Not a barbarian warrior.

The two people who entered Lorena’s bedroom with the flask sat facing each other in the middle of the room.

“Fi-First, could you take off your top…? I need to check once more if it’s okay for you to drink the solution made from the evening primrose…”

At Lorena’s words, Eugene obediently took off the tunic he was wearing.

His body, which looked like a sculpture no matter when you saw it, was inscribed with scars here and there, like the floral pattern on the apron.

Lorena stared at Eugene’s body for a while and unconsciously brought her index finger to his chest and traced it down.

“…It’s a bit ticklish.”

As Eugene flinched in response, she lowered her gaze slightly with a slightly reddened face and said:

“Ah… It seems your ribs have fully healed now… Bear with it a little… I need to examine a bit more…”

She touched Eugene’s body here and there and then, saying it seemed fine, explained about the contents of the flask.

“Wh-When you drink this, you’ll clearly feel mana inside your body… You need to grab onto it as much as possible and absorb it…”

“Is that all? I get feeling the mana, but how do I grab and absorb it?”

“Um… There’s no particular method for that… You have to do it with innate sense and a bit of luck…”

“What happens if I can’t absorb it?”

“Well, then… It would be like wasting the evening primrose…?”

“Is there really no other way?”

“No… Magic is only for those with talent… Eu-Eugene, you’re already very lucky in that aspect… No magician takes their first step with the help of an evening primrose…”

“But if you don’t have talent, you can’t learn magic anyway, right?”

“That’s right… But I’ll help you as much as I can. Even if you fail, nothing bad will happen, so don’t worry too much…!”

After hearing her explanation, Eugene took a deep breath to compose himself.

‘Right. If I don’t have talent for magic, there’s nothing I can do about it…’

Eugene opened the flask without much expectation.

As he drank the sloshing yellow liquid in one gulp, he felt a refreshing sensation.

Then, he reached out and held Lorena’s hand. Her hand, interlocked with his, was very warm.

“Now, close your eyes… You’ll feel the mana soon…”

As she said, not long after, Eugene felt something stirring inside his body.

It was a sensation he had never felt before in his life.

‘Is this mana…!’

This energy called mana stretched out its crouched body, then spread out in all directions starting from the stomach.

It passed through the organs, piercing through bones and muscles, emitting a blue light, and finally overflowed outside the skin.

“Eugene…! So-Somehow you have to grab it…! Do your best…!”

Lorena used all her strength to control the mana trying to flow out of his body.

She suppressed the mana trying to leave for nature as much as possible and pushed it back into Eugene’s body.

She poured all her attention into it, even sweating.

Eugene tried his best to grab onto the mana as Lorena said.

However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get a grasp on it.

It felt like trying to grab smoke with bare hands.

‘This won’t do… Is there no other way? There’s no hope like this.’

While Eugene was struggling, mana continued to leak out of his skin.

Time was passing, and although Lorena was doing her best, she was gradually reaching her limit.

“Ugh… I-I don’t have much time left to hold on…! Hurry…!”

The energy she couldn’t control escaped from Eugene’s body and swirled around.

Wind whirled around the two of them, and the furniture in the bedroom clattered and fell to the floor. Even the heavy bed tilted and toppled over.

In the swirling space, Eugene and Lorena’s bodies slowly rose, defying gravity.

Meanwhile, Eugene’s face was very calm amidst this chaos.

He had erased all senses and was focusing solely on grabbing the rampaging energy.

‘Think… I need to use a completely different method… How should I do this…’

He suddenly recalled novels he had read on Earth.

In wuxia or fantasy novels, when absorbing mana or qi, there were often descriptions of creating a dantian or putting it into the heart.

Especially for magicians, didn’t they raise their level through the process of making mana into a ring?

Eugene decided to imitate such methods.

Instead of trying to grab the mana that was trying to scatter, he gently guided it to flow in one direction.

Then, the energy that had been raging in all directions, lost its direction and began to move little by little according to Eugene’s instructions.

This was close to the image of a shepherd herding sheep.

He slowly drew in the scattered flock of sheep, no, mana, to form one large group, and confined it within the fence of the heart.

‘Now, keep spinning!’

The energy that had been trying to break out of the heart and escape outside followed Eugene’s command and kept spinning round and round.

“That’s right… Faster…! More! More!”

As he gradually increased the speed, from some point on, it started spinning on its own without Eugene’s commands.

Drawing an increasingly stable orbit, finally a blue ring of light was formed around the heart area.

‘Phew… Did I succeed?’

After watching this for a while, Eugene let out an inward sigh of relief and slowly opened his eyes.

His pupils flashed with blue light, then gradually returned to their original black color.

Lorena, who had been watching breathlessly, smiled and said:

“Co-Congratulations on becoming a magician…!”

“I’m… a magician…?”

Lorena was overjoyed as if it were her own achievement, while Eugene was dumbfounded.

She quickly took out a wooden staff she had hidden in her bosom and handed it to him.

“What’s this?”

“A gi-gift to commemorate you becoming a magician…!”

“Ah… Don’t tell me you went out earlier for this…?”

Eugene looked at Lorena with a touched expression.

‘So the apron and headscarf from earlier were just a cover to hide the staff…!’

Then she quickly shook her head.

“Eh…? N-No? This is an old staff I used to use… I went out earlier for the apron…”

“Ah… Is that so…?”

“…”

“…”

As the atmosphere became awkward for a moment, Eugene hurriedly accepted the staff Lorena handed him.

The staff had a smooth surface without any scratches.

It was clear how preciously she had cared for it.

“Thank you. I’ll use it well.”

“Eh… Ahem…!”

Lorena, who had suddenly straightened her waist and chest, cleared her throat and said to Eugene:

“Fr-From now on, you should re-respect me more…!”

“…Suddenly?”

“Fro-From now on, you’ll be learning magic from me. Eugene, you’re now my housekeeper and di-disciple…!”

“Ah…!”

Eugene, who let out a single exclamation, fell into thought for a moment.

‘Should I do a formal bow like in wuxia novels…?’

He thought about what to do and soon made a decision.

“This ignorant Eugene dares to request teachings from the great magician Lorena…”

Eugene politely put his hands together and bowed his head deeply until it almost touched the floor.

“Kuhk…”

A small laugh-like sound leaked through her tightly closed lips.

And then he followed up with a clincher.

“Cleaning, cooking, laundry, dishes, I’ll do my best at whatever you order… Please, I beg you to take me as your disciple…”

“Pfft… O… Okay… I shall take pity on you and accept you as my disciple…”

Lorena patted Eugene’s head. Her smile didn’t leave her face for quite a while.

It had been two weeks since Eugene gained a new profession as a magician in addition to being a monster hunter.

He was holed up in Lorena’s mansion, focusing solely on magic practice every day.

Reading (Author: Lorena), he was able to achieve small accomplishments as a result of training day and night.

“Master… Your unworthy disciple seems to have achieved a small accomplishment…”

“I-I see… Let me see it…”

From then on, whenever the two talked about magic, they often played this ‘master and disciple game’.

Eugene took the smiling Lorena to the front yard of the mansion and demonstrated his magic.

The magic staff in his hand was filled with blue light, and the surrounding air shimmered.

And soon, a powerful shockwave burst from the tip of the staff.

Paang-!

Although it took a bit longer, the magic was quite successful.

It was comparable to the shockwave magic that Lorena had shown Eugene when they first met at the inn tavern long ago.

Clap clap clap-!

Lorena applauded her first disciple as if she was very proud.

“Ex-Excellent… This is more than enough…”

“What are you saying, Master… I still have much to learn…! I haven’t even read the secret collection I found under your bed last time-”

“Wa…waaah-!!!”

She covered Eugene’s mouth and dragged him into the mansion, afraid someone might hear.

“Master, this disciple is always thirsty for knowledge. Won’t you give me a chance to quench my thirst?”

“I-I’ll give you other magic books…”

“Surely, on the day this disciple entered the path of a magician, I saw books revealed under the bed. Where are they now?”

“Eu-Eugene must have seen things…! Th-There’s nothing like that!”

“Hmm… That’s strange. I’m sure I saw titles like , , and …”

“St-Stop…! I won’t show you no matter what…!”

Lorena snatched the staff Eugene was holding and poked his arm with it.

Eugene pretended to be hurt and ran away. He headed for the kitchen. It was almost lunchtime.

Soon, the table was filled with abundant food. This was thanks to the ingredients sent by the swordsmanship guild as a sign of apology.

Eugene and Lorena had a satisfying meal as usual.

“Now that I’ve learned one magic, I should go meet Sir Bernard. It’s been quite a while since my body fully healed, I should show my face soon.”

“Hmm… Go-Go and learn hard…!”

“How about going to the guild in the morning to learn swordsmanship, and learning magic in the afternoon?”

“Th-That’s a good idea. I think that would work.”

While chatting amicably with Lorena, Eugene made plans for the future.

The next morning, Eugene went to the swordsmanship guild ‘Brotherhood of the Sword’ where Sir Bernard was.

Imagining the trainees swinging their swords in the training ground like last time, he looked at the open space with an excited heart.

“…?”

Contrary to his expectations, there wasn’t a single person holding a sword.

“Faster! Run faster!”

“Can’t you do it properly? Bend your knees more!”

“Carry something heavier! This is too light!”

The training ground was full of trainees running with sandbags instead of swords, maintaining horse-riding stances, and lifting and putting down heavy rocks.

“Don’t even think about drawing your swords for a while! First, we’ll refine your rotten bodies and minds! Understand!”

Sir Bernard and those who looked like instructors worked the trainees to the bone, over and over.

The trainees, covered in dust and sweat, muttered softly with hollow eyes.

“Huff… Huff… Sa-Save us…”

“I’m… dying…. I really feel like I’m going to die…”

“…Ju-Just kill me instead…”

To Eugene, this was hell on earth.

‘Le-Let’s just run away first…’

Just as he was about to quietly step back to escape.

Sir Bernard turned his head and his eyes met with Eugene, who was stepping backward.

Pierced by the wide-eyed gaze, Eugene froze on the spot.