The sun was up high in the sky. The winds felt really soothing and the picture perfect scenes of a great summer day made me want to go outside and practice magic. As such, I brought Liza with me and we both flew into the sky.

“So, Liza, why don’t we practice magic for a while?”

“Yes! Ever since I left the academy, I couldn’t find any time to practice.”

“Why?”

“Well, lots of stuff happened.”

Liza glanced over my left shoulder. She was looking towards Carlos and her twin younger sisters.

With a wry smile, I said:

“Well, let’s make up for it with some training from hell.”

Liza’s eyes became pale when I mention hell.

“You know that I can use light magic, right?”

“Y-yes.”

“Isn’t it great? The two of us can practice till we cough blood. Once we start coughing blood, I’ll use magic to heal us and then resume practice again!”

I was hinting that we could go all out without restricting our firepower because I’m able to use healing magic. Deepening my bonds with friends by using fists, just like in some comics I've read, was the only thing I could come up. Who can blame me? The only friend I had for five years was Emilia.

Also, we already had enough tea parties, I wanted to deepen our bonds using something else.

As a result, I turned to some of the stories I liked in my past life. Those were stories about men being men. They fought against one another and in the end they became friends.

By the way, ever since we were third graders, I and Emilia were really passionate about combat practices. It was a really good way to release our stress and to hone our combat instincts. Our current score was 250 wins, 249 loses and 51 ties. The 51st tie occurred a day before yesterday.

We stopped sparring when I decided to teach my classmates/servants about Null Element magic because her time was spent into teaching them. And we resumed our combat practice when we left the academy. What’s more, because I could now use healing magic, our practices have been really intense.

“Shall we begin? By the way, do you remember the giant fireball when I was dueling against Carlos?”

“… Yes.”

“Because of my research, I’m now able to control mana more efficiently. So I’m now able to cast two of them at the same time.”

“Ummm….”

“Do your best to survive~ <3”

I lifted one of my hands and materialized a diamond shaped funnel. At the same time, I created a small fireball. I then made the funnel split into four parts and made them fly in front of the fireball. They then became the edges of a mana wall I made. I then made the fireball fly into the mana wall. The moment it passed through, it split into two and it became bigger. The 2-centimeter fireball turned into two 3 metered fireballs and flew towards Liza.

“W-wawawawa!”

Liza immediately flew away as she gathered mana to materialize her bow. Incidentally, I used the funnel as a catalyst to make the control of the mana wall easier and more flexible. The only downside to this is that once something passes through the mana wall, I would lose control over that magic. So they can only fly straight.

“I won’t give you time to materialize that bow, Liza.”

Materializing another funnel, I made it’s edges thinner. As a result, it became easier to materialize and sharper.

Liza saw the other funnel and she started panicking.

“Uwawawawa! Lumina-sama! I give up! I give up!”

“I won’t allow you to give up~”

Liza flew in complex geometrical patterns so that she would lose the funnel. By the way, I continued to shoot a three-meter fireball at her while I recycled the other one. This was a method that I made because I didn’t want to waste my mana.

“Oh, is that an Immelman turn?”

I looked in amazement as I observed Liza’s movements.

“See Liza! You improving at a really fast rate!”

“Please stop Lumina-sama!”

“Don’t worry, even though the fireball is huge and that funnel following you is sharp, I regulated it so that they won’t kill you~”

“B-but, It’ll still hurt, right? RIGHT!?”

“Just think of it as your punishment for bringing Carlos here.”

“Eeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Liza screamed as she saw me materializing another diamond-shaped funnel. This one had a slicker shaped and the base element was wind. Because of that, it could fly faster though it was only in a straight line though.

“Here’s another one, Liza.”

Fwoosh!

I shot the funnel towards her future place.

“Don’t worry, the front is blunt! So you’ll only lose consciousness!”

“Waaaahhh!”

Liza tried to slow down to evade the fireball. However, as a consequence, she was hit by a 3-meter fireball and the funnel that followed her caught up to her. The funnel pushed her towards the other funnel. After experiencing those things, Liza fainted.

I made a wry smile and flew towards her. Casting light magic, I healed her burns and bruises. I then laid her down a bed I made.

“Well, let’s continue once you wake up.”

After a while, Emilia arrived. She was carrying the cake from yesterday and a teapot.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Seeing her, I quickly sat on a chair I made and received her.

“Weren’t you too harsh on her, Lumina-sama?”

She said while she knitted her brows.

“Nah, if I wanted to be rough, then I would’ve materialized 12 funnels.”

“But still…”

“She didn’t die, so it’s okay.”

Emilia shrugged her shoulders as she poured tea into my cup. Carlos then approached me.

“Oi! What was that!? I didn’t see you use any of those diamond shaped things in our duel!? Were you looking down on me back then?”

I frowned as he slammed his hand on the table.

“No, I wasn’t. Back then, the ice sword was the only thing I could use and I was still unable to use the funnels.”

I answered him while I closed my eyes as I enjoyed the scent of the herb tea that Emilia brewed.

“So those things are called funnels, huh.”

The twins arrived while Carlos was muttering something to himself.

“Why’d you do that to Liza-nee!? Are you trying to kill her?”

“Misha doesn’t like you for treating Liza-nee like that.”

I waved my hands to them and said:

“It’s just training, just training. She’ll grow faster if we continue to do this.”

“Training? Aren’t you just tormenting Liza-nee?”

“Un-un.”

I glanced at them and observed them from head to toe.

Narrowing my eyes, I said:

“Do you want to take revenge? Then, why don’t you switch places with her and become my sparring partner.”

If they accept, then it’d be a good chance to practice fighting against magicians who use normal magic. If they refuse, then it’s also fine for me.

“We accept!”

“Un-un!”

The two slammed their hands on the table and exclaimed. They then flew away and made a huge magic circle in the sky. A huge serpent appeared from it and coiled around them.

“Emilia, it seems like I can finally use the theories I made to counter normal magic.”

“Be careful okay.”

“Yes, yes.”

I flew up and materialized 12 funnels. Because the mana became thinner because of their magic, the funnels were smaller.

“Then, shall we begin?”

““Oh!””

* * * * *

An hour later.

“O-ouch….”

I groggily flew towards Emilia. I was really wet and I was injured in some places.

“What you did was really rash, Lumina-sama.”

“Guh.”

“Even though you were able to dodge their attacks, why did you have to decide to face their magic head on?”

“Well, because the mana around us was too thin, so my only way to counter attack them was by stealing their magic. However, because I was controlling 12 funnels, I could only steal their magic through physical contact.”

“Is that so? Then why didn’t you evade the water spears that they threw at you?”

My shoulders quivered as I recalled about those spears that injured me.

“… It was because the spears were flying really fast, so I couldn’t parry them. That’s why; I decided to use the same trick as what I did with Carlos’ magic.”

“… Lumina-sama…”

Emilia made a really big smile and said.

“If you do that again, then I won’t allow you to drink tea for a week.”

“What!?”

When I exclaimed, I saw that her eyes were really dark. It was really scary.

“So don’t do that again, okay?”

“…. O-okay.”

I then glanced towards the place where the twins landed. The two of them had lots of blunt injuries because of the funnels I used. The result of our practice battle was a tie.

“… Lumina-sama…”

Liza had a very worried voice as she shot glances at the twins.

“Don’t worry, I’ll heal them after I healed myself. So don’t make a face like that Liza.”

“Thank you very much!”

When I finished healing myself, I approached the twins and healed them. Though they had really reluctant expressions because the injuries were really painful, they reluctantly accepted my treatment.

“Okay then… now that Liza’s up, why don’t we go for another round!?”

“HiiI!”

Liza made a really cute scream. I somehow liked hearing it.

The four of us then spent the entire morning fighting. Emilia joined midway while Carlos only continued to observe us. At the end of the day, we learned a lot of things and tested lots of ideas to counter the thinning mana. But that resulted to us getting a lot of injuries though. But still, it was a really great way to deepen my friendship with Liza and becoming friends with the twins.

By the way, when tomorrow came, Liza started screaming and flew away when I mentioned the word ‘combat practice’. At first I was confused but decided to disregard it and throw fireballs at her. It was really fun because, unlike Emilia, who charges through my fireballs, Liza evades them. So it really made a good shooting practice. Our bonds between one another also deepened.

My idea of deepening our bonds really was great. I was killing two birds with one stone.