Bookbound Bunny: Chapter 56

Chapter 56 - Another Adventure

"Oh, so I give you your Mana potion, and now you don't want anything to do with little old me anymore? I'm outraged and, quite frankly, shocked! I thought I raised you better than this!" Camilla scoffed.

Lily was flabbergasted. She never expected Camilla to act like this at the simple request for an afternoon off.

"I haven't even used the Mana potion! Plus, I want more!" Lily defended herself.

"Oh, I see, so it's extortion? Sink your claws into my heart and shake me for all I'm worth?" Camilla replied.

"Wha-"

"Yes… Truly cunning," Camilla interrupted. "Behind the cute bunny facade is a ferocious predator. Or perhaps it's my fault; did I create the monster lurking within?"

"It's one afternoon!" Lily cried. "Some of the boys just want to show me that they can kill a gremlin."

"Boys?" Camilla blinked in surprise and stroked her chin. "I see… I guess you are of that age. Very well, you can take the afternoon off."

Part of Lily wanted to deny whatever it was Camilla was implying or imagining, but she decided to take the win while she had it.

If she's acting this way for me, asking for one day, how will she react when I leave for Regarth? Lily wondered.

Despite the drama, the rest of the day went as usual. However, when saying goodbye, Camilla feigned acting hurt and betrayed.

What a drama queen…

Returning to her room, Lily was excited to finally start trying out her spells again. She'd barely had the chance, thanks to her nap being longer than she anticipated. That didn't stop her from frequently taking peeks at her inner world and watching the starry landscape it had become.

It's like my Mana Core has become an actual moon now! Lily thought happily

After greeting Arakil, she turned to the pages with his illustrations for the gestures required and began an impromptu revised study of the topic. After her initial failures with it, she'd been very discouraged by it, especially with the successes she could routinely produce with the chants.

Lily thought Arakil would eventually complain, but he never did. One time, her curiosity about it finally broke through, and she asked him why he didn't press her on the topic. He simply informed her they had plenty of time.

Plenty of time… Or did he know I'd be forced into it eventually? Lily wondered.

Before starting the gestures, Lily did as Arakil had previously instructed and began simply controlling the Mana flowing throughout her. Spinning the core, she began focusing it on various areas of her body and then trying to control their size and proportions.

Part of Lily still wondered if Arakil was playing a prank on her with this, as it seemed a bit unreal. In an effort to find an example Lily could relate to, he'd once described it as using your fingers to draw out the blueprint of the spell in the air, but even with that analogy, she couldn't get a result.

Well… Maybe my Astral affinity will change that?

After enough warm-up, she finally directed the Mana towards her hands and began trying to form the required gestures. There was almost a tangible crackle in the air, and Lily immediately wanted to take back any negative thoughts she had previously. 

Of course, Arakil wouldn't prank me; he's an Archmage! And far too serious about magic!

Lily completed the final gesture, and a tiny star began trying to manifest itself before it winked out. Looking at the illustrations again, she immediately noticed her mistakes—she'd swapped around two of the positions! The excitement of that near success made her want to try again immediately.

Her second attempt actually manifested the Starlight spell. Despite being only a single star, it was still brighter than any of her chanted castings, thanks to her attunement.

Lily jumped for joy, "This is so cool! I didn't have to say a single word!"

It gave the impression that she was manifesting magic like Rose or any other bloodline race.

This… This really is going to work! Lily realized.

While she had promised Rose, Arakil, and herself that she would make it work by any means necessary, she still couldn't help but have tiny doubts. But now? She had just manifested a spell without a single chant.

On her third attempt, the Mana seemed to know what she wanted it to do as she began redirecting it. Arakil had described it as drawing in the air, and now Lily could almost believe that comparison.

It's almost like playing with strings… Weaving maybe?

Lily recalled a game she sometimes played with Margit when she was younger. They used a loop of string, twisting it around their fingers to make shapes. They each had a turn, carefully pulling the string to create a new pattern without messing it up. The string got stuck sometimes, but they'd just laugh and try again. It was almost like a little puzzle they worked on together.

"I… Haven't spent much time with Margit lately," Lily mumbled right as two stars manifested in the palms of her hands.

Lily was overjoyed at the result and promised herself to try to spend time again with Margit once the partial truth was out.

"Was that why she was so happy to help me with clothes?" Lily whispered aloud. "There's so many kids… But she helped me a lot before I started hanging out with Rose. Maybe once this growth spurt slows down, I should ask her to go clothes shopping with me?"

Lily promised herself to rekindle her bond with Margit. After all, she might not see her again when she gets admitted to Regarth, and the kind woman was basically the closest thing Lily had to a mother unless she counted Camilla.

Nope! That woman doesn't have a motherly bone in her body, only a lust for gold!

Lily continued to happily practice away until her bedtime.

***

"This way! I think I saw something!" One of the boys shouted. The group all hastily made their way to his calls.

Despite the boys promising a gremlin hunt, it had been nothing but a few slimes and some dire rats. Even with the apparent safety, Lily kept one hand cautiously in her pocket, gripping a talisman at all times while she followed after the energetic boys.

She was a little tired from staying up far too late practicing gestures. When she told Arakil the results and how she had lost track of time, the book seemed to laugh at her as if he had expected the outcome.

[While chanting has its uses, there's nothing like controlling the flow of Mana directly with your very hands!]

He'd then proceeded on a very long ranting lecture about feeling the flow of the spell and allowing one to better understand the very essence within. While Arakil had mocked the origin of the Astral attunement ritual for being flowery, he certainly had his own poetic side that would occasionally pop up.

Still… I have to admit, I sort of understand what he means. Thanks to the attunement, I feel closer to my spells than ever before. It's almost like it's alive and eager to obey my instructions. Is this how Rose feels about fire?

Lily hoped she would get a letter or something from her sister soon. She so desperately wanted to write and tell her everything that happened.

This has been pretty great, even if we don't find a gremlin. I've gotten damn good at quickly getting my gathering spiral and collecting those black flecks before the boys absorb them all.

Lily felt a bit guilty about effectively stealing their gains, but none of them were aiming for any magic school, let alone a top one like Regarth! Or so she told herself to get rid of any would-be guilty thoughts. Rose's solo results also proved that the kids were getting almost nothing anyway, even if Lily wasn't skimming off the top.

"Found one!" One of the boys shouted.

There were cheers and childish battle cries as the boys surrounded the tiny, toothy creature. Armed with sticks, training weapons, and even one gardening tool, they looked like kids pretending to be an angry peasant mob. Despite being surrounded, the gremlin snickered and jeered at the kids.

"That's a gremlin?" One of the kids asked.

"Yeah, they're creepy as hell, aren't they?"

"I hate how it's grinning at us…"

"Well, we just gotta hit it until it stops smiling!"

"Just watch the teeth!" Lily warned; the boys cheered and began charging at the gremlin individually.

Even young and without much or any growth from the slain monster's essence, some of their racial heritages were showing. The Lupinia boys were fast and agile as they practically pounced on the gremlin. It tried to snarl and bite back but either chomped on air or the end of an impromptu weapon.

If Lily didn't remember the gremlin sneaking up behind her and trying to take a bite out of her, she would've almost felt sorry for the creature. But it was a horrible monster and would be better off feeding her Mana Core.

Some of the older boys probably could have finished off the gremlin quickly, but it seemed they wanted to give everyone at least one chance to hit it. Once everyone got in a strike, the older boys' blows suddenly seemed fiercer than before.

Soon enough, there were cheers of victory and a dead gremlin exploding into a shower of black flecks. Lily wasted no time in trying to gather what she could.

"So much!" One of the kids cried.

"Yeah, gremlins give big explosions!" Another kid explained.

"Still… I thought there were supposed to be more?"

"That's what I heard… Did someone kill them already?"

Lily frowned. That would be terribly unlucky if someone beat them to the punch. She would've pinned it on Rose if the girl had been around, so the only other possibility was maybe an overzealous guard.

While the kids were bickering, a roar came from the forest's edge. Everyone went silent, and some kids actually dropped to their knees. 

"Who said you brats could steal my kills?" Someone snarled.

Emerging from the forest was an older boy with spiked, golden-blond hair tipped with black. He was clearly a Leonia, and Lily hadn't seen him in what felt like ages.

"Tim! What the hell, man?" One of the boys asked.

"Don't 'what the hell' me, why are you killing my gremlins?" Tim demanded.

"Yours? Since when?" Someone asked.

"Since now," Tim declared.

Lily gulped. It seemed Tim had become even more of an asshole since she last saw him. To her horror, as if reading her thoughts, he glanced at her and smirked.

"Lily, why are you hanging around with these losers?" Tim asked.

Lily flinched but managed a response without her voice cracking, "I'm just watching them fight some monsters."

"If you wanted to watch, you should have asked me," Tim said as he flexed. "I see I'm not the only one who's done some growing."

"Man, you sound like a perv," one of the boys teased.

The other boys all laughed at that comment—except for Tim. The Leonia seemed outraged, and Lily swore she saw a hint of murder in his eyes before he managed to swallow it down and recompose himself. He pointed towards Lily and then gestured his thumb backward to the forest.

"Come, Lily, let me show you how I kill some monsters in the forest," Tim said, ignoring the crowd.

"No, thank you," Lily replied.

Tim shook his head, "Rose is gone for good; you need someone bigger and stronger to protect you. I'm just the man for the job."

More like the jerk who can't take a hint and accept no for an answer...

"I'm fine..." Lily declined again. "And I don't need you to protect me."

"Come on, Lily... Be reasonable," He almost pleaded.

"I said no," Lily adamantly refused. "We were perfectly happy before you came along."

Tim seemed strangely taken aback as if he'd miscalculated how this interaction would go. "No... I was just showing you how much tougher and better I was. I wanted to impress you."

Lily grew upset at his repeated pressing and blurted, "I don't want anything to do with you, ever!"

Tim looked partly hurt by that rejection; Lily hadn't intended to be so unfiltered, but he wasn't listening to her.

"Yeah, man, she said no," one boy commented with a chuckle.

"Lily..." Tim whispered and started approaching her.

Lily tensed, but one of the boys stepped in. "Tim, stop it."

"I just want to talk to her," Tim said as he tried to brush him off.

However, the boy didn't give up. He kept body-blocking Tim, and it started getting a little handsy. Tim shoved him to the side with a growl, but the boy pushed back in return.

This repeated with growing intensity until Tim seemed to suddenly snap. Rather than a shove, he clenched his fist and swung it at the boy with shocking speed—a solid punch straight to the gut. The boy took the blow and doubled over, almost emptying the contents of his stomach over the ground.

Tim sighed, and Lily desperately hoped that would be the end of it. But then his expression darkened as he continued walking towards her.

"I tried being nice," Tim snarled. "But I guess I need to educate you on how much you need me."

Lily's eyes went wide with shock. She immediately tried to pull the glyph out of her pocket, but Tim moved exceptionally quickly in front of her and grabbed her arm before she could.

She winced in pain; his grip was far too forceful. If this was before her growth spurt, he might have broken her arm just from that alone!

"Hey, leave her alone!" The boys began shouting.

One of the older Lupinia boys rushed at Tim. Lily immediately wanted to thank the boy for trying to rescue her, but to her horror, Tim caught the boy by the throat and grinned menacingly at him.

Lily watched fear well up in the boy's eyes as he visibly whimpered. The other kids continued to shout in outrage, but Tim just shrugged his shoulders and tossed the boy like a sack of potatoes.

"Shut up!" Tim roared again. Everyone went silent. "With the dragon gone, there's a new pecking order, and I'm king!"