Lanis, Bella, Pisca, And Sorcery

I didn’t know how Annie and Lenis’s discussion about becoming a devil had turned out, but thanks to it, I felt as though the distance between Lenis and me had widened a little again.

Annie was probably treating Lenis like a child and trying to make her independent with her own eventual death in mind, but I wished she’d stop using me as part of the plan.

If she was going to make a proposal like that, she could have quietly told me later when Lenis wasn’t around.

I didn’t understand Annie’s feelings or Lenis’s feelings, but there were still things I could infer.

The two of them looked nothing alike.

Not only in appearance, but even the nature of the mana they gave off was so different that it was hard to believe they were related by blood.

And considering there had never once been any mention of Lenis’s father or mother, or of the grandfather who should have been Annie’s partner, that was probably what it meant.

I didn’t know why Annie had Lenis call her Grandma, nor did I have any intention of prying into those circumstances.

But perhaps precisely because of that, the bond between the two of them ran deep.

However, Annie was about to expose herself to the danger of opposing the current Sorcerers’ Association, and even aside from that, she was already elderly.

As a human, she wouldn’t live forever.

That was probably why Annie worried about Lenis and had said what she did.

Lenis understood that too, but she still didn’t want to lose Annie, so she was wary of me as someone who might take Annie away from her.

Well, I understood why, and their relationship was something they had to resolve between themselves, so I wasn’t going to interfere.

But being treated with that much suspicion was going to make teaching her sorcery incredibly awkward.

While wondering how I was supposed to win her over, I looked in turn at Lenis, Bella, and Pisca, who were sitting in a circle outdoors.

What we were about to begin was the memorable very first sorcery lesson.

“All right, we’re starting sorcery lessons now. Lenis, I’m not going to eat you, so come a little closer. Pisca, you’re about to disappear into the grass, so sit on Lenis or Bella. Bella, your left head is asleep.”

The first thing I needed to do was assess Lenis’s current level of sorcery, while also explaining to Bella and Pisca why sorcery training was necessary for them.

The purpose of teaching Lenis and the devils was different, and their rates of growth would probably differ dramatically as well.

For example, if Lenis was still a beginner, Bella and Pisca, despite learning sorcery later, would almost certainly overtake her in no time.

Devils possessed Mana Sight from the beginning and had an extremely high aptitude for handling mana, but what they ultimately needed to learn beyond that was the manipulation of spiritual particles and magical essence.

Unless I explained that properly, having them study together would do more harm than good.

If Lenis was an advanced practitioner, on the other hand, she’d be able to watch Bella and Pisca develop without feeling threatened.

But there was little point in lecturing someone already entering that level about the fundamentals, so in that case it would be better to separate their instruction and teach Lenis in a more specialized way, focusing on areas she excelled in.

The most convenient outcome would be if Lenis were somewhere around the intermediate level.

That would mean she had enough breathing room, but could still feel some urgency from watching Bella and Pisca, and that reviewing the basics from the beginning wouldn’t be a waste of time.

Of course, I’d still need to teach her some more advanced material separately as a reward, but that much wouldn’t be too troublesome.

…As for how skilled Lenis actually turned out to be, the answer was a little inconvenient.

I tested her in two ways, through oral questioning and by having her actually perform sorcery, and since she genuinely loved this sort of thing, her knowledge easily exceeded the intermediate level.

However, when she actually tried to use sorcery, perhaps because she was putting too much force into it, her execution was awkward; she had clearly moved beyond beginner level, yet still fell short of intermediate proficiency.

It was a strangely unbalanced result.

That meant teaching Lenis new formulas, knowledge, and concepts would certainly serve as a reward, but it wouldn’t actually improve her practical ability.

Because those weren’t the things she lacked.

On top of that, watching Bella and Pisca smoothly learn to perform practical sorcery despite barely having any knowledge would probably be extremely stressful for her, especially since actual spellcasting was her weak point.

She did seem very interested in observing the process through which devils eventually acquired Magic, but… Hmm, what should I do?

For the time being, maybe I should teach Lenis how to cook.

Not ordinary cooking, though—cooking methods that used sorcery to simplify the various steps.

The point would be to stop treating sorcery as something special and instead use it simply as a tool, without putting too much effort into it.

Using sorcery in cooking required repeated, weak, delicate activations, so while it didn’t consume much mana, it demanded fine control.

And since completing a dish required multiple steps, each calling for different kinds of sorcery, if she focused too much on the act of spellcasting itself, her thoughts would probably get tangled up.

It should be just the right kind of training for Lenis as she was now.

Besides, learning practical life skills was never a bad thing.

Of course, I’d still teach her theoretical knowledge to keep her motivated.

Cooking was bound to be full of failures at first anyway, so she’d need something to take her mind off it.

I’d stock up on plenty of ingredients and patiently stick with her as she improved.

As for Bella and Pisca, they both quickly accepted the need to learn sorcery as well.

At first Bella had carried herself as though to say, I don’t need sorcery. I can already breathe fire.

But once I explained the point of it, she immediately seemed motivated.

Ordinary physical attacks had no effect on a devil’s body.

The same was true even if Bella used her claws or fangs.

But if she coated them in mana, they would become attacks capable of damaging a devil’s body.

Likewise, humans couldn’t harm a devil with an ordinary iron sword, but a Magic Sword or an attack using sorcery could be considered capable of killing one.

However, devils possessed an attack method even more effective than simply striking with mana.

That was manipulating spiritual particles to directly destroy the spiritual particles composing the opponent.

It sounded difficult when put into words, but once someone learned to manipulate spiritual particles, it could be done normally whether striking with claws or landing Magic.

If ordinary mana-infused damage was like jabbing someone with a wooden stick, directly destroying their spiritual particles was more like stabbing them with a knife.

Since I lacked combat instincts, I absolutely wanted Bella, whom I expected to serve as our main combat force, to learn this method of attack.

Bella also seemed to understand the role expected of her, and after I explained it, she threw herself into the training with impressive enthusiasm.

As for Pisca, she had been eager to learn sorcery from the start without needing any explanation at all.

That was because even after becoming a devil, her body remained tiny, and unless she learned sorcery—or eventually Magic, after mastering the manipulation of spiritual particles and magical essence—even protecting herself would be difficult.

Besides, Pisca had wanted to become a devil in the first place because of her strong ambition, so there was no way she’d reject an opportunity to gain power.

And so began the days of sorcery training for the three of them.

It would probably take a fair amount of time before they acquired strength that was actually useful in practice, but still… if possible, I wanted them to enjoy learning.

Because when Garmon-san taught me sorcery, I had enjoyed it very, very much.