Poor thing

I opened my eyes and saw Nina's face right in front of me, I stared at her face trying to digest what had happened and then I heard Nina speak.

"Poor thing."

"Shut up."

I woke up and saw Ethan and the others still unconscious, I saw Miss Kirana lying on the sofa eating grapes, behind her were three servants who were silent and closed their eyes.

...Where did this sofa come from?

I looked at Nina as I cleaned my clothes. "How long was I unconscious?"

"Not long, you were only unconscious for ten minutes."

I touch my face to see if the skull of my head was okay, Nina watched me for a while before opening her mouth.

"Don't worry, your head was healed by the priests while you were unconscious."

"Is that so?"

It seemed like Miss Kirana had planned to beat us up from the beginning, as evidenced by the presence of the priests ready to heal us.

... Kirana de Rochefort, an elf with golden eyes and green hair with a ponytail, she has a speed that my eyes can't follow even when I've absorbed a large amount of mana, I guess her nickname as The Unstoppable isn't just idle talk, huh?

I glanced at Miss Kirana, then I saw her smiling as she waved her hand at me, I approached her, Nina also followed me from behind.

"As I thought, you'll be the first to wake up."

I didn't say anything and just looked at her.

"Hm, what are you looking at now, are you challenging me?"

"No, I didn't want to challenge you, I just wanted to ask you what you meant by what you said earlier."

I saw her smiling while looking at me with a terrifying look, the pressure from Miss Kirana suddenly released, I felt short of breath and I was going to lose consciousness, but I still forced myself to stand up.

"Pfft."

Miss Kirana burst out laughing. The pressure I felt from her had disappeared, but for some reason I still found it hard to breathe.

"I'm just kidding, you don't have to make such a tense face like that."

...What kind of joke was that?

Miss Kirana got up from the sofa then sat down with her feet on the table, she looked at me with a smile on her face and said.

"The way you use mana is quite interesting, I saw that when you use mana in this way, your body suddenly experienced a significant increase, but the problem is that your body is still too weak to withstand it."

She's right, the reason my body is overheating is because my body is not strong enough to use large amounts of mana continuously.

Miss Kirana looked at Nina, I could see a slight smile on her face, Nina returned the smile by closing her eyes and looking down. It seemed as if they already knew each other.

Miss Kirana got up from her seat and approached the children who were still unconscious, I followed quietly behind her.

"I'll try to use mana in your way."

"You can do it?"

Miss Kirana looked at me with a confident smile on her face. "Watch."

I saw the mana increase around her hand, Miss Kirana raised her right hand, then snapped her fingers. Suddenly, there was an explosion of mana after that flick, the shockwave spread rapidly, creating a resounding boom followed by a terrifying rumbling sound and spreading across the field.

My face stiffened from what I had just witnessed, only a snap of his fingers could produce such a loud sound!

The children who had fainted immediately jumped up. The first thing they saw after waking up was Miss Kirana smiling confidently with her arms crossed. She looked at me and said.

"What do you think?"

I smiled and looked at Miss Kirana awkwardly. "Perfect."

Miss Kirana then looked at the children who were still silent on the floor, it seemed like they were still confused, it was obvious from their expressions. I saw Anna looking back and forth like a fool, I tried to hold back my laughter because it looked like she was going to be angry with me.

Miss Kirana clapped her hands, drawing Ethan and the others' attention, and then said.

"All right, since you rested, I want you to run around this field 15 times."

"Wh-what?" Akane gasped and immediately looked down at Miss Kirana's words.

...How much did she hate running?

"I don't care if you finish in the afternoon or at midnight, I just want you to run around this field 15 times, for today that's all you will do, see you tomorrow!" With that, Miss Kirana turned and walked away with the three servant who lifted the chairs and tables behind her, leaving us in the field.

Nina followed Miss Kirana and Anna stretched her legs with a face full of annoyance. "In that case, we'd better start running."

Ethan looked at Raden and Akane and then said. "You don't have to worry. We won't leave you until you've run around the field 15 times." Ethan spoke to them with a gentle smile on his face.

... And in the end, we ran with Akane until midnight.

***

"Hmm, they are really interesting kids, I wonder how strong they will be in the future. Do you agree with me sister?"

"Of course, they are the ones chosen directly by Father, they must have potential."

"Right..."

They walked down the silent and dark corridor of the mansion as if they were walking down a forgotten time tunnel. Every step they took invited a rush of hidden memories, and the moonlight shining down upon them seemed to awaken the shadows of the past that were fast asleep. For a moment, the mansion became a gateway to stories buried in silence.

They stopped at a door that was a bit old, but elegant. They opened the door and saw someone sitting on the sofa looking up at the night sky. A warm smile appeared on their faces and they said.

"Good night, Dad."