Chapter 142 - Tag

Before I knew it, the parchments in front of me were filled with countless lines, connecting together in seemingly random ways, but somehow intuitively made sense to me.

I was slowly finding out how to solve the basic integral, to understand the area below a line, then the double integral, to find out the volume of a basic three-dimensional object, then the triple integral to define a three dimensional object defined by several expressions and boundaries.

And then, and then,

And then...

...What was I doing again?

I shook my head, as the words that made so much sense to me seconds ago gradually left. Thankfully, while those words and strange concepts left me, the understanding of the spell functions didn't leave me.

It should've given me a strong sense of progress, some sort of satisfaction.

...But it didn't.

I heaved a deep sigh and rubbed my temple with the palm of my hand. It was only now that I realized how bad of a migraine I had.

After sitting there pointlessly, I ended up standing up and wandering towards the courtyard. Before I knew it, I was already there. Ned was already there, sitting down on a patch of grass.

It seemed like he always came here, each and every day.

I waved.

"Hey."

Ned turned to me.

"Oh, hey Jay."

I scratched the back of my head.

"Another day, huh?"

Ned chuckled.

"Yeah."

With that, we talked about rather meaningless things. Ned gave me a few more tips for cooking and asked me a little about magic. As for me, I made sure to try my best to understand his tips, but couldn't get into it that much. I also tried to explain some magic to Ned, but he didn't seem to get it much.

In a certain sense, one could say we were wasting time. Which in all honesty, we kinda were. However, it gradually made the pain in my mind subside.

And soon enough, went to sleep, as did Ned.

...

I got down on one knee to closely inspect the farm in front of me.

Before I knew it, my routine gradually became this same cycle.

Waking up early, watering the farm, cooking with the others, healing Mildred, taking my day's pay, heading off to buy some parchment, coming back to study spells, talking with Ned, and sleeping.

Then after that, it would begin all over again.

As of now, I was lightly poking at the dirt in the farm.

Because a tiny shoot had formed in the dirt.

Although this was only to be expected, given that I had been tending to them everyday. However, there was a part of me that thought the seeds I planted would never grow into anything.

Granted, they were only a shoot right now, but it was still encouraging.

I talked about it to Ned, Erin, and Alyx, who commended me for it.

When I eventually reached Mildred's room, I first took the chair and sat by her bedside. She was still sleeping soundly, but I talked to her enthusiastically, as though she was right in front of me.

Days passed.

One time, when learning the spells I tried to make my drawings on the parchment smaller. Having just one parchment a day felt really limiting, after all.

However, it turns out I was spending way too much time and energy in an attempt to save what little I could. In the end, I hardly learned anything.

It was quite ironic.

It caused me quite the headache, but I learned my lesson and stopped trying to cut corners wherever I could.

More days passed.

There was a time where the others invited me to play a game. It was a game of tag, where the boundary was the entirety of the palace.

At first, I was a little scared, but it turned out I was quite fast. That gave me a little confidence, but I unfortunately still got caught quite a bit. The other three were both slippery like snakes, but as cunning as a fox.

It seemed like they played this quite a bit before.

They had invited me to play more, but I wanted to spend more time on learning the spells.

Weeks passed. 

My progress in learning the spell was painfully slow. I eventually reached the point where I didn't even know where I was supposed to go. However, I stuck to it and kept trying as hard as I could.

Although I hardly went forward each day, I at the very least went forward.

However, it was only now I realized the pain in the back of my head. In reality, it was always there, but I had only noticed it now. It was definitely a problem, but I ignored it.

More weeks passed.

The plants had grown to full shoots, but my head hurt too much to even feel happy about it. It was only now that I considered that this pain might be a result of my actions.

I was pushing myself farther than what my body could take. It was only a little, but that tiny bit of pain stacked up each day.

...Ignoring it for so long only meant it kept getting worse.

I aimlessly walked around the palace, holding the side of my head. My eyes fluttered, while the only thing on my mind was the stress I was experiencing.

Suddenly, someone poked my shoulder, causing me to jump.

"Ah!"

Erin looked at me with her beady eyes, blinking innocently.

"Do you want to play tag?"

I slowly shook my head.

"Sorry, I want to focus on studying the spells more."

Erin tilted her head to the side.

"But you aren't learning the spells right now! You can play tag, just for a little bit!"

I opened my mouth and was about to decline once more, but the words got caught up in my throat. I truly wasn't progressing much during this time, so what was the harm in playing around a little?

"...Ok."

And so, I played with the others again. In terms of running, I was definitely not lacking. After all, I had to run to the river and back numerous times each day, so I was definitely not slow. Yet...

"Haha, got you again Jay!"

Erin's giggles rang out as she ran down a hallway.

"I will get you eventually, just you wait!"

It seemed they had been playing tag nearly every day. They themselves were not slow, but I was still faster. However, they seemed to get out of my sight at the perfect times and somehow predict the direction I was going in.

The game took longer than I expected, leaving me with none to actually study the spells.

The next day, I couldn't help but think about how they were winning our game of tag the entire time.

I ended up joining them for another game, despite the voice in the back of my head that told me to study the spells.

"What the-"

My eyes widened as I saw Alyx, the person that was it, run towards me. The side of my face twitched.

"How did you know I would go here?"

Alyx laughed as she placed her palm on my shoulder.

"Because you're too easy!"

My eyelid twitched.

I wanted to refute, but couldn't really as it seriously felt like I was just running into her arms.

The first thing I did after she tagged me was persistently chase after her, but once I turned a corner, she was already gone.

I spent a few seconds hesitating, before eventually picking a direction. Unfortunately, she was already nowhere to be seen.

Thankfully, due to my higher speed, I was able to eventually find someone else. However, I wasn't able to catch up to them.

I didn't learn the spells once more.

The next day came.

My legs were a little sore from running around so much, but I could still walk and run fine. Like yesterday, I participated in their tag game once more, casting the thoughts of studying the spells.

I told myself I would get back to it later.

As we continued to play for longer, I realized a pattern. The only reason I caught it was because Ned took the same turn twice in a row. When I thought about the others, they would also all take this turn.

Despite being it, I decided to check out the place they didn't go to.

And found that it was a dead end.

There were a few times when I ran down this way and ended up getting caught. It opened up my eyes in a certain sense, that while tag itself was a simple game, there are tiny nuances depending on the environment it is played in.

Upon identifying these dead ends, I no longer went down them. As such, the number of times I got caught lowered greatly. However, that wasn't enough.

As I flew down a hallway, I felt a poke on my waist.

"Got you!"

It was Erin.

...I was still missing something.