Chapter 62 - Leaving Soon?

"Second place!" 

I happily made a V sign with my fingers to indicate the double meaning.

"Doesn't that mean you ranked even higher than me?" 

Nicola looked a little upset, but still sincerely congratulated me.

"Congratulations. I only got third place..."

"I already heard about the swordsmanship competition from Aetina. You made a scene!"

Just thinking about it made me want to admonish her for not keeping a low profile! But then I remembered she's always been arrogant like this. Asking her to change probably wouldn't work, so I just asked,

"Are you going to participate in the upcoming events? I remember there's still a comprehensive combat competition after the flying competition..."

"I'm not going!" 

To my surprise, Nicola chose to give up.

"For angels, the comprehensive competition just adds some magic to the swordsmanship competition. Since I don't use magic, there's no point in participating in repetitive events."

Well, she had a point. But I could still sense her disappointment over losing the finals. 

Getting third place was decent, but it meant truly conceding defeat to the two eight-winged angels winning her. Not even her run-in with Michelle was this humiliating. 

Hopefully, Nicola can learn from this experience and rein in her arrogance. She was too conceited before.

"Oh right, I stopped by Reed's place on the way here."

As Nicola was leaving, she suddenly remembered to tell me,

"She's moved to the northern forest now. It's secluded there, perfect for her experiments."

"That's great! Keep at it, you can do it!"

I wasn't sure why she was telling me this. Did she want me to pass it along to Cyra?

"Reed said at this rate, the experiment could be done in a few more days..." 

Nicola hesitantly conveyed the news to me.

"So get ready!"

"Done? Get ready?"

I was puzzled as Nicola disappeared out the door. Could she be talking about the hydrogen bomb being completed soon? That would be a big deal! After all, we can't detonate it here in Edenmere. But we also can't just leave it after it's completed, right?

So by telling me this, did Nicola mean it was time to consider leaving Edenmere and taking the hydrogen bomb to the outside world?

Suddenly I felt conflicted. It wasn't that I didn't want to leave, just that it felt like there were still many unfinished things here - Aetina's lessons, Cyra's promotion, and more...

The next day during lunch break, 

"Feliciana, I saw a six-winged angel asking about your room in the Throne Hall just now..." 

Cyra stood at the edge of the training grounds in Tivi Palace and called out to me. But she was suddenly interrupted by a beam of light shooting down from the sky, scaring her immensely.

"What the hell was that spell?"

"Lost Paradise Shockwave! What do you think? It's a spell I just learned during yesterday's competition."

I proudly answered, very satisfied with my practice over the last few attempts. My casting speed improved again today.

"Awesome! That's the high-level spell you used in the competition, right?" 

She looked at me with great envy.

"Half a book's worth of spell incantations, and you can already cast it so quickly."

"Well, it's not bad I guess. Though I didn't chant anything - Phoebe can cast it pretty fast, in under half a minute." 

Not sure if she knew who that was, I added,

"The magic competition champion. I learned it from her."

"I know. You and Teacher Aetina have mentioned her name many times this morning already." 

Cyra said with a snort, even deliberately repeating it mockingly a few times.

"Phoebe has practiced for many years to simplify her incantations. And you just straight up copied her technique and used it even better than her..."

"Hey, even if you say that, I don't know how I was able to do that either!" 

I awkwardly tried to defend myself.

"I just feel chantless magic suits me better. If you're interested, I can teach you the spell too."

"No need. I've tried it already!"

Cyra shrugged and declined my good intentions. 

"It's too difficult for me to learn such high-level spells. I'm not a freak like you who can instantly use it after just seeing it once. Plus, the Teacher said from the start that it's because you have a greater innate talent for elemental control. I definitely can't learn this!"

"Anyway, you should hurry to the Throne Hall. Someone might come looking for you in your room soon if you're not there."

"Huh? Who is it? Do you know them?"

I was totally confused, only just recalling the reason she came to find me.

"Don't know them, but they looked a bit familiar... like I've seen them somewhere before..."

After thinking about it briefly, Cyra shook her head.

"Oh..."

I murmured, full of questions as I left the training grounds.

The walk was quiet. When I arrived at the Throne Hall, no one seemed to be asking about me.

But Gwen and Juliet were there bored as usual, secretly playing cards behind the service counter.

"Four Aces! You guys should fold."

"Then I'll go with a 2. You should still fold, right?"

"And an 8... Haha, I win! Pay up, pay up!"

This was...

Unexpected. Instead of the two-winged angel I met yesterday, the one playing cards with them today was none other than our old friend - the third-place winner of the magic competition, Aria!

"What are you doing here?"

I was very surprised. After hearing about her genius status at Aetina's place yesterday, I thought she was mysterious and low-key. But seeing her again in this situation...

"What, I can't come here?"

Hearing me, Aria looked up. Seeing it was me, she immediately gathered up the pile of silvers she had won and stood up.

"I frequented Tivi Palace a lot before you two were born, you know." 

For some reason, her tone today was very blunt, clearly carrying a hint of displeasure.

"I didn't mean it that way, you misunderstood!"

I quickly clarified, 

"It's just that I heard there was a flying competition this morning! So I was completely surprised to see you playing cards here."

"The flying competition ended in the morning. My results were decent."

Aria brushed it off indifferently as if she didn't care much. Instead, she asked about me,

"But you did so well in the magic competition. Why aren't you participating in the other events? You skipped the sword competitions yesterday too."

"Because I'm no good at sword..."

I hurriedly explained,

"I only know some magic really, I'm not good at competitions involving direct combat." 

"But you registered for the sword competition too, didn't you? So why didn't you participate in the finals and choose the magic competition instead?"

I suddenly recalled this point. Aetina had mentioned she was decent at swordplay, so making the finals shouldn't have been too difficult. Even if the schedules conflicted, wouldn't it make more sense to skip the magic competition?

"You didn't know? I ran into the eventual champion in the very first qualifier and lost miserably. So I naturally only had one choice left..." 

Aria sighed and answered, giving me a look as she spoke.

"Only to lose to you again in the magic competition."

"But I only got second place. I lost to Phoebe too..."

Seeing her dissatisfied expression, I truly found it baffling. Weren't we supposed to focus on participation? 

"Phoebe's situation was different... Forget it, let's not talk about the competition for now..."

Aria stopped herself and suddenly looked rather interested as she picked out a Joker card from the deck, 

"So these are called playing cards? The rules are quite simple and it doesn't seem hard to win. But I've never seen them before, so it's impressive someone could come up with this..."

"Who invented them?"

She asked Gwen and Juliet beside her.

"Who else but Cyra! A newborn angel." 

Gwen didn't seem too happy after losing quite a bit today.

"A newborn angel?"

Aria's eyebrows twitched slightly.

"Not another one who came with Feliciana?" 

"Yup, you got it right!"

Juliet readily agreed.

"There are many other ways to use these cards, but they're relatively more complex. So we've only learned the simpler ones..."

"Is that so?"

Hearing this, Aria immediately glanced my way again.

There she goes again! It was the same when she heard others talking about Reed yesterday. I don't get it. Is it jealousy?

"It's just a recreational game, nothing impressive. Especially since Cyra only has two wings. "

I could only state the facts. Reed was one thing, but I didn't see what was so enviable about Cyra.

"Reed should only have two wings too, right? Neither has a high status, yet they often come up with interesting inventions." 

Juliet, why are you making things worse? And exaggerating on top of that!

"Norma said the mahjong Cyra recently invented is even more fun since four can play together."

"Mahjong is mi--"

I stopped myself in time. Changing the topic, I asked,

"I heard someone was looking for me. Do you know who it was?"

"Me!" 

Aria immediately spoke up from the side.

"Huh? Why were you looking for me? Is something the matter?"

Up until now I still thought she was only here to play cards! So this was her real purpose all along.

"Of course, there's a matter!" 

Aria nodded and got straight to the point.

"We were in different groups yesterday so I didn't know at the time. After asking the judges, I learned you could cast 'Lost Paradise Shockwave' without chanting in such a short time. So I came to learn from you!"