The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

~~Noon of an Unmarked Day During the Fourth Month, Ninety-Fourth Year of the War Demon Calendar~~

Amid the incessant sunlight, the skin-piercing wind, and the ceaseless, violent sweeps of sand, was one girl, body bent as she kept herself standing with her hands rested on her knees. She raised one hand to wipe the stream of sweat down her chin, without taking her eyes off the man who stood in front of her. The man was naturally gigantic, with his bulging muscles further adding to his perceived size – it was as if he was an indestructible mountain. The girl was short of breath, and even though the ground at her feet was now dry, traces of splattered blood lingered all around her.

Under normal circumstances, she would be standing proudly with her arms folded, but that was so not the case on this occasion. Instead, the one standing with his arms folded was the gigantic man. She, on the other hand, was now bleeding out her mouth and struggling just to keep herself from collapsing on the spot.

“Rock Blast!”

The ground under the man’s feet blew up at the same instance the girl invoked a Spell Circle.

But his eyes suggested no sense of danger whatsoever as he stood his ground, comfortably basking in all the rocks and dirt that had blown up at him.

“Rock Blast!”

The man proceeded to draw a Spell Circle in the air with blinding speed, casting the exact same spell as the girl had, shattering the ground under her feet.

“…Ah-!”

There was however a sharp difference in power between the two castings. Left with no means of evasion, the girl took a direct hit of the powerful spell, and was knocked high up in the air, then crashed onto the boulder behind her.

By the time she was back on the ground, her body was already in no state to continue fighting.

Seeing that the girl was completely immobile, the man heaved a deep sigh and scratched his head.

He slowly walked up to the girl, then speedily invoked two spells to heal her.

He proceeded to pick the unconscious girl up by the collar of her shirt, and then threw her through the entrance of a nearby cave.

If one were to take a closer look, they would realize that it was man-made. A simple table and some furniture had been set up inside, albeit ones that did not match the man’s size whatsoever.

The girl, crashing onto the table, coughed out a pained breath before immediately losing consciousness once again.

“Hmm? …Tsk, ‘course it’s Asley again…”

The man clicked his tongue in annoyance and grumbled before looking up at the sky.

It seemed that he was now in a conversation with the aforementioned ‘Asley’ via a Telepathic Call.

After a while, he clicked his tongue once again and then went inside the cave to call the girl, who was still lying motionless on the table.

“Hey, ya gonna stay a mook forever if ya don’t get up!”

She promptly twitched mid-way into the sentence, her eyes opening wide upon the trigger that was the word ‘mook’.

Though her stamina was at rock bottom, her face suggested a strong willpower as she unsteadily rose up. Her feet possessed some lingering strength to allow her limp onwards.

Technically, she was mustering the last of her strength, but one would rather think that she was compensating for physical force with emotional strength.

“Gah…… you seriously need to learn how to treat a lady, old man!”

“Shaddup, old hag. For the ‘Invincible’ Sprout, you sure ‘been losing lots, eh? I swear, the Six Archmages’ standards’ gone down the drain these days…”

“So much for the highly-regarded Philosopher… now I understand exactly what Asley meant when he talked about you.”

“That bastard… should’ve known he’s the kind to talk behind my back. Gonna remember that for next time I see ‘im…”

Irene and Tūs, at odds, clashed with each other verbally.

Irene, having taken time off from the Magic University, had come to this wasteland in the far east in pursuit of knowledge and power.

In the last third of the First Month of the year, Tūs had been taken by surprise by Irene’s unprecedented arrival and welcomed her with the face of an earth-shattering degree of opposition. With Irene coming in spells blazing and approaching her training with such a self-important attitude, Tūs had tried to deter her with the Muscle Training Theater of Love, but unlike Asley, she remained unfazed and continued to gain all the knowledge and power she could.

Just the other day, they had moved on to training with live matches. Irene had been bringing out her entire arsenal into the fight, but the results so far were not so pretty.

“Damn you-! Sharp Wind Asteriskos!”

A barrage of shredding wind blades.

“Parasitic Control”

“Gah! Fullspark Rain!”

A curtain of incessant lightning strikes.

“Parasitic Control”

“-! Holy World!”

A sacred smite that struck from all directions.

“Parasitic Control”

“AAAAAHHHHH!! DOUBLE DRAGON!!”

A blue shockwave in the intimidating form of a two-headed dragon.

Each produced the same result.

Irene’s tenacity has been pushing Tūs to act out all of his unpleasant behaviors, with this occasion being him taking control of every spell that she has thrown at him, destroying their Spell Circles to eliminate their effects.

The difference was that of an adult and a baby – today’s match was the first to bring such a dynamic to the forefront.

Irene had long known that fact and had been taking great pains to shorten that gap as quickly as possible, challenging Tūs every time she could – she considered every moment she could not do that, including the time for sleep, wasted.

Although she was right to take a long time off, her days for leave were still numbered.

She could use the Teleportation spell to immediately return to her room, but it would take time for her to return here once again.

That was because if she were to set up a Spell Circle around here, that troll of a Philosopher would destroy it once she went through to the other side.

That was all the more reason why time was valuable, to the point of not being enough, she might add. The resulting impatience, in turn, resulted in a short temper – and that, in turn, a loss of concentration.

(Anna: when you don’t have enough time to prepare for an exam XD)

She would keep her emotions from going astray by fighting Tūs, but then that nut job would find ways to mess with her head.

Even with such a vicious cycle going on, Irene never stopped giving it her all.

No matter how many times she crashed into boulders, no matter how many times she coughed up blood, she would stand on her feet again and tackle Tūs with a new strategy… and at times, steal them from the muscle man himself.

“Hah! Venom Fire!”

“Parasitic Control”

“-Now! Hexa Boundary!”

“Hmm?! …Oh-ho.”

Irene isolated Tūs’ control spell with her magecraft, enabling her spell to reach his body for the first time this round.

Although Tūs still swatted the spell away with his arcane energy-induced hand, he had no choice but to at least acknowledge Irene’s improvement.

She has indeed improved, slowly but surely, both in the nuances of her magic formulas, and the further strengthening of her indomitable spirit.

[That’s a genius for ya… way different from an average bloke like me. Overtakin’ my efforts five steps at a time. The ‘sprout’ in her nickname… it means she growing – always is. She’s got about a half month left… now I’m finally starting to have fun!]

Tūs showed Irene the result of what had been going through thus far, and although reluctantly, struck her down once more.

Although limited by time and human possibility, Irene had managed to consistently elevate her power despite her age.

Irene has been thoroughly abusing the arcane energy in her body in practically training full-time – although this time she still fell asleep from exhaustion; it was with an expression of accomplishment on her face.

“…Hmph.”

Tūs licked the single drop of blood off his thumb.

Although his gigantic form still towered over Irene’s, Tūs used the Giving Magic spell on her, as if to show acknowledgment toward her efforts.

That provided her with the arcane energy she had been in low supply of, assisting in her recovery.

[Bah, good thing Asley isn’t here, or he’s sure as hell gonna laugh at me. Anyway… this Irene sure has a knack for fightin’ – most people wouldn’t think up the strategies she used. That last combo was something too. Looks like people these days classify themselves as either warriors or mages, so she’s gotta have the most mage-like fighting style ever.]

This had nothing to do with the difference in their abilities.

Tūs had his own way of fighting, just as Irene had hers.

In coming to terms with that, Tūs managed to improve himself through this undertaking as well.

Today, Tūs scored a new record of 100,000 consecutive squats.

(Anna: and here I was happy when I only did twenty squats)(Xem: please stop comparing our translator team to Tūs, nothing good will ever happen out of it)

The next morning, Irene abruptly announced the end of her training “for the time being” and returned to Beilanea.

Once she was back at her family manor via the Teleportation Spell Circle in her room, she informed Trace of her return via a Telepathic Call.

And then, as if released from all burdens, both physically and mentally, she crashed onto her bed and slept like a log.