“It looks like I’m done here, so I’ll head over to my own training ground.”
“Can’t I come with you? This place is covered in the dust from the clay discs you shattered, and it’s not exactly a great environment to sleep in.”
Reysir leapt up from his seat, clearly ready to follow me.
His reason was quite reasonable, but it wasn’t something I needed to concern myself with. So, I refused.
“If you can’t sleep, just sit down and do some Aether Cultivation. That’s what I plan to do anyway.”
“You dirtied someone else’s private training ground like this and now you’re just going to move to a clean place alone?”
“This happened because you wanted to watch my training, didn’t it? And in case you’ve forgotten, I rented this training ground with my own money.”
“Oh, right…?”
Perhaps he couldn’t think of any other argument.
Reysir accepted my words without resistance and flopped back into his seat.
Then he said something meaningful.
“When you go to your own training ground, you’ll take a shower, right? When you do, take a good look in the mirror. Something has changed.”
“Nyaooong~? Nyaha!”
“…?”
Yor stared intently at my face, then reacted as if it had realized something.
It seemed something really had changed.
‘Don’t tell me I ended up with heterochromia from separating Aether…? Two characters with heterochromia in one novel seems a bit much…’
I thought about asking Reysir what exactly had changed, but decided against it.
If he wanted to tell me because I was curious, he wouldn’t have said it so cryptically; he would’ve been direct.
Besides, I could check soon enough, and I didn’t want to seem needy to the protagonist of someone else’s novel.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Okay, see you in the morning~!”
“……”
To maintain my consistent character, I ignored Reysir’s greeting once again and immediately left for my private training ground.
The moment I arrived, I went straight to the shower and faced the mirror.
As expected, my facial features were unchanged, and my dark circles remained.
I hadn’t developed heterochromia, as I had feared.
But when I looked closely at my eyes, I realized what Reysir had meant.
Originally, this body’s irises were purple with sky-blue patches spread like stains.
But now, befitting the term Pie Eye, the sky-blue had secured a distinct area, reminiscent of a cut piece of pie.
That area took up just under a quarter of the whole.
‘It’s such a subtle change you’d only notice if you looked closely…’
Still, it kept that unique, mystical aura, and my expression seemed more orderly than before—I was rather satisfied.
“You’ve gone through a major change in just a few days, haven’t you? This professor is truly amazed. To become so proficient at drawing out the Second Ether this quickly is remarkable!”
Today was Tuesday, my scheduled private lesson with Professor Radvisin.
So, I showed him how I could bring out the Sky-Blue Aether without using up the Purple Aether, and he said the above.
And from his words, using “become proficient,” it was clear I hadn’t mentioned anything about the core in my head.
No, I couldn’t have.
‘Because I can’t mention that Reysir helped me!’
Currently, Reysir is hiding everything about the Silver Ethere.
Naturally, the existence of the core in my head containing its energy is also a secret.
I couldn’t just go around blabbing about it on my own.
And above all, I didn’t want Professor Radvisin to become interested in Reysir.
If, by chance, the professor got involved with the original protagonist and ended up dying because of it, that responsibility would undoubtedly fall on me.
Of course, Professor Radvisin is older, so he probably wouldn’t quit his job and start wandering the Demonic Realm with Reysir.
But in the original story, even some non-combatants who never entered the Demonic Realm ended up dying, so there’s no guarantee.
‘Besides, since Professor Radvisin and the graduate student seniors have no ties to the original story, they’re actually the easiest for me to get along with. I don’t want the protagonist thrown in among them.’
‘Didn’t I have second thoughts even when I called out Vigdis for the broken engagement contract in the lab?’
If I called Reysir, it definitely wouldn’t end with “second thoughts.”
‘Anyway, if I leave out anything about Reysir, it would make me sound like someone who just randomly shoved Aether into his own skull.’
They’d wonder if I had a death wish.
That’s why I couldn’t say I separated the Sky-Blue and Purple Aether and stored them in two separate cores.
“It just turned out that way… In any case, thank you for the compliment.”
In the end, that’s all I could say.
Professor Radvisin, perhaps thinking I was just being bashful, looked at me with a warm smile.
To receive such a gentle reaction even to my hastily mumbled thanks—somehow, it made me feel embarrassed.
So this time, I bowed deeply at the waist and spoke my gratitude sincerely.
“And… thank you for all your help so far. Thanks to you, I learned that I didn’t have a defect, but simply possessed a different ability from my family. And I’ve become able to control that power as well.”
Although the original owner of this body was known for being arrogant and authoritative, I didn’t think this was excessive.
After all, the defect in his Purple Aether ability was a long-time complex and weakness.
Even if it was the real Karbaldr standing here, not me, he would have bowed politely and given his thanks to the professor.
“The idea of the Second Ether and mastering its power was all Karbaldr’s own doing. I simply watched from the side.”
“Still, it was your guidance that helped me gain confidence in my theory and safely handle the Sky-Blue Aether.”
“Hohohoho! Indeed, indeed. I’m grateful you acknowledge this professor’s efforts.”
I felt truly lucky that Professor Radvisin was in charge of the Aether Attribute Enhancement Lecture.
Taking the chance, I also thanked the graduate student seniors.
Unlike with the professor, I didn’t bow, but the seniors didn’t seem to mind at all.
“This makes it feel like our time together is coming to an end~?”
“Junior, you’re not thinking of disappearing from the lab now that you can handle the Sky-Blue Aether, are you?”
Elska and Blida joked around with friendly laughter.
But I couldn’t bring myself to say that wasn’t the case.
Because…
“I’m not sure if it’s alright to keep taking up your time, with you all being so busy.”
“It’s never a waste of time to help an outstanding student. But I also have my own research, and Blida and Elska need to focus on their studies, so we should reduce the frequency of our sessions.”
Now that I could freely summon the Sky-Blue Aether, my original goal had been achieved.
Yet he still said he would continue teaching me outside of regular lectures.
“You mean… you’ll keep helping me…?”
“But of course. Even if you can now call forth the Sky-Blue Aether at will, using that ability well is a different matter, isn’t it?”
“Ah…”
“Now there’s no need for you to be impatient. Let’s limit extra lessons to once a week, on Saturdays.”
I felt grateful, but also a bit pressured.
‘I had no intention of becoming a graduate student, so was it really alright?’
But if I wanted to survive to the end in this novel world, I had to develop my abilities as much as possible…
“Then, please continue to guide me.”
Shameless as it felt, I could only answer this way.
***
After a brief conversation with Professor Radvisin, I set a new training goal—to reduce the time needed to generate clouds—and immediately got to practice.
Since this wasn’t an ability that targeted people, I didn’t need help from the graduate seniors.
They’d only been called to help train Buff Ability and burn off Purple Aether, so now, even though they could return to the Research Lab, they stayed as spectators.
It made sense—weather manipulation was a power never before seen, even in this fantasy novel world.
For those researching Aether Attributes, it was bound to pique their interest.
“Alright~, let’s wrap up training here and go have dinner.”
In the midst of the session, Professor Radvisin clapped his hands and declared class over.
It was almost dinnertime, but more likely, he’d seen the exhaustion on my face.
The amount of Aether needed to create clouds was considerable, and my store of Sky-Blue Aether was quite limited.
Knowing this, I carefully controlled my powers to avoid wasting any Aether, and only made small clouds.
Even so, my upper dantian emptied quickly.
Yor also participated in today’s training, creating clouds several times larger than mine, yet my baby dragon still looked energetic.
The difference between us was stark, considering how worn out I was.
‘If I ever need to use this ability in real combat, it’d be most efficient to have Yor make the clouds and for me to just pull the trigger to make it rain at the right moment!’
Having come to that conclusion, I followed the professor and seniors down to the basement of the campus dining hall.
***
While waiting for our food and engaging in small talk, this came up:
“Oh, by the way! They started accepting applications for the Martial Arts Tournament yesterday.”
“You’re going to enter too, right?”
The Martial Arts Tournament permitted the use of Aether.
It was a perfect opportunity to observe a variety of Aether Attribute abilities.
Graduate students couldn’t enter, but it was perfectly natural for the seniors here to know about the tournament schedule.
But it wasn’t at all natural for them to assume I would compete.
“I’m not entering.”
“Why not? When you were practicing drawing out Sky-Blue Aether on your own, you used up Purple Aether by training Whip Technique, didn’t you? So I thought you were planning to compete.”
“The Whip Technique I learned is strictly for basic self-defense—it’s not suited for actual combat. I tried training on my own and came up with various ideas, but… a while ago I ended up sparring with a student I know, and I lost completely. I realized self-study just wasn’t enough.”
“Ah… that’s unfortunate…”
The memory of sparring with Reysir and not even grazing his clothes came to mind, and I let out a sigh.
Elska gave me a look of regret, as if she felt bad for asking.
Professor Radvisin let out a quiet sigh, and Blida looked at me with real sympathy.
I must have looked truly dejected.
‘It can’t be helped. My focus on training wasn’t just for a silly tournament, but out of a desperate need to survive!’
As I thought that and felt a bitter smile creep across my face, someone with a very distinctive way of speaking butted into the conversation.
“Then, shall I help you~?”
If this line were written, it would surely end with a tilde—needless to say, it was Skadi.
Seeing her confidently appear in the faculty-only dining hall, it looked like the issue of being ostracized by her fellow professors had been resolved.
But more than that, what she had just said caught my attention.
“Actually, I don’t just use daggers—I attach them to wires. That’s why I learned Whip Technique too, to master the application skills~? I can use all sorts of weapons, but what I’m best with is wires and daggers~! And after that, it’s whip, of course~?”
“……”
“So~? Want to learn Whip Technique from me~?”
I knew I should keep my distance from Skadi.
But this was an irresistible, perfect opportunity.