Training continued.
First came the basic footwork.
Next was the motion of drawing the sword.
And after that came basic sparring drills, predicting and responding to an opponent’s movements at close range.
The students paired off in twos, while the instructor walked slowly among them, correcting their stances.
“If your foot moves first, your upper body lags behind. A sword is not swung with the hand alone.”
“Your gaze is wavering. Don’t look only at the tip of your opponent’s blade.”
“Don’t put too much strength into your shoulders when you defend. You are not blocking. You are letting it flow past.”
The instructor’s voice echoed low through the training hall.
Elysia, too, stood facing the student she had been paired with.
Of course, I was still on top of her head.
At first, everyone had watched with anxious faces, but now the atmosphere had shifted into curiosity of a different sort.
Even when Elysia stepped forward, twisted her body, and raised her sword to block, I barely shook.
No, to be precise, I did shake, but I did not fall.
I was shifting my center of gravity in perfect harmony with her movements.
When Elysia twisted her body to the left, I drew my tail slightly to the right,
and when she moved forward, I lightly pressed down on her hair with my front paws.
Once I got used to it, it was rather comfortable.
‘The ride is better than I expected.’
The problem was not with me, but with Elysia.
The more she moved, the more she felt that her condition was different from usual.
The catching sensation when she thrust out her sword had lessened.
The feeling of her body rejecting each step before she even took it had also weakened.
Most of all, her breathing did not break.
Elysia withdrew her sword and let out a small breath.
“……It really is strange.”
It was a quiet murmur.
But to me, sitting on top of her head, it came through clearly.
‘It’s not strange. This is what your body should be capable of in the first place.’
I did not answer.
Instead, I quietly closed my eyes.
Now was not the time to tell her.
She had to feel it herself, and grasp it herself.
A path forced open by someone else collapses easily.
But if she caught hold of the sensation even once on her own, things would change from then on.
It was then.
I sensed an odd presence from behind.
A very small, thin, sharp presence.
It was not the presence of a sword.
It was mana.
‘……Hm?’
I did not open my eyes.
Only my ears moved slightly.
On one side of the training hall,
Richard was paired with another student.
He was holding a sword, but he was gathering a faint trace of mana at his fingertips.
Being in the Magic Knight Faculty did not mean they learned no magic at all.
Their main focus was, of course, swordsmanship and aura, but knights also needed the minimum amount of magic required on the battlefield.
Light to illuminate dark places, signals to indicate position,
simple support spells to protect equipment,
and weak restraining mana bullets to disrupt an opponent’s posture.
It was not to the level of weaving long spell formulas like a mage and manipulating elements.
They were merely auxiliary means used between sword strikes, to create an opening or buy a single beat in a crisis.
What Richard had gathered at his fingertips was of that sort as well.
It was not on the level of preparing an overt attack spell.
It was a small spell meant to disrupt posture during training or interfere with an opponent’s sight.
From the outside, its scale was small enough to look like a mistake.
But its direction was clear.
Not Elysia.
Me.
‘This bastard?’
Inwardly, I narrowed my eyes.
Richard twisted his body as though deflecting his partner’s sword.
At the same time, a small lump of mana flicked out from his fingertip.
A compressed projectile close to the wind attribute.
It had almost no killing power.
Even if it hit, it would only cause a slight bruise, or if the target was a small animal, startle it enough to make it fall.
That was precisely what made it more malicious.
Since it would not be serious even if it hit, he could insist it was a prank.
But if I fell from Elysia’s head?
We were in the middle of training.
Elysia would panic, her posture would collapse, and the gazes of the surrounding students would pour onto her.
‘He really tries everything.’
The mana bullet flew in quickly.
Elysia reacted as well.
Her body stiffened for an instant, and her hand tried to rise upward.
But it was too late.
From the stance in which she was holding her sword to the point where she could shield me, she needed an extremely brief moment of time.
Within that brief moment, the spell had already reached me.
‘Annoying...’
I calmly watched it.
Even if it was magic, it was nothing impressive.
It was compressed mana wrapped in a thin shell and flicked in one direction.
Rather than a sophisticated spell formula used by mages, it was closer to the simple mana manipulation magic knights learned for restraint.
That made it all the easier.
I released just a little demonic energy, so little it could not be seen.
A moonlight-like aura spread thinly before my eyes.
I did not block the mana bullet.
Nor did I deflect it.
I merely loosened, ever so slightly, the flow that held it together in a single form.
Like a knot whose thread had been cut.
Like ink spreading after falling into water.
The mana bullet quietly came apart before my eyes.
There was no sound of it bursting with a thud.
No trace of it being blocked.
It did not bounce away.
It simply vanished, as though nothing had ever been there to begin with.
I stared into the air for a moment, then lowered my head again as if nothing had happened.
And buried my face among Elysia’s hair.
The training hall became strangely quiet.
Not everyone had seen it.
Most of the students were focused on their own training.
But a few nearby had definitely seen.
A small spell had flown.
And that spell had disappeared right before the young fox’s eyes.
“……What was that just now?”
Someone murmured quietly.
“The magic…… disappeared, didn’t it?”
“Did it block it?”
“No, it didn’t feel like it was blocked.”
“What did that fox just do?”
I pretended not to hear.
I am an ordinary young fox.
There is no such thing as a young fox that erases magic.
There should not be.
Elysia could not move.
Her hand was still frozen halfway up toward me. Her eyes were trembling.
She had realized that she had been late.
And at the same time, that I had erased the magic as if it were nothing.
“Haku……?”
Elysia called my name in a very small voice.
I lightly flicked the tip of my tail.
“Kiiing.”
I’m fine.
Really, I’m fine.
So don’t make that face.
Elysia bit her lip slightly.
But soon, she lowered her hand.
Instead, strength entered the hand gripping her sword.
Her gaze slowly turned toward Richard.
Richard had a startled expression on his face.
That expression was not an act.
He had not expected it either.
He must have thought the magic would miss, or Elysia would block it, or I would be startled and fall.
But he could not have imagined it would disappear before his eyes.
‘Surprised?’
With my face buried, I muttered only inwardly.
‘I’m annoyed too.’
At that moment, the instructor’s voice cut across the training hall.
“Stop.”
It was a single brief word.
Yet in that instant, the entire training hall came to a halt.
The students withdrew their stances and looked at the instructor. The instructor slowly walked toward Richard.
Her expression was cold.
“Richard.”
“……Yes, Instructor.”
“Why did you use magic just now?”
The air inside the training hall froze for a moment.
They were currently in the middle of basic sparring drills.
It was time to train swordwork, footwork, and the sense for reacting to an opponent’s movements.
There was no reason to mix in mana without permission.
Richard hesitated for a moment before answering.
“My mana control slipped during training.”
“Slipped?”
“Yes. It was not intentional.”
His words sounded plausible.
In truth, mana could go out of control during training.
Especially for students who handled both sword and magic,
it was not rare for mana to mix with bodily movements and create small shockwaves.
But the instructor did not let it pass so easily.
“Why did that slipped mana head toward Valerion’s familiar?”
Richard’s lips stiffened.
The gazes in the training hall gathered on him.
“That was…… merely a coincidence of direction.”
“A coincidence.”
The instructor spoke low.
Her voice clearly held the meaning that she did not believe him.
“I can understand mana leaking during a deflection movement.
But your mana just now was aimed not at the student before you, but at the space above her head.”
Richard could not continue speaking.
The instructor looked at him for a moment, then turned her gaze to Elysia.
“Valerion.”
“Yes.”
“Is your familiar all right?”
Elysia did not answer immediately.
Instead, she carefully looked up at me on her head.
I deliberately curled myself up even rounder.
“He is all right.”
The instructor’s gaze landed on me.
Her eyes were sharp.
They were different from before.
She was not looking at a simply cute familiar.
She was looking as though trying to confirm something.
I stayed still.
“Kiiing.”
The instructor’s eyebrow moved ever so slightly.
She probably was not certain.
Even if she had seen the magic disappear, she could not have known what I had done.
No, to begin with, it would be hard for her to think I had done anything at all.
I was just a small, round bundle of fur perched on Elysia’s head.
“Richard.”
The instructor spoke again.
“I will treat this one instance as a mistake.”
Relief passed over Richard’s face.
But that relief did not last long.
“But there will be no second time.”
The instructor’s voice lowered.
“Uncontrolled mana in a training hall is more dangerous than a sword.
Especially since today’s training is meant to observe pure footwork and swordsmanship reactions.
If you cannot even follow such a basic rule, then from the next training onward, you will not be qualified to hold a sword.”
“……I will keep that in mind.”
Richard answered as though gritting his teeth.
The instructor said no more.
But the atmosphere had already changed.
The students’ gazes moved back and forth between Richard, Elysia, and me.
Some suspected Richard, some suspected me.
And most of them were confused.
“What was that, really?”
“Did Lady Valerion block it?”
“No, it disappeared before her hand even reached it.”
“Then that familiar……?”
“No way.”
That no way is the truth.
But it had to remain a no way.
I closed my eyes.
Elysia’s hand carefully rose.
As though she had forgotten we were in the middle of training, she very lightly pressed my back.
As if checking.
Checking whether I was truly all right.
I tapped the back of her hand with the tip of my tail.
I said I’m fine.
Elysia’s breathing wavered slightly.
Inside her, her aura surged roughly.
It was different from before.
Anger.
Anxiety.
And self-reproach.
The thought that she had been late was stabbing into her.
I let out a small sigh inwardly.
‘I told you not to make that face.’
I very carefully released demonic energy.
Not strongly.
Thinly enough that she would not notice.
A silver-pink aura seeped through her golden hair and flowed from the ends of Elysia’s hair to the nape of her neck, then to her shoulders and arms.
The trembling of her fingertips calmed a little.
Elysia’s eyes widened for an instant.
She probably felt it again.
That strange sense of stability from just now.
I pretended not to know.
‘Now is not the time for you to get angry.’
Training was not over yet.
And Richard was not over yet either.
That type does not stop just because he fails once.
He only becomes more careful the next time.
The instructor clapped her hands.
“Resume training. However, from this point on, the use of mana is prohibited. You will proceed with pure footwork and swordsmanship only.”
The students answered in unison.
“Yes!”
Elysia raised her sword again.
But the look in her eyes had changed slightly.
It was clearer than before.
Until just moments ago, she had been confused because she did not know why her movements had changed. Now, another emotion was mixed in.
The desire to protect.
That emotion slowly began gathering at the tip of her sword.
‘Good.’
From atop Elysia’s head, I quietly opened my eyes.
‘That sensation isn’t bad either.’
It is not good to be swept away by anger.
But if it is anger meant to protect, then all that is needed is to guide its direction properly.
Elysia stepped forward again.
This movement was firmer than before.
Still rough.
Still immature.
But she was definitely moving forward.
Whoosh.
The training sword cut through the air.
The instructor’s eyes narrowed once more.
The surrounding students held their breath.
And Richard was no longer smiling.
Watching that sight, I let out a small snort.
It was a very small sound.
But of all people, Elysia happened to hear it.
She swallowed a very faint laugh.
“Haku.”
Satisfied with Richard’s expression, I quietly closed my eyes.