Half a Year's Miracle
"Kuhaha! Feels damn good!"
"Hey, Duncan. You seem awfully chipper these days. What's got you in such a great mood?"
Duncan was drinking with his old comrades from back in the day at the village tavern. He'd been looking happier than usual lately, but today, he was beaming more than ever.
"You remember that disciple I told you I was training?"
"Oh, that super impressive kid you wouldn't shut up about."
Duncan had bragged endlessly about him to his comrades, who had stuck around the village for the first time in ages when he started teaching Theo. It was an old habit of his—one that only surfaced when he found a disciple who truly clicked with him.
"Yeah, well, Theo finally mastered all my techniques today."
Earlier that day, he'd teasingly told Theo there was nothing left to teach and to head on home. The words were playful, but Duncan meant every bit of it. It had taken the kid just half a year to absorb everything from a former top-tier swordsman like him.
"What? He mastered your techniques? It's not even been that long since you started teaching him."
"Yeah, barely half a year. And he's already soaked it all up."
Duncan couldn't have been prouder of Theo.
"I've trained a fair few people over the years—not a ton, but enough."
"True. You raised a handful you actually liked and sent 'em off to the academy, right?"
"Yeah, and they're all making names for themselves in swordsmanship now."
All the disciples he'd poured his heart into had graduated the academy and were thriving—some as adventurers like he and his old crew had been, others even joining the Imperial Knight Order.
"But none of 'em compare to this one. The others took years for what Theo nailed in half a year. He's a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy."
The kid didn't seem to realize his own worth, though. Duncan wasn't the warm-and-fuzzy type, so he hadn't spelled it out during lessons. Still, sooner or later—hell, real soon—Theo would figure it out himself.
With talent like that, he has no choice.
If he didn't... well.
He'd have to be a dumbass idiot.
That was the thought running through Duncan's head.
Just as Duncan had felt teaching Theo swordsmanship, Estelle, who had been instructing him in magic, was experiencing something similar.
Theo's magic... it's getting faster, stronger by the day.
The pace was absurd. No one could achieve that kind of destructive power and speed in just half a year of learning magic—or so she'd have boldly claimed. Theo's aptitude was on another level.
Considering he didn't even know he had mana until recently...
The most unbelievable part was that he'd never handled magic before. Someone with even casual daily exposure might grasp the basics after effort, but this? This was different.
Still, she was confident she held the edge—for now. Though it wouldn't last much longer.
"Ice Slasher!"
That's why Estelle had let her guard down without realizing it.
"Ugh, Shield!"
Her lapse made her deploy the shield spell too late. The magic slipped through, striking her arm and drawing blood.
"Ow, my arm got hit."
It wasn't "just a hit." For an ordinary person, it could've been fatal. But she was a Saintess, after all.
"Whoa, you okay, Estelle?"
Before anyone could fret too much, she channeled her holy power to heal her arm.
Healing complete.
"Yeah, I'm fine. A quick healing spell fixes it!"
She laughed it off playfully, but her arm had been trembling moments ago. The spell had packed enough punch to freeze and nearly sever it.
Ice Slasher was a basic attack spell—hurl ice chunks to injure or damage.
But Theo's version carried a freezing status effect that chills to the bone.
Inflicting bone-deep freeze with a simple spell wasn't easy. Only high-level mages with total mastery over their magic could pull it off—and Theo was already doing it.
I thought I knew he had talent. But this is beyond what I imagined.
Her saintly healing was potent enough to shrug it off, but a regular mage pretending it was advanced magic might've vomited blood from mana overload.
"That didn't hurt too bad, right?"
"Nah, I just got careless."
Carelessness plus Theo's explosive growth had led to this.
I want to snag Theo as my exclusive knight or mage. But Estelle would fight me on it.
Iris had watched the whole thing. Theo's skills were beyond academy entry level—Imperial Knights, or even her personal knight or mage material.
Still, I want to enjoy academy life together.
Campus days were irreplaceable at their age. She was excited to roam it with him, so she'd hold off recruiting him personally.
Spending a bit more time with the three of us doesn't sound bad.
Before, she'd have wanted him all to herself. Now, she was—just a tiny bit, like dirt under a nail—looking forward to their trio routine.
"Estelle, you alright?"
Iris approached belatedly to check on her. Not that she was truly worried—Estelle was the Saintess with insane holy power for healing.
"Duh, of course. You know my healing, why ask?"
Estelle's snarky tone was her usual self, but Iris noticed her healed arm still quivering faintly.
...Yeah. That's trauma-level.
Healing couldn't fix psychological tremors. Estelle was trying to hide her shaking hand.
Theo would feel bad if he knew.
Her efforts looked a tad unnatural, but Theo wasn't the sharpest on subtle cues, so he missed it entirely.
A day after Estelle's injury, the day of the Ermunt Academy commoner entrance exam had arrived.
The exam was held at the academy's capital branch, a three-hour carriage ride from our house in Der Viscounty. We were rushing from dawn.
"Ugh, why the hurry?"
But this damn Saintess wouldn't get moving on time.
"Hello? I need to get to the academy to take the exam!"
Our voices were rising now.
"So? It's only a minute away anyway."
"What are you talking about, Saintess? Even by carriage from our place, it's three hours to the capital."
I was steaming, but I calmly explained while straightening my clothes.
"Whoa! Theo, you look so cool today!"
Iris had returned last night since she had to attend as a spectator. At least I only had this lazy Saintess to wrangle.
"Less gawking, more dressing and prepping—or I'm leaving without you."
We had a 30-minute buffer, but roads were unpredictable. Time to hustle.
"Theo, chill. I'll teleport us there in one minute flat."
"Huh? You can teleport that far?"
My own teleport only spanned the fields end-to-end, so I gaped in surprise.
"Yup. When I first came here, I teleported straight from my room in the Holy Empire."
"No way—that distance?"
Wow, that's high-level mage territory, I thought—then it hit me.
"Wait. Then why've you been crashing at our house this whole time?"
"Uh...?"
She'd whined about the long trip back being a pain and insisted on staying until academy enrollment. We'd given her a guest room...
"You sneaky brat—could've gone home easy and hid it all this time?"
"N-No, it's not like thaaat..."
I just sighed at Estelle averting her eyes.
Why stick it out in this inconvenient rural dump when she had that easy option? I couldn't wrap my head around it.