Chapter 51: Deepening Friendship with Fireballs

The sun was high in the sky. The winds felt soothing, and the picture-perfect scenes of a great summer day made me want to go outside and practice magic. As such, I brought Liza with me, and we both flew into the sky.

“So, Liza, why don’t we practice magic for a while?”

“Yes! Ever since I left the academy, I haven’t had any time to practice.”

“Why?”

“Well, lots of stuff happened.”

Liza glanced over my left shoulder, looking towards Carlos and her twin younger sisters.

With a wry smile, I said, “Well, let’s make up for it with some training from hell.”

Liza’s eyes went pale when I mentioned "hell."

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“You know that I can use light magic, right?”

“Y-yes.”

“Isn’t it great? The two of us can practice until we cough blood. Once we start coughing blood, I’ll use magic to heal us and then resume practice again!”

I was hinting that we could go all out without restricting our firepower because I could use healing magic. Deepening my bonds with friends by using fists, just like in some comics I’ve read, was the only thing I could come up with. Who can blame me? The only friend I’d had for five years was Emilia.

Also, we’d already had enough tea parties; I wanted to deepen our bonds using something else.

As a result, I turned to some of the stories I liked in my past life. Those were stories about men being men. They fought against one another, and in the end, they became friends.

By the way, ever since we were third graders, Emilia and I had been really passionate about combat practice. It was a great way to release stress and hone our combat instincts. Our current score was 250 wins, 249 losses, and 51 ties. The 51st tie occurred the day before yesterday.

We stopped sparring when I decided to teach my classmates and servants about Null Element magic because her time was spent teaching them. We resumed our combat practice when we left the academy. What’s more, because I could now use healing magic, our practices had become really intense.

“Shall we begin? By the way, do you remember the giant fireball when I was dueling against Carlos?”

“… Yes.”

“Because of my research, I’m now able to control mana more efficiently. So I can now cast two of them at the same time.”

“Ummm….”

“Do your best to survive~ <3”

I lifted one of my hands and materialized a diamond-shaped funnel. At the same time, I created a small fireball. I then made the funnel split into four parts and made them fly in front of the fireball. They became the edges of a mana wall I created. I then made the fireball fly into the mana wall. The moment it passed through, it split into two and became bigger. The 2-centimeter fireball turned into two 3-meter fireballs and flew towards Liza.

“W-wawawawa!”

Liza immediately flew away as she gathered mana to materialize her bow. Incidentally, I used the funnel as a catalyst to make the control of the mana wall easier and more flexible. The only downside to this is that once something passes through the mana wall, I would lose control over that magic. So they could only fly straight.

“I won’t give you time to materialize that bow, Liza.”

Materializing another funnel, I made its edges thinner. As a result, it became easier to materialize and sharper.

Liza saw the other funnel and started panicking.

“Uwawawawa! Lumina-sama! I give up! I give up!”

“I won’t allow you to give up~”

Liza flew in complex geometrical patterns so that she would lose the funnel. Meanwhile, I continued to shoot a three-meter fireball at her while recycling the other one. This was a method I created because I didn’t want to waste my mana.

“Oh, is that an Immelman turn?”

I looked in amazement as I observed Liza’s movements.

“See, Liza! You’re improving at a really fast rate!”

“Please stop, Lumina-sama!”

“Don’t worry. Even though the fireball is huge and that funnel is following you and is sharp, I regulated it so that it won’t kill you~”

“B-but, it’ll still hurt, right? RIGHT!?”

“Just think of it as your punishment for bringing Carlos here.”

“Eeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Liza screamed as she saw me materializing another diamond-shaped funnel. This one had a slicker shape and the base element was wind. Because of that, it could fly faster, though it was only in a straight line.

“Here’s another one, Liza.”

Fwoosh!

I shot the funnel towards her future location.

“Don’t worry, the front is blunt! So you’ll only lose consciousness!”

“Waaaahhh!”

Liza tried to slow down to evade the fireball. However, as a consequence, she was hit by a 3-meter fireball and the funnel that followed her caught up to her. The funnel pushed her towards the other funnel. After experiencing these things, Liza fainted.

I made a wry smile and flew towards her. Casting light magic, I healed her burns and bruises. I then laid her down on a bed I made.

“Well, let’s continue once you wake up.”

After a while, Emilia arrived, carrying the cake from yesterday and a teapot.

Seeing her, I quickly sat on a chair I made and received her.

“Weren’t you too harsh on her, Lumina-sama?” she said, knitting her brows.

“Nah, if I wanted to be rough, I would’ve materialized 12 funnels.”

“But still…”

“She didn’t die, so it’s okay.”

Emilia shrugged her shoulders as she poured tea into my cup. Carlos then approached me.

“Oi! What was that!? I didn’t see you use any of those diamond-shaped things in our duel! Were you looking down on me back then?”

I frowned as he slammed his hand on the table.

“No, I wasn’t. Back then, the ice sword was the only thing I could use, and I was still unable to use the funnels.”

I answered him while closing my eyes and enjoying the scent of the herb tea that Emilia brewed.

“So those things are called funnels, huh.”

The twins arrived while Carlos was muttering to himself.

“Why’d you do that to Liza-nee!? Are you trying to kill her?”

“Misha doesn’t like you for treating Liza-nee like that.”

I waved my hands at them and said, “It’s just training, just training. She’ll grow faster if we continue to do this.”

“Training? Aren’t you just tormenting Liza-nee?”

“Un-un.”

I glanced at them and observed them from head to toe.

Narrowing my eyes, I said, “Do you want to take revenge? Then, why don’t you switch places with her and become my sparring partners?”

If they accepted, it would be a good chance to practice fighting against magicians who use normal magic. If they refused, it was also fine with me.

“We accept!”

“Un-un!”

The two slammed their hands on the table and exclaimed. They then flew away and made a huge magic circle in the sky. A huge serpent appeared from it and coiled around them.

“Emilia, it seems like I can finally use the theories I made to counter normal magic.”

“Be careful, okay.”

“Yes, yes.”

I flew up and materialized 12 funnels. Because the mana around us was thinner due to their magic, the funnels were smaller.

“Then, shall we begin?”

““Oh!””

* * * * *

An hour later.

“O-ouch…”

I groggily flew towards Emilia. I was really wet and injured in some places.

“What you did was really rash, Lumina-sama.”

“Guh.”

“Even though you were able to dodge their attacks, why did you have to decide to face their magic head-on?”

“Well, because the mana around us was too thin, my only way to counterattack was by stealing their magic. However, because I was controlling 12 funnels, I could only steal their magic through physical contact.”

“Is that so? Then why didn’t you evade the water spears they threw at you?”

My shoulders quivered as I recalled those spears that injured me.

“… It was because the spears were flying really fast, so I couldn’t parry them. That’s why I decided to use the same trick as I did with Carlos’ magic.”

“… Lumina-sama…”

Emilia made a really big smile and said, “If you do that again, then I won’t allow you to drink tea for a week.”

“What!?”

When I exclaimed, I saw that her eyes were really dark. It was really scary.

“So don’t do that again, okay?”

“…. O-okay.”

I then glanced towards the place where the twins landed. They had lots of blunt injuries because of the funnels I used. The result of our practice battle was a tie.

“… Lumina-sama…”

Liza had a very worried voice as she shot glances at the twins.

“Don’t worry. I’ll heal them after I heal myself. So don’t make a face like that, Liza.”

“Thank you very much!”

When I finished healing myself, I approached the twins and healed them. Though they had really reluctant expressions because the injuries were very painful, they reluctantly accepted my treatment.

“Okay then… now that Liza’s up, why don’t we go for another round!?”

“HiiI!”

Liza made a really cute scream. I somehow liked hearing it.

The four of us then spent the entire morning fighting. Emilia joined midway, while Carlos only continued to observe us. At the end of the day, we learned a lot of things and tested many ideas to counter the thinning mana. But that resulted in a lot of injuries. Still, it was a really great way to deepen my friendship with Liza and become friends with the twins.

By the way, when tomorrow came, Liza started screaming and flew away when I mentioned the word ‘combat practice.’ At first, I was confused but decided to disregard it and throw fireballs at her. It was really fun because, unlike Emilia, who charges through my fireballs, Liza evades them. So it really made for good shooting practice. Our bonds between one another also deepened.

My idea of deepening our bonds really was great. I was killing two birds with one stone.