Yesterday, in the forest. Summoned a swarm of Sylph Rats. Dice remembered it. Seven times since morning. Each time: "This is bad." Just that. Chewing bread. Opening the Sonota terminal. Garald's voice echoing. "Abnormal reaction again on the eastern outer edge!!" (But I had control—) He didn't. Not at all. Sighed. Typed into the search bar: "Toretta. Training grounds. Free." Pure distraction. Faldine Forest meant another disaster. Indoor grounds. Start from basics. That conclusion came last night at his pillow. Scrolling results. Sonota Academy official grounds: 800 Reeves per session. Cadenza Magic School practice field: no outside students. Toretta commercial district private dojo: membership only. "Ah." Stopped scrolling. A post linked to the map app. West Toretta. Near Lumiere River. "Abandoned warehouse converted. Soundproof. Anti-magic barrier. Free." Anonymous poster. Two years old. "Lilith! Lilith!" Shouted down the hallway. "What's with the noise?" Silver hair appeared through the doorway. Odd eyes blinking sleepily. Left and right. She'd learned Partiere language through Sonota Academy support. But that Kansai accent never left. "Found a training ground. Free one!" "Free?" Lilith raised an eyebrow slightly. "Safe?" "Seems safe!!" No basis for that claim. None. --- West Toretta sat downriver from Lumiere. Wedged between commercial and port districts. Older neighborhood. Stone buildings. Tangled alleys. Morning light slanted through narrow streets. Dew glinted between cobblestones. Dice walked, checking the map. Lilith read signs one by one. "Blacksmith." "Dried goods." "Shoe repair." "This place. Reminds me of my old world's backstreets." "Really?" "The smell. Rust and stone and... cooking." Dice used his nose. Iron smell. Damp wind from the river. Fried food drifting from somewhere. Life-smell. She was right. The red dot on the map got closer. "That one?" Brick building ahead. Converted warehouse. Windows sealed. Faint magical flow on the walls. Anti-magic barrier installed. Heavy wooden door. One padlock hanging. "Right." Crossed arms. "I'll open it." "That's a padlock." "With magic!!" Lilith stepped back. Dice raised his right index and middle fingers. Left hand for support. Concentrated Soltia particles. Metal access system short incantation—— "Fi·Alta·Carne——" KABOOOOOOM!!!!!!! The wall beside the door roared. Not the padlock. A fire extinguisher mounted on the wall. Activated spectacularly. Water shot like a cannon. Two seconds: both soaked. Water pressure insane. Cobblestones became a river. "Ahhhhhhh!!!!!" "Cold!!!!!" Both frozen, dripping. Lilith opened her mouth, water dripping. "...Water magic came out." "It didn't!! Completely different thing activated!!!!!" The extinguisher still spraying. Gooooo sound. Water flowing down the alley. Dice's shoes: soggy inside. "...Amazing. Hitting something completely unrelated. That's a talent, actually." "That's not encouragement!!!!!" Then. Footsteps from behind. Steady rhythm. Quiet. Turned around. Black coat. Blue youth walking through the alley. Over 180 centimeters tall. Black hair. One vivid red streak in the mesh. Sharp eyes. Red eyes. Not just pigment. Something else glowing deeper. Cold face. Looked at Dice, Lilith, and the extinguisher once. Expression unchanged. The youth reached the door. Pulled a key from his coat pocket. Opened the padlock easily. Click. One sound. Door opened. Walked in. Didn't turn back. Said nothing. "Um——" Dice called out, soaked. The youth vanished. Lilith looked at the door. "Guess we can go in." Deadpan. Walked right in. Dice gave up on his shoes. Followed. --- Inside was vast. About 200 square meters. High ceiling. Walls had magical patterns carved in places. Wooden floor. Slight bounce when stepping. Old training dummies lined the walls. No windows. Dim. But ceiling had illumination stones——lamps with sealed Soltia particles——spaced evenly, lighting everything uniformly. Dice, still soaked, started incantation prep. No one to hit here. No rats like Faldine. The youth at the wall. Moving alone. Quietly. Hand seal training. Seals were clean. Finger angles had no waste. Dice focused on his own seals. First try. Incanted. Light particles appeared. Scattered immediately. Second try. Again. Concentration broke. Elbow angle felt wrong. Third incantation started—— Someone came beside him. The youth. Standing silently. Watching Dice's right hand. Then, without a word, grabbed his right wrist. "Eh?" Adjusted the angle. Millimeters. That's all. Returned to the wall. Dice held the adjusted angle. The seal locked. Something different. Fourth incantation. Light held its form better. "Ah, something——" The youth came again. This time lifted his left elbow silently. Five millimeters up. That's all. Returned. Fifth incantation. Light more stable. Sixth incantation started——he came again. This time: foot weight distribution. Right foot forward slightly. Weight shift. "Um——" The youth left. Lilith watched from the corner. Took out a notepad. "What are you writing?" "He keeps touching you." "He's correcting me!!" "But he doesn't say anything." "He's the silent-fixing type probably!!" Seventh incantation. The youth came again. This time: neck angle. Slight forward tilt. Dice activated his terminal's mirror function. Checked himself. Three seconds. Silence. (Everything was backwards from the textbook illustrations.) Didn't say it out loud. But his legs weakened. Knees folded. Slid down. Lilith came. "You okay?" "Alive..." "What happened?" "Everything was wrong... all the angles... backwards..." "Well, but... he fixed it for you." Lilith paused slightly. "At least you got corrected." Comfort was there. Temperature was there. But something was matter-of-fact. When Dice got like this, Lilith didn't do serious faces. Helped, actually. Dice stood up. Then Lilith said loudly: "He kept touching you. Does he like you?" The voice echoed through the training grounds. The youth at the wall stopped. Turned around. Red eyes toward Lilith. Straight. Cold. Fixed for two seconds. Lilith held the gaze. "Your eyes are scary." Observation. Deadpan. Not scared at all. The youth turned forward again. Dice held his head. --- During break, Dice checked his magical equipment. A crack from last week's training. Still not sealed. Small crystal amplifier for his right hand. Boosted Soltia particle output. Cracks reduced precision. Repair needed tools and expertise. Dice had neither. Sat against the wall. Stared at the equipment. Footsteps. The youth came. Crouched in front of Dice. Pulled a tool set from his coat pocket. Specialized thin ones. Several types. Spread them out. Looked at the crack silently. "Can I use your tools?" No answer. But took one tool. Placed it at the crack's edge. Started. Lilith leaned in. "You're skilled. Your hands are pretty." The youth's hands stopped. Two seconds. Continued. "You're blunt but you take care of people. Like a dog." The youth's hands stopped. Three seconds. Continued. Dice pulled Lilith's sleeve. Whispered. "Don't make him angry." "I'm complimenting him." "He doesn't get it." The youth worked silently. Melting crystal along the crack. Filling it. Precise work. Fingers moved with no hesitation. Dice watched. This is what craftsman hands look like, he thought. Thirty minutes later, the crack was sealed. The youth packed his tools. Said nothing. Returned to his spot. Dice looked at the repaired equipment. (What is this person?) --- Next morning. Opened the training ground door. The youth was already there. And there was a table. No table yesterday. Three bento boxes on it. Dice and Lilith stopped. "...Bento?" "Bento." The youth was stretching at the wall. Not looking. Three boxes. One for Dice. One for Lilith. One for the youth. Lilith opened hers. "Ah!!!!!" "What!?" "Octopus wieners!!!!!" Two small wieners with cut-in feet on the rice. Broccoli. Egg. Salmon. Nutrition balanced. "Octopus wieners!!! Eight legs and cute! The cuts are perfect! Did he cut these by hand?" She examined each one carefully. The youth turned toward the wall. Slight angle. Dice opened his. Same contents. But more rice. Growing boy, probably. "You thought about nutrition?" "...Yesterday's bento. Only carbs." Short. Quiet voice. Resumed training. Dice froze. Yesterday's bento: onigiri he gave Lilith, four pieces of bread for himself. All carbs. (He was watching?) Lilith leaned close. Whispered. "Your ears are red." "Huh?" Lilith gestured with her eyes toward the youth. His ears, barely visible above his coat collar. Slightly red. Dice looked to confirm. The youth moved one step toward the wall. Lilith grinned. Dice whispered back. "...Let's pretend we didn't see." "Aw." Behind the wall, a tool made a small sound. Probably heard it. --- Afternoon. Sun tilting. Lilith was checking her terminal during breaks. Blaze Festival information——Partiere's biggest annual magic competition, held during autumn equinox month. Entry conditions. Past records on the official Sonota Academy site. She stopped. Looked at the screen. At the youth. At the screen. "...Wait." Turned the terminal toward the youth. Last year's finals screenshot. "That's you." The training ground's air changed. The youth looked at the screen once. Eyes down. That was confirmation. Dice took the terminal. Played the video. Finals stage. Blaze Colosseum——15,000 capacity official venue at Toretta's south commercial district——lights blazing. The youth on stage. Younger face. Same eyes. Red. Cold. Hand seals. Short incantation. Barely audible. Magic deployed. Dice raised the volume. Commentary: "Regulation-exceeding output! At Novalis-class age, this is——" Dice paused. (Completely different.) Couldn't express the gap in numbers or words. Same Soltia system. Same incantation. Same seal family. But scale, precision, everything else: different world. Novalis-class——just the first step for a mage——Dice couldn't understand half of what made that magic incredible. That made it worse. Dice said nothing. Lilith faced the youth. "Second place means you weren't first." Tone unclear. Reading the room or not, impossible to tell. "Were you frustrated?" Direct. The youth paused long. Then said quietly: "Doesn't matter." Three words. Different tone. Not the blunt silence from before. Had outline. A line saying "don't push further" around those three words. Dice couldn't speak. Lilith stayed quiet. Training ground went silent. Just the illumination stones' faint sound. Three seconds. Two. One—— Beep beep beep beep beep!!!!!!! Tan, tan, tatatan!!!!!!! Dice's terminal screamed. Lilith's. She'd hit play while adjusting. Loud radio calisthenics blasted through the grounds. Cheerful melody at maximum volume. Echoing off stone walls. All three flinched. Lilith operated the terminal. "Wait! How do I stop——!!" "Pause isn't there——!!" The youth reached out. "Give it." "No! Pause is here!" Lilith hit a button. Volume maxed. Radio calisthenics got louder. Stone walls screamed. The youth froze. Completely. Expressionless. Frozen. Dice grabbed the terminal. Long-pressed the power button. Screen went dark. Sound stopped. Silence. Lilith said: "...The music was loud." Dice collapsed. The youth looked at the ceiling one second. Closed his eyes. Seriousness's remains scattered quietly on the training ground floor. --- Evening. Three left together. West Toretta's alleys burned orange. Cobblestones glowed. Wind from Lumiere River. Slightly damp. Cool. The youth walked ahead. Coat hem swayed. Didn't turn. Footsteps steady. One rhythm. Alley echoed. Dice and Lilith walked behind. Side by side. Lilith whispered. "Why does he help?" Dice whispered back. "Has a reason, I think." "What kind?" "Don't know. But... his face when we talked about second place." Lilith