Date: Unspecified
Ti: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Morningstar University Campus, Garden of Beginning, Ti Vestige, Morningstar University 2nd Campus
The more I looked at Lucine standing before , the more satisfied I felt. How could I not be? She had achieved everything I expected of her and far more. It felt like assigning ordinary howork and receiving a masterpiece in return. No wonder teachers love their overachieving students. Watching them grow must offer a satisfaction that helps soften the sting of their ager wages. Still, I’m probably overthinking it—any teacher would choose the fair pay they rightfully deserve.
"What are you doing?" I asked Lucine rhetorically when I caught her staring at blankly. Clearly, she was once again using her future-finding ti-rule aning on . I guess she had grown addicted to it. And who wouldn’t be? It gave her a taste of omniscience—so much so that even calling it godlike wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
"Nothing. Now that I’ve ford my ti-rule stream, I wanted to see if the Future Finding aning would work on you. But no luck. It seems you’re a bigger variable than I expected," Lucine said, her voice edged with the sa irritation and displeasure you’d see in soone trying to quit cigarettes. Being around had cut off her reliance on Future Finding ti-rule aning for a while now, and she was starting to feel the withdrawals.
I shook my head in disappointnt, expecting more from her having risen to the ranks of top strongest in the Card World. Just then, Lucine grasped my right wrist. I didn’t even realize it before she grasped it. Thanks to the Viltronian physique, she now had the physical prowess that would contend with Field Marshal Lorn, who was a Martial Sage. With that, Lucine’s only weakness was also taken care of.
Before I could ask what she was doing, a coldness spread through my body from her touch—only to vanish a mont later as if it had never transpired. I imdiately realized that Lucine had used her fourth ti-rule aning, Eternal Stillness, on . But it failed to break through my ti-rule resistance. And in that instant, I finally understood why she had been trying to use her Future Finding aning on earlier. With her newfound strength, she wanted to asure herself against .
Of all things, she had chosen to test with her ti-rule mastery. I couldn’t really bla her; ti-rule was her strongest field. Unfortunately for her, I also happened to have the strongest defense against it. So she quickly reached the conclusion that even with her new upgrades and prowess, she still wasn’t a match for and hurriedly let go of my arm.
"Aren’t you being a bit ungrateful?" I asked Lucine, holding her gaze and looking straight into her frightened, guilt-ridden eyes. "I went through all that trouble to cure your ti-rule dentia, even after you called a liar, a fraud, insane—and even accused of trying to assassinate you. And now that you’re cured, the first thing you do is attack ? As expected of you Morningstar University types. Not only are you heartless, you don’t even have the decency to show a shred of honor."
Lucine looked away, avoiding my gaze, and tried to defend her university with a weak protest. "Wyatt, you’re going too far. I wasn’t being ungrateful—I only wanted to test my strength, and you’re the only one here strong enough for that. Besides, since you’re the one who suggested and led the procedure, aren’t you responsible for helping evaluate and adapt to my new prowess?"
"You rembered that? I thought you’d forgotten. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have attacked without warning and then tried to downplay it and defend your actions by claiming you were just testing your new prowess. You Morningstar University people set a new-record for ungratefulness and shalessness every single day—just when I start to think I’ve seen it all," I snapped back at Lucine, irritated by her attempt to act clever with .
Thankfully, as an academician, Lucine’s first instinct wasn’t to test her strength with her fists but to rely on her ti-rule comprehension. If she hadn’t been cautious and had gone with the old-school thod of testing one’s strength, my cover would have been blown instantly.
As a hybrid Celestial–Viltronian–World Calamity Tree, my physique was extrely strong for a card master, but with all my SSS-rank curses being used to nourish Slay’s egg, my physical strength was nowhere near that of a devil-realm Viltronian. It would have been an instant defeat.
I can’t stress enough how overwhelming a Viltronian physique was—especially in the devil realm, even though Lucine’s still technically at the peak of the chivalry class. That alone would allow Lucine to fight opponents a whole class above her.
"I’m being ungrateful?" Lucine snapped, glaring at before firing back, "If I were ungrateful, would I have ordered my staff to return the ti vestige to our present and treat you with the utmost respect, no matter what happened to —even before I entered the ti-expansion chamber? That was before you even swore your oath in the presence of the world’s will. Tell , if I intended to be ungrateful, why would I make those arrangents?"
"Wyatt, tell ."
Lucine wasn’t lying. She really had instructed her staff exactly as she claid, long before I swore the oath to calm her nerves. In fact, that sincere gesture was one of the things that convinced to take the oath in the first place. I still wasn’t sure whether she’d done it out of fear of the strength I’d shown her or because she genuinely trusted —but regardless of her motives, she had done it.
"Anyone can claim anything now," I shot back, even though I knew perfectly well that none of her actions ca from ungratefulness. I accused her anyway, deliberately trying to rile her up and coax her into proving how thankful she truly was—not just for curing her ti-rule dentia, but also for helping her grow stronger.
"If you were truly grateful," I added with a pointed look, "you’d hand over a few of the ti-rule runes Morningstar University has been secretly nurturing in here."
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