In a very quiet office-like room, A beautiful lady was quietly reading and scribbling on the paper with a unique fountain pen with a weird creature inscribed on it.
Because of the bright sunlight coming from the window behind her, the shiny blond hair she had were almost sparkling.
The atmosphere was quiet and she looked in a good mood.
But then… she suddenly stopped writing when the shadows inside the room started reacting weirdly.
As if to be alive, the shadows moved and a dark humanoid outline came out of the shadow.
It then slowly cleared up and revealed an older-looking man with dark clothing.
With white hair, dark blue eyes, and a normal face which was like any other good grandpa who lived next door.
He bowed and spoke with a very low, nostalgic voice.
“Have you been well, young miss?”
My eyes widened in surprise.
-THUT.
With shaking hands, the pen in my hand fell on the paper.
With my eyes still wide open, I looked at him with surprise but, there was joy in my eyes while looking at him.
“You almost surprised me grandpa Zhen…’
Even though I had seen him do that many times this time, it completely caught me off guard.
Though unexpected, seeing him after such a long time was… definitely a good thing.
He chuckled as put his hand on his mouth to hide his smile.
“Seeing you surprised is a rare sight to behold, miss.”
It wasn’t every day that he could see that flustered face of hers.
And if it had been in the past, this would be something that no one would believe was possible.
“Gramps! You just…”
With a slightly red face, I shouted in frustration.
There weren’t many people who could tease her like this.
Taking a minute to calm down, a strange silence shrouded the room.
With a serious expression, I asked.
“You coming here must mean that… things are about to end, right?”
The voice that came out of my mouth, however, was desperate.
Nothing like my usual self.
“Yes. Just two more months.
We have almost gathered everything.”
This was one of the most reliable voices for me.
If he said that, it meant that the time had almost come.
“Finally… ”
My heart ran faster and my blood almost ran cold.
Now that I knew how long it was going to take, waiting would feel much longer.
“Master is also excited to finally be able to see you two and young master.
I, too, want to meet him as soon as possible but… master ordered me he will be the first one to meet him.”
He then chuckled and put a letter on my desk.
I instantly recognized it was from big brother when I saw the glowing blue rose on it.
“Master Elkan was… ahem! Very eager to come along with me but master locked… ahem! Stopped him.
Well, you know… that’s him.”
He awkwardly scratched his cheeks with his index finger and sighed deeply.
My brother was more dramatic when it came to me and now, Eon too.
‘I’m sure he’s gloomily sitting in the corner of his room, all gloomy.
How does big sis even handle that crybaby?’
A defeated sigh escaped my mouth while thinking about him.
“So gramps, wanna see him?”
He was the person who took care of my brother and me for as long as I could remember.
He was very good at stealth and was almost at [Upper-Advance level] in using his [Origin skill].
I was already thinking of letting him teach Eon but, he has to wait a bit longer for that.
“Hmm… I can’t meet him directly but, seeing him from afar would be ok, right?”
nodding with a bright smile, we walked downstairs.
Opening the door of the backyard, I stood at the door and watched him doing his magic training.
***
Almost a week has passed since we started the magic training.
I was almost able to grasp every spell there was in (tier-0) so, we had started doing some mana control training.
From Mana breathing to manually circulating Mana, I had always relied on my skill so I didn’t know how it’s done manually.
Learning it wasn’t a bad idea.
Dad was already at a loss for words when I finished learning all the spells he taught me in just a week.
It was… unprecedented?
‘Huuu… it took an entire day to calm him down.
Mom was having… fun? Was my suffering funny? It’s hard to understand her sometimes,’ I sighed.
“Ok Eon. This is enough for today. We can start the physical training now.”
I opened my eyes slowly at dad’s voice.
Exhaling deeply, I stood up and stretched for a while.
It took high mental fortitude to trace the Mana circulation manually.
Looking around, I suddenly spotted mom watching us while leaning against the door.
But…
‘Is there something besides her?’
I rubbed my eyes and looked at her again, with a confused expression clouding my face.
Now… there was nothing.
‘Is it just my imagination?’
I waved at mom and called her out.
“Mom!”
She waved back at me and shouted in her happy tone.
“Eon~. Don’t overwork yourself. Honey! You too.”
She talked with dad for a bit and went back inside.
I thought she was just checking up on us so I didn’t pay much attention to it and went back to training.
***
“Young miss. I think young master Eon is more amazing than I heard from the master.”
As soon as I entered my room, grandpa Zhen commented in an admiring voice.
“Isn’t he? He Is amazing. After all, he is MY son~. Huhu…”
I was always proud of him.
Hearing someone compliment him was one of the greatest joys for a mother like me.
“Yes. Indeed. It’s very commendable for a young child like him to almost see through this old man’s primary concealment.
If we had stood there for another minute, then I’m sure he would have seen through me.”
There were signs of respect, shock, and pride in his eyes.
“Hah-ha. I-it’s amazing. Right?” I replied with a cracking voice.
Even I was shocked to hear this.
I knew this friendly neighborhood grandpa’s prowess well. If he said that then, he really meant it.
“Young miss… I know as a parent you must be worried.
But, he has unparalleled talent.
That fact can’t be changed.
I will just say that… being a bit selfish is ok but if it escalates much… those emotions might change into something different.
I know you know this and will make the right decisions in the future.”
Saying that he melted into the shadows and vanished.
“I know…”
I whispered under my breath and went back to my desk to continue the work I left.
***
Once again, holding my bow and three different arrows by the bowstring, I looked straight ahead.
The targets were quite far away this time.
Almost six hundred meters away from where I was standing. 𝐞𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥．𝗰𝐨𝗺
It was almost sunset and there would soon be time to go back inside.
The three arrows I was holding were enchanted with a new spell I made.
The arrows with (Small gust) spell on them were supposed to work as a combo and join tougher to be more powerful than normal wind element arrows.
Aside from (small gust) there was a (join) spell which should work… as I hoped.
Well, its function was to join the things like glue with earth and water type mana but…
“The targets have to be in touch with each other for this low-level spell to work.”
I can not do something fancy like shooting arrows and combining them together with some electric sparks and then making a BOOM!
Nope. Not possible for now.
Releasing the arrows at ones like that manually is very difficult.
I don’t even know if it will go as I planned. The probability was minuscule.
‘Who knows? Maybe it could get influenced by my whopping 21 luck.
Or lady luck would get charmed by my heavenly 19 charm?
If there is a possibility, then what harm is there to try?’
And if something does go wrong, dad was watching from there.
If he is here… then there isn’t anything to worry about.
“Huuu…”
Taking a deep breath, I adjusted the arrows between my fingers.
There would be a gust of wind around them as soon as I relies them so the distance had to be calculated and the spell invocation time had to be aligned.
After thinking for a moment, I gathered all my focus on the target.
Only focusing on it and nothing else, maintaining my breathing, I gathered my mana on my fingertips and onto the bow and arrow.
After checking the air disturbance and some other factors, I confirmed everything again.
With my heart beating faster with the excitement of the result, I released the arrows.
And then…
Contrary to my expectations, all three arrows flew in different directions as soon as they left the bow.
When the enchantment got activated, all three of them were already 50 meters away from each other.
The Mana activated in it an arrow’s speed accelerated.
In two different directions, the arrows are stuck in different things.
One stuck the log on which the target was set.
One struck the grassy ground before the targets.
The last one, however, changed its direction and flew back towards me.
I closed my eyes in fear and put my hands in front of me in defense.
But… fortunately, the arrow fell after colliding with an invisible shield before me.
With a horrified expression, I fell to the ground.
This was the first ‘things go wrong’ situation for me.
“Eon!”
Dad shouted and ran in my direction.
He was also terrified with his eyes popped out.
Sitting down by my side, he helped me stand back up.
Checking me from head to toes, he sighed in relief.
I wasn’t hurt in any way. That was a relief.
This was a very unfortunate result.
The airflow created after the three spells were activated caused the directions of the arrows to change.
I had thought of a situation like this but… the chances of it really happening was very minuscule.
‘Looks like lady luck was in a bad mood today for something like this to happen.’
“Haaa…”
I sighed and stood up.
Walking forward, I collected all three arrows and came back to my position.
“Dad. We will do this two more times to see what happens.
If it goes wrong again, then… we will call it a day.”
My voice was firm and he could see the determination in my eyes.
He was now really worried. This was a really dangerous situation.
Though I had put a (Mana protection) enchantment on my clothes and even made a small shield in that split second, things might have really gone wrong.
It was the best thing to have him around.
But, as a father, he was worried beyond common sense.
But, after seeing the determination in my eyes, he couldn’t help it.
After a solid minute of thinking and deciding, he sighed in defeat.
“Ok.”
Giving a short answer, he stood just two steps behind me.
It was ok so I went back to my previous stance.
With some focus, I tried again.
The other two tries were also… failures.
‘My bad. Well, tomorrow might be lucky?’ I sighed deeply.
We packed up and went inside with dad still having a complicated face and mind full of chaotic thoughts.