“Haa……”
In the wide classroom.
Sitting alone in the center was Tia, and Alexander sighed as he looked at her.
Once again, this week, the extra tutoring session had arrived as expected.
Today too, Alexander had ended up solely responsible for Tia.
Surely, after teaching her how to control that mysterious anti-magic ray, he thought that was it with the one-on-one sessions.
But owing to the principal’s earnest request, Alexander was continuing as Tia’s instructor.
Every week, Tia needed to bring something interesting enough to hold her attention for at least two hours.
It was truly baffling and overwhelming.
“Meow! Meowww!”
“Speak up.”
Tia was struggling mightily to raise her hand high.
There was only Tia in the classroom, so she could freely ask questions or give presentations if she wanted.
Still, she insisted on doing unnecessary things.
Alexander chuckled softly and gave permission for her to speak.
“What are we learning today, Crazy Sai… no, Teacher Alexander?”
“I thought I heard something strange just now, but I’ll pretend I didn’t. Regardless, it’s an excellent question. What you’re going to learn today is the language of the spirits.”
“The language of the spirits?”
Tia tilted her head.
She didn’t know that spirits had their own language.
Lara always spoke in human language, after all.
“What’s the point of knowing the language of the spirits?”
“It’s no use, really. It’s just for bragging later and saying ‘I learned this difficult thing.’”
“Meowww.”
Tia slightly pouted in disappointment.
Difficult, yet not particularly useful learning was exactly what suited Tia, according to Alexander.
If it was something simple and useful, she would master it in less than an hour and fall asleep shortly after.
Such subjects were better left for regular classes; Alexander thought it was better to teach her something different for now.
“So, how do we learn the language of the spirits?”
“I don’t know either. That’s why I hired a teacher.”
“Ooohhh!”
Bang.
From under the teacher’s desk emerged a cage.
Out of the cage stepped none other than the principal, Lara.
As Tia clapped her hands excitedly in anticipation, Lara couldn’t help but glance furtively at Alexander out of shyness.
Alexander gave her a little push, encouraging her to gain confidence.
You can do it.
Things will go according to plan, surely.
Lara, having received this supportive look, cleared her throat.
“Hem, hem! Spirits communicate differently from how humans or other animals do! Tia, what sense do you usually rely on when having conversations?”
“Meow… Ears?”
“Yes, correct! Hearing! And sometimes sight as well! But most spirits don’t have hearing or visual organs!”
“But isn’t there someone who sparkles?”
“I’m a special case.”
Creating eyes, ears, or other complex organs from nothing but magical circuits is by no means an easy task.
It also consumes a tremendous amount of energy to maintain such things, so only Great Spirits can operate such magical bodies.
Most spirits are weak, so they have simpler structures.
In human eyes, they might just appear as small lights.
“Therefore, spirits communicate mostly through mana! All spirits can perceive the vibrations of mana! You might be able to feel it, Tia?”
“Ooooh! I felt it!”
Snap.
Lara flicked her finger, and a ripple of mana spread out, reaching Tia, who grew excited.
Alexander, standing back, chuckled slightly as he realized he hadn’t felt anything despite having been told he was sensitive to mana.
This lesson had already gone far beyond the human domain.
“The intervals and pitches of these vibrations are what they use to communicate!”
“Meow? So humans can understand all of it then? It seems so easy.”
“Ho ho ho ho. Is that really so?”
Lara gave a meaningful laugh.
It’s true that understanding the language of spirits, recording mana vibrations, and translating them is technically something anyone can do.
However, distinguishing which vibrations came from spirits and which were natural occurrences was a challenge, and translating them took time.
Thus, while humans could communicate with spirits, their conversations suffered from at least an hour-long gap.
Real-time conversation was virtually impossible.
“Alright! This is a mana wave generator. I’ll turn it on and speak in the language of the spirits. Can you hear it?”
“Meow! I heard it!”
“Ho ho ho. You don’t know what I said, right? The mana wave overlapped and…”
“Meow? Doo. Doo. Doodoodoo. Didn’t you say that?”
“Um… how… how did you…?”
Lara’s expression twisted.
Doo. Doo. Doodoodoo.
Despite being a clumsy expression, it perfectly matched the short signal Lara had sent.
Surely, as a human, she wouldn’t have been able to separate multiple overlapping mana vibrations…
But Tia was not a human.
It was a mistake to consider her as such.
While all mana vibrations may seem the same to humans, spirits can clearly distinguish between different voices and natural sounds.
Tia possessed near-spirit-like sensitivity to mana vibrations.
She was no longer merely impressive—she was now bordering on wondrous.
There was no time to be amazed at each and every thing, so Lara resolved to remain calm and continue teaching from this point onward.
“This means ‘to like.'”
“Meow! Droodoodoo! To like! I’ve remembered it!”
“Phew. Let’s stop here and take a break? We’ll finish the rest next time.”
“But there’s plenty of time left for the class!”
“…”
Tia tilted her head in confusion.
Lara, too, was at a loss.
An hour.
Tia had memorized hundreds of words in a completely new language system in just one hour.
No matter how excellent her memory was, it was an issue of fatigue.
At this point, she was expected to tire out and beg for a stop.
Yet, unexpectedly, the lesson seemed to deeply engage Tia, who continued to show enthusiasm.
Seeing her like that, Lara’s lips curved into a smile.
How often does one get the chance to teach the language of the spirits to a human?
That her first and possibly last student was so passionately talented made the experience all the more satisfying.
“Phew phew! I think I’ve covered all basic daily vocabulary used in ordinary conversation!”
“Really? Zan-zzaa?!”
As two hours passed and the bell rang.
Laurel, who didn’t rest even once throughout the lesson, collapsed in exhaustion, feeling a sense of satisfaction.
She excluded difficult words and technical terms, teaching only the day-to-day conversational vocabulary.
Of course, cramming so much information in one initial session meant that most likely less than a tenth of it remained in Tia’s head, which wasn’t a surprising outcome.
Still, the lessons weren’t over yet.
There was next week, and the week after that.
Hoping to teach her slowly, step by step, she thought that maybe, someday, Tia would be able to talk to spirits.
“Meow? What’s your name? There’s no name? Shall Tia name you?”
“…”
Near the window, Tia was happily engaged in conversation.
Lara, surprised, approached to scrutinize the scene.
There, hovering in front of Tia’s nose, was a tiny spirit.
They were talking in real-time.
Just like her native language, Tia listened, understood immediately, and sent out the appropriate mana vibrations for the spirit to comprehend, effortlessly.
She had promised herself not to be amazed any longer and yet…
Lara, along with Alexander, let out an astonished sigh.
“Meow. Pitiful? Who?”
Meanwhile, Tia, speaking with this spirit for the first time today, widened her eyes.
“Pitiful? You mean the Great Spirit Lara…? Her wings were all torn off and she can’t fly… she’s not free.”
Tia’s expression gradually contorted as she realized.
Now that she could differentiate the voices around her, she began to hear them all.
The sounds she used to dismiss as noise carried meaning, forming a language.
And they were all saying the same thing.
“Our Great Spirit, what has she done wrong…?”
“Watching her suffer without being able to use magic or fly is heart-breaking.”
“Please, kindly free our Great Spirit. We beg you.”
They all spoke in unison, requesting her to release Lara.
Always, forever.
They had been chanting these words ever since Tia could not hear them.
Tia turned her head and looked at Lara.
The one she had once considered merely as a moving doll.
For a moment, their eyes met, and Tia began to sniffle, then burst into tears.
“Me-eeh!”
“Hey! Don’t cry, Tiamat!”
“It’s alright. She won’t sh**t the ray now.”
Calming Alexander, who was startled, Lara leapt down from the teacher’s desk and approached Tia.
Then, she hopped onto the window frame and gently wiped away Tia’s tears with her hand.
Someone so greedy, yet equally kind-hearted.
She believed, without a doubt, that when Tia understood another’s pain, she would instantly free them.
This language learning session itself was begun with that intention.
Tia soon embraced Lara tightly, her voice trembling with tears.
“Sorry, I’m really sorry, Blink. I’m sorry, Tia didn’t think about you. No, I didn’t care. Tia was selfish… Sorry! Sorry for making you suffer!”
“Ho ho ho ho.”
With a warm smile, Lara embraced Tia’s cheeks with her small arms.
She was the most commendable student Lara had ever encountered.
