Training (3)
Haley had spent the past day watching Kael, and her mind was a whirlwind of questions. He had always been a walking bundle of mysteries, but today took the cake—ever since she first witnessed his magic on Bingryong Mountain. It wasn’t just because they’d spent so much time in the same space. When she first spotted him in that empty lower-class classroom, she’d simply been curious about what he was doing. He’d been fiddling with a practice crystal orb of unknown origin, attempting something with it. Since he was practicing something so ridiculously basic, she’d initially assumed he was hiding some deeper trick.
But the more she watched, the more she realized that wasn’t the case. What came as naturally to her as breathing—something she’d been able to do effortlessly since before even entering the academy, back when she first learned to handle mana—he was stubbornly drilling in one spot for hours on end. When she thought about how he’d looked on Bingryong Mountain, in the Shadow Forest last time, and more recently when facing that ice golem, none of it made sense. She’d even asked him outright if he was just pretending to be bad at it. Yet there he was, treating that simple task with dead-serious effort.
Watching something interesting right in front of her without getting involved was incredibly frustrating, but even Haley found it hard to interrupt him. He was that deeply focused on his own work. Why can’t he do something so easy?
Her initial thoughts had shifted after he scarfed down a quick meal and returned to the training grounds. Now she wondered, Why is he working so hard?
From what she could see, he appeared to be practicing the Energy Pulse spell. To Haley, it was the most basic of basic magics—something that barely required practice. Yet here he was, pouring every ounce of effort into mastering it. It could only mean one thing: he had virtually no talent for magic. If she hadn’t seen what she’d seen, she wouldn’t have even considered him a fellow mage. She certainly wouldn’t have paid him any attention the way she did with other students.
There was the Kael who could unleash massive spells no one had ever heard of, and then there was the Kael who struggled just to learn Energy Pulse. Which one was the real him?
If she hadn’t experienced it herself, she might never have even entertained the question. At the same time, another doubt had taken root. He could cast magic so impressive that even she—an unmatched prodigy among first-year mages—felt awe. So why was he obsessing over something so elementary?
He had always been an enigma. She had no idea what he was trying to do, or why. Even if she asked, he probably wouldn’t tell her, just like always. And honestly, that was better. If it were easy to figure out, it wouldn’t be any fun. There had to be a reason he was pushing himself like this. She was dying to know what it was.
Once he achieved whatever he was after, maybe she’d get to see the next stage too. Whatever he was hiding, one thing was clear: right now, he was desperately fighting to learn Energy Pulse. As long as she didn’t get in his way, she wanted to see that next step as soon as possible.
So she walked straight up to him.
She flashed her usual bright, playful grin as she spoke.
***
Haley—who I’d been wondering about lately, since she’d been unusually quiet despite having no apparent business here—had been following me around and watching. Now she approached and spoke to me. Her expression was full of suspicion, like she had a mountain of questions, but what came out of her mouth was completely unexpected.
She wants to help me all of a sudden…?
It was sudden, but not a bad offer. In the game’s system, learning a spell required triggering an “enlightenment” moment. It was basically a probability system—the more you tried, the higher your chances became, and eventually it would click. Training alongside someone who already knew the spell created synergy and boosted that probability even further.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t considered training synergy before. I just didn’t have anyone to ask. It wasn’t like there weren’t people I could’ve trained with—Warren, Ophelia, and Blair were all options—but they were in completely different classes from me, so they couldn’t offer direct help with magic.
Haley, despite her eccentric personality, was a fellow mage. And not just any mage—she was one of the very best. If I could get her help, learning new spells would definitely become easier. It wouldn’t hurt at all.
The only thing that bothered me was that she already knew about my stacking magic, and it seemed like the Cult was targeting her because of it. In a way, that was exactly why I needed to keep an eye on her.
“I won’t be too noisy……”
“Sure.”
Our words overlapped. Haley had been about to say something else—probably assuming I was going to turn her down since I’d paused—but she flinched when she heard my answer.
“Yeah. You said you’d help, right? Then help me.”
I was a little worried she might become even more of a nuisance going forward, but honestly, I wasn’t in any position to be picky. The Cult had already started making moves. There was no telling what would happen next. Even if I just assumed the events from the original story were happening earlier than planned, it was already a big problem. At least no Cult-affiliated professors had been assigned to the academy yet, so they probably couldn’t scheme anything inside the school grounds. But when it came to external schedules or events, there was no guarantee something like what happened in that ice cave dungeon wouldn’t repeat itself.
To prepare for that, I needed to get stronger as quickly as possible.
Hearing her call herself a genius out loud made me seriously anxious, but if it meant learning the spells I needed faster, I’d take whatever I could get.
“You were practicing Energy Pulse, right?”
Haley took up a stance beside me to demonstrate. I was drenched in sweat and utterly exhausted, but I didn’t care. I had work to do. If I suffered a little now, I’d get it all back later with interest.
Following Haley’s advice, I drew up my mana once again.
***
Ophelia occasionally visited the training grounds alone at night. Blair always looked a little hurt whenever Ophelia slipped away without her, but Ophelia insisted that sometimes she wanted to train quietly by herself and would gently send her knight away before heading to the grounds.
She chose the nighttime hours because she could sometimes catch a glimpse of Kael. It wasn’t like they trained together or anything. When their eyes met, they’d exchange a nod. When they left the grounds at the same time, they’d wave. That was all. Still, seeing his smile each time made her happy.
Sometimes he was there with his friend Warren. Other times he was alone. Either way, Kael was always completely absorbed in his magic practice. When that happened, Ophelia would settle down somewhere not too far away and focus on her own training, mirroring his dedication.
Blair often told her that she hit the mark one hundred percent of the time anyway, so she could afford to take it easy sometimes. But Ophelia didn’t agree. Only through constant practice could she keep her senses sharp and maintain that perfect accuracy. Besides, on days when Kael was around, she occasionally missed.
It was because she couldn’t focus entirely on her archery. Even then, it only meant that an arrow aimed at the left side of a distant training dummy’s chest would bounce off the right side. But for her, that was more than enough to cause a stir. Ever since her helpless confrontation with the troll chieftain, she had been working harder than ever to hit her target without wavering no matter the situation. Yet even in this peaceful training environment, her hands would slip just a little.
And it only ever happened on days when Kael was there.
To overcome what had become something like a jinx, Ophelia had recently started visiting the training grounds at night even more often. Today was one of those nights.
Bang!
The sound of magic striking a training dummy echoed across the night training grounds. At this hour, the only person who would make that kind of noise was Kael. Ophelia felt a surge of energy in her steps as she headed deeper inside.
Ah…
Just as she expected, Kael was there. As usual, he noticed her and offered a distant nod in greeting. She returned it with a small movement of her head, but this time she couldn’t act like everything was normal.
Because someone she had never expected to see was standing right beside him.
A girl with red hair. Haley.
The two of them were standing so close their shoulders were almost touching. At least, that was how it looked to Ophelia.
They looked close—about as close as the physical distance between them. From the conversation she could overhear, it seemed the two of them had been spending a lot of time together at the training grounds at night recently.
If you counted the number of times, Ophelia had probably spent more days here with Kael. But she had never once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him like that.
She told herself she had only come here today to practice archery, then turned her gaze toward the training dummy. She couldn’t focus on her shooting any more than on the other days when Kael had been nearby.
That day they’d been trapped on the third underground floor of the dungeon… Why had he shown up there? It didn’t matter if he hadn’t come to rescue her. But if he had gone there for someone else instead…
Just like her misguided arrow, her thoughts strayed from their target. If she wanted to stop missing, she needed to shoot from closer range. Which meant she needed to get closer.