The woman's supple chest rose heavily, stretching the fabric of her skin-tight suit that clung like a leather glove to a hand, leaving no room for imagination. I could have been aroused by such a sight, if not for the inappropriate time and place for such a moment and my steel control over the raging hormones of a teenager. But mentally I made a note to visit a brothel - suppressing one's desires is dangerous, especially for a mage.
"Water..." Shizuka croaked through parched lips, having barely opened her eyes. I was already beside the girl at that moment, having dismissed my doppelganger and apparated directly to her. A glass transfigured from air with materialized water using Aguamenti charms immediately appeared in my hand. I carefully lifted the girl's head and gave her water, afraid that from thirst and her weakness she would simply choke.
My teacher at this time also wasn't standing idle and was casting a series of charms on the girl.
"Dehydration, as well as physical and magical exhaustion," Black spoke aloud for me, and taking several crystal bottles with potions from his bag, gave them to me, answering my unspoken question. "Strengthening, sleeping, and the nutrients she needs."
I didn't ask about the sleeping potion, since it was clear that having survived death and what preceded it, the girl might bolt off somewhere unknown after recovery and cause trouble. Before giving the sleeping potion, I cast a minor healing on the girl. It wouldn't hurt and she'd recover faster.
We didn't have to persuade Shizuka to drink the potions — she was so tormented by thirst that she would have drunk poison without saying a word. Only after Hayato's daughter-in-law fell asleep did I lift her in my arms, and grabbing my teacher's hand, we departed by portkey to Ryozanpaku.
***
We found Furinji during a moment when he was calming little Miu with a grim face, whose name was embroidered on her swaddling clothes. As soon as we appeared, he instantly appeared beside me, and seeing the slowly rising chest of his granddaughter's mother, exhaled with relief.
"Thank you, I won't forget this," the giant, sparing with displays of emotion, embraced me with his huge arm, speaking these words. And even through his steel armor of will, I felt echoes of the raging feelings in which there was gratitude to me, relief, disappointment, and fury caused by the perpetrator of the incident. And only after this did he ask, "Why is she sleeping? Side effect?"
"No, sleeping potion," Phineas answered for me. Hayato nodded in response and immediately turned to me again.
"Arthur, please take Shizuka to the guest room. Tomorrow morning we'll figure out what to do next when she wakes up and tells us what exactly happened."
I carried the woman to one of the many free rooms in the dojo, where I spread out a futon from the closet with telekinesis. Surprisingly, the ubiquitous pervert in the green hat was nowhere to be seen. Either he hadn't recovered from the shock yet, or even he had a sense of tact, or maybe he was out visiting brothels somewhere right now. I didn't care, I had other things on my mind.
During my entire brief trip to my room and all the time until sleep when I lay down, I pondered that I had finally managed to test charms on a human. Not that morality prevented me from going and beating a criminal half to death or apparating to a morgue and pulling someone back from the other side.
No, it's just too noticeable. Even if special services like departments of mysteries, surveillance, or aurors don't catch me, there are still my teachers. And while Black, I'm sure, could accept my arguments, Hayato would hardly approve of experiments on people.
But such a hopeless situation, however hypocritical it sounds, happened just in time. Moreover, now Hayato is in my debt, and the debt of such a person means a lot. And apprenticeship isn't included in it. True, Black now frightens me, because he's the one who used Hayato's debt for my training. I somehow didn't look at it from this angle before, but now it seems to me that he's preparing me for something.
No, we seemingly agreed on an exchange of knowledge, but isn't he giving me too much for an exchange? The deal is unequal. And I have a feeling that the old mage doesn't particularly need knowledge of Sumerian magic. Especially since studying it takes years, and methods of life extension or, Merlin forbid, relative immortality, take decades. Does a person at the end of his lifespan need such magic? Unlikely, unless as broadening horizons and a couple of useful tricks that can be learned quite quickly, no more.
However, I didn't rush headlong to question my teacher about my guesses and won't. I just filed it in memory and told myself to be more attentive and careful - I've gotten too relaxed.
…
I woke up not in the morning, but at night, due to noise in the courtyard. Quite specific noise of strikes breaking the sound barrier. While transfiguring my clothes on the go, I nevertheless first cast a complex of concealing charms on myself. Carefully leaving the room and looking out the window, I saw Phineas and the pervert Kensei with extremely serious faces watching a battle that an ordinary person would have taken for bombardment of the earth from a large-caliber machine gun - the noise like explosions and rising clumps of earth suggested exactly such an analogy.
But having accelerated my consciousness and body, I saw Hayato, who wasn't fighting, no, just blocking all the strikes... of Shizuka.
"What's happening here?" I asked, removing the charms, seeing there were no reasons to hide. The battle stopped instantly.
"A student shouldn't interfere in a battle of masters!" Hayato's daughter-in-law shouted, trying to breathe evenly.
"This student resurrected you from the dead, you could at least say thank you to him," Furinji supported me. "And we haven't finished talking. Why did you try to run away? Wasn't one death enough for you?"
"This concerns your son and my husband! Someone took his appearance and attacked our friends and me! If we don't stop the enemy, how many more will he kill?" This news surprised the giant and undoubtedly pleased him.
"My student was right, we shouldn't judge immediately. But what do you want to do, Shizuka? Can you identify the spy?"
"What am I supposed to do? How can I sit here not knowing if my husband and friends are safe? I've already decided everything, and you won't stop me! And if you lock me up — I'll escape!" The woman was serious, and before a new round began, I spoke up.
"Then what do we tell your daughter when you die again?" My one question plunged Ryozanpaku into silence. Only somewhere in the distance leaves rustled and some bird chirped. "Raise your daughter, educate her, and then go and do what you want. Don't dump all the responsibility on your father-in-law. If you really want to help, you should have asked for help from your daughter's grandfather, not started fighting with him."
After this I simply left and collapsed in my room. This isn't really my business, I was just hurt that a person I had recently resurrected not only didn't thank me, but was climbing into a noose again. What kind of attitude toward life is this? And toward her child? Did she really cowardly decide to go and die instead of raising her child? Whatever, I don't care, I'll drink potions and sleep, let them sort out this melodrama themselves.
***
My second awakening was natural, though habitually early. I went out to the courtyard to do morning exercises with weights and saw Shizuka sitting on the porch and breastfeeding little Miu.
"Hi, Arthur." She saw me and smiled with effort. "Thank you for everything, both for the resurrection and for... your words yesterday. I really almost made a mess of things. And sorry for yelling at you."
"Apology accepted. Where is Furinji-sensei?" I asked. Pleasant, but the aftertaste still remained.
"I told him everything that happened and he promised to sort it out. It's so unusual."
"Isn't that how a real family should be?"
"I was born... in a closed village, let's say. Only strength and natural selection were welcomed there. From childhood I knew that my fate was to be an incubator for the strongest, and I tried to become strong enough to avoid that. Until one day I met Saiga, who showed me that even someone like me is worthy of loving and being loved. And everything was wonderful until another conflict between the Fist of Life and the Fist of Death happened and we were involved in it. And then an unknown spy in our ranks and... you heard the rest." Judging by her revelations, the woman was really moved.
"I sympathize with you, really, but I don't understand why you're telling this to me, a child?"
"You can pretend to others as much as you want, but I, my husband, his father, and your teacher certainly don't perceive you as a child. And age... it's such a flaw that passes with time. And I shouldn't look down on you after everything you've done."
"Fair enough," I answered, nodding. "As for your story - in life some shit... unpleasantness happens that you can't resolve yourself. But that's what close people are for, to lighten our burden."
And I went to do exercises, followed by Shizuka's attentive gaze. Only in my thoughts I felt a bit sad, because I myself always tried to pull everything on myself. I didn't immediately tell Ariel about Lerach's book, didn't even think of teaching my friends magic, even wand magic, which would hardly have caused serious suspicion.
Although, during the epic with Gont, those same relatives and friends from my past life couldn't have done anything to help me. And take Ariel, how can she help me besides artifact calculations? And I may have already surpassed her in this. Moral support? I'm grateful to her for this, but it's simply too little in case of really serious trouble. Rather the opposite, she's my weakness. Because if she's threatened with danger, I'll still go rescue her, even if it's a trap.
The whole problem is that all my relatives, acquaintances, and loved ones are in an ordinary world, albeit magical. They haven't seen monsters like Gont, Lerach, Hayato, Phineas, and other strong mages, and those don't particularly advertise themselves. And if they have seen them, they don't perceive them as possible enemies or opponents. They don't understand how fragile their ordinary life is, which can be easily destroyed, they don't strive higher.
I can't even imagine the power of archdemons, let alone gods. But okay, strength, strength for the sake of strength has never led to anything good either, but knowledge, skills? I, torn between Sumerian disciplines and spending relatively little time on wand magic, managed to pass the entire school course by my 12 years. Am I an adult? Suppose so. But a talented and hardworking child could do the same, and maybe could achieve much more, but I haven't heard of such children.
Although I might be wrong, and such children really exist, I just haven't heard of them? Or perhaps they hide the level of their knowledge and skills? We'll see.
***
Hayato returned grim after several days together with his son, Saiga. Despite the curiosity tearing at me, I didn't pry with questions. Because I knew that Furinji is the kind of person who, if necessary, will tell everything himself. And if not — then you won't get a word out of him with pliers. Of course, there were tearful greetings too.
"Saiga!" Shizuka ran out with the child and shoved the blonde baby girl into my arms. Pixie seemed to have been waiting for this — she was afraid of the young mother, sensing strength and danger from her, but in my hands immediately began playing with the little one, who curiously watched the fluttering fairy.
In my pet's hands was a miniature magic wand emitting sheaves of magical sparks, created by me under Phineas's supervision. This was quite painstaking work, not in terms of miniaturization - no one canceled Engorgio - but in terms of selecting wood and core. After all, the compatibility of mages and magical creatures varies, tested on myself. Surprisingly, my own hair and a willow twig worked quite well.
"Shizuka! You're alive?" he asked in surprise and immediately took a fighting stance. "I killed the Kuremisago spy, another one?"
"Calm down, son," Hayato put his paw on Saiga's shoulder. "My... our student performed a miracle, resurrecting your wife."
And then I had to fend off gratitude and oaths to never forget this again. I never would have thought one could get tired of such things. Three strong people are in my debt, and I'm tired of it. I've gotten spoiled, probably. Although no, I'm just not used to this. It's one thing when children thank you, like Patrick, for example, and another when your peers and mentors do.
That same evening Saiga only said that there was no more danger and that's all. Apparently, despite my merits, they didn't want to drag me into their affairs. However, I'm a mage and a child to them, and such a decision is quite justified. Another war between martial arts masters and mages was the last thing we needed.
And six months later, Hayato acknowledged that my training with him was finished.
***
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Thank you for the help with the power stones!!!