“Of course.”
Ian held a wand in one hand and a magic tome in the other, his face wearing a gentle yet slightly cunning smile.
“As your teacher, personally testing your learning progress is only natural, isn’t it?”
“Come on, Leo, let me see how much you’ve improved during this time.”
“Go.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Ian gave Leo no chance to protest. With a wave of his wand, three fist-sized water bullets came whistling toward Leo.
“Hey hey hey! What kind of teacher launches a sneak attack?!”
Leo yelped in surprise, stumbling backward in fright.
But his hands moved quickly, thrusting his short staff into the ground.
“Earth Wall!”
Thud thud thud!
The water bullets smashed against the half-meter-high earth wall that instantly rose, exploding into puddles of muddy water.
“Good reaction.”
Ian stood in place, casually evaluating as he gently tapped his wand again. “Watch your head.”
Leo felt a sudden wave of heat above him. Looking up, he saw a small fireball plummeting straight down.
“Damn it! Do you think I’ll just take a beating? Water Shield! Take this!”
A pale blue water shield unfolded above Leo’s head, blocking the fireball. Using the mist as cover, he suddenly darted out from the side of the earth wall, his short staff pointed directly at Ian.
“Chain Wind Blade!”
Three cyan-colored wind blades, arranged in a triangular formation, sliced toward Ian’s lower body at an extremely tricky angle.
A flicker of appreciation passed through Ian’s eyes.
He didn’t dodge, as a semi-transparent mana barrier in front of him had already blocked all the wind blades.
***
For the next dozen minutes, the training ground was a chaotic mess of flying magic.
Ian maintained a completely composed and effortless posture, like an experienced sparring partner.
He continuously “fed” Leo moves, forcing him to use all the magic he had learned.
During this high-intensity exchange, Ian pushed up his glasses.
He had been observing Leo the entire time.
Truthfully, Leo’s recent grasp of magical theory was quite solid. Under this period of intensive training, his practical application was also clever.
But the problem was that his mana reserves were unexpectedly low, and his mana flow was extremely chaotic, like a tangled mess.
When casting spells, he often experienced interruptions in mana output, which was precisely the reason for his frequent casting failures before.
Even worse, his mana recovery rate was much slower than an average person’s; it was almost imperceptible.
Just as Ian was distracted by his assessment, Leo on the opposite side suddenly stopped attacking.
He leaned forward, hands on his knees, panting heavily and drenched in sweat, looking completely exhausted.
Leo waved a hand, tossed his short staff aside, his face a mix of bitterness and emotion. “Teacher Ian… you’re too strong, I couldn’t even touch the earth puppet.”
“Thank you for your guidance during this time. I admit defeat.”
Saying this, Leo staggered over, extending a hand toward Ian, putting on a touching show of a friendly teacher-student handshake.
Ian looked at him, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth as he stepped forward to meet him.
Just as the distance between them closed to less than two meters.
Leo’s emotional face instantly transformed into one of extreme cunning.
“Now! Activate!”
Hummm—!
The bluestone slab beneath Ian’s feet suddenly lit up with a circle of purple-black light. A pre-arranged shadow smoke bomb trap array instantly formed, on the verge of erupting.
However, Ian showed not a trace of panic; he didn’t even try to dodge.
He simply planted his staff on the ground and softly chanted an incantation.
[Wind Field: Fixed Point Tornado]
A powerful whirlwind spiraled up with Ian at its center. The mass of purple-black smoke was swept up by the small tornado, directly scattered into nothingness.
The smile froze on Leo’s face. “You… how did you know I buried a trap here?!”
Ian sighed, pushing up his glasses with practiced ease. “The same trick doesn’t work if you use it too many times.”
What a joke. Ever since arriving at the Kastian manor, how many times had this kid messed with him?
Now, whenever Ian got within ten meters of Leo, his eyes would automatically scan the surroundings like radar.
This had practically become muscle memory!
“Dammit!!”
Seeing his scheme exposed, Leo completely lost his cool.
He truly gave it his all, squeezing out the last trace of mana from his body.
“One last shot! Take this!”
Leo swung his arm violently. A wind blade, wider and more solid than any before, came whistling out.
But this wind blade’s target wasn’t Ian. It arced over Ian’s head, heading straight for the earthen statue behind him!
This feint was executed with extreme cleverness.
But in Ian’s eyes, he only needed to slightly raise his hand, or even use an instant-cast wind wall, to block it.
Ian raised his wand.
But as he looked through his glasses at Leo’s face, flushed red from mana exhaustion, and at those eyes filled with unwillingness and stubbornness, Ian sighed inwardly.
His movement of raising the wand very naturally slowed by half a beat.
“Oops.” Ian let out an extremely exaggerated exclamation. “I actually didn’t block it.”
Thud!
The wind blade solidly struck the earth puppet, instantly shattering it into a pile of mud clods.
Thump.
Leo fell straight back, landing flat on his back in a spread-eagle position, gasping for air, unable to lift a single finger.
Ian put away his wand and magic tome, walked over to Leo, took out a small notebook, and announced in a formal tone, “Tactical application is flexible. Although spellcasting accuracy still needs improvement, overall performance is excellent.”
“Young Master Leo, your graduation strength assessment is: Pass.”
Leo, lying on the ground, grinned, looking sideways at Ian. “Hey, on that last one, did you go easy on me?”
“Your ‘oops’ was so fake even the dog Chef Carter keeps could tell.”
“Of course not.” Ian argued without changing his expression. “Young Master, the angle of your final wind blade was too tricky. I truly reacted slowly.”
Leo pursed his lips but didn’t press further.
The two fell silent for a moment.
“You’re leaving, right?” Leo, looking up at the azure sky, suddenly asked. His voice had lost some of its usual arrogance, carrying a hint of sullenness.
Ian pushed up his glasses and nodded. “Yes. Time is running out. Thanks to Madam Tuo and the Young Master, I’ve saved enough for next semester’s tuition. It’s time to go back.”
Leo sat up, scratching his head, his expression a bit awkward. “Tch, fine, just go then.”
“Anyway, this young master has learned magic now. Even if I run into danger in the future, I can handle it myself.”
“Of course.” Ian smiled with a touch of emotion. “As long as you don’t go provoking desperate criminals in the future, or hit your head maid with a brush, you should generally be able to protect yourself.”
“Hey hey hey! Why bring up the embarrassing stuff?!” Leo’s face flushed red, glaring at him in mortified anger.
The two looked at each other and couldn’t help but laugh.
After laughing, Leo patted the dust off his hands and stood up.
He took a deep breath and extended his hand toward Ian once more.
This time, his gaze was sincere.
“Anyway, during this time… thank you, Teacher Ian…”
Ian looked at the boy who had finally grown up a little, feeling a sense of relief in his heart.
He completely let his guard down, smiling as he reached out and grasped Leo’s hand. “You’re welcome, this is also for me… Ahhh?!”
The moment their hands clasped, Leo’s hand clamped onto Ian’s wrist like an iron vise. Then, like an octopus, he lunged forward, wrapping his arms tightly around Ian’s arm.
At the same time, Leo suddenly opened his mouth—on the tip of his tongue, a tiny purple magic array actually materialized!
“Hahaha! Didn’t expect that, did you?!” Leo laughed heartily, sounding like a triumphant little demon. “This young master still has a backup plan!”
Shadow Smoke Bomb · Micro-Trigger Array, activate again!
“Are you insane?!” Ian’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head, his face horrified. “You actually dared to engrave a trigger incantation on your tongue using mana?!”
Shocked, Ian immediately tried to swing his wand to urgently cast a dispersal spell.
But Leo clung to him desperately, not only gripping his hand but also shaking his arm constantly, wildly interfering with his casting motions.
“Let go of me….”
“No! Hahaha… cough cough cough!”
Boom!
A thick cloud of purple-black smoke instantly erupted between the two, completely engulfing them.
“Cough cough cough… Leo, you brat… cough…”
“Ugh… why is this smoke so choking… cough cough cough… Ian, you lost… cough…”
Amidst violent coughing and curses, two figures, one tall and one short, both tumbled down within the smoke.
The two wrestled into a tangled mess in the thick smoke.
***
A few minutes later.
The smoke gradually dispersed.
On the empty training ground, only two figures remained, both lying on the ground with faces blackened from the smoke, tears and snot running, rolling their eyes.
“Cough cough… Teacher Ian… this is my… parting gift for you… cough…”
“You… cough… despicable, vile… wait till I catch my breath… I’ll hang you up and beat you…”
“Cough… that’s called tactics! All’s fair in war, don’t you know?!” Leo retorted defiantly, though his own eyes were watering from the smoke.
Just as the two were shifting blame and preparing for a second round of arguing.
A set of extremely light footsteps came from the training ground entrance.
Tap, tap, tap.
The footsteps were unhurried but carried a strange penetrating quality, instantly silencing the two on the ground.
They stiffly turned their heads toward the direction of the sound.
There stood Ailiya, pushing a small cart loaded with cleaning tools at the training ground entrance.
Her ice-blue eyes calmly swept over the chaotic training ground, over the pile of earth clods shattered by the wind blade, and finally landed on the two figures covered in black soot, looking utterly disheveled.
Ailiya’s gaze lingered between the two for about three seconds.
Then, she let out a faint, almost imperceptible sigh.
The sigh was so light it seemed like an illusion, yet it carried a sense of “as expected” resignation.
She naturally averted her gaze, as if she had merely seen two rags accidentally dropped on the ground.
“It seems the friendship between the Young Master and Mr. Ian is deeper than I imagined.”
Ailiya’s voice was as flat and emotionless as ever, but for some reason, both Leo and Ian felt their faces grow a bit warm.
“The farewell method is also… uniquely distinctive.”
She paused, her gaze falling on the black soot covering their faces and clothes, and added, “Shall I inform the kitchen to prepare hot water and a change of clothes for the two of you?”
Leo and Ian exchanged a glance, both seeing the embarrassment of “utterly humiliated” in each other’s eyes.
“N-no, that’s not necessary!” Leo hurriedly scrambled up from the ground, patting the dust off himself. “We can handle it ourselves!”
“Right, right, no need to trouble Miss Ailiya.” Ian also clumsily got to his feet, pushing up his glasses—though the lenses were now completely covered in soot.
Ailiya nodded, saying nothing more.
She pushed her cart, passing by the two, heading straight for the area on the other side of the training ground that needed cleaning.