With the monsters slain, my work was done, and we soon returned to Kasesh. It seemed like everyone else was doing well too, preparing for their own upcoming practical tests. Even little Run was improving in her own ways, able to manipulate her manna with her emotions, even if she didn't realize it.
'The monsters are being driven south, meaning the empire is somewhere even scarier than here for them to live… I don't like this… Not at all…'
"Siya?"
"Sorry… Just daydreaming…" 'School life certainly isn't anything like how I imagined it… But it's not so bad really… And to have a war suddenly break out… And to command troops against other people… Well, I guess I can always rely on Mr. Dragon if I'm not strong enough to kill someone… But… Honestly, I doubt that will be an issue…'
I suddenly felt Rune patting my head, standing next to me on her toes. "It'll be alright."
'Do I really look that down?' I smiled softly. 'I bet she's doing this because she likes my head pats.' "Come here, you big goober." I reached up and lunged towards her out of my seat on the floor, tackling her to the ground and wrapping her up. It felt like, normally, a kid should wrestle you back, right? But she always just laughed and hugged me tighter.
"Siya… I don't know what that is?"
I laughed back. "It's fine, I don't either. It's just a funny word."
"You two got close fast." Isy sighed.
"I was going to be your sister too… Before we had to change up the plan…" Mo mumbled.
'Is she jealous? She doesn't seem like she'd like rolling around on the floor though…' I slowly sat up and looked at Rune, who somehow understood the mission right away. As I returned to my seat she tried to sneak up on Mo and give her a hug, but even just that she dodged instinctivly, almost instantly vanishing to another part of the room over and over as they chased each other around.
"The moment you start to breathe again, your face does this kind of droopy thing… What's up?"
I sighed, leaning forward on the small table. 'She's come a long way too… From that clumsy little girl, she used to be just a few months ago… "I just have a really bad feeling about this… Like I've been out in the sun for too long… War is coming… And it's not one we are going to have any reasonable chance of winning…"
She grimaced as well, taking a sip of tea. "And… We aren't the type to back down… I know my father will be fighting on the front lines… And my brothers too…"
"Right…"
"But there's nothing we can do about it, so stop worrying and just focus on training… Before I met you, all I did was worry… But all that did was stop me from doing anything else… And in the end, I just ended up being useless…"
"You're right…"
She scratched her head. "Here I am trying to give you advice again when I'm the weakest one here." She said with a chuckle.
"Oh, come on, don't leave out little Rune."
She slowly glanced to the side. "She… Beat me in an arm wrestle the other day… Actually…"
I started to chuckle too, regretting I said that. "You know arm wrestles don't mean anything, right? They only test the strength of those weird muscles near your elbow…" 'Although… If Rune really won… It means she's getting even better at using manna than I thought… You know, in actuality, I need a war to break out… So I can rise the ranks faster and become king…And create a world where Rune can use the magic she was born to. A world where people like Isy and Mo don't have to be treated the way that they were… And where this nation becomes prosperous… Well… All I really want for now is a world where I'm in charge if I'm being real…'
"I take it you finally sorted out your thoughts?"
'Is she just good at figuring things out or…' "Am I that easy to read?"
Mo sat down again, "Usually." She muttered before Rune triumphantly grabbed her from behind, wrapping her head around and smiling in triumph.
It was pretty obvious to everyone else that Mo let her win, though… And looking at Mo's smile, which was exceedingly rare, only further proved the point. She clearly thought Rune was just as adorable as I did, unable to resist patting her head before picking her up and placing her in her lap. Probably also copying me, though… Since they were practically the same size, they didn't look the same.
"Speaking of the war, my father has rounded up several spies and laid the groundwork to catch the rest when they try to move. So when something does break out, I think the city will be safe. At least from the inside…"
"That's good…"
Isy popped a candy in Rune's mouth, and it was really starting to feel like they were treating her like a pet after a while, so eventually I took her back, but not after they messed up her hair… Of course… She didn't mind… It just meant I had to brush it for her, which she liked anyway… But it was a bit much…
'A bunch of school girls sitting around a dorm room over tea… Talking about catching foreign spies and going to war… This world… Really, it's something, isn't it…'
With a successful monster hunt, I was given the next two days off. After orchestrating a merchant to ship the 30 Hoovra pelts back to Nayana I bought Rune some of her favorite foods, and started her magic training for real, in secret though. I made sure she wouldn't tell anyone else, not even Mo.
She took to it like a natural… Certainly faster than I did. Of course… She had a better teacher, in my humble opinion… Regardless, with her limitless manna and insane magic power, I actually felt like she might destroy her own body if I taught her physical enhancement… So I started with a simple heat spell so she could keep herself warm when I wasn't around to be used as a big pillow. Even with that, though… She was able to essentially change the weather of the whole city after a few hours of practice… 'A real force of nature…'
"Ooh Ooh, The pretty lights. The pretty lights. Mo told me about them. Can you teach me how to do that?"
'Oh right… When I mimicked the northern lights with her absurd amount of manna overflow… I feel like that's a bit conspicuous…' I yawned. 'I'm surprised the others aren't back yet…' "I'll teach you eventually, but not for a while…" 'I've been wearing out my manna circuits… They feel sore… And helping guide her manna isn't easy either… If I actually tried to use it, I can't imagine what would happen… Though I guess that's a good thing, it makes it hard for anyone to treat her like a weapon. But that wouldn't really be a problem in a place with no mages anyway…' I slowly yawned, stretching my arms up over my head and closing my eyes for a moment.
"Then what about! Ah… You look tired, is it time for bed?"
'It's like I don't even have to say no to her… Because she says no to herself first…' "Sounds good…" I muttered.
The ironic thing was that she was almost just as excited about sleeping as everything else. Until she used the heat spell I taught her and practically knocked herself out. For once, I almost felt like I had to snuggle up against her, the roles reversing as my body cooled down from lack of manna. 'Maybe I am too worried… Honestly, I bet I could just teach Rune meteor shower if it comes down to it… Or just have her drop a star on the enemy's capital… Well… I don't want to push her too hard and make her circuits rupture… She's so strong that if it happened, she'd probably never be able to use magic again… It's not a limit I want her to ever go anywhere near…'