Algina sat Eugene, Bella, Noan, and Henri in front of her and said,
“You two will receive instruction from me for the time being. Come here every morning. The remaining two will follow Stone as planned and teach their partners what they learn. Understood?”
“Understood.”
All four of them nodded.
And the next day, Henri and Bella went out following Stone, the senior Dragon Knight team. Eugene and Noan gathered in front of the Order’s parade ground as Algina had instructed.
“Hey.”
Eugene raised his hand, but Noan cleanly ignored him.
‘He used to at least return my greeting before.’
Ever since Noan heard that Eugene had put up a fairly good fight against Algina, he had remained in that state.
It seemed his pride had been completely shattered.
Eugene clicked his tongue and followed Noan into the parade ground.
Algina and Zeta were waiting in the parade ground.
Algina noticed the strange atmosphere flowing between Noan and Eugene and asked,
“Did you two fight?”
“…….”
“No, no. This friend is just a little shy around people.”
“How can he be shy around someone he already knows?”
“That is how bashful he is. Please do not mind him.”
Eugene tried to slide past it like a sly old snake.
Algina crossed her arms and looked at the two of them.
“Good. I was going to lead you in this direction anyway, and seeing you now, it looks like this is exactly what you need.”
Algina nodded to herself.
“Have you ever heard about the artificial spirit I have?”
Eugene answered.
“Yes. The artificial spirit Siquel. An automatic defense system made using artificial intelligence magic that controls golems.”
“Correct. But Siquel is not omnipotent. The defensive magic Siquel activates consumes a great deal of mana. It cannot block every attack either. In other words, if Siquel activates, that means it is a fairly bad sign for me.”
What was she trying to say by explaining that?
Just as Eugene wondered and turned his thoughts over.
“I will give you an assignment. Every morning, gather here and spar with me two-on-one. However, I will enter the sparring while receiving mana sharing from Zeta. Against me in that state, try to activate Siquel’s automatic defense.”
“Against you while you are receiving mana sharing from the Vice Commander?”
Eugene asked as if the idea were absurd.
The reason he had been able to exchange attacks and defenses against Algina yesterday without being killed instantly was simply because Algina had gone easy on him.
By Eugene’s calculations, if Algina fought seriously, even if Eugene and Noan faced her together, she could smash them both in an instant.
But they had to face that Algina while she was even receiving a dragon’s mana sharing and land an effective blow?
Wasn’t that like telling them to stop a flowing river with two shovels?
Eugene made it clear with his expression that this was ridiculous, but Algina was firm.
“This is an assignment you must solve. Other education or theoretical discussions come after that. Now, go prepare. We begin sparring today.”
She was their superior at work, and now she had even taken on the role of teacher.
Eugene and Noan had no choice but to stand in front of the parade ground as instructed.
And they were crushed like eggs thrown at a rock.
Algina, receiving Zeta’s mana sharing, simply swept the two of them away with a tidal wave large enough to trap the entire parade ground.
“This is cheating!”
“…….”
Noan remained silent as ever. Eugene stamped his feet and threw a tantrum, but it was useless.
***
Several days passed like that.
Eugene requested a meeting. Unexpectedly, Noan accepted.
Together with their respective partners, the two gathered once more in the Order’s parade ground.
Rumble- boom!
The parade ground was shaking.
At its center, the Silver Dragon and Black Dragon, having revealed their true forms, were wrestling.
“You are quite fast!”
“Aaaagh! Noan! Save me!”
Bella laughed, and Henri screamed.
They were not exactly fighting. The scale was a few hundred times larger, but it was no different from puppies tangling their bodies together as they played.
Bella had dragged Henri into it, saying she would make him exercise.
In a way, it was an extremely peaceful sight.
Watching that scene, Eugene, who sat on a bench at one side of the parade ground, opened his mouth.
“At this rate, we have no answer.”
Noan was sitting beside him. He was resting his chin on his hand with a serious expression. Eugene said,
“You and I need to work together. There’s no breakthrough besides that.”
Eugene was slowly realizing what Algina wanted.
The assignment she had given them.
In order to solve it, he needed Noan’s strength.
“…….”
But Noan still gave no answer. Even when Eugene suggested a meeting yesterday, all he had done was nod in agreement.
Had this bastard really become mute?
Just as Eugene, thinking he could not let it pass today, was about to open his mouth.
Noan spoke.
“I know. I know this is not a situation that can be solved by pointless pride.”
Noan’s voice, which Eugene had not heard in a while, lacked strength.
Judging by his voice alone, he sounded like a dying patient or an old man.
“Are you all right? You don’t seem well.”
“I am fine. It is merely that something I knew would break someday came sooner than I expected.”
“What broke?”
“The world that confines me.”
Seeing him speak in such vague, cloud-grasping terms, it seemed he still had some energy left.
Eugene wondered what he should say to coax this frog in a well that had realized reality.
Noan was not dull like Bella. If Eugene spoke carelessly, he would earn nothing but hatred instead of cooperation.
As Eugene chose his words, he suddenly noticed Noan’s gaze.
Noan abruptly asked,
“What method did you use to become so strong so suddenly?”
“……Come on. You and I are about the same. What do you mean, suddenly strong?”
“Do not joke. Answer me. I already know you are twice as strong as I am. Is there some secret method?”
There was a secret method.
The cheating secret method called regression.
But he could not honestly say that. However, he could shorten the explanation.
“Experience. I simply saw a lot and felt a lot.”
Through regression, he had merely received countless experiences compressed into a short time. Nothing more, nothing less.
Noan laughed, ha.
“That is not some impressive reason.”
Saying that, Noan cast his gaze toward the parade ground.
Before they knew it, Bella and Henri had come closer. Bella shouted,
“Look at this, Eugene! This boy is this flexible! To think he was hiding such talent!”
“Aaaagh! Let me go!”
Bella was holding Henri’s body with her front legs and snout. She bit Henri’s neck and bent it back behind his waist until it nearly touched the base of his tail, folding Henri again and again.
In human terms, perhaps it was like putting the back of one’s head against one’s butt.
Even for a dragon, bending that far would usually break the back, but seeing Henri only making choking coughs as if he could not breathe, it seemed there truly was no problem.
“Let go!”
Grrr. Henri cried and forcibly twisted his body, escaping Bella’s restraint.
When the enraged Black Dragon crouched and bared his teeth, Bella instead looked delighted.
“Yes. If you are a dragon, you should have at least that much spirit!”
Bella and Henri tangled together again. At the collision of the two huge bodies, the ground of the parade ground cracked apart, and the air shook as if attack magic had exploded.
Noan stared silently at that sight for a while, then said,
“He has already improved.”
“What has?”
“Henri. He hated using his body so much that I kept trying to make him exercise, but no matter how much I pushed him, he showed no intention of improving.”
As he said that, he pointed to the parade ground.
Indeed, seeing Henri roll his body around while avoiding Bella’s front legs like a cat,
his movements had become much sharper than at first.
“What I could not do, Bella managed in no time.”
“Are you an idiot? There’s no one who can do everything well alone.”
The same had been true for Eugene.
He had borrowed the strength of the Dragon Temple in order to educate Henri.
If not for the help of the priests there and the Dragon Mother, he would not have been able to raise Henri into a proper Dragon Knight.
Noan nodded.
“Yes. You know that. Enough that the words come out of your mouth so easily.”
Well now.
His reaction was not bad at all. Though it had not been intentional, Bella playing with Henri seemed to have helped quite a bit.
Eugene was not clumsy enough to ruin the mood by adding awkward words at a time like this.
He had already realized that Noan did not need any particular advice.
So he waited. Merely waited until Noan sorted out his feelings and moved on his own.
How many minutes passed like that?
Noan spoke.
“Good. Let us join forces.”
His monocled face turned toward Eugene.
In the eyes on the face that turned back, the same arrogant expression as in the past had appeared.
“So, what do we do from now on?”
***
“First, let’s share the techniques each of us has.”
“Share techniques? What exactly are we doing?”
“Teach me high-speed casting. And you learn my multi-casting.”
“That is not something one can learn just because a few tricks are taught.”
“Bastard, mine is the same. Drop the useless worries and let’s just start. We both need to raise our basic abilities and increase the means we can use. The concrete plan comes after that.”
“……Understood.”
That was how Eugene and Noan began a research group.
It was a research group where they shared each other’s magic techniques, learned if necessary, and pointed out each other’s flaws.
“Your formula construction is too complicated. Simplify it.”
“Empty your mind. Your speed slows because you have too many methods you can use.”
Sharing Noan’s technique was a great help to Eugene.
The reason one could say the current Eugene was stronger than Noan was simply because his combat technique was superior.
But learning Noan’s technique strengthened Eugene’s own power as a mage.
Teaching his own technique to Noan was also good.
Even if it was something he already knew, teaching it to someone else required a higher level of understanding.
In other words, explaining his own technique to Noan itself increased his understanding of that technique.
The research group progressed smoothly. The more they shared each other’s techniques, the more they could feel themselves heading toward a higher realm.
However, there was a separate problem.
“Ugh…… I’m dying.”
Within a few weeks after starting the research group, Eugene’s face had grown haggard.
Dark circles were thick beneath his eyes, and he collapsed onto the bed like a scarecrow.
Lack of stamina.
The load from excessive work had come crashing down on Eugene.
Since returning to the Dragon Knight Order, Eugene’s daily life had been like this.
Wake at dawn. Train his body together with Bella.
Go to work after breakfast. Spar with Algina together with Noan until lunch.
After eating lunch, join up with Bella. Follow Stone around and handle miscellaneous tasks or learn the job.
After working like that until evening, begin the research group with Noan.
And when he returned home, he checked the information occasionally sent by the Mercenary Guild or the connections he had built through mercenary activities and continued tracking the Voidnir.
Someone might say it was merely an ordinary daily routine.
But when Eugene actually experienced it, it was too hard.
It was not simply that he had many activities. The intensity of each one was too high.
“Hah, haaaaah! I can’t do any more!”
“One more! Do just one more! You can do it, Eugene!”
There was no need to even mention Bella’s physical training, which pushed a person until it seemed their breath would stop.
“Blblblbl! Commander……! At this rate, I really will d-die! Help, help me!”
“Guhkgggggk!”
Together with Noan, he would swim inside the vortex Algina made, or be swept away by waves, swallow about a bucket of water, and roll around in a complete mess.
The work time after lunch was at least comfortable. It was a peaceful daily life without any particular incidents.
And then evening.
“Hey! Why does it turn out like that? If you simplify the formula structure that much, you can only use one technique! Who would get hit by that?”
“Foolish nonsense! Diversifying your means is the same as admitting you have no confidence in a head-on match! When life and death are decided in an instant, are you going to analyze your opponent and adjust to them in the middle of that?”
After continuing combat debates with Noan that were practically no different from fistfights, it felt as though he had spent nearly half a day shouting in the conference room.
And even after returning home, he had to look over all sorts of documents. No matter how exhausted he was, the fate of the world rested on it.
Still, the Order’s work was not every day.
He could not skip sparring with Algina or the research group, so by the time he finished those and returned, it was a little past four in the afternoon.
The sun was slowly setting, and shadows were growing long.
“Hah, hah. Today, I’m really going to rest.”
His stamina had fallen so much that he was out of breath just from walking a little to get home.
Covered in sweat, Eugene trudged into the mansion yard.
THUUM- THUUM-
A heavy vibration sounded.
He saw Bella training in the mansion yard.
Where had she gotten it? She was throwing an iron pillar that looked three meters long over her head, then receiving it with her body.
Perhaps because she had strengthened herself with mana, mana light shimmered and flowed over her entire body.
Every time Bella threw the pillar, the wind tore apart.
When she received the thrown iron mass with her shoulder or back, the ground shook and something sounded as if it had exploded.
“…….”
No wonder she did not even blink when stabbed by a blade.
It was training that made him feel overwhelmed just by looking at it.
“You are back.”
Bella discovered Eugene.
It seemed the current training was not easy even for her iron body, because her forehead was drenched in sweat.
She wiped her sweat with a towel and approached Eugene.
“Hoo.”
A body without a single bit of excess flesh.
The sight of her fluttering hair lightly sticking to her damp shoulders somehow looked like a fairy emerging from water, making her appear even more mystical.
A beautiful appearance truly was a powerful weapon.
When Eugene saw Bella, he felt as though his mood improved a little.
Bella looked at Eugene’s dark, deathly face and laughed softly.
“You seem tired.”
“Yeah, I’m dying. So can’t I rest comfortably at least tomorrow morning?”
“No. Once you rest, you will keep resting. Training is originally something one continues until the day one dies.”
“…….”
Eugene closed his mouth.
Because even if he knew nothing else, he already knew that Bella was unbelievably stubborn in this direction.
He nodded as if he understood.
“Fine. Work hard. I need to rest a bit.”
He waved his hand and was about to walk past Bella.
Wait, Bella said, and grabbed his shoulder.
Ruby-like eyes blinked.
Bella grinned at Eugene.
“Instead of that, come take a short ride with me.”
“……A ride?”