B4 - Chapter 11 - Sisterly Secrets

Despite her initial reluctance, Lily could see firsthand how effective this training method was. Rose was still thinking she was fully supported by the magical glyph and had no reason to doubt that she'd be unable to "fly" because of it. That unwavering confidence was the spark that kept the flame alight when Lily inevitably turned the glyph off, and she kept flying.

Again, Lily felt a small sense of crisis within herself, wondering when else Arakil might have done this to her, but other than the wand, which he had self-admitted to, she still had zero clues. If Arakil was still tricking her into succeeding somewhere, then he was a master at it to keep his trail absolutely hidden.

As for Rose, her training was progressing smoothly, though Arakil told Lily to temper her expectations, and it was more than likely that she'd need several sessions like this to fly on her own. Lily didn't mind, as she was more than happy to spend some quality time with her sister and try to pay her back for all the help she'd given her.

I know we aren't keeping track of who owes who, but after all she did for me with the ritual that gave me my Mana Core in the first place, I feel like I owe her the world.

This was the primary reason she went along with Arakil's idea, despite it making her uncomfortable, as she knew, deep down, it would be something Rose would completely agree with. Of course, Lily fully planned to come clean, but only after she could successfully fly, so that it wouldn't diminish her chances.

After roughly an hour, Rose eventually couldn't flap her wings anymore and asked to come down. She was absolutely drenched in sweat, as apparently she'd somehow thought that when she momentarily dipped, it was because she wasn't flapping hard enough. Riddled with guilt, Lily gingerly handed her the cleaning bracelet so that she could freshen up and not look like she'd suffered through several marathons.

"I've never moved these stupid wings so much since I got them…" Rose panted. "I think I might have sprained a muscle or something."

"You dumb dragon! You didn't need to go so hard that you hurt yourself!" Lily scolded her.

Rose chuckled awkwardly, and when she tried to move her wing, she flinched a little, a poor attempt at hiding it from her sister. Lily sighed and began scrounging around in her pouch, eventually pulling out two very special talismans she'd drawn.

"Oh? I don't think I've ever seen you draw something like that before…" Rose said, pointing at the two very peculiar drawings.

Lily nodded. "I've been kind of keeping these a secret, since they are a very big deal."

"Bigger than you being able to fly as a first year?" Rose asked jokingly.

Lily nodded again, causing Rose to blink rapidly in disbelief. "You're joking?"

Lily just smiled. "Watch, you'll understand."

Lily activated the first talisman on Rose, causing it to burn up in the golden light before removing some of her fatigue. Rose's face went from disbelief to utter shock, but not before Lily activated the next talisman, curing any small injuries she might have sustained or had lingered previously.

"Lily!" Rose hissed. "How? Why? When!?"

Lily chuckled. "Would you believe me if I said it was an accident?"

"You can't tell anyone about this," Rose insisted. "Gods… Why do you know hea—" Rose's mouth snapped shut, as if she wasn't willing to finish saying that word.

"I don't know it myself, it's just a glyph. I can't cast any spells, since I'm not suddenly one of Purity's followers, I'm just borrowing one of her keys."

Rose shook her head. "I don't think any of the temples would care whether it was a spell or a glyph; what matters is the outcome. I guess we can be thankful it's someone relatively obscure like Purity and not Piety…"

Lily thought Rose was overreacting, just a little bit, but still nodded in agreement.

[The more I hear about this Piety, the more I wonder what has become of the current gods… I wonder if Saraiel is still running around judging people?]

{I don't think I've heard that name before, sorry.}

After quickly answering Arakil, Lily returned her attention to Rose, who was still not exactly pleased, especially after the brief telepathic conversation she was excluded from.

"Lily, I'm dead serious, don't show that to anyone," Rose repeated. "I don't know if you were too young to remember, but I remember several kids being taken away from the orphanage by the temple. And unlike me, they didn't have a choice in the matter."

"I won't," Lily agreed again. "And I'm only one year younger than you, of course, I remember that."

Rose gave a small smirk, her previous seriousness fading just a little. "With how you were basically bedridden back then, I'd be surprised if you remember anything."

Lily pouted but didn't say anything. Sure, the memories were maybe a bit more fuzzy than she'd willingly admit, especially since she didn't really know the kids that well due to her reluctance to talk to anyone that wasn't Margit or Rose, but still.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

With all the doctors and healers she'd been around, she knew very well that they sought out anyone with the divine gift of healing. The nobles were pushy in getting what they wanted, but the temples didn't take no for an answer, proudly proclaiming that they were backed by divine authority on the matter. Rumors even claimed that the royals stepped lightly when the temples were involved.

"So, how are you feeling?" Lily asked.

"I'm honestly feeling great," Rose admitted. "Which has me a bit worried that I'm going to have to put in a lot more effort to prevent you from catching up to me if you can also recover yourself like that."

"I can, but Arakil told me not to abuse it, especially removing fatigue," Lily explained.

"Thanks, Arakil, make sure to talk some sense into her," Rose said with a smile.

The book unfurled, revealing his response. [Of course, I wouldn't allow Lily to harm herself. I take protecting my apprentice extremely seriously.]

Rose smiled before giving a thumbs-up to the book, evidently pleased by his attitude. She would've loved to have continued with another round of practice, but while she was feeling great, Lily was feeling a bit drained, as keeping the glyph running for that long had not been simple.

My Mana Core hasn't been this drained this much in quite some time.

Lily was proud of her ability to almost keep her Mana reserves in equilibrium, but this had shown she still had some room for growth. Of course, she still had to work on increasing her capacity and refining her core further, not to mention the dreaded compressing that Arakil had mentioned before.

Since Lily was low on Mana but still energetic, Rose opted to escort her around the forest to do a bit of monster hunting as payment for the flying lessons. Lily wanted to object, saying that the flying was to pay her back, but she knew it was futile to argue with her big sister.

They wandered around the forest for the majority of the afternoon, with Rose able to quite easily pinpoint large groups of monsters. Her ability was uncanny, and she offhandedly joked that she was able to sniff them out, although Lily wondered if she had just spent so long on this floor previously that she was just familiar with its layout.

The monsters that they encountered were all effortlessly blown away by Rose, who was very clearly trying to show off in front of Lily. Not only that, but to Lily's welcome surprise, she noted that Rose was much less greedy in claiming the black flecks from the monsters she felled, leaving a lot for Lily to claim and refine her Mana Core with.

Back at the orphanage, Lily had to effectively fight for her share if Rose was present, but now she was being left with plenty to spare. Perhaps Rose had finally worked on her attitude, or she wanted to help Lily grow, or maybe she just saw these monsters as small fry, and that was why she didn't try to claim them. Regardless, Lily was delighted to partake in the spoils.

When it was getting late, and they needed to consider heading back, Rose was quick to jump on the idea of doing some more flying together. At this point, Lily's Mana had fully recovered, and then some, despite her helping out with some of the monsters by throwing out a few Starbursts from time to time, so she could definitely grant that wish.

Of course, Lily would've preferred to stay on the ground, but with her sister looking at her with so much expectation in her eyes, she eventually gave in. With reluctance, she produced two more copies of the inscription, with Rose practically clapping with delight. They reached out together and activated their respective magical construct before being enveloped in the protective winds and rising above the treetops.

Without needing a prompt, Rose opened her wings, as if pretending to glide along with the spell. The imagery was probably worsened by the convenience of this inscription, which kept them contained from the outside winds, but it looked like Rose wasn't going to complain; instead, she smiled wildly, as if having the time of her life.

She's infectious… Arakil was right, between her and Hana, soon I'm going to be doing more flying than walking at this rate.

Lily sighed, while vaguely vowing to herself that she'd better overcome this stupid reluctance of hers. She knew it was dumb, especially with all the extra safety in the inscription itself and her own Nebula Veil ready and waiting to save her. On the bright side, it wasn't as bad as her fear of blood and needles, so she reckoned she could overcome this with several pushes in the right direction.

Because of all the wandering they did, and their earlier flights, it took almost three flights for them to reach the nearest exit, with the last one ending early so they could walk back the remaining distance. If someone spotted them soaring across the treetops, that was fine, but landing at the exit for everyone to see was not something Lily wanted to do. Rose had already offered to claim responsibility for their flying if anyone asked, so that Lily could remain undercover for a bit longer.

Lily was grateful for the help, especially because she knew full well that after the interschool tournament, she might lose much of her peace and quiet. Yet that didn't discourage her, as she wanted to continue chasing glyphs and inscriptions, following in the legacy of Arakil's footsteps no matter what. She'd welcome some social inconveniences if it meant drawing glyphs from her imagination, and thanks to Arakil's earlier deception, she was already somewhat on the way to not requiring the wand for everything.

Of course, part of her was a little reluctant to let go of the magical device, as it served not only as a symbol of her accomplishment in coming first in the mock gauntlet, but something she enjoyed using. Thankfully, Arakil pointed out that even if she could draw with only her mind, the wand would almost always be a useful tool as a backup.

In fact, he had even warned her that if she succeeded, it might not be as convenient as she imagined. Her drawings in the library were under perfect conditions, whereas when in the dungeon, or in a duel, your thoughts would not be so clear and undistracted. Lily could imagine this would open the door to much more training to overcome such distractions, but despite envisioning the future workload, she couldn't help but feel optimistic about it.

Lily and Rose reached the exit without much fuss and exited the dungeon together. Loot-wise, they hadn't found much, although that didn't stop Lily from occasionally saving a few rare herbs she had miraculously spotted. They handed in the very minor treasures to the teacher on duty, not bothering to go through the trouble of brokering them themselves, and headed to the dining hall to end the day.

At dinner, they met up with Lotte and shared a bit of their story together, only glossing over any mention of Lily's flight inscription. As for Lotte, her potion lessons had apparently also been quite exciting, with her earning Professor Sylwel's seal of approval for her Bubblebelly Tonic.

Lily was excited for her friend, and Rose also showed interest, offering to purchase any excess that she produced. While she hadn't said it outright, her hint was obvious that they should try to stockpile some of those for themselves, no doubt for the future floors in the dungeon.

Eventually, they all departed, with Lily finally returning to her room and enjoying a real bath before settling down for the evening. Since she was a little too tired for more practice, having effectively had a full workout for body, mind, and core throughout the day, she instead opted to read the notes Arakil had compiled for her on astral constellations.

I hope Alice managed to get me permission… Maybe tomorrow I can start trying to feel the stars?