Early the next morning, the forest beside the Black Bull base rang out with the dull, heavy sounds of water bursting against stone. Under Brian's watchful eye, Noelle held in her hand the magic wand she had just bought, a finely crafted magic tool with a mana stone core that helped stabilize the flow of its user's mana.
"Go ahead and attack."
Following Brian's instruction, Noelle aimed the tip of her wand at a square-shaped boulder standing in front of her. The mana inside her body rose up, and this time there was no loss of control whatsoever.
Thwump!
With the support of her wand, Noelle successfully launched a water orb that struck near the center of the square boulder in front of her. The accuracy was not yet perfect, but this was the first time the silver-haired girl had ever truly directed an attack the way she intended.
"Did you see that, Brian? I did it!"
Noelle turned to look at Brian, her violet eyes radiant with pride. "I actually hit it!"
The square boulder Noelle had just struck displayed a floating number above it that read 10. This boulder was one of Brian's spells, [Target Block].
[Target Block] was a spell that allowed Brian to summon a solid stone block whose surface was carved with concentric circles resembling a shooting target. The block's appearance was unremarkable, but its special feature lay in the fact that it was integrated with a kind of mana "circuit," allowing it to sense and respond to every vibration from any impact made against it from the outside.
When Noelle or any opponent landed a hit, the block would activate a mechanism that measured the force of the impact: the closer the hit to the center, or the greater the power behind it, the higher the number that would appear above it.
Beyond using [Target Block] during training sessions like the one he was currently doing with Noelle, Brian could also use this spell in combat to defend himself and precisely gauge the damage output of an opponent's strikes. From that, he could estimate the strength of his opponent and devise tactics suited to each individual combat situation.
Brian could sense how strong or weak any hit landing on the block was regardless of how far away from it he happened to be.
"Yeah, you did well."
Brian gave a small nod and praised Noelle. "Want to try a few more times? I'm sure you can do better than that last one."
Noelle's delight showed openly on her face as she received Brian's praise. She once again aimed the tip of the wand in her hand at the boulder in front of her.
Thwump!
Another hit landed on the boulder. This time she had managed to bring her water orb even closer to the center.
After several attempts adjusting her angle of attack and concentrating with everything she had, Noelle was able to hit the bull's-eye of the boulder directly. The number the boulder displayed above itself also changed, climbing from 10 all the way up to 20 after the silver-haired girl's series of consecutive strikes.
The happiness on Noelle's face was impossible to conceal when she saw what she had just achieved. Only a few days ago she had still been struggling to control her mana, and yet now she could use magic and hit a target with genuine precision.
"You see that, don't you?"
Noelle looked over at Brian again, unable to hide her joy. "That wasn't luck. I really have been able to control my magic."
At exactly that moment, Noelle's Grimoire suddenly began to glow. It flipped its pages at incredible speed to a blank page. Under the silver-haired girl's wide-eyed gaze, filled with an astonishment and happiness she could not put into words, a brand new offensive spell was inscribed into her Grimoire.
"Go ahead and try it."
Brian's words brought Noelle back to reality. The wand in her hand trembled slightly, not from nerves, but because of the excitement coursing through her at what she had just achieved. After all those days of hard magic training, she finally had an offensive spell.
"Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Waterball!"
Three water orbs appeared around Noelle the moment she used the spell that had just been added to her Grimoire. The size of these water orbs was considerably larger than the ones she had been creating to strike Brian's boulder earlier.
Noelle aimed her wand at the boulder, and the three water orbs surrounding her immediately shot straight for the bull's-eye.
Thwump! Thwump! Thwump!
Three successive blasts of water rang out, and the number displayed above the boulder instantly jumped from 20 all the way up to 150. The damage dealt by this spell was far greater than the simple water orbs Noelle had been using to strike Brian's boulder before.
Looking at the number shown on the boulder she had just struck, Noelle's violet eyes shimmered in a way that was almost strange to see. She no longer knew how to express the emotions that were welling up inside her without end.
"Don't cry now. The hard work you've put in over these past days has been properly rewarded."
At the very moment Noelle was overcome with emotion and on the verge of shedding tears of happiness, Brian spoke up. "But this is nowhere near the greatest thing you're capable of. You still have a great deal left to do before the people who looked down on you are forced to change their minds and admit they were wrong, and admit that you are not useless. So don't go crying right now. It's not worth it yet."
"I... I'm not crying..."
Noelle answered in a stuffy voice, clearly holding back her own tears as she listened to Brian's words.
"Yes, yes. You're not crying."
Brian softened his voice. He walked up close to Noelle and placed one hand on her head, gently stroking her silver hair. "You did really well."
"Yeah..."
Noelle's voice caught in her throat. A feeling that was at once warm and reassuring slowly spread through her heart like rising heat. The gentle, soothing stroke of Brian's hand made her mind gradually let go of its tension. She simply stood there and stayed still, taking in his tenderness until the emotions stirring inside her gradually settled into calm.
--o0o--
After Noelle's feelings had quieted down, Brian led the silver-haired girl back to the Black Bull base.
Noelle's face at this moment could not have been any redder. Every step she took betrayed a stiffness, an unnatural quality in the way she moved as she walked beside Brian.
Recalling what had unfolded not long ago in the forest, Noelle genuinely wished she could travel back in time to stop herself from acting so intimately with Brian at that moment.
In the beginning she had only meant to let him pat her on the head, but somehow, without knowing when or how, she had ended up being drawn into his arms and resting her head on his shoulder. If he had not known that the two of them needed to get back to the base, she probably would have gone on leaning against his shoulder in that comfortable, familiar way all the way until noon.
"No... he was only helping me... That's right, it was only his way of helping..."
Reassuring herself in order to regain her composure, Noelle tried her very hardest to appear as natural as possible as she made her way back to the Black Bull base.
The moment they stepped through the doors of the main hall, both Noelle and Brian noticed that the Black Bull's usual atmosphere of lazy indifference had shifted into something unusually tense and serious.
Yami was seated in his large wooden chair, cigarette smoke hanging thick in the air, a mission order bearing the Magic Emperor's seal held in his hand.
The moment he caught sight of Brian and Noelle, Yami spoke up. "Ah, you two showed up at just the right time, brats. I've got a job for you."
Brian and Noelle exchanged a glance, then both moved toward Yami to hear about the mission they were about to receive.
Yami tossed the mission order onto the table for Brian to look at, then continued. "A Dungeon has just risen up in the border region between the Clover Kingdom and the Diamond Kingdom. Your mission is to get to that Dungeon and claim the valuables inside before the enemy from the Diamond Kingdom shows up."
"The Magic Emperor himself assigned this mission to me?"
Brian held the mission order in his hand. "A mission this important, and they're handing it to a rookie?"
In the original story, Asta had also been personally assigned by the Magic Emperor to explore this same Dungeon. It was an important mission, yet it was being entrusted to a rookie who had only recently joined the ranks of the Magic Knights. Just hearing that much was enough to make it feel like something was off.
"Yeah, it's the Magic Emperor's call. There's nothing I can do about it."
Yami took a drag of his cigarette and added, while looking at Brian, "You don't need to worry too much about it either. I'll be sending one more person along with you two. This mission doesn't require you to fight the Diamond Kingdom people in some kind of life-or-death battle. And if you're still worried, one more person won't be a problem."
It was easy enough to understand why the Magic Emperor would have his eye on Brian. This young man was the one the four-leaf clover Grimoire had chosen, and in the future he was certain to become someone of great importance. So it was understandable that the Magic Emperor would want to use this opportunity to help develop him further by putting him through a difficult mission.
"Apart from us in the Black Bulls, Golden Dawn will also be taking part in this."
Yami handed Brian one more sheet of paper. On it was a mission assigned to someone the young man knew very well. "That other kid is also joining this mission. You two will get the chance to work together."
Even without Yami saying so, Brian already knew that Yuno would be taking part in this mission as well. He took the mission order the Magic Emperor had assigned him, nodded at Yami as a sign that he was accepting it, and would carry it out.
"I'll take the mission."
"Good."
Yami nodded with satisfaction at Brian's lack of hesitation, then turned to Noelle, who had been somewhat unfocused this whole time. "That goes for you too, Noelle. This mission I'll have Brian guiding you, so remember to act on what this kid tells you. You'll have someone watching over you both, so you don't need to worry too much about your safety. Just give it everything you've got."
"Oh, yes. I'll keep that in mind."
Noelle snapped back to attention when Yami called on her, quickly replied to her captain, and gave him a nod.
Despite the many questions and doubts still lingering in his mind, Brian set out with Noelle to carry out the Dungeon mission they had just been given. He was more excited than worried about this mission, because when he reached the Dungeon, he would be able to get his hands on things of immense value.