“Nevi, stop staring at me. I know we were close but I’ve got to keep an eye on my daughter’s dance lesson.” I try to stop Nevi which is staring at me from my back.

“Hehe, no, I won’t.”

It’s the second night since I take the job to guard Nevi. We’re going with their big carriage that looks like a bus. Unlike our carriage that’s moved by mana, their caravan is moved by energy crystal. Energy crystal is another source of fuel other than black water. It is a rare kind of fuel that’s only exist on Demon’s realm and it is similar with my mana storage ring. It’s storing the mana from the nature before being mined. But it’s not too popular outside the demon’s realm.

My job of making the meal is taken over by Shiba. He said it was always his job to prepare the meal because Nevi has some prohibitions of the food she ate since she’s a high priest. Even I know what the prohibitions is, I let him take care of it so I can look into Erfia’s dance training. Kurua is helping him as he doesn’t want to eat anything without doing any work.

I can see Erfia’s movement has improved a lot since I made her learn how to dance. Eri is a good teacher too. Reis is still bad at it. I can’t expect much from a bandit in her twenties. I just need her as companion for Erfia’s lesson.

“How long are we going to take to reach Sairkhan?” I ask Nevi without looking back.

“Well, at this pace, we’ll reach it in less than a week.”

I can feel Nevi’s voice is coming closer. I jump to the side to avoid her. Just as I thought, she’s already jump at me.

Three thousand kilometers in less than a week. That’s fast. It raises the speed of the travel by twice. If we’re still going with our mana carriage, we’ll reach it two weeks.

“Can’t you please stop it? I don’t want to disturb Erfia’s concentration.”

“Uh, we’ve been separated for a few years and all you’ve been talking about is just your daughter. It’s not fair.” Nevi’s complaining to me.

“It can’t be helped. She’s my daughter. She’s my first priority.”

“You put her on your first priority just because she’s still a child, aren’t you? You pedophile!”

Ah, umm. I can’t say a clear answer or reply to it.

“The dinner is ready.” Kurua calls to us.

I jump toward Erfia and the others without giving any reply to Nevi’s words. “Okay, that’s it for today.”

“Yeay, dinner time.” Erfia’s running toward Kurua’s voice.

Eri runs following Erfia with the same aloof face. I don’t know whether she’s using a magic device or some potion to keep her appearance, but it sure works perfectly. For a supposedly 90 years old woman, she looks just like 30 years old woman. Even by now, Kurua which is her pupil looks older than her.

“So, having another sweet time with Nevi?” Reis asks me with a pissed tone.

“Oh. C’mon. Stop it already, would you?”

Reis says nothing and left me.

I know since we met Nevi, Reis’s reaction has become more violent than ever. It’s like she’s back on being a desert bandit. I’m not some insensitive guy so I know she’s jealous of me and Nevi. It’s just she doesn’t seem to realize it yet. But I can’t say it to her. If I say it to her, I’ll make her more pissed and it will complicate things.

I return to the carriage to have my dinner. But apparently the conditions are not so good. Reis and Nevi are competing in getting Erfia’s hearts. They offer to feed Erfia or give her their portion. This is not good. I throw a look into Eri but she ignores me. I try my luck with Kurua. Thanks God Kurua nod to me and take Erfia with him.

This journey to Sairkhan will become a long journey for me.

I look into the other two guards that’s still alive. Both of them are a woman. Frea is a half demon and half human being. The distinct feature of her body that indicate it is her pointy tail and slit eyes. She’s wearing heavy armor covered with a white robe. The other one, Bura, is a beast man type mole. She’s wearing a minimalist clothes like Eri added the white robe.

“Say, what kind of grimoire that little girl has?” Shiba ask me about the grimoire in Erfia’s neck.

“Huh, you won’t believe it.” I try to boast about the grimoire.

“It is the book of creation and destruction. It’s the greatest grimoire ever existed.” Kurua adds my words.

When we said it, everybody just silent and dropped their jaws. Nobody expects it at all.

“Wait, are you serious? Do you seriously put that kind of book in her possession?” Nevi questions my decision.

“I didn’t. The book did.” I answer Nevi’s question after gulp my food. “You see, this book is one of those items with their own will. It can’t be found by anybody if it doesn’t want to. Even if I put it in my pocket, I won’t ever find it in my pocket again. But if Erfia look into my pocket, she will find it there.”

“Even all this time, I’ve been looking for it in my shop but no luck at all. I started to think that grimoire never existed in my shop. Until she brings it to me.”

Just as I thought, even Kurua the strongest beast man is not able to find it. That reason is also why I didn’t put it in the Keeper. It might lose for eternity.

“Then why is she still learns how to dance?” Shiba asks me.

“She doesn’t need to study magic at all.” Reis takes on Shiba question. “She’s one talented girl. Just show some spell to her and she can master it in one go. What she needs right now is a way to defend herself if the enemy manages to come close and a fit body to manipulate more mana.”

“Wow, is that mean she can also master the art of anti-magic?” Nevis asks while looking so intense at Erfia.

“Sure thing.” Reis and I answer her at the same time.

“Anti-magic? So, the rumor of high priest of Sairkhan being the anti-magic magician is true?” Eri asks Nevi and the others.

It normal for her to be surprised.

“You don’t know her? Her title is the same as her magic, Anti Magic. Nevi the Anti Magic.” I tell Eri’s and the other. “Apparently, your name is not famous. Hahaha.”

“Well, a high priest is a nobody. So, her title as two words nobody is not as famous as one word fugitive or one word hero.” Shiba defends her infamousness.

“Umm, dad, she’s a magician. But what’s with the anti-magic title?” Erfia curious about the title.

“Let me answer it,” Nevi takes the chance to raise her status in Erfia’s eyes. “My magic, the art of anti-magic, is a new type of magic that we, Mada and I, created when we were still in Ariana’s place. With it, I can read and know every magic that’s being casted or activated.

“Take a simple example. To cast a magic, the magician needs to spell the incantation perfectly without any wrong words. If I face with such magic, I simply add some random words into their magic incantation and the incantation is cancelled immediately. But if it’s something like body enhancement magic like the one Mada used, I read his magic and then dispel it by spelling the incantation.”

“Is it means the magic is talking to you how to cancel it?” Erfia asks Nevi.

“Yeah. Exactly. Just like that.” Nevi praises Erfia’s guess. “So, do you want to learn it?”

“I do, I do.” Erfia answer it without a further thinking.

Nevi’s magic, anti-magic, is something that we created when we’re still in Ariana’s care. But it’s relatively new and none manage to master it but Nevi. It needs a high sensitivity towards the nature and opponents gesture. If Erfia wants to learn it, I could say she’s suitable for it. She managed to shoot a crossbow accurately in 100 meters distance which normally only accurate for 50 meters by reading the wind flow.

“Mada, is it okay?” Nevi asks me.

“Sure thing. Now that she doesn’t have to drive the carriage, she has a lot of free time.“ I answer Nevi’s question. ”I’ll adjust her magic later.”

“Mada, Nevi and you are the ones created it. Why can’t you teach her yourself?” Reis asks my decision. “Even Ariana told me that you’re a very great teacher back then.”

“I might be a good teacher, but I had a very limited amount of mana I could use. So, the best I can do is an assistant.”

“Why?” Reis asks me again.

“For a magician to learn something, the best way is to see the magic directly while it’s being casted.” I started to explain things to Reis and everybody in this place. “Let’s take some example. The spiking ground she used at the desert when we met you is not perfect. Why? Because I simply told her to imagine a circle on the ground. The magic take form by itself. The perfect spiking ground will create a lot of circles and spike an ice to every single person in the sight. That’s why you’re still alive. As I said, you’re lucky.

“A complicated magic needs a great visualization of the caster, without it, the magic will take form by itself and who knows what the magic’s form going to take. That’s why the best I can do is teaching the theory and adjusting the magic incantation to reduce the mana consumption and the blowback to its user.”

All of them fell into a silence. Erfia and Nevi are the only ones that still eat like nothing happened.

~~~

Another three days passed without any signs of this me wannabe. At this pace, we’ll reach Sairkhan in a couple days.

We just finished our lunch. Nevi is teaching Erfia for the last time. She should have mastered it by now.

“Now for the final lesson. We will combine all of the lesson for the past few days. Okay?” Nevi says it to Erfia with a proud voice.

“Yes.” Erfia nods.

“Okay, Mada, do it!”

Here I am, standing on top of the carriage as the training subject. I do as Nevi says and cast a silent incantation of blood transformation. It is necessary to cast it in silent so Erfia doesn’t know what magic I use.

“Remember, always spell the incantation inside your head by imagining the words floating in the air.” Nevi starts the final lesson. “First, by using the nature eye spell, read the flow of nature. See the disruption of nature in the opponent’s body or area around the opponent’s.”

Erfia nods obediently.

“Good, observe the disruption carefully. Because you’re an elf, you can see the disruption as words or letters easily without translation magic. Imagine the letters and the words to stay put and scatter them. You will see a very thin and nearly invisible thread connecting one letter and the others. Make the thread connect one another in a line.”

“All right. It’s done.” Erfia responds to Nevi’s guidance.

“By now, it should have created a words floating in the air. The line in the top is the spell incantation to cast it, the line in the bottom is the incantation to dispel it. By using voice of none, dispel his magic by doing a silent incantation of his magic.”

I can see Erfia’s muttering the words in her words. As she's done with the muttering, I can feel my blood transformation is being dispelled and my body return to normal.

“Good, now let’s try the magic cancellation. Reis, now’s your turn.”

Reis is standing beside me and does just as she said to. I can see she doesn’t like to do as she told, but apparently she doesn’t want to hindrance Erfia’s training to. Reis is starting to spell a long incantation and the ground around us is starting to shake.

“If you look at it. You can see words is floating around her. The highlighted words are the one she has spelled and the dark ones hasn’t. By using voice of none, say a random words in your mind and imagine the words appear right after the highlighted words.”

At that moment, the ground is stopped shaking. It seems she manages to cancel Reis’s magic incantation.

“Good!” Nevi’s burst in excitement. “Now simply dispel your magic one by one. Remember, the order is reversed. So, dispel it starting from the last one you cast.”

Erfia muttering again and dispels all of the magic she cast. For a first timer, I can see every single incantation she spelled out of her mouth. In no time, she could do it without muttering at all.

“Yeay, you made it. You just mastered the anti-magic magic.” Nevi grabs and hug Erfia. She looks so happy.

Nevi is not the only one happy. Erfia also happy as she mastered it. She really is a prodigy. It took several months for us to create it. I think her being half elf and half beast man is one of the main reasons she’s a prodigy. Elf is known for their ability of talking with the nature and beast man also known for their compatibility with nature. Maybe having both of their race makes it easier for her to understand the flow of nature.

“Bad news! Bad news!” Frea runs toward us in hurry.

This is not good. I run at my best and grab Frea. I catch an arrow before it hit her right behind her.

“You’re great. I admit it.”

A voice rises out of nowhere. At that moment, at least a hundred men appeared around us. I couldn’t sense them, so it means they used stealth magic. But of all, only one person is wearing a mask. Another clown mask with a tear picture below the right eye and a star picture in the left eye.

I jump back at Erfia and Nevi’s place and put Frea down. I take my Pair of Dragon and Phoenix near Nevi’s place and take off the cloth covering it.

~By the will of wind and the earth, let these touches the greatness of your might. As I say, speed of wind~

I prepared for battle.

“Where’s Bura?” Nevi asks Frea.

“Are you looking for this girl?” the same voice rises.

Judging by the direction, we conclude the source is the masked man. He throws Bura’s body to the ground.

“Don’t worry, she’s not dead yet. But if you–“

~Clang~

In just short moment, I manage to unsheathe my lance sword, reach him, and swing it toward him. He’s holding my lance sword just in time.

“I’m not done yet.”

“Just shut up! You imposter!”