An Uneasy Distance
There didn't seem to be any opening at all. And so Seria decided, for now, to take a step back.
Just look at them. Rion teaching with such fervor, Enril striving with everything she had. There was no room to slip between them—at least, not as far as Seria could see.
She could force her way in if she wanted, but all that would buy her was suspicion and wariness. There was plenty of time. She didn't need to get closer today. Push too hard and the doubts she'd only just managed to lull might well flare up again.
And so Seria resolved to keep her distance and simply watch.
"It's still unstable, Enril. At this rate, your Mana Heart will give out before you ever get to use it in the Tower."
"I-I'll try again!"
"Stop! I told you—if you do it like that, all the mana you've refined will be contaminated!"
"I'll be more careful! I'll try again! I'm sorry!"
"Don't apologize."
Seen like this, he looked like nothing more than an instructor at the Academy. But Seria had clearly seen something beyond that. That was why she wanted to close the distance with Rion.
From their first meeting, she had sensed something she couldn't quite put into words. How to describe it? An odd aura, perhaps.
He's definitely strange. I just can't figure out what kind of strange.
Whatever it was that kept making her tilt her head, she had no precise way to name it. One thing was certain: whenever this feeling struck, it was always one of two things.
A person whose kindness exceeded all imagination.
Or a Demonic Beast whose power exceeded all imagination.
And until now, it had more often been the latter.
Of course, openly suspecting someone was something one should never do. Seria herself hoped it was the former. From everything she'd heard since arriving at the Academy, he seemed like a genuinely good man.
Those with real skill were usually reluctant to share their techniques. Passing one on with no conditions attached was an extraordinary decision. And it even worked—hadn't Enril, a Hero, already proven as much?
Still, certainty was always better. That was why she'd tried to close the distance—to gain that certainty. But neither Rion nor even Enril had given her any opening. Though from their perspective, knowing nothing, "opening" was a strange word to begin with.
...Am I just making a fool of myself?
It was possible. She might simply be worrying alone. It wasn't just anyone—Enril herself was following him like that. When it came to Demonic Beasts, Enril was as much an expert as Seria. Perhaps more. The ones that dwelled in the Tower were said to be far stronger than those that roamed the continent. There was no way Enril, who had fought those things more than once, would fail to sense an odd aura.
And yet she couldn't let it go. Her instincts had never been wrong. And so Seria was left with a lingering guilt and unease in a corner of her heart.
This is hard. So hard.
This was exactly why she hadn't wanted to be a Saintess or a Hero. She'd just wanted to stay with the Combat Priest Corps and keep hunting Demonic Beasts. What change in the wind had made the Sacred Relic point to her?
Today, more than usual, she found herself missing the combat camp where her comrades would be.
Now this was more like it. This was what being an Academy instructor felt like.
A relaxed smile never left Rion's face as he taught Enril. When he'd been looking at Seria, his nerves had been wound tight in a way they weren't now. She was someone who had encountered Demonic Beasts as often as Enril—and crushed them just as thoroughly. In the process, her sense for detecting the demonic would have grown extremely keen.
He had buried his true power as deep as he could, but you never knew how the world would turn. She'd said from their first meeting that she felt a strange aura. That only made him more wary.
Enril, on the other hand, trusts me completely right now. Skill and senses may be similar, but mindset is what creates the gap.
That was why he could let his guard down, even just a little, at Enril's side. Far from suspecting him, she trusted him completely. Letting his guard down was never wise, of course—but compared to Seria, this was far more comfortable.
"Nngh..."
Just then, Enril, circulating her mana, let out a groan. It seemed she had begun circulating the mana refined through the Mana Cultivation Technique in earnest. Once that path became familiar, her body would move on instinct from there. It was like cutting a highway—once it was open, traffic would flow in earnest.
But she had to be all the more careful. If something went wrong midway, it would be disastrous. External wounds could be healed with magic or Divine Power. Internal ones could not. If the Mana Heart was damaged, it meant at least a month of recovery—possibly several.
Please don't get hurt. Please don't get hurt. Rion prayed with everything he had.
But perhaps because he was no believer—because he was the Tower Master, a demon—the gods had no particular interest in answering his prayers.
"Hhk—!!"
The mana that had been progressing so well suddenly went awry. And because its speed and volume were nothing to scoff at, the problem was all the worse. Enril tried to hold her focus and manage it somehow, but it wasn't enough.
Damn it!
Cursing under his breath, Rion sat down urgently behind Enril. In this state, nothing Enril did on her own would help. At best, it would turn a catastrophic injury into a merely serious one.
What needed to be done now was to use the refined mana to restore the broken path. If she had mastered the cultivation technique, she could have done it herself. The Enril of now could not. The only remaining option was to pour his own mana into her and help as much as he could.
"Enril! I know it hurts, but focus as hard as you can and take in the mana I'm sending you. You have to find the broken path and restore it somehow. If we delay any longer, your overloaded Mana Heart will take damage. If you can hear me, don't answer—just nod."
He knew she was in no condition to speak. At his words, Enril managed a single nod, then clenched her teeth and focused.
The mana that rose from Rion lingered in the air for a moment, a faint rustling whisper, before flowing toward Enril. Ordinarily it would have dissipated at once, but having been refined again and again, it could endure that fleeting instant. And Enril did not miss that instant. She succeeded in drawing at least some of it into her body.
"Hup—!"
Once more, a pain like her entire body being torn apart crashed over her. She wanted to stop that very second. But if she did, her Mana Heart would take severe damage. Biting her lip until it bled, Enril groped for the place that had gone wrong.
Where is it? Where? I have to find it. I have to fix it. If I don't...
If her Mana Heart was damaged, her training would suffer a massive setback. It wasn't just that she would fail in her duty as a Hero. The people who believed in her. Those suffering at the hands of Demonic Beasts. She had to save them even a day sooner—and this would delay that by her own mistake.
And... for Instructor Rion's sake, I have to do this!
The more she thought, the more anxious she became, and the anxiety kept clouding her vision. She'd managed to guide the mana roughly to the area—but what came next, she had no idea. The flow of mana was completely different from anything she'd known, making it even harder to pinpoint. Rion's words—that everything so far had been only the beginning—had not been an exaggeration in the slightest.
Then, all at once, the mana that had been floundering surged in a single direction. The searing pain still came through, but something else threaded through it. At first she wasn't sure what it was. Then she realized a cool, clear energy was flowing from behind her.
Instructor Rion.
Yes. It was Rion. She was certain. His presence, his mana—it came through unmistakably. He was doing everything he could to help her. Guiding her, showing her the path, telling her to go on.
Enril gathered her scattered mind and moved her mana as Rion led. She couldn't delay any longer. If she did, the shock could reach the one helping her as well.
Before long they reached the intended point, and Rion took a step back. As if to say: from here, Enril, you have to do it. This is as far as I go.
I can do this. I have to.
It was only the beginning, but she had learned the Mana Cultivation Technique. That much was certain. Then she could manage what came after as well. That was what Rion wanted. She wanted to live up to his expectations. She wanted to repay his trust.
At last, having restored the broken path, Enril focused once more on the flow of mana. Fixing it wasn't the end. She had to reach the end of this path. She couldn't stop. Stopping would be worse than never having started.
"Hah... hah... haaah—"
The mana that had been moving in chaos gradually settled into order. What had lingered like mist, faint and formless, grew steadily denser. And when Enril finally opened her eyes, everything had changed.
She could feel it. The Mana Heart that had been shaking so violently just moments ago was now still. Her whole body still burned as if set aflame, but it was bearable. Above all, the grain of the flowing mana had changed. It was something entirely different from before.
"...Congratulations, Enril."
From behind her came the sound of Rion collapsing into a sit. She spun around in alarm. He, too, was soaked in sweat—he had clearly been through quite an ordeal.
"You've succeeded in crossing another threshold. You stood at the starting line and took the most important first step. Most people wobble and fall right there, or have to reset their stance—and you went and pulled it off anyway."
Rion let out a long breath and wiped the sweat from his face. Enril wouldn't know it, but he had used his mana almost to the limit. If he'd held anything back and Enril's body had been damaged, it would have been the worst possible outcome. Of course he'd gone all out.
"Rest well for a few days, and starting the day after that, we'll move on to the next stage..."
A whisper of steel. A chilling killing intent grazed the line of his throat.
It was too close to move carelessly. Rion could only roll his eyes.
"..."
There stood Seria, her sword drawn, the blade leveled at him.