Chapter 603: Can I Help You?

Maya POV

She woke up, and her head felt like a dropped stone column on her face. She was already beginning to regret asking Julius to help her with her willpower training. She thought he had been exaggerating at first.

She had trained with Tier 5s and even Cassandra a few times, so she was confident in his ability to hold his own during a battle of wills. However, that wasn’t the case with Julius’s aura. It felt like an apex predator looking down on her while it slowly chewed on her soul.

She glanced over across the spatially enhanced carriage and spotted the boy in question standing by the window, munching on something out of a beat-up lunchbox with the face of a flaming chicken on the front of it.

She didn’t see anyone else. Shin was probably out with Caldrus. The old man enjoyed training others in swordplay. Maya sometimes joined, but her specialty was the staff, not the sword.

Loreyn must have been off scouting the next town or on another mission for Cassandra. Unlike the rest of them, this wasn’t a vacation for Loreyn. Maya tried to help, but Loreyn insisted that she relax and enjoy her time in a new country.

“Enjoy your late-night training?” Cassandra asked when Maya finally crawled out of her bedroll. The woman was reading in her chair, but a knowing smile played on her face.

“You knew?”

“Of course. I’m glad that you took it upon yourself to do so. I was going to push you to ask him yourself if you waited any longer.”

Maya shouldn’t be surprised. Tier 6’s were always so gosh darned perceptive. She glanced over at Julius. Him too. I don’t know how he does it, but he is somehow able to track me no matter what I do.

She was pretty proud of her stealth skills. Her ability to hide her mana and her presence was a talent she always had since she was young. She believed that it was due to her living on the streets and hiding from dangerous thugs for years that helped her with this.

But Julius always knew when she was sneaking up on him. Maybe it was her aura. Her ability to hide her aura fell behind her techniques to hide her mana. But that would naturally improve over time, after all, she hadn’t had her aura for very long. Regardless, she was determined to surprise him just once before they made it back to Corvus.

Speaking of Corvus, they shouldn’t be too far away. The carriage was much faster than your average carriage, and they were getting closer to the border of the Empire each day. The increasingly larger number of monsters and adventurers around the area proved this.

“Here, take this,” Cassandra said and handed over a small vial. She didn’t even question what it was and uncorked it, pouring it down her throat. She let out a sigh of relief when her headache quieted down. She also hadn’t realized it either, but it was like a weight had come off her chest, as if her soul was revitalized. Too bad it tasted like wet moss and dirt.

She smacked her lips together, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. “What was that?”

“Just a little potion that should reinvigorate your aura. I suspected something like that might happen. His aura is a nasty little thing, so is that crown of his,” Cassandra said, still looking down at her book. But she said it loud enough for Julius, who was still eating by the window, to hear her.

“I can hear you,” Julius said from the window with a mouth full of food.

“You were supposed to,” Cassandra shot back. It was jarring to see how casual the Tier 6 woman acted in front of Julius. It was equally surprising to see how Julius acted in front of her. Most people his age would be scared to be near a Tier 6; nevertheless, he acts casually with one.

Maya had only gotten used to it because she had known Cassandra for years. But even with that, there was still a barrier between them. One built from Maya’s respect and fear of the woman.

She knew that Cassandra wouldn’t hurt her, but she had also seen Cassandra level an entire mountain range before.

“Are you sure you’re okay with me using my aura against her?” Julius asked, polishing off the rest of his food.

“As long as she doesn’t mind. I believe it would be good for her. She and my grandson could use some toughening up. Maya, less so considering her childhood, but I feel that in recent years, she has been coddled a little too much by various elders and teachers. Too bad Shin doesn’t see the value in accepting your help or advice.”

“You know that I’m technically younger than him, right?” Julius pointed out.

“And? That shouldn’t stop him from trying to improve,” Cassandra noted with a disappointed shake of her head.

Julius opened his mouth to argue, but must have decided that it wasn’t worth it, and she watched as Julius’s little spirit made an appearance. He waved at Maya and Cassandra before focusing his attention on Julius’s palm, which held a chunk of life mana, and sucking on it with a soft coo.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

The adorable guy had quickly become everyone’s favorite within this past week, she even spotted Caldrus, the grumpy old man looking fondly at the cute life spirit. It wasn’t surprising either. Drasil was damn cute. The only thing is that he ate a lot. She didn’t know where all of that mana went.

She smiled at Drasil’s antics and looked outside to where she heard swords clashing. Speaking of Shin, Maya didn’t even try to defend him. She knew why he was acting like a moody little teenager for the past week. Namely, she was staring at that very reason right now.

“What? Do I have food on my face?” Julius suddenly asked, noticing her attention and rubbing his face, as if removing any lingering crumbs from his meal.

She shook her head. “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

Julius shrugged and started to work on his life mana orb thingies once again. She still didn’t quite understand what he was trying to do with those things. To her senses, they looked like plain balls of mana.

She sighed. To be honest, she couldn’t even find it in herself to blame Shin for his envy or jealousy either. Julius was an insane example of talent and was already someone worth envying. Especially when it was clear that the boy who had won his way through the tournament they came to watch was clearly holding back.