Several more weeks had passed since Norn and Aisha were born.
Buena Village had fully entered winter.
The air was bitterly cold, and the occasional falling snowflake laid a white carpet over the earth.
The warm breath of the village children condensed into white mist in the cold air.
But Roxy's "magic lessons" continued uninterrupted.
In the cleared space behind Cui Ciyou's house.
Roxy was conducting her daily magic lessons, with Rudeus and Sylphy as her students.
Today's subject was the intermediate Wind Magic spell-"Wind Blade."
Roxy patiently explained the essentials of sensing air currents, compressing magic power, and giving it cutting properties.
Her cool, pleasant voice echoed across the open space, like a clear spring flowing through winter.
Rudeus was still as quick on the uptake as ever.
Roxy had barely finished explaining how to construct the "magic circuit" when Rudeus extended his little hand with practiced confidence.
A faint light flashed at his fingertips, and an invisible wind blade whistled out. Though small, its shape was stable, and it traced a clear cutting path.
With a soft thwip,
it severed a dead branch set up as a target ahead.
A smug smile immediately appeared on Rudeus's face.
He looked expectantly at Roxy, like a puppy wagging its tail as it waited for its owner's praise.
"Yes, very well done, Rudeus," Roxy assessed objectively.
"Your sensing and shaping of magic power were both very quick and precise."
There was a hint of approval in her tone, but little emotion stirred in her eyes.
After encountering an existence as "beyond all standards" as Ciyou and learning of Rudeus's "talent,"
she had become quite calm about displays of "genius" at this level.
Sylphy, meanwhile, was having a little trouble.
Her little face was taut with concentration.
Her crimson eyes fixed on