Chapter 135 – Teacher and Student Laughing Together
Chapter 135
Teacher and Student Laughing Together
Date : Day 24 of Grimleaf 1024 Aethellgard Concord Year.
The implications surrounding the Dark Goddess were heavy. But Hyoren eventually forced his thoughts back toward practicality. Right now, he needed to learn magic.
The deeper truths about Noctynara—the misunderstood goddess, the feared one, the deity whose teachings had been twisted by her own followers—could wait for another time.
After sitting in silence for a while, Hyoren finally spoke again.
"I think I understand why Dark Magic is so unique now... But regarding Advanced Magic... There are so many options. Does that mean I eventually have to choose a single evolution path?"
Oria immediately shook her head, silver hair swaying softly with the motion. The strands caught the fading light from the window.
"It's not really an evolution... You're simply unlocking more possibilities."
She folded her arms loosely beneath her chest before continuing.
"You can focus on whichever advanced branch suits you most at first. But eventually, if you invest enough time and effort, it's possible to learn all of them."
Hyoren slowly nodded.
"I see..."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"That's actually pretty reassuring."
He had digested enough about the Advanced Magic branches for now.
The information was valuable—something he would need to consider carefully when the time came to make decisions about his magical development. But as one question settled, another immediately surfaced in his mind.
His expression shifted slightly.
Actually, he already possessed one spell. The realization had been lurking at the edge of his thoughts.
Pulling a blank sheet of paper closer, Hyoren quickly began sketching a Runic Array from memory—Healing Light—the spell Luminara herself had granted him after the desperate battle against Hifoppe.
Back then, Elise's arm had been severed.
In sheer desperation, he had prayed—and somehow, the spell structure had been directly etched into his mind by Luminara herself.
His hand moved with surprising confidence, the pen tracing lines and symbols that he had never consciously learned but could reproduce with perfect accuracy. The runes flowed from his memory as naturally as if he had studied them for years rather than receiving them in a single divine intervention.
Without proper knowledge beforehand. Without understanding the theory that governed runic construction. Without any of the foundational principles that Oria had just spent hours explaining to him.
After finishing the Runic Array, Hyoren pushed the paper toward Oria.
"I already learned one spell, Oria. A Light Magic one."
He smiled wryly.
"It wasn't through experimentation though. Luminara directly etched it into my mind when I prayed to her."
He looked down at the drawing. The runic array stared back at him—a pattern he could reproduce perfectly but had never truly understood until now.
"What exactly does this Runic Array mean?"
Oria immediately leaned forward with interest. Her gaze locked onto the paper with the intensity of someone who had just been presented with a puzzle worth solving.
"Let me see, let me see..."
Her sapphire eyes carefully scanned the runes. Then her eyes widened slightly.
"Wow..."
She looked up at him. The expression on her face was difficult to read—a mixture of surprise and something that might have been respect, or perhaps concern.
"You actually healed Elise using this?"
Hyoren tilted his head.
"Yeah. I managed to reattach her arm properly..."
Then he scratched his cheek awkwardly
"Though it wasn't perfect. As you remember, some nerves were misaligned and she still ended up with a noticeable scar. Archbishop Sherine had to use Advanced Healing Magic afterward to fully stabilize it."
Seeing Oria's strange reaction, Hyoren frowned slightly.
"...Is something wrong with the spell?"
Oria tapped her chin thoughtfully before quickly flipping through the Healing Magic section inside the Basic Light Magic spellbook.
Her small fingers moved with practiced efficiency—navigating the dense pages until she found the section she was looking for. The pages rustled softly as she searched.
"This is definitely Healing Magic, but..."
She pointed toward one of the standardized Runic Array printed on the page.
"A normal first-tier healing spell usually follows this structure."
Her finger traced each rune one by one.
"Light. Heal. Range. Recover."
Then she tapped the final rune.
"The last rune, Recover, is the most important part. It's what restores the injured body toward its proper state."
She looked back at Hyoren's drawn array.
"But yours... It's Light. Heal. Heal. Heal."
Hyoren blinked.
"A triple consecutive Heal rune?"
Oria slowly nodded, brushing aside a strand of silver hair that had fallen across her face.
"Yes... This spell brute-forces the healing process through sheer output instead of relying on a recovery command."
She pointed at the paper again. Her finger traced the three consecutive Heal runes—emphasizing the unusual structure that set his spell apart from the standardized version.
"That means the healing potency is absurdly high for a first-tier spell. Honestly, it's already approaching Advanced Healing Magic territory."
Her expression then turned serious.
"Sacrificing range to increase healing power is understandable. Some healers do that. Their Runic Array would look something like this..."
She drew Runic Array beside his one to give a clear picture. Her pen moved with confident strokes—creating array that illustrated the conventional approach to modifying healing spells.
“Light, Heal, Heal, Recover.”
She tapped his Runic Array once more.
"What doesn't make sense in yours was the absence of a Recover rune."
Hyoren frowned.
"What's wrong with that?"
Oria looked directly at him. Her sapphire eyes held a weight that suggested she was about to deliver information that was not merely academic but potentially dangerous.
"Without a Recover rune, the spell itself doesn't automatically know how to restore the body. The Aethell only receives the command to heal... but not how to heal."
The concern that had been lurking beneath the surface was now fully visible in her sapphire eyes.
"If the caster lacks the proper mental image, the spell could easily backfire and make the injury even worse."
She began listing examples on her fingers.
"The wound could widen instead of close. Blood vessels and nerve could reconnect incorrectly. Bones might regrow in deformed shapes. Cells could multiply endlessly until they become nothing more than useless flesh."
Hyoren's eyes widened slightly.
So Healing Magic without proper direction… Could actually create tumors? Cancerous growths?
The realization was chilling. The spell that had saved Elise's life could just as easily have made things worse—if he had not possessed the knowledge to guide it properly.
He quietly shook his head.
It was dangerous. Why would Luminara give me this kind of Runic Array as my very first spell? It’s for healing Elise too…
Hyoren slowly nodded, gesturing for Oria to continue.
Oria tapped the runic array again, her sapphire eyes narrowing at the triple Heal runes.
"This Runic Array means you're manually supplying the recovery process yourself."
She pointed toward him.
"And to use this spell properly, you need an extremely detailed mental image of how the human body actually functions and looks... Anatomy... Physiology... Guiding the spell on how to heal manually using those knowledge..."
Her eyes closed briefly as she tried recalling anatomical structures. The expression on her face was one of concentration.
"Muscles. Bones. Blood vessels. Nerves. Tissue structure. Cellular division and regeneration."
When she opened her eyes again, her sapphire irises locked onto Hyoren. The gaze was intense—the kind of look that demanded attention and comprehension rather than passive listening.
"That level of precision is advanced knowledge even among scholars and professional healers."
She slowly shook her head in disbelief.
"Without that knowledge, and an incredibly stable mental image, this spell shouldn't even function properly."
Her gaze returned toward the runic array one last time.
"This is..."
A long silence followed. The quiet stretched between them—filled only the distant sounds of the city beyond the shop's walls.
"...absurd."
***
Hyoren smiled wryly and scratched his cheek awkwardly. The gesture was self-conscious—the kind of unconscious motion that accompanied an admission of something that felt almost too convenient to be true.
"That's because I already studied medicine for four years before I got transported here, Oria."
He looked down at the Runic Array drawn on the paper. The lines and symbols stared back at him.
"I already learned anatomy... physiology... how the human body works."
Then his gaze slowly drifted toward the window.
Outside, the twin suns of Kresneger were beginning to descend, bathing the room in pale silver light. Luna's radiance had grown stronger as Sol faded—the seasonal shift making the golden sun smaller while its silver counterpart dominated the afteroon sky. The angled rays stretched long shadows across the library floor, quietly marking the passage of time that had gone unnoticed during their conversation.
For a moment, his eyes became distant. Nostalgic.
The expression was one of someone looking beyond what was physically present—seeing instead a world that existed only in memory. A world of sterile hospitals and late-night study sessions. Of textbooks filled with diagrams of the human body and the endless pursuit of knowledge that would one day allow him to help others. Of many lectures hall about understanding of human anatomy and physiology.
His gaze slowly went back to Oria.
"I was going to become a doctor, Oria... Before I was transported to this world. I was already in my final years of University... oh, it was similar to the Magic Academy institution in this world."
Oria's eyes widened slightly. Then the surprise in her expression slowly shifted into understanding. The pieces were falling into place—the seemingly impossible spell structure suddenly making sense in light of this new information.
"I see..."
She looked back at the runic array again. Her sapphire eyes traced the triple Heal runes with renewed appreciation—the pattern that had seemed absurd now revealing itself as something deliberate and carefully considered.
"No wonder... That's probably why Goddess Luminara gave you this kind of spell structure."
She tapped the triple Heal runes. Her small finger pressed against the paper.
"She knew you already understood how to heal wounds manually instead of relying on an automatic recovery process."
Her expression turned serious. She slowly shook her head.
"If she had given you a standard Healing Magic array instead... You probably wouldn't have been able to save Elise's arm at all."
Hyoren blinked.
Oria ignored him and continued explaining. Her voice carried the authority of someone who was working through a logical progression.
"You had only just learned the spell at the time. You didn't understand runes yet. Your Light Magic level was still extremely low."
She pointed toward the missing Recover rune once more.
"Normally, Healing Magic relies on the Recover rune because it automates the restoration process."
Then she looked directly into his eyes. Her sapphire irises met his dark one.
"But automated recovery has limits. A wound as severe as a severed arm would require enormous output and an extremely high skill level."
Her gaze returned toward the runic array.
"So instead of using a weak automatic healing process... Luminara sacrificed range and stability, then entrusted the entire reconstruction process directly to your mental image instead."
A faint smile formed on her lips.
"In other words... She turned your medical knowledge into the healing algorithm itself."
Hyoren slowly nodded.
"Now that makes sense..."
A faint smile appeared on his face as he looked at the Runic Array he had drawn. The lines and symbols that had once seemed arbitrary now carried meaning—each one a deliberate choice made by a Goddess who had understood him better than he had realized.
"I thought it was almost a miracle that I managed to heal her properly in one try."
His gaze softened slightly.
"It seems Luminara truly understood me..."
A profound sense of gratitude quietly surfaced within Hyoren's heart.
The emotion was unexpected—not the dramatic surge of revelation that he might have anticipated, but something quieter and more enduring. A warmth that spread through his chest like sunlight filtering through clouds. He was truly grateful towards Luminara now.
Until now, he had mostly viewed Luminara as a somewhat clumsy Goddess—especially after the botched summoning and the way she accidentally broke the system managing his level-ups.
The memory of her prostrating in the white void while Noctynara silently facepalmed beside her was still vivid in his mind. The image was almost comical in retrospect—a divine being reduced to groveling apology by her own mistakes.
But realizing that she had genuinely understood both him and Elise from the very beginning. That this spell had been tailored specifically for him. Not just for any Spirited Away. Not just for any desperate adventurer seeking healing magic. But for Hyoren Enjo—a former medical student who had been torn from his world and thrown into circumstances beyond his comprehension. Luminara had known. She had understood what he could do with the right tools. And she had given him exactly what he needed.
The warmth spreading through his chest felt strangely comforting.
***
After a few moments of silence, Hyoren's thoughts gradually returned toward practicality. The warmth of gratitude still lingered in his chest. But sentiment could only carry him so far. Right now, he needed to focus on what came next.
He shifted his attention toward the Basic Dark Magic spellbook resting on the table.
"Now that my Light Magic is more or less settled for now..."
He opened the old tome. The pages were yellowed with age—the kind of paper that had survived years of careful handling despite its apparent fragility.
"The next Light spell slot will have to wait until Level 3 anyway. I want to learn Dark Magic next."
Oria leaned forward slightly.
"You're sure?"
Her expression became noticeably more serious.
"Dark Magic has a terrible reputation in Altaria. We elves don't really care that much about it, but humans..."
She gave a small shrug. Her pointed ears twitched slightly as she continued.
"Humans might start looking at you differently. Some people have even been persecuted just for using normal Dark Magic. Even devout believers of Noctynara sometimes get treated like heretics."
Hyoren scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Yeah. Elise already warned me about that too. But I still want to learn it, Oria."
His hand rested atop the dark spellbook. He could feel the slight texture of the binding beneath his fingers.
"Noctynara already blessed me. Ignoring that blessing would feel wasteful."
His gaze lowered slightly toward the black cover of the tome. A faintly conflicted smile appeared on his face.
"And honestly... I feel more connected to Noctynara. Well, of course, I'm grateful toward Luminara too. But I can't really explain it properly..."
Then he looked back toward Oria, his dark eyes calm yet unwavering.
“I just feel a deeper connection toward the misunderstood goddess.”
Oria studied him quietly for a few moments. Her sapphire eyes moved across his face—searching for something that would indicate whether his decision was born of genuine conviction or mere impulse. Whatever she found seemed to satisfy her, because she eventually smiled.
"Well, if that's your decision, then I won't stop you."
She pulled the Basic Dark Magic spellbook closer and began flipping through the worn pages. Her small fingers navigated the dense text with practiced ease. The pages rustled softly as she searched.
"Alright then. Time to decide what kind of first-tier Dark Magic spell you want to learn."
Her eyes scanned the contents thoughtfully.
"First-tier magic doesn't have a huge variety yet because of the four-syllable limitation."
She pointed toward the first entry.
"First is Dark Arrow. A classic offensive spell. Basically just the Dark counterpart of Water Arrow. Same Runic Array, just replace the Water rune with a Dark rune."
Then she flipped to another page.
"Next is Dark Ball. Another standard spell. This one sacrifices speed and precision in exchange for greater impact and destructive power."
Again, she pointed at the runes one by one. Her small finger traced the sequence.
"Dark. Ball. Throw. Forward."
Then she stopped at another section. The pages here were more densely annotated.
"And then... single-target curses."
Hyoren's interest immediately sharpened.
Oria continued explaining.
"The standard structure is usually: Dark. Afflict. Target. X."
She tapped the final rune. The gesture emphasized the rune—the component that distinguished one curse from another despite sharing the same fundamental structure.
"The last rune determines the actual curse effect."
Her finger slid across several examples written on the page.
"You can customize it into various debuffs depending on your preference."
Then she began listing examples one by one.
"Speed Curse to slow movement. Toughness Curse to weaken defenses. Poison Curse. Blinding Curse..."
A faint smile appeared on her lips.
"And many more. Curse Magic is surprisingly versatile for first-tier spells."
After finishing her explanation, Oria looked up at him. A small smirk formed on her lips.
"So? Did anything catch your interest?"
Hyoren fell into deep thought, tapping his chin thoughtfully. His mind worked through the possibilities, weighing each spell advantages and disadvantages.
"I don't really want to become a pure mage. My role is still a tank, a warrior who fights on the frontline. So I need utility spells more than direct attack spells."
He glanced toward the pages again.
"Things like Dark Arrow or Dark Ball don't really fit me. They could help with distracting enemies or drawing aggro, sure... But I already have throwing weapons for that."
Then he frowned slightly.
"Direct curses don't seem practical either. I'd need to focus on targeting every time I cast them."
His brows furrowed deeper as he imagined actual combat. The mental image was vivid—the chaos of battle, the need to maintain awareness of multiple threats simultaneously, the constant demand for attention that left little room for the kind of focused casting that targeted spells required.
"That would take too much concentration while I'm tanking, moving, and maintaining aggro at the same time."
Oria smiled faintly and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms.
"I see. That's definitely a problem."
Her sapphire eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"So you want utility spells that are simple to use during close combat. That's difficult to achieve with only a first-tier spell unless you sacrifice something else."
Still, the two of them continued brainstorming.
The conversation shifted from theoretical discussion to practical experimentation—each suggestion evaluated not just for its magical properties but for its usefulness in the specific context of frontline combat.
They flipped through pages, compared rune combinations, and cross-checked various established spell structures.
Occasionally, Hyoren would suggest some bizarre combination, only for Oria to immediately explain why it would explode in his face. Sometimes the problems were obvious—contradictory runes that would cancel each other out or produce unpredictable results. Other times the issues were more subtle—structural weaknesses that would cause the spell to collapse.
Sometimes the opposite happened. Oria would propose something theoretically powerful, but Hyoren would reject it because it sounded impossible to use practically while tanking enemies in close combat. The spell might be elegant in its construction, but if it required too much concentration or took too long to cast, it was useless to someone who needed to maintain awareness of the battlefield at all times.
Eventually, after a long while of discussion, Hyoren thought he found an interesting combination.
"What about this combination, Oria?"
He quickly wrote several runes onto the paper.
Dark. Afflict. Area. Poison.
Oria glanced at it once—then instantly shook her head.
“No.”
Hyoren blinked.
“That fast? You’re not even going to consider it, Oria?”
Oria pointed directly toward the array. Her finger hovered over the problematic element—the rune that had triggered her immediate rejection.
"If you use Area without proper targeting restrictions, you'll poison yourself and your teammates too."
She tapped the paper again.
"There's a reason proper area-of-effect spells usually only appear at third or fourth tier."
Her finger traced imaginary structures through the air as she explained.
"You need additional runes to define the affected zone. More runes to identify allies. More runes to exclude yourself."
She shook her head. Her silver hair swayed with motion.
"Otherwise, the spell simply affects everything inside the area indiscriminately."
Hyoren immediately nodded in understanding before letting out a wry smile. The expression was self-deprecating—the kind of smile that came from acknowledging a mistake that should have been obvious in retrospect.
"I see... Yeah... That definitely sounds like a disaster waiting to happen."
And so the brainstorming continued. Time passed as the twin suns outside slowly descended further.
Hyoren proposed combinations. Oria dismantled them. Oria proposed theories. Hyoren rejected them as impractical for frontline combat. The cycle repeated—each iteration bringing them closer to a solution that would satisfy both the theoretical requirements of magical construction and the practical demands of battlefield utility.
Until eventually—the two of them stopped at one particular runic combination.
The paper by now was already filled with crossed-out Runic Arrays—a visual record of their failed attempts.
"How about this, Oria?"
He wrote onto the paper, the pen moving with the confidence of someone who had finally found the answer they had been searching for.
Dark. Endow. Object. Maledict.
Oria stared at the array for several seconds before slowly smiling.
“This Runic Array…”
Her sapphire eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
“…is actually a very unusual combination.”
She tapped the Endow rune.
“Endow is normally used for enhancement magic. Buffing targets with positive effects.”
Then she pointed toward the rest of the array.
“But here, you’re essentially ‘buffing’ a curse onto an object instead.”
Her lips curled upward slightly as she tapped the Object rune.
“You’re not ‘buffing’ yourself or another person. You’re ‘buffing’ an object with a curse.”
Hyoren nodded.
"Exactly."
He vaguely mimicked holding a sword.
"I can temporarily 'buff' my weapon with the Maledict Curse. Then every successful hit transfers the weakening curse effect onto the enemy. Sure, weakening curse have lower potency than proper toughness debuff or speed debuff, but with every hit, the curse will stack."
A grin slowly formed on his face.
"That way I only need to cast the spell once before battle... or occasionally reapply it after the duration expires."
He leaned back slightly.
"So during actual combat, I can stay focused on tanking instead of repeatedly casting curses."
Oria chuckled softly before smirking mischievously.
"That's surprisingly clever."
She tapped the final rune again. Her finger pressed against the Maledict rune—highlighting the element that made this particular curse suitable for the application he had described.
"And you're right. Maledict is the type of curse that weakens almost everything slightly. Speed, defense, attack..."
Her sapphire eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she examined the array once more.
"The individual effect is relatively weak compared to specialized curses like Slow or Blind... But the important part is that it stacks with every successful hit because of this application of this Runic Array."
Then she raised one finger.
"Though you should probably be careful."
Hyoren tilted his head.
"Why?"
Oria pointed directly toward him.
"Because if you mishandle it..."
Her grin widened. The expression was teasing—the kind of smile that came from someone who was about to deliver a punchline that should have been obvious but rarely was.
"...you might curse yourself too."
Both of them laughed at the same time.
The sound filled the small library—a genuine expression of amusement that seemed to lighten the atmosphere that had grown heavy with technical discussion. Oria's laughter was soft and melodic, carrying the refined quality of someone who was accustomed to maintaining composure even in moments of genuine entertainment. Hyoren's was deeper and more relaxed.
The unusual rune combination had unexpectedly produced a Runic Array perfectly suited for Hyoren’s fighting style.
It was not the most elegant spell in theoretical terms, nor the most powerful in raw magical output. But it was practical. It was usable. Of course, it was not without drawbacks. Because the spell lacked targeting restrictions runes, mishandling the cursed weapon could easily result in Hyoren cursing himself as well. Still, compared to the advantages, that risk felt acceptable.
Outside the window, the twin suns had almost fully disappeared beyond the horizon.
And within that calm silence, the teacher and her student sat with relaxed and content expressions, surrounded by scattered books, crossed-out Runic Arrays, and pages filled with theories about magic.