Chapter 59

The results of Nack’s training for day one were not bad .

His stamina was still a problem… We still had four days left so I wasn’t too concerned but he still lacked the speed I desired . His endurance would gradually grow as he continued to train but I could only hope that his speed would also increase during that process .

And lastly, there was also his healing magic that I had to take into consideration .

It was difficult to use healing magic and run at the same time if you weren’t used to it . Nack would have a hard time . In my case, I started using healing magic while running at the same time . I was forcefully made to remember that sensation, whether I liked it or not . Since Nack had been using healing magic in a normal way all this time, it would probably be difficult for him to use it while exercising .

“Well, as long as he got used to it, it’ll work out one way or another…”

On the second day of Nack’s training, Bluerin was chasing after Nack on school’s training grounds while I was pondering over my own training .

Amako, who had a hood over her head, was sitting next to me as she watched over Nack . For these past few days, she was at the stable along with the other knights . But since I took out Bluerin, she had nothing to do and came here to look at Nack’s training .

“This is really the worst . So this is Rose’s legacy that I’m passing on… Her brute and savage ways of using healing magic . It hurts my conscience a little to train him like this…”

“That name for the training doesn’t sound normal at all…”

“Hahaha, there’s no way it would be normal at all . It’s Leader we’re talking about after all . ”

“Usato, you’re the one using this kind of training as a last resort . You’re not normal either… . ”

How rude . My training yesterday can’t be compared to that demon’s . It wasn’t like I kept healing Nack back after he exhausted all his stamina and forced him to keep running .

Compared to that, I would say I was the gentle one .

…Amako was looking at me with pity for some reason .

“You can’t make Nack become something like you, Usato . ”

“Hey, it’s like you’re saying my way of learning magic was weird to begin with . ”

“As you’re someone who overcame that training, I can’t consider you anything else but weird . ”

“…… . . ”

Eh . Huh? I was the weird one?

But at that time, I just desperately trained . My memories were also a little vague… I felt that I progressed a lot though .

…… . . W-well, let’s leave that aside for a moment . I had to focus on Nack’s training right now . Escaping Amako’s eyes that were looking at me with pity, I turned my attention to Bluerin who was running after Nack .

Nack’s pace was gradually slowing down . Bluerin would slow down his own speed to match Nack’s . He did it very discreetly so that it was almost unnoticeable .

This won’t do, this really won’t do . The true bane of training was taking it easy . Although Nack wasn’t a formal member for the Rescue Squad, I couldn’t allow Bluerin to have an easy time .

“Nack, your speed has dropped… . Bluerin!! You’re not here to relax and have fun!! You’re a monster right!? Then act like one!!”

While giving Nack a warning, I shouted harshly at Bluerin .

Despite how I gave a gentle warning, for some reason, Nack was the one whose eyes overflowed with tears and accelerated . As for Bluerin, he was carefree and growled a few times as if to say ‘Yeah, yeah . I got it . ’ before raising his own speed to match Nack’s .

The both of them seemed to giving it their all now . I could understand Bluerin’s reaction but why was Nack…

As I tilted my head to the side, Amako removed her hands that were covering her ears . She looked at Nack who was running with all he had in a daze and said,

“It was effective . It was super effective . Usato, you were trying to be gentle but Nack would obviously try even harder and desperately give it his all if he was treated like that… As expected of you, Usato . Just how many times do you plan to surprise me on this journey before you’re satisfied?”

“Why are you convincing yourself with that!?”

But in response, Amako just kept on nodding .

…Even so, it was a good thing that Nack had the motivation to strive for more .

In the worst case scenario, Nack would just be running at a slower pace . It would be fine as long as he could keep going . Unlike Felm, Nack was a healing magician and would use his healing magic unconsciously if he was about to faint . Because he would always get surrounded and beaten, it was no surprise he would active his healing magic on instinct . However, this wasn’t good enough . Nack couldn’t just operate his healing magic with auto-pilot .

“The minimum result I desire from Nack is for him to use healing magic while moving . He should also have fortified his stamina during this period of time… . . Amako, can you use your ability to see the future while running?”

“Sort of . My magic requires a tremendous amount of concentration, so I can’t see that far in the future while I’m running . ”

“I was trained to run and use healing magic at the same so I don’t really get it . Could you advise me? Am I going about this in the wrong way for Nack’s training?”

“…… . ”

Amako looked away from Nack who was running and turned to me with a troubled gaze .

“Honestly, I don’t know since there has been no precedent . But I can say this… . It’s already wrong for a healing magician who isn’t supposed to fight to be training to fight . But, Usato, your methods are strict, unreasonable, and you have a screw loose in your head so the results you desire make sense… . . Even though it’s unreasonable and you have a screw loose in your head . ”

“You don’t need to say it twice!!”

I thought this before but your words are really sharp .

Still, to think there was no precedent… . It just means it hasn’t been tried before .

In that case, I’ll continue on this path . Training itself would never betray you . I was fully aware of that .

“Anyhow, I should do my best too . ”

I had such a good spot to train; it would be a waste to not make use of it . While I paid close attention to Nack’s training, I started to apply the idea for my magic that I thought of yesterday .

“What are you trying to do?”

“Trying to see if I could release healing magic at a distance . ”

I wasn’t trying to be like Kazuki and use my magic at attack an opponent from a distance . I just wanted to see if I could release and fire a ball of magic .

As for how to exactly do that, I wasn’t sure . I would just experiment and try to get a feel for it .

“Usato, so what you mean is you want to fire a sphere like other offensive magic?”

“Something like that . Although my healing magic is continuously increasing and I can deploy it throughout my body, there will definitely come a time where I won’t be able to heal someone unless I can get closer . If I could make it so my healing magic could be released and fly a certain distance to heal someone, it would surely come in handy . ”

Currently, my healing magic could cover my entire body while healing wounds and fatigue over time . This was the end result of Nack’s training . From here on out, I would be attempting the unknown… Something that Rose hasn’t taught me… . Or it could be that she felt that there was no need to teach me this .

If Rose was here, she could probably give me the appropriate advice . But since she wasn’t here, I could only rely on myself to find a solution .

I closed my eyes . I slowly released healing magic in my right hand as the light gradually got brighter . My control over magic seemed better than the average person . I kept on gathering magic in the palm of hand until it formed a sphere .

I tried to think of a strong image inside my head…

“……”

Inukami-senpai, she would unleash her lightning from her palm like an electrical discharge .

Kazuki, he would create a sphere of magic by drawing the light in his surroundings .

The image I had in my mind was a pretty and green sphere . I didn’t need to reinforce it, I just needed to gather enough magic power to completely fill this sphere—

I certainly felt a sense of magic power on my palm .

I opened my eyes, and in my palm was… .

“It was easier than I expected… It’s a bit anti-climactic…”

Just like the image in my mind, there was a sphere of magic lightly floating in my hand .

It wasn’t that difficult . Huh? I thought I would have more trouble… While I had this doubt, Amako let out a sigh .

“This result is obvious… . Forming a sphere is one of the basics of magic . Whether it be humans or beast kin, this is the basics of the basics… . You could say it’s strange that you haven’t done this till now . ”

Well, getting beaten up was the basics of the basics for healing magic… .

Amako averted her eyes from me and looked at the sphere in my hand . The sphere was floating and would follow wherever my hand moved .

… . . Alright .

“!?”

“Tsk . ”

Looks like she found out .

As I wanted to test this sphere of healing magic, I moved it closer to Amako . But as it was about to make contact with her, Amako jumped backwards . She looked at me in astonishment .

“Did you just try to push that sphere towards me just now…?”

“What are you talking about? Do you think I would do something like that to you? Nope, it’s impossible . ”

“You definitely clicked your tongue just now! I saw it too, I would’ve been enveloped in a green light if I didn’t dodge just now . Other than your healing magic, Usato, who else could have done it… . !?”

Her body would be enveloped in a green light…?

I see . When this sphere makes contact with someone, all the magic in it would be used to heal them . This is convenient . Releasing this sphere might not be faster than healing someone directly . The sphere could also only heal a fixed amount . Still, this could be useful in emergencies .

“Huhhh? My bad . I didn’t realize that the magic in my hand would fly towards you, Amako . ”

“Muu… . ”

At any rate, it seems like this sphere had a practical use and I was able to get some revenge on Amako . I felt very satisfied and couldn’t help but smile upon remembering some of my ‘bad’ friends in my former world .

Amako was glaring at me and angrily huffing . I warded it off with a laugh . I moved to a target and stood about 10 meters away from it .

“Well, it’ll probably fly out if I cut off my connection to this sphere . ”

I extended my right arm and aimed it at the target in front of me . I formed an image of me releasing the sphere in my head . When I first started using healing magic, I would have some sort of image in my head so I was very used to this process . There shouldn’t be any problems .

While imagining a ‘baaam!’ sound effect, the magic ball fired .

Seeing that the sphere easily fired out from my hand, I raised my voice in excitement .

“Oooo… oh?”

I was confused since after the initial acceleration when the sphere fired out, it quickly decelerated before completely disappearing .

I retried this process multiple times but the result was the same .

“…… . But why?”

“It looks like emitting and firing out magic is not one of your strong points, Usato . ”

“This… Well, we all have our strong and weak points… . ”

After arriving this far, I discovered a fatal weakness .

It seemed I wasn’t good at firing out magic . The initial acceleration was good but… Actually, didn’t it only start that fast because I was pushing the sphere with my hand? My happiness was short-lived…

“Wait a moment…”

The initial speed was because I pushed my arm out to accelerate it, right?

If that was the case, couldn’t I put more power into it? It should at least fly a certain distance before losing speed . In the first place, I didn’t need to control my strength at all for something like this . I didn’t have the magic talent anyways… I didn’t need to restrict myself to the conventional way of firing magic . If so, I should use my own method to make it so this sphere could have a practical use in a real battle .

My own way of doing things .

In other words, making use of my strength .

“Usato, there’s nothing you can do about it . Everyone is born with different qualities . You’re already strong enough . ”

“I still have something up my sleeve… Amako…”

“Eh?”

I concentrated once more and formed a sphere of magic in my hand .

While grasping onto the orb in my hand tightly, I twisted my body a little .

I didn’t need the magic talent to emit and fire magic! I won’t give up so easily! I’m stubborn like that!

I raised my arms up . My right arm swung down and threw the magic ball in my right hand at the same time like a pitcher .

“The…re!”

“Eh . ”

The ball of healing magic continued to fly forward with tremendous speed and it showed no sign of dropping— It then crashed right into the target and the light scattered .

Hmm . My aim is a little off . Well, I didn’t have much interest in any sports back in my former world . There’s no helping it that my accuracy isn’t that good . I’ll just have to improve by continuously training .

As I exhaled out with a ‘fuu’, I looked at the spot that I hit . This time, I fired at around a distance of 20 meters . I was very close to hitting my mark . But since this ball of healing magic didn’t have any weight, I probably couldn’t throw it very far .

“It’s perfect . ”

“No no no, it’s strange . Throwing magic that has no weight is a little…”

“This is my own technique, the Healing Magic Ball . ”

‘Strange, strange, strange . ’ Amako kept repeating this dazedly while her body swayed back and forth like a metronome . I bitterly smiled at her reaction and turned my attention back to Nack .

Nack was running along with Bluerin just like before but he suddenly lost his balance and fell forward .

“Oh… . ”

I could see he was forcing himself to maintain that pace . Before he fell onto the ground, I had already jumped out to catch him . Although he was somewhat far away, I was able to quickly close the distance and support him .

“You alright, Nack?”

“Haah…… . Haah… . . I’m . . so . . rry… . ”

… . He didn’t exhaust his magic, he just couldn’t concentrate enough to heal his fatigue . I applied some healing magic on his back .

His complexion gradually got better despite his rough breaths .

“As expected, it’s a little hard for you to use healing magic while running?”

“Yes… . . It’s not like I can’t do it . But as soon as I lose concentration for even a moment, it breaks apart…”

“… . You aren’t used to it yet so it can’t be helped . Even I wasn’t able to do this in just one day, no need to rush . We still have four days . ”

You could also say we only have four days . Well, I could also train him to dodge my attacks and make his body learn to automatically use healing magic when necessary . But that wouldn’t allow Nack to freely use healing magic while in motion so…

…Only in the worst case scenario .

Nack has really been trying his best . He’s been taking a break from his important studies and focusing everything on his training for this week . He truly desired to train . However, even if he was giving it his all, I still had to consider what to do if things don’t go as planned .

As I was hesitating and thinking of what to say to Nack, I found a familiar figure looking at Nack from the entrance .

This person had twin tails and was laughing as she looked at Nack being supported by me .

That hairstyle, it was Mina huh… . I thought she came here to train but after laughing at Nack, she turned around and headed back to the school .

“She came here to jeer at him, really, she’s…”

Her personality was really bad . She also left without doing any training here . She was basically saying she was confident she could win even without doing anything .

Either way, there was no need to be concerned over it . Suppressing and cooling my own thoughts, I continued to heal Nack . After I finished, I propped him up .

Nack held one hand against his head and turned his back to me .

“She’s… always like that . She treats me like a fool and always verbally insults me . But I… Whether it be magic or anything else, I’m inferior to her so I can’t talk back…”

“Nack, you don’t need to mind it . ”

“Of course I mind . After all… Before I got driven out to this place, it wasn’t like this at all… Just because I have healing magic, everyone changed… They had no choice but to change . Even though I don’t want to be here, what can I do? I have no place to return to…”

……No place to return to?

‘This place’, he was referring to Luquis?

While I was slightly puzzled at Nack’s words, he continued to talk . It was like he was trying to spill out everything inside his mind and express his sorrow .

“Usato-san, this training will make me stronger, right? … . I’ll be able to win against Mina? Really… Even someone like me—“

Nack suddenly became silent upon realizing what he had just said .

After a moment of silence, Nack spoke again is if to smooth over the awkward situation .

“I’m sorry . I was saying things that didn’t make any sense for no reason… Please, don’t worry about my words just now . ”

No, of course I’m going to worry .

From his own words, there seemed to be something much more important to address than Nack’s fight with Mina .

“I’m very grateful to you, Usato-san . However, the only thing I’ve been doing these past two days is running… I know it’s very disrespectful for me to doubt you but… This training, I can’t see the meaning of it . ”

“No—“

But before I continued speaking, I paused upon seeing Nack’s back .

I was about to say ‘No, if you have time to worry about something like that, you should focus on training . ’ It felt like such a natural response that I couldn’t help but be shocked at myself .

That won’t do . Rose was having a bad influence on me . He was burdened with a lot of things… I couldn’t just say something that excessive and merciless to him .

I took a deep breath and erased the words I was going to say from my head . I thought of some kinder words to say to Nack and spoke,

“It’s not a matter of can you win or not, it’s you WILL win . Mina is also underestimating you . This isn’t a bad thing . Since she has her guard down, you can take advantage of it . Because she won’t expect an attack from you, this is why I’m training you so you have more offensive capabilities . That’s why… . Do your best . ”

“Do my best, you say…”

Upon hearing my words, Nack nodded and started to run again . I still had some mixed thoughts about his words just now .

Seeing Bluerin who was lying down and slacking off, I woke him up .

“Don’t slack off, don’t slack off . ”

“Guuh… . . ”

“Hey, Nack’s going to overtake you . ”

I forcefully pulled Bluerin up and he started running once more . I looked over at the scene of Nack and Bluerin running, and it got me thinking… It probably looked like this when Rose saw me and Bluerin training together before .

Back in the Rescue Squad, I only saw the backs of that scary bunch with their ridiculous stamina haha… But when I saw the young Nack running along with Bluerin, it gave me a mysterious feeling .

“Master and disciple, huh . ”

While I nonchalantly murmured this, I moved to a spot where I wouldn’t be in the way of their training .

*

Thinking about it carefully, it was around this time when I noticed it .

Because of the appearance of Mina who caused a lot of suffering for Nack, I thought everything would be resolved as long as he could defeat her by himself .

But I was wrong .

The darkness he carried was much more cruel and harsh than Inukami-senpai and I thought .

I realized it during the morning for the third day of training .

At first, I thought he already left and was doing his own training .

After all, he wasn’t in the bedroom that Kiriha lent him .

But he wasn’t at the training grounds . ‘Oh my, is he late because he did some independent training and overdid it?’ I thought this and waited one hour with Bluerin .

At the moment that I started to doubt whether Nack would show up or not, Amako arrived . She came a bit late but when she pointed out her suspicions, I finally realized it…

The reality and fact that Nack ran away from training———