The Sword and The Shadow

"How was it, Sis Annie?!"

Innilis ran over excitedly, her large, emerald eyes shining bright. It seemed she was really pumped about becoming a magus.

"Beautiful! Both the power and your dictation pacing was flawless." Annelotte let out a faint smile and showered her with praises generously. That made her realize how much she had been chiding Leguna the whole time.

"It's great, wasn't it!" She began to jump about energetically. "I can use level-three spells now! I'm a real magus now!"

"Alright, alright." Leguna was quite happy about that as well. He stroked her hair and praised, "You're amazing, Innie. I didn't think I would have another beautiful magus in my harem! I'm sure those fellows will be so jealous, wakakakaka!"

Leguna chortled loudly, completely forgetting himself. But soon, his smile froze as he stood there unmoving and didn't dare to make a sound.

He could feel his spine slowly freezing from Annelotte's Glacial Domain.

"I can understand why you'd say your harem has a magus," Annelotte expressionlessly said, "But I wonder why you said 'another'? Care to explain?"

"Well… umm…"

Sweat beaded his forehead instantly. He could see Annelotte was completely miffed. His life was in grave danger.

"Innie, weren't you only barely able to use level-one spells? Why can you use fireball all of a sudden?" Eirinn asked, desparately trying to change the subject.

Leguna was so greatful he almost wanted to give her a hug and kisses.

Hearing Eirinn bring it up, Annelotte's interest was roused. She did recall in what remained of her memory that Innilis only had little magic to speak of, much less than a normal apprentice magus. How could she use a level-three spell all of a sudden and become a full-fledged low-order magus?

Additionally, magi above the 5th stratum would give off weak enthymemic waves. If Innilis had become a low-order magus, Annelotte's detection ability should have picked up on that. Yet, she couldn't feel anything different about Innilis.

Innilis scratched her head in confusion and said hesitantly, "Actually… I'm not too sure about that either. It felt like something in my head cracked when I woke up two days ago and I felt really cleared up and refreshed. My control and sensitivity over the magic particles in the air seemed to have strengthened as well. That's why I tried out a few higher level spells in the books Sis Annie gave me and actually succeeded."

"Ridiculous!" Annelotte suddenly grew angry and reprimanded Innilis, "You're only an apprentice magus! Without a teacher guiding you, how could you learn higher-level spells? What if you couldn't control it and cause an enthymemic storm? Do you know the consequences of that?!"

Innilis didn't seem afraid of that outburst, however. She merely poked her tongue out and giggled. "I was curious, you know."

"Don't make that face. Make sure to never ever do something like that ever again!" she said sternly. After going through an enthymemic storm once, Annelotte had a far deeper understanding of the situation. She was afraid Innilis would get hurt by accident.

To the amnesiac Annelotte, there were three people closest to her. The first was the one she spent the most time with and also retained the most memories of, Innilis. She was almost like a little sister to her, so she panicked a little when she heard Innilis acting so restlessly.

The next person on that list was Eirinn. Not only was the half-elf really beautiful, she had the kind of personality that would never get angry. Annelotte found herself quite liking the half-elf.

And the third was Marolyt. Even though her father wasn't that reliable, he had always been doing his best for her. She had long forgiven him for casting her away.

As for Leguna, he could barely make fourth if she was being very generous. He might have had that place in the past, though she didn't give it a good chance, but he didn't now. She barely know or remembered anything about him, and what had happened since she'd woken hadn't done too much to change that.

"Okay, fine--" Innilis dropped her excitement and gloom took over. "--But… you're so busy, Sis Annie. You don't have time to teach me even if I want to learn…"

"Come on, it's just a little--" Leguna felt a glare before he finished.

Annelotte stroked Innilis's hair.

"Sorry, Innie. I forgot to take that into account. I'll think of a way to solve it."

"What way?" Innilis asked hopefully.

She had wanted to learn magic ever since seeing Annelotte using it. Now that she finally could, she wanted to grasp the opportunity immediately. She wasn't counting on becoming an amazing genius magus like Annelotte, but she if she could become a mid-order magus, she could finally be of use to Leguna!

Innilis still didn't know how much power a person could derive from a small resolution like hers.

Annelotte faked a smile and said, "I'll tell you about this later. For now, you should come with me for a check. I'm a little worried about you gaining power like that all of a sudden."

"Sure thing!" She also wanted to know what was going on with her body. How did she suddenly become a low-order magus despite being unable to even use a simple level-one spell back then?

……

As Annelotte inspected Innilis with her spells, Leguna and Eirinn waited outside at the guest lounge. Alaine came over to serve the two tea before leaving without a word.

Eirinn was quite curious why Alaine didn't say anything despite always getting a quip or insult when she saw Leguna.

But Leguna couldn't be bothered with it. He looked at Eirinn and seemed like he had something to say.

"Umm… Eirinn…"

"What is it?" She turned around curiously.

Leguna gulped audibly. Ever since Eirinn's face had recovered, Leguna got happier the more he looked at her. But sometimes, he felt a little unaccustomed to it. She looked far prettier than he had expected and he didn't dare to believe the girl with low self-esteem was actually a top beauty. It didn't feel real to him at all. Fortunately, Eirinn's personality didn't change much, which was one thing he felt appreciative of.

He hesitated for a moment and said with a blushing face, "I want to ask a favor of you."

"What?"

It was quite rare for him to see the thick-skinned Leguna blush and it truly was a wondrous experience. Before he said anything else, Eirinn's lips morphed into a circle. She smiled teasingly.

"Don't worry, I won't tell them about it."

"Really?"

Leguna had to admit she was quite sharp. She'd guessed his intentions immediately.

"We didn't do anything, did we?" she asked with an enchanting wink.

"You can really put things in a misleading way…"

Leguna didn't know how to handle the girl, but he knew, at least, she wasn't thinking about anything dirty. After all, how could someone so pure like her do so?

He'd wanted to ask her to not tell the others what had happened the previous night. They really didn't do anything. All Eirinn did was spoon feed the soulless Leguna and hug him the whole night.

She didn't pontificate or lecture. She knew he knew everything and was only unable to accept it. So, she hugged him the whole night as a mother would a child.

During the night, she whispered, "Don't be afraid, you still have us. We won't leave you."

The simple sentence caused his tears to pour out. The most terrifying assassin in Hocke let his tears flow soundlessly. He didn't sob or sniffle or make any noise other noises, but tears flooded down his cheeks.

When the sky brightened, Eirinn said something else.

"Big Brother, you must stand strong. What would Sis Annie or Innie, or me for that matter, do without you? We need you. Stand strong for us, okay?"

Leguna wiped his tears and returned to his usual self. There were people waiting for him, people he still needed to protect. That was why he had to stand up no matter what.

Just like that, Eirinn used a meal and two sentences to inject new life into the soulless corpse. It was only then that it occurred to Leguna that some people understood him better than he did himself.