“Aiden, Aiden.”
In the midst of his sleep, Aiden vaguely felt an arm gently nudging him.
A soft, warm voice continued to call out in his ear.
“Wake up.”
A faint, pleasant fragrance drifted to his nose, and a warm breath brushed lightly against his cheek, tickling him slightly.
“Ugh…”
Aiden slowly opened his eyes, and before his gaze appeared a delicate and graceful face.
“Celes?”
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Aiden looked around drowsily.
“Is school over?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
Celes shook her head gently, her voice soft.
“The afternoon practical training class is about to start. I saw you hadn’t woken up, so I thought I’d come wake you.”
“Thanks.”
Aiden forced a weak smile, but inside he was silently complaining—why did it have to be that cursed practical training again?
Right now, what troubled him most was the combat training.
After all, his body came entirely from another world without magic.
The innate magical roots, Magic Circuits, and all those things that humans here possessed, he had none.
The so-called Elemental Power permeating the air was completely imperceptible to him.
If his body had the basic foundation to learn magic, he would be more than willing to seriously attend practical lessons to learn some self-defense skills.
Unfortunately, reality would not allow that.
At this moment, he wanted to throw up his hands like some legendary slacker and say,
“Magic? I can’t use any of it~”
All the magic Aiden could use now came from magic cards given by the card-drawing system, but drawing cards required points, and points were earned through completing tasks.
So the question was:
Where were the tasks?
[Teammates, help me out?]
Ruby looked at Aiden’s desperate expression and simply shrugged bear-style.jpg.
Best answer:
I don’t know.
Even Ruby, a divine envoy, didn’t know what to do.
After all, the tasks were automatically triggered by the system; she had no authority to assign tasks.
Sigh.
Aiden sighed deeply, collapsing onto the desk with a face full of despair.
He really didn’t want to go to the practical training.
“Could it be that Aiden really hates the practical training?”
Seeing Aiden’s state, Celes couldn’t help but ask.
“It’s more than just hate.”
Aiden replied weakly.
“Could it be that Aiden isn’t good at combat magic? But you even defeated Lufas.”
Celes looked puzzled and tilted her head to ask.
“That was just a bit of trickery. I really have no talent for learning magic.”
Aiden gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
“Then… do you want me to tutor you in magic?”
Celes pondered for a moment before softly suggesting.
She wanted to do this because Aiden had helped her many times, and those favors couldn’t be repaid with just a bottle of energy drink.
So she wanted to do something for him.
“Tha…”
Aiden was about to say “better not,” since he lacked the qualification to learn magic and no matter how well Celes taught, it wouldn’t help him.
But before the words came out, Ruby hurriedly bumped his forehead.
[Master, Li Zai Gan Shinma? This is a great chance to improve your relationship and raise affection with Celes!]
With Ruby’s reminder, Aiden realized he nearly missed a golden opportunity to get closer to Celes.
You have to understand, Celes had hated males since childhood and rarely took the initiative to interact with the opposite sex.
The fact that she was willing to offer tutoring help now showed her perception of males had changed a little and she probably mustered a lot of courage to say it.
If he refused, it would be to spurn her goodwill.
That would surely cause her affection to drop sharply.
In fact, when Celes said she would help Aiden tutor magic, she was startled herself.
She wondered why she had said that—was this really the same girl who hated boys so much?
At first, in her eyes, those male creatures who only thought with their lower parts were crude and vulgar.
But this black-haired boy before her was different.
When interacting with Aiden, she felt no uncomfortable pressure from his gaze; at least, he had never stared at her chest.
This light and pleasant experience, combined with Aiden’s repeated help without ever asking for anything, made Celes begin to believe that when Aiden said in front of Lufas that he wasn’t interested in her, it might really be true.
For some reason, thinking of this, a small wave of disappointment rose in Celes’s heart.
Although she hated males, when encountering a decent one, she felt disappointed that she wasn’t attracted to him.
Could she really be a fickle girl?
While Celes was lost in thought, Aiden gave a wry smile.
“I’m really slow at learning magic. It’s better not to trouble Celes.”
“No, as long as you work hard, there will be results. And since your theoretical knowledge is so solid, you probably just haven’t found the right method yet.”
Hearing Aiden’s words, Celes thought he was giving up on himself, so she hurried to encourage him.
“I believe I have some insight into combat magic. Why not give it a try?”
Aiden smiled and nodded in agreement.
“Then I’ll trouble you, Celes.”
Afterwards, the two headed together to the practical training ground.
The lesson’s topic was Light Attribute magic.
The combat instructor, Professor Toronto, taught a basic spell called “Holy Radiance”—gathering light elements from the air with one’s finger and releasing them.
This spell was very practical, useful for daily lighting and effective at restraining common Dark Attribute Monsters.
Toronto demonstrated the spell twice, then asked the students to practice in groups.
Naturally, the “isolated” Aiden and Celes formed a group.
True to her talent, Celes only lightly pinched her fingers, and a bright ball of light instantly gathered at her slender fingertip, illuminating a radius of over ten meters.
Toronto nodded with great satisfaction.
Other students gradually succeeded as well since this wasn’t a complicated spell.
Aiden tried to sense the Elemental Power in the air but felt nothing.
Celes patiently guided him beside her.
“Don’t be discouraged. Close your eyes and empty your mind—think of nothing.”
However, these techniques worked for natives of this magical world, but for Aiden, a complete outsider whose mind and body came from another world, they were useless.
Soon, the whole class finished the exercise except for Aiden, who frowned deeply with no progress.
Beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
Seeing that Aiden still hadn’t completed the task, the other students began whispering mockingly.
Celes, overhearing their remarks, became anxious.
She thought hard about how to help Aiden and felt even more restless than him.
Aiden gave up completely—apparently, physical differences couldn’t be overcome by after-the-fact techniques.
Not the kind of magic I like, just giving up.jpg.
It was a pity for Celes’s careful guidance; the girl seemed very self-blaming, thinking maybe her teaching methods were at fault for failing to help Aiden.
“The transfer student is all theory and no practice.”
“How did he even beat Senior Lufas before?”
“Must’ve been luck or some sneaky trick.”
Hearing Aiden’s magic show no improvement, the surrounding students whispered among themselves.
“Aiden isn’t that kind of person.”
Celes heard this and trembled slightly.
Instinctively, she wanted to defend Aiden.
The students laughed even harder.
The few girls who had long envied Celes even openly mocked her.
“The guy Celes likes is at this level?”
“What’s the use of a theorist? Bet you regret now.”
“To me, he’s not even worth one-tenth of Senior Lufas.”
Celes trembled with anger.
She could endure others slandering herself—after all, she had been used to it since childhood—but she would never tolerate others maligning Aiden like this.
Aiden had helped her so much and didn’t deserve such baseless slanders.
At that moment, her Elemental Power began fluctuating unstably.
Tiny snowflakes danced around her ice-blue hair.
This was a sign that Celes’s magic was about to spiral out of control.
“Calm down.”
Just then, Aiden gently patted Celes on the shoulder.
His voice seemed to carry a kind of magic, and Celes suddenly regained clarity as her magic gradually stabilized.
She looked at the black-haired boy in surprise; despite the slanders and mockery, he remained completely indifferent.
“Oh dear, Celes’s method is really something. I’m going to try it.”
Aiden deliberately raised his voice so everyone nearby could hear, then quietly said to Celes.
“Celes, close your eyes.”
Though she didn’t understand why, seeing the determination in Aiden’s eyes, she obediently closed her eyes.
“Ahem, everyone’s eyes on me. I have an announcement. Something big… is coming.”
Aiden stepped forward to ensure all students could see him.
Raising his index finger, he quietly activated a magic card called “Flash.”
The onlookers, eager to see Aiden fail, all instinctively leaned in closer, eyes wide, afraid to miss his moment of failure.
Some even stood on tiptoes, craning their necks, wearing expectant smirks.
“Move over.”
“Bro, front row for me.”
Several boys jostled forward, lips curling with malicious grins.
“The transfer student’s about to embarrass himself big time~”
The girls whispered and pointed discreetly toward the center, waiting to see how this so-called “theory genius” would mess up in combat.
In an instant, a blinding white light radiated from Aiden’s center.
Those with the widest eyes were hit first, followed by a chorus of groans erupting from the training ground.
“Damn, my eyes!”
“This is way too bright!”
“I’m blind! Boohoo, I’m blind!”