Chapter 74
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Clone Bellia (10)
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"Lian, come over here."
The winter lake was as clear and transparent as a mirror. The freshwater fish swimming in the cold water were visible right down to their individual scales.
"It's amazing... so incredibly transparent..."
"Hehe, the lakes in Zarfurt stay pristine because they're far from any industrial zones."
She spoke cheerfully as she strolled around the lake with light steps, clearly enjoying herself.
"The city's wastewater is properly treated before flowing into the river, thanks to how the city was designed. So this lake will remain clean for years to come."
As she added that it was the cleanest among the continent's large lakes, Bella explained today's lesson.
"Lian, your power... it holds tremendous potential."
"Thank you."
"I'm not just saying that."
Bella Soders looked at me with eyes burning with passion, enunciating each word clearly.
"The way you fought in the cave, using your Word Command... it gave me tremendous inspiration."
"Aw, it was just a little trick."
"No, absolutely not. Lian, killing that black mage wasn't mere luck."
"It's something even basic telekinesis could do. Just making arrows whip around..."
"Hehe, too much humility isn't becoming. If it had been plain telekinesis, that black mage would've read your intent and defended against it easily."
She continued, explaining that we read the flow of mana better than words, leaving footprints in the softly piled snow as we walked around the lake.
"It was your irregular attacks using Word Command that caught him off guard, right? You know that yourself."
"...Yes."
"Magic changes reality too, but it requires so much preparation. Your ability, though... as long as it has the bare minimum plausibility, you can create any situation, can't you?"
"It guzzles mana like crazy, too."
"But it lets you adapt so flexibly." She praised my technique without yielding an inch.
"That's why it's such an excellent skill... so the lesson I prepared should serve you well in 'surviving'."
Her trusting expression made the ominous words all the more chilling from this mother of mine.
Her lesson was on a whole different level of difficulty from before.
It was a dizzying class that stimulated my survival instincts every single second.
"Hahaha! Lian! You're incredible!"
I barely dodged a fireball aimed at my head and replied.
"Mother, this is a bit much, isn't i... ngh...!"
"You even have time to talk! Amazing! We can speed things up a bit, Lian!"
I had no chance to beg for mercy as a rock hurtled toward my side.
Now I understood why she'd praised my Word Command combat so much. If it wasn't as useful as she thought, I'd have been floored several times over by now.
Knowing my mana limits, Mother pushed me mercilessly to the brink without holding back.
Unless I efficiently used Word Command to overcome crises, I simply couldn't endure.
"Lian, be careful!"
She warned as she prepared a massive electric orb. Damn it, telekinesis wouldn't budge that thing, would it?
I couldn't even deflect it with my sword flat. The electricity climbing the blade would ignore the hilt's insulation and shock me straight through.
Having experienced it firsthand, the forced muscle contractions brought excruciating pain.
My deliberation was brief. Swift action beat a late perfect decision in this situation.
I slammed my longsword deep into the ground, then pulled lake water to soak the surroundings.
"The electricity was all drawn to the longsword and dispersed."
The lightning pouring with the orb struck the ground as guided by my Word Command. The muddy earth around the blade sparked viciously for several seconds—a powerful thunderbolt.
"Lian...! I thought that one would be hard to dodge!"
'Then maybe you shouldn't have fired it...?'
Her harsh training made my skills grow fast, but she pushed me with terrifying intensity.
Was it because the suggestion that she 'takes joy in my achievements' worked too well? Even as she gave brutal lessons, seeing me overcome them seemed to fill her with immense satisfaction.
"Next problem, then..."
With a gesture, water from the lake floated up, forming perfect spheres. At the same time, her other hand conjured multiple will-o'-the-wisps that orbited the spheres like guards.
The will-o'-the-wisps flickering around her like living firebirds merged into a massive fireball and flew at me.
Not satisfied with that, she prepared a follow-up beam attack.
Fireball on the left, heavy water droplet on the right. And the beam coming after.
How to handle this...
I seized the cold water droplet from the right with telekinesis and smashed it into the oncoming fireball, creating steam.
With the sizzling sound of boiling water, I compressed the vaporized steam using telekinesis.
"Clump together without dispersing, form a thick mist."
The mist from the steam irregularly refracted the beam aimed at me.
Having lost most of its power, the beam was something I could tank with my body.
"...Incredible. Such a great judgment, Lian!"
Despite barely any combat experience, she wielded magic offensively with genius flair.
Her phenomenal growth astonished onlookers.
The problem was how it wore me down to near-death.
Her attacks grew ever more varied.
I had to improvise perfectly using everything around me—the lake water, nearby tree branches, buried stones, and more.
I wondered if her mana would run out first or mine when her attacks finally stopped.
No, they hadn't stopped. She was preparing the next one.
"Now... I think I could do it..." Mumbling to herself, she squeezed out her last mana for the attack.
Her face flushed with excitement, she closed her eyes and swelled her mana. It split into two streams: one forming a circle, the other a counterclockwise ring spinning around it.
It was the Pierre-Fusion mana circulation circuit she'd taught me. Stable enough to sustain itself, she added another ring.
"I... I did it..." Overjoyed, she proudly showed off the eerie, sparkling mana orb in her palm emitting ominous light.
"Lian, see? It's a double-overlapped Pierre-Fusion circulation circuit! My goodness, I once wrote a paper on this, but to think it was really possible...!"
'That's... kinda scary.'
The circuit she'd scraped together from her last mana felt chillingly threatening.
The mana waves from the two non-interfering orbits neutralized approaching magic effects.
Any half-baked spell would dissipate on contact.
An unstoppable mana bullet that no magic could evade danced atop her hand.
Lost in the euphoria of successfully casting a spell she'd only theorized before, she seemed oblivious to its destructive power.
"Hehe, to wrap up today's lesson, let's end by taking this one head-on."
"Um, Mother...? That's definitely a bit..."
"Such a worrywart, hehe... Do your best, Lian!"
The orb shot forward in a straight line at undeniable speed.
I tried launching myself away with telekinesis, but it ignored inertia and curved straight after me.
"Damn it!"
"Watch your language, Lian!"
Dodging was impossible, so...
I recalled her lessons. To collapse that circuit, make the spinning mana touch the axis of rotation.
But how? The rotating mana orbits neutralized external interference, keeping the circuit stable.
'Stay calm. Even that spell must have a weakness...'
Observing while fleeing, I sensed the interference-blocking mana flow vanish briefly.
A gap shorter than a blink, appearing only when the orbits overlapped.
'If I time it right...'
I had to strike the single instant the two orbiting mana paths overlapped—like clock hands aligning perfectly.
I nocked an arrow infused with mana into the air, pouring all my remaining mana into a Word Command to overcome plausibility.
"The arrow pierces the orb at the precise timing, neutralizing it."
Aided by abundant mana, the arrow rocketed toward the orb, ignoring physics mid-flight, and pierced it.
Perfectly timed, the orb couldn't repel the mana-infused arrow, damaging its rotation axis.
The twisted axis could no longer sustain the structure, and the circuit burst in a spectacular mid-air explosion.
"100 points! Perfect score, Lian!"
Bella Soders looked ready to jump for joy.
She'd never expected me to handle that one perfectly and had even prepared to cancel it midway, she fussed as she approached.
"Incredible, truly... so outstanding, Lian...!"
Was it from overusing mana? My vision blurred.
No, not just feeling—actually blurring...
"Lian? Are you alright?"
Thinking I absolutely deserved a massive reward, I blacked out.
My first blackout since arriving in this world.
"I'm a failure as a professor..."
"Don't blame yourself too much, Master. Young Master isn't hurt; he just collapsed from mana exhaustion."
"Thank you, Bellia, but this is my fault..."
I got so thrilled with Lian's achievements that I got greedy.
Watching him breeze through the tough tasks I gave was so satisfying.
Plus, teaching Lian was making me more attuned to magic than ever before, at an even faster pace.
Arrogance in knowing his limits, joy in my own progress, excitement from the battle—it all led to this disaster.
"I shouldn't have pushed Lian this hard... This is all my fault..."
Bellia approached as I gazed tearfully at the fallen Lian with guilty eyes.
"Young Master deserves a proper reward."
"...A reward...?"
"Yes, Master. He's worked so hard and achieved so much. Doesn't he deserve an appropriate reward?"
With a wicked smile, she suggested a 'fitting reward'.
The lewd content made my face burn, nearly making me cover my ears in shock...
But the tantalizing, vulgar idea lingered in my mind, and I ended up nodding.
"You can really play your role well?"
"Of course, Master. I know you inside and out."
Looks like tonight, I'll become Bellia once more...♥