Chapter 46 Language Learning: Online Teaching by Teacher Airland...
Ancia, the savior who gained glory and reputation in the Monster Mountains, returned to Gracia as a student who still had to attend classes, especially her one-on-one private tutoring in Ancient Elvish, which had been delayed due to her training.
The notebook lay open on the table, and the two people sat around the desk.
“Please begin, Teacher Erlan.” Ancia’s expression was serious, her eyes filled with a thirst for knowledge.
Airland remained silent for a long time before asking, "How do I teach him?"
Ansia: "?"
“Teach me the way your tribe teaches its children!”
The skepticism in her eyes was so obvious that Elven became enraged. "Elves don't have language learning courses at all. We can speak as soon as we fall from a tree. Language exists directly in our inherited memories. Isn't this something we're born with?"
Congratulations! What was I compared to you when I was studying dictionaries, listening to podcasts, and doing practice questions for foreign languages?
Ancia gritted her teeth, "Then listen to me, starting from this page of notes, teach me sentence by sentence, the meaning of each word, how to translate the whole sentence, what the special grammar is in the sentence, do you understand?"
Ellan snorted, but still did as she instructed. "Lord of Trees, referring to wood or forest. Ring, a circular area, a magic circle. These two words together mean a wood-type magic circle."
Ancia wrote down the two words on the fiber paper. "What's the pronunciation?"
A beautiful and rhythmic tone emanated from her thin lips, as if she were reciting classical poetry.
Ancia marked the stressed syllables using the phonetic symbols she was most familiar with, then suddenly pointed to a word that had been repeated three times on its own, next to several excited exclamation marks. "What does this mean?"
“Idiot.” Erlan blurted out.
"You insulted me?" Ancia glared at him angrily.
"I give up. That word means idiot, and it's probably Beatrice's insult." Airland was speechless.
“…You Mistmoon Elves have such bad tempers.” Ancia’s lips twitched, skipping over the word, “Next.”
The first page of the notebook contained over a hundred words, but Erlan showed no impatience whatsoever. His slender, fair fingers moved across the yellowed pages as he patiently explained each ancient Elvish word to Ancia.
It was rare to see such a serene and beautiful moment in the handsome but irritable elf. A gentle breeze lifted his loose silver hair, and the ancient Elvish words he slowly uttered were like an ancient melody, adding an oil painting-like quality to his beauty.
Ancia was stunned, even holding her breath to avoid disturbing the beautiful scene.
"What, are you captivated by my beauty? That's only to be expected." After reading the entire page of notes, Erlan noticed that Ancia was still in a daze, and nodded arrogantly.
The oil painting is broken.
Ancia thought expressionlessly, "Why does he have a mouth? Maybe I should ask Teacher Yesika if she has any magic potions that can make people mute."
"Snap out of it." Airlan waved his hand in front of Ancia, but Ancia slapped it away, leaving a red mark.
Airland gasped, "Ouch...it hurts so much."
Ancia grabbed his hand to examine it; the red mark was like paint left on white paper, glaring and obvious, and wouldn't fade away.
"You're so fragile. My strength is clearly very low." She muttered, using a healing spell to remove the mark.
"What do you mean 'fragile'? Just don't touch me like that." Erlan awkwardly withdrew his hand, the back of which still felt warm from Ancia's body heat.
"I'm sorry, I hurt you." Ancia apologized sincerely.
Those bright black eyes looked at him sincerely, reflecting his flushed face.
"...I've finished this page, I'll study it again next time. I'm leaving now." Erlan jumped up, his knee hitting the table in his haste, causing him excruciating pain. But he didn't care about anything else and simply jumped off the balcony to escape.
He returned to the familiar Moon Tear Tree and felt his heartbeat gradually return to normal.
That's too unfair. Erlan lowered his eyes. It was fine when Ancia kept arguing with him, but once her attitude softened a little, a strange and bitter feeling welled up in his heart.
He had witnessed Heligalo's deep affection for Ancia, and he could also see Ancia's care and fondness for Heligalo. Both of them were his friends, and he should have been happy, but from the day he learned about it, he couldn't be happy.
Elves are proud and loyal, loving only one partner in their lives. If they discover that their partner is inclined to fall in love with someone else, they will choose to end the relationship, no matter how much they love them. Moreover, they will never allow themselves to fall into depravity if they interfere in someone else's relationship.
"I just don't want my only friends to abandon me after we get together. Yes, that's it."
Erlan kept repeating this phrase, and after saying it so many times, he began to believe it himself.
*
From that day on, Ancia never saw Erlan on the balcony again. They used to spend their free time sunbathing together, but now they were always missing one of the irritable elves.
Ancia didn't think much of it. Everyone has their own life. Erlan was probably busy lately. When she went to the botanical garden for class, she greeted Erlan as usual, "What have you been busy with lately? I haven't seen you. I've completely mastered that page of notes. When are we going to move on to the next page?"
Her tone was relaxed and her expression was calm, but he was the only one affected, his heart secretly pounding and him tossing and turning.
Airland lowered his head, fiddling with the potion ingredients, his tone cool and indifferent, "You choose the time."
Ancia squinted, leaned closer to examine him closely, and said with certainty, "Something's wrong with you, Airland. You're avoiding me."
Airland avoided her gaze and took a step to the side. "No."
Ancia was puzzled, counting on her fingers one by one, "Is it because I learn Ancient Elvish slowly? I learned that page completely in four days, not very fast but not stupid either. Is it because I hit you and you're angry? I'll apologize to you again. Or is it because you stole the last piece of dessert on the balcony last time? I'll save the last piece for you next time..."
Airland shook his head. "None of that. Don't overthink it."
Ancia said helplessly, "I really don't know what I did to upset you, Airan. People have mouths to communicate. Weren't you very good at talking when you were explaining things to me on behalf of Heligaluo? Now you're like Whispering Vine, all you can do is listen and not speak."
The more sincere she was, the more his despicable nature was revealed. Airlan felt bitter, but he could not speak out and could only remain silent.
Ancia stepped back, giving him space, and went to the corner of the pharmacy to get another potted swaying needle palm.
Airlan's gaze couldn't help but follow Ancia's retreating figure. Her mood had changed from lighthearted when she first entered to somber. It was all her own doing. Realizing this, Airlan felt a pang of unease.
Ancia picked up the scissors, about to make her move, when the plant she mistook for a swaying needle palm suddenly displayed a strong aggression, its two rows of needles snapping shut and biting down hard on Ancia's hand.
Before Erlan could even think, fear, which took precedence over reason, drove his body to move first. Thanks to the elf's agility, his arm blocked in front of Ancia, taking the attack for her.
“This potted plant is a Lightning Needle Palm, not a Swinging Needle Palm, which is meant for the combat training area. It’s very aggressive.” Ellan frowned as blood flowed from the wound inflicted by the Lightning Needle Palm and fell into the pot.
The blood in the soil was absorbed, and a few seconds later, Lightning Needle Sunflower frantically waved its needles at Erlan, trying to get more of Erlan's blood, but Erlan used magic to freeze it.
"You... I have my own damage reflection shield, why are you rushing over to block it?" Ancia helplessly healed his wounds. "You ignore me and then help block attacks, are you angry or not?"
"I'm angry with myself." Erlan's face turned pale from the pain, and his words finally softened for once.
Ancia looked over in confusion, while Erlan looked away in frustration, "I'm angry at myself for being so unwilling to accept things and stubbornly sticking to things I can't figure out."
"So, have you figured it out now?" Ancia asked, a golden halo enveloping his wound on her hand.
After a moment of silence, when Erlan raised his eyes again, those emerald eyes that were always filled with arrogance or irritability were now unusually calm, burying all his emotions beneath the blue waves.
“No, but that doesn’t matter anymore.” He almost sighed as he said, “I just realized that I should cherish the results I have now, rather than those problems I can’t figure out, so that I don’t end up with nothing.”
This familiar mental state was exactly the same as when she was studying Beatrice's magic circle notes alone.
Ancia empathized with him and felt pity for Erlan. "I've heard that research topics for senior students are difficult, but I never thought that even you would be driven crazy."
Airland gave a short laugh, full of self-deprecation, "Yeah, I'm going crazy."
But soon, Ancia dismissed the idea. The emotion that Erlan vaguely revealed was not frustration at reaching a bottleneck in his knowledge, but rather the pain of having nowhere to turn.
She hesitated for a moment, then dropped her joking tone. "You're not doing this because of your research, are you? Don't lie to me, Airan."
Under Ancia's concerned gaze, Erlan opened his mouth, wanting to speak without restraint, but in the end he swallowed his words and changed the subject to something else that troubled him: "The Tree of Life in the Misty Moon Forest is sick. I have tried many ways to cure it, and even the ritual with the highest success rate has failed."
Ancia's expression instantly turned serious. She had heard that the Mistmoon Elves were born from the Tree of Life and ultimately returned to it. That tree was related to the survival of their entire race, and she immediately understood Ellan's unusual behavior.
“No wonder I haven’t seen you lately. The Tree of Life is too important to you. You go ahead and do your work. I’ll ask you to teach me Ancient Elvish after things are settled.” She patted Aerlan’s shoulder reassuringly. “Tomorrow I’m going back to the Mage Tower with my mentor. I’ll look through his books to see if there’s any way. Gracia has the strongest Light Mages and Wood Mages on the continent, as well as the legendary all-knowing Astrologer. With Heligalo and me, we’re sure to find a way to heal the Tree of Life.”
Ancia is always so perceptive, kind, reliable, and steadfast, like the ever-rising sun, with a powerful infectiousness that makes those around her genuinely trust her, be attracted to her, and unable to resist getting closer.
The Mist Moon Elf has excellent taste; he admires such a wonderful person.
Yes, he violated the principles of the elves by falling in love with the person his best friend admired.
He couldn't accept doing anything more despicable, but at least he could stay within her sphere of friendship and seize the opportunity he had now.
Arlan was silent for a moment, then regained his usual arrogance. "It's not like I just found out the Tree of Life is sick today. Do you think I need your time to learn Ancient Elvish? Continue learning after you finish making the potion today. Maybe Beatrice's notes contain healing-related magic circles. Don't try to slack off."
He crossed his arms and looked at Ancia suspiciously. "You're not backing out because the ancient Elvish language is too difficult, are you?"
Ancia sneered, "Ha, idiot (in ancient Elven language)."
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Author's Note: Thank you so much, my little angels, for reading this far! Without your encouragement, I really wouldn't have made it to this point. I'm truly grateful. Thank you so much! I always feel like my writing isn't good enough, and I'm sorry for all your love and support. My progress in such a short time has been small, but I can only promise to keep improving and finish each book carefully before I feel at ease. Thank you so much!
I'm holding a giveaway in chapter 48; you can participate by leaving a 2-point comment. Thank you everyone!
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