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"?!??!?!!?!?!?

"

nThe black-haired attendant woke up with the start, drenched in sweat and with tears streaming down his face.

nHe calmed down only after realizing that he was in his own bed in the Aspaceony Academy dormitory's room, as well as that he can freely move his arms and legs - to an extent at least - and that his mouth is most certainly not sew shut as in the dream...

nAnd what a dream it was...!

nWhen he experienced it for the first time right after he awakened to magic, he got so scared and panicked so much that he gave his father the scare of his lifetime.

nEven now the scarred attendant remembered being rocked in his father's arms until morning but not stopping sobbing until Miriette herself came to see him and assuring him that nothing happened to her during the night.

nAs far as the medics were concerned - the explanation they had was rather simple - dreams are just dreams - and with how traumatic of an experience Zoemi's early childhood - before arriving at the Espine's castle - was, he had plenty of bad things to dream about.

nThey all said that it will stop happening after some time.

nIt never stopped.

nAnd it was always the same dream without fail.

n|Again with that nightmare...|

nZoemi raised his head and peeked through the window - it was early in the morning - so early, in fact, that it was still basically nighttime - the black-haired attendant laid back in his bed and started staring at the ceiling.

nAfter waking up from the recurring nightmare - that he honestly already got used to by that point - he wiped off the tears burning his eyes and in the light of the lit magic crystal lamp checked the time confirming that there was still over an hour left till the time he should begin preparing for the start of the day.

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"...uuuughhhh...

"

nHe breathed out a heavy sigh.

nBecause of some of his actions the prior evening, there were a few concerns he had to figure out what to do about...

n

"...

"

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"...suuu...

"

nOne of those concerns was lying on top of him, breathing calmly while drooling a little on his chest.

nIt was one of Horeo's twin attendants, the younger one - Teo.

nThank goodness, both she and Zoemi were still fully clothed...!

nOnce again, the black-haired attendant realized how dangerous the state of mana depletion is.

nHe could remember things through the fog, but he could remember everything – it wasn't like he got completely braindead just because his mana reservoir ran dried up, but doing so had left him fully conscious jet completely unable to control himself.

n...

nThe thing with Patishi was completely fine, even welcomed – he almost spoke up about the little secret of his at one point, but managed to keep his mouth shut, so everything was fine.

n...everything but the head-patting through the night thing...!

n|I'm such an easy target when I'm like that – still, I'm glad that she's so innocent...|

nZoemi thought to himself, moving a stray strand of hair away from Teo's face as it seemed to be tickling her nose.

nThat short brown-haired girl wanted head-pats - and only that – well, she also had that thing going on when she wanted to be called a good girl and a very good girl - but it was negligible, and Zoemi was boundlessly grateful to her for not trying anything else.

n...because if she requested anything else from him, he would have done that with a smile...

nKiss?

nNo problem.

nTake off his clothes?

nBring it on!

nDo some other things?

nHell yes!

nMana depletion was a very serious - dangerous state.

nThe spell that Zoemi used and that got him to that state was a very special spell only the darkness magicians could use.

nMana conversion.

nThe boy figured it out by accident during training a few years back - it allowed to draining mana from the spell or the object in the caster's shadow and converting it into the darkness attribute mana afterward.

nThe best part that Zoemi already confirmed was that the mana he gained through that spell would be added to the overall mana pool of the caster, increasing it instead of just filling in the missing amount!

nThe concept sounded great but it wasn't without the demerits – unfortunately.

nFirst of all after the conversion only a small percent, sometimes only a tenth of a percent or even a hundredth of the mana used for the spell or the mana filling and object was converted into the darkness attribute mana.

nThe skill could also fail.

nAnd there was a limit on how long things and spells could stay in the shadow storage without being corroded by the surrounding darkness.

nWhen Zomei was younger - after discovering that spell - he began practicing it with Horeo's help for a few years and his mana pool changed from below the amount normal for the average commoner to the amount twice as much in comparison to the average commoner.

nAs an example, the average darkness magician should possess a mana pool equal to five average commoners.

nThe second problem was the spell's cost.

nNo matter how minuscule the amount of overall mana it added, the spell would drain anywhere from half of his overall mana up to the whole thing.

nIt was nowhere near as effective as the boy wished it to be – but still - that didn't stop him from using it every time he got the chance.

nLying in bed with a cute girl on top of him has reminded the black-haired boy of how important it is to only use that spell when he is alone or with someone he could trust.

nAfter all, it was a cute innocent girl now – but who knows what might have happened to him if he encountered someone with evil intentions...?

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"...sheeesh...

"

nZoemi sighed again and started patting the brown-haired girl's head.

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"....nnn.... ….shoemi... I wuv uuu...

"

nShe mumbled something in her sleep, hugged him a bit tighter, and rubbed her cheek on his chest.

nNeedless to say, the scarred boy hasn't had even a wink of sleep that night.

n---

nUgh... It will be a tiring day today...

nAnd indeed that day was a tiring day.

nNothing important happened, it was just exhausting.

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