After yesterday’s fiasco with the wind, I decided:
“Alright. I’ll write down a few notes. Just to sort things out for myself.”
So I went to the library.
As always—empty.
Silence.
The dusty smell of old books.
Just a couple of weeks ago, it had been packed.
I quickly wrote down:
— what air pressure is
— how to direct a flow
— how to
meaningfully
change the angle of impact
— how to keep the blade stable
— how not to destroy your own shoulder
— and especially: “wind and water are almost the same thing, just different density”
It looked smart.
Until I actually looked at the page.
The handwriting…
Horrendous.
As if a tiny demon-spider had run across the paper, leaving scribbles behind.
Even I could barely understand what I’d written.
And then Elinia walked in.
With a radiant smile.
With the look of a winner.
But… with a request:
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Helvard… could you… explain this?
I replied:
— Fine. Here.
And handed her the sheet.
She looked at it.
Winced.
And said:
— Helvard.
This is some kind of cipher.
I practically jumped up:
— THAT’S HANDWRITING!
— A very… unusual cipher.
— HANDWRITING!
— Are you sure everything’s okay with your handwriting?.. It… kind of resembles a demonic language.
I almost blurted out:
“Well, that’s because it
is
demonic handwriting!”
But instead I snorted, got offended, turned around, and walked out.
Elinia, by the way, didn’t even try to hold back her laughter.
⭐
The next day. Wind class. Stones.
Everyone stepped forward with gloomy faces, like they were about to be asked to die again.
The teacher:
— Cut it.
The class, already dead inside:
— Yes…
Elinia stepped out like it was nothing.
Raised her hands.
Carefully gathered the wind.
And—
SHHH—CRACK!
The stone was cut perfectly—cleanly in half.
The class:
— WHAAAAAT?!
— How???
— Why???
— Princess, please, teach us!!!
And here’s the strange part:
No one came up to
me
.
I was sitting in the corner, as usual, thinking:
“Interesting… what’s wrong with me?”
Then she approached me, shining like the sun, and handed me a sheet of paper.
— Helvard, here. This will be useful to you too.
Her smile was so satisfied that I wanted to disappear.
I looked at the page.
It was a
vastly improved
version of my notes:
neat handwriting
additional diagrams
notes about angles
explanations
and a small line at the bottom:
P.S. Your handwriting is torture. You should’ve just encrypted it right away.
I felt a small demon inside me die.
⭐
How the class reacted
Everyone rushed over to Elinia:
— Princess, how did you understand this?!
— It’s so complicated!
— We thought it was impossible!
— HOW???
She lifted the sheet and said:
— It’s just… here. Clear enough, right?
At that moment I thought:
“Clear to
who
???
Those are my crooked scribbles!!!”
But…
Everyone started trying.
And—finally—it worked.
Especially Kairen.
He was waving his arms like he was about to summon a tornado.
The class said:
— Princess, you’re a genius!
— Princess, thank you!
— Only you could understand this technique!
I looked at her…
She looked at me…
With a
smirk
.
And I understood only one thing:
She was going to feed on this satisfaction for the rest of our training.