She kissed me.
I got kissed.
My first kiss was—
At the thought, Lisiluo squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, refusing to open them. She desperately hoped it had all been a hallucination.
Wuuu… I’m not pure anymore…
The cream on her tongue slowly melted, sweet and unmistakably the taste of the mille-feuille.
Then, nothing.
It really seemed like there had only been the taste of dessert.
Hmm?
That’s not right?
Although Lisiluo had no real experience, she still had a general idea of what a kiss should feel like.
“Pfft.”
Mu Wan’s laughter only confirmed her suspicion.
Lisiluo snapped her eyes open.
Mu Wan’s face was right in front of her, barely a palm’s distance away. Her eyes were filled with the sly look she only wore when she was messing with someone.
In her hand was a small spoon that had appeared out of nowhere, with a bit of cream still clinging to the edge.
“Aiya~ What was junior just thinking about? Your face is red all the way down to your neck~”
“I-I-I…”
Lisiluo was so flustered she couldn’t form a proper sentence. She sat frozen in place.
Mu Wan leisurely pulled the spoon back and licked the cream off it, her tone carrying a hint of complaint.
“Seriously. I clearly told you not to open your eyes early. How else am I supposed to play the ‘guess the dessert’ game?”
“Guess the dessert… game?”
“That’s right. Through a little game, I let you experience the emotion called 【unknown】. Pretty good idea, isn’t it?”
“……Eh?”
“Didn’t I say I would teach you how to supplement emotion from the outside? That was the demonstration.”
“Huu… So that’s what it was.”
That scared me to death.
Lisiluo had genuinely thought she was about to kiss Mu Wan. For a moment, her brain had almost short-circuited.
She had even prepared herself to push Mu Wan away and had already rehearsed the line “Senpai, we can’t do this” in her head.
Thankfully, it had only been dessert being fed to her.
If things had gone even one step further, she would have definitely fainted right there in the dessert shop.
“Otherwise, what did you think I was going to do?”
“I thought… N-No, it was nothing!”
Lisiluo waved her hands frantically, nearly blurting out her real thoughts.
Mu Wan tilted her head. Her twin-tails slid over her shoulders and rested against the sides of her white shirt.
“You didn’t actually think that I would…”
Her smile deepened. She tapped her glossy lips with a finger, revealing two small tiger teeth.
“…kiss you? Like lovers do?”
It would have been better if Mu Wan hadn’t said anything.
The moment she did, combined with her actions, Lisiluo’s mind automatically filled in the scene of Mu Wan leaning in for a kiss.
That soft, sweet sensation felt so real, as if it had actually happened.
Boom!
Lisiluo threw herself backward, crashing into the soft padding of the booth with a dull thud.
She pretended to fix her slightly crooked glasses while using her hand to cover her burning face, terrified that Mu Wan would see her expression.
Wuuu…
Next time. Next time I absolutely—
Absolutely will not blindly follow Mu Wan’s orders again. I have to ask for clarification first!
Mu Wan immediately leaned in closer and whispered into Lisiluo’s ear.
“So… do you want to try it for real?”
“N-No no no! It’s still way too early for something like that!”
“Eh? Aren’t you curious at all?”
Mu Wan continued fanning the flames beside her, nearly making Lisiluo recall that shameful imaginary scene again.
No no no! I have to refuse!
She shook her head desperately, trying to erase the embarrassing image from her mind.
“I’m not curious! Not even a little!”
Her voice came out a bit too loud. A few people nearby glanced over, scaring Lisiluo into immediately lowering her voice.
“B-Besides, senpai, this is a public place! We can’t do something like that here…”
“What’s the big deal~? Couples try it all the time. As long as you’re not bothering anyone, no one cares.”
“Eh? Really?”
Was the academy… such an open place?
People could kiss in public and no one minded? Had her way of thinking fallen behind? Was this actually something completely normal here?
For a moment, Lisiluo felt like she had discovered a whole new world. Her understanding of the word “open-minded” in the academy rules had been completely refreshed.
But—
“No. No way. This is the one thing I still can’t accept!”
“Junior is so old-fashioned~ You don’t even want to test how much your magic power has improved.”
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to follow the old-fashioned method of hiding your true strength while training?”
The more Lisiluo listened, the more something felt off.
It seemed like… what Mu Wan was saying and what she had been thinking were completely different things.
“Wait, wait. Senpai, when you said ‘test,’ what exactly are we testing?”
“Testing your magic output rank, of course. What else would it be?”
Mu Wan rested her chin on her hand and looked at Lisiluo with an innocent expression.
“Don’t you know? You can use a specially made gem to quickly check your magic rank. It’s become pretty popular lately.”
She had no idea at all!
Lisiluo wanted to scream internally while clutching her head.
She had completely misunderstood Mu Wan from the very beginning and had been having this entire conversation based on that misunderstanding.
How embarrassing…
Just thinking about everything she had said earlier made Lisiluo want to dig a three-bedroom apartment into the floor with her toes.
Watching Lisiluo’s reaction, Mu Wan first looked thoughtful, then suddenly understood. A knowing smile appeared on her face.
“Hmm? Ah… I see~ So junior is definitely willing to do the test now, right?”
Lisiluo, who had already reached the peak of shame, covered her face completely and gave a silent nod.
Just like she had done at the teaching building entrance, Mu Wan took out two silver coins and flicked them into the air one after another.
When they fell back down, they had transformed into a gem the size of an egg, which Mu Wan caught steadily.
Through the gap between her fingers, Lisiluo saw the whole process and was so shocked she nearly forgot how to speak.
“Senpai, how did you just—”
Creating that kind of effect wasn’t difficult. Basic spatial magic was enough.
But Mu Wan hadn’t chanted any incantation, nor had she used a staff.
If it wasn’t magic, then the only possibility left was…
“Oh, that was my family’s 【Blessing】 just now. But that’s not important right now.”
“Here. This is the gem I was talking about.”
Mu Wan opened her palm and showed it to Lisiluo.
It was a transparent green gem with several concentric circular patterns carved into its surface.
“All you have to do is hold it and pour as much magic power into it as you can.”
Lisiluo carefully reached out and took it. The moment her skin touched the gem, a cool sensation spread from her palm throughout her entire body.
To be honest, Lisiluo had zero confidence.
From the moment Mu Wan told her to close her eyes, it had felt like she was just being teased for fun.
Besides, even if her emotions had been supplemented, would her magic power really increase immediately? Wasn’t that a bit too convenient…
“Um, senpai, can I ask a question?”
“No. I don’t accept any objections.”
Mu Wan leaned against Lisiluo’s shoulder and forcibly covered her mouth with her fingers.
“If you don’t hurry up and do it, I might actually kiss you for real. Or… is that what you want?”
“Eh?! N-No no no, I’ll do it right now!”
Lisiluo’s face turned bright red. She gripped the gem tightly in her palm and closed her eyes.
Darkness fell once again.
She took a deep breath and began pouring her magic power into the gem.
All the tense, heart-pounding scenes from earlier flashed through her mind again.
Maybe it was just her imagination. Or maybe it wasn’t.
Every time she recalled Mu Wan’s warm breath, her face so close to hers, and that sweet scent, the flow of her magic seemed to speed up a little.
After a while, her palm gradually grew warm.
No—
It wasn’t her palm that was heating up. It was the gem.
She slowly opened her eyes and uncurled her fingers.
Two thin, rainbow-like patterns had appeared on the surface of the gem.
“Let me see—”
Mu Wan suddenly leaned in from the side. Then she smiled and started clapping for Lisiluo.
“Clap clap clap. Congratulations, junior. Your total magic power has successfully reached Rank 2~”