"Ha, you pathetic things?!"

Aman, who had returned to Citata to meet Lucas, was still trembling with anger.

It was a great fortune that he had not ignored Lucas's warning.

The identity of the lackeys Aman had caught was, as Lucas had warned, a real trap.

Their trap was so elaborate that Aman almost failed to notice it.

But thanks to Lucas's warning, he had also found out a little about the real lackeys.

An elaborate trap that could even deceive a dragon's eyes. But there was a small mistake in that trap.

"You cunning old man... how can a human who has only lived for seventy years be so cunning!"

Aman's appearance, who was pacing around Lucas's empty bedroom and muttering to himself, was creepy.

A man with silver-blue hair, muttering in an empty room.

If it weren't for his elegant appearance under the moonlight, he would have looked like a thief or a madman.

As he felt a presence nearby, Aman, who had quickly hidden himself, looked at the door.

It was Lucas.

'He's back!'

Lucas, who didn't seem to have felt his presence, naturally finished his shower and even changed his clothes himself.

'Oh my... he's so diligent... a diligent child...'

Aman, who was watching him, smiled playfully.

"Pfft... Lucas-nim?"

"Ugh!"

As he whispered his name right next to his ear as he was getting into bed, Lucas's body, who was startled, jumped up.

"You crazy lizard bastard!!!"

Lucas, who had coolly cursed at Aman who was holding his stomach and laughing, was gathering mana in his hand as if his anger had not subsided.

"Huh? That hurts, you know?"

"If you knew it would hurt... you shouldn't have done it!"

-Thump!

'Thump?'

The sound of the mana bouncing off was strange.

"Ha! You blocked it?"

"No, then should I not block it! What should I do? I know it hurts!"

"You brat of a lizard. Where's your dad!!"

"Huh? Should I really call him?"

Lucas had no choice but to suppress his anger at Aman's confident attitude.

If Aman's dad, Hasel, really came, things would get complicated.

"Hoo... hoo..."

Aman's eyes, who was looking at Lucas who was panting heavily to suppress his anger, were still sparkling with joy.

'That brat of a lizard...! The moment I become a god! I will definitely... definitely!!!'

Lucas felt like he wanted to write a secret diary somewhere so that he wouldn't forget this feeling.

"Why did you come?"

Lucas, who seemed to have calmed down a little now, sat on the edge of the bed and asked nonchalantly.

"Ah, Lucas-nim was right. It was a trap."

"Hmph, then I must have been right. Could I have been wrong?"

"Haha, that's what I'm saying."

"So?"

"So I watched."

"...And then?"

He didn't know why he was cutting off his words like that to create a dramatic effect, but Aman always waited for Lucas to ask back before opening his mouth.

"And then there was another lackey, you know?"

"...Just tell me everything at once."

"Isn't this a conversation? This is a give-and-take..."

-Bang!

"Ugh!"

This time it was a success. The corner of Lucas's mouth, who had given him a blow while he was off guard, curled up.

"I-isn't this a foul!"

Aman, who was rubbing his abdomen, puffed out his cheeks.

"Hmph. It's still three thousand years too early for a thing like you to read my moves!"

He felt so refreshed. A blow like this would be nothing to that teasing lizard.

But he was so happy that this one blow had made him feel so refreshed.

"So? Stop faking it and continue talking."

"I'm not faking it... ah, I understand. Stop hitting me!"

As Lucas raised his hand once more, Aman exaggeratedly raised both hands and took a posture of surrender.

"So, I was saying. As I was chasing them... do you know who came out?"

"Are we playing twenty questions?"

"Ahem... no, that's not it. It was the Mage Tower Master."

"What? The Mage Tower Master? Alberto?"

"Yes, that Mage Tower Master. That old man who's the school principal! That old snake-like thing was playing such tricks behind the scenes, you know?"

Aman, who let out a 'ha!' and a big sigh, gradually raised his voice.

"No! This is why I'm saying humans are really scary! Humans these days are so cunning! How can an educator who teaches people! do such a bad and outrageous thing?!"

"Lower your voice."

As Lucas, who was worried that someone might hear, looked around, Aman casually waved his hand in the air.

"Now, no one will know even if a bomb goes off here."

He knew that much. How could a human secretly come and listen to a magic built with dragon language.

"Anyway! That Mage Tower Master was the mastermind. He was doing very bad things behind the scenes!"

"How did you know?"

"I've seen the spells he uses a few times. You know, right? That humans all have their own habits."

Lucas, who nodded his head slightly at his words, was lost in thought for a moment.

Because he remembered a human mage he had met once.

Humans would chant simple spells with their mouths according to their own way, or for complicated spells, they would create magic by drawing formulas and magic circles.

But just as everyone's handwriting was different, humans also had their own order, method, and calculation method for writing spells.

Because of that, the more complicated the spell, the more the caster's characteristics were revealed.

Aman also seemed to have figured it out by looking at the remnants of the spell or the form in which it was cast.

"So? What are you going to do?"

"Hmm... I'll have to watch for now. They won't like me dealing with the remnants of Lakmer one by one. So I'll have to avoid their traps and pounce on them when it's real."

"And when do you think that real time will be?"

"Haha! Just trust this Aman!"

He wanted to smack the head of Aman, who was puffing out his chest and speaking confidently.

'What does he know? He couldn't even see through a trap set by a mere human!'

Lucas, who let out a deep sigh, waved his hand as if he was annoyed.

"Ah, then! Good night!"

The cheerful and cheerful lizard disappeared, and Lucas, who lay down on the bed in overwhelming fatigue, closed his eyes.

'Tomorrow... again...'

His thoughts did not continue for long, and he fell asleep.

***

"Now, we'll start from today."

"Yeah! I'm ready!"

"I'm ready too."

Lucas's group, who had gathered in a quiet back garden, sat on a mat on the floor.

"Now, slowly breathe in."

"Sigh~"

"And out..."

"Haaa..."

The children's expressions, who had been breathing in and out for a long time according to Lucas's order, gradually calmed down.

"Our Nella is doing well too."

"...Yeah."

Nella, who had taken a seat on one side following them, also repeated breathing in and out.

"Now... breathe in again..."

"Sigh~"

"And out... and as you breathe in again, feel the air filling your lower abdomen."

And so, as the children's lower abdomens puffed up, mana began to gather around them.

"You're doing well. Now, think of gathering the air you've inhaled, centered on your navel."

A smile slowly crept onto his face as he watched the children's stomachs gurgle according to his words.

"Right. You're doing well."

Lucas, who slightly swallowed the smile that was coming out, began to feel the mana around him.

'It's best to teach them how to draw in mana as if they were breathing.'

Lucas, who was feeling the flow of mana, was handling the surrounding mana.

The time when the children's expressions looked most comfortable. This was it.

"Now... slowly feel the flow of the air. Feel the air gathering near your heart, riding your navel."

Lucas injected a small amount of mana into their bodies.

"Guuuh... ugh..."

Then Skir began to react a little.

The spell the pixie he had met at the camp had cast on the mana stone seemed to have been quite effective, and Skir's mana had increased a little.

"Now, you have to accept that uncomfortable feeling."

Mana was everywhere, but making it one's own was not an easy task.

One had to increase the size of one's own vessel, and one had to transform and accept the mana that conflicted with one's own energy to fit one's own body.

"Now, that uncomfortable energy... right, Pola is doing well."

"Guuuh..."

Not long after, Pola was also twisting her shoulders slightly and gradually accepting the mana.

Lucas, who was slowly injecting a small amount of mana into their bodies, was also handling his own mana at the same time.

"...?"

It was when he was concentrating for a long time. Mana that he had not even injected was flowing to another place.

As he followed the stream of mana...

'Nella?'

Mana was gathering in the small body.

Not only had she sat in a cross-legged position to follow her older sister and brother, but Nella, who had been diligently following even the deep breathing, had mana slowly flowing into the vicinity of her heart.

But accepting this was entirely the child's own share.

Mana could be artificially injected into anyone. But if one could become a mage that way, mages would not be rare in the world now.

No matter how good a high-quality mana stone one had, no matter how much one had devoted one's life to researching magic, one could not use magic if one was not born with even that rice-grain-sized talent.

"Now, you've worked hard today. Let's try again tomorrow."

Lucas's tone had become noticeably softer. Since the children had come to the county estate, he seemed to have let down all his guard.

'They're just children. There's no harm in treating them well.'

"Haa... haa..."

The children, who had put strength into their whole bodies, were panting, with beads of sweat on their foreheads.

"It was a really strange feeling."

"That's right, it was really that... a feeling of air moving around in my stomach."

"Right, it was exactly that feeling. Is this what mana is?"

"Hey, are we going to become great mages like this? Khukuk!"

A smile naturally formed on his face at the sight of the cute Pola, who was already thinking of becoming a great mage just by feeling a little mana moving around in her stomach.

"Haha! Right. You can become a great mage. Let's work hard."

As Lucas gave them strength, the children's eyes began to sparkle.

It was in the same context as someone who had luckily found a coin on the street imagining, 'By any chance, if I keep picking up money like this, won't I become a chaebol?'

"Now, let's eat."

***

It felt strange.

As she breathed in and out following her older sister and brother, she felt as if something was wriggling in her stomach.

It was an uncomfortable and annoying feeling.

After everything was over, she felt a little stuffy in a corner of her chest.

But after eating delicious food, that feeling completely disappeared.

"Good night, Nella!"

Nella, who waved her hand briefly at Pola's farewell, went back to her room and thought about today's events.

And so, as she changed her clothes and got into bed, she fell asleep without realizing it.

-Come and see me.

In the dawn, where darkness was full. Her eyes opened automatically at the pretty voice she heard from somewhere.

-Come and see me.

Thinking she might have misheard, she opened her eyes slightly, and the voice was heard again.

-Here. Come here.

The place where the voice was heard was the window.

Looking at the window, a small light was twinkling.

It was a blue light similar to the snowflakes Lucas had shown her.

"Wow..."

She didn't know if she was dreaming. But that light was so pretty that she followed it with her eyes.

The blue light went out the window and then disappeared into the pond she had once been to.

She knew now that it was bad to go outside in her pajamas.

But everyone must be asleep now... so no one would know about this.

The pond she had gone to with cat-like steps had countless blue lights she had seen earlier.

"Waaah..."

She reached out her hand to touch it, but it scattered before her hand could reach it.

-I'm glad you came to see me.

-I'm glad you came.

She looked at the lights for a long time, as if possessed by the beautiful mezzo-soprano she heard from here and there.

As she followed the lights with her eyes, she felt a strange sense of drowsiness.

-Thump.

"Nella!! Nella!!!"

It's Lucas oppa's voice. But my eyelids are so heavy.

(End of Chapter)