Aozaki Aoko Case File

"Lina, what's going on with your fireball?" Gourry asked in a flustered tone.

"That's not a fireball," Lina replied with a sly grin. "It's just a light spell. I adjusted its color myself… just to scare him a little."

With that, she tossed the light ball upward, and the glowing orb scattered beautiful rays of light.

"I'll remind you, my deep sleep spell won't last too long," Aoko cautioned. "I suggest you deal with these trolls quickly. Otherwise, things will get troublesome when they wake up."

"Leave it to me!" Lina said confidently, patting her chest. "I've got a special technique just for them!"

She extended her index and middle fingers, pressing them together. The tips of her fingers glowed with magical light. Swiftly, she moved among the trolls sprawled across the floor, touching each one lightly.

"Gourry, give me a hand," Lina said, drawing her rapier. "Make some small wounds on these trolls—just enough to make them bleed a bit. You handle that side, and I'll take care of this side."

"Trolls have strong regeneration, don't they? Wounds like that won't do anything," Gourry said, scratching his head in confusion.

"Stop questioning me! Just do it! I have my reasons!" Lina was already poised to make her first cut.

Shrugging, Gourry drew his longsword and prepared to assist Lina in wounding the trolls.

"Wait!" Aoko interrupted, raising her hand. With a wave, all the windows in the inn flew open. She was clearly at her limit with the trolls' stench. "Alright, go ahead."

Lina and Gourry efficiently made small cuts on the trolls' bodies. Normally, such minor wounds would heal in the blink of an eye, but what happened next was beyond Gourry's imagination.

The wounds on the trolls' bodies began to expand rapidly, splitting open and spreading uncontrollably. Even under Aoko's deep sleep spell, the trolls couldn't withstand the extreme pain and woke up screaming.

But the rate of their wounds' expansion only accelerated. In no time, their bodies were torn in half and eventually reduced to piles of flesh.

Aoko, who had been observing, realized this wasn't necromancy or any arcane spell from the Magic Weave system. Instead, it seemed to be a completely different kind of magic. Lina Inverse—a young girl with a remarkable talent in magic.

"What just happened?" Gourry asked, staring in confusion at the trolls' gruesome remains. "How did they just… die like that?"

"This is a spell I invented myself," Lina explained proudly. "Troll regeneration is essentially a magical effect. Healing spells enhance the recipient's regenerative abilities, so I reversed the effect—turning their regeneration against them."

"Hmm… I don't really get it, but as long as the trolls got what they deserved, I guess it's fine," Gori said, still a bit puzzled. "But this smell is just awful…"

Aoko had anticipated this. She waved her staff, summoning a gentle breeze that swept away the foul stench of troll blood and flesh. The air became much fresher, even if only temporarily.

Lina then went to the bar and called out the innkeeper, asking him to pack up the remaining food. Although the innkeeper frowned at the sight of the troll remains, he didn't dare offend these three powerful individuals. Other than the mess on the floor, there wasn't much actual damage done.

After accepting a handful of gold coins from Lina as compensation, the innkeeper promptly packed up their food. He also summoned a few cleaners to take care of the troll carcasses and scrub the place clean, aiming to reopen before dinner.

Aoko couldn't help but admire the innkeeper's mental fortitude. Even in a medieval, magic-filled world like this, such a bloody scene was probably uncommon. Then again, trolls were so ugly and foul-smelling that their remains might not evoke the same feelings as those of a human. To the innkeeper, it probably felt no different from butchering livestock in the kitchen.

After their unexpected battle, the trio had no interest in exploring the town. They headed upstairs and returned to their rooms on the second floor of the inn.

Gourry retreated to his room for a nap, while Aoko and Lina stayed in their shared room to work on magic.

Aoko began by helping Lina craft her first spellbook and explained in detail how a spellbook worked for a Magic Weave mage.

"So, I have to prepare spells every morning?" Lina asked. "That's a test of self-discipline."

"Once you become skilled enough with a spell, you won't need to prepare it anymore," Aoko said, wagging her finger. "That state is called spell mastery. You can cast mastered spells as long as you have spell slots available, without needing to prepare them."

After explaining, Aoko handed Lina three scrolls and continued her lecture.

"One major advantage of Magic Weave mages is the ability to store spells in scrolls by using spell slots. You can save them for later use," Aoko explained. "However, crafting scrolls and learning higher-level spells require specific magical languages, which I'll teach you bit by bit."

Speaking of languages, Aoko had already learned most of the world's common tongue over the past few days, thanks to her high intelligence. The language sounded like a mutated form of a European language, somewhat similar to German, so she picked it up quickly.

Lina, on the other hand, had already dabbled in Latin while learning basic cantrips. Since Latin was Aoko's magical language of choice and bore some resemblance to the Elvish tongue of Tianyu, she decided to teach Lina Latin as well.

The three scrolls Aoko gave Lina contained Mage Armor, Expeditious Retreat, and Sleep. There were no offensive spells because Aoko felt Lina already had plenty of destructive magic. Instead, she believed supplementary spells would benefit her more, and Lina agreed.

As Aoko patiently explained the knowledge inscribed on the scrolls, a knock suddenly came from the door.

Someone was standing outside.

Aoko gestured for Lina to ask who it was. Catching the hint, Lina nodded and raised her voice.

"Who's out there?" Lina demanded.

"A man who wants to make a deal with you," a cold, young male voice replied from the other side of the door. "I want to buy something you have. Name your price."