Karya Never Lies

It turned out that Sona was sometimes a little more reliable than Lux.

After half a month of thinking, she finally succeeded on her eighth training attempt!

When Karya announced that Sona had passed the training, Lux immediately jumped up and hugged her friend excitedly. "Oh my gosh, Sona, you really did it! Tell me, how did you succeed?"

"I... Aihua helped me." Held in Lux's arms and nearly tossed into the air, Sona clutched her instrument and shyly held down her skirt. "Last time, I noticed that the beetles' calls seemed to follow a pattern, so I thought I'd try using sound to influence them..."

"Huh? You can do that?" Lux asked in surprise, setting Sona down. "You played them a song, and they stopped moving?"

"How could it be that simple?" Karya said, sounding rather exasperated. "Sona used music to disrupt their coordination, then followed up with wide-ranging attacks that didn't distinguish between targets. The beetles were thrown into disarray, which let her last ten minutes."

"How did you come up with that?" Lux hurriedly asked Sona for advice. "You made them fight each other?"

"It just occurred to me by chance..." Sona blushed, straightening her skirt after being put down as she waved her hands repeatedly. "Lux, you don't have to copy me. I'm sure you can do it too—"

"That's right, I can do it too!" Lux nodded. "Again, again! I refuse to believe I can't deal with these annoying beetles!"

After resting for fifteen minutes, Lux began training again, brimming with confidence.

This time, she lasted nine minutes.

Her method was simple. The dazzling Light Sword looked impressive, but it wasted mana and drained her stamina. Lux instead coated her sword with a little Light Magic and used only basic sweeping strikes. That alone let her take out a large number of beetles.

If she hadn't accidentally poured in more magic at the end, carried away by her frustration, she would have passed the training this time!

And it was precisely because she was so emotional that Karya mocked her again after she failed.

This time, however, Lux didn't feel embarrassed. Faced with Karya's sarcasm, she simply said, "It's fine, say whatever you like. Next time, you'll show your true colors."

And the next time, Lux did pass the training.

On her tenth attempt, she not only lasted ten minutes, but also killed a large number of scarab beetles. She had nearly turned a defensive battle into an extermination!

"Hehehe!" After Karya announced that she'd passed, Lux planted her hands on her hips. "I passed the training. Come on, Karya, show me how those scavengers last ten minutes with just a stick!"

"Sure." Karya didn't hesitate. He waved a hand. "Then watch. This is a real memory of mine."

The sand dunes before them blurred. Soon, a dark-skinned scavenger appeared in the distance, dressed in ragged clothes with a large sack on his back.

He held a long wooden pole, at least nine feet long. Long, narrow wooden boards were strapped to his feet—the sandboards scavengers commonly used to cross the dunes as they traveled through the desert.

"Watch carefully." Karya's voice was calm and unhurried. "You didn't believe a scavenger could easily last ten minutes surrounded by scarabs. So take a good look!"

The next moment, the dunes began to churn. A large number of scarabs emerged from the sand and surged toward the scavenger.

But the scavenger calmly removed one of his sandboards and hooked it onto the end of the pole.

The pole and the sandboard formed the shape of a hoe.

Then the scavenger swung the hoe and dug hard into the ground. The pole, sandboard and all, sank easily into the gravel and stood firm.

Without even removing his other sandboard, the scavenger slung his pack over the end of the pole, clamped his legs around it, and scampered up the upright pole like an ape.

The scarabs charged fiercely and could jump, but they couldn't fly. The pole was so long that, despite their angry squeaking, they couldn't reach the scavenger, who was nearly eight feet off the ground. In the end, they could only leave in frustration.

"How is that possible?" Lux hopped up and down in disbelief. "Those crafty bugs were so smart when I fought them! Why didn't they bite through his pole? You cheated!"

"You think every scavenger who can safely travel through this desert is an idiot?" Karya flicked Lux on the forehead, making the girl crouch and cover her head. "The pole is their lifeline. It's made either from animal bones or from the branches of certain poisonous trees. The scarabs won't chew on it!"

"Th-that still isn't just any old stick!" Lux protested stubbornly. "And they know about these bugs!"

"Good point." Karya nodded. "How about I show you how the top graduates performed back then? Then you can decide whether you're really the worst class I've ever taught!"

"Show me!" Lux stuck out her chest again. "Who's scared of who?!"

"Fine, let me see..." Karya reached out and rubbed his chin. "Who should I pick? You there, Aatrox!"

A minute later, Lux felt as if her entire worldview had been shaken.

What kind of monster was this guy named "Aatrox"?

He looked like an ordinary, not particularly strong boy, yet he wielded a greatsword and casually took out every scarab in a minute!

And that wasn't even the most outrageous part.

The most outrageous part was that Lux had learned every move Aatrox used. She was sure she could perform each one about as well as he did if she used it on its own.

But even if Lux followed his movements now, she still couldn't wield her sword with anything like his effortless, flowing grace!

The greatsword seemed almost weightless in his hands. He and the blade appeared to be dancing together, their center of gravity barely shifting, yet every strike carried both his own strength and the force of the downward swing.

More incredibly, almost every one of his strikes landed between the scarabs' wing cases, where their defenses were weakest. Each cut cleanly split one in two, without the slightest hesitation!

What kind of divine skill was this?

"Is that all the training—"

Before Aatrox could finish a single sentence, Karya waved his hand and ended the memory.

Watching the slender figure disappear, Lux stared in stunned disbelief, her mouth hanging open. She had once seen Sebastian Laurent, the head of the Laurent family, demonstrate his swordsmanship.

Her family's ancestral Mind's Eye Swordplay already represented the pinnacle of swordsmanship's elegance, as far as Lux could imagine.

But even its supreme technique, Sword Dance Waltz, couldn't compare to the seemingly effortless swordsmanship of this Aatrox!

What incredible talent! What stunning brilliance!

He had used nothing more than the simplest strikes—smashing, chopping, and thrusting—yet he'd wiped out every scarab with astonishing ease and efficiency...

Lux began to question her life.

"Th-this has to be your best student!" Lux gritted her teeth, convinced she could still argue her case. "And he obviously did nothing but practice swordsmanship—"

"Well said!" Karya seemed to agree. "You're a natural Spellcaster, so we should use a Spellcaster as an example. Is that what you mean?"

"Exactly, exactly!" Lux nodded over and over. "That's exactly what I mean!"

"Fine. Let's take a look at Nezuk's performance." Karya nodded. "He was an Elemental Mage, just like you. Come on, let's see how Nezuk did."

As he spoke, Karya waved his hand again. The scene blurred, and a robed figure appeared at the foot of the dunes in the distance.

The sand churned, and scarabs poured out.

The next moment, Nezuk raised both hands, gathering the sunlight in his palms, bending it, and sweeping it outward.

Every scarab in the path of the light was roasted to pieces.

At that moment, Lux remembered something she'd learned earlier: sunlight wasn't an element, but it could still be gathered and bent.

"Why didn't I think of that!" Lux was so frantic she almost wanted to roll on the ground. "I could do that too!"

"Really? Try it here." Karya chuckled. "Let's see if you can easily gather and bend the sunlight."

Lux took a deep breath and tried to gather the sunlight the way Karya had taught her.

Before she could get anywhere, however, exhaustion rose from deep within her. Her stamina had run out again.

"How did that happen?" Lux collapsed to the ground in a heap. "Isn't gathering and bending light supposed to be easy?"

"It is once you're familiar with the process," Karya explained. "But if you're not used to casting magic this way, it takes more energy..."

"Hmph, that's only because I haven't been able to train!" Lux clung to the last of her stubbornness. "They all trained for so long, and they must have had plenty of practical experience."

"That's true." Karya kept nodding, though he could no longer hide the amusement in his voice. "In that case, I'll show you the training record of a young girl. It was the first time she'd ever formally cast a spell, and no one had taught her before."

"Good!" Lux sat up. "Come on, show me! I refuse to believe all your previous students were geniuses!"

Karya waved his cloak sleeve, and Nezuk's figure disappeared. In its place, a shy-looking young girl appeared at the foot of the dunes.

She had thick eyebrows and a somewhat flat face. Her cheekbones were a little red, perhaps from too much exposure to the sun, and her skin was dark all over.

When the scarabs appeared, she first pressed both hands downward, then raised them shakily. At her gesture, countless boulders beneath the sand gathered on their own, forming a smooth, wall-like curtain of stone.

After succeeding on her first try, the girl looked utterly exhausted. She watched the scarabs beneath the stone curtain carefully, and when she saw that they couldn't climb up, she raised her arms excitedly.

"Teacher, teacher, did you see? I did it!" she cried in excited Old Shuriman, speaking with an accent. "I really can do it!"

Karya waved his hand, dispelling the memory. Beneath his hood, a rare smile appeared on his face. "She was the daughter of a weaver. This was her first training session. Before then, she'd always suppressed her talent, afraid her power might hurt someone else. So this was the first time she'd ever cast a spell."

Lux was stunned.

"What kind of people are they..."

"She really was exceptionally gifted. If you're not convinced, I also have a record of Nasus. He was one of my worst students besides you."

"..."

"This is Renekton. That idiot practically never thought things through."

"..."

"This is Rhaast. He was slippery and always liked taking shortcuts—"

"..."

"And Varus, who used a bow..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

After Lux had watched enough training videos of those legends and left the simulated training ground, returning to reality, she collapsed against Sona.

Clutching her good friend's hand, the girl's voice was already on the verge of tears.

"Boo-hoo... Karya didn't lie to me."

"..."

"Boo-hoo-hoo, I'm useless!"

"..."

Seeing Lux sobbing as if her heart were breaking, her golden hair seeming to have lost its luster, the usually gentle Sona finally couldn't take it anymore. She helped Sona undo her high ponytail and let her long hair down, then carefully put a headband on her. She even shot Karya a glare.

Karya finally realized that he might have gotten a little carried away. These records were his most precious memories. Even he had been distracted by the familiar figures, and hadn't noticed Lux's feelings. He'd hurt the girl's fragile pride.

"All right, all right. Don't cry." Karya spoke in an unusually gentle voice. "You're in Demacia, after all, and can only study theory. It's normal for you to be a little weak in practice... Trust me, of all the people you just saw, only Nezuk and Nasus had stronger theoretical knowledge than you—"

It was meant to be comforting.

But when Lux thought about how easily those people with "weaker theoretical knowledge" had passed their trials, while she had endured three years of being force-fed lessons and still failed eight times in a row, making a complete mess of herself...

Lux couldn't help feeling even more miserable. She began to cry louder.