Helos carried Eleanor out of the academy gates in one go, sprinting nearly 100 meters further before she dared to stop.
She set Eleanor down and leaned over, hands on her knees as she panted heavily. That sudden burst of energy had taken a significant toll on her stamina.
“Phew… finally shook them off.”
She wiped a bead of nonexistent sweat from her forehead, feeling her heart still pounding wildly.
Gavi followed closely behind and stopped as well, gently placing Agatha, whom she had been carrying on her shoulder, onto the ground.
“Thank you, Helos.”
Eleanor patted her slightly rumpled skirt, her face still flushed with a trace of lingering fear. She looked at her sister with eyes full of gratitude.
“If it weren’t for you, I really don’t know how I would have escaped. Those classmates were just too enthusiastic.”
Helos waved her hand, trying to act nonchalant. “It was nothing.” Her ragged breathing betrayed her, however. “They were just so annoying, like a swarm of flies.”
On the other side, Agatha, who had just been set down, was currently leaning against a roadside wall and retching.
She had been shaken senseless by Gavi’s unbuffered “sack-carrying” style of transport and felt like the entire world was spinning.
“So dizzy… ugh… I can’t take it…”
Agatha’s face was pale, and her stomach felt like it was turning upside down. “Miss Gavi… next time… can you be… a little gentler…”
Gavi tilted her head, the points of light in her eye sockets flickering slightly as if she were contemplating the definition of the word “gentle,” but in the end, she didn’t respond.
It couldn’t be helped; Gavi was a golem, after all, and naturally wouldn’t consider the endurance levels of different humans when taking action.
Helos glanced at her with some sympathy.
***
After resting for a short while, Agatha finally felt a bit better. She straightened up, but the look in her eyes as she turned toward Helos changed instantly.
Those crimson eyes were no longer filled with their usual daze or enthusiasm; instead, they burned with a light as if she had discovered a rare treasure!
She rushed in front of Helos, disregarding all etiquette, and grabbed Helos’s shoulders tightly. She fired off a lethal three-question barrage like a machine gun:
“Helos! How did you just do that?!”
“How did your speed suddenly become so fast?! And your strength! You actually jumped that high while carrying Miss Eleanor?! That’s not something a normal person can do!”
“I didn’t even feel you using mana! Did you use some special alchemical potion?! Or do you have some magic item on you that grants physical enhancement?! Tell me, tell me!”
Agatha’s questions crashed down like a storm, each one piercing Helos’s heart like a sharp sword.
Those frighteningly bright eyes stared intently at Helos, as if trying to see right through her.
Helos was startled by her feverish display and subconsciously took half a step back.
‘Shoot! I was so focused on saving her that I forgot to hide my abilities!’
She cursed inwardly.
This was a power from her Valiance Arts alchemy; she could never let another soul know about it except herself! After all, it was one of her most important trump cards.
Facing Agatha’s probing gaze, Helos’s mind raced as she tried to find a reasonable excuse to brush her off.
“Um… it was probably because of the emergency.”
“When people are in a crisis, they can always burst with some potential, right? Like adrenaline or something…”
Her eyes shifted, and her tone was vague.
“Adrenaline?”
Agatha tilted her head, clearly never having heard the word.
“It’s a special hormone in the body! It secretes automatically when you encounter danger, making a person incredibly strong and fast!”
Helos began to talk nonsense with a straight face, trying to use the biological knowledge from her past life to bluff her way through.
“Oh?”
Agatha looked at her skeptically, her crimson eyes still full of inquiry. “Is there really such a thing? How come I’ve never seen it in books?”
“That… that might be a relatively rare physiological phenomenon?”
Helos could only steel herself and keep making things up. “Not everyone can trigger it. I can only do it occasionally…”
‘No, I can’t let her keep asking. This girl is too curious!’
Seeing that Agatha looked ready to continue her interrogation, Helos quickly changed the subject.
“Let’s not talk about that! Agatha, didn’t you say you were going to the commercial district to buy a catalyst? If we don’t leave now, the stagecoach at the station will probably be gone.”
Sure enough, at the mention of a “catalyst,” Agatha’s attention was immediately diverted.
“Ah, right, right! I almost forgot the important stuff!”
She slapped her head in frustration. “Let’s go, let’s go! We have to get to the station quickly!”
Helos breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
She had finally managed to fool this curious little thing.
However…
A trace of doubt surfaced in her mind.
When she had used Physical Enhancement just now, she did feel as though the effect was quite a bit stronger than before. Whether it was the increase in speed or power, it had exceeded her expectations.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been bold enough to take a “leap of faith” while carrying Eleanor.
‘Was it my imagination? Or does the effect of this skill increase as my proficiency grows?’
She subconsciously moved her body but didn’t feel anything unusual.
‘Forget it, maybe I was just too excited.’
That feeling of being filled with power seemed to have been only a fleeting moment.
She temporarily pushed the question to the back of her mind.
“Miss Eleanor,”
Agatha had regained her energy and enthusiastically invited the nearby Eleanor, “would you like to come with us to the commercial district to look around? Today is a rest day! It’s so boring to stay at the academy all the time!”
Eleanor hesitated at first.
She saw that it was still early and thought about how she didn’t have any special plans for the day. Besides, walking around with her sister and this lively new girl seemed nice.
So, she smiled and nodded. “Very well, I’ll go with you. I wanted to visit the commercial district myself.”
“Great!”
And so, the four of them walked toward the nearest Windrunner Beast Station, chatting and laughing.
The streets of the Imperial Capital were much wider than those of Olivius City. The roads were paved with smooth white stone, and the architectural styles on both sides were quite elegant and magnificent.
Even in the area near the station, one could feel the prosperity and heritage of the empire’s capital.
Just as they boarded the windrunner beast stagecoach, Helos could feel the effects of Physical Enhancement slowly receding like a tide.
Her body returned to its normal state, and a trace of fatigue washed over her.
However, what no one noticed was —
Just as Helos raised her hand to rub her slightly aching shoulders, a faint, ember-like red light flashed silently deep within her pale purple eyes.
Then, the red light vanished completely, as if it had never appeared at all.
Awakening huh, hope the calamity isn’t too much to handle