Chapter 178: The Strongest Apprentice

June’s face cramped up upon hearing young Bright’s proposal – One could say that she had frozen over, even.

Pochi stayed out of the discussion, playing peek-a-boo with Chappie, whom she had let out of the birdhouse on her head.

She had been working hard last night to increase her repertoire… And from Chappie’s reactions, that seemed to have worked out. I could tell that he was having fun.

Perhaps since she now decided that Cappie’s mood was good enough for now – or maybe not, I couldn’t really tell – Pochi turned to look at me, her eyes blank white. Uh, looking scary there, doggo.

“I think he’ll handle himself just fine, milady.”

She had happened to make that face right when I had said that, too. Yeah, she’s scary, this doggo.

But whether or not June would approve of that, well-

“You cannot, Bright! You don’t have my permission to!”

One would be foolish to expect otherwise.

But I thought this would be such a good learning opportunity. I’d like to let him do it, if that was a choice.

June had just sheathed her sword, but now reached to draw it again; I stopped her just before she did.

“I think this is a good occasion to teach him practical magic, Lady June. Could you please let us do this, at least for a moment?”

“What- have you gone insane, Sir Poer?!”

“Shiro and I are right here with him – and so are you, milady. We can help him out if anything happens.”

Despite me saying that, June’s still gave me the look of utmost disapproval.

The Blazing Dragon wasn’t about to wait for us to finish talking, though.

It began to descend again, its mouth opened wide; at the same time, just as June reached for her sword, we heard my… quirky chant coming from behind us.

“Rise, A-rise!”

Hmm, I’d definitely heard that voice from somewhere else before.

“Freeze Fire!”

Once I looked behind me, the orange bolt of the anti-Dragon fire spell was released from the boy’s right hand, flying past my eyes – it was fast.

Before June could even make a move, it hit the Blazing Dragon, slowing its descent.

“Excellent.”

“Thank you very much!”

Bright replied in high spirits, his voice perfectly projected.

He sounded deeper and firmer than usual. One could tell that it still was the voice of a child, but it was also the voice of a full-fledged adventurer.

Which reminds me… when he had asked for permission, he hadn’t looked at his elder sister June, but at me. That, and he did specifically say ‘Sir Instructor.’

Oh, so that was where he was coming from.

Young Bright… he never felt the need to ask for June’s permission at all.

Instead, he had asked me – and since I had said it was all right for him to do it, he had taken that as permission being granted, and also the sign to engage.

In fact, the very moment I had said “I think he’ll handle himself just fine, milady,” he had already started drawing a Spell Circle.

The Blazing Dragon’s golden eyes were now locked on to Bright.

June’s judgment was probably in a disarray, what with this having to do with her dear little brother. She still couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

It was most likely that she had seen this as her usually docile brother disobeying her.

Bright himself probably hadn’t intended to do that, of course.

Oh, I see… Looks like he’s getting closer and closer to becoming a full-fledged Black Emperor.

“Hah!”

Bright invoked Fortify Strength, Fortify Resilience, Tempest, and Light Body in quick succession, then moved away from our position.

“H-hold it right there, Bright!”

I grabbed June’s hand as she started to follow him.

“Let go of me, Sir Poer! Bright is in danger…!”

“Master Bright does not engage in unwinnable battles, milady.”

“But…!”

She tried to shake my hand off – with quite a tremendous force, at that.

With my strength, though, that was nothing I couldn’t handle.

…No, that wasn’t quite right.

June being June, she probably hasn’t realized it… That she herself wasn’t seriously trying to shake me off.

But if I were to let her go, she would surely go help her little brother.

Her emotions were conflicted – a part of her did want someone to keep her from taking action. That was it.

So I patted her on the shoulder with my left hand… and to my surprise, that was all it took to calm her down.

I smiled a little – just enough to reassure her – and turned to look at Pochi, who should be of the same mind as me regarding this situation…

“Here’s my imitation of Master’s dumb sleeping face!”

“Ch-chirp!”

Nope, I was wrong.

Not even close.

Her nostrils were opened so… wide…

Chappie seemed to have liked the sight of that, too.

And Leon is still sound asleep, despite all that’s going on around us; that’s quite impressive, actually.

Whoops, no time to worry about them now. I’ve got to keep an eye on young Bright, since I seem to be the only one… stable enough to do that now.

The Blazing Dragon slowed down and descended.

But despite it getting closer and closer, Bright still looked perfectly calm… and despite how immature he still looked, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Warren.

I hadn’t gotten to see Warren in battle very often, but the most memorable one was probably the Friendly Match with Jeanne the Lightning Flash.

At the time, Jeanne was… hard to look at. She’d been stuck playing into Warren’s gambit the whole time without even realizing it.

Bright here had really surprised me with how he fast started acting, too.

…Now wait a second… Was Freeze Fire really the only thing that he had used so far?

He had already started learning advanced-level magic spells, but the spell he had cast was one of the intermediate level; there must be a reason for that, right?

Let’s have a look at what he’s doing now – strafing around the Blazing Dragon as if making minute adjustments to his aim, and also manipulating the sight and direction of the enemy.

And then…

Bright’s mouth was moving very subtly.

I didn’t hear what he said… BUT I could lip read – and what I got from doing that was exactly what I’d expect the Black Emperor I knew would say.

{“You-will-be-my-stepping-stone.”}

What the hell, this kid is freaking scary.

The next few things all happened in a flash.

“Rise, Whirlwind!”

The swirl of wind, generated by the Circle drawn with Bright’s left hand, flew underneath the Blazing Dragon.

But of course, the Blazing Dragon couldn’t care less about that. It looked down on young Bright as if mocking him.

“Rise, A-rise, Earth Blast!”

Then Bright’s right hand caught up, finishing another Circle in quick succession with his left.

The advanced-level earth spell attacked the Blazing Dragon on both its sides, and it ended up being caught in the Whirlwind underneath it.

That, too, had no effect on the Blazing Dragon itself – Wait, no! The whirlwind’s power is increasing?!

Now it was practically a miniature tornado… One that carried rocks and dirt with it.

It was already too late for the Blazing Dragon to try and move away now. Powerful the creature may be, but the wind cage was already working effectively to sap away its energy.

But what now? It might have been immobilized, but that wouldn’t be enough to… Huh? Could it be…?

“Now! Earth Control!”

The easy-to-use earth spell, released from the ground up.

It gradually encroached on the Blazing Dragon’s limbs.

Eventually, the Whirlwind spell’s effect time ran out, causing the tornado to fade away… but the rocks and dirt remained, and started reacting to the Earth Control spell instead.

They began mixing with the dirt that clung to the Blazing Dragon’s body, covering more and more of it and weighing it down.

The monster tried to flap its wings and escape, but it was too late.

Its altitude was fixed; it couldn’t fly up any longer, and its wings were getting tired out – the fight was as good as over.

Eventually, the Blazing Dragon’s already-heavy body collapsed under the added weight, falling down to the ground.

And what had been waiting for it down there was…

“Rise, A-rise, Earth Control!”

To be precise, an Earth Control with added properties. If I was not mistaken, the formula must have had its strength fortified.

A massive rock pillar sprung forth just before the Blazing Dragon hit the ground.

Due to its weight and the speed at which it fell, coupled with how the spell pierced upward, the impact of it was multiplied many times over.

The pillar impaled the Blazing Dragon from its abdomen way up to its neck, ending its life right then and there. Bright muttered to himself again,

>”So-long,-oversized-lizard.”

What a scary kid.

Again, that chain of spells had been unleashed in the blink of an eye. Bright wiped his forehead with the back of his hand… despite the fact that he hadn’t broken a sweat at all.

Then he turned back to all of us, showing his usual smile.

June heaved a sigh of relief; I let go of her shoulder and turned to look at Pochi.

“Peek-a-boo! Peek-a… boo!”

She did the blank white eyes again – okay, that was scary enough…

“How did I do, Instructor Poer?!”

…But young Bright’s dark, not-so-blank eyes were even scarier than that.