In the Far East Wasteland, two individuals — one a man and the other a woman — were fighting. The woman unleashed high-level magic spells, targeting the man. However, the man deftly avoided her attacks, and at the sa ti, he heaved a sigh.
“lchi, do I have to remind you every single ti? That magic spell’s recoil is too much for you to handle — unless you end the fight with it as your first move, it’ll only leave you vulnerable.”
Gaspard’s fist was pointing right under lchi’s chin.
“I-I gotta go big if I wanna do big things!”
lchi responded, her stubbornness unwavering despite her physical trembling.
“Well, aren’t you here because you failed to go big before? Sothing about losing to that woman nad Irene?”
“Shut up! I didn’t expect to find soone else studying the Arcane Energy Circulation Optimizer, that’s all! If I’d been more diligent, I would have won against her just fine!”
“In other words, you lost because you failed to be diligent enough?”
lchi fell silent in the face of irrefutable logic.
“C-c’mon, Gaspard… You didn’t have to be THAT an…”
“an? Oh, far from it — if there’s anything an around here, it’s that Muscle Training Theater of Love that Master Tūs is forcing us to do.”
“Hahaha… which reminds , why’d he get that angry, anyway?”
“Because I brought him trouble.”
“T-trouble, eh? I have no idea what that’s supposed to an~~”
“It’s YOU, of course.”
Gaspard playfully gave lchi a strong flick on the forehead.
lchi could have avoided it. However, understanding her responsibility, she chose to take it.
“Gah–!?”
lchi clutched her forehead in an exaggerated manner, not even hiding the fact that she was faking the pain.
“Good. At least now you can understand the pain in my muscles.”
“Yeah, sorry, sorry.”
“We DID sort things out, though. I’ll be taking care of you for a while. But the part where you beco Master Tūs apprentice… well, that will have to wait.”
“But why?”
“Because you have impure ulterior motives… is what I’d like to say, but in truth, Master Tūs is too lazy to deal with you.”
“I just wanna be popular with the boys! How is that impure!?”
As lchi proudly puffed out her chest, Gaspard replied while maintaining a straight face,
“Hmm, so rather than impure, I suppose you could say that it’s… simple-minded.”
“Tch! Well, what about you!? What are you here for, Gaspard!? I know you wanna be popular, too! Right!? RIGHT!?”
lchi moved closer and closer to Gaspard, prompting the latter to push her face away as he answered,
“I’m here to obtain power… enough power to eliminate conflict from this world.”
“…Bwhuh?”
lchi blurted out, sounding a fair bit ridiculous as Gaspard was squeezing her cheek.
“My goal is not like yours. Absolutely not.”
lchi gazed up at the empty sky and spent a mont lost in thought.
Then, she returned with words that surprised Gaspard,
“Well, your goal is also impure.”
“What!? How so!?”
“That ans it’s essentially the sa thing as my goal, y’see?”
“HOW!?”
“No need to hide it, Gaspard — you’re gonna be popular with the ladies by fighting for world peace, yeah?”
Gaspard was rendered montarily speechless by lchi’s whimsical statent.
“Standing here, I realize you were just like , try’na make history~~!”
With that, lchi suddenly wrapped her arm around Gaspard’s neck, and the force of it caused him to lose his balance. lchi grinned while Gaspard was still trying to digest what she had said.
Then, after a mont, Gaspard let out a baffled sigh.
“…Ugh, you… really are a handful.”
“Nahahaha! You know what they say — mages are selfish! It’s the ultimate ego that defines them! I an, I don’t really like that kinda thing, just saying.”
“Why? What’s so bad about being a mage?”
“Because they can’t move, that’s why! I gotta go fast! Gotta go faster, faster, faster–“
“–Too slow.”
As lchi attempted to move nimbly, Gaspard effortlessly intercepted her.
She stopped in her tracks and turned back to Gaspard, speechless.
“…Uh, I bet people always tell you you can’t read a room.”
“Big talk, coming from soone who preached about that ultimate ego thing just now.”
Frustrated by Gaspard’s straightforward comnt, lchi hastily retorted,
“S-see, Gaspard, this is why I was telling you all that stuff!”
“Hmm?”
“You REALLY can’t read the room!”
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
“What? Why’s the bypass formula here look like this? Gotta fix it and… Yup, that ought to do it. There, the Arcane Energy Circulation Optimizer’s complete.”
With Gaspard’s relentless nature and lchi’s lightheartedness combined, the latter had secured her position of being Tūs’ second apprentice. lchi took this opportunity to pose a question to Tūs, sothing she had initially wanted to ask the Philosopher.
It was, of course, about the Arcane Energy Circulation Optimizer, which had been unveiled so ti ago by Irene, who would later beco known as The Invincible Sprout.
Several dozen minutes into their consultation, Tūs noticed the mistake lchi had made. He pointed it out and corrected it, leading to the swift completion of the Arcane Energy Circulation Optimizer.
Witnessing this, lchi could not help but express her admiration.
“Daaamn! Now this is why Philosophers are so AWESO!”
“Watch your mouth! I’m your ntor, rember!”
Tūs glared disapprovingly at lchi for the tone she had just taken.
“I-I an, you’re aweso, Master!”
“Hmm, I see… This is indeed an outstanding magic formula. With it, you can regulate the arcane energy flows both internal and external to your body while halting physical growth. And you said a re Magic University student ca up with this… I suppose kids these days can’t be underestimated.”
Gaspard squatted down, reading and understanding the corrected magical formula that Tūs had drawn on the ground, and he proceeded to praise lchi’s talent.
In response, lchi pointed at Gaspard and declared,
“Yeah, that’s right! I AM outstanding!”
“But you still lost to that Irene girl.”
“Like! I! Said! My school year’s got so many geniuses that you could even call it the golden age! There’s Gaston, the little guy — like, he’s shorter than — but he’s strong as hell! Then there’s Billy, the healing nerd… he can cast recovery magic faster than anyone! That’s too much talent gathered in one place! I couldn’t possibly keep up with them!”
lchi crossed her arms, puffing up both her cheeks, but neither Tūs nor Gaspard reacted to her. Tūs was busy with his muscle training, while Gaspard was reading through the magic formula again and again.
“Man, I swear, I’ll never figure y’all out…”
As lchi lanted, Gaspard stood up abruptly.
“It’s pretty good. I think I’ll use it as well.”
“Huh!? You’re gonna steal it just like that!?”
“Why not? The whole thing is right here — all I need is to rember it. Surely you don’t have a problem with that.”
“C-c’mon, you can’t be serious! This thing’s way too complicated! Are you saying you already morized it or what!?”
“I’ve been training to follow Master Tūs’ super-fast drawing every single day. This is nothing.”
“Ngh…! Ugh, all right! Fine! But you gotta do sothing for in exchange!”
lchi said to Gaspard, raising her index finger.
“I can’t seem to escape having to exchange sothing for sothing else… but I suppose that’s only fair. So? What is it?”
“You gotta call l!”
“That’s it?”
“Nah, there’s more!”
“So much for the implication you made when you raised one finger… and when did you raise another finger, anyway?”
Indeed, Gaspard had not noticed when lchi sneakily raised her middle finger, turning her hand gesture into a peace sign.
“Well? What’s the other thing?”
“No matter how cute I am, you can’t make a move on while I’m asleep! If you’re gonna visit at night, you gotta inform in advance and–“
“–No worries. I absolutely won’t make a move on you.”
Gaspard flatly denied lchi’s suggestive proposal, prompting the latter to pull her wizard hat down and hide her face.
“Yeah, right, I forgot that you can’t read the room…”
lchi’s shoulders slumped as she sighed.
Gaspard then crumpled lchi’s wizard hat, running his hand through her hair as he reassured her.
“Now, l, it’s not like you’re TOTALLY charmless. I’m just not interested.”
As he spoke, Gaspard began to walk toward Tūs.
“Master Tūs, may I have a one-on-one sparring session?”
lchi turned to look at Gaspard, seeing only his back.
However, while watching him, she hid her mouth behind her removed wizard hat and whispered to herself,
“Yeah, I might have gotten a bit too excited there. And that last sentence was totally unnecessary, man…”
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