12 At The End of Our Beautiful Summer

Marina

Aah, to think that my summer break is almost over…

I'm going to miss Hugo again for sure…

I was now walking up to the hills where I usually trained his magic in. It was the last day before I had to return so I fully intended to make it a worthwhile session.

Whoosh…

"Ah…" I quickly put my hands behind me, pulling down my dress. The day was quite windy, so I had to be careful with my dress or else Hugo would be able to look at my panties.

Oh, who was I kidding? I wanted him to look.

Ever since his incident with Sherry, where he, well, got terribly intimate with the girl, I realized something.

He wouldn't need me anymore with her around.

I would go back to school, and stayed my lonely, bullied self there, while he would be happy, playing with Sherry as much as he wanted to.

I was jealous.

And that disgusted me. A big sister was supposed to be happy if her little brother was happy. And yet, my heart was feeling this way.

The worst part was that I didn't even know whether I was jealous of him because he had a close friend around, or I was jealous of Sherry for being able to be with him much more than I could.

Oh Hugo… if only you could come to the academy with me… Oh he would definitely try to protect me from that Merinda girl… he is my little knight in shining armor after all…

Another breeze blew, raising up my dress again. I looked backwards and saw him immediately averting his gaze with a blush once he noticed I was looking. So cute!

Hmm, I think I know now. The perfect parting gift for him.

----

Urgh, really Sis? You should really be more careful with your dress. That's the, what, seventh time I saw your panties today? They might be knee-length but they're really susceptible to the slightest gust of wind that blew, you know.

Whoooshh...

Goddamnit, here we go again. Why must she wear such skimpy pink panties anyway? Doesn't she know how sexy they looked? And she already knew I "could already appreciate the female body" too.

Wait, don't tell me that she actually wanted me to look at them?

"Alright, Hugo." Unfortunately, my train of thought was interrupted by her. Huh. Before I noticed, we had arrived at the top of the hill. "It's time for your yearly final test. Just like me, you too have to know what it's like to be asked to demonstrate all the magic that you know to your teacher." She must be talking about the academy. "We have been learning advanced level magic this summer, correct?"

"Y-yes, Sis!" I answered. Suddenly, her demeanor transformed into that of a teacher. It was honestly amazing, how a mere 11-year old girl could have such a mature presence.

"Then, show me all the spells that you could do." With a grin, she moved out of the way, letting me take the center stage.

I gulped. Now all of a sudden I felt nervous. Why did she have to say it's a test? I was never good at tests. Well, I once was, when I was still considered a genius that got straight A's in every exam. But for the rest of my life, I could only barely pass my exams.

No, this is different. I have trained hard with Marina for the entire summer. I'm no longer the lazy, cram-everything-in-the-last-day guy I was before. I can do this. I can do this!

I took a deep breath. First, Fire.

"Oh, one more thing." Damn it, she interrupted me! "I want you to cast them all chantless." She added with a grin.

"B-but Sis!" I protested. "I've never done any of them chantless before! You had me learn them with a chant and once I could do them, you would immediately go to the next element!"

"Oh shush, You can do it." She dismissed me entirely! "You should remember the feeling of casting those spells, right? The flow of mana and how you form them to weave the spells? For you, who had cast magic without chanting all his life, this should be a piece of cake."

Now I felt like I was being pressured even more!

I took another deep breath and calmed myself. I reached both my hands upwards and then closed my eyes. I imagined the spell, Flame Wall. A wall made of fire. The shape? A circle around me. The radius? Ten meters. The height? Two meters.

Come on, come on, make it work!

And then, it did. A blaze of flames suddenly appeared around me. Ten meters away and two meters tall. Just like I imagined it

"I-I did it!"

"I knew you could!" Marina cheered from outside the circle. Even through the flames, I could tell that she looked very happy.

Alright! I'm going to ace the other elements as well!

I was now excited instead of nervous. I could do it! I now had the perfect confidence!

I put the fire out by disconnecting my mana flow. Then, I moved on to the next element.

Water. Water Spout. Summoned a powerful geyser from the ground.

Earth. Earthen Break. Made the ground explode into hundreds of rocks and dirt.

Thunder. Thunder Strike. Created a thundercloud that fired off a powerful lightning.

Ice. Cold Blast. Enveloped the target in a large blanket of ice and snow.

Wind. Air Sunder. Created a miniature cyclone.

When I was done, I was completely out of breath. My mana was completely drained and I had to sit down in fear of passing out. But I was happy, as I had passed her test with flying colors. I could hear her clapping with pride before she approached me.

"Well done, Hugo, well done!" She ruffled my head. She probably would've hugged me if she wasn't still in her teacher persona. "To think that you could do all that chantless, and without a wand as well! Normally, you have to start using wands to cast Intermediate-level magic and above, you know!"

"E-eheheheheh…" I could only give her my grin. I was too tired to say anything else.

"So, as your teacher, I have a gift for you."

She took out her wand and then flicked it in front of her. Suddenly, a rectangular-shaped wooden box popped out of thin air. She grabbed it before it could fall to the ground.

"Spatial magic." She spoke to me with a proud smile. "Interdimensional storage."

Right, space magic. She had introduced me to it before. Unlike elemental spells, I seemed to have no talent in it whatsoever. It belonged to the "miscellaneous" family of magic, as it didn't have the rigid classification of levels that elemental magic had. The only spatial magic I could cast was a simple teleport on a non-living being. A pebble, to be exact. I could move it for around one meter, and that's that.

"Here." She handed over the box to me." Open it."

I examined the book with a confused yet curious look. It was pitch black, and it was made with the smoothest wood I had ever encountered. I couldn't really tell what kind of wood it was unfortunately.

I opened it, and there, inside, was a wand.

"It's your own wand, Hugo. Take it out, will you?" I looked back at her, and saw that she was smiling so brightly that it was almost blinding. And were those tears I saw pooling in her eyes?

"It's my gift for you, for being an Advanced-level mage. Use it with pride."

I took it out as gingerly as I could. It seemed so… fragile, as if I could just snap it in two with my two hands. And it looked quite different than the one she had. Her wand had a red crystal on the tip and was brown in color, while this was just a straight slim stick that became slimmer as it got nearer to the tip.

"Sorry for not giving it to you earlier." She continued, wiping off her right eye with her index finger. "But I wanted to see how far you could get without a wand. And to think that you could cast Advanced-level magics barehanded… you're amazing, Hugo! Oh, if only there isn't that stupid rule, you could've entered the academy with me for sure! You are already far smarter and more skilled in magic than all the ten year olds that enrolled with me!"

She couldn't hold herself back any further. She gave me a hug so tight that I was hurting a little from it. She didn't even care that I was soaking with sweat. "Oh, I'm going to miss you, my cute little brother…" Once again, she brought me to her budding chest. She really was fond of this move, wasn't she?

I decided that I would indulge her little brother complex however. I too quickly felt overwhelmed by all the emotions that were flowing through me. For a long time in my old life, I always felt worthless. I couldn't achieve anything that I could be proud of. But now—now I felt that I had accomplished something that mattered. Something that made me feel… special.

Well, she's still more special than me though. What I just did was all single-element Advanced spells. And she, from a year ago, could already cast several multi-element ones. And they were naturally more difficult than what I just performed.

There was no jealousy in my heart however. Only pride—pride that my big sister could be such a genius and talented magician. That part of my old self, who would scorn his little sister who was much more intelligent than him, was no longer inside me.

Releasing me from her embrace, she stood up, eyes still wet and sparkly. "Here. Let me show you my ultimate magic before we go home. Just so you could see what one day you would no doubt be able to accomplish."

She told me to move away, which I quickly obeyed. And then, she drew her wand and aimed it straight to the ground a distance away in front of her.

"O power that lay hidden beneath the Earth! Hear my plea! Grant me the blessings and bounties of nature, so that I might shake this very world with your manifestation! Spread your roots far and wide, and let your bark and leaves become my sword and shield! Become the very tree that illuminates the world's foundations! Grow and flourish, o great Yggdrasil! Judge those that dared defile the land!"

It was a very long incantation, and she did not hurry in the slightest as she spoke the words. Her speech was deliberate and pronounced, almost as if she was reciting a poem. It took almost a whole minute until she finished.

And then, the world trembled.

"W-whatt? E-earthquake?"

No, it wasn't. Not in the slightest. It was the shaking of something huge, coming from the ground right underneath us. Unlike me, she was standing completely unfazed, staring at the large clearing in front of her.

And then, a massive tree punctured the ground in front of her like it was nothing, growing taller and taller until its shade covered both of us entirely.

"Master-level Earth magic. Yggdrasil." She turned towards me with a smile. "I learned it just before I returned back home."

I could only stare in awe, completely speechless on the display in front of me.

Once again, she proved to me that it was still very, very far until I could catch up to her.

----

We returned back home afterwards (the tree simply returned back to the ground after she was finished with her demonstration, and the hole left behind was nothing that her Earth magic couldn't fix), after she made sure to make me promise that I too would learn a Master-level spell one day. She jokingly suggested that I would be able to cast it at the end of the next summer. I quickly refuted her, of course. There's no way I could learn such a spell just the next year!

"And besides, didn't you explain once before that knowing how to cast a Master-level magic means you can graduate from the academy? Doesn't this mean that you could just graduate right away?"

"It is the bare minimum, yes. To graduate, you have to be able to cast at least a single Master-level spell. However, most students would graduate with two or three under their belt. There are even students who graduated with even more Master-level spells. And some, the handful elite they said, that only appeared once every ten years—they managed to reach the highly covered Grandmaster-level."

I remembered that. That's the level above Master, just below Saint. If you managed to reach that level as a mage, you would pretty much be a superstar in the Magocracy. You would become famous in no time, and you would have the right to sit on the ruling council of mages they had there. Well, if there was an opening. If not, then you would have to challenge one of them in a mage vs mage duel. If you won, then you could replace him or her as a council member. At least, that's what Marina had told me.

"So, Sis, are you aiming for that level before you graduate?" I asked with a grin. I could certainly imagine her reaching that summit with the rate she was growing right now. She returned with her own shy smile. "I don't know, to be honest. But after Father spent a large sum of our family's gold on the entrance fee, I certainly wouldn't waste the remaining five years I would spend there."

"Five years, huh? And after that?"

"After that?" She looked at me with a slight tilt to her head.

"What do you want to do after that? After you graduate?"

She paused. "I have no idea to be honest. I suppose I would find some work as a mage, whatever that could be."

"Then, how about becoming adventurers? With me and Sherry! She could be the frontline fighter while we fire off spells from the back! Just like a proper party!"

There. I said it. My current goal for the future. Form an adventuring party with her and Sherry. Then we could all go on exciting adventures together. Why would you not be an adventurer if you're in a fantasy world, huh?

With a smile, she ruffled my hair once again. "Oh Hugo, you still need a healer, you know? No adventuring party can ever be good without one."

"Then, how about you, Sis? Can you learn some healing magic?"

"No, unfortunately. The Academy doesn't really teach Holy Magic, you see, which healing magic belongs under, in case you don't remember. That branch of magic belongs more to the followers of Milicis and their religious schools. And, as I've told you before, the mages of Mira don't really get along well with them." She never really told me the reason why they didn't get along. Only that it was caused by differences in their beliefs. Yeah, I could imagine that. From what I read and I heard from Sherry, the Milicis faith was pretty similar to medieval-era Catholicism in my world. So I imagined they would share the same zealotry and intolerance as well. Hmm, I wonder what the Saint herself would say if she saw them today.

"I guess we just have to find a cleric first then! Hey, how about Mother? She used to be one, right?"

"Hmm? What kind of an adventuring party brings their mother along? That sounds more like a family picnic to me. Might as well bring Father along too for a second fighter." She giggled.

I grinned back. It was just a joke suggestion of course. It would be really lame and embarrassing if I had to bring around Mother or Father on my adventures. Sorry, Dad. Mom."

We continued to chat as we walked home, accompanied by a beautiful reddish-gold sunset behind us. And before we knew it, we already arrived.

----

The next morning, Marina departed early, right after breakfast. Another two weeks trip to a foreign school. And just like how she arrived, she returned there alone as well. We all watched and waved our hands as the carriage rolled away, including Sherry. Goodbye, Sis. I'll make sure to keep writing you letters on how my magic lessons are going!

Before she left though, she whispered something interesting to me. "Hey, Hugo. Check under your bed later. I left you two more presents there. Keep them until I get back home next summer, alright? Oh, and don't tell Sherry or anyone else!"

Hmm, what's up with the secrecy? Well, whatever. I already showed off my new wand to everyone. I didn't need to show off these two additional presents from her.

I immediately rushed back to my room. Just as she told me, there was another box right under my bed. With glimmering, excited eyes, I immediately crawled down to get it, pulling it out as fast as I could. And then, I opened it right away.

A book?

I took it out. The title said, "The Adventures of The Legendary Archmage and Hero." It seemed to be a picture book made for kids. I opened the cover and found a little parchment put inside. Hmm, it seemed to be a handwritten note from Marina.

This is a little picture book I purchased in Mira. I've read it so I thought I'll give it to you. You might find it a little amusing.

Huh, alright then. I'll have a read on it later. I put it away for now, eager to look at the other present that she had left me.

Only to find that it was—

"P-p-panties?!"

There was no mistake about it. That fabric inside the box—they were a girl's panties for sure!

"T-that pinkness… n-no, it couldn't be…" I gingerly picked them up. "No way… This… this really is Marina's panties! The one she wore yesterday!" I spread them open. Yep, no doubt about it! The same shape, the same skimpiness, it was definitely hers! "W-w-why are they here?!" I looked back at the box. There's another piece of parchment there! Quickly, I put the panties down and read what's written on it.

And this is my other gift for you, Hugo. Since you seem to like them so much, I thought, "Why not give them to you?" So here they are. Freshly worn and not washed. Just like you like it, right? Use them to remember me, your big sister, alright?

P.S. Hide them behind your wardrobe. Mother never cleans up there.

I fell backwards, landing butt first on the carpet below.

"W-whaaaaaaat?!!!"