58 A Friendly Sparring

Honestly, even with the knowledge of how everything happened, Leilade was still a bit perplexed by the absurd reaction of Istuienn. Her rational mind could understand intense fear, anger, hate and what those lead to. She was far too used seeing her enemies trying their best just to kill her, with careful planning or their last effort before dying. But the feeling of love, that is something she saw, but never truly understood. But whatever was afflicting the princess, it couldn't be anything else, even if it was weirdly fast. "Shouldn't this take like years or something?" She asked the Viscount what was bothering her, since Istuienn was just staring at her, doing nothing.

(Love is a fickle blessing or a never-ending curse. I was once lucky to meet my loved one and enjoy those decades of happiness. But I already knew her, she was my childhood friend and we were never really separated by anything. Unlike me, the opposite still happened to a lot of people I knew. Just one gaze in the eyes of the others, and they were struck with that sentiment, longing for the presence of their soul mate. And that small little damsel in distress play at the beginning could have made that possible. But what she is currently experiencing is just a kid love, if someone put a stop to it, it won't aggravate to a point of no return.)

"Too bad I am not here to deal with that. Who she will sleep with is not my main concern but it's good that the magus still took care of that. By separating the two as much as possible, it will be fine, or he hoped so."

As she was conversing with the soul inside her, she distanced herself from the princess and the latter was doing the same. Little by little, they were getting the same distance between each other that the two duellists previously had. Contrarily to what Leilade expected, Istuienn didn't make a long monologue about why she should be punished or some dumb stuff she could think off. Because they were in a remote location, logically to be chosen for a duel, the surroundings were awfully silent. Only the sounds of the small footsteps could be heard, breaking the precarious silence. Well, actually, there was a sound of wind right behind Leilade, something unusual.

"Hohoho, already battling in this fine day. I thought I was tasked to teach you two, am I not supposed to teach you? Just tell me, that old statue just grabbed me and told me to get here." A sympathetic but quite lethargic voice resonated nearby, prompting the two girls to turn around to see the incoming magician. Istuienn slightly tilted her head, not recognizing the young man, but it was another story for Leilade. She recognized him instantly since he was the one supposed to watch over them when she first arrived, the sleeping student or that's what she thought.

The sleepy man still had two enormous pouches of black skin under his eyes, meaning that he was really not sleeping very well. And as expected, the first thing he did was get a little bit closer and cast a strange spell, so quietly that even Leilade had a problem hearing what he said. The soil under his feet suddenly turned comfy and he put his head on the magical pillow of dirt he just created. The abnormal girl had to resist the urge of sighing in exasperation because if it was the teacher that will take care of them, she will never learn anything. Except, maybe, the best positions to sleep and how to create a bed in a hostile environment.

"Oh, don't mind me, keep doing what you want. Since you didn't answer, I took that as a yes, I mean, a no. I won't have to teach you, I can finally sleep for a few hours and you will have a free afternoon. Oh, by the way, I am truly a 3rd Circle magician, and near the 4th Circle. So, whatever you ask, to it now and quickly, that way it will end faster."

He said that with a straight face while having his eyes entirely closed. Because both of them were baffled by such a shameless behavior, especially from the one chosen by Arthar that had an entirely different comportment, none of the girls asked anything. In truth, they had no idea what to say, one was disguised as a human while the other was confident of her own skills and liked to discover everything by herself. And therefore, the kids returned to their original positions and prepared to battle, for real this time.

"Oh, sorry, give me a second. [Wind Shield] and [Wind Shield]. There you go, that way, you won't kill each other. Because you didn't want to do that, right? This time I would really want an answer. For my sake." At first, he only thought that it was a friendly spar like everyone did. But the intense concentration was tainted by a wave of small anger in one side, making the magician a little bit fearful. From what he knew, the smallest of the two girls was just a lucky one, that still had a trash talent. So, if they truly battled, he had no hope for her, especially since she was pitted against the princess, universally acclaimed.

"[Fireball]!" Instead of words, Istuienn replicated with actions. The small deadly ball she formed was proof of why she was highly valued. It was already the same size as her own head and had no leakage of mana. But because she never truly fired that spell, it was way off the mark, ending up twenty meters away from her target. Making Leilade laugh really hard.

"Hahahaha." In truth, she was prepared to just sidestep the projectile, but it was not even needed. And seeing the supposedly genius in front of her, her only possible reaction was just mocking her. After escaping the dark magicians that tortured her for years, she casted the [Bone Arrow] and managed to aim it accurately immediately. Just with a book as a teacher, not even having a week to perfect it in the most advanced school she saw on this planet. The difference now was plainly obvious.

But Istuienn didn't know that, and the loud laughter that resonated only reinforced her anger and her hatred against Leilade. The magician was perplexed, but about the reason why someone would deliberately anger the genius princess for basically nothing. A new volley of fireballs was launched, but albeit they were a little bit more accurate, none of them even grazed the boy's clothes of the smallest girl.

Thump

For the first time since a very long time, the daughter of the Sword Saint was exhausted and fell on her knees. In her entire existence, no one ever forced her to do something against her will and therefore, she hadn't received very harsh treatment. Her sister, Muirnë, and her brother, Amdir, often appeared in front of her filled with bruises and their breaths short. But she wasn't the same, and the worst she did was fall from a tree. Later, Muirnë showed her how to climb it easily, and she enjoyed the sensation of climbing. But because she rarely left her manor, she didn't experience any dangers or trials.

But even as she was gasping for just another mouth of oxygen, she saw Leilade harboring the same smile she conserved from the beginning of the battle. Looking around, Istuienn realized that she didn't even land a single fireball at less than 2 meters from her opponent. She even began to cry a little, while shame was creeping inside her mind. But that stopped instantly when she saw what appeared in the hand of the silent girl.

It was the mirror image of her own fireball. The exact same size, or at least, that what she was seeing. But it was impossible, besides Leodagan and his group, no one else could create something that big and that stable. Even the totally awakened magician was a little bit baffled and wondering if Leilade was not the genius. He only heard something like 2nd Circle, can't reach the 3rd one. Not trusting his eyes, he himself casted a fireball and saw the same stability in both spells.

"Guess it's my turn?" The cold voice resonated, and even before anyone reacted, the projectile was already heading toward the girl on the ground. An array of flames englobed her, and if she didn't have the magical shield casted previously, she would have been badly burned. But even with that, the very intense heat was still propagated, provoking a squeal and a hasty retreat from the princess. But it didn't end here, and another fireball was targeting the exact location she reached.

"STOP! [Wind]!" A violent squall swept the hot ball away, protecting the terrified kid from any additional damage. The magician was ruining as fast as he could while praying every god he knew to not have his head presented in a silver plate to the Sword Saint. If someone heard that his dear daughter nearly died under his supervision, he would be in a lot of problems. But he truly didn't expect the first fireball to hit, and certainly not the second one to be carefully aimed at the retreat path.

"Oh god, I am so dead. Princess, princess, HEY!" Snap Snap. He snapped his fingers to make the child in front of him broke of her numbness. Only after a few seconds did Istuienn regained her mind and she immediately broke in tears. She had seen the second fireball heading at her head and felt the grip of death on herself. Even when she knew she had a magical shield protecting her and knew that the fireball couldn't hurt her, deep inside her, she had the feeling that she would die soon. The stressful event took a toll on the sanity of the pampered girl, and the poor man had a hard time with that.

If it had been an issue with magic, it would have been fine. But while he is in an age where he could already have children, he rarely interacted with them, especially such a young one. So besides, patting lightly the terrified head and letting Istuienn hug him, he was helpless. He still had a hard time figuring out what went wrong, but from afar, he was the impassive state of Leilade. Like what she did was totally normal and nothing like trying to murder her peer and friend. As much as he wanted some explanations, he knew that the princess was more important, and he stayed near her until she ran out of tears.

The cries turned into sobs, and then, the sobs turned into murmurs. They stayed like that a few minutes, and it could have stayed in a weird standoff a long time if no one suddenly arrived. A group of women were happily chatting and heading toward the training grounds when they saw the situation and inquired about it. Because it was a very large are without anything, multiple duels could be conducted at the same time. But to see a grown man hugging a girl was already weird enough to provoke some questions, not even talking about the standing boy nearby.

Only after approaching did the magicians realized it was also a girl, just in boy's clothes. Because she was visibly unharmed and fine, from the looks of her, they decided to get closer of the man. The latter was horrified of his bad luck, just when he hoped no one saw the accident, a group of women suddenly appeared. Removing carefully the hands of Istuienn, he got up and tried his best to make the incoming duellists go away. However, the sight of the princess slowly curling up had the complete opposite, and only after threatening the women with the name of Arthar did he escaped the ordeal.

"I know him, he is Leon and he truly works directly with Magus Arthar. So maybe we should just let him take care of that girl, it should be fine?" One of the magicians knew the man and it eased his efforts of covering up what happened. Thanking profusely the one that helped him, he managed to push aside the group before they realized it was the princess Gwendhir on the ground. Finally breathing alas, he turned his sight on the only one responsible for this cumbersome problem.