Farewell

On the night sky, the full moon shone brightly, illuminating the stubby trees that gave Dwarf Forest its name. The grass seemed almost fluorescent under this light, which spread all throughout the sea of vegetation… Except for one spot on the ground, where a large shadow of an owl flapping its wings could be seen faintly.

The sky was also beautifully decorated, with stars sprinkled beautifully, accompanying the large moon. They could be seen endlessly spreading through the dark of night like tiny jewels… Except for one spot, where a slight distortion could be perceived in movement, blurring the scene as if a transparent film was placed under it.

On top of a giant grey owl with twin red feathers coming up from its intimidating forehead, stood alone a magician girl, standing with perfect balance as her flying mount flapped it's wings silently in the sky.

They were both under the veil of a secret spell and could not be seen with human eyes, their only traces being the distortion in the sky, the weak shadow on the ground, and the air produced by the beast's wings.

If a green haired boy were to hear about this spell, he would say there was actually quite a lot of traces left behind. This thought went through the girl's head, causing her great pain.

Her delicate face had a scary atmosphere which betrayed her youthful looks, and while looking down with her left hand hidden inside her robe, her right arm traced an arc in the air as if it was a net trying to catch fish.

At the end of her scooping motion, her hand lit up with black flames that disappeared against the dark of night and could only be seen when contrasted with her white skin.

It was a Great spell called Nether Flame, and it burned with heat intense to melt rock, but left only ethereal ashes from whatever it targeted. It was perfect for erasing mistakes.

As the pink haired magician looked down at an old hut made of decaying wood, a single tear went down her face.

She could still remember the day she first came upon this seemingly useless shack protected by an advanced barrier. Becoming famous as a practical joke made by a powerful wizard, no one ever paid much attention to it.

Alas, all things had an end, and the shack would no longer serve as a peculiar landmark to those wandering the forest, it had to be gone, it was her mistake.

…

5 months ago.

"Five… Six…" Toba was spotting me at the improvised tree trunk bench press and was about to touch the "bar" to help me.

"DON'T TOUCH IT! AAAAAARGH!"

With my face red as a tomato and my back arched against the wood, I put all the remaining strength I had into my legs and core to help me execute the last rep. It was an advanced technique called "Leg drive", and it helped a ton when benching lots of weight.

Don't ask me why though, I just know it works.

"7…" Toba said as he helped me place the log down on the support.

"Whew… Finally a new PR."

Bodybuilding in this world was even more fun than on earth. Not only was progress faster, our muscles could produce a lot more strength.

Being a kid and benching half a tree was surreal, the feeling of the weight pressing down on my body and my muscles contracting to push it up was greatly amplified since it was all on a much greater scale.

If I'm already like this, I wonder what I'll have to do to progressive overload when I'm an adult. I hope there's a super heavy metal alloy or something.

"Come Toba, let's eat."

Things were going great, the "newbie gains" were seemingly endless for me and my brother, I was practically perfect with the execution of my spells, and I even started to feel like I would soon have enough mana to cast three minor spells.

As for my private endeavors, Luna properly taught me how to make poison to sate my dangerous curiosity, but then hid all the glasswork and alchemy components.

Speaking of hiding things, I didn't see the "Dark arts" book on the table again after the day I discovered it. The only times I saw it was when stealing glimpses from Luna while she worked on the pearl, which made me grateful that I copied the pages I wanted when I had the opportunity.

Something about that tome was special, and it was clearly a fluke that it was left in the open by her that time. Since then, she hid it every single time, which made me nervous about what her reaction would be when I asked to learn from it.

I was putting a lot of effort in learning the spell, but because the instructions were so vague and the "trick" required was so finnicky, I was convinced there was a piece of the puzzle missing.

My hunch was that it had something to do with what Luna used to turn the pages on her tome when she had to save Toba from his glorified nut allergy. Of course, I nagged her about it constantly, and today she was going to teach me how to do it along with the secret to "whispering spells".

…

"Well then, are you ready for our secret class today? Fufufufu."

Lady don't toy with my heart, as much as I want to learn the magic techniques, I would prefer that phrase to mean something else.

Should I tell her? It would be funny seeing her blush.

"For once I am. You went easy on us today."

Luna's sparring today had been weirdly chill, it might even be the reason I managed an extra rep on the bench press.

Not that I would complain of course, but it felt weird not getting beaten up completely.

"That's… Well, it's ok to take some breaks, right? Hehehe, it also could be that you're both stronger, who knows."

The nerve on this woman! Just to make it clear, we ARE getting stronger, but she always doubles the difficulty whenever we make any progress.

"No need to make that face at me! You just look cute when you pout like that. But moving on, the wind trick you want to learn is actually pretty common, I didn't teach you earlier because I forgot, it's one of those things you do so much you forget it's actually a separate skill."

"The technique on whispered spells on the other hand… It's a trade secret, but since it has become more well-known these last few years, I'll teach you how to do it."

Trade secret huh… It must have something to do with the organization she's part of.

"You have seen me using magic to light up campfires and put out small flames before, right? That is what is called a mana effect. Essentially, it's simple manipulation of the mana on your own body."

"Oh! So those weren't proper spells after all!"

I had my doubts when Luna used magic to light up fires, but ever since I learn she was the real deal when it came to magic, I just brushed it off and counted it as a minor spell.

This made much more sense, since I never saw her use magic circles or specific movements when she created sparks with her fingers of took out small flames with her palms.

"Correct, they do not involve magic circles, and since the effect is so little, with proper control one can use it a lot without having to worry about spending too much mana."

As she said that, the raised a finger from her hand, and a small flame not unlike one from a lighter appeared on top.

"Right now, I'm able to sustain this flame for about a minute before I even spend a minor spell's worth of mana, but since the practical applications of mana effects are usually for quick actions, I will rarely spend this much in a week."

She changed into a smug expression before adding:

"Of course, If I do end up spending a spell's worth it's no big deal for me… But don't go playing around with it too much or you'll spend all your mana, fufufu."

Such gratuitous bullying!

"Hmph! Even if I do, I can defend myself just fine even without my spells."

"Hey now, don't get too confident. It's true that you don't exactly rely on just your spells, but like I told you many times, they are your trump cards, they can save you from situations that are unwinnable otherwise, so conserve your mana carefully." Luna said, this time with a slightly more serious tone.

"Yes sensei!"

"As long as you know it, hehehe."

I was just trying to save face, and she knew it, after living together for so long, we now knew each other pretty well.

"Anyway, to produce these effects it's not so difficult, it's mainly about keeping expenditure under control, but there's a natural limit to what we can manipulate with our mana, so even that is hard to screw up. I'll teach you how to do it in a bit."

I raised my hand and looked at her expectantly, I was about to find out something that could be the key to my progress.

"Luna sensei I have a question, can these effects be part of the movements required for a spell?"

"Oh? Yes, in fact they can, but it's not so common. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious, hehehe."

She made a face like she couldn't decide if she was proud of my question or warry about my motives. To be fair, I was being a little naughty lately, and in truth my question actually had hidden intentions behind it.

"Hm… Full of secrets huh? I ought to give you a spanking!"

"I wouldn't mind." The phrase left my mouth before I noticed it.

"…What?" Luna was genuinely confused, even if she is mysterious, she can sometimes be quite pure and naïve, this adds to her charm a lot.

"Never mind that. Sensei, teach me about whispered spells!"

"Ok, ok. But just so you know, it's not an easy technique. Whispering spells is quite literally when you whisper the power word instead of saying it clearly or shouting. You may have noticed it before, but the way you say the word of power dictates if the spell fails or not."

"Yeah, every time I shout the spell it works fine, but when I say it in a normal tone, I need to pay more attention to it, or it doesn't work right."

"Exactly, the louder you shout the less perfect your pronunciation needs to be. And, as you might have guessed, whispering it increases the difficulty by a ton."

"Hm." I nodded.

Everything she said was right. It may sound simple to just learn how to say a word in the right way, but with spells there are a ton of minute details you need to control in your voice and tempo.

For some reason though, if you shout it really loud you can say it however you want as long as it's the right word.

"Also, almost no one can whisper spells, It's not a common skill by any means."

"How so?"

"For starters, it used to be a secret technique, and it only went public recently. Secondly, it's hard, and people generally don't find it that useful to be worth the training. Some dedicated adventurers have started to learn it though, especially pure mages and assassins."

That made sense. Luna had taught me about the classes before, and pure mages are ones reliant almost exclusively on spells, while assassins were rogues trained with magic or vice versa. Of course, Luna didn't say what class she was trained as, but it was pretty obvious she was an assassin based on her skills.

Even though I was being trained mainly as a spellblade, I had rogue training too, and I could think of tons of uses for whispered spells, especially in combination with the Darkness spell.

"I want to learn it!"

…

"Brother… Why speak with funny voice?"

"Tsk. Fuck off Toba."

My voice was extremely hoarse after practicing whispered spells for hours. I knew the technique itself was hard, but I thought at least the training would be light.

I was wrong, and now I sounded like a tranny.

Not everything was bad, however, since I quickly learned how to produce mana effects. I was still a beginner of course, but it wasn't that hard for me and even Luna said I picked up on it fast.

In order to not reveal my plan, I learned how to create a small flame on my finger and how to put out small fires, as well as other little tricks, but my real interest was on the technique used to flip through book pages.

Of course, my interest in it wasn't because I'm a book work, and I don't know enough spells to own a tome yet.

The real reason I was interested was the stone on the palm of my hand.

After moving away from a confused Toba, I started practice spinning the stone on my finger. As soon as the stone started spinning after many tries, I used the wind trick to move the air around it and stabilize it.

The stone started spinning faster and faster until it flied out of my finger because of a wrong move I made, but that was already a great success.

I DID IT!

I had to keep myself from screaming eureka! Using wind to maintain the spin on the stone was clearly possible, and it would be much simpler than trying to do it without it, especially in a battle.

I just needed to practice it so I wouldn't increase the spinning speed too much, and the movement would be perfect.

After that, I would have to learn how to maintain the spell after casting it, since it surely required some special control of mana too.

That would have to wait, since I needed the complete pearl for it, so I had plenty of time to practice the movement until then.

Hehehe, I can't wait to see the shock in Luna's eyes when I show her I learned a spell on my own, and not even a minor one. She must think I'm lazy since I said I wanted to practice with the minor repel spells before I learned a new one, little does she know…

…

It took me a couple months to get the hang of the wind trick to spin the pearl, but after much practice I could walk around all day while doing it… If I had enough mana.

One time I actually had to pretend I was sick; it was magic practice and I had spent all my mana training the wind mana effect.

Coincidentally, Luna stopped working on the pearl, so unless she gave up, she must have finished it by now.

I just needed to wait for my chance.

…

It was raining outside, but for some reason today was the day Luna chose to go out and play with her owl or whatever.

For a couple of weeks now, I've been looking for the complete pearl every time she went out, but I could never find it. I imagine she hid it together with the dark arts tome, but I never found that book either.

Behind bookshelves, under bookshelves, on top of bookshelves… No matter how much I looked, I wasn't successful.

Now that I think about it, this place is basically just a tiny library, isn't it? I feel like a nerd now.

I wasn't going to give up, I spent way too much time practicing and experimenting with darkness, and I fantasized about it even more.

The made-up scenarios where I defeated tons of monsters using it or escaped with my life against impossible odds occurred daily inside my head, there was no way I could back down anymore.

If I can just find that damn pearl! Think, where would Luna hide something like this?

As I almost fried my brains thinking about it, I arrived at a very obvious conclusion.

If it was something that important and secret, why would she leave it inside the tower in the first place?

Of course, the book and all her 'secret materials' weren't small enough that she could carry them around with her everywhere, but that was just me thinking with a limited brain, a brain from earth.

In this world, a child could cast spells with the explosive power of grenades, how is it possible that she doesn't have any means of storage aside from that huge backpack?

That would also explain why she was careless enough to leave the book and pearl at the table that time. If she had a hiding spot inside the tower, she would never forget to store them there after she was done.

I could be wrong of course, and if I couldn't find it in her clothes or inside some magic circle of hers, I would need to wait for her to bring them out.

Which kinda made me regret I waited for so long… She wasn't working on the pearl any longer so who knows when she would take them out again.

Even if she did, it wouldn't be simple, since she knew I spied on her, and she always warned me to get out when I stayed for too long.

But enough worrying, I needed to act on the opportunities I had. Until she returned home, I kept searching a bit more just in case, and when she returned and went to sleep, I made my move.

…

"Luna I'm cold, can I sleep with you?" I whispered with a disgusting abandoned puppy act.

"Mmmh… I don't want to… Let me kill him later…" She kept mumbling in her sleep but grabbed me by my arm and quickly pulled my body into her embrace.

Whenever she slept, she was always in this weird state where she could listen and react to things, but at the same time seemed completely asleep, it was like a controlled sleepwalking.

But wait a minute, what the hell is she dreaming about?

While I rejoiced feeling Luna's chest pressing against my neck, I flinched in fear of what was to come. There was a reason why Toba and I never slept together with Luna, even in the coldest of nights.

Like I feared, she started slowly increasing the pressure, and I gulped audibly as she locked her legs around me. There was more than one point of pressure now, and my bones were starting to creak already, but this was all part of the plan.

I started to struggle, while slowly freeing my arms and moving them above my head.

"Luna oneechan… It hurts…" I said while reaching my arms for her big wizard hat, but my words were completely sincere, I was being crushed.

"Toba… Let's go out already… The tiger won't hurt you…"

She mumbled while adjusting her grip to my movements but keeping up her iron grip. Under any other circumstances I would be glad to have her soft tights and chest squeezing me, but right now my life was in danger.

With my face already a little purple, I managed to grab the rim of her hat. Why the hat? Because it was the most obvious place to hide something of course, that thing was huge.

Using my struggling as an excuse, I pushed her hat far away from her. She did notice it of course, but since I made it look like an accident, she didn't react to it.

Still, I didn't know exactly how aware she was in her weird sleeping state, so it was a gamble.

There was one last place I needed to check though…

I flipped around in my struggle, now facing her, and as expected, she shoved my face inside her robes.

Hehehehehe… Yep, it's all here…

Now that she was sleeping, I could drop the innocent act I usually had when she hugged me like this, and her robe was loose due to her sleeping position.

I made only the most strictly necessary movements to move my head around and look inside her clothes, and of course, I was only looking for the pearl, nothing else.

Thank God the moonlight was shining strong tonight, that allowed me to meticulously confirm she wasn't hiding it in her robes.

I had to search with extreme attention of course, no detail could be left behind.

After spending a few minutes searching, which was an act of utmost importance to my mission, and after using up every single cell in my body to resist the urge of going back to my baby habits, I freed myself and walked towards her hat.

The importance of that step was so great, I even momentarily forgot about the pain of being crushed by her.

"No… Don't go…"

The two most beautiful things I ever saw and felt in my life aside, inside her robe were tons of scrolls sewn into the cloth, all of them with different colored magic circles, shining dimly and illuminating my wonderful view.

Except for one, which was black and didn't shine at all, instead being revealed by the light of the others, but due to my circumstances I didn't pay that much attention to it.

Truly gorgeous… Magic, that is.

I already knew she had magic circles inside her clothes, since I saw her use spells with her hand inside her robe before, but it was interesting seeing them all there.

With extremely careful movements and without making any sound, I took her hat from the ground and inspected the inside.

I was looking for a different looking magic circle or something, but it was pitch black inside, even when I put it against the moonlight.

What the hell? Is this a magic item?

Luna had told me about magic items before, but I didn't know too much about them. What I did know, is that the spears and the cloak she made for us were considered lesser magic items, and that the most common place to find strong magic items was inside dungeons.

Magic item or not, that darkness wasn't natural, and so, I stuck my hand inside it.

My hand disappeared in it, like it crossed some sort of barrier, and I drove my arm further until I hit a box at the end.

That's it! I can't believe I was actually right on the money this time.

It seemed way too easy, but when I thought about it, I couldn't imagine many people would be able to get past Luna's sleepwalking like I did. Not to mention that her guard against us was probably lowered.

When I say it like this I really sound like an asshole, don't I?

I grabbed the box and pulled on it, to my surprise, the small box quickly got bigger as soon as I took it out of the hat.

If this wasn't a magic item, I was certainly going crazy.

Or dreaming, like that time I dreamed about being gifted a ps3 when I was a kid, and when I woke up to play it, it was nowhere to be found.

Dream or not, I had to act quick. I opened the now large box, and inside it was a variety of items. The dark arts tome was at the center, and around it was lots of leather bags, and some rolled up scrolls.

I wouldn't mess around with more than I needed, it was not my intention to rob Luna. I opened the leather bags one at a time, some had flasks with weird liquids inside, while some had precious stones, and even dried insects.

Finally, I found the one with the pearl. Or pearls, to be exact, there were five engraved pearls inside, all of them with engravings on them, but only one was complete.

I had already prepared for this, and so I took out a round stone around the same weight of the pearls (which were not exactly the same size of course), and I placed it on the bottom of the bag while taking out the pearl with completed engravings.

I knew it was the right one because the engravings had turned black and had a weird light distortion effect but without emitting light on itself, similar to the weird magic circle I found earlier inside paradise.

I was about to close the box and place it on her hat again when I saw the tome and had to stop to consider.

The first time I found it, I didn't think it would be so well hidden, and that I would never have access to it again until now. In fact, I thought it was simply a book from the tower like the others, but considering how she was treating it, this tome was probably hers to begin with.

Depending on Luna's response when I ask to learn from it, this could be the last time I see these spells…

I had made up my mind, and as I carefully made my way upstairs, I looked back at Luna who was sleeping soundly.

I'm just going to borrow this for a bit, oneechan.

…

Luna was out again, and that meant I could finally put all my training into practice. That time, I copied all the spells in the book except the encrypted ones into blank scrolls along with crude drawings of the magic circles, since previously I had copied only the dark blade and darkness spells.

They didn't particularly attract me, but they certainly seemed rare, and so I decided not to waste the opportunity like I did the first time.

With Luna out, and Toba sleeping downstairs without a care in the world, I went upstairs while spinning the pearl on my finger.

After reading the instructions for the spell again, I prepared myself. This would be my first time attempting to cast a regular spell instead of a minor one.

With an adept flick of my hand, the pearl started spinning on top of my index finger, and I used wind to keep it stabilized.

"[Darkness]"

I kept gathering mana on the tip of my finger while maintaining the wind effect, and a dark fog started to seep from the pearl as it spined.

I didn't need to fight against fainting while I did it, which meant my mana capacity was a little better than before.

The dark fog, however, was weirdly concentrated and heavy, it wasn't spreading around like it was supposed to, and was instead falling straight down on the floor and gathering on my feet.

It was also weirdly slow, from what I understood, the spell was supposed to last only a moment before the magical fog spread all around the area of effect, but it was slowly seeping out instead.

What could be the issue?

The instructions weren't clear, so I had to think logically. The minor repel spell required me to spread the mana around me and concentrate it as much as possible while the magic circle formed a sphere around me. Then, as the target hit the barrier, I would release all the mana, making it repel the blow towards the attacker.

The minor firebolt spell had a similar logic in order to function properly, and Luna said all spells followed this rule, so even if I didn't have precise instructions, I should be able to figure it out myself.

Basically, spells made sense, so I had to think about the function of the spell I was trying to cast in order to understand what I had to do.

The spell had to spread fog around me at high speeds, but right now it seemed concentrated and dense, not to mention slow. I had to not only make it seep faster, but also spread around and "dilute" itself in the air.

I needed a mental cue. I used mental cues in the gym all the time in order to better feel and understand my muscle contraction during the exercises, and that corporal consciousness helped me greatly even in battle, since it made my movements more effective as the force I produced was generated and applied in an optimal way, with the optimal muscles.

But what mental cue could I use… What could I think off that spined fast while spreading around something inside it as much as possible…

I was thinking about Beyblades as the mental cue to keep the pearl spinning, but they didn't spread anything…

Think, I need it to seep out faster, so I need to force more mana out. I also need it to spread around, but what must I do to achieve it…

Cotton candy? THAT'S IT!

Cotton candy was made by spinning sugar inside those machines at absurd speeds, forcing it out through tiny holes. The fog wasn't solid, but what I wanted was the same, I wanted to spread around that thick, heavy fog into a lighter one that would obscure a great area.

I used the cotton candy mental cue to imagine countless tiny holes in the pearl and increased the speed greatly with wind effect. The fog started to spread around in a tiny cloud instead of falling down, but it was still too slow, so I forced all the mana gathered in the circle outwards at the same time.

In just a couple of seconds, the fog spread all around the room, and I couldn't see anything. The spell was a success!

True to the description, the fog didn't just obscure my vision, it blocked it completely, I couldn't see the floor, my feet, or my hands, even if I placed them right against my eyeball.

Which I did… And ended up stabbing my eye.

But never mind that, I could now cast a proper spell, not just a minor one!

All that remained was for me to end it, but… How?

I tried spinning the pearl backwards to suck in the fog, but it didn't work. According to the tome, the spell had a duration of 1 minute, so it should be fine… If I hadn't just heard Luna's footsteps outside!

I absolutely couldn't let her see this, so I made my way to the door using only the memory I had of the tower.

Suffice it to say, it was way more difficult than it seemed. This wasn't like walking around your apartment at night, where you can faintly see things and complete them with your memory, this was complete and absolute darkness.

I stumbled a lot on the way, but I somehow managed to not wake up Toba. Thankfully, the first floor wasn't completely engulfed in the spell, I had to thank my earlier failure for that, since a part of the fog remained concentrated and didn't spread.

I opened the door and immediately saw Luna with a surprised expression. I had closed all the windows on the upper floor before trying out the spell, so nothing was seeping out, and my hope was that she was just surprised to see me.

"Cona? Again waking up this late?"

I made a sleepy expression before starting my performance.

"Oneechan… I can't sleep well lately."

"Oh Cona! You know you can always sleep with me if you're having trouble sleeping alone!"

My Johnson immediately reacted to that phrase, and I had to remember the pain of being crushed alive by her to prevent its complete activation.

"But oneechan squeezes me so hard… I end up in pain for the whole week." I said while looking on the ground and strategically placing my arms in front of me.

"Oh… I may have done that a couple of times…" Luna said, a little rejected.

She crushed us every single time.

"You promise not to squeeze me?"

"I promise! I'll restrain myself!"

"… Really?" I said while taking a quick glance at the window, confirming that the fog was now mostly dissipated.

"Really! If I start squeezing you, you can hug me from behind instead."

This is getting out of hand.

"O-ok! I just need to go to the bathroom really quick then, wait for me here."

My buddy was fully activated with that last phrase, and I ran to the other side of the tower with my back arched forward.

"Wait here?... Is he afraid of the dark now?" Luna said to herself in a low voice.

After I calmed myself down with my technique of continuously flexing all my muscles to drive away the blood from my developing piece, I returned and had the best sleep of my life.

Having unlocked sleeping privileges with Luna without any of the downsides was even better than learning how to cast Darkness.

I just couldn't let my nightly bliss distract me too much during training… I was a young boy after all, and if I didn't control myself, that's all I'd think about all day.

I've said it before, but thanks for bringing me into this world, Jesus. I'll pay you back some day.

…

I was going to ask Luna the very next day, but to avoid any suspicions I decided to painstakingly wait another week.

"Luna sensei!"

"Hm?" Luna was busy copying a magic circle, she was almost done with all the tomes in the tower, I had no idea how she was going to carry all those scrolls with her.

"Well… I can cast all the repel spells efficiently already, and my mana is almost at the point that I can cast three minor spells."

"Oh! So you finally want to learn another spell?" She was excited, it seemed my act went on for a little too long.

"Yes! About that, I once saw you reading a tome with a black cover, is that a spell book?"

"That book is not for you Cona." Her face instantly got cold, and her tone was serious.

"Eh?"

"Forget about that book, there's nothing for you there."

I was shocked to say the least, I wasn't expecting such an adamant reaction. There was absolutely no room for arguing.

"… Is it dangerous?"

Noticing my shocked expression, Luna eased up a little bit, and spoke with a lighter tone:

"Sight… Look Cona, there's plenty of tomes here, right? We can surely find a nice spell for you. Do you have one in mind already?"

"I guess… Minor Web? I wanted a regular spell though…"

There was no way I could admit it now, I had to think of something else.

"Hmm… I get what you're thinking, you don't want a natural attack spell because they're overkill, right? Many people think like that too, but regular utility spells are rare."

Luna paused for a while, thinking about what spell to teach me next.

"OH!" Her face lit up beautifully, almost making me forget her scary expression earlier.

"Did you think about one?"

"Yes! I was brushing them off because they're not my specialty, but a spellblade absolutely needs to learn a few Law spells! I'll teach you Push."

"Push? I didn't find this spell here."

"It's because this tower doesn't have any Law spells, the owner was definitely a pure wizard, and Law spells are generally used only by martial or hybrid classes."

"Hoh… Could it be that Luna is a pure wizard, and she still wipes the floor with Toba and I because we are too weak?"

As expected, she chuckled but didn't answer my question.

I knew a bit about Law spells, Luna explained in a different way, but basically, they altered laws of physics, and produced different effects in weapon attacks.

Their unique property was what made them viable for martial classes: They consumed only half the mana of their equivalent tier.

"Also, even though Toba doesn't have enough mana to cast a minor spell yet, I think he can manage a Law spell already, I'll teach him Minor Gather."

"Let's get started then!" I faked excitement, trying to hide the fact that my plan just went up in smoke.

Wait a minute, I can already cast darkness by myself… I even have the complete pearl with me. Would she notice it if I just… Kept it? It's not like she's going to need it anytime soon, so unless she directly checks it, I should be fine… Right?

It was certainly risky, and kind of a douchebag move… Not to mention that I had to safeguard the pearl with my life, since I would never have a way to replace it.

But it seemed like my only option… After coming this far, could I let go of all my hard work? Should I just risk it and tell her?

In the end, I couldn't do it.

I felt rotten inside, but I decided to keep my mouth shut and train the Push spell.

…

"Ok, here's a demonstration." Luna took out a really thin dagger that seemed exclusively made for stabbing, it had a silver magic circle engraved around the intricate guard.

At this point you can't even call them circles anymore… And what's with this ninja turtle dagger?

In front of her was a thick log we cut out the other day, it should weight around 300kg, but I hadn't bench-pressed it yet.

Luna tightened her grip on the dagger and the magic circle glowed faintly, with a swift motion she stepped forward and stabbed the wood.

What followed looked like an illusion. I was naturally expecting the dagger to penetrate easily, but the sharp tip stopped as soon as it made contact, and after a tiny pause of less than half a second, the large log disappeared.

Or at least it looked like it did. In actuality, after the short pause the wood was thrown forward at an unthinkable speed and crashed to splinters against the barrier.

"Cool, right?" Luna gave a cute smile that contrasted greatly with her absurd performance.

"… What just happened?"

"Basically, push distributes and multiplies pressure, remember our classes about pressure?"

"Yeah, the smaller the area, the greater the pressure, right?"

"Exactly. Push works on that principle, so you must always use it with very thin thrusting weapons. What it does is take all that pressure from the blow, multiply it, and spread it around the entire surface of what you're hitting. Well, the surface directly facing the blow at least."

Interesting stuff… I remember a similar principle back on earth, it had something to do with hydrodynamics, or was it hydrostatics? I can't remember the name…

Either way, I had a pretty good guess of what was going on. I felt a little stupid about always thinking it was going to be useless knowledge back in high school, but at least I remembered something.

"So, it doesn't go through, and causes less damage on the strike itself since the pressure is spread around, but instead makes the target go flying back because the total force is much greater, right?"

"…" Luna froze with a complicated look on her face.

"Eh… Did I say something wrong?"

"I was going to show you with water, and tubes… You're way too smart…"

Her shocked expression made it look like she was reconsidering her entire life choices.

I probably went a bit too far recalling my physics classes on earth… It feels weird taking this much credit for just partially remembering things from school, If I was actually a kid and figured this stuff that easily, I would be a genius like Luna probably thinks I am.

Don't get discouraged Luna, you're the genius, I'm just on my second playthrough is all.

…

More weeks flew by, but despite practicing every day, I couldn't get the hang of the Push spell. It was supposed to be simple, but for some reason I was having a lot of trouble with it, and it always failed.

Luna said I shouldn't worry too much, and that magic practice usually went like this, I just had a higher affinity with Wished and Natural spells, and that's what made them easier for me.

It was still frustrating, but after learning darkness on my own, I was in a good mood.

One day, however, Luna suddenly canceled our morning sparring with her, and said she was going to be busy for the day.

She was visibly in a very bad mood, and it was the first time she skipped on all our daily training like this.

She went into the woods early in the morning, and only returned when the sun was beginning to set, her mood even worse than before.

"Boys, we need to talk."

…

Earlier in the day

"…. Return immediately and destroy this letter…"

"…"

"DAMNIT!" I couldn't resist the urge to curse and started banging my feet on the floor in frustration.

To even make me say such a word, those… Stupid people! Ugh, was I not clear in my previous letter?

It was true that I delayed my work here on purpose, but even so, they were way too cruel! Pushing the leader to call for my immediate return…

Why did they have to get HIM involved?

"Sight… There's no avoiding it now."

Fortunately, I had lied about my location, so the clansman they sent should be waiting for me in that village.

I could still go there and get back today if I went right now, and there wasn't much choice in the matter.

…

I got down from my giant blood-brow owl and slowly stretched my back.

Flying without pause like this is a horrible way to travel… Why are they so cruel to me?

And I even had to land far from the village, since there aren't many good hiding spots around, but Shadow Veil should be enough to conceal it in this place, I kept the spell up on myself too, just because.

After arriving at the informed place, I knocked on a tree four times, and after a short pause I knocked five more times.

Without making any noise, four clansmen got closer, they were all wearing farmer's clothes.

"Are you ready to depart?"

"Listen here, go back to the mountain right now if you want to keep your head attached to your necks, I will gather my things and return tomorrow. I will not return together with any of you."

"Our orders we'-"

Before he finished speaking, I released shadow veil on myself and looked at him with a little killing intent. I was not in a good mood, and I would rather kill them than repeat myself.

"U-understood, we'll return immediately."

As soon as he finished his sentence, they all vanished without a trace.

That problem was sorted, but now I had to go back to Cona and Toba and explain to them I that I had to leave…

If it was anyone other than the leader ordering me, I would stay at least a week with them before leaving, but my situation was tricky.

Just thinking about saying goodbye so soon makes my eyes watery…

But I always knew this day would come, I was at least able to teach everything I could to them in the time we had, and I was confident that they would be better great adventurers with the skill level they were at.

A few missions on their own, and they would be better than at least 80% of adventurers, the recent generations were especially weak.

I just hope they don't go barging into any dungeons…

…

After many more hours of exhausting travel at high altitude, I finally got back to the tower. As I landed, I had a feeling that the image of that lonely little shack in the middle of the forest would become very nostalgic for me.

Using the key to the magic barrier, I went passed through it with my heart aching.

"Boys, we need to talk."

"Hm? Did something happen sensei?" Cona said with a worried look. He was a smart kid, so he'd probably figured it out already.

"Let's sit down first."

We sat on the wood stools we made in the garden, which were just cut up tree stumps.

Toba was visibly confused. He was the one I was most worried about leaving alone, but I trusted Cona to take care of them both.

"I…" I tried to say it, but the words got caught in my throat, I had to take a moment and drink some water to keep myself from crying.

"It's ok, take your time." Cona said with a serious and dependable face that I found much comfort in.

It felt strange that he was a child and yet I was relying on him to calm myself down, but right now, for some reason I felt I could depend on him and trust him.

"I won't be able to stay with you two any longer..."

Like I expected, Cona had a 'So it really is about that.' face, and Toba was in shock.

"Luna… leaving? Why?" Toba looked at me like he saw a ghost.

Don't do this to me Toba… I swear I'd murder the entire clan just to stay with you, but I can't defeat the boss…

"I don't tell you two about my work much… But I have been requested a lot to return these past years, and now I really have no option to refuse anymore…"

"…W- won't see Luna again?" Toba's eyes began to moisten up.

Like a deadly virus, his tears instantly spread to me, and my eyes began to tear up as well.

"I- I swear I wish I could stay all my life, and take you both to the city and-"

"It's ok." Cona suddenly got up and hugged me tight, resting my face on his tiny but muscular chest.

"Uuuuuuuuh…"

I couldn't resist, and started crying, I didn't want to leave them, but I couldn't bring them to the clan, they didn't deserve that kind of life.

"Cona, sniff, Toba… I-"

"We love you too."

That was the final blow, I couldn't say anything anymore, and just kept crying as I pulled Toba close to me and hugged them both.

…

After a lot of tears were spilled, I begun to pack my things while explaining to them again all they needed to know about adventures and cities, as well as general travel knowledge.

Of course, a few pauses had to be made so I could cry some more, but even my tears had a limit.

Cona had a distant look as I packed my things, like he was making an important decision in his heart. Whatever it was, I trusted him to know what to do.

After I packed everything, including the tons and tons of scrolls and books I had copied, we set the two huge packs in a corner, and slept together through the night.

I also tried my best not to squeeze them too much, one time, Cona sent my hat flying while he struggled, and that hat needed to always stay at my watch.

The next day, it was finally time to say farewell.

I had the two backpacks on me, one on each shoulder, and considering they were each three times my size, it must have looked funny, even more considering they didn't know I would be traveling on my giant owl.

"Cona, this is for you." I said as I took out my dagger with the Push spell engraved on it.

"But I can't use it yet…" He looked down ashamed, he was used to being a prodigy at everything, and couldn't accept that he was having a little trouble with law spells.

"Haven't I told you, silly. You will get the hang of it eventually, most people have trouble learning spells, it's just you who is too fast."

I ruffled his emerald hair and gave him the dagger, I couldn't tell him Toba could already use Minor Gather, and Toba was wise enough to keep quiet too.

Speaking of which…

"And for you Toba, here." I raised the greatclub I prepared for him from the ground.

It was just a regular wood club like the ones he used and abused, but I inserted a steel core inside to make it sturdier and engraved the magic circle for Minor Gather in it.

"… Heavy." He said with red eyes as he took it and felt it's weight.

"I did some simple reinforcements to it, if it breaks again, you can find a new one on any weapons shop, and this particular magic circle is cheap to engrave too."

"Hm." Toba nodded while looking at the ground.

Since yesterday, he had been avoiding looking at me directly, he wasn't taking my departure as well as Cona, but it was Cona that stood out instead, he was way too mature for a kid.

Speaking of which…

Cona jumped at me, and clang to me like a koala while burying his face in my chest.

"I'll miss Oneechan so much!" He said with a muffled voice.

"Cona!"

He usually wasn't shameless like this, but recently he was getting too bold.

He was turning into a man after all, but precisely because of that, I shouldn't let him do as he pleased, it brought up weird feelings in me, and I took care of him since he was a baby so I shouldn't allow this.

He was way too clever though, and before I could push him off, he got down himself, taking away my opportunity to reprimand him.

Also, I should really start bandaging up my chest.

"Sensei, I wrote a special message for you in the Japanese book, but you can only read it after five days of travel!"

"The book? But I had it with me!"

"Hehehe." He chuckled as he handed it too me.

Was it wrong to teach him rogue skills?

"I love you both a lot, and someday we'll certainly meet again, so become famous adventurers so I can find you two easier, ok?" I kissed them both on the forehead, and Toba finally looked at me, while starting to cry.

My eyes were testing the limits of the human body as I once again started crying, but I had to go.

"Thank you for everything, Luna."

"…" Toba really wanted to say something, but he couldn't let out the words.

"It's ok Toba, I know how you feel, and Luna feels the same. Grow up strong, and don't let anyone belittle you, ok?"

He nodded.

"And Cona, you two have great potential, so long as you keep being the smart kid you are, you two will certainly find success. So don't leave Toba alone, and don't go into any dungeons."

"I'll remember that!"

I couldn't delay it much longer, and as I turned to leave, I couldn't help myself but be happy for the both of them, they had a bright future ahead.

"We'll meet again, Sensei!" Cona shouted as I disappeared into the forest.

…

After flying nonstop for two days, I couldn't take it anymore, and decided to land and conduct a little inventory check.

If it was in the past, I could fly all the way up to Crescent Mountain without rest, but I had it too easy these last years, it would take me a while to get used to the assassin life again.

When was my last big mission anyway? 6 years ago?

I was soft now for sure, but I've been through long breaks before, it wouldn't take so long for me to readjust.

For now, however, I would stop to conduct and inventory check. It was extremely necessary, and certainly wasn't just an excuse to rest and eat.

As I went through my provisions, snacking along the way, I found a tiny piece of paper wedged in between some packs of hard bread.

"What's this?"

There was a message written in it, and it had Cona's handwriting.

'Luna oneechan, I have done something bad, but I hope you will forgive me. I really wanted to learn the Darkness spell, and I trained it in secret for a long time, hoping you would teach me later how to carve a pearl for myself.'

My face went pale, and I felt as if all the blood in my body had vanished. For him to have trained for that spell, he needed the secret tome!

'However, you reacted strongly to my slightest mention of the Dark Arts tome, and It made me afraid to tell you that I can already successfully cast the spell. I don't have the skills to properly carve a pearl on my own, since the magic circle is weird and complicated, and honestly isn't even a circle since it wraps around the whole pearl.'

I had trouble focusing on the letter, that book was absolutely not to be read by him, it was already bad that he saw me with it at night sometimes, but I thought I had it under control!

When did he manage to snatch it away?

My face sank even more, as I remembered the time I forgot my things on the table before going to fetch their boar tusk spears.

If he was alone with the book… If he read all its contents than that means…

I puked from the thought, but I had to keep going.

'Anyway, I had no other option than to keep the pearl. I really didn't want to do it, but I had to practice so hard to learn the spell, I didn't want all my effort to go away.'

'Speaking of which, why is that tome so cryptic? I had to figure out myself the trick to spin the pearl with wind mana effect, and to make the dark fog properly dissipate wasn't easy either.'

The pearl… Wait, how did he get it?

I instantly grabbed my hat and took out my box from inside, and when I went to check the pearls… There was a rock with a smiley face carved with them, and the complete pearl was nowhere to be found.

He even found my hat? I thought he had access to the book just that one time…

My hat had other compartments in it, hiding secret documents and things that absolutely could not be leaked, but those had magic seals on them, since I didn't need to access them often.

The problem was, in the box was my Knowledge Ruby, and if he activated and gained it's contents… I would have to…

No, even if he didn't, just him having access to the book for so long, possibly copying it, it was enough to force me…

My face was frozen in time, and I just stood still for a couple of seconds, unable to accept my situation.

How could I be so careless? I was living with them so carefree; I don't even know when he managed to snatch my hat!

This was bad, really bad. I had to think of some way to cover this up… Except there wasn't.

Delete thoughts spell would be too strong on them, their brains weren't fully developed yet, and the spell would either kill them or render them invalids.

'I know I did wrong by taking the pearl, but Luna sensei is so talented, she can surely make lots of them, right? Also, I promise I'll be careful with the spells, I'm sure that tome is dangerous, and that's why you didn't want me to learn from it, but you don't need to worry, I'll be responsible!'

SPELLS? HE COPIED ALL OF THEM?

The situation kept getting worse and worse, the more I read, the more I had to accept the truth. It was like an endless nightmare.

The longer I tried to think of a solution, the harder reality hit me. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore, thinking about what I had to do was destroying me, every time I came to the realization that I had no choice left, I felt unimaginable pain.

There was a special ritual for situations like this, and every member of the assassin clan knew it.

In this business, sometimes you needed to override your feelings and act. Feelings of self-preservation, love, fear, greed. They could all greatly affect the human mind and prevent one to carry out their mission, all clansmen knew how to erase them temporarily in times of need, becoming an emotionless machine.

There was no spell for this, we were forced to learn it. It was engraved in our own minds.

I have no choice, the clan is absolute, I have no choice.

With a face now completely void of emotion, I mounted once again, and began flying back to the tower.

…

The pink haired magician was about to cast her ultimate spell, when a leather book flew out of her robes under the strong wind.

She waved her hand, and a precise gust of air brought it back to her, as she maintained Nether flame in her other hand, she noticed a message written on the first page.

'Luna sensei! I hope you're reading this only on your fifth day of travel, after eating lunch and finding my note, otherwise I'm in trouble!'

'Just so you know, you're the best teacher and sister we could ask for, and I don't say mother only because you're very young and pretty, and I also don't want to burn any bridges.'

'Love you!'

'lOvE yOu.'

The last phrase was written in a different handwriting, similar to that of a child that was only beginning to learn how to write. A certain wolf boy came to mind.

All throughout her reading, the mage had endless tear flowing down her face, but kept the same blank expression.

There was a battle going on in her mind, and before it could be won, she thrust her hand forward.

"[Nether flame]"

The dark flames in her hand suddenly went out, and a huge spiral of black fire appeared on top of the wood hut.

The spiral was drilling into an invisible barrier, and as it ascended into the night sky, it disappeared, even though it was almost a kilometer high.

It was one of the characteristics of Nether Flame: When used at night, it would blend into the dark sky, not being visible by those looking from afar.

The barrier shook for a couple of seconds, trying to resist, but it ended up shattering like glass under the might of a Great spell.

A black tower suddenly appeared, but just as fast as it showed up, it vanished.

The dark flames consumed it all, and in just a couple of seconds the entire building was nowhere to be seen, only flattened dirt was left in its place, completely untouched.

Cona Stats:

Spells:

Minor firebolt (Gladius)

Minor repel (Gladius)

Minor fire repel (Scroll)

Minor water repel (Scroll)

Minor earth repel (Scroll)

Darkness (Large pearl)

Mana: 1 regular spell

Half a minor spell

KDR 0/1/1?

Toba Stats:

Spells:

Minor gather (greatclub)