The Sword and The Shadow

You Asked For This

Myr seemed surprised. He gave Angelista a good look and…

…started bleeding from his nose.

She has a good figure, he thought as he wiped his blood off awkwardly.

"Prove to me!"

He ignored Leguna's contemptful gaze.

"You'll see when we go outside." Angelista walked outside stylishly without waiting.

"Just wait here. We'll be back in a while," Myr said as he jumped out of his seat.

Only Leguna and the other three girls were left. The atmosphere turned awkward for some reason. Eventually, Eirinn couldn't take it any longer and smiled at him.

"Since there's nothing else to do here, I'd best start Innie's recuperation session today. Let's go, Innie."

Innilis was a little surprised at the sudden request, but she could tell that something was up. She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything else as she left with Eirinn.

"Do you think you can hide this from Eirinn?" Annelotte asked when only the two of them were left.

"It shouldn't be a problem…" Leguna sighed. "Eirinn's quite pure and has always believed what I said. She seemed quite natural just now. It didn't look like an act."

"It didn't?" Annelotte mused.

"Freaking hell…" Leguna scratched his head furiously and cursed. "Damn it! I actually… became…"

"It's not your fault," Annelotte consoled, seeing him bury his head in his arms. "If it were me, I'd do the same."

"But… I was the one who doomed her… her actual mother…"

She didn't say anything else at the sight of his pain.

After returning to her room, Eirinn began Inniilis's therapy. After being poisoned, Innilis received a temporary medicine from Linq to suppress the poison's effects and later the proper antidote. But as the poison had remained in her body for quite some time, traces of it still remained even after her recovery. According to Eirinn's studies in medicine, a great deal of time and patience was required to completely detoxify a person.

Everything went well and Eirinn's divine miracles worked effectively.

"Thank you, Sis Eirinn!" Innilis said.

"What's there to thank me for?--" Eirinn booped her nose and stretched. "--Ah, it's always so tiring using divine miracles. I need a short rest. Remember to call me for dinner!"

"Okay!" Eirinn nodded and left.

After the door clicked to a close, Eirinn did nothing for a few moments before slumping into her bed. She buried her face in the feathery pillow and could no longer control her tears and let them flow.

She was no fool; she understood everything.

Why was she sent back to Melindor even though she was already in the Dusk Zone?

Because there was danger.

The dark elf, Linq, had said that Sala was House Elvin's matriarch. Yet, now her mother had been replaced by her sister, Brani.

Obviously, the matriarch had changed. So why did Leguna not mention Sala at all?

The only explanation was she was quite possibly dead.

Eirinn hadn't been idling the days away. She had asked Myr for some guidance and Myr showed her some books in his personal collection about dark elf culture.

So, before Leguna had returned, she had guessed what he was trying to do. She knew that he had gone to take a huge risk for her sake again and felt really anxious about it, but she didn't dare tell anyone. If she told Innilis, she'd only worry with her, so there was no point.

Yet, no matter how much she tried to prepare for it, guessing the truth still hurt her. While the dark elves were sneaky schemers, they were still her blood relatives.

A small hand gently touched her head. Innilis hadn't left the room at all. She merely closed the door.

"Sis Eirinn," she whispered, "I'm sorry for being useless. I don't know what you're sad about and what I can do for you… But I'll be here with you. If there's something you don't want Big Bro and Sis Annie to know, you can tell me about it. Useless as I am, I can at least listen to and share your burdens. Please… tell me what's troubling you…"

……

Angelista returned with Myr not long after. The old guy seemed quite happy to have proven that she was indeed a soulgrasper. After that, the two and Leguna discussed her entry into the court magi association.

Leguna felt rather bored and recalled Xeno's pitiful look. So, he decided to take his leave.

When Angelista and Myr finished their conversation, Myr took her to Second Magic Academy. With his permission, she was allowed to become an educator there.

Usually, asking a magus to share their insights and research was really unreasonable. Annelotte had been prepared for her to refuse, but Angelista agreed to do so surprisingly easily.

Annelotte could do naught but shrug. Angelista had been a rather weird person in the first place, so who knew how her mind worked?

Soon, Angelista's debut in the academy caused quite a huge commotion.

Unlike Lance, Chino was mostly dominated by humans. Other races like dark elves were far and few in between. Though, if one were to truly look, they could still be found in the occasional high-class brothels.

In the end, Annelotte assigned her to teach the evocation curriculums for three classes.

Initially, Annelotte was sceptical of Angelista's unreliable personality and worried that it was too soon for her to teach actual students. But after half a month of trying to figure out a solution for the interplanar transfer formation, she checked in on Angelista and found that her practical lessons were surprisingly popular among the students. Quite a number of students from other streams were scrambling to take her class.

Annelotte didn't really mind it and thought that she had probably just misjudged Angelista's ability to teach.

But one week later, Innilis, who had just returned to school, told her the truth. Angelista would personally heal all the male students who got injured during the class without needing Eirinn to do so. According to Innilis, every time the door closed shut, sounds embarrassing enough to make one blush could be heard coming from within. It seemed like Angelista was imparting some grown-up knowledge in the students all the while she healed them.

As such, she got more and more famous in Second Magic Academy. it got to a point where the male students would play a game of rock, paper, scissors to decide whose turn it was to 'get hurt'. The others would always stare enviously at those who won the right to be hurt.

The students even gave her the nickname 'Teacher Angel', as her lessons were filled with heavenly pleasure. Though, the 'An' in 'Angel' also sounded suspiciously like the first part of the name of their beautiful principal.

Annelotte had been focusing all her attention to solving the interplanar transfer gate, so she left much of the academy's tasks to her aide, Perelia. She was the one who had to deal with this matter.

Perelia used to be a captive Stokian magus. Her help in the replication of magic cannons earned her Annelotte's favor. After the project's success, Larwin appreciated the efforts of this southerner and allowed her to become a member of the court magi association.

After the formation of the magic academies, Perelia became Annelotte's aide. Her relationship with Annelotte was similar to Leguna's with Xeno.

While Perelia still wasn't a high-order magus herself, her job in the academy largely went without hitches with Annelotte behind her back. She was someone quite reasonable and most other magi in the academy didn't mind cooperating with her to not get on Annelotte's good side.

However, Angelista was someone beyond Annelotte's control. She was far too unhinged. She could not be reined in.

When she first heard about the matter, Perelia gave Angelista a gentle warning, telling her that this was the magic academy, not her personal love nest. However, Angelista ignored it and continued to do whatever she liked.

Having no other choice, Perelia asked to see Angelista once more privately and gave it to her straight. Yet, the dark elf continued to do as she pleased.

Eventually, Perelia angrily tried to talk sense into Angelista again, but it didn't work.

She was so mad she wanted to fight her, but after considering that Angelista was a high-order magus as well as a soulgrasper, she knew that anything she did would be pointless.

Having no other choice, Perelia visited Innilis in her dorm and asked her to remind Annelotte about it if she got the chance. Otherwise, it was only a matter of time before Second Magic Academy became Melindor's laughing stock.

Annelotte was naturally enraged. She immediately summoned her and rebuked her harshly before all the elders in the academy.

Angelista didn't mind at all. She even yawned and shrugged.

"It's consensual. I never forced myself on any of the students. Just ask them. I don't think you have the right to police me. Not everyone can be as chaste as you and hide inside your little turtle shell all day. I do what I like. Is there anything wrong with that? Come to think of it, you're just jealous of my boldness because all you can do is to keep to yourself."

Wham!

Annelotte couldn't control her raging enthymema and it broke the table in front of her.

"Wow, your enthymema's so strong. Sometimes I think you're more suitable to be a soulgrasper than me." Angelista had blocked the strike with a soul barrier. She looked at the other magi who were affected by the enthymemic blast and said, "Seriously, the magi of this academy are much weaker than I expected…"

"You're not that strong either," Annelotte said, narrowing her eyes. Angelista's words had messed her up. While she seemed calm on the surface, her mind was almost a blank slate.

"Well, we can find that out with a fight, can't we?" Angelista stretched her body lazily. "Aaaah! I haven't had much activity for a long time! My bones are rusting! Come on! Let's have a go! It'd be a great opportunity for you to punish me or vent, right?"

It just occurred to Annelotte that Angelista had intentionally infuriated her. She was far too bored and wanted to fight someone. For her to come looking for Annelotte, she must really want to be beaten up.

"What? You don't accept my challenge?" Angelista smirked. "If you're afraid we'll cause too much damage, how about we limit it to level-five spells only? However, you can use your gifts and me my soul powers freely. Interested?"

Annelotte coldly said, "You asked for this!"