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"Yo cousins, sup!" Leopold greeted his two cousins, Mimosa and Noelle.
Though Noelle could be considered his long-distance cousin, he could still use the umbrella term "cousin."
"Well, if it isn't Mr. All-Fired-Up and Mr. Idiot," Mimosa returned the greeting.
"Jeez, give him a rest already. He has apologized so many times," Leopold decided to defend his friend, who was looking everywhere but at Mimosa.
"I would have, but he doesn't learn each time," she said while staring at the 'idiot.'
Mimosa was fed up with Akeru.
Even though he was experimenting with control over his non-essential parts, which itself could be argued upon, the burden she bore, especially when he had come close to destroying his nerves countless times, had really caused her to feel irritated with him.
Due to the nature of the injury and how quickly it had to be treated, he couldn't run to the medics present in the state due to the large distance between the training ground and the hospital.
"Uhh... Uhh... Uhh," Akeru tried to say something three times but wisely shut up.
Despite saying that every time, Mimosa still healed him up.
He was worried that if he said something wrong, Mimosa might stop healing him.
The hospital's door was already closed, and he didn't want to close this door.
'I really need to somehow learn recovery magic,' Akeru knew that he would definitely need it when he started learning even more dangerous spells, and to grow stronger, he had to do it.
This was also the reason Mimosa hadn't completely shut him off.
Noelle watched all this with an amused expression.
She knew the situation from both perspectives, and she couldn't do anything to break the deadlock.
So, she would watch.
"It's a shame that my brother had to go today," Leopold decided to change the conversation.
He was worried that Mimosa's stare might set Akeru on fire somehow.
"Nozel was also absent today," Noelle said. 'Though, he is always absent,' she didn't voice her thoughts.
"I think they went with the wizard king to chase out some invaders or something," Akeru said while finally entering the conversation.
"Yeah, I think the invaders are from the Diamond Kingdom," Mimosa finally decided to not burn Akeru with her gaze.
They entered the tower present there.
The tower master was one of the retired captain-level knights, so everyone present was respectful.
Akeru also didn't try to find blue lines as he always felt like other captains could somehow notice that.
The last thing he wanted was to get kicked out of the tower.
"Welcome, young men and women," a booming voice could be heard throughout the room.
The old man with a moustache said while floating in the centre of the room.
"Today is a very important day in your lives, and as royals who in future... blah blah blah." Akeru tuned out the old man's voice.
'Can't they first give the grimoire and then the speech, or did he do it purposely as nobody would listen to him otherwise?' Akeru cursed at the old man.
After listening to him for 5 minutes straight, the old man finally decided to give them their grimoires.
Grimoires of various sizes and shapes floated in the air and in the next instant started floating toward everyone.
'Maybe I will get a four-leaf grimoire? Or maybe five-leaf, but I would rather not have a devil residing in my grimoire,' Akeru excitedly waited for one grimoire to come toward him.
And one did come at him.
Akeru's eyes widened as he looked at the grimoire floating near him.
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A/N - Lol, I wanted to end this chapter here really bad (❁'◡'❁), but I guess fate has other plans as half of the chapter is still left to be completed.
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Akeru looked at his grimoire in shock.
"It's small," Akeru blurted out.
His friends who had received their grimoires looked at him after hearing his words.
They were also baffled at looking at a grimoire which was barely around the size of a thumb.
"I didn't know somebody could have it this small," Mimosa subconsciously said.
Akeru, for some reason, felt his ego-shattering after hearing this from Mimosa.
"Yeah, it's really surprising that you have a small one, Akeru," Noelle said this line on purpose.
A vein could be seen throbbing on Akeru's forehead.
"It-It's better this way. I don't have to worry about enemies trying to attack my grimoire," Akeru tried to defend himself.
"Also, size doesn't matter; what spells it contains matters," Akeru quickly said and disappeared from the tower with his grimoire in a flash.
"I think you guys overdid it," Leopold said with a deadpan while looking at Noelle.
She was the main culprit.
"I was just joking. I didn't know that he would get this embarrassed," Noelle said with an awkward smile.
"Well, let's go after him just in case," Mimosa suggested with a hint of red shading her cheeks.
She realized the joke later.
So, the three people with their grimoires also rushed out of the tower.
They were also curious about his magic, as unlike them, his was still unknown.
It didn't take them long to find him as he hadn't gone that far away.
To their confusion, Akeru could be seen laughing like a maniac while his grimoire was open.
"Woah, what did you get?" Leopold asked.
"Guess," Akeru said.
"Destruction Magic," Leopold immediately guessed.
"Maniac Magic," Mimosa blurted out a random name.
"Space-Time Magic," Noelle said with an excited expression.
Akeru was speechless at their guesses.
"Uhh, nothing too grand like that. My magic goes by Bystander's Magic," he decided to finally reveal it.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"That sounds lame," Noelle blurted out.
"Even without a grimoire, you are strong, Akeru. Don't let it hold you back," Mimosa tried to console him while patting his shoulder.
"Did you get your other spells upgraded?" Leopold asked.
"Bruh, you guys are already judging it by name. This is really awesome magic. Yeah, I got my other spells upgraded too," Akeru looked at them with a deadpan.
"How many spells did you get of this 'awesome magic'?" Noelle asked.
"Two."
"Hmm, that's low, but they must be strong as you were laughing like a maniac earlier?" Noelle instantly deduced that the shit-eating grin Akeru had was not a facade but actually had a proper reason behind it.
"Yeah, let me show you one," Akeru said, and in the next instant, he disappeared.
"Woah, I don't feel any mana in my field at all," Leopold said.
"That was the same as before. He still could move fast while using internal body enhancements, so is this invisibility?" Noelle asked.
"Nah, it's more like my presence is reduced in the world. I am technically present to all your senses, but they are being selectively filtered out, I guess?" Akeru reappeared in the same position while trying to explain his spell.
"Hmm, but isn't that similar to your ability to not appear in a sensory field due to not releasing any mana?" Noelle asked.
"Yeah, however, it's an advanced version of that. I believe that only Vice-Captain level knights and above would be able to sense me, or advanced sensors, and that's only if I am close to them. Others won't be able to react even if they sensed me at that time," Akeru shared his thoughts. 'Even People with Ki sensing won't be any different.'
"..."
"..."
"..."
"You won't kill me in my sleep, right?" Noelle asked while taking a step back.
Akeru just deadpanned at her.
"That really makes you a good spy," Mimosa chuckled.
"As expected of my rival," Leopold said normally.
"Anyway, this isn't the reason I was hyped. It's the second spell," Akeru said.
"Oh, what does that do?"
"It increases my focus by 10 times," Akeru said excitedly.
"Oh, so like it helps you get instantly into flow?" Leopold asked.
He instantly imagined how deadly that ability could be, as when one person is in flow, not only does their ability to do a task increase due to almost no friction or obstacle, but it also saves a lot of time.
So, even if his focus increased by 10 times, his speed of task wouldn't increase by 10 times but rather by multiple times due to it getting compounded.
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A/n- Oof, I should have put this author note before only, just refer to the author note of chapter 37 before dropping, that is, if you are interested in what I have to say about the matter.
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