Ael woke up abruptly from his sleep.
The first thing he did upon waking was to reach under the blanket.
Fortunately, nothing was wrong.
He let out a sigh of relief before shifting his attention to his surroundings.
This familiar decor… it was definitely his home.
Ael glanced around and saw Meira sitting on a nearby chair, meditating to restore her mana, and also spotted Nia crouched by the bed.
Nia’s hair was loose, and her face and clothes were smeared with gray-black dust. It was obvious she hadn’t even bothered to clean up after coming home and had been keeping watch by his bedside the whole time.
Ael’s heart swelled with emotion. He couldn’t help but tug hard at the blanket, trying to sit up, but as he attempted to move, he suddenly realized he had no sensation at all in his legs.
“Damn it, where are my legs!”
The shock in his voice was unexpectedly loud, tinged with panic.
That shout immediately roused Nia, who lifted her head sleepily but with a hint of surprise.
Before she could say much, Ael clutched her hand tightly like a lifeline, whispering and crying, “Nia, I can’t feel my legs.”
Nia’s expression turned serious as she soothed him, “Don’t panic. Your legs are fine. If you don’t believe me, you can pull back the blanket and check.”
Ael quickly peeled back the blanket. Sure enough, his legs were there, just as Nia had said—intact and attached.
“Then why can’t I feel them?”
“This is what happened,” Nia explained. “The shockwave from the Green Longmo’s self-detonation impacted your lower limbs. Until you fully recover, you won’t be able to use them.”
Ael was silent for a moment, trying to process the news. He forced out a smile.
“Is that so? You don’t have to comfort me. I’m pretty strong mentally—losing two legs isn’t going to break me.”
He regarded Nia’s words with some skepticism.
It was a familiar scenario—family members would often sugarcoat bad news so patients wouldn’t lose hope.
“I’m not lying.”
“Really?”
“Why would I lie about something like this?”
“That’s good to hear.”
Seeing no signs that Nia was deceiving him, Ael relaxed and lay back down on the bed.
“How’s the situation in Belron Town?” he asked.
“I’m not too sure,” Nia replied. “I was too anxious to bring you back for treatment and didn’t follow up on what happened next.”
“But the Green Longmo has been eliminated. As for the lesser demons, that human knight named Frank can handle them easily, so you don’t need to worry.”
“That makes sense.”
Ael’s frown eased as he lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling, lost in thought.
The room grew quiet.
After an unknown stretch of time, Ael suddenly heard Nia’s voice.
“Ael, thank you.”
He tilted his head to look at her.
“Why the sudden thanks?”
“If it weren’t for you, I’d have already returned to Yudia’s embrace,” Nia said softly, lips pressed together in sincerity.
“I was wondering what it was about.”
Ael propped himself up on his hands and teasingly lifted Nia’s chin. “Words alone don’t count. Show me some real action.”
Nia dodged his gaze without expression and asked, “Like what?”
“Like pledging yourself to me, for example.”
“……”
Nia had known he was going to say that.
Do human minds only think about this?
That thought made her feel a bit guilty.
She wasn’t exactly in a position to talk.
Sigh, women’s bodies were even more complicated than she had thought.
The more she thought, the more off-topic it got.
“By the way, how exactly does your fire magic work?”
Not wanting the conversation to veer off into strange territory, Nia changed the subject.
“It’s that thing called ‘dust explosion,’ right?”
“Dust explosion, yes. If you want to know how it works, bring me some flour, and I’ll demonstrate.”
Seeing her curiosity, Ael decided to show her a display of human ingenuity.
Nia quickly fetched some flour from the warehouse and, seeing that he was about to demonstrate right there, couldn’t help but warn him.
“Is it safe to do this indoors?”
Last night’s warehouse explosion had been pretty intense.
“With this small amount of flour, the worst that could happen is accidentally burning down the house,” Ael said as he looked at the flour Nia had brought. “But you and Meira are here. If anything catches fire, just put it out immediately.”
Carefully, Ael sprinkled the flour into the air. The fine particles drifted, forming a thin cloud of dust.
His fingers traced simple magic symbols in the air. The magical energy responded, gathering and forming a small flame.
Under Nia’s watchful eyes, Ael pushed his palm forward, injecting a faint magical energy into the dust cloud. The cloud ignited instantly, amplifying the effect—at the point where the dust was densest, a larger flame flared up with a soft “pop.”
Nia was startled by the display.
—It was only a tiny flame, yet adding flour caused such a powerful burst?
Her expression turned incredulous. “It really can explode? How does that work?”
“It’s a bit complicated to explain. Just know that when dust particles reach a certain concentration in the air, they create a combustible mixture. If this mixture encounters an ignition source—like the flame I used—it burns rapidly, producing a lot of heat and gas. In a confined space, that’s what causes an explosion like last night.”
With last night’s incident and this demonstration in mind, Nia roughly grasped the principle.
Her eyes grew wide as she looked at Ael again.
Just with basic magic, he could cause such an impact. If his magic level rose even further…
Who knew what new tricks he could pull off.
Nia’s astonished gaze made Ael a little cocky. He proudly said, “See? Now you know how awesome I am. I’ve told you, I know a lot of stuff. You can’t travel or live comfortably without me.”
“So, are you considering taking me along now? I did help you defeat the Green Longmo, which should count as a merit, right?”
“Hm.” Nia nodded firmly. “That barely counts.”
It did count as a significant achievement for a beginner mage to severely wound a Green Longmo skilled in interference magic.
Ael was dissatisfied with her answer and shouted, “What do you mean barely counts? Are you trying to back out? I knew it was suspicious you had the final say…”
“I keep my word.”
Normally, if Ael threw a tantrum like this, Nia would have scolded him. But since he was injured, she let it slide this time.
“Although I can let you come with us, your power is average. If you travel with us, you have to obey me, and training can’t stop.”
Nia set her conditions.
“No problem. But Nia—”
“What, already backing out?”
“Not backing out. There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Is there any food? I’m a bit hungry.” Ael rubbed his empty stomach. “I went to Belron Town without eating last night. Now that I’m awake, I’m starving.”
“Well… there probably isn’t much to eat,” Nia hesitated. “There should be ingredients in the kitchen. I’ll cook something.”
“You can cook?”
Ael doubted Nia’s skill.
“Maybe.” Nia hesitated but nodded anyway.