At the end of the school day, Leo went straight to the Training Center. While waiting for Miss Camille to show up, Leo trained his swordsmanship.
“Leo.”
Miss Camille’s voice suddenly resounded when Leo was engrossed with his training.
Leo stopped swinging the sword and turned to look at her, and his eyes widened with surprise when he saw that she wasn’t alone.
“M-Miss Camille? What is that little girl doing here?” Leo pointed at Nina Wraith, who was following her from behind.
“This is Nina Wraith, and she has something to say to you.” Miss Camille said.
She looked at Nina and nodded slightly, gesturing for her to do her thing.
Nina Wraith took a deep breath and approached Leo, who swallowed nervously after sensing the serious aura around her.
‘What does she want now?’ He silently hoped to himself that she wasn’t there to cause trouble.
“Leo, I want to buy your magic talents. Help me with my experiments and I will do whatever you want in return.”
“Huh? You want to buy my magic talents? What kind of nonsense is that? I refuse. Furthermore, I don’t have any magic talents.”
“You can stop lying to me. I know you have a Dark Magic Affinity. I have what’s called Spiritual Eyes, and it allows me to see your mana flow, so you’re wasting your efforts. Miss Camille also confirmed it.”
Leo looked at Miss Camille with a surprised look on his face.
“It’s true. I told her, but that doesn’t matter since she can still see your mana. There’s no way to hide your magic from someone who has Spiritual Eyes unless you have a certain expensive artifact. Fortunately, people that have Spiritual Eyes are incredibly rare, so you don’t need to worry about being seen by many people.” Miss Camille said.
Nina Wraith then said, “Leo, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You can either assist me and I owe you a favor, or I can threaten to expose your secret. If you don’t want either to happen, you will have to kill me.”
Leo frowned and pondered in silence.
“Before I answer you, I want to ask you a question. There are plenty of people out there that are stronger, more knowledgeable, and more capable than me. Hell, there’s someone like that beside you right now, so why do you want my help so badly?”
“Because this is something that can only be done by those with a Dark Magic Affinity, and my magic affinity is not strong enough to achieve my goals. People with Dark Magic Affinity are very rare, much less someone with your talents. You have an S-Rank Dark Magic Affinity, right?”
“That’s right…” He nodded.
“Then you’re the only one who can help me.”
“What kind of help do you want from someone like me?”
“I want you to help me resurrect someone.” Nina said in a calm but chilling voice.
“W-What did you just say? You want me to resurrect the dead? Is that even possible?” Leo was dumbfounded to hear such a ridiculous thing, but since this was a magic world, it might not be as ridiculous as it sounded.
Miss Camille frowned and said, “Nina… Resurrection magic is exceptionally dangerous and also forbidden. As a counselor of this school and a retired Adventurer, I cannot ignore such a thing.”
“I don’t care. You can expel me from the school if you want, but I won’t stop trying to resurrect my mother.” Nina Wraith said in a cold voice.
“…” Miss Camille turned silent.
‘If I recall correctly, Nina came to this city with her mother 10 years ago, but her mother was attacked by a monster on their way here. Although the attack didn’t immediately kill her, the monster that attacked her was highly venomous. Her mother died before they could even reach the city.’
“Even if you successfully resurrect your mother, she will not be the same person you know. She will only be a soulless body that won’t even know how to move. She won’t remember you, nor will she act like your mother. Do you still want a mother like that?” Miss Camille asked her a moment later.
“We won’t know until we try.” Nina stubbornly said.
“No, we know. Nobody has ever been able to successfully resurrect a human. Even vampires that are known as creators of dark magic cannot resurrect humans.”
Nina Wraith gritted her teeth and said, “I don’t care! I am going to do it no matter what you say to me!”
“Leo! It’s time for you to decide! Will you help me or not?! If you help me, I will give you anything you want! My body, my heart, my soul— anything!”
Leo was speechless. He’s never been pressured in such a manner before.
Suddenly—
Ding!
<You have received a special Quest from the Magic System>
[Quest: Help Nina Wraith]
[Description: Help Nina Wraith resurrect her mother.]
[Time Limit: N/A]
[Reward: 100,000 Magic Experience, 500 Magic Point]
[Warning: Failure to do so will result in a penalty.]
Leo’s eyes widened with shock after seeing this special quest given to him by the system.
‘Are you serious? Why does the system want me to help her? I will even be penalized if I don’t help her?! That’s outrageous!’
The fact the system could punish him for not doing the quest terrified Leo. He has always thought that the system was there to help him, yet he was basically being threatened to do something at this moment.
‘I always had a feeling that there could be punishments for failing the quests, but I didn’t want to test out such a theory… What kind of penalty will I have to suffer if I fail this quest? It must be pretty bad if the system is giving me a warning…’
After a moment of silence, Leo sighed, “All right. I will help you.”
“Really?!” Nina Wraith’s eyes flickered with hope.
“Leo?! Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?! Even if you feel bad for her, you must not mess with resurrection magic! If the Adventurers’ Guild or the government finds out about it, you could be punished with death!” Miss Camille immediately tried to convince him to change his mind.
Leo showed her a bittersweet smile. He didn’t know what to say to her. What was he supposed to say? That he was basically being threatened to help her by a system that can only be seen by him?
“I mean… If I don’t help her, she’ll expose my secret to everyone, right?” Leo eventually found an excuse, albeit a pretty bad one.
“So what if she’ll expose the fact that you can use magic? We have plenty of ways and excuses around that! However, you won’t be able to bullshit your way out of messing with resurrection magic!”
“Miss Camille, you told me that necromancy magic is allowed in this world, so why is resurrection magic not allowed? Aren’t they basically the same thing? I mean, the concept is pretty similar…” He asked her.
“Necromancy magic and resurrection magic are two completely different things! You summon the dead with necromancy, but with resurrection, you revive the dead!”
“Even if you say that… I’m sorry, Miss Camille, but I want to help her. I doubt I will even be able to actually use resurrection magic. After all, I can barely use Tier 2 magic spells.”
“If you help her with resurrection magic, then I will stop training or helping you! You promised that you would never betray me! You’re already breaking your own promise!”
“W-What?! That’s not fair! I am definitely not betraying you! I just want to help this little girl who is clearly mentally unstable! If I don’t help her, god knows what she might do to herself or others!”
“I’ve had enough of this nonsense! Go help her if you want! Just remember that if you help her, we’re through! You and me!” Miss Camille turned around and left the room in anger.
Leo was speechless. The end of their situation seemed almost like a breakup between lovers.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen…” Nina said in an apologetic voice afterward.
“Forget it. I have no choice but to help you, anyway.” He shook his head.
“Anyways, tell me more about this resurrection magic. Just so you know, I can only use Tier 2 dark magic right now, so it might be a long way before I can use such powerful-sounding magic.”
“Resurrection magic is a special kind of magic. It can be used by anyone as long as they meet two requirements— having a strong enough Dark Magic Affinity and having enough mana to cast it. Magic spells like this are often referred to as Tier 0 magic.” Nina explained.
“Tier 0 magic, huh? Although I might meet the first requirement, the second requirement is definitely a no-go. I won’t have enough mana.” He said.
“That’s fine. I have a way around your mana, but just in case, how much mana do you have right now?”
“Around 1,000…” He said.
“What?! That little?! Even though you have such a strong mana flow?!” Nina reacted with bafflement.
“I told you. I’ve only started using magic a month ago.” He shrugged.
“Damn it… You’ll need at least 9,000 magic for this to work…”
“Do we really need to do this now? We can do it once I have enough mana.”
“That will take too long! Even with your talents, you’ll need at least one year to acquire that much mana!”
Leo pondered for a moment before speaking, “Give me a month or two. I’ll be able to get 9,000 mana.”
“Seriously? How are you going to do that?” Nina doubted him.
“I have my ways. If you don’t believe me, we can just drop this whole thing.”
“Fine, I will wait.”
“One more thing!” Leo suddenly said.
“Because of you, Miss Camille is angry at me and will even stop helping me! She was supposed to help me train my magic! How are you going to compensate me for this?!”
“If it’s just magic training, I can help you with that.” Nina said in a calm voice.
“You? You’re barely older than I am! And you’re just a student like me!” He exclaimed.
“So what? I am still a Witch and one of the top students in this academy. Although I might not be as powerful as someone like Miss Camille, I am very capable with magic. And knowing Miss Camille, she will eventually calm down.”
“Unbelievable…” Leo rubbed his eyes in a stressed manner.
Miss Camille has been a huge help to him since the beginning, and she was not wrong in trying to stop him from messing with dangerous magic, so he felt very guilty for not listening to her. However, it was not as though he had a choice due to the system that basically forced him into helping Nina.
‘If this Miss Camille is anything like the one back in my old world, things will eventually work out like usual. I often argue and get into fights with the Miss Camille of my world, but we always fix things and end up going back to normal…’ He sighed inwardly.
Meanwhile, Lilith watched the whole drama from above with a profound expression on her face.
‘Resurrection magic, huh? Will he be able to pull it off? This will be exciting.’ She smiled inwardly.
After leaving the Training Center, Miss Camille went straight home with an angry frown on her face the entire way.
Once she got home, she went to one of her cabins and retrieved a bottle of alcohol.
“That ungrateful little brat! How dare he choose that little girl over me after all that I have done for him?!” She popped the bottle cap and started drinking mouthfuls of the alcohol, quickly getting drunk.
“Damn you, Leo! You’ll regret this!” She stopped drinking for a moment to curse him before putting the bottle back into her mouth.
