Chapter 52: Helping Maelis...
"Emryn?"
Maelis repeated, frowning slighly.
Of course, she didn’t frown at the fact that he had no surname; she just couldn’t remember ever seeing that name listed anywhere in the first-year course.
Still, that only made her lips curve up slightly.
"...That’s a nice name," she added quickly.
Gray smiled lightly.
"Glad you think so." He flicked ash to the side and leaned back again.
"But you don’t have to fake it. Plenty of people think it sounds cheap without a family name behind it."
Maelis tilted her head, her long hair shifting over her shoulder.
"I wasn’t faking. I actually like it. Short, strong, easy to remember." Her lips tugged upward again.
"It fits you."
Gray let out a puff of smoke and raised a brow.
"Fits me, huh? You barely know me."
"I know enough," she shot back lightly.
"You’re rough, you don’t care about manners, and yet..." Her eyes narrowed with a hint of playfulness.
"You’ve got a strange charm that makes people want to listen to you."
"You talk like you’ve already figured me out." Gray chuckled under his breath, shaking his head.
"Maybe I have," Maelis smiled.
’After all... You seem like the perfect copy of my ideal man...,’ she added inwardly.
He stared at her for a moment, lips curving as if he found her entertaining.
Then he turned his eyes back to the cigarette, taking another drag before blowing smoke toward the ceiling.
A small silence passed between them, only filled by the faint hum of the training machine behind her.
Finally, Gray tilted his chin toward it and asked casually, "So... are you planning on using that machine or not? Or are you just standing there to keep me waiting?"
"A-ah, yeah! I almost forgot about that part... let me just have one quick training session, then I’ll let you use it," Maelis replied, almost stammering.
Without waiting for his answer, she spun back toward the machine and set it up again.
Seeing this, Gray leaned forward slightly, his cigarette resting between his fingers as his eyes narrowed slighly.
’Perfect chance to see what she can really do.’
With a sharp click, Maelis activated the machine again.
WHRRR—
The crystal core at its center lit up, runes flashing, and suddenly a set of glowing spheres shot out, zipping through the air.
FWOOSH!
ZING!
Maelis raised her arm at once, mana flaring across her palm.
A thin shield of light burst into shape and blocked the first two spheres with a crackle of sparks. The barrier shattered an instant later, and instead of standing still, she pivoted.
Her boots tapped hard against the training floor as she weaved out of the way of the others.
THUMP!
SWISH!
Her steps were light, quicker than he expected from a mage.
She bent low to the left, spun to the right, hair whipping in the air as another cluster of spheres shot past her.
The machine’s tempo increased.
WHRRR-POP!
POP!
POP!
Three more spheres shot out at sharp angles.
Maelis answered with a quick snap of her fingers, sending a small bolt of mana bursting out.
CRACK!
It smacked one sphere aside, but the other two came at her chest.
She ducked, her hair whipping behind her, and rolled back on her shoulder before pushing herself to her feet again.
THUD!
"Haaah! Haahf... fuu...!"
Her breath was starting to come out rougher, each exhale loud in the room.
Beads of sweat formed along her forehead, sliding down her cheek, catching against her lashes.
Still, she didn’t let up.
’...She’s a gravity mage, but she still relies on her agility?’ Gray frowned slighly.
Another round of orbs fired.
FWIP!
FWIP!
FWIP!
She tried to block again, but her shield cracked too early.
CRSHH!
The sphere grazed her shoulder, and she stumbled back.
[She’s wasting energy.]
Jasmine’s voice rang inside his mind.
[Her timing is off. She’s rushing her barriers and spending mana too early. If she slowed down just half a second, she could reinforce properly instead of breaking the shield on impact. And she keeps moving too wide, shorter steps, tighter turns. Less wasted motion.]
’...You always have something to say, huh?’
[Because you’re watching wrong. That girl is a mage, yet she’s forcing herself to dodge like a swordsman. If she blends both, it could work, but right now she’s sloppy.]
Gray let out a low chuckle under his breath.
’Thank you for those "kind" words.’
Smoke curled from his mouth as he spoke aloud, his voice coming out in a casual yet lazy tone:
"Your shield’s breaking too fast. Hold it a bit longer, half a second, and cut down your steps. You’re moving too wide."
Maelis froze mid-movement, almost taking another hit because of her surprise. She spun her head toward him, eyes wide.
"...What?"
Gray flicked ash off the cigarette and met her stare lazily.
"You heard me. You’re wasting energy. Fix your timing, and you won’t get pushed around so easy."
For a moment, she simply stared, blinking at him as if unsure whether to laugh or get annoyed.
But then, after a breath, her brows furrowed. She straightened her stance, almost as if testing his words against her own judgment.
"...Alright. Let’s see."
She reset the machine with a flick of her mana.
WHRRR—!
Spheres burst out again.
This time, instead of snapping her shield instantly, she waited. Just that half-second.
CRASH!
The sphere struck, but instead of shattering, her barrier rippled, absorbing the impact and fading only after it had done its job.
Her eyes lit up.
FWIP!
FWIP!
Two more came.
She tightened her stance, cut her step shorter, sliding only a pace instead of three.
THUD!
SWISH!
Her shoulder barely missed one, but her body stayed balanced, no stumble this time.
"It worked..." Her lips parted slightly in surprise.
Gray watched, smoke trailing from the corner of his mouth, as her movements sharpened.
She blocked again with cleaner timing, and the shield held longer.
She spun left, braid whipping, feet skimming lightly across the floor with far less waste in her movements.
Each adjustment she made following his words became a visible improvement.
BOOM!
Another orb slammed into her shield, but instead of crumbling, it dispersed cleanly, leaving only faint sparks drifting in the air.
Maelis froze for a second, staring at her hand as the glow faded. Then, slowly, her lips curved upward.
A smile broke through, wide and unrestrained, her chest heaving with exhilaration.
"I— I did it!" she gasped, almost laughing.
"It actually worked!"
Before Gray could even mutter anything back, she spun toward him, her hair swinging.
And then...
FWUMP!
Her arms suddenly wrapped around him.
Gray stiffened instantly.
The cigarette almost slipped from his fingers.
His eyes narrowed in shock as Maelis buried her face against his chest, laughing under her breath, half-breathless and flushed.
"I improved! I really did! Did you see that?!"
Her words tumbled out quickly, excited, without a trace of her usual composure.
She looked up at him, her eyes gleaming bright, sweat still glistening along her temples.
Her hair stuck to her shoulder, her breath warm against him as she clung without even thinking.
Gray blinked once, slowly.
Then he tilted his head, expression unreadable, cigarette dangling between two fingers.
"...The hell are you doing?"
Maelis gasped as if only just realizing it.
"Ah—!" She pulled back at once, her cheeks exploding into crimson.
"S-sorry! I just— I was just—" Her words tangled, her hands flailing before she clutched them tightly against her chest.
"You’re loud when you’re happy, you know that?" Gray rolled his eyes, exhaling a long drag of smoke.
Her lips parted, still red-faced, but that spark of joy hadn’t left her eyes. She pressed her hands together and muttered, half-defiant:
"Well... you did help me. Even if you act like an ass about it."
Gray dropped the half-burned cigarette, crushing it under his boot.
His faint smirk hadn’t left his lips as he stepped past Maelis, who was still catching her breath by the machine.
"My turn," he muttered.
"Ah... right," Maelis nodded.
He stepped up to the console.
"Jasmine, what’s the best difficulty for me?"
[If you want efficiency, then: lower speed, fewer orbs. Just enough to let you move, not enough to make you waste effort.]
"Perfect."
The machine whirred to life.
VRRRMMM!
Four glowing spheres emerged at once, their energy buzzing as they spread out in the air.
Unlike Maelis’s set, which had been chaotic and fast, these moved in deliberate arcs, slow enough to be tracked, but sharp enough to sting if they hit.
SHWIP!
The first orb cut toward his head.
Gray tilted slightly to the side.
Whoosh!
The sphere skimmed past his ear by inches.
Another came from the right.
FWOOSH!
He stepped back half a pace, hands in his pockets, letting the orb shoot through the empty space where his chest had been.
...That difficulty... is a bit too easy for someone who matched Dexter’s speed... why would he train at that difficulty? Maelis frowned, looking over Gray.
The third sphere lunged downward, aiming for his legs.
ZIP!
Gray shifted one boot back, dragging the other smoothly after it.
The orb scraped the floor, humming as it darted by, missing him cleanly.
"Hah..."
Gray exhaled, his eyes sharpening slighly as he continued reading the angles, adjusting only by what was necessary.
The fourth orb fired straight for his face.
Gray’s lips curved faintly.
FWOOSH!
He bent just enough at the waist, feeling the rush of heat graze his hair before the light zipped off behind him.
The machine didn’t slow down. More spheres shot out, five, then six, then eight, filling the space with streaks of glowing mana.
ZIIIP!
WHISH!
THUMP-THUMP!
His boots tapped against the floor as he weaved between them, body leaning left, stepping right, sliding back, ducking low.
His coat tails snapped with each motion, his movements clean and fluid, like water flowing around rocks.
Not once did a sphere graze him.
And all the while, he looked... bored.
When the final orb fizzled out, Gray straightened, rolling his neck with a soft crack.
His hands were still in his pockets.
’...That was supposed to be the "efficient" setting?’ he thought, wondering if Jasmine had made a mistake.
’Jasmine?’
But strangely... Jasmine took a while to reply.
[...What’s going on with your body?]
’What do you mean by that?’
[Your brain... It’s processing the world five times faster than normal. To anyone else at your level, even if they were a Vessel, those orbs would’ve been a blur. But to you, it’s like they were moving in slow motion. Almost as if... You were predicting the future.]
Her voice wavered for a moment before continuing.
[And there’s something else. You have perfect control over your body. Every muscle, every step, you don’t waste a single movement. That’s not something a normal person can just "learn". What kind of training did you go through to gain that level of control?]
’...Training?’
Gray’s gaze dropped slighly.
"...I only received training from Alina..."