Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Quick, Yume, Noah is in danger of being defiled.
Over the following days, Noah confirmed something he had been waiting for a long time.
Yume was improving. Not perfectly or in an orderly way, but clearly.
At first, every time she tried to form an energy sphere, she used too much force and ended up cracking the ground, burning the grass, or sending branches flying through the air.
When she tried to move with magic, she would go farther than necessary and lose her balance.
When she tried to maintain a barrier, she poured in so much energy that she ended up creating a wall that was hard to sustain.
But that started to change.
Noah watched her with a notebook in his hand while she repeated the same exercise for the fifth time.
Yume stood in the center of the training area, both hands extended in front of her with a pink energy sphere floating between her palms. It used to shake uncontrollably, but now it remained stable.
Noah looked up from the stopwatch.
"Thirty seconds."
Yume opened her eyes.
"Really?"
"Yeah, it didn’t explode, it didn’t change size, and it didn’t destroy anything."
Yume let out a sigh of relief and lowered her hands, making the sphere disappear.
"I did it!"
Noah nodded.
"Yeah, you finally did it."
Yume brought both hands to her chest and smiled brightly.
’Noah praised me.’
Inside her head, several versions of herself were celebrating.
’Thirty seconds!’
’I’m already a capable wife!’
’Don’t jump that far ahead.’
’But if I can control my energy, I can also control a house, a family, a future marriage...’
’Don’t mix the topics!’
Yume tried not to blush too much.
Luna was a few meters away, sitting on a bench while adjusting a bandage on her wrist, and observed the scene without saying anything.
Noah approached Yume.
"Now try moving it three meters to the right without losing its shape."
"Understood."
Yume formed the sphere again. This time it took less time than before, and she moved it slowly to the right. The energy vibrated a little, but it didn’t go out of control.
Noah smiled.
"Good, much better."
Yume almost lost her concentration.
’He smiled at me.’
The sphere trembled, so Noah pointed at the energy.
"Focus."
"Ah, yes."
The sphere regained stability.
Luna looked at Noah for a second and then looked away.
’He’s happy for her.’
It wasn’t a surprise. Noah had always wanted Yume to improve, which was reasonable.
’It’s nothing strange.’
Even so, Luna tightened the bandage a little before letting it go.
When the session ended, Noah reviewed his notes and reached a conclusion.
Yume had already mastered the basics.
Not perfectly, but enough that she no longer represented a constant danger in simple exercises. She could form energy, sustain it, move it, and attack without destroying everything around her. She still used more force than necessary, but she could now listen to instructions and correct herself.
That meant the next step had arrived.
The following day, Noah called both of them to the park after classes.
When they arrived, Yume looked excited and Luna kept her usual expression.
Noah closed the notebook and looked at them.
"Today we’re going to change the training."
Yume tilted her head.
"Good change or difficult change?"
"Both."
"That doesn’t reassure me."
Luna crossed her arms.
"Explain."
Noah pointed to the area marked with several cones.
"So far you’ve trained separately. Yume focused on basic control and Luna on precision, barriers, and movement. But if you’re going to fight together, you need to learn to coordinate."
Yume looked at Luna.
"Team training?"
"Yes."
Luna nodded.
"It makes sense."
Noah continued.
"Yume has more power and Luna has better control, so if you combine that well, you can cover each other’s weaknesses."
Yume raised her hand.
"Question."
"Go ahead."
"Does that mean Luna will cover my mistakes?"
Luna answered before Noah could.
"That already happens."
Yume frowned.
"You could say it differently."
"I could."
"And you don’t want to?"
"No."
Noah intervened.
"That’s exactly why we’re going to train coordination with a first simple exercise. It consists of Luna creating a partial barrier while Yume charges a reduced attack behind her and launches it when Luna opens a firing window."
’That attack was used a lot in the anime...’
Yume raised both hands.
"That sounds professional."
"It is."
Luna looked at Noah.
"What’s the distance?"
"Fifteen meters, and the target will be that marked rock."
"Understood."
Yume positioned herself behind Luna. Luna extended one hand and created a dark and silver barrier in front of both of them. It was firm, thin, and had a closed opening in the center.
Yume formed a pink energy sphere. It was clear she wanted to make it big, but she took a deep breath and kept it at a moderate size.
Noah observed attentively.
"Good, Yume. Keep that amount... Luna, open the window when she stabilizes the attack."
"Understood."
The sphere stopped trembling and Luna opened the gap in the barrier.
"Now."
Yume launched the attack.
The sphere passed through the opening without touching the edges and struck the marked rock, which split with a clean impact. There was no excessive explosion or damage around it.
Noah’s eyes widened with pleasant surprise.
"That was really good."
Yume raised her arms.
"Yes!"
Luna lowered the barrier.
Noah looked first at Yume.
"Good control. This time you didn’t add extra power at the end."
Yume smiled.
"I did it like you said."
"It showed."
Then he looked at Luna.
"And Luna, the timing of the opening was perfect. If you open too early, the enemy can attack. If you open too late, Yume loses stability. So you did it at the exact second."
Luna remained still.
"Thank you."
Her tone was normal, but inside she wasn’t the same.
’He praised me.’
Noah continued examining the rock.
’He praised me in detail.’
Luna kept her eyes on Noah, who was talking about the barrier opening and how they could repeat the exercise, but Luna stopped listening to part of the explanation.
Her eyes dropped to his lips while Noah kept talking.
"If you manage to repeat it three times, we can increase the difficulty."
Luna blinked.
’Don’t look.’
She looked at the ground, but then looked again without meaning to.
Her eyes dropped again, this time to Noah’s neck. The uniform shirt was a little disheveled from training and showed part of his skin.
Luna clenched her fingers.
’Control yourself.’
Noah looked up at her.
"Luna, did you hear?"
Luna straightened up.
"Yes."
"Can you repeat the sequence?"
"Create barrier, wait for stability, open window, and close after the shot."
"Exactly."
Noah smiled.
"Good."
Luna immediately looked away.
’Don’t do anything weird... Don’t do anything weird... Don’t do anything weird...’
Yume observed the scene from behind.
At first she didn’t understand what was happening. Luna was serious, so seeing her quiet wasn’t strange, but there was something different in her gaze.
Yume knew that direction.
’Noah’s lips and neck.’
Yume felt a small change in her expression.
’Did she just look at Noah like that?’
In her mind, one of her consciousnesses stood up.
’Confirmed. Luna represents danger.’
Another consciousness lifted an imaginary sheet.
’Initial report: suspicious gaze toward high-risk zone.’
Another one slammed the table.
’Enemy!’
Yume closed her eyes for a second.
’No, calm down. Maybe it was my imagination.’
She opened her eyes and saw that Luna was looking at Noah again, though now in a more controlled way.
Yume squeezed the energy sphere she still had in her hand, and the sphere grew a little.
Noah looked at her.
"Yume, lower the power."
"Yes."
Yume reduced the energy immediately.
’I can’t jump to conclusions... Luna is my teammate... maybe she was just listening.’
A consciousness in her head raised its hand.
’I don’t know about you, but I think listening doesn’t require looking at someone’s neck.’
’Silence!’
The training continued.
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