Steel and Mana

Chapter 16 – Sasha’s Thoughts

I felt confused… and afraid. I really did. I have been teaching Merlin for the past four days, and he is frightening! He learns much faster than I did when Leon began teaching me… I only had to tell him about the letters, how they look, how to write, and then he could mimic it after a few tries! Of course, copying what I do is not the same as understanding it... But after four days of learning half of the alphabet, he already recognized them in a book I brought along! He even managed to guess words with letters he didn’t know about yet! He is so much smarter than I am! If he keeps this up, he will overshadow me before he turns six! Will… Will I be left behind again? Left alone? Sent back to the forest? Will he send me to the church?

“Hauh…”

He said he won’t… but what if I start screwing things up? Nobody answered these questions… and I just couldn’t ask Leon! He would say no; of course he would!

“What should I do, Mr. Moon?”

Anytime such questions came to me, I always liked to look up at the full moon… of course, it couldn’t give me answers; I knew that, but it was something I always did… There was nobody to talk to for a long time when I was younger. Haah… I feel really lost! If Merlin gets powerful and more valuable than me in magic… Why should he keep me around? To clear my head, I decided to go to the place we built, and he called it a ‘washroom’ or something like that. It was just a wooden shed with two big basins filled with water. One was to wash off the dirt and grime of our bodies, while the other was to rinse ourselves when finished.

The others had already changed them, so both basins were filled with clear water. The task alone was a long trek back and forth from the closest water source… that problem will also be solved if he can build those… aqueducts. Looking into one of them after lighting the candles on the walls, I saw my sorry expression looking back at me. Haaah… I was ugly! My hair was messy, no matter what I did, and I was way too skinny!

“Small…”

That was the only thing I could say when I took off my clothes and looked at my tiny breasts. After eating well, I gained some weight, so my bones were no longer sticking out… I expected them to change, too... but they didn’t grow! Most of the women I saw had way bigger ones… not to mention Merlin’s mother! She had a pair that were as big… as… as my head! Ugh… So unfair! No wonder Leon refused to touch me when I first visited him!

“Well…”

That was not entirely true. Turning around and looking over my back, I tried to see the reflection of my butt in the water. He liked touching this part… maybe because it was more round than my breasts? It does look more plump than those sorry bunch on the front… Perhaps I should let him do it more? He did kiss me on the cheeks!

“Yes… I should let him do more!”

Especially now! What if another witch pops up? Just as talented as Merlin, but indeed a girl? With big boobs and a wide hip! Someone who is perfect for bearing children! I can also do that! Yes, I have been bleeding since long ago! I can have kids! His kids!

“Um-um! Yes!” I agreed to myself, shaking my bottom a little and watching it jiggle in the reflection.

It was the perfect plan! If I am not good enough in magic, I can be useful in other things! Then he won’t send me away, and I can stay with him forever! That would be the best!

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“She did what?” I asked, turning towards Oleg, who was standing at the entrance of the cave where at least 50 people were working with pickaxes. We were in the middle of creating the trenches that would make a new tunnel for the river to flow through straight into our stone pipes. Then, the aqueduct would sneak down from here directly towards the city.

“She burnt down a cabin. The fire was stopped in time, but it was completely demolished…”

“I don’t care about that! How’s Sasha?”

“She is fine,” Oleg answered, gulping, and I knew there was more to it.

“Continue! Just tell me as it is!”

“She said she was reading… cookbooks, imagining how to make… meals. Making the movements with her hand.”

“And?” I urged him to continue as he stopped constantly, and I was too anxious to hear what happened!

“She said it just combusted. Then the fire spread and the cabin was ablaze at once! With her in it, My Lord!”

“But you said she is uninjured!” I yelped, imagining her being burnt badly, disfigured… I wouldn’t want that; she suffered enough while growing up; she deserved better! If nothing else, I will take care of her still…

“That is the… weird thing, My Lord! The fire didn’t hurt her! She stood amongst the flames, unbothered, uninjured! It couldn’t burn her! It consumed her clothes, but her skin remained untouched! She said she didn’t even feel the heat! She just panicked that she destroyed one of your creations!”

“Oh? Are you telling me… she is fireproof? Or was it because it was her magic that conjured the flames?”

“I… I don’t really know, My Lord. It was… frightening to watch! It burned so fiercely that it left only ash behind! Not even charcoal! The wood is… gone!”

“How interesting! Take me there! I want to see this!”

After arriving, the scene was… magical. I mean it. The fire clearly burned in a circle, right around where the cabin was. Nobody dared to go close, afraid it would burst into flames once again. Worse… Sasha was huddled up, far away from the camp, sitting below a tree, hugging her legs, face buried in her knees. She looked like a lost puppy…

“Wait here!” I told the rest, and when Oleg opened his mouth and tried to stop me, I looked back at him with eyes that told him I was not in the mood for nonsense. “If you dare to tell me it is dangerous, just stop now. Don’t anger me.”

Walking up to Sasha, I couldn’t help but smile as I crouched down, gently patting her head. She flinched and looked up with her puffy, red eyes. I knew at once she was bawling them out just an hour ago.

“I didn’t… mean to…” She sniffed, but I simply laughed, patting her head and pulling her into a hug.

“That was awesome!”

“Eh?!” She yelped, going stiff as she didn’t expect something like this, I am sure of it.

“Oleg told me everything; damn, I wish I could see it again!”

“Again?! But… but… but!”

“This means your magic reacted to your thoughts! I bet you focused on it really hard!”

“I… I don’t know… But Leon! I am dangerous! What if I burn you? Or anybody else?!” And with that, she hurriedly pushed me away.

“Don’t be silly!” I resisted and pulled her back into a hug again. “I don’t think you would want to burn me! So it won’t happen! I trust you!”

“But…”

“I. Trust. You. Got it?”

“Y-yes…” She relaxed, hugging back, burying her head in my chest.

“I’m not angry, quite the opposite! This made me excited, and now I have so many questions that need answers!”

“But I don’t know how it happened…”

“We will figure it out! I already have ideas, but we need to check something first!”

“Eh?” She yelped as I pulled her up, and when the covers fell, I realized that she was… naked.

“Oh my!” I looked her up and down, remaining unabashed and letting my gaze have its fill. “You little exhibitionist! I like it!”

“An exhi… what?” She murmured, going red in the face, but… she wasn’t covering herself now. “You… like it? Really?”

“Duh! I do!” I grinned, grabbing her waist with two hands, making her shake it, and she followed my lead obediently. “Sexy!”

“...”

“Come!” I stopped her teasing because seeing her face… I was having trouble saying no to my sword that was unsheathing itself in my trousers. “Cover yourself as we are out in the forest! I don’t mind if you want to go commando around me, but let’s do it when we have no more work to deal with!”

“What is a commando?” She asked again, dressing up in the blankets that were given to her, looking like some kind of ancient Greek philosopher as she followed me barefooted.

“Don’t worry about it!” I cleared my throat, looking at her. “I can’t molest you when we still have work to do; if you want that, come to my tent tonight!”

“Okay…” She nodded, making me trip as I was just joking… well… I wouldn’t say no to it. She is a cutie and a kind girl; I would happily accept her if she accepted me.… ugh, focus Leon! “Hehe…”

“What?”

“Your face went a bit red, Leon…” She giggled, finally in a good mood, as we arrived back at the scene of the fire.

I was walking around it for minutes before ordering the others to bring a broom over so I could gently sweep the top of the ash away. I was careful not to touch the ground, and my first thought proved to be true.

“Do you see this, my Dear Sasha?” I asked with a wide grin.

“There are… markings on the ground?” She crouched down, looking at it curiously.

“Burnt into it. It is a magic circle!” I nodded gently and continued cleaning the top, trying not to scratch or make it indiscernible.

“There was a magic circle here? One that we missed?”

“Nope.” I answered, seeing her mind work, but I continued, not waiting for her to catch up, “This was left here by you! Your mind and mana, to be exact! Do you know what this means?”

“N-not really…” She answered honestly, lowering her head.

“Magic is part of nature…” I whispered, licking my lips, “This means that all magic circles are part of the law of nature! What you burnt into the ground, my Dear Sasha is a fundamental law of nature… Now, help me carefully clean it as I want to draw it! What we have here is the world telling us one of its core laws concerning magic and mana! Ahahaha! This… is AWESOME!”

What I didn’t see at that time was how Sasha was looking at me… as if I were… those eyes would have made me kiss her. The look of relief and rising joy, making her eyes glow, just made her even cuter… but, later on in life, I did have time to see her like that… many times, in fact!