"Ugh… my head…" Leona uttered as she got up from the couch while clutching the side of her face. "Why do I have this head-splitting headache?"
She stood up and with her weakened legs, stumbled her way to the bathroom where she met Setsuna hunched over the sink with running water coming out of the copper tap.
"Bleegh… ugh…" She was letting out sounds less-than maidenly as she cleaned her mouth with water. "I didn't know… it would be this bad…"
Leona walked to the sink beside the one she was using and splashed some cold water on her face. Without exchanging words, the tactician glanced to her side and noticed her staring back before she said.
"Leona. I blame you."
"Huh?"
"If you didn't say you would drink, I wouldn't have gone to these lengths…"
"What are you… oh."
After hearing those words she recalled what happened last night. When everyone was in the dining room, Setsuna brought a small keg filled to the brim with ale under her arm in order to share with everyone else.
"Setsuna…" Robert had a skeptical look on his face. "When did you buy that?"
"Oh, this? This was thanks to Charl's goods. I saw it in the bazaar but no one was buying it, so I bought it."
"A whole keg of ale." He brought his hand to his face. "I'm starting to doubt if you truly are my daughter."
"Hey, that's rude. I was simply interested in how it would taste and I daresay it's my favorite."
"Just… just do go overboard with it. You're already of age so I won't stop you but do practice some restraint, dispelling poison from the body with magic has its limits as well."
"Yeah, yeah I got it, father."
Beside Setsuna, Leona looked at the keg with curiosity which prompted the shrine maiden to grin at her.
"Want to give it a go?"
And that brings them to where they are now. With hangovers.
Setsuna repeatedly tapped the front of her head lightly with her knuckles as it relieved the headache momentarily while she fought the urge to let her insides become outsides. While Leona didn't feel nauseous, she was stricken with a headache she never had before. The cold water running through her fingers felt good but it did little to relieve the pain.
She splashed some more water on her face and under the quiet sound of running water, the door on her side gently opened before Yuna entered the room.
"Good morning…" She yawned while stretching her arms out before grabbing a splintered stalk to brush her teeth. "What are you two… what's wrong with your face?"
The two young women were staring at her. There were darkened bags beneath their eyes and their hair was disheveled beyond just bed hair. Not exactly the best way to word it, especially coming from someone younger than them.
"Ugh…" Setsuna continued to tap her knuckles against her head. "You'll understand it if you ever drink like I did…"
Leona on the other hand turned back to Setsuna.
"You said you blame me." She said before splashing more water against her face to the point a lock of wet hair dropped in front of her face. She then grabbed a stalk and started to brush her teeth as well. "But the people who drank the entire keg in one night were mostly you and Krieg."
"Yeah…! That was the point. If you didn't say you'd drink he wouldn't have either… ugh…" She held the urge to puke and took a sharp deep breath before continuing. "He drank me over the table."
Yuna tossed the stalk in the wooden bucket beside the sink and pushed Setsuna aside in order to wash her mouth. After doing so, she brushed her mouth with the back of her hand and flicked it to get rid of the water as she wore a smirk on her face.
"Don't you mean 'under the table', sister?"
"Oh you get what I mean… argh… my head…"
"You should ask father for another healing spell."
She pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and dried her hands. Leona finished brushing her teeth and tossed the stalk in the bucket while muttering under her breath.
"I think I should ask him for healing then…"
"I'm off to do my chores in the city." Yuna adjusted her shrine maiden clothing and exited the room. "See you two later."
Leona mustered enough strength to smile and wave her hand.
"Safe travels."
Setsuna on the other hand wasn't faring much better as she didn't take her face off the top of the sink.
"See you… ugh… later…"
"I think I'll go see Robert for some healing." Leona turned as she spoke before she witnessed a more than colorful river of insides become outsides right through Setsuna's mouth. "I… huh… I'll go now."
The shrine maiden simply nodded with a few tears coming out of her eyes.
A few minutes later, Leona had made her way to the training area outside. Despite being hungover and somewhat distraught after seeing Setsuna puke all over the sink. She decided to hastily cure herself of the effect of last night's revelry as the last thing she wanted was to be seen regurgitating her insides out.
"Robert." She called him out as he was finishing instructing Krieg. "Can you heal me from the ale poisoning?"
He turned and looked over his shoulder with an unsurprised expression.
"You mean your hangover? Yeah. Come here."
"Hangover?" She walked towards him. "Is that what you call what I'm feeling?"
"Back in my world that is what people would say." He extended his arms and held her shoulders. "I never drank myself senseless before so I wouldn't know how it feels."
"Huh? Can you really cure it then?"
"It's not like I can solve the problem entirely. Alcohol in high concentrations in the blood becomes poisonous to the body and since it recognizes it as such, spells like Purify take partial effect against it."
"Partial?"
"Alcohol in lower quantities isn't considered poison. But as its concentration rises in the blood, it can have some bad consequences for the body." He squeezed her shoulders and focused. Mana started to seep out of his fingers and transform in some sort of spectral liquid. "Purify."
Said liquid was almost transparent with a very faint hint of blue to it. It seeped into her body and she suddenly felt a warm feeling inside her chest. It felt similar to the tingle she had when drinking ale. A warmth that permeated her body but this time, not in an intoxicating way and more like a comfortable embrace in her time of need.
A few seconds passed and the same liquid seeped out of her body before falling on the ground. Her mind felt clearer as her headache also ceased.
"Oh, I'm feeling better already."
"Well, you didn't drink like Setsuna or Krieg." He turned his head towards the knight that was training with his back turned towards them. The knight swinging his sword with no apparent signs of a hangover. "To be honest, even if the ale here doesn't have isn't as well distilled, it's surprising to see him not be affected at all by it. Maybe it's the dragon blood giving him this crazy metabolism that breaks down alcohol like it's nothing." After a few seconds he started to mutter to himself. "Maybe I should get a dwarf to drink with him, maybe that'll be a good comparison."
"Why a dwarf?"
"Huh? Oh, right. You wouldn't know why." He brushed off before snapping his fingers and projecting her staff on his hand. He then handed it to her. "Here you go. Now that you're healed go train your magic barrier. It is still pretty bad compared to your lightning magic and that is putting it mildly."
"Rude."
"You know it's true."
"Fine."
She bedruginly grabbed the staff off his hand and went to the opposite side of the training area. She adjusted her footing by spacing her feet apart and pointed the staff forward.
Mana started to gather from the center of her chest towards her wrist and then to the tip of the staff where a semi-transparent light blue half sphere slowly began to form. Once it was big enough to cover her entirely from the front, she reinforced it with more mana.
The process itself felt sluggish and taxing—certainly less effective than being the attacker in a magic centered fight.
'No I can't be lazy… I need to learn this properly…'
By empowering the spell, the barrier thickened as it changed to a dull light blue color. She could feel that barrier would only be good against one powerful spell like Chain Lightning or Fireball and even then, taking a direct hit would still be dangerous.
"Ugh…" She let go of the spell and it soon fizzled out. "This is harder than I thought."
Leona was talented with magic, but producing a magic barrier with similar effectiveness as Robert's was proving to be more than challenging. She closed her eyes and started to recall how he would make his barriers.
'If I'm not wrong… he said he made them by constructing individual parts first before making it whole.' The hexagon shape came to mind. 'But I do have trouble recreating each individual part…'
She sat down and put the staff on her lap as she took a deep breath. If the method he taught didn't work for her, she would have to come up with something else. However, the only way she knew how to make a working barrier was to expand a thin layer of mana before reinforcing it further. Not only did it take time to deploy—it was also taxing in the mana department.
'Then again… accuracy is my forte…' She pointed the staff forward again and started to recreate the barrier, but this time with much less mana which meant it was a third of its original size. It barely covered her legs and left her head exposed. 'If I know exactly where I'll be targeted then…'
Her grip tightened and a portion of the barrier became thicker with mana, resulting in a faint light blue glow. She opened her eyes and the barrier faded before fizzling out once again.
"I nailed it." She blinked a few times before staring at the tip of her staff. "I think this might be it."
She stood up in a hurry and went over to Robert, who was in the middle of instructing Krieg.
"Listen. For mana reinforcement you need to concentrate that tingling sensation towards your limbs. That'll help you move faster and even defend it against magic."
"What about arrows?" The knight asked while he swung his training wooden sword. "Does magic also help against that?"
"Unless it's a physical barrier, no. It doesn't."
Leona approached the two and raised her hand whilst holding her staff which grabbed Robert's attention. He turned to her and asked.
"What is it?"
"I think I managed to make a decent barrier."
"Oh? Show it to me."
She raised her staff and started to focus. Mana poured out of her body and into the staff before forming a half-sphere at the very tip of the cudgel. In about two seconds, the dull light blue became more intense as it finished.
"This is as fast as I can make it."
"Not bad." He applauded before raising his index finger. "But we need to test it." He pointed at the barrier and chanted. "Spark."
One weak zap of electricity jumped from his finger and harmlessly landed on the barrier. He approached and hunched forward before sticking his hand through the magic wall.
"Well, it certainly holds up against magic." He glanced up and locked eyes with her. Leona swallowed dry. She knew from instinct exactly what he was going to say. "But we can't really test it for sure unless we go all out."
She sighed.
"The inner world, is it?"
"Well aren't you proactive?" He smiled. "Yes. We might as well test it there."
"I suppose we should go back then…"
"Oh, no, that won't be necessary." He pointed at the grass. "We'll just sit here."
"Outside? What if we go for hours? It'll be late when we come back."
"Hours? Oh please." He had a mischievous expression on his face. "It won't take minutes."
Despite that spine chilling remark, Leona sat down and crossed her legs before putting the staff on her side. Robert did the same before he extended his hand towards her. She then placed her own on top of his.
"Are you ready?"
He asked.
"Even if I'm not, would you stop it?"
"Not really."
"Then I'm ready."
"Good."
Upon closing her eyes she started to feel her sense of self being pulled out of her body as vertigo assaulted her senses. The world felt like it was being torn apart and remade—before long she found herself at a crossroads.
'This place…'
She looked around. Her last visit to her own inner world was far different than this familiar experience. If anything she could feel this was not her own mind.
"It feels unfamiliar, doesn't it?" Robert's voice came from behind her. She turned around and noticed him already pointing his open palm at her. "Now, when I finish speaking, you'll have exactly three seconds to put up a barrier before I blast you with a spell."
Her eyes widened in surprise as she fumbled with her staff.
"Wait! Wait, wait!"
She dropped it on the ground.
"One."
"Dammit!"
She quickly grabbed the staff and pointed at him.
"Two."
Instinctively, she held her breath as mana surged to the tip of the tool.
"Three." When the sphere was beginning to form, Robert tilted his hand and formed a mock-up gun pointing at her. "Megido."
Despite knowing full well she wouldn't die in that place—her body moved even before she could think about it as she threw herself on the ground which resulted in the staff flying far out of her hand.
A streak of thin light blasted right where she was standing and cut through the stone pavement behind her. She looked back and noticed smoke coming from the thin line his spell carved through the floor.
'That would've cut me in half!'
She looked back at him and shouted.
"Hey! Isn't this supposed to be training?!"
"This IS training." He shifted his hand while still pointing his finger. "One."
"Again?!"
He simply smiled as he continued counting.
"Two."
"You…!" She angrily grabbed a nearby piece of the pavement and shouted as she threw it at him with the help of her spell. "Windshot!"
"Three." He finished counting while dodging the incoming rock towards his head and chanted. "Blast."
'That's a wind spell… I'm not even close to him so-' Her thoughts were cut short as she suddenly felt lighter. The entire left side of her body was ripped open from sheer wind pressure. Blood, bone and tissue was cleanly blasted away as she crashed onto the pavement. 'Wha… what just happened…?!'
Blood spluttered out of her body. Her heart was beating fast and each pulse gushed more blood onto the ground beneath. Only a few seconds later the pain would start to kick in.
"Argh…!"
Robert approached her. The searing pain from the wound was barely keeping her conscious as her eyes slowly raised towards him.
"You needed a barrier, Leona. Not an attack."
"You…!"
Her consciousness was starting to fade as the beating of her heart became louder and louder. Heat drained from her body as her eyelids closed. Death approached.
"Ah!"
She gasped. A sharp pang of pain hit her brain as she snapped out of it. She blinked many times while panting—the pain still lingered for a while as she reached for the part of her body that was destroyed by his spell.
"Welcome back." Robert said with an annoying smirk on his face. "I told you it would be fast."
"How was I even supposed to defend against that?!"
She frowned her eyebrows. While the experience of death was all too familiar within the inner world, it wasn't like she wanted to be slain on purpose.
"Follow the rules and I'll do the same." He said with a simple tone. "I won't use any advanced spells as long as you don't use your magic to attack."
"Tsk." She clicked her tongue. "Fine. One more time."
No matter how many times she would die. Time and time again she would come back stronger. There was no time to waste, if she wanted to challenge Alexander and change Arcadia's path there was only one way since her fate rested entirely on her shoulders.
A low light blue glint flashed underneath her iris as she closed her eyes. Robert shuddered as he shook his head slightly.
'This girl… no amount of mental fortitude explains this level of tenacity.'