Before Tia could recover, Yuming appeared from the side and slammed a giant Fireball into her back, causing severe enough damage that she surrendered despite not being killed. With her gone, Gunther was a sitting duck with only a little Mana left to defend himself. It wasn’t very long before they were both defeated.
"Well done you guys." William clapped for the three that had narrowly avoided losing a three-on-two.
Regardless, they felt proud since it was the first time that Tia and Gunther had actually lost, other than the one time when Carl used his summoned Beasts. If he were to do that again, it would only be unfair.
Carl activated the healing function of the Arrays, restoring each of them to their peak physical condition in just a few minutes before grouping up with the rest by William.
"What did you think?" Carl asked.
"It was good, though I noticed a few things that might be trouble for you later on." William stated.
"Like what?"
"First of all, you shouldn’t be so obvious with the flow of your Earth Mana, some people can still feel it, even without a Detection Spell." he looked at Carl, who didn’t understand what William meant until he noticed that Tia wasn’t wearing shoes this time.
"Sorry," Tia scratched her head in embarrassment. "I didn’t expect Will to notice, but I wanted to come up with something new to catch you off guard. Too bad Charlotte has also been practicing."
William looked at Tia next, "I was only able to tell because you and him paused at the same time. Good work, but make it less telegraphed in the future." his words sounded more like an old teacher than his young twenty-one-year-old self.
"What about me?" Gunther leaned forward, eager to know what he could improve on.
William frowned for a moment, then replayed the scenes of the previous battle with his Mind Talent. He hadn’t paid much attention to Gunther, other than the secret move and his cooperation with Tia.
"Ah, I think you might benefit from some stronger Ice Magic." William replied after reviewing the memories.
"Easy for you to say! How am I supposed to level up my Ice Magic just like that? I’m still a D-Rank Ice Mage and being a Manamatus means I can go up to A-Rank. I’m still too far away!" Gunther complained.
"What is it? Is something on your mind? Did you really want me to come here to work on some Arrays?" William asked as he added the eighth functional Array.
Charlotte turned her head away and blushed a little, while her voice became quiet. "I was wondering... what do you think of me?"
Even though she was barely as audible as a mosquito, William still heard her clearly since he had the Sound Element. He dispersed the Perfect Runes in his hand and placed his full attention on the pure-hearted healer he had first met in Thin Creek Village.
"In what way?" he asked.
"Well..." Charlotte trailed off.
"I think you’re great. What is there not to like about you? You’ve helped me more than once and you’re fun to hang out with!" Continue reading at novelhall.Côm
"But... what do you think about... me?" Charlotte focused her big eyes on William’s, his heart skipping a beat as he sensed tension in the air.
"Your eyes are nice." William blurted. At the same time, Charlotte’s stare was making his blood boil, the low Humanity score throwing his emotions awry at the worst possible time.
Charlotte’s eyes softened, "My eyes are nice?"
William, still afflicted by his emotions, couldn’t help but continue speaking nonsense, "And your lips, and your nose, and your legs." he continued to describe things he liked about her, though internally he was berating himself for being so stupid.
Charlotte laughed while the blush on her face intensified. She didn’t expect William to say such things, but it made all the butterflies and nervousness disappear in an instant.
She leaned closer to William, "Those are all physical features, silly, and I don’t find any of those particularly "nice". Are you sure you don’t think I’m ugly?"
Don’t look, System.
"You’re beautiful." William said as he leaned in for a kiss.
Charlotte chose not to stop him at all, leaning into the feeling and relishing it. The artificial stars on the ceiling were reminders of how late it was, but there seemed to be a tacit agreement that William wouldn’t be returning to his bedroom that night.