Chapter 125: After the Duel
The scent of freshly brewed tea drifted through the room, mingling with the faint tang of sweat and spell residue still clinging to their clothes.
Nero, Mio, Ayaka, Zen, and Mu sat around a low wooden table in the traditional house, the polished floor warm beneath them.
Outside, the garden whispered with the sound of rustling cherry blossoms.
Petals slipped in through the open shoji doors, fluttering gently like echoes of the battle that had just played out between them.
And yet, inside, it was calm. Peaceful.
As if the clash of elemental fury and precision magic had never happened.
Only the faint scuff marks on Ayaka's sleeve and the lingering soot near Nero's collar betrayed the intensity of what they'd just endured.
The contrast between battlefield and tea room, between spell and silence, was almost comical.
Zen took a long sip of his tea, then chuckled quietly.
"I'll admit it, Nero, you're adapting much faster than I expected. Most newcomers spend months just understanding the basics. Yet you're already applying advanced techniques into battle."
Mu nodded. "Your grasp of Onmyōdō and Fūinjutsu is unusually sharp for someone so new to the Eastern framework. Your control and understanding have progressed beyond what we anticipated."