Now, for Helos, a single day of classes was even more agonizing than three consecutive high-intensity alchemy experiments in the Underground Workshop.
Though Julius and Gavi, those two “gatekeepers,” blocked the vast majority of ill-intentioned gazes and harassment for her, the feeling of being pointed at and watched like a rare animal everywhere she went still made her extremely uncomfortable.
On top of that, she had to constantly monitor the restless “curse of silence” inside her body, terrified of accidentally silencing the students around her.
This mental tension was far more unbearable than physical fatigue.
When the evening bell finally rang, signaling the end of the day’s classes, Helos felt like her whole body was falling apart.
The three of them trudged back through the biting wind, their tired bodies dragging all the way to the Rose Pavilion deep within the Academy.
“Welcome back.”
As soon as they pushed open the door, the warm light and the crackling fire in the hearth dispelled the chill from their bodies.
Eleanor was sitting on the sofa reading a thick book of scriptures. Seeing them return, she immediately put the book down and offered a gentle smile.
Since she had no afternoon classes, the Saintess had returned to the dormitory early and, being the virtuous person she was, had prepared hot tea and snacks for them.
“I’m so exhausted…”
Helos threw her book on the floor without any regard for dignity, collapsed onto the sofa beside Eleanor like a boneless cat, and buried her head in her older sister’s chest, which carried a faint scent of the Saintess. She nuzzled it.
But soon, she shifted her body slightly farther away from Eleanor to avoid accidentally knocking her sister unconscious with the curse.
“It’ll get better in a few days. Everyone will forget about this.”
Eleanor tenderly stroked her younger sister’s silver hair and comforted her softly.
“Classes are truly torturous, sister.”
“You’ve worked hard, Sisi.”
***
After a brief rest and complaints, Helos sat up straight on the sofa.
She didn’t forget the important matter.
Though her body was tired, her desire to control the curse was stronger than ever.
“Julius, Gavi.”
Helos looked at her two guards and said seriously:
“Let’s go find Sylvia. I need to figure out as soon as possible how to control this ability inside me.”
“No problem.”
Julius nodded, indicating he was ready.
Naturally, Gavi had no objections either.
So, the four of them gathered once again in front of the massive oil painting in the corner of the hall.
This time, Helos wasn’t as nervous as the day before.
She walked up skillfully and gently tapped the edge of the frame.
With her call, the canvas rippled like water again.
“Teacher Sylvia? Are you there?”
The ghostly figure in a bloodstained white dress yawned, looking half-asleep, and floated out of the painting slowly.
“So noisy…”
Sylvia rubbed her sleepy eyes, her tone full of impatience.
“Are young people these days so full of energy? It’s only just gotten dark, hasn’t it?”
Her hollow eyes swept across the group and finally landed on Julius.
More precisely, on the plate Julius was holding.
“What’s that?!”
Sylvia’s nose twitched, as if she smelled something.
“Today’s offering?”
“Exactly.”
Julius walked up expressionlessly and placed the plate on the altar.
His movements were respectful, but the contents of the plate…
Were truly hard to describe.
On the plate, there was no fine wine like yesterday, nor any decent offerings.
Instead, there was a pile of unevenly cut bread crusts, a few wilted vegetable leaves, and even half an apple that looked like it had been badly sliced.
Sylvia floated onto the table and looked down at the plate.
Instantly, her originally composed face turned black.
The corners of her mouth twitched wildly as she pointed at the contents of the plate, her voice trembling slightly:
“Wha…what is the meaning of this?”
“Don’t tell me this is the kitchen scraps from your breakfast this morning?!”
The Great Slayer of Mages!
A being who once made even the gods tremble in fear!
Now reduced to eating other people’s leftovers?!
This was a colossal humiliation!
Facing Sylvia’s accusation, Julius remained remarkably calm.
“How could it be?”
He blinked and flashed a sincere smile.
“These are all nutritious ingredients. I noticed yesterday that you seemed to enjoy absorbing the essence of substances when you drank. I thought the essence of these foods would also be good for your spirit body.”
“Besides…”
He paused and added:
“Wasting food is shameful. As your disciple, Helos surely wouldn’t want to see these still-edible things thrown away, right?”
Sylvia stared at Julius’s dark eyes, which were practically screaming “frugality,” and a clear “井” character bulged on her forehead.
She really wanted to dump this plate on that bastard’s face.
But she glanced at the dangerous aura radiating from Julius, then considered her current situation of living under someone else’s roof.
When you’re under someone else’s roof, you have to bow your head.
“Fine…you win.”
Sylvia gritted her teeth and forced out the words.
She took a deep breath and decided to ignore the man who was deliberately trying to anger her.
She turned around, automatically disregarding the annoying bystanders around her, and focused all her attention on Helos.
“Come here, girl.”
She beckoned to Helos.
Helos obediently stepped forward.
Sylvia didn’t start teaching immediately.
Her translucent figure slowly rose and began to circle Helos.
Her hollow eyes stared intently at Helos’s body, as if trying to see through her clothes and skin, through every bone and blood vessel inside her.
She even leaned in close to Helos’s neck and sniffed vigorously.
A strange, cold sensation sprayed onto Helos’s skin, raising goosebumps.
The girl shrank her neck uncomfortably, her cheeks slightly flushed.
“Um…Teacher? What are you doing?”
Being sniffed by a female ghost like she was food was far too strange.
Fortunately, Sylvia didn’t continue for long.
She soon stopped her actions and floated back onto the table.
But this time, her brows were tightly furrowed, and the casual expression on her face had vanished, replaced by a deep confusion and gravity.
She muttered to herself:
“This is too strange…”
“What’s wrong?”
Julius asked.
Sylvia glanced at him and, this time, didn’t avoid the question. Instead, she said gravely:
“This girl’s situation is even more complicated than I imagined.”
She pointed at Helos.
“I originally thought the ability on her was just some variation of our spellbreaker bloodline. After all, a few hundred years ago, some mages tried various means to imitate our power.”
“But…”
Sylvia shook her head.
“I was wrong.”
“Whether it’s a curse or a talent, the power inside her is completely different from my original spellbreaker bloodline.”
“How is it different?”
Julius pressed.
Sylvia fell silent.
She seemed to be organizing her words, trying to explain the phenomenon that even she found tricky in a way these mortals could understand.
After holding it in for a long time, she finally blurted out:
“This girl’s ability—just the ability itself—is above my bloodline.”
“What?!”
Everyone present was shocked.
Who was Sylvia?
The Great Slayer of Mages!
If what she said was true, her bloodline power was already the pinnacle of this world.
But now she personally admitted that Helos’s ability was even higher than hers?
“Simply put,”
Sylvia explained.
“My spellbreaker ability can counteract magic, but in essence, it’s still an alternative mana technique derived from my bloodline. I use a special method to neutralize, cut off, or interfere with the opponent’s mana links.”
“But this little girl is different.”
She looked at Helos, a strange light flickering in her eyes.
“Her ability…I can’t see through it. It’s not neutralization, not cutting off.”
“But…well, how should I put it…”
“It’s suppressing magic, as if denying its very existence.”
Sylvia’s voice became ethereal.
“Or rather, in my personal opinion, this ability is still sleeping. It hasn’t even reached its normal awakened form.”
“What you call a curse now is just a tiny ripple of it leaking out.”
The hall fell into dead silence.
Everyone was stunned by these words.
Denying the existence of magic?
If this ability fully awakened, wouldn’t that mean…
Helos alone could end the magical system of this world?
What a terrifying concept that would be.
“Then…then what should I do?”
Helos stammered.
“Can I still learn to control it?”
“Of course you can.”
Sylvia sat back down on the table.
Seeming tired from thinking, she casually picked up a bread crust that Julius had cut off from the plate.
While chewing it without any dignity and mumbling, she said:
“Although the principles are different, the manifestations are somewhat similar. With the right method, I think I should be able to guide it out.”
She swallowed the food and brushed the crumbs off her hands.
“Since your situation is so special, ordinary teaching methods won’t work. I’ll need to think carefully about how to teach you.”
She looked up, her hollow eyes fixed on Helos.
“But, girl, if possible, I’ll need a little bit of your blood.”
However, Helos was staring blankly at the bread crust disappearing into Sylvia’s mouth.
She was still wondering: since Sylvia was a spirit, where did the food she ate actually go?
Did it really convert into mana?
Then why did she need to chew?
While she was still lost in thought, Gavi beside her gently poked her waist.
“Master, Lady Sylvia is speaking to you.”
“Huh? Oh!”
Helos snapped back to reality.
“Blood? What do you need my blood for?”
“To analyze it, of course.”
Sylvia rolled her eyes.
“How else would I know what’s wrong inside your body without tasting it?”
Helos hesitated.
She turned to look at Julius beside her, habitually seeking his opinion.
After thinking for a moment, Julius nodded.
“If it’s just a bit of blood, it should be fine.”
Although he still didn’t fully trust this female ghost, in her professional field, he was willing to defer to the Great Slayer of Mages’ judgment.
Besides, with him watching by her side, if the ghost made any suspicious move, his Holy Sword could cleave her in an instant.
Hearing this, Helos obediently extended her hand.
“Alright.”
Gavi, like a magician, produced a silver knife that had been sterilized by high heat from somewhere.
“It might hurt a little, Master.”
“It’s fine. Go ahead.”
Helos closed her eyes, looking like a martyr about to face execution.
Gavi gently pricked the tip of Helos’s index finger.
A drop of crimson blood immediately welled up.
Sylvia didn’t reach for it.
She leaned in directly, extended her tongue—which was also translucent—and lightly licked the drop of blood.
“Ssssllluuurrrp.”
The blood disappeared.
Helos quickly withdrew her finger, and Gavi promptly wrapped the tiny wound for her.
Everyone watched Sylvia nervously, waiting for her reaction.
However, after obtaining Helos’s blood, Sylvia’s expression became very peculiar.
It was a complex mix of shock, confusion, and even a hint of fear.
Her usually hollow eyes rippled with intense emotion, and her entire spirit body began to flicker unstably.
She murmured softly, her voice carrying an almost imperceptible tremor.
“This taste…”
But she quickly regained control of her emotions.
She didn’t make a fuss. Instead, she cleared her throat and forced herself back into that inscrutable, masterful demeanor.
“Ahem…well, I see.”
Sylvia stood up and brushed off her non-existent skirts.
“I have a general understanding. I have a way to teach you how to control it.”
She changed the subject.
“However, because of the special nature of your ability, it might not be possible to achieve the same complete control I had back then. We’ll have to take it step by step, starting with the most basic perception.”
She glanced at the moonlight outside the window and yawned.
“Alright, that’s enough for today. I need to go back and think carefully about a specific teaching plan. You should rest early.”
With that, without even giving them a chance to ask questions, Sylvia’s figure instantly turned into a streak of light and, with a whoosh, dove back into the painting’s frame, once again becoming a static image with its back turned to them.
Leaving the four people in the hall staring at one another.
“That’s…it?”
Helos looked at the painting, bewildered.
“Didn’t she say she was going to teach me? How come she just tasted my blood and ran off?”
“She probably needs time to prepare.”
Eleanor, though also finding it strange, tried to think positively.
“After all, she is the Great Slayer of Mages. She must have her reasons.”
“Maybe.”
Julius looked at the painting thoughtfully.
He felt that Sylvia’s reaction just now was a bit off, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what.
Since Sylvia had said so, they could only wait patiently.
After tidying up the scene briefly, everyone returned to their rooms to rest.
The hall of the Rose Pavilion fell back into darkness and silence.
Only after confirming that everyone’s auras had faded away and they had all left did Sylvia, hidden within the painting’s frame, slowly turn her head.
Her hollow eyes stared intently in the direction of Helos’s room on the second floor, and her face showed an expression as if she had seen a ghost.
“Damn it…”
She muttered to herself in a voice only she could hear.
“That taste, I’m absolutely sure of it.”
“How does this girl’s blood contain the power of that damned goddess?”
Sylvia hugged her knees, curled up among the flowers in the painting, and felt a shiver run down her spine.
“This is really bad…”