ALEXANDER KALLIS:

“Zalestia son destyra,” Alice said in Elvish, sitting across me.

I hummed with my legs crossed as we chilled on the bed, stroking my chin while trying to understand what Alice said. We were taking a break from strengthening as these were the only two activities I could do while blindfolded and forbidden from using Mana Sense. Asia claimed that Mana Sense could disrupt the healing process meaning I was essentially blind for the first time.

“I–Ilvya stras’teri vastul le’sivia?” It took a lot of effort for me to form a question, and in the end, it still resulted in Alice snickering as she tried her best not to laugh.

“What do I think of your feet?” Saying it out loud made her burst into tearful laughter.

“What?” My eyes went wide after hearing what I said, immediately turning red. “That’s not what I meant!”

She paused for a second, whispering teasingly, “I mean. . . They’re alright, I guess?”

Her answer made her laugh as she dropped backward on the bed.

“I meant to say lastevila. . .” I sighed. “It practically sounds the same.”

Lastevila meant swordsmanship.

“They do not,” she kept giggling, slowly settling down.

“Ugh. . . I suck at this,” I complained as we focused on talking in Elven for the past few days.

“You kidding me, right?” I could tell she was smiling by her tone as she sat back up. Her silvery voice was the only enjoyable thing after we returned from the mountain. “It’s been little over two months, and you’re already able to read and write with confidence. Two more, and you’ll be able to converse with ease. I don’t know what you’re complaining about.”

“I’m just bitter I can’t read cuz of this blindfold.” I huffed.

“Want me to read to you? Might help if you listen to someone else, and you get to enjoy the stories.”

“You serious?” I asked, feeling a bit like a kid when she offered.

“Yeah, why not?” She sounded confused by my reaction.

“I, umm. . .” Pausing for a second, I thought about it more and took a deep breath. “You know what? Sure.”

“Great, but let’s do it once we’re done with strengthening for the day.”

“Ugh. . . Another thing that I suck at, and this time you can’t even say it’s subjective.”

“Still struggling?”

“Yeah. . .”

“Well, avoiding it won’t help, that’s for sure.”

She was right.

It’s been a week since we started strengthening, and Alice was already on a cusp of a breakthrough into the second circle; meanwhile, I’ve been struggling to start.

We sat and started strengthening again, but after about an hour of constantly failing to do so, I dropped back on the bed and exhaled in annoyance.

“Remember, strengthening a solid core requires it to be overflowing with mana before you attempt to add an extra layer on top. Once you’ve done that, you must focus on solidifying it similarly to how you’ve repaired your core. Doing so will cause the old layer to crack and slowly replace it with a newer, reinforced barrier,” Alice tried mimicking her father’s speech, a hilarious effort as he had a surprisingly deep voice, unlike her. “As for the frozen core, it demands to be void of all mana. Simply put, you must carefully drain your lower core and endure the side effects of mana residue, which you use to strengthen the core similar to the solid core.”

I couldn’t tell what Alice was doing after becoming quiet, allowing my snickering to be the only thing that echoed in the room.

“Thanks for the explanation,” I said, still snickering uncontrollably.

“You think this is funny?” She whispered, using the same voice as before while grabbing hold of my shoulders from behind. Her warm breath caressed my neck, sending a chill down my spine. “I didn’t know you were impudent.”

I really tried holding back, but Alice suddenly started chortling, making me laugh along with her.

“That was pretty good,” I praised her, impressed she could stick with his tone for as long as she did.

“You think so? I’ve been practicing,” she said proudly, letting go of me before laying back down.

“A bit more practice and you might fool someone who doesn’t know him.”

“You asshole,” she said jokingly, poking my ribs with her foot, almost knocking me over.

“God, I needed that. . .” I mumbled, letting out a sigh. “Being confined in this room while barely able to function on my own is just tiring.”

“Just two more weeks, and you’ll be as good as new,” she reassured me. “Anyway. . . I’ll talk to someone to heat up your room a bit. It’s getting really cold lately.”

“You think it’ll snow this year?” I asked, knowing this was our first winter in years.

“Auntie said we’ll likely have snow a few days before your blindfold is off, and don’t worry. Grandma is already making clothes for you.”

“She really doesn’t need to do that. . .” I felt awkward knowing the woman was busting her ass off for my sake.

“Hah. . . Good luck with that,” Alice chuckled as I heard her flipping over onto her stomach. “Once she chooses to do something, there’s no stopping her.”

Alice probably knew that despite my protest, I was glad to have more clothes made by her, considering the quality and comfort they provided.

“Stubbornness must run in the family, huh?”

“Like you’re any better.” It didn’t take me seeing her to know she was coyly smirking the entire time. “So. . . Strengthening, huh?”

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“Yeah. . .” I sighed.

“Damn. I didn’t expect it to be that hard for you to juggle both at once.”

“They are contradicting powers and are hard to control.”

“You’ll manage. I just know it.” Alice flipped over and rolled backward off the bed.

“Where are you going?” I asked, furrowing my brows.

“Gonna go pick something up. I’ll be back in two minutes.”

“Okay. . .”

She left the room, leaving me alone again. I had gotten so used to her presence that being alone felt weird to a degree. Her two minutes turned out to be a lot longer to the point where I tried my hand at strengthening again; however, it didn’t go any better as my flow was disrupted by the frozen core that kept draining mana from my upper core, hurting me in the process.

I guess I was too focused on my task that I didn’t even notice her coming back into the room. Her light steps didn’t make it any easier for me.

Noticing my slightly gaping mouth, she used the opportunity to feed me something soft as her warm finger brushed against my bottom lip.

“Bite,” she said, falling back down on the bed.

“What is it?” I asked, biting down on the sweet berry.

“Just a grape.” She chuckled. “I thought maybe you could use something sweet to lift your spirit.”

“It’s– really good,” I said, licking my lips afterward.

“Here. Have some more.” Alice pulled herself closer to me, holding it close to my mouth. “Say aah.”

Now I was truly starting to feel like a kid again, but I didn’t mind the attention. Opening my mouth, she dropped it in and giggled.

“Damn. I’m jealous you got to enjoy all this your whole life.” Even I wasn’t sure if I was joking or not.

“I’m sure I’d find something to envy as well if I came to your place,” she pointed out, feeding me another. “Feeling better?”

Biting the grape, I jokingly moaned, making her laugh.

“Could do this all day,” I said, opening my mouth again.

“Seems like I’m spoiling you,” she said, giving me one more. “Now–”

“You’re not going to let me enjoy this, are you?” I asked, letting out a sigh.

“Come on, big boy. You got this,” she teased, sitting back up. “Now tell me. What seems to be the problem?”

“Well, Doctor. . .” I chuckled at my own joke.

“Come on. Be serious for a moment.”

“Fine, fine. . . Geez.” Crossing my arms, I turned to where I assumed she sat. “Look, it’s much harder than it sounds.”

“Sounds plenty hard already.”

“It’s even worse than that. You see, it’s hard to explain, but to put it simply, maintaining control while keeping one empty and one full is tough. My frozen core keeps trying to leech the mana from my solid core while my solid core is constantly draining. Doesn’t help that it hurts too.”

“How do you keep your lower core empty?”

“You’ve seen me do it, but I cast Stride using my lower core which constantly drains a bit of mana. However, I have to end the spell as soon as I run out, or my solid core will take over, but the worst part is the pain.”

“Hmmm. . . So you’re saying you feel cold whenever you strengthen?”

“Yeah. It makes it hard to focus on maintaining the balance, and even a small slip-up resets the process. If I could just keep at it for at least an hour, then slow improvements would eventually stack up. Like this, I never get to add anything new to the core and am forced to reset.”

“What about the warmth from the solid core?”

“Nah. I didn’t feel it yet.”

“So. . . like firewood that fails to light up.”

“That’s one way to put it,” I said, wondering what she was thinking.

“Do you think you could do one at a time?”

“I can strengthen my solid core, but not my frozen. To do so, I’d need to have both my cores void of mana, but Mana Freezing would get the better of me, leaving me lying here in pain.”

She kept humming, trying hard to come up with an idea.

“Sucks that nobody else did this before, so you must find the answer.”

“You really think nobody else ever had two cores?” I asked, a bit skeptical that I was that unique.

“Maybe, but I guess we won’t find out sitting around here, won’t we?”

“Are you suggesting we look into it?”

“If there were any traces of something like that in Thysa, my parents would know.”

“Right. . .”

“But once we get to the Academy, I’m sure we could do some research in secret.”

“You’re willing to help?” Alice suddenly became quiet before a sharp pain surged through my arm. “Augh! What was that for?”

She punched me.

“What kind of a question is that?” She sounded angry and annoyed for the first time since I’d known her.

“Wait, wait. . . That’s not what I meant when I said that.” I sighed, realizing I had blundered. “I just thought that maybe you’d focus on your studies. You don’t have to find time to research something that might not even exist.”

“Oh, you’re more understanding than I thought, and here I was, worried you’d make a fuss if I just left you on your own at the Academy.” Her sarcastic tone left me worried about what she’d do next, but I got my answer a second later after she punched my arm again. “Asshole. . .”

“Sorry.” I chuckled, a part of me glad that she was so against of what I’d said.

“Don’t let me hear you say something like that again. We’re a team, and you’re stuck with me, understood?” She huffed cutely. “Of course, if you wanted me to back off, then just go ahead and say it. Can’t force you to hang out with me.”

“Look who’s being understanding now,” I teased.

“You want me to punch you again?” Alice sounded serious.

“Okay, okay. . . I’m joking, and no. I don’t want you to back off.”

“Good. Now let’s go back to thinking.”

We sat quietly for a bit as Alice and I pondered for a solution.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, hoping she didn’t hear me.

“You’re welcome,” she whispered back. “Sorry about your arm. Does it hurt?”

“You pack quite the punch, but I deserved it. It’ll be fine,” I reassured her.

She flopped backward and exhaled frustratingly.

“God, wouldn’t it be ideal if you could start strengthening your solid core first and then start working toward the frozen? That way, you could get the warmth from the solid core before the mana residue does its thing. Maybe leave your frozen core until it’s almost empty, and then instead of pulling mana from your surroundings, you could pull the mana from your frozen core and put it into your solid.”

“Wait. . .” I turned my head to the side, trying to visualize what she had just said. “Why–”

I was too stunned to speak.

“What’s wrong?” Alice asked.

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s just that you’re right!”

“I am?”

“Yes! I mean, think about it. . . What’s stopping me from doing that?”

“I don’t know. I’m not the one with dual cores.”

“Alice, you’re a genius! I can’t believe I didn’t even consider pulling the mana from one core to the other. That way I could also prevent my frozen core from drawing the mana from the solid since as soon as it does, all I’d have to do is pull it back.”

“See? We make a great team.”

“Let’s go back to strengthening. I want to try this out as soon as possible.”

“Sure!”

I could hear her giggling over my excitement, but I was so overwhelmed by the potential solution that I couldn’t think about anything else.

It was finally time for me to strengthen my cores properly.

Chapter End.

Thank you for reading.