A Startling Growth

"—"

Everything froze.

Time froze.

Ais stared at the sword tip thrusting toward her, her already contracted pupils shrinking even further.

"Ais!"

Someone seemed to be calling Ais's name, their voice filled with panic.

Hearing that voice, Ais finally reacted. Her pupils, which had nearly shrunk to pinpoints, abruptly flashed with sharp light.

"Boom!"

The wind wrapped around Ais erupted, transforming into a tangible Shockwave that sent everything around them flying.

Riezel only felt an irresistible force surge at him from the front. The next moment, he was blasted away and slammed into the courtyard wall.

"Cough!"

The pain in his back made Riezel involuntarily cough all the air out of his lungs.

The wind around him had been directly scattered by its collision with Ais's wind, leaving Riezel to take the full force of the impact. His entire body ached terribly.

"Y-You're not hurt, are you?"

Ais froze for a moment, then panicked—a rare sight for her.

It was not just Ais. Even the onlookers were startled.

"S-Something happened!"

Tiona cried out in alarm.

"It's all your fault! Why did you have to shout just then?"

Tione smacked Tiona hard and accused her.

The one who had called out to Ais just now was Tiona.

If Tiona had not shouted, Ais would not have instinctively gotten serious.

"I only couldn't help it because Ais was about to get stabbed!"

Tiona clutched her throbbing forehead, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes as she defended herself.

"You stupid Amazon!" Bete immediately cursed. "Ais had already used magic. With 'Wind' protecting her, how could that brat's sword possibly stab her?"

Indeed, even if Ais had not detonated her Wind Power and Repelled Riezel, his attack most likely would not have achieved anything substantial.

The protection of Wind Spirit Sprint guarded its user's body. Even if Riezel's sword had struck her, it would most likely have been blocked by the "wind" around Ais.

So Tiona's shout had been completely unnecessary.

"Sorry."

Tiona seemed to realize that as well and muttered awkwardly and guiltily.

"All right, stop standing around." Finn put an end to the argument. "Let's check on the newcomer first."

As he spoke, Finn jumped straight out of the Window, completely unconcerned that he was in a tower dozens of meters above the ground.

"Honestly, the lot of you are still as rash as ever."

Gareth scolded them as he jumped down after Finn.

Riveria had already gone down ahead of them.

Seeing this, Bete, Tiona, and Tione followed one after another, leaping from the tower into the courtyard.

Only Loki remained. One foot rested on the Window ledge as though she were about to jump, but when she saw the ground far below, her mouth twitched. She casually drew her leg back as if nothing had happened.

"Forget it. Finn and Riveria are there."

Having her divine power sealed, the goddess wisely avoided the fate of splattering across the ground.

Thus, the First Class Adventurers of the Loki Familia all entered the courtyard and gathered around Riezel.

"Are you all right?"

Riveria was the first to step forward. As she helped Riezel up, she extended one hand and pressed it against him, seemingly checking something.

"...I'm sorry."

Ais came forward as well. Looking at Riezel, who was still unsteady on his feet, she lowered her head with a dejected expression, looking exactly like a child who had done something wrong.

Even Tiona apologized, her eyes full of remorse as she looked at Riezel.

"Cough, cough."

Riezel coughed a few more times, then took a light breath. Only after the pain in his chest and back had subsided did he look around at the First Class Adventurers present and shake his head.

"I'm fine. Don't worry."

Everyone studied Riezel's complexion for a moment. Once they confirmed that he truly seemed fine, they finally sighed in relief.

"It's good that you're all right." Finn seemed to want to pat Riezel on the shoulder, but realized his hand could not even reach him. He had no choice but to give up and smile. "Luckily, 'Wind' offset part of the impact for you. Otherwise, that hit alone might have left you bedridden for several days."

"You two were far too reckless." Gareth glared with flared nostrils and snorted coldly. "A little sparring would have been one thing, but you actually got serious. Were you trying to kill or maim your own Familia comrades?"

"Indeed." Riveria frowned. "Ais, you overreacted. You should reflect on that properly."

"Mm..." Ais lowered her head even further, her expression becoming even more dejected.

"It wasn't Miss Ais's fault." Riezel had fully recovered by now. Seeing Ais looking so downcast, he spoke up in her defense. "I was the one who wanted to spar with Miss Ais. It was only natural for her to fight back."

"Even so, the two of you went too far." Tione sighed. "The way you looked just now, as though you wanted to cut Ais down, I almost thought you were fighting to the death. Honestly, it reminded me of some unpleasant things that happened back in my homeland."

"Exactly, exactly." Tiona nodded repeatedly in agreement.

She had been frightened just now. Remembering things from the past that she did not want to think about had made her unable to stop herself from shouting.

So, if they really had to assign blame, it was all Riezel's fault. He had become too immersed in the fight and trusted Ais's strength too much, causing what should have been a largely instructional spar to gradually turn into a serious battle. He had truly brought it upon himself.

"It was my fault." Riezel naturally understood that he had gone too far first. Looking at Ais's dejected face, he immediately comforted her. "Please don't blame yourself anymore. In the end, it was all my fault. You were only defending yourself. You didn't do anything wrong."

Hearing Riezel's words, Ais nodded, but she still looked somewhat downcast, making Riezel feel a little guilty himself.

However, before Riezel could finish comforting Ais, Bete cut in.

"Why are you dwelling on something so trivial? Shouldn't the important thing be what happened during that fight?" Bete stared at Riezel like a lone wolf threatening its prey. "Tell me, brat. Did you really receive Falna only three days ago?"

As soon as those words were spoken, everyone turned to look at Riezel.

Even Ais, who had still been feeling dejected, seemed especially concerned about this topic. She raised her head and looked over as well.

Riezel was startled at first, then understood what they meant. He nodded. "Yes. I received Falna three days ago."

That answer earned him Bete's merciless rebuttal.

"Who are you trying to fool?" Bete snapped. "You expect us to believe you grew to this extent in only three days? Stop spouting nonsense!"

Bete's meaning was obvious: he did not believe Riezel could have grown so quickly.

That was only natural.

"Judging by what you showed just now, even without counting the boost from Ais's magic, conservatively speaking, at least one or two of your Basic Abilities should have reached Stage D, perhaps even Stage C, right?"

Finn pondered for a moment, then calculated Riezel's Ability Value with startling accuracy.

"At least Stage D Basic Abilities, and possibly more than one?" Gareth muttered to himself. "Good grief. When we reached that stage back then, didn't it take us almost a year?"

"The fastest among us should have been Ais." Riveria glanced at the Doll-like girl. "But even Ais took around half a year."

"Huh?" Tiona said in surprise. "Does that mean little brother reached in three days what Ais achieved through half a year of effort?"

As soon as she said that, everyone fell silent.

Ais in particular stared fixedly at Riezel, as though she cared deeply about this matter.

Riezel could only stand beneath their variously colored gazes and smile bitterly inwardly.

Of course he knew why they were reacting so strongly.

Even Ais had taken that long to reach his current stage, let alone anyone else.

And he had achieved this in only three days. It was indeed difficult for anyone to accept.

After all, Ais held the world record for becoming an Upper Class Adventurer the fastest. At the age of only eight, she had successfully Leveled Up to Lv.2 in just one year.

To call Ais's talent the greatest in the world would not be an exaggeration at all.

Yet Riezel had displayed talent far beyond Ais's—and by such an enormous, absurd margin. It was perfectly normal that everyone found it unbelievable.

But Riezel truly did not think it was anything special.

After all—

The original protagonist successfully Leveled Up in about a month. Even at Lv.1, every Ability Value update gave him several hundred points of proficiency across the board. What did this amount to?

That was why, whenever Loki doubted her very existence as a goddess over his growth, Riezel alone felt that it was not impressive at all.

The original protagonist could easily accomplish things like this after getting his cheat. Riezel had merely done the same thing. What was there to make such a fuss about?

Besides, in other worlds, monsters who grew even faster than this—or even rose to the top in a single step, reaching the peak overnight—were hardly rare.

Therefore, Riezel genuinely did not think much of it. He spoke calmly and evenly.

"You can ask Loki yourselves. When I received Falna from her three days ago, was there nothing on my back? She knows better than anyone."

Hearing that, everyone looked at one another before turning as one toward the God's Chamber.

"You're coming too!"

"I want to see whether this is true."

The Amazon twin sisters each grabbed one of Riezel's arms and dragged him inside.

Ais followed behind them, her steps exceptionally firm.

That made Riezel realize something.

My Ability Value is bound to be exposed now.

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