Student…?

—

“Simply put, today, Mother, today I will pass the ‘test’ you mentioned to me before.”

For witches living in the interlayer of a dungeon, the passage of time was so hard to perceive. After Lis could no longer remember how long Leah had “returned” to the Witch’s Coven, she finally emerged from her lab. Standing at the doorway of her mushroom-shaped home, Leah had just opened the door, as if she had only just managed to comb her twin ponytails a minute ago. The two golden ponytails, one high and one low, looked particularly unlike her usual meticulous hairstyle. Her eyes had thick dark circles, her face seemed to have thinned considerably, and you could even see tear marks at the corners of her eyes.

“You haven’t seemed to leave that door lately. Why suddenly mention a ‘test’ to me? Hmm… let me think, I don’t remember ever setting a ‘test’ for you.”

Lis propped her chin on her hand, sitting on a chair outside the hut, watching Leah place the Frostmare Horse livers—a common trade material in the Witch’s Coven—in front of her. Although now, due to Leah’s extensive use of Frostmare Horse livers, almost all of the Frostmare Horse livers in the entire Witch’s Coven had been bought or sold out by her alone. It was then that she remembered what ‘test’ Leah was referring to.

“Oh! You mean that one.”

“Yes.”

Lis listened to her answer, scrutinizing her from head to toe.

“Like this…”

Leah raised her staff, aiming it at the Frostmare Horse liver. The metal shaft of the staff she held was free of the sweat that nervousness used to cause. Now, she appeared remarkably composed.

“Initiation: Nourish with Warmth.”

“Next is…”

“Radiant Silence—”

The same procedure as usual. After a flash of fire that seemed to strip away all sound, Lis’s eyes adjusted to the light, and she saw… the entire block of ice completely blasted away, revealing the intact liver inside.

“Oh~”

Lis’s tone wasn’t exactly ‘delighted.’ It was more like the encouraging cheer a mother gives when her child excitedly shows off a completed block tower.

“The test you mentioned, it was this, right? To make your firepower strong enough to obliterate a liver in one strike.”

“Yes. After all, the research on the Primordial Candle has only gone this far. For the Radiant Silence magic used to create the wax, raising it to its highest output power would roughly achieve this level~”

“Is that… all?”

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

Lis had been happy that her ‘daughter’ had merely been training herself and hadn’t become withdrawn, but now seeing her state, she couldn’t feel happy anymore. Before, she couldn’t properly ‘observe’ Leah. She could only gauge her mental state when bringing her meals—after all, she was over a hundred years old; she didn’t need much attention. But… now, she saw clearly. Leah wasn’t just physically exhausted; her mental state, and even her magic circuits…

“I’m… I’m trying to complete the ancient magic, ‘Primordial Candle.’ I’ve found a correct method to create its essential component, the wax.” Leah’s tone was significantly ‘colder’ than before.

“For example, like this…”

As if prepared, she quickly wheeled out a small cart from the door of her lab. On the cart was a magical isolation hood, used in fire magic experiments to contain small samples and ‘protect the lab.’ Perhaps to create an air of mystery, or more likely to ensure the experiment’s effectiveness and reduce light interference, Leah had covered it with a red cloth.

“The ancient magic indeed states that first, Nourish with Warmth is used for preliminary heating, then Radiant Silence completes the final melting to obtain the wax.”

“Yes. Recalling it, that deduction was made about a hundred years ago.”

“But… I remembered something. Something that long-lived witches might not realize, and something that the ancient magic scribes, who found their materials in dungeons five hundred years ago, might not have realized either…” Leah’s eyes, rarely showing such expectation and joy since her return, gazed at the object within the magical hood as she lifted the red cloth.

“Th-This is…!?”

Even Lis, who had lived many more years than Leah, gasped in shock at what she saw inside.

Inside the magic hood, the Frostmare Horse liver, heated by Nourish with Warmth, had melted its fat along with the external ice, forming a liquid pool in the dish. Though still warm and uncooled, one could imagine that once cooled, it could… become a perfectly suitable ‘wax block.’ This was something witches hadn’t managed to achieve in a hundred years of research after that.

“They might not have realized that while some research suggested using Frostmare Horse liver as a substitute, the subsequent research on burning methods came almost two centuries later. In those two hundred years, perhaps we, who use magic, haven’t changed… but would the Frostmare Horses obtained from dungeons still be the same as they were back then?”

“I understand… You mean, the method wasn’t wrong, but if the substitute material changed, we couldn’t follow the research from five hundred, or even two hundred years ago, to complete the experiment.” Lis was no longer like a mother standing by, watching her daughter grow and perform. Instead, she was like a serious ‘researcher.’

“Yes. This… this was the blind spot.”

“So, what method did you use?”

“The current Frostmare Horse liver, compared to the material recorded in ancient magic, has changed properties due to increased impurities. According to ancient magic interpretations, Radiant Silence was originally used to break down something overly hard, while Nourish with Warmth was probably closer to heating it into an oily substance.”

“That’s right. It should be Nourish with Warmth to melt the exterior first, then Radiant Silence to melt the interior…”

“But, the Frostmare Horse livers obtained now… the frozen part is harder, while the inside is more fragile. Because the impurity content inside is increasing.”

“I see, so that’s what led to the previous misconception of increasing firepower?”

“Therefore, I chose to first use Radiant Silence to melt part of the exterior, then use Nourish with Warmth’s specialty—its slow heating—to render the inside and outside together into an oily substance. But this requires more precise control over the heat, and the data needs to be more refined.” After rationally and ‘generously’ explaining her thought process, Leah looked at Lis.

“How is it, Mother? I did pretty well, right?”

Lis looked at Leah… Something seemed to have changed. For instance, if she had achieved such a great feat, made such a breakthrough, she should… she should be more ‘excited’ than she was now. And in Lis’s eyes, the flow of her magic circuits was unusually ‘cold.’ But… for example, the old Leah would never have introduced it so readily, or waited for praise so openly.

“Well done.” She nodded.

Leah was a little surprised, too, because as a ‘mother,’ Lis was always more critical of her magic. This was the first time she had seen such a direct and unreserved answer.

“Actually…” Lis paused, gazing at the oily substance, likely the first wax block ever created by a witch. She seemed to fall into thought. “Originally, the one who proposed combining Nourish with Warmth and Radiant Silence to obtain the wax block, was me.” She paused slightly, a smile appearing on her face. It was the gentle, motherly smile Leah had only seen during her ‘normal human childhood.’

“At the time, I thought it would be difficult for anyone to make a breakthrough beyond that point. I never imagined it would be so simple…”

“J-Just as I thought!”

“You guessed it?”

“That handwriting, like a lizard crawled over it, it’s obviously yours!”

“Hey!”

“Of course, I… I’m pretty much the same. This is probably… probably a kind of inheritance, right?” Leah quickly added, scratching her head a little shyly.

“You’ve certainly changed a bit, but, how much did you use to research this…” Lis seemed to want to ask something, but stopped herself.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing… Since Leah has reached the point of having unique breakthroughs, then…”

“Hmm?”

Leah watched as Lis, like someone building suspense, walked around behind a grove of trees and pulled a person out of a bush.

“What is this…?”

Lis pulled out a red-haired witch about her own height, who had pulled her magic hat low, looking exceptionally shy.

“H-Hello. Teacher Leah…”

“All in all, she’s my third cousin’s daughter. I’ll assign her to you, to be your disciple, for now? After all… I always feel like you’re especially in need of a student?” Lis introduced the newcomer’s identity very simply.

“Actually, among witches, if one’s child happens not to want to learn their own magic… then entrusting them to an acquaintance for training is a good method.” The moment Leah saw her, she instinctively took two steps back.

Student… student… student…

Upon hearing that word, her hand, holding the staff, began to tremble.

The student who followed her…
The student who kept busy with her all the time…
The student who successfully pulled her from that terrible state and kept her researching until now…

“No, no… I don’t think I need one…” Before she could even ask what kind of student she was or what she wanted to learn, her mouth had already refused on her behalf.

“You are not allowed to refuse.” Lis directly interrupted her.

“But…”

“Since you’re back, like every witch, forget… forget the outside world, and start anew.” Lis didn’t finish her sentence. The slightly shy witch took a step forward. Her voice sounded a little nervous, and it trembled slightly.

“H-Hello, Teacher… Teacher Leah…”

Hearing that title, Leah swallowed hard. She always remembered something… something… A memory she had recently tried to bury with busyness, one that surfaced every night before she slept, always waking her with a sharp pang in her heart.

“You can call me… Melyn.”

—