Chapter 112

The sensation of having my neck tightened feels like this.

Tia caressed her neck, trying to revive that feeling.

It was a sensation she didn’t want to know.

The feeling of her mother tightening her neck.

That cold and chilling touch seemed impossible to forget forever.

“Tiamat. Focus.”

“Mmm…!”

Thwack.

The switch came down sharply on Tia’s horn, producing a crisp sound.

It didn’t hurt at all, but she had to experience a moment where her horns wobbled, making the world spin.

Tia looked up with teary eyes, filled with resentment.

‘That crazy psycho teacher…’

The crazy teacher who had been sharpening his knife since the first day of school.

He looked down at Tia with a stern expression.

“If you lose focus, many people, no, many magical beings will die.”

“That’s why we came to this forest…”

Special tutoring time.

It was a time when students received special lessons from their assigned teachers.

However, Tia hadn’t applied for it and was automatically assigned to this teacher.

While other students scattered across classrooms, Tia had to follow Alexander to a forest far from the city.

At first, she thought they were going to exercise.

Climbing this small hill wasn’t difficult at all.

“Are you planning to live here forever? I won’t allow you to descend until you can properly control your power.”

“Mmm…”

Here, Alexander declared that he would teach Tia how to control her power.

While other kids laughed and learned tennis or volleyball, or had advanced magical training, what was she doing here…

It was a bit annoying, but it wasn’t entirely unreasonable.

Because Alexander was right.

If Tia made even a small mistake, the school would be at risk of losing a tremendous amount of property and spirits.

So she had to be commanded to control her abilities, as her mother had said.

“But why! I came all the way to this remote place, why did you bring me here?!”

“…”

As Tia nodded and expressed her willingness to follow the guidance, a clear voice erupted from beneath her feet.

It was Lara, trapped in a cage.

Lara yelled while shooting glances at Alexander.

She was signaling.

Let me out immediately instead of messing around.

Or at least let me evacuate.

“Everything is for a reason. Please bear with it for a little longer.”

“I’m about to die! What are you asking me to endure?!”

Lara lost her patience and raised her voice.

“Twinkle. Shh. Be quiet!”

“Mmm…”

However, at Tia’s scolding, Lara was helplessly silenced, left to grit her teeth.

With her magical abilities completely suppressed, there was nothing she could do.

Lara shot another resentful glance at Alexander.

He was a temporary teacher and was clearly ignoring the Director’s orders.

If he returned to his position as director later, he would be the first to be cut loose.

Lara was determined to think that way.

Not realizing that it was what Alexander wanted.

“Isn’t this enough? Tiamat has completely sealed my magic casting! Without killing me, of course! I think she can control it quite precisely!”

“That’s your view, Director. Precise control? It’s not that simple. I’ve analyzed it, and it turns out the circuits located in the wings are completely burnt out. That’s the part responsible for regulating magical combinations.”

“Eh…?”

Lara’s face turned pale.

Her wings are in ruins?

That meant she wasn’t being interrupted by Tia in real-time; she had become unable to use magic at all.

“It seems that the beam Tiamat shot had coincidentally brushed against her wings. You’re quite lucky. Otherwise, you might have faced a fatal end, Director.”

“…!”

To think that she nearly faced death.

Lara’s body began to tremble.

And when she casually raised her head to meet Tia’s seemingly smug face, she felt chills race down her spine.

It was scary under normal circumstances, but it was even more frightening now.

“Guided education! I’ll ask you nicely! Please help Tia control her powers well, teacher!”

“Just like that.”

Only then did Alexander manage to gain Lara’s cooperation.

Of course, he didn’t say a word about how specifically he would use her.

Having gained the enthusiasm of the party and Lara’s cooperation, Alexander decided to slowly start the education.

“First of all, from my analysis, your ability seems to be a kind of wave attack.”

“A wave attack?”

“Yeah. It’s like a highly penetrating ray that can reach beyond walls or objects without being blocked. Any magical circuit touched by that ray burns and disappears—just like with Lara, the spirit.”

“Eek?!”

It was something Tia hadn’t expected to understand.

Thus, Alexander decided to explain it simply, at Tia’s level.

The identity of the “ray” that had completely blacked out the school during vacation was still unknown.

The ray had passed freely through a thick steel plate seamlessly sealed and through magical barriers.

No matter which medium it moved through, the wave never lost its speed or intensity.

As a result of the analysis, the range of the blackout was drawn on a graph, forming a perfect 3D spherical shape.

There was no magical reaction detected, and no traces of radiation could be found either.

The only things damaged were the magical circuits.

People who had taken the ray head-on had suffered no harm at all.

This was unheard of.

“Is it strong? Is Tia really strong?”

“Yeah. It’s strong. So overwhelming that it can’t be handled. That’s why we can’t leave it unattended. You need to be able to shoot the ray only when you want to and control its direction and intensity however you like.”

“Wow! That sounds awesome! So how do you do it? No, how do you do it?!”

“Well…”

Alexander pressed his temple, feeling a throbbing headache, and extended his answer.

That was a good question.

How do you control that destructive yet discerning “ray?”

Not knowing its identity.

The answer was simple.

“You train until you can.”

“Mmm…?”

You do it until you can.

Since she didn’t know the source of her ability, there was no other way.

Even when teaching magic to someone who cannot sense magical power, the same training method is enforced.

Focusing on her inner sensations until she can sense magical power, separating the five senses from the sixth sense.

In theory, it wasn’t different than that.

This time, though, she had to separate her seventh sense, which was entirely different from both the five senses and the sixth sense.

“Wait, then why am I really here?! If I’m just training blindly, I might get swept away by that ray!”

“Twinkle, shh! Don’t interrupt the teacher!”

“Only now you’re a model student!!!”

Ignoring Lara’s desperate outcry, Tia stared with resolute eyes at Alexander.

She understood that she had a strong ability.

Now was her chance to refine that ability and make it truly her own.

To think she’d be able to handle a strong ability just the way she wanted.

There couldn’t be anything cooler than that.

Tia had never felt such a large zeal in her life as she did today.

‘Oh wait. This isn’t right.’

And Alexander was currently quite flustered.

He had intended to utilize Lara as a hostage.

Even though Tia treated Lara like a doll, he thought it was affection in the way she handled her.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have brought a cumbersome cage with her every time she went to school.

Thus, he expected that Tia would come out passively during this training.

He thought that if he made her realize the dangers of her power, Lara would be scared of disappearing.

He hoped she would cry and realize how strong her powers were.

‘This is troublesome.’

But Alexander’s expectations were beautifully turned upside down.

Tia was instead eagerly engaging in training.

He began to suspect that perhaps she hadn’t understood what he had explained all along.

“Ready to sacrifice something precious. You’ve made up your mind. Now let’s start training in earnest.”

“Mmm!”

“Who decides to sacrifice things without asking?!”

The two of them began to seriously engage in training.

The cries of the powerless spirit, who hadn’t yet made up her mind, seemed to go unheard by the two.

*

“Mommaaaaa!!!”

“Ah, my ears.”

The loud voice felt like it could tear through my eardrums.

Even while working in the back garden, how must it be for other people?

I had to hurry and get Tia to lower her voice.

I dashed out to the main gate while still wearing my work slippers.

“Tia learned something amazing today! Should I show you? No, I’ll show you! Look! Look!”

Tia was bouncing around with excitement.

What had she learned at school today?

It seemed she had learned some magic during special tutoring.

Seeing Tia interact with me so readily calmed me once more.

It felt like I could regard last night’s “mistake” as a thing of the past.

“Okay, just wait a moment! I need to set something up!”

“…?”

Tia set the cage down and began rummaging through her pockets.

However, Lara’s condition inside the cage was strange.

She was sitting curled up, trembling.

This wasn’t the first time she had been in such a state, but today it was especially bad.

Even when I squatted in front of the cage and tried to talk to her, Lara didn’t respond at all.

She seemed like a person struck mute from a huge shock.

“Got it! Now I’ll show you!”

“Uh….”

“Twinkle! Don’t move from there!”

“…”

Tia arranged four magical stones in a diamond formation on the ground, then gently placed Lara in the center.

What was she doing?

Just as I was wondering, Tia took a deep breath.

“Myaak! Myang! Myek! Myik!”

The strange sounds from Tia’s mouth resembled a mixture of a scream and a hiccup.

Each time, one of the four magical stones lost its light.

I immediately recognized what was happening.

Tia’s ability.

The power to nullify magic.

“Wow…!”

I was genuinely surprised.

Lara, lying in the middle of the four drained magical stones, was still trembling uncontrollably.

Despite Tia arranging the stones quite carefully, she had precisely aimed her ability only at the stones without affecting Lara.

The school had been afraid of Tia’s ability, so they had expected her to try to control it first.

But I never expected she’d be able to control it so quickly.

It was a good decision to send Tia to St. Sophia.

Though my first impression was the worst, there was no doubt it was an excellent school.

“Wow! Well done, my daughter! That’s amazing!”

“Muhuhuhu! Isn’t it cool? Right? Isn’t it?”

I tousled Tia’s hair roughly and hugged her tightly.

It turned out really well.

But every so often, when I glanced at Lara, I felt awfully sorry for her.

How many times had Lara been used as a target for practice until Tia learned to use her abilities this precisely…?

“I’m sorry. I’ll free you soon.”

I had to liberate Lara as soon as possible.

I couldn’t bear to watch her like this any longer…

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