The rest of the day together with Whitmoore was fun, though not that notable. Elise did her initial practice with the laser gun for a bit before they left in order to eat again, then the professor took them on a brief tour of some of her favorite sights in the city.

The first of those was an ice skating rink. Elise managed to get the trick to skating fairly quick, and Nina was a natural at due to her physical control, but Yura didn’t enjoy not having firm ground under her feet and Nalia simply wasn’t interested in trying, so the group moved on fairly quickly.

The second, a planetarium, was much more of a general hit, with Nalia in particular really getting into the technical explanations of stellar mechanics given by a helpful worker, but everyone could enjoy the beautiful and detailed schematics of the starry galaxies.

They spent more time there as a result, but eventually left, as Whitmoore, knowing that the group intended to leave soon, decided that it was about time for the last stop.

“Ah, so it’s the museum.” Yura said once they approached the building.

“Yeah. I thought it would be nice to bring things back to where it all began.” Whitmoore replied before taking them inside.

The woman was completely in her element as she regaled the group with a very interesting and fun lecture regarding the artifacts studied by the museum and their connection to history in general, though a surprise came while she was speaking about the end of the Ryunos dynasty of kings and queens and their country’s subsequent transition into a republic system.

“[…] the country had been suffering issues in several aspects, from the monetary to the social, but even so historians still argue about whether there was something else behind the queen’s decision to give up power.” Whitmoore spoke.

She had been explaining the meaning behind a piece of parchment held in the museum which was one of the original copies of the abdication declaration that queen Nayra Elisa Pointes the fourteenth had signed.

“Ah, I know about that!” Elise interjected.

There was a moment of silence “You do?” The professor asked.

“Yeah. Big sister Isadora told me about it. She defeated the queen and her shadow guard in a fight, and spared their lives under the condition that Nayra would transition the government into a democracy.” Elise shrugged “She knew just killing them would result in an ugly succession crisis, and she didn’t want that to happen. She was actually born in Ryunos, so she was really invested into making sure the country would get better.”

There was another moment of silence “That all happened close to five hundred thousand years ago.” Whitmoore stated and then sighed “It’s one thing to know, intellectually speaking, that powerful people can live incredibly long. It’s quite another to hear about people alive today who could give first hand accounts of events so far into the past.”

She shook her head “Still, this is quite a thing to hear about. I don’t think I could just put forth that theory using your testimony as the only evidence, so I guess I’ll do some more research on the subject and try to find some evidence that will satisfy the academic community.”

“If we end up finding something of the sort, we’ll be sure to bring it to you.” Elise assured her.

“That would be nice.” Whitmoore replied in a blank tone “But still, your sister must really be quite strong. The Ryunos dynasty used a magic combat style that was said to be peerless.”

“Yeah. They were crazy people who used siege spells in melee, so they used magic reinforcement to make their bodies as tough as those of brutal dragons, so very few people could harm them significantly, and even fewer could survive having anti-castle spells dropped on top of them.” Elise sighed “And that’s not even counting the shadow guards, who had really powerful and tricky black magic up their sleeves.” She shook her head “Big sis Isadora said it was the second hardest battle of her life.”

“I see. Well, I don’t really know much about combat magic, so I’ll take your word for it. Now let’s go back to the subject of the museum exhibits, but don’t be afraid to tell me if you know something else special.”

“Okay.”

And the group continued the tour, but while they were doing it, Nalia began to speak with Elise through the bond:

‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but from your demeanor, it looked like you were worried about having to fight those people.’

‘Is that true? I thought there was something going on, but wasn’t sure what.’ Nina interjected, having also been included on the communication.

‘That’s the case. The queen and her shadow guard pretty much retired after all that happened, but they left instructions on how to train their magic arts hidden in different places for those who wanted them. They’re difficult to practice, but once in a while someone manages to master them and becomes famous because of it, so it’s very possible we’d end up facing one of those inheritors.’ She paused ‘And they’re really far too much for us to deal with right now, so hopefully that only happens once we get a lot stronger.’

‘I see. Well, there’s no point worrying about it.’ Nalia replied.

‘Yeah. Let’s just keep getting stronger one step at a time.’ Nina said.

‘You’re right.’ Elise said, before ending the mental communication to focus on what Whitmoore was talking about.

+0+

Whitmoore did end up learning about the water purifier Dilira had made, and after sitting down for a few seconds to recover from the revelation that such a legendary figure (as Dilira’s alchemical feats had literally changed the world) was still alive, the professor made a note to get into contact with alchemists who might be able to identify that artifact’s mechanisms and confirm the story.

Besides that, there wasn’t really anything else new Elise could tell her about the exhibits, given that most of them were already well-researched, so mostly it was Whitmoore sharing her rich knowledge with the girls, all of whom enjoyed themselves and learned new things from her engaging lecture style.

It was a nice way to spend the last of their time together.

Finally the time to part could not be put off any longer, and the group left together through one of the city’s side exits before beginning their goodbyes.

“It was nice to get to know you, Professor.” Nalia was the first to speak “I hope your future projects go well.”

“Thank you. And I hope your magic study continues to be fruitful.” Was the reply.

“You’re really cool, miss. It’s not everyone who would brave danger while being weak like that. Keep being yourself, but try not to get into too much danger.” Nina spoke next.

“I’m grateful for the praise. And since not getting into danger is probably not an option, you should work to become strong enough to get out of any sticky situations.” Whitmoore said in return, earning a smile and a cheeky nod from the rabbit girl.

“Professor, I have no idea how I could possibly thank you.” Yura piped up next, speaking in an emotional tone “Without meeting you, I never would have found my new family, and that’s something I’ll never forget.”

Whitmoore took a moment to reply to that, sounding a little choked up “I’m really glad things worked out for you. It’s deserved, because you are a kind girl and a heroine who would risk herself for the sake of people you don’t even know. Do your best and enjoy your new life.”

Yura’s eyes teared up and she nodded, knowing it would be hard to speak at the moment.

It came down to Elise for the final exchange, who had been watching the moments of her little sisters with a smile on her face.

“Well Professor, you are truly someone I’m glad to have met. Our time together may have been short, but you have definitely left a mark on me. And this may be goodbye for now, but you still have a way to contact us, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t exchange messages once in a while. And I meant what I said earlier. Don’t be afraid to call us if you need help.”

“I’ll remember.” Whitmoore nodded solemnly “And that sounds like a good idea. I’ll send you messages about what happens to the temple from now on, and about any interesting discoveries I make and other things. You can send messages about whatever you want, it will be nice to hear of your future exploits and to know you’re alright.”

Elise nodded and then wrapped the woman into a hug, which was joined by the other three, though Nalia’s hug was a bit more limited given the size difference.

The hug lasted for a good few seconds, then the four separated from Whitmoore and walked a few steps away before Yura raised an earth platform under them. The girls said their final goodbyes and waved, then they were off.

The professor watched as they rode away for a bit, then turned and headed back into the city.

+0+

“So we’re going to Lordran, then.” Yura said after Elise told her to head northwest.

“Yeah. I think that would be the most interesting. The route there will also take us through the Lotus Lake zone, which I’ve been wanting to visit ever since I heard about it.” The contractor explained.

“I see. I’ve never been there either.” Yura said, then seemed to think of something “Ah, there’s something I found weird. You promised to exchange messages with the Professor, but you didn’t set up a time to do it or anything.”

“But that’s…” Nalia interjected, pausing in the middle upon realizing something “Oh yeah, you weren’t there when we did the tests. Basically the way it works is that a message sent to a multicomm that’s isolated from the network will automatically be delivered once it connects again, so we don’t need to set up specific times for communications.”

“That’s really convenient.” Yura replied.

“Yeah, and we already sent a message to Erina regarding that as well.” Elise said “I’ll just take the multicomm out once every two days or so to check if there are any messages.”

“Okay, that’s my doubt cleared up.” Yura said “And what about my training? You said we would start after leaving the city, but what exactly will it entail?”

“I’m planning on stopping in a bit for our first training session.” Elise replied “You’ll know what the training is like once we start.”

“Understood, I can wait.”

And just like she said, Elise told Yura to stop just a couple of minutes later, leaving them in the middle of a grove. The elf was going to be the main focus of that particular training session, but first Elise made sure to give training directives to her two older partners:

“Spar. Nalia, your goal is to overwhelm Nina as fast as you can. Nina, your goal is to avoid being overwhelmed for as long as you can. Take a minute between each bout to consider what you learned and catch your breath.” Elise instructed the two before turning to direct her next words just to the fairy “Once Nina is too tired to stand, you should use the rest of the time to redesign your main spell arsenal, based on what you learned in the spars.”

The two replied in assent. Nalia with a polite “Understood.” and Nina with an “Okay!” delivered with excessive enthusiasm that tried to mask the slight bit of worry she felt. They walked a few steps away, positioned themselves at dueling distance and began their spar after a short pause.

While they were doing that, Elise turned to Yura and began to speak:

“I have watched you fight several times, and while there are a lot of things I could teach you to help in becoming stronger, I believe that only one of those would have the greatest, fastest, most direct impact.”

“And what is it?” Yura asked, recognizing her cue.

“Multitasking.” Elise replied “Your style of earth manipulation and personal tendencies both lend themselves to a role of extreme battlefield control, but you’re unable to realize it currently because you lack skill at doing several different things with earth magic at the same time.”

“I see. That makes sense.” Yura agreed “But how are you suggesting we resolve that? Because I’ve been trying to train that for a while, but the results weren’t that good.”

“Everything depends on the training method.” Elise replied “But another thing that’s often overlooked is how much little tricks help. So let’s try something small first. Try making five pillars rise out of the ground at the same time, but they have to be actually pillar-shaped, not just mounds of earth.”

Yura grimaced, already anticipating the difficulty of that task, but nodded and focused. It took three seconds of concentration before the five pillars began to rise. The elf girl had taken Elise’s words to heart, so the pillars were cylindrical shapes with only a few imperfections, definitely far from mere mounds of earth.

However, it was easy to see how much Yura was struggling. The five pillars were rising from the ground agonizingly slowly in comparison to her usual quick earth molding, and while they were mostly ascending at the same rate, there were a few fits and starts midway through as one pillar or another stopped briefly, forcing her to slow down the progress to let it catch up to the others.

Elise hadn’t said how tall she wanted the pillars to be, so the elf grew them up until they were the same height as herself before stopping. The whole process took almost twenty seconds.

“Huff… That was just as tough as I expected.” Yura said before turning to Elise “What’s next?”

The other girl smiled “This is where things get interesting. Your next task is to make five pillars again, but this time imagine that there is a giant earth hand beneath the ground and the pillars are its fingers.”

“Oh?” Yura sounded surprised but interested. She was about to reply in assent when a sudden explosion from Nalia and Nina’s direction caught her attention, but upon seeing the rabbit girl pushing herself to her feet with only a little bit of difficulty she decided there wasn’t anything serious, thus turning her attention back to Elise.

“You’re gonna need to be a little more focused if you want to learn this.” The contractor scolded lightly but seriously.

Duly chastised, Yura looked down for a moment before nodding and turning to do what was asked. She imagined the hand, visualized the pillars as fingers and worked her magic.

The difference was immediately visible. The pillars began to rise up in perfect concert and at a significantly higher rate than before. Not only that, but Elise could see from Yura’s face that she wasn’t struggling nearly as much with the task as before.

And then it was done. What had taken nearly twenty seconds before was completed in just slightly over ten.

Yura looked at the pillars in amazement, then at her hands and then at Elise “That’s incredible.” She said after a moment.

Elise smiled kindly “That’s a small trick, but a very useful one. Rather than trying to deal with each element individually, you can think of them as a group to make it a lot easier to process.” She raised her finger “This is not a cure-all, though. Trying to do several different things over a large range makes it quite difficult to use this method, so we’ll have to train other techniques too. But for now, let’s practice this. Try to make the pillars even faster while also adding some extra details to them.”

Yura replied “Sure!” and thus the training session truly got into gear. Soon enough the elf simply didn’t have the leeway to care about the increasingly violent noises coming from the fairy and rabbit’s spar because Elise had gotten into harsh trainer mode.

Five pillars soon became ten. Small added details gave way to complex patterns that pushed the limits of Yura’s precision. The time taken for both the initial focusing of magic as well as the manipulating itself was pushed lower and lower. And Elise was doing her senses sharing method, so she could tell right away whenever Yura made the slightest mistake, as well as how far the elf could be pushed in each aspect.

Yura’s whole existence became those repeated tasks. Little by little she began to feel like the earth pillars were taking root inside her brain itself, just from how hard she was focusing on them. It felt endless, with each attempt begetting Elise pointing out a mistake or adding an additional stipulation, never considering the task as complete.

Her head hurt from the focus, her body hurt from the constant magic channeling, but she kept going, unwilling to give up when Elise was working so hard to help her become stronger. Even as exhaustion mounted, she kept going, the feeling of improvement that kept growing more and more noticeable motivating her even further.

And then, when Yura was just about at her absolute limit, Elise said “That’s enough.”

The elf turned toward her, unable to comprehend how those words applied to making another set of pillars “That’s… Enough?” She asked, seeking additional clarification on that matter.

“You’re about to collapse, so we’ll resume tomorrow.” Elise replied patiently “We’ll also have different things to work on, so the training won’t be as easy. You should rest while you can.”

Yura’s expression changed as realization finally set in, and then she fell unconscious. Thankfully, Elise was ready and pulled her into the mindscape before the elf could hit the ground.

‘Her Room is already mostly done so it should be a nice surprise for when she wakes up.’ Elise thought.

She then looked at the sky, noting that it was still late afternoon. She went over to supervise the training of the other two, idly noting to herself that Yura still had a long way to go in terms of endurance.