Artificial light beamed down on me as I let the mana-rich room's air strengthen me.
I could feel every decimetre of mana that radiated within this space.
If an augmenter could bring mana from within their core to strengthen themselves through both their muscles and strikes.
Then a Conjurer should be able to spread their mana over a set distance outside of their body in a sort of bubble. With Grandma's help, I've been able to use this neat trick to build a sort of mana sensor or early-alert system, which should improve my reaction time and close-range combat.
That is in theory, at least, as all my attempts thus far have not had the intended effect.
The mana bubble instead acted like an enclosed space where I had absolute dominance over the mana within it. Whilst not the worst thing to end up failing into, it wasn't what I wanted it to be.
This only became more apparent when accounting for my few successes in doing this within the training room. Not even considering the results outside the room, which were even more disappointing, to say the least.
In this mana-dense space, I could comfortably cover at least a radius of 20 meters in any direction around me; unfortunately, though, that same luxury didn't apply when standing on solid ground.
When attempting the mana alert, trademark pending, outside of the training room, I could only hold it a couple of centimetres above my skin due to the drastic mana density difference between being within and outside of my body.
It was almost like a faint atmosphere clinging to a planet, or so Art described.
Even maintaining this significantly weaker mana alert, trademark pending, has been a struggle, with it being monumentally harder to hold.
Even after nearly a month of practice, outside of the training room, I've at longest been able to hold it for a couple of minutes before it collapses back on me.
It's almost like standing under a falling blanket. You can paw at the fabric as it falls, trying to keep it from touching the bed, but eventually it'll win out and reach the mattress, and you'll be tired by the time it does.
A sigh escaped me as I released my hold.
That's the worst part of it.
The inevitability of failure.
Leaning against the giant rock that created this alcove I had claimed as my own, I looked down at my palm as I opened and closed it.
As a conjurer, I need to focus on endurance rather than sudden bursts of power. I lost to Claire because I fought too much like an augmenter, and I made my life significantly harder against Theodore and Curtis by forcing fights into ranges that gave them a clear advantage.
'Only after I had already lost to Claire had I…'
I tensed my hand, pulling my fist tight.
'It's not like I'm a poor swordsman; I'd say I'm the best 9-year-old to ever fight with one, aside from Arthur Leywin, of course. But that means nothing if I'm going to struggle against someone weaker than me…'
I released a pent-up breath as I began to climb the boulder.
'Grandma once said that the differences between a Conjurer and Augmenter become negligible when reaching higher core stages…'
A breath left me as I stood tall atop the stone.
"I think we can call it a day."
"Yeah… Thank you."
Both sets of voices panted.
"Oh? What's going on over there?"
I lowered myself, holding onto the side of the boulder away from the training room as I watched the two sweaty teens smile blissfully at each other.
Tess shifted slightly, moving towards the water's edge. She lowered her feet into the blue.
She hummed as she splashed against the surface's tension before turning to my brother with a sincere tilt of her head. "Hey Arthur…" she smiled.
"Are you mad that I kissed you?"
'whhhaaaaaaaaa-'
My hand instinctively went to my face, causing me to lose grip of the boulder. Scrambling to regain any foot or handhold, I hugged the great mass, pressing my form tight to its rough surface.
"Huh? Oh… I'm not mad."
'What does he mean by that! Damn it, I need to see what's going on!'
Slowly I began to scoot up the side of the stone, grating the side of my face against its unevenness.
"Surprised… but never mad."
"Then why have you been avoiding me since then?"
With a final heft of my body, I laid my chest against a lowered side of the mass and hung just over the lip in a way that let me watch them.
'Okay then…'
"Art?" she repeated softly with a tilt of her head.
"Come on Tess!" he laughed awkwardly as his hand scratched the back of his neck. "We're still both so young, and I've known you since you were an immature little girl."
'That wasn't what you were supposed to say, Art!'
"I mean, I'm only twelve, and you've barely turned thirteen as well! I know that it's not weird for a girl your age to get married since you're royalty, but I mean, I don't have that background." He stuttered, backtracking.
'Stop digging yourself a bigger hole…'
The silver-haired princess turned away from my brother, returning her gaze to the water that stared back at her in kind. "You're just making up excuses now," she muttered, not paying him any attention.
After a moment of tense silence, she looked back at her long-time friend with damp eyes. "Y-you and I both know I didn't mean we should get married… I know it was wrong of me to take advantage of you back then, but… I just wanted things to progress." She took a moment, her eyes involuntarily narrowing as she turned away from him. "Even back in Elenoir, you just treated me like I was a kid! It's been almost eight years since then, Art... I have a lot to learn, but I don't consider myself such a child anymore." Her stern gaze turned soft as she desperately tried to reason with my idiot of a brother.
'Hug her, you, idiot! She spills her heart and you just-'
I punched the boulder.
"Aww," I shook my hand as both of them looked towards me.
I lowered myself back behind the stone.
"It's because I've known you since we were both children that it's harder for me to see you as anything more, at least right now, Tess. It hasn't even been that long since we met after such a long time as well."
He reached towards her, his palm moving towards her head. Tess slapped his hand away before he could even get close.
"Tess?"
"Enough!" She sprang to her feet, her face red and tense, as if on the verge of tears. "So, you're telling me that all this time, you haven't once thought of me as anything more than a childhood friend?" she asked through pursed lips.
Art didn't answer her; instead, he sat there looking absent-minded at the water and his own reflection.
With a grunt, she turned on her heel and made her way towards the training room's door. As she opened it, she looked back at him over her shoulder.
"You know, Arthur. You're so confident in so many things. Magic, fighting, using your brain. You're so confident in everything you do because you're good at them. But, you know what? There are things you're not good at. You're not good at confronting your feelings. You always put on a mask and pretend you're happy or apathetic when you can't handle a certain situation. I think in that sense, you're a lot less mature than even the so-called 'children' you see in this academy. You're just using your confidence in your strengths to mask the insecurities you have in things you know you're not good at!"
She slammed the door closed behind her. The thud rang out through the room as my brother slumped to the floor.
'This idiot!'
My grip tightened around the lip of the boulder as, before I could stop myself, I hoisted myself up and withdrew my sword from my dimension ring.
Mana swelled from my core, rushing towards my blade as I ignored my earlier testing and returned to old reliable.
Golden flame pulsed along my weapon, moving in waves down its length.
"Lias? What are yo-"
I raised my weapon over my head and swung down at him with a fury. Gold obeyed me and rushed towards the confused teen, singeing the vibrant grass in its way.
The flame's wrath came to an abrupt stop as it smashed into an iceberg formed of the room's lake water.
"What the hell Lias!" Art exclaimed behind the wall of ice he had summoned to redirect my attack.
I ignored him and jumped down from the stone onto the now crispy brown below.
I strode towards my brother, burnt grass crunching underfoot as I once again tightened my grip on my weapon and swung a second wave of golden fury at the idiot.
"What the hell are you doing!" he repeated louder this time.
Ice fell in chunks around him, smashing to the ground with cracking thuds.
I dismissed my blade back into my dimension ring as I began to pool mana at the soles of my feet.
Flame roared around me as I closed the distance between us in a mere instant.
"Lia-"
I wrapped both my arms around my brother as I speared him into the lake.
It was shallower than I thought it'd be; the water only rising to my knee and Art's calf as we stumbled back up after a brief roll. Water coated both of us as we stood unevenly watching the other for their next move.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" Art asked, looking up at me.
"I should be asking you that!" I panted, "Something is clearly wrong with you, so I thought it best I beat some sense into you!" I waded through the water between us.
Art's hand tensed at his side as he readied another spell, but he stopped himself.
"Lias… this thing with Tess it isn't that simple; there are things that yo-"
I cut him off as I stood before him. "You've got a beautiful girl who's hopelessly in love with you, and she's a princess too to boot!" I yanked his heavy form to my level as I stared him down.
"Seems pretty simple to me… Wait… Are you gay?" I asked earnestly.
He looked at me wide-eyed before looking away from me.
"You and Elijah were awfully touchy-feely a few weeks back at the summer series afterparty; you been playing with each other's prostates or something?"
He jerked away from me and stumbled back five paces.
"I'm not gay, Lias," he mumbled as he looked towards his submerged feet.
"Then what is it? Why have you been so adamant in your rejection of Tess?" I spread my arms as I stood away from him. "She's a girl your age, more than easy on the eyes and an incredibly talented mage, and you can't lie to me and say that you don't care about her."
"She isn't…" he didn't look at me; he hid behind his bangs as he held both his hands tight either side of him.
"Objectively, she is Arthur, and if you don't think so, then stop leading the poor girl on and let her breathe."
"She isn't my age, Lias," he admits reluctantly as though he might throw up.
My face scrunched as I inadvertently flared both of my nostrils. "She's a year older than you, Art; what's the problem with having an older girl care about you?"
He let out a heavy exhale as he steadied his breathing. He looked at me, his eyes darting, unable to lock onto my own as he fidgeted with his hands.
"She's brilliant, maybe even the best girl in the whole world," he admitted between choked breaths.
"Then what's the problem?"
"I am Lias I…" he looked away from me back to his feet.
I laughed. "The great Arthur Leywin, scared to confess to a 13-year-old girl now, I've seen it all."
"No, Lias I…" With one final sharp exhale, he looked back at me and into my eyes. "I have memories of a previous life and I…" his face contorted as he struggled to maintain his composure. "S-since coming to this w-world I-" His eyes widened as he took a step back. "Please don't look at me like that, Lias, please don't hate me…"
My hand moved to my mouth as I felt the horror I had shown on my face. I looked down at my feet and how I had pivoted towards him, and how I had instinctively withdrawn my sword from my dimension ring.