Exceptional Talent

Slowly waking up, there was a sharp pain in my head, causing me to sit up quickly. However, my head hit something soft and bounced back onto something soft? as well. Opening and focusing my eyes, I saw Lyra looking down at me while blushing.

It then hit me, I had been graced with the legendary lap pillow and I just head-butt Lyra's chest.

"I'm not awake yet." I wanted to lay like this longer and enjoy the beauty before me.

"Oh really? I'm not sure sleeping with your eyes open and staring directly into my chest is a skill that you have." Lyra placed her hand over my eyes, robbing me of my view.

"W-well would you look at that? Your icy cold hands woke me up." I tried to move Lyra's hand but I was so pathetically weak that they didn't move.

"Hmmm, I don't know. Are you sure?" Lyra sounded like she was about to do something devious and just as I thought, I suddenly felt an extremely cold hand touch my stomach.

"AHHH~! Nooo!!!!" I let out an unintentional scream while kicking my legs in an attempt to get away. However, Lyra held me down on her lap, making it hard for me to escape.

"Fufu~ I should do this more. That scream was cute." Lyra pulled her hand away before I got too rowdy as I began to flail my arms around. It also allowed me to roll off her lap and free myself from her clutches.

"P-please no…. It's embarrassing." I did not want to encourage this behaviour, as for all I know, she would turn her hands cold while we were cuddling.

"Awww, too bad. At least I know that you are okay." Something tells me that this won't be the only time.

"Oh right, what happened to me?" I sat up from the ground and remembered what happened just before I passed out, I still didn't know what could have happened. I didn't feel like I was running out of mana or putting that much power behind it.

"Your body is probably not used to using so much mana. It's like, after having a broken arm, it feels extremely weak, but you've gone ahead and lifted something really heavy. So since mana relies heavily on your mind, it probably short-circuited." The way Lyra described it sounded way more dangerous, but her tone was quite light-hearted.

"I see. Will I be able to continue tomorrow?" There was still one more day left of the weekend and I didn't want to waste any second that could be used for training.

"I would say no, but it just depends if your body can handle it. You have done exceptionally well despite having no practical experience. I'm guessing watching all that trashy isekei actually gave you a leg up." Lyra let out a chuckle, as indeed I've watched an ungodly amount and would be lying if they were not inspiring me.

"Haha, I don't know if I should be proud of that. However, one thing I realised during our first classes was that this world's magic is based on understanding the elements." Coming from a much more scientifically advanced world, it's no wonder that Lyra and I would be geniuses.

"Exactly. The only issue is that it goes a lot deeper and it's what I've been struggling with." I was kind of surprised that Lyra was struggling with magic, but then again the academy will probably fill the missing gaps.

"Surely there are some books you can read that would help." However, I felt like there would be some books that would have the missing parts.

"You would think so, but the only thing out there is just information we already know. Apparently, the magic association owns all the grimoires with proper magic instructions and creates curriculums around them." Lyra elaborated and it all made sense now. The magic association is withholding the information and only distributing what they want us to learn.

"Interesting, I'm guessing the major noble families as well." I wouldn't be surprised if royalty had their own sources, which is one of the reasons why they are still at the top.

"Indeed, but I think with our prior knowledge and what we will learn at the academy, we will easily become stronger than anyone else in the academy." Lyra looked confident, but it was hard to think positively when taking into account what happened previously.

"Oi, I can see that your thoughts drifted somewhere depressing."

"Huh? How?" I was shocked because I didn't really mean to. Am I just that easy to read?

"Having ears that droop down is a big tell." Lyra crawled over to me and then tried to squish my cheeks with her hands. But I fell back traumatised that her hands would be cold.

However, it would be a mistake as she instantly pounced and pinned me to the floor.

"T-this isn't the kind of training I was expecting." The situation suddenly got intimate and I could see the smug look on Lyra.

*Knock, knock*

"Ladies your time is up ple-." However, like any romcom, we got perfectly interrupted by one of the workers managing the training rooms that we had rented. Luckily it was a girl, but it didn't mean her imagination wasn't going wild as she stood there frozen looking at us.

"W-we were just sparring! Y-you so happened to walk in when I pinned her to the ground." Lyra explained the situation, but surprisingly she was flustered. It was common for her to blush and just hold her composure, but this time she was panicking.

"A-ahem yes, well please wrap and take your leave in the next 5 minutes." The lady let out a deep breath before quickly shutting the door.

"Heh~." I found it amusing to watch as I'm usually the one on the receiving end of the embarrassment.

"Don't you laugh!" In retaliation to my chuckle, Lyra quickly grabbed my cheeks and turned them cold—the very thing I tried to avoid initially.

"NOOOOO! STAAAAP!!!"

***

–Headmaster's office–

Hasumi was sitting across from Tolverkin, who was reading over a piece of paper that she had given him.

"Interestingly, two of the first years from my class have applied for dungeon access. Now I can understand Lyra Owlvil, but I'm surprised Saki Lingrove also put her name down for it." Although Hasumi was surprised, Tolverkin didn't look too phased by this and was subtly nodding his head.

"Hmm, we can grant them access." After staying silent for a few minutes, he had made his decision.

"Are you sure? Saki has barely had any training." Hasumi was all for giving students opportunities, but she felt this was too much for Saki. As to her, Saki is quite the frail girl who would fall over from a slight gust of wind.

"I suppose I could tell you." Tolverkin placed the paper on his desk and a golden insignia appeared on the corner of the page, meaning he gave his approval.

"Is there something I'm meant to know?" Hasumi suddenly became suspicious as there wasn't anything remarkable about Saki. There was a hint that she had been doing some outside training since her mana control was similar to that of Lyra's.