Taira began creating lines of flames on her fingers; this was her brother Valerio's technique, which she learned five months ago when she reached the second circle. The lines were producing a greater heat than Valerio's and Enrico's lines when they were in the third circle, showing her affinity for fire was greater than theirs.
"As I thought, this technique in your hand is quite strong."
With the praise from her big brother, she felt her chest puff with pride; her brother was simply the best. On the same day he returned, he had already given attention to her—something that, to her sadness, wouldn't happen with the others.
'Of course brother Valerio and big sis would train me when they had the time, but they wouldn't be this fast.'
They were in the training room of the Astrong academy created by Hao; this floating academy would be undone when the original Astrong was rebuilt, so Enrico wanted to come to this place to see what it looked like inside out of curiosity, especially because this didn't happen in the original story.
'So this would be made if some students had managed to escape the barrier.'
[It's quite beautiful, even more than the original.]
'You're right, but they'll rebuild the original and make it better than before.'
Paying attention to Taira, he saw the first strike with the lines approaching. Testing something, Enrico grabbed the lines with one hand and forced his sister to come straight to him. Pulled with absurd strength, Taira couldn't do anything and simply flew directly toward Enrico. Seeing that she had already been defeated, at the very least she would show something.
"Fire hurricane kick!"
When she was just a few centimeters from her brother, she spun downward; her foot burned with fire in the shape of a whirlwind. When it collided with Enrico's shoulder, the ground below cracked and burned, melting some stones.
"What a beautiful attack."
Even still standing there without any damage, he was surprised. Taira had evolved a lot in these two years; if he were to compare levels with the previous students, she undoubtedly would only be behind Victoria, Enrico himself, and Lira.
"Thank you big brother, I trained this attack a lot inspired by you."
"I see… you must have learned the fire steps, right?"
"Yes, I wanted to show you back then, but I couldn't."
Standing up, she paid attention to her brother; it was very possible he wanted to give her advice judging by the look he was giving her.
"If you combine this magic with the fire steps, what do you think would happen?"
Placing her hand on her chin, she thought seriously. The fire steps ability was great for dodging and fooling opponents, becoming stronger like the other magics when evolving her circle.
"I can create a deception technique?"
"Exactly. For that, you'd use it to move around, and in the middle of the movement, you'd attempt a kick. The first image would connect, but in truth your attack would come from other directions."
He already did this before, but physically. If she added that magic to the fire steps, her speed and the speed of the copies would increase a lot, making it possible to fool mages of a higher level than her, mainly because her mana amount was very large.
"I understand brother, I'll definitely manage to learn this magic combination."
Smiling, he ruffled her hair, leaving her embarrassed; she didn't say anything and simply accepted it with a bit of happiness in her eyes.
"I know it was for a short time, but I have to go. Let me walk you to your dorm."
'At least you still have time for me.'
She felt a bit down thinking about how since her big sis graduated, she hadn't had much time for her, always being busy.
'This must happen with big brother too.'
They arrived at her dorm just a few minutes later; turning to her brother, she saw him thoughtful as he looked at the dorm.
"Taira, do you have friends?"
She then realized that Enrico was worried she might be alone, which made her happy.
"Yes, I have one poor boy who says he owes something to my family, and an annoying girl who always follows me, but she's nice."
"That's good."
He ruffled her hair once more and stayed there until she entered the dorm; waving her hand, he turned away with a smile while she did the same, only more excited.
'Just one month left for him to graduate… oh right, big brother's birthday is coming, I have to try talking to big sis. She should respond immediately after hearing the news of him leaving.'
Entering her room immediately, she jumped on the bed and grabbed a magic stone she had hidden; her sister said to only use it when it was important. Well, today was an important day, so she could let it pass.
"It seems she still hasn't returned…"
Three meters away there was an empty bed; her friend had gone to visit her parents' house, so today she was alone. Either way, she didn't want either of her two friends here, otherwise they would ruin her time with her big brother.
While her sister finally answered, Enrico walked back to his dorm and was surprised to see it was already fixed and clean.
'I just came to see how it was; I didn't think they had already fixed everything.'
It was already night, so out of curiosity, Enrico entered the dorm where he stayed. Inside, the maids were already arranging everything; in the center, Angela was giving orders, and Yumeha was inside his room tidying it without help from any maid.
[Why is she doing that alone?]
'It's very possible she didn't want any girl besides her and the other six in the room.'
[Why do you talk as if Elian being your seventh wife is one hundred percent certain?]
'Because he is.'
Approaching Angela, his shoulder was grabbed by her; at first he was surprised, but then he showed a satisfied expression as he felt his shoulders being massaged.
"Good evening young master, I wanted to give you the special massage I created, but Yumeha said she needed to discuss something serious with you today."
"Fine by me, Angela; this is already enough."
As always, her young master was too gentle with her; that was exactly why she kept those portraits of him as a teenager and a child in that room along with Virelle's.
'He's grown so much… adding a few more portraits won't hurt hehehe.'
Her smile held a bit of pride in herself. Just like Virelle, her young master had grown in an excellent way; she had to save every possible moment of her masters.
"Alright, you already did your massage, now you can leave so I can talk to the master."
Yumeha began pushing Angela and the other maids out of the dorm. As she made a deal to let Angela massage Enrico later, she managed to push her out without much trouble, even with the irritation on the maid's face.
"You wanted to talk about something with me, right? About—"
"The promise."
Yumeha locked the door, her face flushed. Turning around, she showed her face completely red. Seeing that, Enrico remembered a certain promise he had made.
'Oh, I forgot, she turned eighteen.'
[What promise is she talking about? Wait, no, not that, you'd better not dare, you bastard.]