In the end, I didn't get to apologize to Epona.
I was about to apologize in the classroom the following day when she was called away for another mission and had to leave the school grounds.
This time, Epona was on her own.
Although the headmaster ordered us to become the hero's comrades – or rather, her friends – and give her our support, he didn't call for us.
…His opinion of us may have dropped following our battle with the orcs.
From the start, we were counted as the chains that bind the hero, and not military assets, but it was possible that he had now deemed us a heavy hindrance to her.
I was now on lunch break and eating in the courtyard.
Talt was brewing tea and humming.
[Is your body okay now?] (Dia)
[It's in perfect shape. I had Lugh-sama heal me overnight.] (Talt)
Talt was flexing her arm.
As she said, because I had been enhancing her self-healing abilities all night, her injuries were healed.
Nonetheless, I was worried that she might have received a mental shock and that she was probably still tired.
However, Talt cooked our meals like usual this morning, and she seemed full of energy.
[That's a relief. Are you really sure you're fine?] (Dia)
[Yes, absolutely. I failed miserably yesterday. So I will train harder and harder so it won't happen again! I have to master the eye Lugh-sama granted me.] (Talt)
Perhaps it was because she was brimming with resolution along with mana, but even through the colored contact lens, I could see a faint light in her eyes.
[I wonder if I could have those eyes too.] (Dia)
Dia was enviously looking at Talt's eye.
[We'll have to think about it a little. Tuatha Dé's eyes are undoubtedly useful, but your mana would leak out while you grow accustomed to it. Dia, your mana reserve is high, but if you took part in a struggle similar to our last one, you would run out of mana. So I don't think mana-consuming eyes would suit you.] (Lugh)
[Augh, it's true that I may not have enough mana to spare for my eyes. But if I trained them, I would be able to use them only when I intend to, so I maintain my request. Also, Lugh, you did say that even without channeling mana into them, their performance was incomparable to that of regular eyes, didn't you?] (Dia)
[That's right.] (Lugh)
[Then I really want them. Besides, if I'm going to obtain them anyway, the sooner I get used to them, the better. …But it's strange, though. Talt has much less mana than me, yet she's never fainted. If, like you said, her mana has been leaking out while she was getting used to her eye, then it's odd how she seemed normal all the while.] (Dia)
As I suspected, Dia noticed that anomaly, huh.
[Oh, this? That's because I had Lugh-sama replenish my mana every once in a while. And recently, I've managed to gain better control over it, so I don't need his help as much as before.] (Talt)
Dia stared at my face with a smile.
A somewhat scary one, actually.
…I messed up. I did tell Talt that this was one of Tuatha Dé's secret arts to prevent her from telling anybody, but I didn't tell her not to tell our companion, Dia.
[Say, Lugh. I didn't know you could supply your mana. If you could do that, then why didn't you do it during yesterday's battle? This way, I would've been able to participate more actively.] (Dia)
[Because this is one of Tuatha Dé's secret arts. I can't use it in public.] (Lugh)
I wasn't lying.
I was just hiding the other reason why I couldn't do it in front of people.
[Hmm… But I have to wonder, how do you make this possible? Adjusting your mana wavelength is technically difficult, but not impossible. …And even with the accuracy of your mana control, it would probably be reduced to 20% of its original amount. Ah, but considering your near-endless mana capacity, it's not a problem for you, I guess. The problem would be the transfer method. For that, direct contact is a must. …And if you wanted to increase the transmission efficiency while preventing your mana from fluctuating after you managed to tune it to the same wavelength, you would have to do… that. So in the end, this is what it was all about. Geez, it's not fair that Talt gets all the treats…!] (Dia)
She reached the right conclusion based only on what she just heard about mana transfer.
This was why Dia was scary.
[Hey, Lugh. I want to do tons of magical training during which I would use tons of mana, but mine would run out on the spot, so I couldn't get any training done.] (Dia)
[Got it. I'll provide you with all the mana you want.] (Lugh)
[Yay! Fufu…! I look forward to it. I get all the magical practice I want, and Lugh's kisses. …Although, if Lugh is hesitant about it, I wouldn't mind a different kind of mucosal contact.] (Dia)
[You can't do that until marriage!] (Talt)
Talt interjected with her bright red face. It seemed that even she, who was unfamiliar with that sort of topic, understood the implication.
…I'd better keep quiet about how this method is actually the better one in terms of efficiency.
[I'm not going to do that, Talt would get mad at me for it. And it scares me a little too, so I'll be saving that moment for later. So please be sure to provide me with your mana through kissing, okay?] (Dia)
I had no way out of this one.
It's not that I didn't want to kiss her.
I love Dia. If anything, I think this method had nothing but benefits. However, reason prevailed and made me anxious about it, so I backed off.
I was afraid that if I kissed her again, I would lose all restraint.
Kissing my beloved Dia and then stopping there would be equivalent to leaving me half-dead.
Honestly, having a young body is a real hassle.
[Dia, our conversation went off track, but you really want the eyes, huh?] (Lugh)
[Of course, if I could see mana, I think it would grant me easier control of my magic. I could definitely improve it with them. It would also give me an edge over our enemies' rearguard during magical shootouts in the battlefield. Rather, this is the kind of fighting style that suits me better than contributing in close quarter combat like Talt.] (Dia)
She really was reasoning like a mage.
Even if you were at a distance where you couldn't hear the enemy's incantations, if you could see the flow of their mana, then you would be able to predict the spell before it was completed.
Even when you were about to cast one yourself, by comparing the movement of mana with the spell once it was completed, you could find a link between them.
The perception of information that could only be captured by the senses was exceptionally significant.
Being able to discern mana was as great an advantage as possessing super kinetic vision.
[In that case, I'll go prepare for both of your surgeries.] (Lugh)
Hence, we decided that I would operate on Talt's other eye, and then move on to Dia's.
I was looking forward to their further growth.
_______________________________________________________________
A week later, Epona came back.
She became strangely distant and reserved since then.
She was trying to keep her distance with me, of course, but also with Dia and the others. There was no doubt that something happened during her solo mission.
Even if I tried to approach her, she would avoid me.
She didn't join us for our study sessions either.
I had no other choice, so I decided to pay her a visit in her room at night.
I wanted to avoid a situation where at this rate, I wouldn't get to apologize to her because I kept missing the timing for this.
After finishing training, I took a shower and headed to Epona's room on my own.
I was only a few seconds away from my destination.
Then I heard a deafening siren sound.
Was it signaling a raid?
Did it mean that the knight academy was under attack?
Just what kind of people would invade this place? They had to be insane.
No matter how inexperienced they may be, there were more than a hundred sorcerers in the academy.
[…No, if the invaders are demons leading an army of monsters, then isn't it possible?] (Lugh)
The invaders were monsters.
The instructors arrived and told everyone to gather in the auditorium immediately.
At the same time, a swarm of monsters was closing in.
This time, in addition to the same kind of orcs as last time, there seemed to be a wide variety of monsters too.
The size of this mob was incomparable to the one from last time.
[So the bad feeling I had back then with the pack of orcs was because of this?] (Lugh)
The movements of the orcs from last time wasn't natural.
That was why I suspected them to be a reconnaissance and information-gathering team.
My suspicion just turned into a partial certainty.
Then, I conjectured what sort of information the other party wanted at that time.
The most likely answer was the weakness of Epona the hero. Because their purpose was to crush the hero.
And they had succeeded in finding it. That was why they retreated with such timing, and today, they assaulted the academy.
Thinking about it that way, it all made perfect sense.
Her weakness, as known to them, was her lack of control over her own power that could be harmful to her allies.
That alone wasn't Epona's own weakness, but her reluctance to drag others into her fight and hurt them was fatal.
If this academy was filled with monsters, this would become the most difficult situation for Epona to fight in.
She would probably find herself unable to move.
[I suppose this school raid was only meant to weaken Epona. Looks like they're looking down on the rest of us. Because if the sole point is to weaken the hero alone, they'd have to believe they're capable of dealing with an additional hundreds of sorcerers.] (Lugh)
Monsters were nothing more than beasts who moved around on instinct, but demons possessed a high level of intelligence, and books were depicting them as wielding the power to create and command monsters.
But to think they could plan that far ahead and take action.
There was no way this was just a single-minded attack.
Just how many tricks did they have up their sleeve?
[Epona!] (Lugh)
Epona, who heard the siren, jumped out of her room, so I called out to her.
She started to say something, but choked up and tried to say something else.
[I'm going on ahead. Fight as far away from me as possible.] (Epona)
Those were words of rejection.
Therefore, I conveyed her what I had to say.
[I'm sorry about the other day… Let's fight together again. I'm going to become strong enough for that. So… don't fight on your own.] (Lugh)
It was a declaration of determination.
I wouldn't drag her down ever again.
Epona ran off without looking back.
I managed to get through to her. Now all I had to do was live up to those words.
Perhaps the chance to do so would come around.