When Evin found the strength to open his eyes, he saw Bella regarding him with idle curiosity. Behind her, he saw the tallic fog glittering beautifully like snow, which gave the noble girl a distinctly aesthetic look.
"Well, you have a lot of explaining to do," Bella said as she grabbed Evin's arm and pulled him up.
"About what?"
"About how you can create Hard Air already and also how you can make it not just 'hard'."
"What?" Evin asked, confused with the girl's choice of words.
"The thing you did with the hailstorm."
As Evin was feeling numb from the regeneration of his skin, Abe floated towards his side, voice full of admiration and shock, "By the Empress' grace! You truly have started casting magic only two months ago? I an I can see that it's true by the brightness of your core, but you truly make question my eyes."
"The brightness of my core?" Evin asked back.
"It's a thing of the Cosmics… we can roughly asure when a mage's mana-core was awakened and how much lodestone they've absorbed by the brightness of their cores. It was one of the reasons why we were so opposed to teaching Decatur previously. Or any of the nobles for that matter. As far as I can see, on average, they've absorbed at least ten World Shards already," Abe explained.
Evin smiled at the Cosmics' words. At least he didn't have to fight Decatur for nothing. Well, he was very confident the Cosmics would still stick to him, but that didn't an he couldn't worry about it.
At this mont, Decatur ca over to the Cosmics with a proud expression, "I've won the fight. You're going to teach , right?"
Abe looked like he was about to reply mockingly, but he stole a glance towards the Countess and seemingly decided to keep things civil, "I'm sorry, young master Decatur, but I never said that the winner would receive our tutelage. We only agreed to see the fight and make our decision afterwards."
"And?" Decatur demanded.
"And we've chosen Evin here. Truly, it's rare to see such a talent these days. It would be a disservice to our Agreent with the kingdom if we don't teach him to the best of our abilities," Abe acted oblivious to Decatur's dark face. "Truly, the Empress' grace must be shining on king Seth. I must say I wasn't so sure about teaching the human students our arts, but now that I've seen Evin, my confidence has been boosted."
Decatur looked like he was about to say a few other stuffs, but the Countess put her hands on his shoulders and gave him a firm look of denial.
"At any rate, thank you both for giving us such a pleasant fight," Abe continued to play the ignorant happy-go-lucky character. "I've always thought fights between the younger generation to be boring and slow, but today I saw how wrong I was before." Turning to the Countess, Abe continued," Thank you for hosting such a wonderful lunch. I've listened to my fellow Cosmics and they've told that many of their business talks were fruitful. I'm sure the next year's lunch will be even rrier than this one."
"Of course," the Countess replied, understanding that the Cosmics' visit was finished, "The Cosmics are always welco in my household. If you require any help, please don't hesitate to reach out to us."
She then bid the rest of the Cosmics farewell and asked the nobles to gather in her office for a talk. Evin also saw her whispering sothing in Decatur's ears. So of the students decided to stay inside the Countess' mansion, while so of them were headed back to the city of Ankelite. Evin wasn't completely sure, but he believed that the Countess' mansion was located about two hours away from the gates of the city.
As for Evin and Leanne, they were promptly transported to the city through a portal Abe had created with no option to refuse. Once again, Evin found himself puking his lunch out, but thankfully, he could now do it in the comforts of his own bathroom.
When he was finished, he made himself presentable and went out of his room to find Abe and Rith talking about him with Leanne. When they saw Evin, Leanne told Evin to et her when he was done and excused herself out of the room.
"Well, Evin," Abe began, "I'm afraid I have a great deal of questions for you."
…
Phel was sitting on a couch Decatur's room, listening to the latter rant about the day.
"It's all a fucking joke! All of it! The Cosmics, Bellaslayn, that damn commoner and my mother!" Decatur was saying as he walked circled the room for the nth ti. "It's preposterous to think that a commoner would serve the king better than I will, but I suppose I can chalk it off to the Cosmics being ignorant of our ways. But how can Bellaslayn so casually ntion that commoner's na when the Cosmics are searching for a suitable student to learn portals?!"
"Of course," Phel nodded enthusiastically, but inside, he was waiting for the other's rage to burn out.
Decatur was never one to think rationally when he was angry. Phel knew that even if he tried to explain things to him in this state, Decatur wasn't going to listen.
"And that damn commoner! Always hiding behind his illusions and shadows! How did he even manage to survive my hailstorm in the first place? He must've been hiding beyond the arena through so ans!" Decatur said through gritted teeth and looked towards Phel, "You must've seen what happened, right?"
"To , it looked as if he was standing right above you during the whole fight, standing on thin air… though that was probably just a layer of Hard Air. When the hailstorm reached his location, it looked as if the ice shards just dodged past him and then reentered their original path," Phel replied in his calst and most understanding tone. "As for him staying in another place, I'm afraid it's impossible. After all, he did fall from there when you threw the Ketricite to the ceiling."
Truthfully, even Phel didn't know exactly what occurred there. Now that he thought about it, nothing really exciting happened during the fight: Evin made himself invisible to Decatur when the fight started; then he created two swords of Hard Air which he used to harass Decatur; then the hailstorm happened but none of the ice shards hit Evin; and finally Decatur was forced to use a flask of Ketricite, which resulted in Evin forfeiting.
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