Chapter 4: You and Me.

Now that Anna has the notes Rias gave her, she rereads them endlessly. In the misty morning light, Anna rises before anyone else. She repeats. She visualizes. She whispers Rias's words in her mind: "The wind is evasion. Speed. Timing. Flexibility."

Then others follow:

"It's not a wall. It's a needle. A surprise. Precision."

And she repeats the movements — again, and again, and again — until her gestures become part of her, until they move as one.

Rather than strengthening or inflating her wind magic to match the family's traditional combat style, this time she compresses it — finely, tightly — to boost its impact and increase strike speed.

It wasn't hard for her to do, not after all the years she spent mastering her magna, by forcing herself to follow trends that were never meant for her.

And the results quickly show, because the attack she now calls Wind Blade manages to slice the earth. Though the stone blocks she trains on don't split in two, her invisible blades carve deep into the rock — and that's already something.

Now, it's even easier for her to chant spells while moving at full speed. In just a few weeks, Anna finds a perfect balance between her wind magic and her combat style.

So, at camping, she starts winning duels. And people begin to notice. Her blade is faster than the others — and more precise. She wastes no movement. Every strike is meant to kill. There's even a moment when the instructor has to interfere because Anna's blows are too powerful for her opponent to withstand.

In her innocence, Anna sees these victories as progress. But others… they're starting to fear her. A little too much. And it's normal. Her strikes are unpredictable — one wrong move, and you could die on the spot.

That evening, Anna comes home, cheeks flushed from the effort, pride gleaming in her eyes. Her steps are quick, light—almost dancing. The moment she crosses the threshold into Rias' room, she shouts:

— "Rias! Riaaas!"

He's there, lying on his stomach, notebook half-open, pencil between his lips. He lifts his eyes, and before he can even speak, she's already sitting cross-legged beside him, breathless with excitement.

— "Guess what I did today? I beat her. The one with the hard magic—you know, the one from the Rock Clan. A full duel. I faked to the right, and then shhh—I launched a curved blade, fast, just like you said. She didn't see it coming. Even the teacher raised her hand. You should've seen her face, Rias!"

He smiles softly. A timid but sincere smile.

— "You condensed the air to multiply the impact?"

— "Exactly! By bouncing off the lateral flow. It sped up my second strike — an incredible combo. Look!"

She mimics the movements in front of him, on Rias' big bed, like a dancer rehearsing. Rias sits up, watches her closely, and jots something down in his notebook.

— "You're transcending your affinity. You're not just using wind anymore, Anna… You're thinking like it. But… don't you think you should learn how to end a fight without landing a fatal blow? What you did scares me a little."

She blushes, embarrassed. Then, with a serious look:

— "Will you show me what you were writing?"

Rias hesitates, then slowly turns the notebook toward her. Inside: diagrams, notes, projections of non-verbal magic models.

— "You're working on voiceless magic?"

— "Yes… I'm convinced that if you can think magic, you should be able to cast it. Just with pure mental constructs."

— "I want to help you."

— "But Anna, you already help me so much."

— "That no true at all. You still need someone with actual magic when you want to test your hypotheses, right?"

Rias says nothing. He just turns slightly, shyly.

— "Use me. I want to be an integral part of your work."

And that's when, without either of them saying it, something invisible sealed itself between them: An alliance. A duo. Not just a brother and a sister. Two seekers of the absolute.

And so, every weekend, Anna and Rias now work together in the old cabin, somewhere far from their vast manor. They test, they tweak theories and calculations on various ideas, completely leaving Eli out in the cold in their relationship.

Eli, in any case, is too busy training — trying to keep up with Anna's sudden improvement — to suspect anything about what they're doing.

They don't hate her. It's just the kind of thing one forgets when caught in the fire of passion.

Everyone has drifted to their own path.

And then, after months, on a Saturday morning, pale light filters through thick curtains. The cabin — now renamed the study room — has been transformed: furniture pushed aside, rugs rolled up, and on the floor, a chalk-drawn circle, dotted with arrows and scribbled sketches.

— "You really want us to test this here?" Anna asks, rolling up her sleeves.

— "If it explodes, we'll say it was Elisabeth."

They laugh. Then get to work.

Anna steps into the circle with a candle. She stands tall, focused. Rias, notebook in hand, watches with the precision of a subtle architect.

The goal here: to prove that magic without incantations is possible. The circle drawn on the ground is meant to serve as a magna meter. They invented it themselves — and it works beautifully for incantation-based spells. The candle is a secondary witness, in case the circle only works when incantations are used.

— "Airball, right at the tip of the little flame. Visualize it. No words, no incantation. Just the breath in your mind. Remember the sensations, like when you do it with incantation. We've done this exercise several times already."

Anna closes her eyes. She takes a deep breath.

Shhhhhh…

The circle glows faintly — but there is a result. Then the air currents begin to swirl, forming a loop through the room.

Rias smiles at the sight, and so does Anna, still keeping her eyes closed. Then she opens them — slowly, ever so slowly.

The light of the circle intensifies. The candle flame begins to tremble, oscillating. They know it's a victory.

— "See that? It's oscillating wind!"

— "You just invented magic without incantation…"

Anna laughs, breathless:

— "Ah yes… So I'm the smartest girl in the world now?"

That made them laugh even harder. Then Anna's focus slips. A sudden gust blows out the candle. They burst into laughter.

Then, Rias regains his seriousness. He draws a spiral in the air with his pencil.

— "What if you added power now? A whirlwind concentrated into a sphere, within arm's reach."

He's clearly referencing the spiraling orb. Without Rias even needing to explain, Anna is already applying what he had in mind.

She tries. A dense sphere of air forms in her palm, it vibrates… and suddenly—

BOOM

It explodes into a gust that scatters their papers and sends a chair flying.

— "WAAAH!"

— "That wasn't stable at all!"

— "Hey… you're supposed to give a warning before doing dangerous stuff like that."

— "Sorry, Rias… I just understood the image so clearly, I wanted to try it right away."

Rias looks at her.

He smiles.

Then says:

— "Too much compression. But you're nearly there."

Anna lies on the floor, hair tousled.

— "Do you think I'll really be able to fly one day? That would be cool, right?"

Rias lies down beside her.

— "You won't fly. You'll become the wind."

And in that messy room, surrounded by chaos and bursts of laughter, Anna and Rias feel like the happiest people on earth.

It's the happiest day of both their lives so far. Yes— Happiness only exists when it's shared.