This Clueless Hero

I scratched the back of my head.

"So what spell do you want to learn first?"

Erin tilted her head to the side.

"Um... I don't know. You make it sound like you know all the spells!"

I laughed awkwardly.

"Well, I know some. Not all of them though."

Erin blinked a few times.

"...You practice so much!"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Sort of?"

Erin giggled.

"Hmm... you pick for me then!"

I tilted my head to the side. Honestly, Erin's use of the encase spell remained fresh in my mind.

"How about we learn the elementary ice spell first?"

Erin nodded and got out of her seat.

"Ok!"

She briefly scanned the table and hurried over to a parchment. She picked it up and got back into her seat.

"It's this one, right?"

Erin held the parchment up to me with both hands, a little bit too closely. It was named 'Encase' and had the spell diagram I remembered, prompting me to nod.

"Ah yes, that's the one."

Erin peeked at me from behind the parchment.

"What does this spell do?"

A small smile formed on my face.

"It encases things in ice. The biggest use is probably to preserve food by freezing it over."

I coughed.

"Though for you, it would probably be way too large to be used for food."

Erin pouted.

"Mm... why can't my spells just be normal!"

I smiled bitterly.

"Haha, that's a good thing! This way, even if you can't learn the super complex spells, you can still have a similar effect."

Erin rested the parchment on the table and puffed up her cheeks.

"I can learn super complex spells too!"

I blinked a few times.

"...Didn't you just say you refuse to learn harder spells?"

Erin poked my face, then crossed her arms.

"Only because I don't want to! I can learn them fine!"

She squirmed awkwardly.

"...it would just take a while!"

I laughed.

"Alright, alright. Anyways, I guess I should start with the basics."

From deep within my mind, the time Ela taught us resurfaced. I spoke with my eyes closed.

"When we cast spells, we should actually be imagining the opposite of the diagram. That way, we can just push mana through, speeding up the process."

Erin nodded.

"Ok!"

I then pointed to a spot on the diagram that contained the foundational ice spell.

"As you see here, this is the ice spell you already learned, right?"

Erin tilted her head to the side.

"I think so!"

My eyelid twitched.

"Didn't you say you memorized all of them?"

Erin shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure!"

I scratched the back of my head.

"Have you casted them yet?"

Erin pouted.

"No..."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Why not? How are you supposed to know if you got it without casting the spell."

Suddenly, Erin grabbed my shoulders and shook me back and forth.

"Don't you rememberrrrr!"

I let myself be rocked around, though it was making me dizzy.

"Ah, I remember, I remember!"

Erin stopped shaking me and crossed her arms.

"If I cast any spells in the palace... it might be bad."

The memory of that fifteen meter high mound of dirt resurfaced. She definitely had a point. If she tried to cast the fire spell, that would probably set a lot of things on fire. Then, if she used the water spell to put it out, she may very well flood the palace.

...I guess that's how Erin was able to learn the spells so quickly.

A soft sigh escaped me.

"I guess it can't be helped. At the very least, if you understand it in theory, casting should be pretty simple!"

Erin raised her hands in the air.

"Simple!"

I pointed to the diagram once more.

"Alright, so as you can see here, there are basically two foundational ice spells within the same diagram."

Erin hummed in understanding.

"Ok!"

I raised a finger into the air.

"The two ice spells are connected by the cores of their diagrams, so don't forget about that part."

Erin nodded.

"Ooh! It looks pretty simple!"

I chuckled.

"However, there is a small catch. When you normally cast the foundational ice spell, the final step is to cover the entire spell with mana. However, you don't do that step for these two foundational spells."

Erin tilted her head to the side.

"So is it even easier?"

I tapped the spell parchment.

"No, it's harder. It's not the most obvious, but this slight grey tint is supposed to represent how you enclose the spell with mana."

I cleared my throat.

"The difference between this and the foundational spell is that you have to enclose the entire thing. I think for you, that means maintaining the spell as you enclose it which should be the hardest part."

Erin tilted her head to the side.

"Why do we have to do that? How does it change the spell?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Ah... that is a good question."

Now that I thought about it, those were probably the things I should be thinking about. After all, the control vines spell wasn't going to let me grow food just because I learned how to cast it.

I had to understand it.

Erin blinked a few times.

"...So you don't know."

I coughed awkwardly.

"Uh, no."

Erin nodded.

"Mm... I think I got it anyways."

She sighed.

"If only I could try it out. I wonder what it looks like."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Ah, I can just show you."

I gathered some mana with my mind and after a moment of deliberation, plucked out a strand of hair from my head. After throwing the strand of hair in the air, I pointed at it and released the spell.

Ice rapidly gathered around the strand of hair, encasing it into a cube. As that cube fell, I caught it in my hand, feeling the cool feeling of ice.

I turned to Erin.

"See?"

She was looking at me very intensely, without saying anything. Honestly speaking, it felt a little invasive, as though she was trying to peek into my mind.

I coughed.

"Uh, hello?"

Erin pressed her lips together.

"It makes sense now..."

I tilted my head to the side.

"What makes sense?"

Erin pointed at my face.

"Why you are so insistent on learning spells and know so much about them!"

I furrowed my brows.

"Eh?"

Erin pointed to the cube of ice in my hand.

"You can cast spells."

I nodded.

"Yeah, what about it?"

Erin blinked a few times.

"You said you were talentless and couldn't cast anything."

The side of my face twitched.

...I forgot about that.

I coughed violently and hid the ice cube behind me, as though that could somehow make Erin forget.

"Um! It's just a little trick! I always had this ice cube and made it seem like uh..."

Erin giggled and put a hand on my shoulder.

"If you don't want anybody to know, I can keep it secret."

I smiled awkwardly.

"Haha... yeah, I would like that."

Erin gave me a thumbs up and winked.

"Don't worry about it, my lips are sealed."

She put her thumb and index finger together and traced them in front of her mouth, as though zipping her lips.

I laughed.

"Thank you."

From there, Erin asked a few more questions about the foundational ice spell as well as a few other spells.

It took a little while to recall the information, but I was able to explain all of them fairly clearly after a brief glance over them.

By the time we were done, it had gotten late. As such, we called it there and went to our respective rooms to sleep.

...

I slowly opened my eyes, feeling the soft bed underneath me.

For what felt like the first time in forever, I didn't have a headache. My eyes drifted to the curtains, to catch the rays of morning.

Although I hadn't woken super early, I imagine most of the others were still asleep.

Anyways, it was time for a new day.

I quickly freshened up before rushing to the farm. It was rather quiet along the way, and as expected, all signs pointed towards people still being asleep.

Once I reached the plot of land, I cast my gaze over it. The land was dried once more, almost like it was never watered in the first place. There were even a few cracks, showing it had already hardened considerably.

It made me a little confused, but maybe the seeds just sucked up a ton of water or something.

I didn't bother going to the shed and getting the water bucket. After all, my plan was just to use the water spell, just with less intensity compared to last time.

And so, I began to slowly water the land by repeatedly casting water spells. I was able to water one and a half strips before my sides began to ache badly. It was really tempting to gather mana without abandon to cast the healing spell, but I just patiently cast it.

Like this, I finished watering a little before the afternoon.

Although my head hurt a little, it was more or less fine.

I made my way back to the palace and up to Mildred's room. From there, I raised my hand to knock on the door.

But before I could, a loud slam resounded from behind.