183 – Doubt (13)
Looking at Luna was like looking at a delicately polished glass sculpture. It was a very beautiful and highly complete creation, but it seemed like it would all shatter if someone gave it a tap.
I don’t know what Luna herself thinks, but that’s how I felt watching from her side.
The reason I came this far was actually because I was anxious. I didn’t want to see him get hurt and hurt for no reason and fall into the darkness again. Of course, that won’t happen with just one sparring evaluation, but people’s hearts don’t always work out the way they thought.
Luna was quiet for a moment and then opened her mouth.
“Listen… “You can come.”
“… Huh?”
“The children told me. “They say there’s no one to see us.”
“….”
Still, just in case, I looked around more and pressed myself into the waiting tent.
Unlike her others, Luna did not check her equipment or unpack her body. She was just sitting quietly in front of her mirror and combing her hair.
She took one look at my reflection in the mirror and said.
“Cheering… thank you.”
If she had been with the seniors in the art department, she would have had to cheer for senior Fabella without fail. If you wanted to be friends with everyone, it would have been right to be with seniors, but I didn’t want to do that. Luna was strictly closer to me than Favela, and I only wanted to invest my emotions in a few people.
“Is there anything you need my help with?”
“Yes, ah, no.”
Luna couldn’t keep her eyes on one place and she was confused. Is it necessary or is it not necessary?
“What’s wrong?”
“… “Can you tie my hair?”
It was a bit surprising. I know how to tie my hair. When I was young, Liza and I learned many things by taking care of each other, and thanks to that, we couldn’t help but know how to tie our hair.
“….”
Luna’s voice was slightly muffled.
“Before sparring, I always tied my hair…” Because there is no maid….”
Because the hair was so long, someone else needed help. Since he was a child of a noble family, there would have been no need to leave him alone.
Sometimes a woman’s hair is considered more sensitive than her body. Is this okay?
I walked up behind Luna and spoke.
“Do you have a string?”
Luna looked around the table and mirror and said as if she was embarrassed.
“Nothing…” “I lost.”
“Um… “It’s okay if it’s not necessarily a string, right?”
“… Yes.”
Luna was so embarrassed that she couldn’t keep her eyes on one place.
I took out the white handkerchief I always carried with me from my pocket. Then she gathered Luna’s blonde hair in her hands and tied it with her handkerchief. Then, I tied the handkerchief with a ribbon so that it would not come off.
I never thought I would use my hair tying technique again in my lifetime. When I was young, I didn’t have money to buy jewelry, so I used to tie Lisa’s hair like this.
The white handkerchief ribbon went well with the silver hair. Of course, I will never see you again now.
Now I think blonde hair suits me quite well.
Luna must have been quite embarrassed, so she pressed her knees with both hands and lowered her head.
“It’s done. How is it?”
Luna frowned and turned her head slightly to check her hair tie.
Then he asked carefully in a low voice.
“It’s pretty…. “Where did you learn it?”
“I learned it from the nuns when I was young.”
“Damian… “Have you been at the temple?”
“Yes.”
Perhaps due to her cautious nature, she did not ask any more questions about her past.
Luna hesitated for a moment and then asked another question.
“… By any chance, Tricia… “Can you tie that girl’s hair too?”
“I have never tied Trisha’s hair. “It’s been a few years since I’ve done something like this.”
Then Luna slowly raised her head as if she had gained some confidence. There was a very faint smile on her lips.
“Luna.”
“… Huh.”
“I don’t think you’ll lose, but if you still think it’s hard, untie your handkerchief and wave it as a white flag.”
She covered her mouth with her hand and laughed quietly. Seeing that, she felt like she was a little closer to Luna.
“Yes…. “I’ll remember.”
“Don’t get hurt.”
From Noble mtl dot com
***
Luna stood in the sparring room ahead of her opponent and waited. And within a few minutes, her opponent, Fabella, also entered the sparring room. Fabella was the same woman I met in front of her guardian neck.
However, her aura was different from when we met at Suho Mok. Now she was no different from any other student in Eternia. Although she looked the same, it felt like a different person was standing in front of the sparring hall.
And, Fabella also had her hair tied up, just like Luna.
Luna felt a strange sense of déjà vu as she looked at her appearance. What was strange was that Fabella also seemed to feel the same way when she saw Luna.
Luna sensed that Favela’s eyes were filled with agitation.
This was not nervousness ahead of a sparring match or fear of a senior junior. The emotional density was deeper than that.
Fabella opened her mouth vaguely, as if she was talking to herself.
“That… what?”
Fabella’s gaze was unfocused, so she couldn’t tell what exactly she was referring to.
However, the size of the commotion was so great that it did not require the use of sensitive senses.
“You… Why did you do that….”
Favela’s voice wavered.
A cold wind blew. Even in the warm late spring weather, the air like early winter passed by the back of Luna’s neck.
Immediately, the audience began to murmur. The chill wasn’t only felt by Luna. Everyone sharing this space sensed the unseasonal change in temperature.
There were dark clouds in the sky.
While Luna was looking up at the sky, her instructor rang the bell to signal the start of her sparring.
***
Xenia was looking up at the sky even as the bell rang to signal the start of sparring. Manager Hayley said, tapping her on the shoulder.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“This is strange. “It can’t be like this?”
“What? “It’s just a rain cloud, right?”
“No. That… “It’s not just a rain cloud.”
“Then what is it?”
“Snow cloud.”
Xenia said, still keeping her eyes on the sky.
“Why are there snow clouds?”
“Eternia is a place where it can’t snow. She used ancient magic to prevent winter from coming….”
Xenia was unusually serious, but Hayley didn’t know what that meant because her knowledge of magic wasn’t that deep.
Hayley, who had not felt the severity, suddenly felt a change when she saw steam coming out of the corner of her mouth.
“Uh… ?”
Soon sleet began to fall one by one from the sky.
It was an eye that was rarely seen in Eternia except under special circumstances.
The audience was so distracted by the falling snow that they couldn’t concentrate on the sparring.
Only after Luna made a pack of wolves the size of bulls appear around them did they turn their eyes to the sparring hall again.
“This is not the time to get distracted.”
Hayley tapped Xenia to get her attention.
These are the Wind Wolves, one of Luna’s main spirits. Each entity consumes magic power that ordinary wizards cannot endure for less than 30 minutes, but Luna can easily summon them even in her daily life, even if she does not know what secret they hold.
Some students about to graduate in Eternia sometimes made contracts with higher-ranking spirits, but there was no case like Luna handling such a large number at such a young age.
Some students even expressed admiration when they saw the upper-class spirit for the first time.
“To you, Xenia, we are both juniors at the Ministry of Magic. Do you think the favela can hold out?”
In fact, she was a member of the club that even Hayley and Xenia found difficult to deal with. She wasn’t very sociable, and she didn’t like to stand out. She didn’t become a close friend, they just had a senior/junior relationship where they cooperated with each other.
She knew she had a fiancé, but no one knew his face or name. I don’t know what she does or where she stays. Fabella was a girl who was faithful to her role.
Because she didn’t have much interaction, she couldn’t figure out exactly what level of power Favela had.
Luna didn’t seem to want to delay for long.
The wolves began to surround Favela as if surrounding her prey. As the she-wolves began to run in a circle around her, her currents stirred and instantly formed a vortex.
Xenia clicked her tongue and said.
“Luna, that little boy is taking care of me.”
“Really?”
“Yes, to deal with a spirit, you have to suppress it with magical power, use the same spirit, or attack the contractee’s main body, but what can Fabella do? Unless you’re an archmage, magic power is ridiculous, you can’t handle spirits, and spirit escorts aren’t that easy to hit the main body. Since the outcome is obvious, I think they are trying to make it reasonably impossible to resist and end it.”
“Um….”
While watching quietly, Hayley sneezed.
“Eh, etch!!!”
Before she knew it, her chill had become as strong as midwinter.
The frosty wind blew so hard that flakes of snow hit the side of my cheek instead of the top of my head. Hailey, who was wearing thin clothing that exposed her shoulders and armpits, wrapped her arms around his body and spoke.
“Crazy, why is this happening? “Is this also her ability called Luna?”
Xenia immediately denied it.
“That can’t be possible. “If she can break through ancient magic, she should become a professor.”
Favela was trapped in the whirlpool that covered the dust on the floor and could not be seen.
Will it end like this without being able to do anything?
After a while, Fabella slowly revealed herself. Contrary to everyone’s fears, Fabella suffered no injuries.
On the contrary, it slowly walked out of the whirlwind, unaffected by the wind, as if it were some kind of ghost.
All the students in the audience began to murmur.
“What? “How did you do it?”
“How can you withstand that? “Are you hiding even a top-class artifact?”
Xenia looked up at the sky. The dark clouds were thicker, so it was as dark as early evening even though it was midday.
The wind was getting colder and colder, so it felt like I was freezing as if I were in the north.
And at that time, the students became very agitated as if they sensed something abnormal. There were some students leaving the stands.
Xenia had a hunch. Something was clearly going wrong with her.
Kugugugugugugu-
Soon after, abnormal phenomena began to occur one after another. The pillars supporting the circular audience hall made a strange sound as if they were about to collapse.
And then the favela’s counterattack began.