How to Raise a Dumb Wolf - Chapter 66

Once Aisha accepted that she had truly fallen for Major General Wolf, her heart suddenly cleared. She felt lighter than ever. Their relationship seemed to be progressing smoothly, and perhaps before long, the right opportunity would carry them naturally into its next stage.

Happy and excited, Aisha buried her face in Les’s fur and nuzzled him for quite some time. She had no idea that a storm was raging inside the wolf she held.

Aisha… had fallen for… someone?

There was someone she liked?

But… with whom?

Les watched her with complicated emotions. Her smile was radiant, her cheeks faintly pink with shyness, and every inch of her shone with a young woman’s sweetness and vitality. She certainly looked like someone in love.

That very loveliness made him want to gather her into his arms—and left his heart feeling as if countless cats were clawing at it.

Who was it? Could it possibly be him? They had gone out together today, but… was that truly enough?

The major general’s heart hammered. Of course he wanted Aisha to love him, but he knew his own faults: he was inarticulate, humorless, dull-faced, and too distant for most women. Even today, he had scarcely managed to speak. Aisha had kept smiling gently and earnestly responding to every clumsy subject he found.

Could she still… have fallen for him?

Les stared at her nervously, but Aisha did not seem inclined to say more. She held him and smiled sweetly until even she thought she must look foolish—running into the forest at dusk to blush, hug a wolf, and talk to herself. But she truly was happy, as though immersed in it.

At last, she lifted her head from his fur and met his blue-gray eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I must seem very strange today.”

Aisha shyly smoothed her hair. For some reason, she always relaxed more around the giant wolf and lost her composure before she knew it.

“Thank you for listening again. I’ll come back tomorrow. Good night… Les.”

She kissed his cheek, walked several steps, then turned to wave before finally leaving. Les watched her unusually buoyant figure disappear, his thoughts in turmoil.

…

The moment Aisha was gone, Les transformed. A handsome young officer with a stern face stood in the forest shadows. After a pause, he reached into the inner pocket of his coat and drew out a weightless white ribbon. His fingers moved unconsciously over it.

Aisha had tied it around his shoulder on the day they met. The bandage had been too short, and she used this ribbon to extend its end. It had never touched his blood. Les had treasured it ever since as something special from Aisha, carrying it carefully wherever he went, so it remained as fresh and airy as it had been then.

Truthfully, it was an ordinary handmade ribbon, not especially fine and even somewhat rough. Yet it had belonged to Aisha. Les still did not know its original purpose, but that fact alone granted it a meaning no other strip of cloth could possess. Whenever he saw it, he remembered Aisha’s smile, and his heart softened.

Aisha…

“Ai… sha…”

His lips trembled. Heart and mouth whispered the name that hurt his chest merely to speak. He closed his eyes, lifted the ribbon, and kissed it gently.

Whether the person Aisha loved was him or someone else…

Perhaps it was time to take a step forward.

There were still… many important truths he had not told her.

…

“Mr. Eric, how do you view the different categories of innate magic? Most of your students are known to possess innate magic, and you have conducted especially deep research in the field. You must have encountered many varieties. Would you be willing to share your findings?”

Once the short holiday ended, Aisha soon returned to her studies. They had lived in Micks long enough to become familiar with the court mages, who had kindly guided her study of healing. As their relationship deepened, their exchanges with Eric grew more advanced and gradually moved toward his specialty: the innate magic of gifted mages.

Aisha sat in the discussion chamber as Eric’s student, with Thorne beside her. A large group surrounded a long table. Eric occupied the head, pinned beneath the attention of every mage present.

This was an important symposium. Nearly every court mage in Micks attended, along with several mages from the Church. Even Queen Louisa White had politely come to listen after hearing the subject, apparently intrigued.

Uncomfortable at the center of so many eyes, Eric let his gaze wander. Leaving the safety of Wold had not cured his aversion to crowds. After a moment, he adjusted his collar without realizing it and spoke in a low voice.

“As everyone knows, innate magic covers an extremely broad range. It has few fixed categories, little overlap, and almost no common principles, while new forms continue to appear. My former student Noel, for example, can briefly transform into gas.”

Among the other mages, Noel smiled, waved, and said modestly, “Unfortunately, it’s a fairly useless ability.”

Thorne yawned.

Eric paused, then looked toward Aisha. “…My current student Aisha was born with the ability to heal without discrimination.”

Her power was plainly more practical than Noel’s. Many eyes turned toward her. Aisha raised her head, smiled amicably, then continued sitting quietly.

After so long in Micks, whose people were fascinated by healing, the local mages already understood her ability well. It had many limits: it could heal but not enhance, and worked far better on living creatures than on inanimate matter. Yet one extraordinary feature remained—its indiscriminate healing.

Whether the target was a sapient race, an ordinary animal, a plant, or even a lifeless object, Aisha’s magic produced some restorative effect. Modern healing arts had to be divided among many spells according to symptoms and often required a specialist’s assistance. Aisha, by contrast, could cast directly upon any sick or injured patient without first considering the diagnosis. At her present strength, she was far more efficient than ordinary healing magic. The possibilities for the field were immensely attractive.

Eric had also been studying her power, but did not intend to explore it in depth now. He merely used his two students to demonstrate that innate abilities might have nothing in common. Aisha possessed a variant of healing; Noel, a variant of transformation. Noel’s gift might not be terribly useful, but remained something other mages could not reproduce.

Eric continued, “Current definitions rarely go beyond ‘magic born from a special talent and possessed by a small number of mages.’ In other words, innate magic belongs only to mages, and only to a minority of them. However…”

He stopped, hesitating. He seemed aware that what followed might prove controversial and allowed himself and his audience time to prepare.

“There may also be people unable to use general magic—people therefore not considered mages—who nevertheless possess abilities resembling spells. I am considering whether such abilities can be classified as innate magic.”

As expected, astonished murmurs filled the room. Even Aisha had never heard of this line of Eric’s research and blinked in surprise.

Thorne merely pressed his lips together, as though he had known all along.

Such examples did exist, though they were rarer and less varied than the innate magic of mages, usually appearing among exceptionally gifted warriors. The most typical—and most unusual—example was the beastfolk.

No sapient race, including the beastfolk themselves, had ever discovered why they could shift freely between human and beast forms. Yet the light, physical process, and time required strongly resembled a mage’s transformation magic. Clothing appeared already in place when a beastfolk changed into human form, proving it was no simple biological process. Tests also detected magical fluctuations, though their pattern differed markedly from a mage’s.

The beastfolk clearly were not an entire race of mages. In fact, magical talent was exceptionally rare among them, and most possessed no magical power. Whether their transformations counted as magic had therefore been disputed for a long time.

Aisha immediately thought of Major General Wolf.

After the room quieted, Eric looked around and continued. “Naturally, we need not force such phenomena into existing definitions. We might simply establish another category. Under the current definition, innate magic can broadly be divided into…”

Eric resumed his explanation, but Aisha’s attention remained caught on beastfolk transformation.

Thorne glanced at her.

“…I’ve chosen the subject of my graduation thesis,” he suddenly whispered, leaning closer as if it hardly mattered. “Transformation magic and beastfolk transformation. I’m going to investigate that.”

“…What?”

Aisha returned to herself and stared in surprise.