For Sale. Fallen Lady. Never Used.
Chapter 159: Anyway, It’s A Secret Affair

“Have you never thought that you’re going too far?”

“That’s why I’m saying I’m sorry now…”

“Hmph! What’s the point of an apology if it’s just words?!”

Was it because I teased her too harshly yesterday? Elisha, still lying in bed with a sore back, turned her head sharply.

“…Should I give you a potion or something?”

“Hmph, hmph!”

For some reason, Elisha ended up flipping the blanket over herself.

Was that not it?

Seeing me in distress, Carla poked my forearm repeatedly.

“Master, Master.”

“Yeah. Carla, are you okay?”

“Ah, yes. I’m fine. But I think I’ll need a potion if I’m to assist you today!”

Despite being in a similar situation to Elisha, with a sore back and clinging to the bed, Carla was merely fiddling with my forearm and smiling cheerfully.

I let out a deep sigh and handed a healing potion to Carla, who then one-shotted it and slowly got up.

“Jaaa!”

With a wobbly motion, Carla clung to my back. The feeling of her sizable chest pressing against my back was conveyed naturally.

The soft touch. The unique, refreshing body scent. And the warmth that made one feel drowsy, like the warm sunlight.

Carla rubbed her cheek against mine from behind.

It was an overt expression of affection, as if she were demonstrating how much she liked me. A sense of happiness welled up from deep within my heart.

After marking her territory for a while, Carla whispered in my ear, bringing her lips close to mine.

“You can give Elisha the same feeling now.”

“Oh.”

So, she was suggesting that I should freely shower her with direct expressions of affection that even a fool would understand, right?

Peck.

As a token of gratitude for the advice, I lightly kissed Carla and then took out another potion from my inventory.

This time, instead of handing it to Elisha, I opened the lid and brought it to my mouth.

Of course, I wasn’t intending to drink it.

I put the potion in my mouth without swallowing.

I quickly pulled off the blanket that Elisha had flipped over herself.

“What is it? I’m still not… well, not exactly angry, but sort of sulking… Eup?!”

And then our lips met directly.

The potion was transferred from my mouth to hers. Elisha, though taken aback, ended up swallowing the potion in gulps.

Thinking she was like a baby bird made me secretly chuckle for a moment. Just after finishing the potion, Elisha tried to push me away.

“Eup? Ugh!”

Of course, I didn’t let her go and continued the kiss.

Even though we didn’t intertwine tongues, we continued until our breaths became short.

“Paha! Yandel… you really… Haaa…”

Although she was still pouting, her expression had clearly softened compared to before.

Elisha was… weak to direct attacks… note to self….

Anyway, now that Elisha’s mood had improved, it was time to start the day’s routine.

“Haaaa.”

I stretched out my arms and said,

“Since we’re a bit late, let’s skip breakfast and change clothes.”

It was time to go to school.

I originally intended to find out Iona’s weakness.

Contrary to expectations, not only did I learn about her past, but we also ended up making plans to raid the cultists’ branch together over the weekend.

Just the thought of sparring with Iona today made me sigh.

“Heuuu..”

It wasn’t that it wasn’t helping me. My magical utilization skills were noticeably improving, but…

It was incredibly painful.

Receiving a shock that was just shy of lethal about a dozen times a day, how many people could endure that with a smile?

Certainly not me.

For that reason, I steeled myself for today’s lesson with Iona as well.

“Hello! Hello! Were you all looking forward to the magic combat class? Unfortunately, today is a theory class!”

“Waaaaaaaaaah!”

The students cheered at the mention of a theory class.

Well, an actual combat practice that involves real pain was pretty tough.

And since tomorrow was the weekend, everyone was probably even more excited.

“Ehem, ehem.”

For some reason, Iona, with her face half-covered in a peculiar pose, seemed to enjoy the students’ cheers.

“Aha!”

Was this her way of telling me not to wear myself out today since we were going to raid the cultists tomorrow?

With a chuckle, I nodded my head, and after enjoying the applause to her heart’s content, Iona fluttered her loose sleeves and clapped her hands.

“Enough! Enough! Even if it’s a theory class, a class is a class! It’s important content that everyone needs to focus on!”

The classroom quieted down instantly.

Iona, receiving the sparkling eyes of her surroundings, pulled up the corners of her mouth with a grin.

“You all know that you’ve become much stronger than when you first enrolled, right?”

“Well, of course…”

“Yes.”

“It’s a given.”

The students nodded in unison.

After all, even if not to the extent I had, everyone had worked hard to become incomparably stronger than before their admission.

However, Iona didn’t give me or the other students a chance to feel proud.

“So, so. As you’ve become stronger, has your magical achievement increased as well?”

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Everyone inevitably kept their mouths shut.

That was because, as magicians, they hadn’t grown significantly.

I’d grown rapidly, but that was an exceptional case since I almost started learning magic at the same time as my admission.

The other students had increased the number of spells they could use and the stability and power of their magic a bit.

But compared to their combat abilities, the improvement was minimal.

“Everyone, everyone. You must be curious. When classifying the stages of a magician, a lower-level magician can defeat an individual, a mid-level magician can take on a party, and a higher-level magician can destroy an army or a castle, right? But why does the magical achievement seem to lag behind combat power?”

Some looked calm, as if they knew this, while others seemed struck by a thought they hadn’t considered.

I knew about it since Carla had taught me in advance, and I saw a brief mention in the H&A settings.

“It’s simple! Combat can’t be excluded from magic, but combat isn’t all there is to magic!”

It sounded almost like she was belittling combat, which was odd for a professor of the magic combat subject.

The students murmured in confusion, and Iona continued with a giggle.

“It’s true! It’s true! After the War of the Gods, a culture that emphasizes the destructive and lethal power of magic emerged… But to reach a higher realm, you need to see things more broadly! Ultimately, that’s how you become stronger!”

Coming from a vampire who had lived even before the Great War, these words carried more weight.

After pondering for a moment, a student raised his hand.

“Professor. Does that mean we should view magic from a perspective other than lethality?”

“Correct! Correct! Exactly that. More precisely, you should be able to see it in different ways! The current system of classifying magic is intuitive but somewhat removed from its essence!”

Iona rolled up her loose sleeves to reveal her white hand and waved her fingers through the air.

Bubble.

A drop of water formed at the tip of Iona’s fingers with a small bubble sound.

“This is Aqua, a basic magic spell. Do you all know why basic magic is called ‘basic’?”

Wasn’t it because it focused on the phenomenon itself that it was called basic magic?

“A long, long, long time ago. Let me tell you a story from the days when the beautiful, elegant, and noble Professor Iona was crying as a baby!”

Iona skillfully praised herself and stirred her finger once more.

Gulug.

Then, the small water droplet rapidly swelled in size to that of a human head.

Lower magic, Water Ball.

It could be thrown as it was, spun, or fixed to an opponent’s face to aim for drowning, etc.

Depending on the caster’s ability, the magic could be applied in any number of ways.

In the game, its performance was somewhat ambiguous, but in the reality of the Eurelia Continent, it was treated as a staple spell along with Fire Ball.

“Does anyone want to say what the difference is between this magic and the previous one?”

At Iona’s question, a male student with an annoyingly smug look… Wilhelm, famous for his light attribute magic, raised his hand.

“The size is different. The increase in the amount of water naturally strengthens its power and diversifies its applications.”

“Um… that’s somewhat correct, but not fundamentally! Wrong! Anyone else?”

After tilting her head in thought, Iona then crossed her arms into an X shape.

Wilhelm awkwardly lowered his hand after confidently answering, and other students were also hesitant to raise their hands, just looking at each other.

In Class A, where most were from noble families or famous magic towers, wasn’t there anyone who knew the answer?

Were they hesitant to raise their hands because they were worried about being wrong, even if they knew?

As I was tilting my head in thought, Elisha next to me poked my thigh.

Now she was even hurrying her Master. Well, I think I know why.

When I slowly raised my hand, Iona brightened and nodded.

“Yep! Yep! Student Yandel! What do you think is different?”

“Well…”

I organized the content I saw in the game and what I had learned from Iris about elemental combinations, and I opened my mouth.

“Unlike Aqua, isn’t the biggest difference with Water Ball the implementation of the property of fluidity?”

Learning about elemental combinations until I was sick of them, each element’s properties, and shapes.

Basic magic was the phenomenon itself. So, it was enough to say it stopped at creating the shape of water.

But from lower magic onward, one property was added.

In the case of the Water Ball that Iona presented as an example, it added the property of fluidity to water’s shapeless form.

No defined shape and constantly flowing?

Naturally, it would become magic that was easy to manipulate in various ways.

In reality, although it was small and not very visible, if you observe closely, the water created by Aqua moved as a mass without any flow.

As I explained this well, Iona clapped like a seal, her dark red eyes sparkling.

“Correct! Correct! Just as Student Yandel said! Lower magic is about adding one property to basic magic! The distinction of having enough lethal power to kill a person as lower magic came after the War of the Gods!”

As Iona said this and squeezed her open palm, the Water Ball floating in the air began to freeze coldly.

An ice mass with spikes protruding all over.

Lower magic, Ice Spike.

“So, so! What property do you think has been added to this?”

“Well, it’s coldness. Ice magic is ultimately derived from water magic. It’s magic that primarily draws out the coldness of water.”

“Hiyah! Smart, who’s student are you? Student Yandel is correct! So, ice magic is more about sculpting than any other magic. Normally, you change the property within a fixed shape to cast the needed magic, like Fire Ball and Ignite, for example!”

Fire Ball, Ignite.

Both were lower-grade fire attribute magic, with Fire Ball focusing on explosive power and Ignite on high temperature.

Therefore, unlike Fire Ball, Ignite wouldn’t explode, so its attack range and impact were less.

But in return, it could melt iron, which Fire Ball couldn’t do.

Both looked like fire, but one exploded, while the other melted.

Other lower magic felt somewhat similar. The shape was roughly the same, and the property brought a different aspect of that attribute.

Hence, ice magic, with its property fixed to coldness, must make full use of its shapeless form, as Iona explained the importance of sculpting.

The class continued with each attribute’s shapes, a few representative properties, and that non-elemental special types of magic also had shapes and properties.

I already knew this as a foundation from learning elemental combinations, but… some students really didn’t know, taking notes and listening intently.

But even the most enjoyable classes must come to an end.

“Over! Over! Class time is almost over! So, here’s your homework! If we talk about the difference between basic magic and intermediate magic… then what about the differences between intermediate, advanced, high-level, and grand magic? And how do we utilize them in combat? Bring your reports by next week! The format is flexible!”

As Iona assigned the homework, she tidied up the teacher’s desk and added,

“Oh, right! Yandel, come to the professor’s lab during lunchtime! We need to have a very, very important discussion!”

With a mischievous glint in her crimson eyes, Iona winked.

Someone from Class A muttered softly at that sight.

“…Graduate school invitation?”

Ah, shush! Keep quiet about big trouble brewing!

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