The next day, at exactly the same time as yesterday, while Ash was still sitting in the sun reading, a blue-haired girl, Roxy, appeared at the entrance to the courtyard. She leaned on her staff with one hand and carried a white suitcase with the other. She politely knocked on the door and only entered after receiving permission.
"Ahem... Today, we'll start with this magic textbook..."
As soon as Roxy walked in, she crouched down, opened her suitcase, and took out a book. But she quickly shook her head, stood back up, and looked straight at him.
"No, before that, let's first confirm what magic you can use."
"That's sudden."
"How is it sudden? Ah, wait... don't tell me you can't use any?"
"Hmm..."
He knew too much. If she really wanted him to explain, he wouldn't even know where to begin. So he stuck to the setting he'd already decided on.
"I can only use healing magic and detoxification magic."
"I see. Around what level?"
"Let me think."
After pondering for a moment, he cautiously replied, "Probably Saint rank?"
"Really? Lying isn't good, you know."
Seeing someone so young claim he could use Saint-tier healing magic, Roxy looked completely unconvinced.
In reality, he could regenerate severed limbs with ease, and that was King-tier. Since he didn't want to draw that much attention, he could only shrug helplessly.
"If that doesn't convince you, why don't you cut your hand and let me heal it?"
"Why me?"
"Because you're the teacher, aren't you?"
"I've never met anyone who understands so little about respecting their teacher."
Roxy puffed out her lips unhappily, put on a stern face, and wagged a finger as she lectured him again.
"Listen carefully. Even if you're my employer, you should still respect your teacher, which means respecting me."
"I don't know any offensive magic at all. Why don't we just start practicing?"
"I hate students who won't listen."
Roxy puffed out her cheeks a little. Though she couldn't help grumbling, she still sighed in resignation and raised a hand.
"Fine. I'll demonstrate first... May the great blessing of water descend where you seek. Let the cool, shallow stream appear here, Water Ball!"
As she chanted, a water sphere the size of a soccer ball appeared in front of her palm.
The moment it fully formed, it shot toward a tree in the courtyard whose trunk was as thick as a thigh.
Bang!
The water ball vanished, and the tree trunk snapped in half.
Ash stared with a speechless expression.
"Why are you hurting my tree for no reason..."
Complaining as he walked over, green light gathered in his hand.
The next moment, the broken tree was rejoined and restored.
Roxy's eyes widened in disbelief, "You... you didn't chant?"
"Well... practice makes perfect?"
To be honest, he didn't even know what he was supposed to chant, and he looked a little embarrassed.
"That's not something you can do just because of 'practice makes perfect'!"
"Weren't you just emphasizing our respective roles a moment ago? Why are you reacting like this now?"
"Ah... ahem..."
Her expression stiffened. She gave a light cough and immediately pretended nothing had happened.
"We'll talk about that later. You try it now."
"This kind of chanting feels kind of embarrassing..."
"What's embarrassing about it? Everyone does it this way! Hurry."
"Alright."
Even though it felt a little cringeworthy, this really was how magic worked. Thinking about it seriously, it wasn't that embarrassing after all.
Suppressing his embarrassment, he raised a hand.
"May the great blessing of water descend where you seek. Let the cool, shallow stream appear here... Water Ball."
His flat, emotionless chant was followed by a water sphere almost identical to Roxy's.
It immediately flew diagonally onto the roof.
Roxy stared at him suspiciously, "You... you've learned this before, haven't you?"
"I've read the basic principles."
"Just the basic principles?"
"Isn't this the most basic spell?"
"That's true, but... Ah, right, you're a Saint-tier healer. Maybe it's not that strange... No, no, it's still strange. Just reading the principles shouldn't be enough..."
Unable to get over it, Roxy looked thoroughly shaken.
She hugged her head and squatted on the ground, agonizing over it for a while before finally looking back up at him with a complicated expression.
Not wanting to waste time on something this basic, Ash smiled and gently patted her head.
"There, there~ Let's not worry about that and keep going."
"Don't touch my hair... I'm the teacher, aren't I?"
Roxy unhappily slapped his hand away.
"And don't think you can look down on me just because you're paying me. I do owe you a favor, but five silver coins normally includes room and board. Since you paid me in advance this time, I'll let it slide, but please respect my position a little."
"Is that how it works? I don't really know much about that. But room and board doesn't matter. You can just stay here. My house is pretty big. If you want to live here, go ahead. Meals and lodging are included."
"Is that your way of saying you don't plan on respecting me?"
"How did you get that from what I said?"
Seeing the girl's slightly puffed cheeks filled with wariness and dissatisfaction, he sighed and crouched down in front of her, looking straight into her eyes to express how troubled he was.
Seeing his troubled expression, Roxy finally smiled at him for the first time.
"I was joking. You're such a strange student that I just wanted to knock you down a peg."
"I think I'm perfectly normal, but whatever... So? Aren't you coming in?"
"Of course I am! Inns are so expensive. If I stayed there for a month, I probably wouldn't make any money at all."
"You're a teacher, yet your head is full of money. I don't think that's very good."
"T-That's not true! Rich people like you wouldn't understand. But one day, when your family's money runs out, you'll know how hard life without money is... Well, you'll probably understand once you grow up."
Trying to act like a strict teacher, Roxy blushed a little after being called out. She stood up and protested unhappily, still trying hard to present herself as both his teacher and elder, speaking entirely from her own experience.
'But...'
'Grow up? I'm probably older than your grandfather, and you're saying that to me... Sigh. Young people these days really don't know who's actually the elder.'
Ash shook his head with a laugh but said nothing.
Instead, he unconsciously patted her head again.
"That's exactly why! I'm not a child!"
"I didn't mean that."
"Then you must think I'm an idiot. And... do you think your family has plenty of money, so it doesn't matter? Let me tell you, no matter how much money a family has, if they don't know how to increase income and save expenses, they'll spend it all sooner or later."
"It's fine. I'll just borrow more."
"What did you say? Borrow more?"
Roxy, who had assumed his family was wealthy, covered her mouth in surprise.
"If you're already living on borrowed money, then if I stay here..."
"It's fine. It's unsecured, interest-free, with no repayment deadline."
"Shouldn't that make you even more careful? How could there possibly be something that good?"
Now Roxy was genuinely worried about him, "You should earn money with healing magic first."
"It's not a problem. They're all kind friends."
"Really?"
"Of course."
"H-Huh... I never would've guessed you had such an impressive circle of friends. Well... maybe it's not that surprising?"
Roxy tilted her head in confusion.
She really couldn't figure him out anymore.
Still, she had already begun worrying about her student's future.
In the end, however, her own financial difficulties won out.
She temporarily moved into the house and began teaching him the fundamentals of magic in this world, along with the magic circles that interested Ash the most.
———
Life in the fortress city gradually returned Ash to the kind of rigorous training he'd done in the past.
He studied magic on his own in the mornings.
At noon, he learned this world's magic from Roxy.
After Ghislaine finished work in the evening, he trained in the Sword God Style under her.
After dinner, around seven-thirty, Ghislaine studied arithmetic with Roxy while Ash continued researching magic throughout the night until noon the next day.
His days were peaceful enough.
Throughout the process, he simply learned without showing anything particularly extraordinary.
He was even somewhat reluctant to demonstrate when he succeeded with magic, leaving Roxy constantly wondering whether he was actually absorbing anything.