Like I promised, a much longer chapter today. Yawn Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be taking a nap.

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Thera smiled. A mischievous twinkle glinted in her eyes, before playing the most innocent twelve year old child you would ever see.

“Yes, Elder Sister.”

Laura froze. While what Thera said did mean that she was older than Thera, ‘Elder’ was a title only used for people whose age had exceeded the life expectancy, which was about 60 years old for non-practicing folks.

But, perhaps Thera didn’t realize this. Laura was the Older Sister, after all, so she should properly help Thera in her education.

“No, Thera, ‘Elder’ is a bit too much-”

“But, Elder Sister isn’t a kid anymore, right? Elder Sister is almost an adult, right?” Thera’s wide eyes were innocent, showing an invincible absolute shining faith in Laura.

“Yes, you’re right, but-”

“Then, Elder Sister is Elder Sister!” Thera said, cheerfully.

Finally, Laura gave up. Thera had outmaneuvered her completely.

WHAT WAS MADAME ROTHEMA TEACHING HER FOR THE PAST FIVE YEARS?? Laura screamed internally.

Thera helpfully gathered the breakfast dishes and went to a nearby stream to wash them, leaving Laura sitting on her log, feeling the wind blowing through the loophole in her promised victory.

Truly, this last win felt like a hollow victory for her.

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Later on that day, after Thera and Laura had recovered their energy, Master Thales took them out into the newly-formed field.

“So, what are we going to learn today, Master Thales?” Thera asked.

“You mean, ‘what am I going to teach you today’.” Master Thales corrected. “For, I may indeed teach you, but whether or not you learn depends upon your own close observation and understanding.”

“Oh. So…what are you going to teach us today, Master Thales?” Thera asked again.

Master Thales hesitated. What he was going to teach required exact precision of muscle and energy movement. One wrong move could cause a buildup of martial spirit in an acu-point that could potentially wreck a person’s future potential.

As far as Thera goes, he had confidence that she would not attempt it until she understood everything behind it first. But, as far as Laura goes…Master Thales was not confident that Laura would be able to grasp the lesson correctly.

“Let me be perfectly clear, first.” He stated solemnly. “You are not to practice this move without my supervision. Are we perfectly clear?” He stared pointedly at Laura.

“Yes…” Laura said, still feeling hollow, like a bamboo.

“Now then-” Master Thales cut off his speech when a shadow fell over the trio. He looked up and then narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

“Of all the times you could have bothered me, WHY NOW!!!” He yelled.

The shadow that had fallen upon the three belonged to a flying mansion that looked awfully familiar…

“…Madam Rothema?!” Thera exclaimed in surprise.

“Hello, down there, Thera and Laura.” Madam Rothema’s voice sounded out, as though she was speaking with you in the same room, having tea. “Oh, for heaven’s sakes, Gerard, ice your firestones before they explode. I decided to move house. After Thera left, those rascals have been making themselves as bothersome as fire ants on a Brawbear.”

That was pretty bothersome. The venom of fire ants is hallucinogenic by nature, causing most humans to see themselves as on fire.

Brawbears, however, have a very odd reaction to fire ant venom. The Brawbear itself is huge, and weighs several hundred pounds. When it is bitten by fire ants, it will literally find the nearest animal, and glomp onto them until the venom wears off.

It won’t do anything else, but, still, several hundred pounds of Brawbear glomping on top of someone would be enough to kill any small animal unfortunate enough to get caught by one.

Afterwards, they won’t even attack, and just amble off down the road, perhaps abashed and confused that they would spend so much time with a non-Brawbear.

Once this fact was discovered, it became a popular prank to pull on those who become overconfident or annoying.

Oh, and firestones are stones that still retain a small amount of heat from when they were in the volcano. They can be used for many things, such as cooking, or fire lighting. Some are even used in smelting soft metals.

The only thing is, as time goes on, unless they are properly cooled, they would build up heat until they were white-hot, like melted iron, and explode into magma.

The technical reason why they do this is that they absorb only fire mana. And continue to do so, even when they’ve reached their mana capacity.

Even humans can burst apart if they try to take in more mana than they have room for. That is probably why most magicians trust their instincts when their magic organ shows signs of closing.

Madam Rothema kept talking. “That Raymond boy was one of the worst. ‘Where’s Thera now? What is she doing? When is she coming back?’ He even threatened to burn my library if I didn’t tell him where Thera was. Finally, I told him that if he wanted to see her so much, he should go and find her himself!”

“Let me guess: He thought it was a great idea, and went for it.” Thera said with a sigh.

“That he did, Miss Rose. Or, should I call you Thera, now? Hmm…Well, anyways, he up and left that very night. But, would you believe it? He fell into a pit hole right in front of the waterfall! It’s a good thing there were no spikes at the bottom. Master Fraun found him about half a day later, still trying to climb his way out.” Madam Rothema was talking their ears off, which was unusual behavior for her.

“Forgive me, Teacher, but…did you by chance make tea with the dark brown substance I placed inside the green crock in the second cabinet?” Thera suddenly asked.

“Why, as a matter of fact, yes! How did you ever guess?” She asked. “After you left, I tried it by accident, and found I liked it very much, but I’m not sure what kind of leaf makes such a deep flavour. Would you tell me what this wonderful beverage is called?”

Thera sighed, feeling a headache coming on. She raised her index finger.

“First off, the substance in question was not made from leaves. It’s the grounds from the roasted bean of a Caffreet tree.”

She raised her second finger. “Second, don’t get into a habit of drinking that stuff. I was trying to reproduce a drink I had tasted once. That is a failure. I found out it had an effect similar to a truth serum, where the person’s mental walls are temporarily suspended. The line between thinking and saying is erased so that whatever you think, you end up speaking.”

She raised her third finger. “Third, the substance itself is too stimulating, to the point where Squarrils would reach near the speed of a Lightning Panther while chasing their tails.”

Laura’s eyes opened wide. Squarrils are pests, but are no real threat to humans, since they only eat seeds and nuts. The sight of Squarrils running around at such speeds made her try to hold back her laughter behind a grin.

“I bet you’ve already cleaned the house three times over since you’ve drank that substance, haven’t you? But, once it wears off, normal people would be exhausted for a week, alongside cramping muscles.”

It was a good thing that Madam Rothema could use magic to simply flush the substance out of her system, unlike Thera because of a certain someone’s cheap tricks.

“So THAT’S what it was! I had the feeling that I had smelt this brew before. It was probably when you were roasting the nuts, though. But, now that I know what this is, I will be sure to keep it away from the tea cabinet from now on.”

Madam Rothema said. “Besides, you’ve probably gotten rid of all the rest of that substance, correct?”

Thera didn’t really say anything in reply, as she had already perfected several concoctions based upon the Caffreet tree nut. She simply shrugged instead. But, still…it would be nice to be able to have a cup of coffee again…

“What are you doing here, Madam Rothema?” Master Thales asked, nearly grinding his teeth as he said it.

“I’ve decided to have a change of scenery.” She replied.

“By moving house right above my land?” (Master Thales)

“Nonsense, Gerard! I’m not even touching the barrier that I personally put in place so many years ago. Besides, the sky is free enough for bird and man alike.” She responded. Thera could almost imagine seeing her hand brushing the matter aside as if it were so much dust.

“Fine! But if you keep interrupting my lessons, then I’m afraid you’ll have to change to a different scenery.” (Thales)

“Why, whenever did I interrupt your lessons?” Madam Rothema asked.

“Just now!”(Thales)

“You could have simply ignored my presence, you know. I didn’t say a thing before you decided to yell at me.” (Rothema)

“You…”Master Thales took a deep, deeeep breath, and then let it out slowly. Thera and Laura were enjoying the view of their most aggravating teacher in a futile word war with a Magi.

Then Laura mumbled. “Now I know where she gets it from…”

“Hmm? Pardon?” Thera asked, turning to look at Laura. “Did you say something, Laura?”

Laura looked off to the side, away from Thera, repeating herself in her efforts to cover up what she had said. Too bad Thera had already heard it.

“Did I say anything? No, I didn’t say anything. I haven’t said a thing…why are you asking?”

“Oh, no reason…” Thera turned back to look at the floating house. “It needs balloons.” She said, finally.

“What are ‘baa-loons’?” Laura asked, curious.

“Well, they’re big bubbles made out of rubber sacks that fly in the air when you blow them up with a certain kind of gas.” Thera replied.

“They can come in many different colors, too. Wouldn’t the house be wonderfully eye-catching if it were decorated with colorful balloons?”

“What is rubber?” Laura asked.

Thera sighed. “Rubber is…a very stretchy material made from tree sap, kind of like soft candy before it is cooled, except it doesn’t taste nice at all. It can be used for many different things from sword grips to water-proof boots, although I have yet to find such a tree in the vicinity.”

“Oh. I see…sort of.” (Laura)

Thera glanced over at Master Thales, who had finally come to the end of his long breath. He looked up from the ground at Thera and Laura.

“If you two are quite finished speaking, then shall we continue the lesson?” Thales asked, ignoring Madam Rothema. But, he couldn’t ignore the fact that she was probably watching.

And, thinking about things, he decided to switch out the attack skill he was going to teach with a defensive skill. Attack is all very well and good, but the first thing that needs to be learned is how to protect oneself.

“Well, I’m no longer in the mood to teach you the skill I was thinking about. I’ll have you learn a less dangerous skill today.” He said, acting as if he hadn’t forgotten about it earlier.

Wait, you were going to teach us a dangerous skill right off the bat?! Thera exclaimed in her heart, while beginning to wonder if learning from Master Thales was actually a good thing or not.

Master Thales took a stance, bending his knees, and angling his body so that it stood in a streamlined position. Then he took out a dagger, and stood there for about a minute.

During this minute, Thera’s eyes noticed that he was concentrating martial spirit towards the dagger in his hand, building up the pressure within the blade until it had no choice but to show itself in the air.

Surprisingly, the color of the martial spirit at this time was not dark blue, as it appeared within the body, but a bright blood red. Thera watched as Master Thales all of a sudden flashed his sword in a weaving star-like pattern that took but a brief moment to complete.

Once the pattern was complete, he said pointedly “[Stella Umbo].”

Immediately, the bright red net solidified into an energy barrier, but that wasn’t what caught Thera’s attention.

Wait, Latin?! He actually used Latin to invoke the chant? I know that ‘star shield’ doesn’t exactly sound cool, but still….Latin!

The shield lasted a whole minute before fading from sight. Thera fought to keep her face poker stiff, instead of laughing.

Must…not…laugh…

Master Thales noticed that Thera had a strange expression on her face.

“What’s the matter, Thera?”

“…no-thing…”

“It can’t be just nothing with an expression like that on your face. What’s wrong?”

“Scio loqui lingua.*” She finally said. (*I know how to speak this language)

“…” Master Thales was silent for a moment, then coughed a bit to clear his throat. “I see…well, let’s continue with the lesson. Did any of you understand what I did?”

Laura’s hand immediately shot into the air, waiting to be called upon.

“Laura, do you know?” Thales asked, pointing to Laura’s raised hand.

“Yes~! Using your blade, you projected an aura shield at arm’s length in front of you.” Laura answered.

“Good! And do you know how I did that?” Thales pursued.

“Not at all!” Laura replied enthusiastically. Thera laughed, amused at Laura’s enthusiasm. But, Thales was quick to jump on that.

“What are you laughing at Thera?” Thera immediately stopped laughing. “Are you amused by Laura’s ignorance?”

“No. But, there is a rare straightforwardness of character here, which is quite refreshing from the characters at court.” Thera observed.

“The fact that you allowed yourself to be distracted from the task at hand is the prelude to arrogance. Since you’re so sure of yourself, why don’t you give it a try?” Master Thales invited.

There was absolutely no way that he was being harsh because he was still sore from his argument with Madam Rothema, nope. Master Thales was as composed and cool as a cucumber.

But this cucumber seemed to have soaked in brine a bit too long and turned into a pickle.

Thera realized that, in order to placate Master Thales, she would have to attempt something she had only seen once. She gave a short, terse nod in acknowledgement.

“I will do my best, Master Thales.”

Thera stepped forward and concentrated inside upon her martial spirit. Master Thales had certainly done something internally before launching that skill, so it seemed rather obvious to start there first.

Master Thales was inwardly pleased at Thera’s prudence. So many people whom he had tried to teach would just attempt the skill first, before reaching into themselves to grab the necessary energy to do so, ending in failure.

Thera focused, replaying the memory in her head while it was still fresh. The star had had twelve points, with the lines crisscrossing over each other like those in a pentagram. In order to draw the star, the angle of each point was a surprising exact 30 degree angle.

Putting aside the question of whether angles, stars, or pentagrams played a significant role in the skill, Thera continued examining the scene she had witnessed in her head, deconstructing the movements in her head.

Laura was about to ask her when she was going to start, when Master Thales hushed her by placing a hand on her shoulder and putting a finger to his lips. So, Thera remained uninterrupted while she thought.

After thinking for about ten minutes, Thera raised her head. “I am ready to try now.” She said.

Master Thales nodded a sign for her to start.

Thera did not take out her sword, since using her magic sword right now would feel like she was cheating.

She had also not used her sword in the case with the two men yesterday because she did not want to kill them instantly.

After all, ‘in cases where fly-paper was enough to rid one’s self of a fly, why should one use poison spray?’ That was one of the sayings her old master in her previous life taught her.

Besides, while learning how to use the magic sword was important, it was more important to understand how to use the martial skill first without the help of the sword.

Otherwise, in the future, she might not be able to use the skill without the magic sword. It was better to learn how to do it without any crutches first, so that, even when she didn’t have her sword, she would be able to use the skill.

She willed the sluggish dark blue gas/liquid to move towards her hands, which began to feel tingly as more and more martial spirit gathered there.

Thera made a fist, and then raised her index finger, urging the power to compact even further into her finger. A faint red glow began to gather around her finger.

Master Thales grinned. As expected of a genius, she was able to extend her martial spirit outside of her body on the first try. It usually took at least a day for the smarter ones to figure out how to extend their martial spirit outside of their bodies.

But, what came next, he did not expect.

Thera began drawing out the twelve-pointed star, precisely sketching out the 30 degree angles in the air.

“[Stella Umbo]!” She shouted.

A smaller, thinner version of Master Thales’ shield was illuminated for three seconds before shattering to pieces.