Chapter 111
Chapter 111
Academy Third Magic Training Grounds.
I stood beside Professor Iris, blankly looking down at the yawning open center of the practice field.
The giant crater I’d accidentally made yesterday was still there.
The black, vitrified ground glittered in the afternoon sun.
I scratched the back of my head and stole a glance at Professor Iris.
"Are we doing it here again today? It still hasn’t been repaired."
At my question, she calmly pushed her glasses up with her index finger and answered.
"I’d like this mark to be the first and last, but we don’t know what might happen today, tomorrow, or after that. So rather than making partial repairs every time, the school replied that it would be more economical to tear everything down and restore it all at once."
"…Huh?"
It was absurd beyond belief.
No, they call themselves the empire’s top elite-training institution, so why is the way they handle things so damn brazen?
It was so rationally chill it almost made me laugh.
Come to think of it, an academy overflowing with noble brats would probably be ridiculously good at throwing money around.
"In any case, today’s method is the same."
Professor Iris said, stepping lightly to the space behind my back.
"Three times, as agreed. If you use fire-element magic, I’ll observe the flow of mana inside your body."
Rustle.
I heard her roll up her shirt sleeves.
Before long, Professor Iris’s hand gently touched the center of my back.
Her body heat came through clearly beneath the thin shirt.
"Hng."
In that instant, a tiny, prickling tingle shot down my spine.
An odd sensation, like a feather lightly scratching along the bones of my spine.
Without realizing it, I hunched my shoulders and half turned my head.
"Th... Professor."
"What is it?"
"Does it really have to be done like this, with you touching my back from behind?"
Honestly, the picture was kind of weird.
I’m not some joystick.
Some female professor standing behind me, rubbing my back?
To my half-complaining question, Professor Iris answered from an academic standpoint.
"It would still be perfectly possible to observe mana if I placed my hand on your chest, which is closest to the heart."
"Yes. But why specifically from behind?"
"If we faced each other directly, it would be inconvenient for me to take in with my own eyes the destructive power and flow of the magic you unleash forward."
Ah.
Right.
If she had to place her hand on my chest, she’d naturally have to face me, which meant she’d be standing with her back to my spellcasting.
'But that wasn’t the only problem.'
I’d brought it up because the tingling on my back was uncomfortable, but when I imagined her hand on my chest while we faced each other,
that would be even more awkward and difficult to deal with.
How was I supposed to endure a breathtakingly beautiful older woman messing with my chest?
If anyone saw, it’d be the perfect chance to add another insult to the list.
"Understood. I get it now. Then let’s start. Is it okay if I use the same spell as yesterday?"
"I said the form doesn’t matter. Use whatever feels most comfortable."
"Yes."
I let out a light breath.
Three times a day.
That was today’s schedule, too.
Once this was done, I could really go home, sprawl out flat, and crash into a deep sleep.
[Ability Activated: Fixer]
[Remaining Uses Today : 2/3]
Vwoom—.
A strange sense of buoyancy swept through my mind.
My head cleared, and my right arm rose into the air on its own.
And then.
KWA-AAAAAANG───!
A compressed fireball shot from my fingertips like a cannonball.
I’d tried to control the power a little more than yesterday, but it was still a monster output beyond my control.
The instant the flames swept mercilessly across the dirt floor of the training grounds.
Along with foul dirt and dust, a second crater the exact same size as yesterday’s appeared right next to the one I’d made yesterday.
Good thing we delayed the repairs.
Sssshhh.
"…Phew."
I blew away the smoke rising from my fingertips and asked Iris behind me.
"Can I use it again right away?"
"Yes. Go ahead."
There was no agitation at all in her voice.
But somehow that made her feel even more like a mad scientist utterly absorbed in observing a test subject in the wild.
Without hesitation, I raised my hand again.
I was about to use Fixer to make yet another crater.
'Huh?'
Tingle!
Suddenly, a strange sensation came, as though the sensations inside my body had become dozens of times more sensitive and sharp.
It was as if frozen blood had started flowing again, shocking every tiny blood vessel in my whole body awake.
And then.
Amid that amplified sensation.
The aura I assumed was Iris’s mana, the one from the hand touching my back, began to feel distinct and vivid inside my body.
"…!"
My eyes flew open.
Until just a moment ago, when I’d used the first ability, I hadn’t felt her mana.
But not now.
At first it seemed as soft as a gentle breeze, but I was wrong.
'Holy shit.'
It was water, not wind.
I could vividly feel her mana forcing its way into my body like liquid flowing through a conduit, rummaging through every corner.
That sticky sensation sweeping around my heart, climbing up my spine to tickle the nape of my neck, and seeping stubbornly along the grain of my muscles.
'No, wait.'
So the reason my back had felt especially itchy earlier wasn’t because my pretty teacher’s hand had touched it, but because of the mana probing?
No, let’s generously call that academic observation.
But this.
'This is seriously fucking perverted.'
It feels like even my internal organs are being scanned.
Because it kept probing every nook and cranny so relentlessly, a chill ran up my spine and a strangely shameful feeling flooded over me beyond mere embarrassment.
Fwoosh!
Before long, a second flame burst from my fingertips, and a third crater decorated the training grounds.
And I could no longer concentrate.
"…Haa."
I lowered my hand and stopped.
It was time to go straight into the third click, but I couldn’t endure this bizarre sensation any longer.
As I stood there quietly, just catching my breath, Professor Iris’s puzzled voice came from behind me.
"Cassian. Why aren’t you using it?"
Her hand was still stuck to my back like a leech.
I bit my lip and agonized over it.
How the hell was I supposed to say this?
"Hey, Professor. Your mana is groping around inside my body so persistently that I’m losing my mind?" Like that?
Though I often muttered "gisa-myeoljo, gisa-myeoljo" to myself, this was a genuine sexual-harassment line.
If I said the wrong thing, I’d definitely be treated like a pervert and get a Thunderbolt to the solar plexus.
As I stayed silent like a clam, she slightly tightened the hand on my back and asked.
"Could it be that you’re overloaded because you don’t have a mana circuit? If something feels uncomfortable, say so right away. I need to take immediate action."
A voice full of concern, the voice of a truly proper teacher.
Yeah, this woman really was just observing me with pure scholarly zeal.
But.
"No, that’s not it."
That’s one thing, and this is another.
"It is uncomfortable, but it’s not because of overload."
"Then what is it?"
"Ever since I used the second spell... I’ve been able to feel your aura way too clearly."
At my words.
The hand on my back flinched ever so slightly.
"…How clearly?"
Professor Iris’s voice dropped strangely low.
I described that sensation that had swept over every corner of my body as honestly as I could.
"It’s nowhere near comparable to the first time. The professor’s aura I felt then was like air—so faint I couldn’t sense it at all."
"…"
"This time, it feels like liquid. Dozens of times clearer."
Black smoke quietly rose above the training grounds.
"…!"
I heard Professor Iris draw in a small breath.
She sounded so startled it was almost like she’d been completely flabbergasted.
Of course. The fact that I was feeling it so vividly in such detail was, by itself, an absurd phenomenon.
Of course, I had no idea.
Still, judging by how surprised she was, that was probably the case.
"…And?"
Professor Iris asked again in a trembling voice.
"Did you feel anything else?"
Another scholarly question, right on cue.
Ah, seriously.
Seriously, does this woman have no shame?
In the end, I had to tell her the one thing I’d been holding back.
"Yes, there is."
"What is it? Don’t hide it—tell me everything."
"Professor, right now,"
I slowly turned my head and looked straight into her crimson eyes, which had stiffened slightly with embarrassment, and said,
"the way your touch is so stubbornly and persistently rummaging through every corner of my body is so vivid that it’s a little embarrassing."
"…!!!"
So please, stop making me itch.
I feel like I’m going to end up with a weird fetish I never had.
* * *
Clatter, clatter.
Inside the Rohanna family’s carriage, rattling over the smooth paving stones.
Inside the softly lit carriage, with a faint mana-stone lamp glowing, Sophia rested against the plush velvet seat with her eyes quietly closed.
Each time the carriage swayed, her slender shoulders gave a light bounce, but she felt none of the intense fatigue or motion sickness that usually came when she returned from an outing.
Instead, she was now feeling an inexplicable warmth all through her body.
'This feels weird.'