The dinner was over, and Lady Atress went back to her mansion. She kept feeling like sothing wasn't right, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
Gale went outside and waited for Lena to join him, and as expected, she joined him shortly after. He smiled at her; he knew she brought him gifts. Most of the swords decorating his rooms were gifts from her, and each sword was far more valuable and practical than a simple decoration.
Although she tried her best to spoil him, she was simply too self-centered and never spared any thought to the possibility he has different points of interest than hers. She was his safety net in case he failed to take care of himself when Donne inherits the Earl title.
"How is your training going?"
"I'm learning a lot from my master; my fire spells have reached quite a high level too. However, she lets her friend help with my wind spells as she doesn't have much expertise with them. How about you? I think you've gained a bit of muscle since the last ti I saw you."
"As expected of you, big sister. Only you would call it a bit of muscle and treat it as a small change."
He was a bit upset, he was waiting to see her astonishnt when she first sees him, and he wanted to hear her complints, too. While he wasn't desperate for praise from others, he did like it when Lena praised him. After all, he liked it when she gave him gifts and affection.
"Haha, I'm sorry, you turned into the most handso man in the world, Little Gale."
"Don't pat my head as If you were appeasing a kid."
"But that's what I'm doing."
"Fine, fine, just let go."
Gale quickly released himself from his sister's grip and they kept on walking around the city together.
"Gale, have you unlocked so kind of magic?"
"No, why?"
"Are you telling the truth? Back then at the dinner table, I felt a movent of mana coming from you towards Atress, While I'm not sure whether dad had noticed it too because of his dical condition, I'm confident in what I sensed."
Gale didn't answer imdiately. He first thought of the pros and cons of telling his sister the truth. Eventually, he realized that she is the one person he can always trust, but still chose to hide the details, as he didn't know if the god he t allowed him to tell her everything.
"I didn't know it was magic until now, and that it operated using mana like other spells. I found out I can charm people when I try thinking about it repeatedly, but I only found out about it at today's dinner when I wanted Atress to change her mind about withdrawing her proposal. I still don't know the restrictions and potential of this ability, nor the way it works."
"It seed like your ability went into her head and affected her brain. Try doing it on , try charming into telling you my secret."
"Are you sure? What if it works?"
"It's ok, even if it does, I still trust you to keep it for yourself. Even if you don't, it won't change much if the information is spread. It's more important to help you understand the extent of your powers."
She was practical as always, she'd never let him play around unsupervised with his new abilities and preferred to keep an eye on it until he gets it under control, so he won't hurt himself.
"All right, thanks. Sister, won't you tell your secret?"
He tried to say it out straight while thinking in his head "tell your secret, tell your secret."
"Hmm, I can feel your spell trying to make tell you my secret, but it's quite an obvious interference from outside, I'd take it as an offense and as an attack against if soone else was to use it on ."
"If it's so aggressive, how co Atress couldn't feel it? Even if her sensitivity to the mana movent isn't as sharp as yours, she should've felt it when I did it directly to her. Or wait… how is it possible you can pick up sothing father couldn't? Although he is sick, he is still in a different phase, it should be impossible for you to have sharper senses. Unless…"
A big, beautiful smile blood on Lena's face as Gale's jaw dropped.
"Hahaha, is my smile really so beautiful?"
Obviously, Gale's jaw dropped for a different reason.
"Your smile is as beautiful as a volcanic eruption."
"Huh? Are you saying I'm the type of beauty that nobody hopes to be around?"
"Forget all those stuff! Is what I'm thinking true? For you to have better perception than Father, it must an you're also at the fourth stage! How is it possible?"
"Bingo! I just ranked up a few days ago. I ca ho to see you because of my breakthrough. I felt so rest was due."
"But you only ranked up less than 3 years ago!"
"That's why my master told I broke the records of the Miyena kingdom by breaking into the fourth stage so young and so soon after breaking through the third stage. It only took 2 years and 8 months to rank up from the third stage to the fourth."
Gale was naturally happy for his sister. Besides, the stronger she was, the more benefits he could get as her brother, right?
However, there was still the problem of the charm. Was it impossible for him to charm ladies above the fourth stage? Wouldn't it an he can only charm young girls who still haven't developed their strength to the maximum? And he couldn't do it near anyone in the mage phase either, or else they would sense it.
"Lena, there's sothing else I want to try."
Lena stopped and turned to him to allow him to do his magic, in the literal sense. Gale looked at her and started thinking in his head "I'm your brother, you can trust " repeatedly.
"I'm your brother, I'd never hurt you. You can trust with anything."
"Yes… I trust you with all my heart."
"You can share anything with , I will help you with it as long as I can."
"I don't think you can help with that."
Lena spoke slowly, entranced.
"Even so, I'd be happy if you share your troubles with ."
"Okay, Nina is my friend, I threatened to beat her in combat practice every day if she doesn't protect you for 5 years."
Gale was caught unprepared. Does it an Nina was at least an Expert Magician? After all, she ca a year ago when Lena was still one as well, and Lena would only aim for the best she could have. Suddenly, Lena snapped out of it with a betrayed look on her face.
*SLAP*
"You made spill out my secret!"
"AHH, it hurts!!"
"Uhm, I'm sorry, I just wanted to teach you that your magic can't deal with the consequences. Anyway, how did you succeed this ti?"
Gale chose to ignore the blatant lie and cooperate with her attempt to change the subject.
"Well, you told it felt intrusive last ti, so I thought about how I could make it feel less intrusive. I realized I should make the charm more suggestive, with less forced logic, and make it sound reasonable to you. So, I told you that you could trust since I'm your brother, and indirectly made you tell your secret instead of just demanding it."
"So, you can charm higher ranks too, but they will snap out of it later, be careful not to make them do sothing they will regret enough to go after your life."
"Yeah, I guess. What about the mana movent?"
"It was much more subtle, I believe most mages would feel it only if they searched for it, and soone in the magician phase wouldn't feel it at all."
Apart from his burning cheek, Gale was quite satisfied with what he learned about his powers today and tried to think of ways to improve his abilities as he returned ho. Nina wasn't there, but now that he knew who she truly was, he didn't worry about it. Since she is his bodyguard, shouldn't she worry about him?
He got to his bedroom when he started feeling an odd sensation of exhaustion he had already felt once recently.
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