VIP Chapter 364 “You seem to be expecting something?” (3k)
Liya had heard from Iaar.
Will had peculiar “hobbies” in some aspects.
—“Young Master believes that ‘quantitative change can lead to qualitative change,’ and firmly believes that ‘effort will always be rewarded with success.’”
—“Um… so, he particularly likes… likes watching people do the same thing over and over, day after day?”
—“It’s actually fine. Although it sounds strange, it might be a very healthy hobby!”
However, she never expected such a hobby would manifest in this way.
“Will, what are you doing?”
Outside the makeshift cave where Will was, Will pointed at a camphor tree that remained evergreen in winter. A faint fragrance could still be smelled nearby.
The leaves on top were slightly withered and yellowed, not falling, but they didn’t possess the vitality of early spring.
“What is this… doing…”
Will smiled. He gave the tree a kick.
Leaves fluttered down.
“Although this kind of tree doesn’t shed leaves in winter, in spring, as the temperature rises, the leaves consume too much water due to transpiration. So, it drops a lot of leaves in the spring. They grow back gradually after the summer rains.”
“I see, so a kick makes so many fall.”
Liya found that Will always enjoyed researching the underlying causes of these peculiar things.
“So, Teacher Liya, for the first stage of training, you need to use the Extreme Flame Meteor at its minimum power to precisely knock them down, one by one.”
“…Hmph, such a small matter… one full Extreme Flame Meteor would be enough to blast them all down.”
Liya raised her staff, only to realize she hadn’t fully heard Will’s “requirement.”
“Wait, what—what did you say?!”
Will spun his ring and kicked the tree again.
“I’m truly sorry, brother tree. You’re at the age to shed leaves anyway.” He turned to Liya, “Teacher Liya~ you know very well. The biggest problem with ice arrows is their randomness and quantity. They are actually the most fragile things in The End of Ice Abyss. A little bit of heat turns them into water.”
He extended his hand, and a deep green leaf falling from the sky landed on his palm.
“Falling leaves are random, numerous, and fragile. The only slight difference might be their speed. However, once you get used to breaking them one by one, it doesn’t matter if it’s a leaf or an ice arrow.”
“…Yes, I know very well.”
But as a witch who valued high firepower, she had always disdained such precise strikes and magic-saving actions.
However…
Liya had a premonition that Will would use this as a mission for “acquiring rewards.”
Especially when he stood in the morning sunlight, his smile seemed to be anticipating something.
“…Alright, I’ll do it for you.”
…
Dusk of the first day.
Will, holding the “Original Text,” sat under the ill-fated tree where Liya was practicing. He read while occasionally tapping it with his reinforced fist, making it shed leaves.
Bang bang bang.
“Hah… hah…”
Liya was responsible for knocking down the falling leaves, one by one.
After a day of training, she was already panting with each attempt. For someone with “stagnant magic circuits,” she really had to control her output power. If it were in the past, a day of training would absolutely not leave her this exhausted.
“Hey! Teacher Liya, what is ‘Magic Prototype No. 36’? I don’t have the Witch Prototype Classification book with me now, but you should remember it, right?”
—What was even more maddening was that Will would loudly ask Liya about parts he didn’t understand while reading.
His questions were always incredibly high-blood-pressure-inducing, instantly ramping up Liya’s stress.
Although she knew this was Will’s way of “saving time,” their understanding of the book “XX Ash Extinguish” wasn’t synchronized, so they couldn’t just start discussing it directly.
This was a common phenomenon in research communities. That’s why many cutting-edge magic conferences had a public review period of about a week for papers, allowing everyone to understand each other’s reported findings.
But…
His unintentional questions felt like he was deliberately trying to distract her!
“*Huff*… It… refers to the fundamental prototype magic of the ordinary evaporation heating magic of you humans, mentioned in the textbook before.”
“Oh, I see.”
Will smacked the tree again, and the few remaining leaves rustled down.
Liya concentrated all her energy, staring intently at the roughly ten falling leaves.
She slowly raised her staff, aiming at the center of the ten leaves. She began to chant softly, concentrating her magic little by little, then dividing the total magic power and allocating its direction.
She had grown accustomed to squeezing out drops of water from the stream of her magic circuits when her body couldn’t smoothly mobilize magic.
It was like a person who had found a way to get water in the desert.
This required considerable concentration and the separation of spirit and magic…
“Teacher Liya, do you know why ‘Hombodashi’ here is translated as ‘burning passion from within the heart’? This term hasn’t been mentioned before; is there any explanation?”
*Boom*—
The concentrated power at the tip of Liya’s staff exploded, blowing away the strands of hair at her forehead, making them stand up.
This made Liya’s current appearance somewhat comical.
Fortunately, she had split the power into several “bullets.” The force of each shot was only one-twentieth, otherwise, Liya estimated half of her body would have been blackened.
“Oh~ so even witches’ magic can misfire? That’s quite rare.”
“Willllll—”
Not even having time to fix her hair, Liya shouted, walked up to Will, and glared at the book-reading Will, almost grabbing him by the collar.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you! You just had to ask me such an irrelevant question at this moment?!”
“This is not an irrelevant question.” Will, unfazed, seemed to know Liya couldn’t do anything, as the switch to control the inhibition bugs was in his hands. “You yourself told me, Teacher Liya. What ancient magic often requires interpretation is not the principle of its formation, but the state of mind during casting—that is, the parts that resemble poetry and prose.”
“I… alright. I did say that.”
Liya honestly put her foot down.
She tidied her hair that had been blown back.
“That word… it… it was… it was from Ya’er’s earliest ancient magic manual. It means… hmm… unfulfilled desire…”
One of the reasons Liya was angry was…
That word was truly difficult to say!
“I see, so that’s the ‘burning passion from within the heart’—you witches are quite literary, translating it this way?”
“Shut up, hit it again. If I don’t master it today, tomorrow I… I’ll dress as a catgirl!”
“You said it yourself.”
Will closed his book, clenched his fist, and hit the tree again.
…
Early the next morning.
Liya, wearing cat-ear headbands bought from the Adventurer’s Guild “Entertainment Shop,” faced the tree whose crown was now bald and still unleashed an attack from her hand.
She felt that Will’s method was surprisingly fulfilling.
Especially…
When she looked at the thick layer of fallen leaves burned through on the ground, and for the last time, not a single deep green leaf fluttered down.
“Provisionally… provisionally I’ve completed it. Will, where’s the reward?”
She turned around “honestly,” temporarily leaning her staff against her chest, and made cat-paw shapes with her hands, shaking them slightly with some reluctance.
“Meow.”
After meowing, she saw Will biting his lip, struggling to hold something back.
“Meow…?”
She tried a different tone to express—at least, what she thought was a cute tone.
“Pfft.”
“Don’t laugh! D-don’t laugh at an honest and promise-keeping teacher!”
Liya even felt the “magic cat-ear headband” on her head “fluff up” due to her emotions.
“Meow—!!!”
This cat sound didn’t come from Liya, but from the headband she had bought.
This thing had even developed a function that vibrated and made sounds according to the wearer’s emotions.
“I swear, I’m not laughing… hahahahaha…”
“You are clearly laughing, you haven’t stopped!”
Liya, of course… of course, she didn’t like to pretend to be a child catgirl at over a hundred years old, but… but since she had promised, she should keep her word!
“However, since that’s the case, we can move on to the second stage. I think the second stage is actually your strong suit, Teacher Liya. Based on the Adventurer’s Guild information you provided me with last night…”
Will paused mid-sentence, noticing Liya’s head was bowed, her bangs covering her eyes. Her usually high twin tails now seemed as dejected as she was.
“Meow…”
Even the headband she was wearing seemed to sense her mood; it not only drooped its ears but also emitted a whiny sound.
“Liya, Liya… what, what’s wrong?”
Will was so startled he didn’t dare use the address “Teacher Liya” to tease her anymore.
“R-reward…” She looked up, her expression indeed a little wronged, but not to the point of tears. “I… I think doing this should… should be enough to deserve a little reward, right?”
“Oh… you do seem to be expecting something.”
Will leaned closer to Liya.
Watching him slowly approach, Liya even felt her heartbeat unusually quicken—but she didn’t feel the surge in her magic circuits at the same time. For a witch, this was rare; her body’s reaction and her magic circuits’ fluctuations weren’t even related to blood flow.
Was it because of anticipation?
Or… because…
Then, Will bent down slightly.
He used his hand to lift Liya’s bangs.
Thump-thump-thump.
Liya listened to the sound of her heartbeat but avoided Will’s gaze.
Then—
He kissed Liya on the forehead.
No scarlet liquid appeared, and naturally, nothing caused her magic circuits to reignite. Her blood flowed the same as before.
“Mhm. You completed it. Well done. Here’s a little reward.”
“This… this is the reward?! You—you knew I wasn’t asking for this!”
