By the time I returned to the Inn, Milly was already in the process of eating her lunch.
A large quantity of bread and stir-fried vegetables, meat and fish.....
Milly was still behaving herself, using a knife and fork to eat, but there was already a considerable amount of plates on the table.
「Welcome home. Zeph, Claude...Ah, those clothes are really cute! Did you buy it just now?」
「Thank you.....Eh, that's a lot of food you are eating, Milly-san」
「It's because I knew you two were coming back. So I ordered more♪ I'm also really hungry」
Nihihi, Milly laughed.
「How did you know we were coming back?」
「Recently, my perception of magic has become really sensitive. Maybe it's because I've been around you guys for long time? It's especially easy to notice Zeph's presence, because his magical energy is really strong」
To be able to sense magic from a long distance, if I am not mistaken, it should require a considerably high amount of skill, being at such a young age, yet she already able to do such a thing?
Milly is incredible.
「Oh? But for some reason, I can't sense Azalea's magic at all」
「She may have suppressed her magical energy. Especially for those with a calling to being assassin type magicians, I have heard that they possess the ability to hide their existence from others」
「Heeh~ I see...Or more like, is that dispatched magician here? in this town!? You're talking like you know her as an acquaintance or something....」
「Ah, Claude, I didn't tell you about it? Just yesterday, we met up with that person」
Come to think of it I haven't mentioned this to Claude.
「That Azalea, is actually the younger sister of one of our acquaintances. The reason why she seemed so intimidating when we first met her, was apparently because she was using that sort of spell to amplify her aura」
「Is...that so?」
「Of course I am not going to just completely believe in her words, but yeah…」
「Zeph is such a worry wart~ Just from her appearance, she didn't seem like a bad person」
「Even if you think so, it's always better to be careful about these things, you fool」
「Ihyahya! Ihya iheefefu」
Milly was going to talk back to me, so I pinched her cheeks and spread them apart.
「By the way, since we are on the topic of dispatch magicians, I've remembered something that I wanted to show you guys. After we finish eating, do you guys mind if we all go to Lydia's place?」
Claude and Milly were exchanging looks with each other, and whilst they did this I bit into the meat that was placed on the table.
「Oyo? Did you guys have something to discuss with me? I am sure I told you guys that I have to stay over and watch the store for today, so I can't go hunting, right? 」
When we went over to Lydia's store, she was wearing her apron and was still in the middle of her working shift.
「My bad for interrupting your work. This will only take a short moment, do you mind if we discuss this a little more privately?」
「Hm? I don't mind but...Is this some interesting thing again? 」
Lydia seemed interested in what I had to say, and she was leading us to the interior of her shop.
After going in everyone sat down on a chair. I took out the Growth Scroll from my bag and placed it in the center of the table where everyone gathered around.
「What's this? It looks like some sort of scroll? Where did you get it from?」
Milly was persistently asking me questions and I momentarily stopped moving.
Now that you mention it…. I haven't really thought about how I was going to explain this to everyone did I? I don't really think I want to go to the trouble of explaining about Seruberie…..
「This is…Something I picked up」
I just spouted a lame excuse.
「Incidentally, Zeph usually gets up really early in order to hunt alone, right? Did you pick this up during those times?」
「Ahh...yeah, that's right」
Nice follow! Claude.
「Fuu~nn a scroll....? Isn't this unrelated to me?」
Lydia seemed to have lost interest and had both of her hands locked behind her head, when I turned my gaze towards her, she was looking straight back at me.
「This is a magical scroll named Growth, I don't really have all the details, but apparently, just by having this scroll, you are able to learn a magic that is able to increase the rate at which you grow and learn. If you can grasp the theoretical concepts behind it, anyone would be able to learn this scroll」
「I have never used magic before, even I can learn it?」
「Even if you don't possess any magical energy, it is possible to learn this scroll. I've already memorized it myself, so I wanted to pass this around and have everyone learn it」
After that I passed the growth scroll to everyone around the table and everyone was able to acquire the spell...Except for Lydia.
「Ahh~ Mouu I don't get this at all~!」
Her hair was all frizzled up and she lay her head on the table as if her brains were about to short circuit. Because the scroll itself was written with magical characters, humans without any magic might find it harder to understand…..however, I don't think it should be as difficult as this...I suppose, she's really a muscle-brain type person?
「It can't be helped, Leave it to me!」
Milly sat opposite from Lydia, and started teaching her in the magical ways…..However, Milly's teaching methods were a little abstract and she couldn't get the point across very well.
「Like I said, you need to feel the magic inside of your body and let it out, and then you need to concentrate so that you can grasp it firmly within your hands!」
「.....If you explain it like that, how would she be able to understand」
「That's right Milly-san. To begin with, what you are teaching her is actually the method to shoot out magic」
「If she becomes able to use magic, don't you think it would be really easy for her to learn the scroll?」
If you go about it that way, then the steps are completely reversed…
「Please leave it to me. Lydia-san, if you want to learn about magic, you only need to learn the theory. All you need is to understand it, then everything should be fine」
Milly seemed to be making no progress so I guess Claude volunteered herself to become Lydia's teacher.
「First off, shall I start from the notion of what magic actually is?」
「P….Please don't be too hard on me…..」
Claude was grinning but Lydia could only return a stiff smile.
「...…And so for that reason...Umm, Lydia-san are you still listening to me?」
「Unnn...I'm listening but I don't understand it at all!」
Lydia spoke out decisively as if admitting it made her feel refreshed.
「I think that even though Milly's explanations were a little jumbled up, I found that a little easier to understand」
「Eh.....? You're kidding…..」
Claude who was just told that she was actually below Milly in terms of teaching magic received a big shock to her mentality.
The thing about Claude's explanations was that she spoke in a soothing continuous tone, and it acted like a lullaby for Lydia as it became easy for her to drift off to sleep.
It can't be helped; I guess I'm the only one left who is able help her.
「Switch with me Claude. For someone like Lydia, don't you think that it will be much faster to drive it into her body rather than speak to her with words? Lydia, take off your clothes and please turn your back towards me」
「Wawawa-waitt Zeph-kun!? What are you saying!?」
「Zeph-chi is finally reaching the pubescent age to be able to say such a thing...」
「I….It doesn't have any kind of weird meaning naiwa! All I am going to try to do is communicate with your magical energy channels from the outside, and try to carve the growth scroll directly into you. If you don't really want to take off your clothes, you don't really have to you know?」
Saying that I turn behind Lydia and just thrust my hands under her clothes.
「Hyaah!? Wait a moment, can you please not touch any weird spots~」
「The clothes are obstructing me. Once I manage to locate where your magical veins are it will be fine, so just endure it until then」
「I…..I got it! I'll take it off! So just take your hands off me for a second~」
「Ah….Umm, it looks like I'm only being a hindrance here so…I'm going to go outside for a bit...」
Claude wasn't able to stay here any longer it seems? Her face was blushing like a tomato and she quickly left the room in hurried footsteps, on the other hand, Lydia began to cheerfully take off her clothes.
「Haa, you know? you didn't really need to thrust it in so suddenly」
「If you just listened to me from the beginning it would have helped a lot」
Lydia's clothes fell to the floor with a light thud and her wide back appears before my eyes.
Her back was really well toned and in contrast with her white skin, she was like some kind of beautiful sculpture come to life.
「H…..Hurry up already! It's embarrassing you know?」
「Ah…yeah, I know」
I was charmed for a second there…
Magic is concentrated on to my right hand and when I gently touched her back, she reacted with a twitch.
Lydia's magic was so miniscule that I couldn't even use Scout Scope to measure it. Moreover, her magical veins which were supposed to circulate the magical energy around her body was really thin, so it was really hard for me to find it.
When I continued to crawl my hands across her back, Lydia began to leak out small moans from her lips.
「…..T-this feels kinda weird...Zeph-chi it feels like….Your hands are moving inside of me…..」
「Lydia's the type that likes to learn by physically moving your body, right? Everyone in this world holds magical energy in their bodies, therefore, rather than teaching you in a lecture type manner, I think it will be easier for you to feel the magic if it's directly poured inside of your body」
When I started to teach Lydia magic, it was in the manner of teaching a student with talent but who just couldn't activate magic for some reason.
「Do you think that if this goes well, that I might even be able to use some magic from now on?」
「That would be impossible. Lydia's magical channels are too thin to be able to handle the use of magic. It is just physically impossible」
「Is that so….? That's disappointing」
Whilst saying so she had a smile on her face, I guess she didn't really care too much about it.
I guess she herself knows best and accepts them; the things she is good at and the things she just can't do.
Before long, my manipulation of her magical veins ended and I was able to etch the contents of the growth scroll into her body.
「With just this, my rate of improvement will be faster? I don't really feel any difference though…..?」
「Is that so? For me I actually felt a huge difference」
When I used Scout Scope on Lydia, I was able to confirm that the Growth skill was in her skill sets.
「You've learnt it without problems」
「I guess it's fine then….」
Most likely people in the past were not able to sense magical energy very well, so they can't really notice much of a difference.
As for me, the moment I learnt the Growth Scroll, I felt that my magical veins multiplied by several times, even Lydia's magical veins have thickened ever so slightly.
「Zeph-chi, can you pass me my clothes?」
Lydia was covering her breasts with her arm, and the other arm that was free was beckoning me to help her out, so I picked up her clothes which were on the ground, and just when I wanted to pass it over to her….
「Zeph? What are you doing?」
When I turned around to the direction of the voice, Milly who seemed to have snapped out of a daze spoke to me in an angry tone as her body was trembling.
「Achyaa (Tsk)~ You've woken up in the middle of the good parts haven't you Milly-chan? Although it's been regrettable, nothing happened between us you know?」
「That's exactly right, so I'd prefer if you stop with that misleading way of speaking...」
Lydia was grinning cheekily and I had a frown on my face, Milly's face was completely swollen up as she pouted like a baby and she silently smacked me on the back.
At any rate, with this, everyone has been able to learn the Growth Scroll.