It’s sudden, but Iris is cute, so I want to give her sweets.
And so, I take macaroons and chocolates from the Item box, and offer them to the saintess sitting next to me.
Iris takes the chocolates, and starts munching as the corners of her mouth get a little dirty, and the smile of an angel forms on her face.
Just watching this is enough to heal me. It’s like my heart is being cleansed.
I take a handkerchief, and wipe her mouth.
“Thank you.”
Then I take a macaroon into her mouth.
“Here’s a macaroon.”
“Munch. Thank you.”
Iris starts munching, and I keep giving her sweets.
One after the other, the macaroons disappear into her stomach.
T-this is fun.
I don’t know how it happened, but I’m all focused on feeding Iris.
Even Iris herself, despite her smile at first, slowly begins to feel like something’s off, and stares directly at me.
“I’m very happy about the sweets, but I feel like I’m being treated as though I were a small animal.”
Gulp.
But if I say yes to that she might get angry, so let’s change the subject.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yes, what is it Mister Loyd?”
I’m going to help her learn magic after eating, but there’s one thing I want to ask before that.
“Why do you want to learn Water Daedalus?”
Why is she learning magic?
She’s a saintess, so normally she’d be more inclined to become a priest, not a mage.
Is it because the water dragon Daedalus is cool?
Because she wants to beat up evil doers as a saintess of justice?
But then, the smile she had on her face suddenly flips into a serious expression.
“To protect my family.”
She answers immediately.
I wasn’t expecting that.
“Family?”
“I have three family members. We aren’t related by blood, but they are very nice people.”
“Is Nero one of them?”
“Yes, but also two girls called Sephilia and Till.”
Looks like I guessed right. She’s talking about her attendants.
Hm… Protecting family…
It’s common, but the most direct reason too.
I like that sort of simple answer too.
“Can’t any of them fight?”
“The three of them can. Sephilia in particular is the strongest person I know when it comes to handling a sword.”
Sephilia?
I feel like Mars mentioned that when I was going through my newbie training, but I can’t really remember.
I should ask more next time I see him.
“If the three of them can fight, can’t you leave the fighting to them?”
My question sounds kind of mean, but I feel like I can expect an answer from Iris.
“Like you say, that would be ideal but…”
She stops.
“I don’t agree. They abandoned their hometown and swore loyalty to me, and I want to repay them.
I want to repay their devotion with the most good faith I can, and become stronger than any other to protect my family.
As a saintess of justice, I want to bring happiness to those closest to me. I want them to feel truly happy with me until their moment of death.
That right there, is what I call my justice, and words alone are not enough to carry out this justice. I need to be stronger than anyone else.”
I feel like I somewhat understand Iris’ justice that was so vague until now.
It’s not the same as wanting to protect her country as a saintess, it’s about bringing happiness to her family as a false saintess.
To make the ones closest to her happy.
I didn’t expect the words of my master to come back to me like this.
Sadly, I didn’t do a good job at all honoring that promise. I broke up with the one I was supposed to make happy.
But Iris is different. She’s honoring those words, unlike me.
If it means helping her, I think I can break the Code of Magic.
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After lunch, we head up the river to start practicing magic.
There are two reasons why we can’t do it in the campground. First, so we don’t bother anyone, and second, so other mages don’t see it.
The second one is especially important.
Mages have a stronger ‘code’ than swordsmen.
We are typically not allowed to teach magic to someone who isn’t officially our pupil.
That’s the reason for the back and forth before.
I’m more lax than most when it comes to the code, but I’ll decide not to teach anything if the reason they give is too bad.
Like wanting to hurt people, or show off. If it’s to hurt people I’ll turn them down softly.
I say that, but it’s not like anyone has ever asked, other than Lela…
Iris is trying to learn the spell Water Daedalus. It’s an offensive highest rank spell that’s said to be a secret technique of water magic.
It’s power is great, to the point where it can end even a large demon in one hit. And one of its strong points is that it doesn’t take a lot of magic energy to use, for a secret spell at least.
Conversely, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when using it. It doesn’t just need the user’s magic energy, it needs a large amount of water too, so it can’t be used without water nearby.
It’s also really hard to control, so when someone’s learning it, they need a seasoned mage to act as support.
“When I’m teaching magic, we will temporarily be master and pupil, so call me Master Loyd.”
“Yes Master Loyd!”
“Hehehe, not bad.”
I scratch my cheek with embarrassment.
“You look really happy…”
She says with a somewhat awkward smile.
What guy wouldn’t be happy about being called master by the girl he likes?
But then I quickly put on a serious face.
“My teaching principles are typically harsh.
The reason is simple. Magic is dangerous when you make a wrong move. But you already understand that very well, don’t you Iris?”
“Yes, I was blown away when I failed.”
“Very well. Let us begin practicing water Daedalus.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll show an example first, so make sure to burn the image of the completed thing in your head. It’s easier to learn when you know what the goal is like.”
“I see. You are quite right, Master Loyd.”
I step into the river, knee deep, since I’m close to shore. I won’t have to worry about drowning unless I’m in the middle.
Then I start chanting slowly, so Iris can hear me.
Blue light concentrates in the tip of my staff, and a blue magic circle appears beneath my feet.
The incantation takes about five seconds. When it’s completed, water around me concentrates into a pillar, and creates a water dragon that’s over ten meters tall.
“This is the standard size. You can make it bigger by infusing more magic energy, but it gets harder to control, so let’s make controlling one of these our first objective.”
“Yes.”
Good straight answer.
After I show an example, it’s Iris’ turn. Now I’ll give her instructions.
Iris performs the incantation, and manages to manifest Water Daedalus. But she can’t maintain its form, and the water dragon collapses after a few seconds.
The water crashing down changes the flow a lot, and creates a tsunami that almost swallows Iris. But I cast Grow and punch the tsunami away.
Iris looks at me with a dumbfounded expression, but we don’t have a lot of time, so she doesn’t react and we continue.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. Everyone fails at first, you just need to make progress slowly but surely.”
It’s a master’s job to help out a pupil.
“It all went well up until high rank magic, but for some reason, this spell is not working.”
It sounds like she doesn’t understand why she can’t control it.
“The biggest reason is that you can’t control external and internal magic energy at the same time.”
External magic energy is the natural magic energy in the atmosphere, and internal magic energy is the one in people’s bodies.
Controlling both at the same time is the key to learning this.
“I’m sorry. I can understand what internal magic energy means, but I don’t really understand what you mean by external magic energy.”
“It’s the magic energy in the atmosphere.”
“The magic energy in the atmosphere can be controlled!?”
“Of course. It’s no exaggeration to say that controlling both at the same time is the key to all highest rank magic.
Without that, highest magic energy is incomplete.”
“N-no way…!”
Iris’ face turns really pale.
It makes sense. She’s taken aback because I’m telling her she needs to control both her magic energy and another magic energy she’s never heard of.
It’s like an endlessly high wall popped up to block her path.
“Don’t worry. There’s a way to understand external magic energy.”
“R-really Master Loyd?”
‘Magic energy mixing’ is the most effective way to teach the flow of external magic energy.
That means the master makes magic energy flow to the body of the pupil to teach how it flows.
People understand way faster when they feel the flow of magic energy that’s different than usual.”
So I tell her what magic energy mixing is all about, and get permission to touch her.
“I have never heard of that training method.”
Iris’ reaction tells me this isn’t common throughout the world. Is it a special thing my master does?
Despite not being official, my master is definitely a master rank. It wouldn’t be that strange for my master to know things other mages don’t.
Also, I only learned this training method right at the very end.
It was like a last resort, when I was learning Item Box magic but couldn’t get a grip on the general idea.
My master said I was purposefully not taught that so I didn’t feel too comfortable.
In Iris’ case, she’s already given me the ‘answer I’m looking for’, so I decided to make an exception and teach her.
Her time will come not when she’s learning magic, but after she’s already learned.
I put my hand on her back, and make magic energy flow to her.
Her breathing gets ragged when she takes it, and her white skin gets red as she writhes.
She lets out some lewd groans here and there, so it kind of feels like I’m doing something indecent.
But I’m very serious. I keep making magic energy flow, so she can learn to control external magic energy.
And in the end…
“I-I did it! Mister Loyd Mister Loyd! I can control Water Daedalus!”
I told her to call me Master Loyd, but she’s so happy that she reverts to that.
But I don’t think that’s bad. It just shows how happy she is.
The giant water dragon is moving around according to Iris’ will.
That lack of stability is gone now, and it’s now maintaining the same firm shape as Iris’ justice.
Iris can now control Water Daedalus at will.
“Good job. But this is where it really starts.”
“Yes!”
Learning highest ranking magic is just a process, not a goal.
Now it’s up to Iris to decide how she’s going to make use of that magic.
But the fact remains that Iris has taken a step closer towards achieving her dream, and I want to praise her for it.
Congratulations.
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“Wahahahahahahahahahaha!! It appears I have finally found you, false saintess!!”
Just as we’re finishing the magic training and returning to the campground, I hear the laughing voice of a man I don’t recognize.
I turn around, and see a man all dressed in black emerging from the woods.
“Do you know him? It sounds like he knows you.”
“No, I don’t. He is probably an assassin after my life.”
So they expelled her and then sent assassins after her? That’s nasty.
“But why are people trying to kill you?”
“Hahahaha, hahahaha, ha!
I am but someone who was hired with money!! You need not concern yourself with such details!!”
Who asked you?
But the assassin keeps on talking anyway.
“But if pressed for an answer, I would say it is because she is a false saintess! A country needs only one saintess!
That means leaving the expelled saintess alive is a great sin!”
I see, so some think that way. Wanting to erase the expelled saintess to maintain the tradition of having one saintess per country.
I can see that.
“By the way, do other people besides you know that Iris is here?”
“Kukuku, of course not. Why would I surrender my achievement to others?
I was the one who first found the false saintess! I am number one!! I am the greatest!”
I see I see.
That’s very nice to hear. That means if we get rid of you, there won’t be a problem.
I stand between Iris and the assassin.
“M-Mister Loyd.”
She says with a worried tone.
“It’s all right, trust me.”
I say with a gentle tone. That was just to encourage myself.
My magic master always said that to reassure me when I fought a strong opponent.
“Hou! You stand before me to protect the false saintess, mage?
How chivalrous, but know I am strong.
I stand at the top of Catastrophe, the number one assassin organization in the eastern continent!”
“Apparently it’s true that weaklings like to run their mouths. Stop it with the boring speeches and come at me already.”
“W-what!? Are you making fun of me!?
I will kill you first! You will fall before my super high speed flying swordsmanship Hawk Sword!!”
Kin kin kin kin kin kin kin kin kin kin kin kin kin kin kin kin!!
The assassin disappears for a moment, trying to bewilder me by flying around at a speed a regular person’s eyes can’t see. I can hear the sound of slashes and air bursts from all sides.
I’ve actually fought the technique called Hawk sword a few times. It’s all about flying at high speed, and it’s great for confusing an opponent with fast moves and taking them down.
It’s a school of swordsmanship from the eastern continent, so it’s mostly used by beast people or humanoid demons. It’s also one of the three big schools of swordsmanship in the world, and I get the impression very few humans use it.
And it puts mages at a disadvantage. Nine times out of ten, the mage is beaten one-sidedly.
It’s hard to hit a really fast target with magic.
I’d say the swordsman in front of me is highest rank based on his ability score. It would be unlikely to hit him without using magic with no incantation.
I’m not good at doing that. I’d probably activate magic without an incantation one out of ten times.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared.
But using magic without an incantation here is how I show my value as a man.
I’ve decided to use it for the sake of Iris’ justice, and to carry out the justice I believe in.
It’s not compatibility that fills a gap between you and a strong opponent, it’s courage.
I’ll make the master rank spell Full Grow work without an incantation.
“Die!”
Yells the assassin while swinging a sword down at my head.
But I move much faster than that, get behind him in an instant, and swing my staff down to knock the assassin face first into the ground.
The assassin faints with his face still planted in the ground. I guess I won.
“What should we do with this assassin? Kill him?”
Says Iris with a cold voice.
I’m a little surprised to hear something that violent come from the kind Iris, but she might have gotten over any hesitation because their lives are in danger.
“I think he should still be useful alive. Let’s take him to the guildmaster for now.”
And dispose of him in the end.
Of course, that’s what I think, not what Iris says.
“Understood. Then I will arrange for a wagon so we can go together.”
While Iris returns to the campground, I cast Full Sleep on the unconscious assassin.
Now I can rest easy for the time being. This guy won’t wake up until I let him.
Then Iris comes back, accompanied by someone else.
She has bright blue hair, and feels to me like an intelligent maid.
It looks like Iris’ attendant is just as beautiful as she is. Yes yes, and that maid outfit. That wouldn’t be a bad price for the training. I love maids.
That’s some pretty carefree stuff I’m thinking, when we still have to take the assassin back to Minerva.
“This is Till, the head maid.”
“Yes, my name is Till. Thank you very much for helping Miss Iris, Mister Loyd.
I have already heard what happened.”
Till says as she bows and greets me elegantly.
“So Mister Loyd, we should take the assassin and leave before it causes a commotion.”
I carry the assassin on my back, and follow Iris and Till while trying to walk as normally as possible.
The effects of Full Grow are still active, so I have no trouble carrying him.
Actually, this assassin is really thin. I could carry him no problem, even without physical strengthening magic. I guess assassins are just light.
And as I think that, we eventually reach the campground.
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