Chapter 77 Autumn Training [8] - Friendship

"It's not to say that everything you said was wrong, it's just that parts of it were wrong, therefore, you got the wrong answer to the question." Tina explained.

"What's the right answer?" Lloyd asked with a raise of the brow.

"Well, I can't tell you that can I. It's much better to figure it out yourself since it will improve your comprehension skills.

Think of it like cultivation. Unless you figure out how to create your own cultivation method by reaching the second commandment, you'll always be behind someone else since you're using their cultivation technique, not yours.

Of course, you can always just add and subtract from your current cultivation technique, but what's the fun in that?" She asked with a weird yet genuine smile.

'Huh... Well, my mina cultivation tactic so far had been to kill things with certain abilities. It sure as hell seems to increase the power of my affinity, and it increased my cultivation too so that's a nice bonus.' Lloyd thought to himself before nodding at whatever Tina was saying

This discussion about elements and cultivation went on for quite a while, yet at no point did Lloyd find himself bored by the information that was being slowly pooled into his mind.

However, other than all the information that Tina was shoving into his mind, there were two things that caught Lloyd's attention.

One, Tina was slowly but very obviously becoming more and more comfortable around Lloyd, and while that would have been considered a great strength, Lloyd also felt her slowly but surely becoming more and more assertive as time went on.

Secondly-

"Hey, by the way, why do you still use books?" Lloyd asked while pointing at her study desk.

"Well, books are nicer to read from, and I kind of have to use a book to activate certain spells. Unlike you guys, I don't have abilities to do that for myself. I have to write it all down in my books, create the necessary circles or runes, and create the spell itself."

"One of my abilities is called Flame Control. Isn't that basically the same thing?" Lloyd asked.

"Believe it or not, I have only one ability and one passive ability." Tina smiled, yet Lloyd could feel a hint of sadness behind it, as if she was wearing a mask with cracks in it.

"Really?"

"Yeah. My passive is called Mana Ocean; it gives me a shit ton of mana. However, even though I'm in the second commandment, I only have one active ability, and it's called Arcanum. In the mana guide, it's considered a 2-star ability mainly used in enchanting items." Tina chuckled, yet Lloyd knew it was to her own dismay.

"So you're an arcane mage?" Lloyd tried to speak in a more cheery tone, yet due to his naturally slightly dull, sarcastic tone, it felt a lot less sincere than he hoped it would be.

"Nope! I'm a Runemaster."

"..."

"..." Tina smiled sadly before continuing-

"I understand if you would want to stay away from me now. When we get out of this place, I won't really be much help to you or your future. I-I'm an enchanter doing the job of a mage." She chuckled as she took out a bottle of beer from her dimensional storage and began to chug it down.

"..." Lloyd tried to argue, yet she was having none of it.

"Y-You don't have to spare my feelings. Most of the kids in military school evaded me like the plague for not being a runesmith, and ever since I broke through to the second commandment, my parents had lost hope for me to become anything like them. So, I-I don't really mind it anymore. I-I'm used to it now, so I might as well drink-"

"Shut up..." Lloyd spoke, yet his tone was more assertive than before and even a little colder, making Tina close her eyes before chuckling, realizing that his fear had come true.

Ever since she had awakened, everyone had avoided her. Her friends went to other academies, and those who went to the military academy didn't want anything to do with her.

Yes, she had Rex, but he treated everyone equally, no matter who they were. Roderick, Lachlan, and Hime treated her professionally, like any other person higher than her in the military would have, while Felix was just an ass to everyone, so why would it be any different for her?

Her siblings exceeded her parent's every expectation, while she was left behind to be the family's forgotten child. The shame of the Albert family, or at least that's what her parents and most of her siblings called her.

p1ease visi(t) nove1B(in).ne)t

Of course, she had her older sister. She loved to Tina with all her heart. She protected her from her own family, and she exceeded everyone's expectations of her just so she could protect her little sister...

'So why, god... Why did you have to-?'

"You are the most diligent and intelligent person I know, and I've literally only truly got to know you for the last 3 hours." Lloyd cut her train of thought off, making her eyes slowly widen in surprise as something she wouldn't have expected to hear from someone as talented as Lloyd in a million years

"W-What are you-"

"You are quite literally the hardest worker I know, and it shows!"

"N-No, I'm not! Stop! I said I don't care. Stop sparing my-"

"Your siblings might have exceeded your parent's every expectation, but their accomplishments are so small compared to yours. You exceeded fate itself. You exceeded the expectations of everyone who doubted you, and you flipped off fate herself.

They told you that you couldn't be a mage, yet you went out there, stood up for yourself, and became a mage anyway. Is that not amazing?!" Lloyd banged his fist onto the table while leaning over it to look directly into Tina's watering eyes.

"You are amazing. You are fantastic. You very well might change the future as we know it." Lloyd's voice was filled with amazement, yet the excitement in his voice was what caught Tina's attention.

'He's... He's excited for me?' She asked herself as the tears overflowed into two drops, slowly trailing down her face.

"You can be the foundation of something huge! You can create a precedent that lives on for thousands of years.

You can be a symbol that shows people, that no matter their class or talent, they can achieve anything they want." Lloyd had already walked around the table and was now holding Tina's quivering shoulder, yet before he could move away and berate himself for going too far, he felt himself being pulled into a weak yet passionate embrace.

"Thank you..." Her voice was muffled since she spoke into his shirt, yet Lloyd smiled and pattered her back awkwardly.

"I just said what I saw... You were already amazing, you just needed to know it."

***

The 5th hour of Lloyd and Tina's session had come, and after being forced to vow on his parent's life to never tell anyone about how Tina had wept in front of him, they both returned to training.

At a certain point, Lloyd had begun calling Tina 'Master' instead of her name, and while he couldn't really pinpoint the exact point that had happened, he could pinpoint the moment when Tina's comfortability had reached a level where she felt comfortable verbally abusing Lloyd whenever he did something wrong.

"No, stupid! Don't just create flames; manipulate them! That's what your ability is called right? Flame manipulation, not combustion creation."

"Well, actually, it's called [Flame control], not flame-" Lloyd argued.

"Shut up and actually do something. No time to blabber." Tina shouted with her fists resting on her hips.

"Yes master." Lloyd replied with an imaginary tear going down his face.

"How are you two holding up?" A masculine voice entered both their ears, causing them to turn around and see Roderick and Hime standing next to each other.

While Roderick wore his signature smile and half-almost closed eyes, Hime, on the other hand, was looking at Tina like human seeing abilities for the first time.

"Y-Yeah... I'm just trying to teach this dumbass how to materialize fire, yet it seems like everyone has limits, his being creative ones." She rolled her eyes.

"Come on, its his first time." Roderick argued, yet all he received was a small 'hmph' from Tina as she walked away from him while dragging Lloyd with her by the ear.

"Do you want to swap?" Roderick raised his voice and asked.

"Nope! I still have an hour!" Tina replied.

"Well, we're about to leave for the day. I think it would be more efficient if you gave him to me for now so he can have a longer rest later." Roderick argued, making Tina stop for a moment before glancing down at Lloyd, who was looking at her pleadingly.

"Ugh. I guess you can have him."She sneered and let go of Lloyd's ear.

"I'm going to pack my things and come right back." Lloyd stated while rubbing his ear.

"Sure. You have three minutes."

"Thanks." Lloyd thanked before sinking into his shadow and speeding toward his tent.

The sun was already up, but in a way, it could still be considered to be dawn or half an hour away from not being dawn anymore, but who's counting?

The training between Roderick and Lloyd wasn't very eventful. Roderick most focused on situation tactics and questions that relate to those rather than acting the scenarios and learning how to act from there.

While Lloyd appreciated the break from getting beaten up, he knew that the current method was ineffective in teaching Lloyd anything, yet he went along with it for the 6 hours they were on the road for.

"Hey Roderick, I have a question..." Lloyd stated while scratching the back of his neck with a tinge of pink dyeing his cheeks.

"Shoot." Roderick finger-gunned Lloyd while simultaneously grabbing the attention of everyone.

"Your eyes are always half closed. What's up with that? Do you have tiny eyes or something cuz I can barely see your irises? Or is it some kind of technique to always rest your eyes?" Lloyd asked with a chuckle in his voice.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Guys?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"I'm just asking why it looks like his eyes are always closed. It's a saftey concern you know! It feel like you would be bad at things that require full vision and attention... Like driving maybe?"

"..."

"..."

Why's everyone looking at me like that?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Tina? Hime?"

"..."

The whole group had halted as an air of silence befell them.

Everyone single one of them had an expression on their faces, and while some of them seemed perplexed beyond belief, others, like Felix and Hime, looked at Lloyd with intrigued expressions.

"I'm east-Asian..." Roderick responded.

"..."

"..."

"Fuck..."

And just like that, the group went several hours without speaking to one another as one of them felt like a racist, two others tried to figure out if east-Asia was a country or not, and the rest too stupefied by Lloyd's comment that they remained speechless for the entire trip.

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