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"You don't like it? It's really pretty."
I spoke with a desperate hope that she'd like it, and after a moment of silence, she finally opened her mouth.
"...Thanks."
"So we're training together again tomorrow, right? And you'll give me that weird... no, amazing juice too?"
I had no idea, at the time, that people who trained alongside her never came near her again afterward, and that because of her rugged, muscular appearance, she'd never even received an accessory as a gift before.
Nor did I know how this small act of kindness would settle into the heart of an eighteen-year-old girl.
"Of course. Every day."
"Training."
From that day on, training with Luna became part of my daily routine.
It was tough sometimes, honestly nearly every day, but thanks to Luna pushing me hard, I was able to rapidly increase my physical abilities.
"Luna, how about we spar today?"
Since classes weren't happening anyway with the academy in such an uneasy state, the timing felt just right.
In the middle of repeating even tougher training, I asked Luna for a sparring match, partly to get used to my lowered body score.
Luna answered in a low, thick voice.
"Even if I hold back as much as I can, your body... will break easily."
"...Huh?"
"Not trained enough. Not yet. To take my punches."
Excuse me, what?
Even to me, a former S-rank mercenary?
Starting with the "small and cute" comment, every single thing she said kept jabbing at a man's pride.
"You clearly don't know, but... I used to be quite something back in my day, you know?"
"I believe you. But your current body genuinely can't withstand it, that's the truth."
"I'm not asking for anything dramatic. Just a simple round, no mana involved on either side, how about it? No one comes here anyway."
It wasn't that literally no one ever came to this place.
It was just that once they saw Luna heaving with rough breath, they never came back.
"Hmm... if that's the case, then I suppose we could try... come at me."
The moment she agreed, I swung the edge of my hand at her like a blade.
But maybe because my Body score hadn't even hit 20 yet.
She dodged my attack with a simple twist of her body and shoved me back with her shoulder.
"Ugh!"
It was a short, simple motion, but the counter was more brutal than anything.
I felt like the impact hadn't even been that hard, yet I got sent flying back more than twenty steps.
It would honestly be fair to say I'd actually flown through the air.
"...What's your Body score, exactly?"
"Around 100."
Was that even possible at eighteen?
Looking at that terrifying body, it almost seemed like a low number, if anything.
If that wasn't a joke, then she hadn't even needed to dodge my attack just now.
If anything, she'd dodged it to protect my hand from injury.
"Hah... I used to fight with a sword, so... mind if I use this instead?"
I picked up a barbell rod nearby, intending to use it in place of a sword.
But this one, too, seemed to have been magically enchanted, because it was far too heavy.
As if I'd never intended to pick it up in the first place, I set it back down naturally and instead gripped the pink dumbbell I'd been using all along in one hand.
"A dumbbell is different from a sword."
"This is the only thing I can actually swing around."
Suddenly swinging a dumbbell during a bare-handed spar might look cowardly, but this was purely to balance things out.
It was also a consideration for her, since she kept dodging out of concern for my hands even during a spar.
Honestly, no matter how hard I swung this thing, it probably wouldn't leave so much as a scratch on those muscles anyway.
"Let's start again!"
I swung the dumbbell with the same motion as before.
Just like last time, she dodged my attack with a slight sidestep and slammed her shoulder into me.
The exact same situation as before.
But this time, unlike before, I used the momentum from swinging the dumbbell to twist my body's rotational force, dodge her shoulder, and leap into the air.
A Body score of 100.
That should be more than enough to grab my body while it was airborne.
If so, I needed to predict every possible way she might reach for me.
"...Hm?"
Luna's eyes widened in surprise as I struck the hand reaching precisely toward me with the dumbbell, knocking it away to create distance.
But there was clearly a hand hitting a dumbbell just now, so why did it sound like stone striking stone?
Even back when I was an S-rank mercenary, it hadn't been quite like this.
"How... did you block that?"
"Maybe it's thanks to my ability to control my body perfectly?"
I had survived a full five years on a battlefield where mana-infused attacks flew at me from every direction.
Getting hit even once, cleanly, meant certain death, so I'd had no choice but to think desperately and move my body accordingly.
As a result, this style of fighting had simply become second nature to me by now.
"Certainly, against a predictable opponent. Excellent combat ability."
"But an attack carrying mana. Hard to predict."
For an ordinary person, that would be true, but for me, attacks infused with mana were actually easier to predict.
No, easier than predict, I could read them perfectly.
I said, wearing a confident expression.
"Then want to try it with mana this time?"
"Impossible. My body, using mana. Body score close to 200. You, as you are now, would die if hit."
"...200?"
At that gap, prediction or anything else was simply impossible.
It was lower than my pre-regression Body score, but it was still far beyond anything I could handle right now.
I already knew mana granted absurd, irrational power, but I'd never seen anything this extreme before.
"Then let's just do it without mana, then."
I couldn't afford to get beaten to death during training.
It'd be embarrassing.
Two weeks passed quickly while training with Luna.
The Kraken incident seemed to have been resolved to some degree, and the day for regular classes to resume finally arrived.
In the meantime, the academy's collapsed buildings had been repaired, and the gloomy atmosphere had improved considerably.
But in contrast, my expression kept souring more and more.
That was because I had absolutely no idea how to make use of my newly gained Talent, Editor.
To begin with, I didn't have a Mana Stone infused with mana, nor could I cast spells myself.
"I'll take attendance now. Aria?"
"Here!"
Regular classes were finally starting after two weeks.
Oddly enough, Aden's childhood friend Aria was in the same class as me.
Was it because more students had survived this time compared to before the regression?
"Benjamin."
"Yes."
When my name was called, I looked at the professor taking attendance.
Her robe was without a single speck of dust, and her nails were neatly trimmed.
The professor, with a cold voice that carried not even a trace of warmth, introduced herself as Elin Creek.
With blue hair neatly tied back and an impression as cold as her voice, wearing rectangular glasses that made her look even more strict.
"There were some unfortunate incidents recently, but I hope everyone has managed to endure well. Before we begin the lesson, I have a few announcements, so let me share them briefly before we start."
From the second year onward, students could choose the classes they wanted and focus intensively on developing their own talents, but first-years had to attend assigned classes.
It was quite bothersome, but there was nothing to be done about it, so I checked my class schedule with a sullen expression.
[Mon] Mana Theory (Evin Elixir)
[Tue] Formula Theory (Nin Save)
[Wed] Practical Application of Magic (Marey Beatrice)
[Thu] Understanding Elements (Elin Creek)
[Fri] Accumulation and Depletion (Linen Ford)
The academy held individual training time in the mornings, and classes only started after lunch.
Each class ran for about four to five hours.
Even though the five classes were divided by day of the week, they all covered the exact same material.
Was it perhaps because I knew, deep down, that this body had no real connection to magic?
It was genuinely hard to focus on the lesson.
In my hazy, half-dazed mind, a memory from that morning suddenly surfaced.
"Uh, huh?"
"What's wrong?"
"I think my muscle tore... I can't put any strength into my arm."
"Muscle tearing, that's normal... it means growing stronger."
Luna gave me a thumbs up as she put the dumbbell I'd dropped back into my hand.
If a muscle tears, that's an injury, so why would that mean getting stronger?
"You there, Benjamin!"
While I was deep in thought, a voice snapped me back, and I found Professor Elin standing in front of me with an angry expression.
"Quite the attitude for your very first day, isn't it?"
Pushing up her rectangular glasses while glaring at me, I immediately bowed my head.
"...I'm sorry."
Having crawled through the extreme, dog eat dog world of mercenaries, it had become second nature to reach for a sword first and worry later, even when I was clearly in the wrong, in order to come out on top. But I knew well enough not to try that here, in a place far removed from that harsh world.
I might have learned my social skills badly from mercenaries, but I at least knew that much.
"Is sorry supposed to be enough?"
Hmm, should I have grabbed a sword first, then.
Watching Professor Elin snap at me like that, the thought of just going back to my old ways briefly crossed my mind.
"Do you know how important understanding the elements is in magic?"
Of course someone who'd made a living by the sword had no way of knowing something like that.
As I stood there blankly watching, seeming irritated, she gathered mana into one hand and spoke.
"Seems you're quite confident in elemental studies, Mr. Benjamin?"
I watched the mana in her hand shift through various colors and slowly coalesce.
[Fire Worm of Hidden Form]
A Fire Worm was a spell mainly used by mages who handled the Fire element, spread across the ground to create distance from enemies and shape the terrain to their advantage.
According to the caster's intent, the Worm would writhe across the ground, setting fires as it went, and for someone like me who couldn't use mana, it had always been an exhaustingly troublesome spell to deal with.
"Now, guess what element is contained in this spell."
Spells completed in slightly different forms depending on who cast them, but once an element was added, things changed.
If an arrow was wreathed in fire, that meant the Fire attribute; if space appeared distorted, that meant the Wind attribute, and so on. Aside from the spell itself, the characteristics of the attribute were normally visible to the eye.
But this was a spell that hid what kind of spell it even was in the first place.
Despite having faced countless mages, I had never once seen a spell like this.
'Being able to change its form while maintaining its original attribute... Does that mean her focus and skill are just that outstanding?'
I supposed being a professor really did make her different somehow.
Since it was the first time I'd seen mana clumped together like this up close, I found it strange and fascinating, and without meaning to, I reached out and touched it.
And the moment my hand made contact, the clumped mana began to churn violently.