Chapter 9

It's been three days already since we stayed at the village. I promised Fin before we left town that I would help him control his magic better, so I did. I asked him what they teach him at his academy, and I came to learn that all his understanding of magic were all I would consider basic knowledge. What's more, most of what he knows were only theories and he hadn't done anything yet to truly improve his magic. Well, if that was the case, he might truly just be a prodigy. To be able to do basic-level magic with what little knowledge and practice he had until now was commendable.

"Eria-sama! I can almost do it...!"

Mana is released at the tip of the fingers to create magic. The more fingers you can use to release mana, the better the magic that comes out and the easier it is to control. However, most people only learn to use one or two fingers, when they could do it with all their ten. Fin's academy knew the theory of mana release, and they also know that ten fingers can be used, but they consider such a feat as only achieveable by people of legend. I heard the best they could do there is cast magic with four fingers, which is barely enough for mid-level magic.

I expected the professors of a magic academy to be able to use at least six fingers. But considering the fact that it gets progressively more difficult the more and more fingers you use, it's actually not that much surprising to hear they can only use four. I remember struggling with my thumb and pinky finger myself too. There is no easier way to train your other fingers by yourself than to try again and again to produce magic through them, exhausting your mana drastically as they leak uncontrollably.

However, there's a cheat to it that almost all people are not familiar with. And even if some knew, they simply won't be able to do anything to follow through it. The secret is the magic spell "Mana transfer". It's the kind of support magic that is usually not useful, and so, not well-spread out among magic users. As its name suggests, it's a spell to transfer mana to other people, but the big drawback is, you're draining your own mana in turn. A drink of mana potion is many times more efficient. However, in my hands, it turns to a cheat-like skill that I can use to keep other magic users up in a fight for a long time.

With the same spell, I transfer mana to Fin as he continuously try to produce magic on his left middle finger alone. After only three days, Fin have already mastered using three fingers, now he's close to adding one more. Sure, I have a few ways for him to train himself all on his own, but I decided to just let him cheat his way through it now and teach those to him later. After all, we won't be travelling together for a very long time.

"Umu, this is enough for now," I said as I stopped the flow of my mana to Fin.

"Fuu..."

After a deep sigh, Fin relaxes his body again. Even with my help, he won't be spared from the effects of constant mana use. He might stay fog-headed for the entire day, and it might take him until tomorrow to recover. He will still be able to function normally, just not at full capacity.

However, somehow, Fin still seemed energetic, and... he's staring so intently at me...? I wonder what's he's thinking?

"Hm? What is it?" I just can't ignore him staring at me like that, so I asked.

"Eria-sama... to be honest, I'm feeling guilty about all of this..." he said in a serious tone, "this is not something I can accomplish without your help. I feel like I'm somewhat cheating."

It's true he is cheating. I wanted to confirm it to him, but that might get him more depressed than he already is. He truly is an honest man, there is no doubt about that.

But it wouldn't actually hurt him to receive this kind of treatment from me, in fact, he should just accept the fact that it benefits him and thank me instead. Well, he actually did that many times already throughout this week I supplied him with mana that I got sick of it...

"Don't worry about it, you said it yourself, didn't you? You're calling yourself a pupil of mine. Well, this is the privilege of being my pupil, so just accept it. I will only help you until you manage to release magic with only four of your fingers anyway, the rest, you will have to do on your own. After all, I don't want to steal all the fun experiences of learning magic away from you. Just think of this as me pushing your back towards greatness," I casually reassured him.

"Eria-sama...!" Fin called my name with teary eyes. He also almost went running towards me for a hug, but as soon as his eyes landed on the valleys of my chests, he stopped himself and turned his face away shyly.

"Well, at this level, you still won't be able to cast any mid-level magic, we can improve all of your basic-level spells first and once you master all of them, you'll be able to move on to the next step!"

"Yes, master!"

For the first time, Fin called me his master. The truth is, I don't really think of him as my student, I'm just using it as an excuse to teach him for fun.