
Nya-nya's pupils trembled.
"Do it like this and you can squeeze high-rank efficiency out of low-rank magic. Maximum output for minimum mana."
"…I don't get it at all."
"No, you do. It shows up in basic magic theory. Right?"
"That's correct, Hero Nya-nya. Think carefully. It's on page twenty-four of Basic Magic Studies, Volume Two."
"…Ah?"
Nya-nya picked up one of the thick books scattered among the magical tools and tomes on the table. Even at a glance it looked like it easily cleared three hundred pages. She pried it open with effort.
"Magic studies… fusion formula deployment…"
"See it?"
"This looks insanely complicated."
"Just two of them isn't complicated. If this is hard, you can forget about ever reaching third-rank or higher."
This much should be basic literacy.
I said so half-reclined in the chair across from her, and Nya-nya's expression turned serious.
"…I'll try."
She gripped her staff and focused.
Fwoosh!
The seventh-rank Fireball formed with almost no trouble. A mage who couldn't cast Fireball could hardly call themselves a mage in the first place.
Whoosh~
The sixth-rank Wind came just as easily. Fire and wind circled around her. Nya-nya tilted her head, watching the spells move at her will.
"Did I do it?"
"Now you have to combine them. Casting them separately doesn't count."
"How?"
"Stick them together."
"Stick them together?"
"Yeah."
Still tilting her head, Nya-nya slowly drew the two spells into one. Fire and wind — a fairly compatible pair — gathered into a single point, and—
BOOM!!
"Ah."
"Heh heh."
Nya-nya's hair stood out in every direction like a mad scientist's.
Nya-nya, now sporting a full mad-scientist frizz, looked even more miserable — but the future in which she had to learn this wasn't going to change. Fusion formulas were harder than ordinary magic, but they were worth knowing. Barrier magic itself had been born out of research into fusion formulas, so learning them would help enormously when the time came for barriers.
Whether out of stubborn pride or something else, Nya-nya threw herself into the fusion work, and I left her in the care of Heris, who was laughing herself sick beside us. She'd teach Nya-nya just fine.
Anyway — I'd looked after Nya-nya. Next was Haring.
I didn't need to ask where she was.
The sparring grounds, obviously.
The reason I'd called Haring and Nya-nya in the first place had been Adela's recommendation. Stop letting them wander around outside doing nothing, she'd said — bring them in and put them through training. Of course Adela seemed to have another motive of her own, but either way it worked out well for me.
"Where are Adela and Haring?"
"At Sparring Ground Two, my lady."
When I arrived at the entrance, Haring was rolling across the floor like a soccer ball.
"Aah, Unnie! Go easy! You didn't do this at the nest!"
"You came to the knight order, so you receive training befitting it. That is all."
"Argh, come on!"
"And this Knight Commander is not your unnie."
She'd clearly been thrashed and rolled for a while — her whole body was caked in dirt, and she was gasping for breath. Adela, by contrast, looked as if she hadn't been touched once, still pristine in her platinum knight's uniform.
It was almost…
"Very Adela of you."
"Hah… hah… Huh?"
"…Fire Dragon. You've arrived."
She looked exactly like the Adela I'd been thrashing thoroughly about a week ago — trying every counterattack she could think of, failing every one, and rolling all over the place.
Had she called Haring because she wanted a turn at doing it herself?
I nodded at Adela with a look of understanding, and her face flushed a little.
"You wanted to do this kind of thing too, huh?"
"Th-that is not the case. I merely matched the intensity of the training to that of the other knights."
"That so?"
"Yes. I am absolutely not taking out any frustrations."
I see.
Didn't look that way to me, but it didn't really matter, so I let it go.
"Leaaaaaaa!!!"
"Quiet."
"Th-that mean bitch just—"
"Mean bitch?"
"I mean, that mean unnie!"
"Don't cling."
I sidestepped as Haring came at me sniffling, tears and snot everywhere. With her target gone, her legs gave out and she face-planted into the dirt all over again. Looking even more dejected, she started sniffling harder.
"Sniff…"
"You covered in so much dirt you're going 'dirt-dirt' instead of 'boo-hoo'?"
"……"
"Nya-nya's the same, and so are you — such drama queens. Over something this small…"
"Drama queens?!"
WAAAAAH!!
Haring shot up from the ground with a scream that could peel paint.
"Ugh."
Even if Nya-nya had started acting more like Haring, the original was still in a league of her own. How did a body that small produce a sound that loud?
"She said she was teaching me and then she beat me with a wooden sword, hit me in the head, kicked me — everything!"
"And?"
"I got hit so much! For three days!"
"Hmm…"
"Lea, please avenge me against that unnie! Please?"
"This Knight Commander is not your unnie. And this was a legitimate component of training."
Adela stood with her arms crossed, speaking with perfect composure as she looked at Haring. The slight lift at the corner of her mouth suggested she'd enjoyed herself more than a little.
I looked between the two of them.
"I see."
"You'll avenge me, right? Right?"
"First — quests for you too."
"Huh?"
Crackle…!!
[ --- ]
[ --- ]
[ --- ]
I dumped the same number of quests on the whining Haring that I'd given Nya-nya. The eyes that had been sniffling into the dirt a second ago lit up like stars.
"Ooooh!!! Jackpot! I totally love you!"
"Like it?"
"Yes! A hundred times, a thousand times more than that mean unnie!"
"Don't cling."
I peeled the happily hugging Haring off me and walked over to Adela. As I approached, she uncrossed her arms and looked down at me with a faintly tense expression.
"How's Haring?"
"If you mean her personality, she's quite the handful…"
"Not that."
"Much as I reported at the nest. She has talent, and she's showing results of her own."
"I see."
"However, she complains so much that progress is slow."
"Complains?!"
Look at this! Look!
Haring thrust out her arms and legs, mottled blue with bruises. She'd clearly been beaten without mercy by a wooden sword. Not that it mattered much — priests were always on standby near the sparring grounds, and Heroes could resurrect even if they died.
I nodded.
"What about Airi-style Swordsmanship?"
"She hasn't strayed far from the basic forms I taught her at the nest. As you know, the mana core and the body have to support it first."
"So tempering the body comes first."
"Correct."
In the end, no matter how fine the swordsmanship, the weapon, or the magic — without a proper body underneath, none of it could be used.
"So for now, the only training is physical conditioning?"
"For the time being, ye— where are you going?"
"Lea?"
Leaving the pair who'd become bitter enemies over three short days behind me, I walked to the weapon rack and picked up a wooden sword.
Whoom!
I poured blazing red mana into the blade until it was harder than ordinary steel.
"Once one of them breaks, we go eat."
"Lea?"
"Hm?"
"If you're going to spar with me, I don't really have a body left to fight with…"
"Then go get healed and come back."
I pointed toward the priests' tent. They didn't look as leisurely as before — no one was casually sipping coffee — but there weren't any particular patients either.
Haring trudged over with a sulky face, got treated, and came back. She'd even changed clothes, so she looked fairly clean. Gripping a wooden sword with a tense expression, she took her place across from me in the sparring ground.
"Hoo… I believe Lea is different from that demon Knight Commander unni—"
"What're you doing?"
"Huh? I wasn't badmouthing you, Lea."
"Not you."
I turned my head.
Adela had been standing off to the side of the sparring ground for a while now, watching from a distance. When my gaze landed on her, she stared blankly for a moment, then blinked.
"…Me?"
"Yeah. Both of you come at me."
"For the time being, I thought you would prioritize Hero Haring…"
"You're included. And if I take you one at a time, when am I supposed to finish?"
Do both at once, finish early, rest early.
Adela's eyes trembled as if an earthquake had hit them. She gave a tiny shake of her head, but I just kept staring, and reality refused to change. In the end, hands quivering, Adela took up a wooden sword and stood shoulder to shoulder with Haring.
"Heeeng. Do your best, Unnie?"
"…This Knight Commander is—"
"Oh, come on."
"The moment a wooden sword breaks once, today's training is over."
"And if it doesn't break?"
"Then we keep going."
Thwack.
I raised the wooden sword, and both Adela and Haring's postures turned serious. Facing me had them tense — but if you thought about it carefully, the condition wasn't all that outrageous.
"Just breaking a wooden sword…"
"We might actually be able to do this?"
A spar whose only goal was snapping a wooden sword. Both of them had learned Airi-style Swordsmanship — the undisputed king of weapon destruction — so no matter the gap in raw power, it was a fight they could take.
Hope kindling, the two of them charged in with fighting spirit blazing.
And two women went tumbling across the dirt floor.