After spending an entire day in the swamp, Ace decided to leave the forest and headed back to the village. On his way, he pondered about what that breakthrough was during the fight.
"I wonder what that vision I had was," Ace thought, describing the feeling and vision he had as he sliced through the giant orc. "It was so realist that it seemed more like a memory than a simple vision."
"Well, it might have just beenmy imagination. It's better to simply go back home and eat. I'm starving," he said as his stomach growled in agreement.
After several hours of trekking, Ace finally reached the village. The two guards standing at the village entrance glanced at him, a concerned look as he staggered, noting his disheveled appearance.
"Hey, isn't that Chris's kid?" said Simon, one of the village guards standing at the village entrance.
"Yeah, that's him," said Robert, the other guard. "Go get help. Quickly!"
Ace whose strength had left him could no longer hold on his two feet and he collapsed on the road. "Damn it. Not again."
The next day, Ace woke up in his room. He was covered in bandages and knew what it meant. As he slowly rose from bed, his face went pale. "I'm in deep shit!" he screamed internally.
At that moment, the door opened making Ace twitch a little. It was Shaw who had come to check on his older brother. "Oh."
"Big br-!" he exclaimed as Ace jumped out of bed covering his brother's mouth with his hand.
"Sshh!" Ace exclaimed; his face seemingly etched with terror. "Don't yell, okay?"
Shaw nodded, Ace slowly removing his hand from his mouth. Ace let out a sigh of relief as if he had escaped a disaster. As he slowly checked the hallway, Ellie appeared behind him, her face quite menacing.
Ace turned completely blue as he slowly turned around. "Oh no. She's angry," he thought.
Ellie had a dark expression on her face. "You and I need to talk young man," she said, her voice commanding and menacing.
"Y-yes ma'am," Ace said, the tone in his voice being that of someone who had accepted their fate.
The following hours, Ace got an earful from Ellie. She had been worried about him especially after he showed up completely battered up and unconscious. Chris and Shaw, on the other hand, had finished breakfast and they were training outside as if not wanting to deal with the storm that was Ellie. Ace was then grounded for an entire week with the instruction of not doing any training, focusing solely on recovering.
After a week, Ace's 'punishment' had finally ended. He was still instructed by Chris not to engage in any physical training, but he did occasionally go to the church to read books in the library.
On one particular day, when Ace entered the library, he found Isabella at one of the desks. "Hey, Iza. How are you?"
"It's Isabella, idiot," she replied, the tone of her voice cold.
"Yeah, sure," said Ace, seemingly not caring about her remark. "So, what're you reading?"
"Don't you have someone else to annoy?" said Isabella.
"Unfortunately, I don't. If mom found me elsewhere, she wouldn't let me hear the end of it," Ace said, a light grin on his face.
"I see," responded Isabella seemingly not caring about Ace and simply continuing reading her book.
Ace continued to chatter away while Isabella continued to engross herself in books. Soon the sun started to set on the horizon, and Isabella decided to go back home.
"See you tomorrow," said Ace, waving his hand at her as he walked away.
As Isabella also went on her way, her mind was rushing with thoughts about Ace. "He really is annoying. Well, at least he's not a total fool."
She remembered about a time when Maria had left them to practice magic on their own because she was busy with other urgent matters.
She was practicing a spell she had recently learned,
One day, she had overheard Ace who was thinking out loud. It was something that was both impressive and innovative.
"Let's see, fire magic. I guess it relies on the concept of ignition. Particles accelerate creating heat and mana seems to cause that energy to grow. Fire is fueled by oxygen, so if I use that theory as basis, I guess that means that if I do this," he mumbled as he held out his hand towards a candle.
He focused his mana, envisioning the process he had stated in his theory, and the candle was on fire. A bright blue flame was burning the candle making it melt.
"Yes!" he exclaimed as he was happy that his experiment had succeeded.
"Idiot!" yelled Isabella as she splashed Ace and the candle in water. "What would you do if the fire spread out!"
"S-sorry."
"I can't believe he used fire magic," she thought as she remembered the scene that unfolded in front of her. "But what he did was different from normal fire magic. Exactly what was it?"
"How did you do that?" she asked.
"What?"
"I'm asking you how did you that?" she repeated, her eyes bright with curiosity and excitement.
"I didn't know she could make that kind of expression," thought Ace, surprised by Isabella's expression. She, who was always cold and never talked much, almost doll-like, now seemed more human.
"Pfft. HAHAHA!" he laughed strongly, making Isabella regain her composure, turning bright red from embarrassment.
"Haha. Okay, sure I'll tell you," said Ace with a wide smile.
"Y-yes, I appreciate it," she responded.
From then on, they started to spend more time devising magical theories together and doing experiments together. Little by little, they became close enough to be somewhat friends.
"Truly, he really is annoying," thought Isabella finally arriving at her house. "I'm home."