Chapter 74

Chapter 74: You Are Free to Misunderstand (2)

Yulia held the sphere out to me.

“Please observe it carefully. This is the technique Brother must learn from now on.”

“Then excuse me.”

Cutting off Yulia’s words, I brought my face close to the sphere she had created above her hand, as if I were about to press my eyes into it.

“Um… isn’t that a little too close, no matter how you look at it?”

“What are you talking about? I have to look at things like this properly.”

“Sigh, never mind. I should not have said anything…….”

The sphere was about ten centimeters in diameter. 

The outside was wrapped in Mana, but the Holy Power inside did not try to burst out from the pressure.

“Fascinating. So this is how you condensed it?”

Admiration came out naturally.

Holy Power definitely had the property of intertwining with itself, right?

Because of that characteristic, even though it had been condensed, the state of the Holy Power remained stable.

Tsk……. But just looking at this does not really give me a sense of how I should operate the Mana.

Ah, maybe that would work?

Taking my eyes off the sphere, I held one hand out to Yulia.

“Yulia, let me hold your hand for a moment.”

Cough.

Viole, who was beside us, coughed softly, and Yulia opened her eyes wide and moved her mouth soundlessly.

What was this?

“…Pardon? My hand?”

“Yeah. I want to touch it very thoroughly.”

“……!”

Yulia hurriedly pulled her hand back and moved two or three steps away from me.

“W-Why?”

“…You are a little dangerous, you know?”

Even Viole, who had somehow come to stand beside Yulia, was looking at me with strange eyes.

What was wrong with these two?

“We held hands last time when using the artifact too. Why are you acting like this now?”

“Is that really the same as this?”

“The part about touching it thoroughly is strange from the start.”

I frowned.

“Do you two not know why I am doing this?”

“That is what we want to ask you.”

“There is no reason for you to suddenly say something like that.”

“Why wouldn’t there be?”

I pointed at the sphere floating above Yulia’s hand.

“I said it because I want to know how the Mana flows when she maintains that sphere. I meant that I would confirm the Mana flowing from her hand.”

““Ah.””

The two women opened their mouths slightly.

“For things like this, touching directly is better than just looking. What were you thinking, exactly?”

“I wondered what you meant……. If that is what you meant, then it is not difficult. Please touch it.”

I placed both of my hands on the back of Yulia’s hand as she came closer.

As a result, the Mana flowing through her hand began to be detected in greater detail.

Hmm, it was rather obvious, but when it came to recovery, Holy Power was truly a cheat. 

She must have handled a sword since she was young, yet the back of her hand was this smooth.

Slide.

“Hmm… so the Mana moves like this?”

Physical contact had been the correct answer. 

Unlike when I only looked, I could read the flow of Mana much more clearly.

“Ugh…….”

If there was one slightly troublesome point, it was that Yulia kept pretending to be calm while glancing at me.

“Is there some side effect to maintaining the formula?”

“There is not any side effect, but…….”

“If there is not, why are you acting so cautious?”

“You are not trying anything strange, are you?”

“What do you two take me for?”

At their strangely heightened wariness, a sigh escaped me on its own.

“…Good. That is enough.”

After reading the Mana from Yulia’s hand for around five minutes, I straightened up and put some distance between us. 

Only then did Yulia scatter the sphere she had made into the air.

“Have you finished checking?”

“Yeah. I think I can try it right away.”

At my answer, Yulia and Viole wore expressions mixed with doubt.

“…You think you can try it now?”

“Really?”

I cracked my interlaced hands.

“It is my first time, so I do not know whether it will work well……. Watch me once.”

I opened both hands.

Holy Power in my right hand.

Wooong…….

Mana in my left hand.

Crackle…….

And if I combined them like Yulia did…….

I imitated Yulia’s movements exactly and manipulated the Holy Power and Mana here and there.

***

At Damon’s action of trying it immediately, Yulia and Viole exchanged glances.

“He is an unusual one, but he is certainly full of enthusiasm, isn’t he? He even tried to read Mana.”

“Exactly…….”

Bitter smiles hung on the lips of the two women.

‘No matter what, he will not be able to do that right away, will he?’

‘Probably not. It took me about a week to manage that too…….’

Condensation.

That was an operation method that was difficult for a Holy Power Awakener to accomplish.

It was because one had to pay attention not only to Holy Power Manipulation, but also to Mana Manipulation.

Holy Power Awakeners were originally those who had received the choice of a god and become able to refine Holy Power. 

From the moment they awakened Holy Power, most of them became able to handle Holy Power instinctively.

But Mana was a different matter.

Only after a Holy Power Awakener mastered Mana Formulas could they easily handle Mana.

“It is fine even if you cannot do it right away. That is normal.”

“That’s right. To do it easily, you need to learn Mana Formulas first, so…….”

Yulia and Viole continued speaking without particularly minding it.

But soon, the two of them had no choice but to trail off.

“…Huh?”

“My goodness…….”

Because, in that short time, a sphere identical in form to the one Yulia had created was already floating above Damon’s right hand.

“…….”

“…….”

Yulia and Viole did not know one fact.

The person before their eyes had not handled Holy Power for long, but he was a Black Mage who had mastered the basic formulas of Mana Manipulation to the point of weariness for the sake of Black Magic.

And pure Mana Manipulation was not a major problem for him.

“I think this is roughly done?”

The corners of Damon’s mouth curved upward.

‘Condensation.’

Creak.

When he clenched his left hand tightly, the sphere placed above his right hand contracted.

***

I stretched out my right hand and held out the sphere I had just made to the two of them.

“Is this how I am supposed to do it? I just copied what you did.”

Since this was my first time, I was not sure whether it had gone well.

The two of them had deeper knowledge of Holy Power than me, so it would be better to show them directly and hear their advice.

That was why I had shown them, but…….

Something was strange.

“What are you two doing?”

“…….”

“…….”

As though they had agreed beforehand, they kept their mouths shut and stared fixedly at the sphere I had made.

“Do not just stare. Say something. Did I do something wrong?”

***

As I headed toward the Training Hall lobby with Yulia and Viole, I reviewed the advice I had heard from the two of them.

Among all of it, the most surprising part was…….

“Yulia, even you took a whole week to do this?”

“That is right.”

“Huh.”

At Yulia’s answer, I rubbed the back of my neck.

Come to think of it, this ‘Condensation’ was mainly about Mana Manipulation, not Holy Power Manipulation.

These two must have handled Holy Power far more than Mana, so perhaps it was natural for them to be surprised.

“So I have to create the sphere I made just now in my heart, right?”

“That’s right. Mana and Holy Power are contained in the heart.”

“If you refine and condense them in the heart, you can use the condensed Holy Power immediately.”

“That is rather useful, isn’t it?”

To think Holy Power and Mana could be applied in that way.

This was something I could use well enough in actual combat too.

Thanks to the two of them, I had heard a satisfying method of application, but… there was one part that bothered me.

Since I had already seen it, I could at least confirm that much.

“But it looked like there was another method of application besides ‘Condensation.’”

I lowered my gaze and stared at the sword Yulia wore.

“When you were thrown back in the Training Hall earlier. The form of the Holy Power was a little different then, wasn’t it?”

“You noticed that well.”

Yulia tapped the hilt of her sword.

“That is right. Condensation is only a method of using Mana and Holy Power separately. Once your proficiency rises further from there, you can use Holy Power and Mana by mixing them.”

Yulia’s head lowered slightly.

“…Though I have not reached that stage yet either.”

“Is that so?”

“I can manage Condensation somehow too, but what comes after that is the problem.”

Yulia and Viole looked slightly dejected, but as a regressor, I chuckled inwardly.

There was no need for them to worry too much.

Because both of you will certainly reach that next stage.

“Anyway, thanks to you two, a weight has been lifted off my mind. This will be useful during the Magic Department Tournament.”

Yulia and Viole looked back at me.

“Brother Damon is participating too?”

“…Are you two participating as well?”

“Yeah. Yulia and I joined a team together. They said we would get good grades if our ranking was high, so it felt like a waste not to do it.”

Well, since they were Grade 1 and Grade 2, there was no way the other Magic Department students would not have made recruitment offers.

This made placing highly even more difficult…….

“It feels strange to say this, but… that is unexpected.”

“I did not think you would do something like that.”

“Did I look that much like someone who does not care about grades?”

I thought I was producing decent enough grades in my own way.

Since the curriculum was centered around practical lessons, there were many classes I could cover with combat sense.

“Ahaha… that is not what I meant…….”

“I just did not think there would be a Magic Department student who would bring you in as a teammate.”

“That was the part you found unexpected?”

Tsk, honestly, she was not wrong.

Grade 3 on the License was a fairly high rank among first-year students. 

Even so, aside from Karin, I had not received a single teammate request from any Magic Department student.

Well… that was largely because rumors had spread among the students that my personality was bad.

More than anything else—

“Even though Brother is a Holy Magic Department student, you are also interested in Black Magic. The Magic Department students cannot look at that favorably.”

Right. 

That was probably the biggest cause.

“Anyone listening would think I did something wrong.”

“Still, compared to when you entered the academy, your image has improved a lot, you know?”

“Hehe, that is true.”

Yulia proudly puffed out her chest.

“I told the committee that you teleported me out with an artifact in the Artificial Rift and tried to face the Demon Order alone. Brother’s reputation had no choice but to improve.”

“Ah… that, you mean?”

I trailed off.

I only let you escape because I was going to use the Black Magic ‘Void Transfer.’

If you had seen me use Black Magic, you would have tried to cut my head off immediately, wouldn’t you?

“Even if Brother speaks harshly, you are still a Holy Power Awakener. You even have a spirit of self-sacrifice.”

“What self-sacrifice? Absolute nonsense.”

I was dumbfounded by the conclusion she had reached on her own, but I did not bother arguing.

In any case, I was in a position where I was learning Holy Magic. 

For now, it was actually better that she misunderstood me like this.

Misunderstand as much as you like, then.

I lightly waved one hand.

“Fine. Think whatever you want.”

“Hehe, how humble of you.”

“…….”

Wasn’t she misunderstanding me a little too much, no matter how you looked at it?