Tailgating Incident
The royal palace (the royal palace of the Kingdom of Donagunov, which is also the home of Sordil and Irene... uh, no, their love nest!) shrouded in night, lost its daytime hustle and bustle and became somewhat quiet. Apart from the magnificent lights still shining brightly all around, most of the people in the palace were already immersed in sweet dreams, enjoying this precious moment of freedom.
Just then, a nimble black shadow flashed from one side of the corridor to the other, then ran towards the west side of the palace. Shortly after the shadow left, a palm-sized 'bat' streaked across the sky at incredible speed, following the shadow as it flew towards the west side of the palace.
A moment later, the dark figure rushed through the numerous obstacles and arrived at the training ground. Then, he easily found his way to the northwest corner of the training ground and activated a small Magic Array.
"Buzz"
A slight tremor ran through the air, and the next second, the Magic Array released a silvery-white light that completely enveloped the shadowy figure. When the light faded, the shadowy figure vanished from the Magic Array, disappearing without a trace!
"Hmph! You brat, I'll see what you're up to!"
After letting out a cold snort, the 'Black Bat' flew down onto the Magic Array and then poured magic power into the center of the Magic Array.
"Buzz!"
The silvery-white light flashed again, so intense that the 'Black Bat' couldn't open its eyes. Once its vision returned, the 'Black Bat' found itself in a somewhat familiar room.
"Huh? Isn't this the room Irene arranged for the girl?"
"Oh! I see! No wonder that brat insisted a few days ago that she left something here. Turns out she took the opportunity to run here and set up Teleportation Array!"
"Hmph! You brat, I'd like to see what you're up to!"
"Huh? Where's that brat?"
After muttering to himself for a while, 'Black Bat' finally remembered to look for his target. He then realized that in this pitch-black room, besides himself, there was no one else breathing. Unconvinced, 'Black Bat' searched the room thoroughly and finally found another Teleportation Array in a corner.
"You little rascal, you've even learned to have multiple burrows! But in front of me, no matter how many burrows you have, it won't make a difference!"
After saying that, the 'Black Bat' activated the Teleportation Array with magic and went to the next level to find its target.
A deep mountain near the capital of the Kingdom of Donagunov
The dark figure that was slowly walking along the mountain path suddenly stopped, glanced behind it, and only continued forward after confirming that there was nothing amiss.
"Strange! Why do I always feel like someone is following me? Could it be like what the teacher said, that I've done something wrong and am feeling guilty, which is why I'm always so paranoid?"
"Pah! I just wanted to study inter- Spatial Teleportation Array arrays, how could that be considered a guilty conscience?"
After brainwashing himself and confirming his safety, the shadowy figure (now you should know who the shadowy figure is, but... shh!) continued along the path, heading towards the secret research institute he had built.
A quarter of an hour later, the shadowy figure arrived at a cluster of strangely shaped Rock Mountain. Using the faint moonlight to survey its surroundings, it headed towards one of the Rock Mountain. Reaching the foot of the Rock Mountain, the figure turned and scanned its surroundings again, confirming that its presence was not detected. Then, it slipped behind a large rock.
"That's strange, why hasn't that brat shown up yet? I have to go check on her!"
After flying a distance toward the large rock, the 'Black Bat' suddenly stopped.
"Wait! What if the girl is 'peeing' and I just barge in like this..."
"Gulp!"
"Forget it, let's wait a little longer!"
At this moment, the shadowy figure, who should have been 'peeing,' arrived at a spacious underground hall. On the floor of the hall lay an unfinished Magic Array. Glancing at his masterpiece, the shadowy figure shook his head and sighed, "Sigh! I really don't understand my teacher. He's already designed such a powerful Teleportation Array, why won't he let me study it?"
After complaining, the shadowy figure stepped to the center of the formation and carefully examined every aspect of it to ensure that he had not made any mistakes.
"Hmm! Perfect! There were no errors. Next, we need to construct the other part of the Teleportation Array!"
After praising himself, the shadowy figure left the center of the formation and began to complete the missing parts of the Teleportation Array.
After waiting another quarter of an hour, the dark figure hiding behind the large rock still did not appear. At this point, the 'Black Bat' was basically certain that the dark figure was not hiding behind the rock to 'pee', but had left through the secret passage.
"Smack!"
"Call!"
After blowing away a large swarm of tiny black, blood-sucking insects from his palm, 'Black Bat' said resentfully, "You brat, when I catch you, I'll make sure you experience the thrill of being sucked by a thousand mosquitoes! Ouch! Which blind bastard is biting me again?"
With a swift, powerful Dragon Claw Hand, the nasty creature that had been sucking his blood from his rear end was dealt with, and then 'Black Bat' angrily flew towards the large rock. Once above the rock, after scanning the area below, 'Black Bat' finally understood the real reason for the shadowy figure's disappearance.
"I was wondering why that girl disappeared after running here. It turns out she dug a tunnel here."
"Hmph! Wait for me, little girl, your teacher has come to surprise you!"
After saying that, the 'Black Bat' plunged into the tunnel entrance to deliver a surprise to someone!
"Strange, everything seems to be working fine, so why can't it start?"
"That's because when you set up the Teleportation Array, you only set the three-dimensional coordinates of this space, but you didn't add the fourth coordinate of the three-dimensional space—time, and the distance difference between the two three-dimensional spatial dimensions."
"Oh, I see!"
"Gulp!"
Suddenly realizing what was happening, the shadowy figure swallowed hard, then her head, like a rusty robot, jerked and twisted backward. Staring at the 'black bat' floating in the sky, the figure asked in a trembling voice, "T-Teacher... is... is... is... it... you...?"
"Hmph! Besides a fool like me, who else would stay up all night and stand outside getting bitten by mosquitoes for half an hour just for you?"
"Teacher, please let me explain, I..."
"Alright! The evidence is right in front of me, what else do you need to explain?"
"Teacher, I just..."
"I know you just want to study the construction principles and operation methods of inter- Spatial Teleportation Array, right?"
Anna's face flushed pink as her secret was exposed, but her curiosity about the interdimensional Spatial Teleportation Array kept her gazing at Sordil. As he watched those large, watery eyes below, the versions of Anna, Leila, and Lucy from Mashima's own time flashed before Sordil's eyes. His anger gradually dissipated, and finally, all his unspoken words were reduced to a sigh.
"This matter ends here, and there will be no next time!"
"Teacher, my dear teacher, please have mercy and let me do my research! I promise I'll stop immediately after I succeed and I absolutely won't use any inter- Spatial Teleportation Array!"
Faced with the beautiful girl's charming advances, Sordil's hard heart softened instantly. However, as a dragon of his word, he couldn't go back on his promise. So, he had to rack his brains to find a way to skirt the rules. After much deliberation, Sordil said helplessly, "Sigh! It's not impossible for you to research interdimensional Spatial Teleportation Array, but you must do so with me by your side. Otherwise, I'll take all the magic away from you!"
Seeing that Sordil had finally relented, Anna skipped over and hugged the miniature version of Sordil that was floating in the air. She then said sweetly, "Okay, okay, Anna will stay by your side from now on!"
"Hmm! That's more like it!"