The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter
Chapter 18: A Minor Loophole
While Claire was shocked that he didn’t take the bow, Aria was different. She was shocked that he could even hold an arrow.
She had heard him complain about his curse multiple times so this was something she did not expect. She had seen him try to pick up swords, shields, maces, spears and many more weapons but none of them worked.
Yet, he was able to pick up an arrow.
And she wasn’t the only one with a similar line of thought. Adrian was in a similar state of confusion as he stared at the arrows.
He then looked at the servant whom he had told that he didn’t need a bow.
"Hey, excuse me. Could you give me that bow?" he asked and the servant walked back.
Adrian grabbed the bow but then, it felt the same as whenever he tried to hold a sword. He just couldn’t pick it up. It stayed in the servant’s hand as he looked at Adrian, wondering why the man was holding the bow but not taking it from his hands.
"Okay nevermind... I’m sorry for wasting your time." he said and the servant just left.
Adrian looked down at the arrows and muttered, "Arrows are just sticks with a sharp end. They were made for war but only with the idea of being used with bows... which means, I can pick them up. Welp, that doesn’t change my plans then."
He was just excited to try out an idea that had come to his mind and he had a different strategy. There wasn’t really a need for him to hold the arrows with his hand to use them.
"Can I do a few test runs?" he asked as the viscount walked towards him, wondering what the young man was doing.
"Sure. As long as the arrows don’t hit the target. A lot of them are still receiving their bows and arrows so you can use this time to test out whatever you have planned." he said and grinned, "As long as you let me watch, that is."
Adrian nodded as he grinned back, "Sure, you can watch." he said as he tossed the arrow up into the air and focused on it.
Mana wrapped around it and held it in place. He had been practicing with small stones the size of tennis balls and this arrow was much lighter, almost one-tenth of the weight of the stones.
He then controlled it, making it fly towards the target but soon, it reached the maximum range of his control and just fell to the ground.
"Okay... I expected this." he said as he picked up another arrow and made it float right in front of him.
Then, he pointed his index finger at the back of the arrow, with the distance between the tip of his finger and the arrow being a mere centimeter.
Mana traveled quickly through his mana veins and concentrated at the tip of his index finger.
Originally, gust was just a spell used to test if a person with E or F rank mana veins was ready to graduate from the magic academy.
When it came to usefulness of using it in a way that the textbook mentioned, then it was nothing but a way to cool oneself down in the summer heat.
But Adrian was about to use it in a different way. For the past few days, he wasn’t just practicing how to use telekinesis. He was also experimenting with tweaking the original form of the only other spell he knew and that was to concentrate all the mana in a single focused point and letting it shoot out in a single direction.
This idea was inspired by a ninja anime from Earth but it didn’t have all the rotational applications in it.
It was just a condensed ball of mana that would explode as it converted into wind. He could also control the direction of the wind, which made it perfect for the situation right now.
As the mana condensed between his finger and the arrow, he willed for the mana to turn into a gust of air and move forward in a straight line.
That was the basic theory of the spell. Convert pure mana into wind and make it move forward in a straight line.
The arrow flew forward, making a whistling sound as it flew up vertically and curved back down.
Claire, Alexander and even Aria looked at him in surprise.
Aria had seen him messing around with the gust spell but she had never expected that he’d use it like this.
"Hmm.... if I consider this speed, I won’t have to worry about the arrow dipping slightly. I can directly aim for the center." he said, his gaze focused as he stared at his target.
Clare on the other hand, put her bow down and exhaled, her hands shaking slightly.
’If he’s this creative... I wonder how far he can go as a knight. A mage who’s also a knight... having both the body and the power of long range magic. If I teach him, I wonder how far he can go.’
"Okay, I’m ready." Adrian said as he turned to look at the Viscount who seemed to be looking at him in a new light.
Viscount Alexander nodded without saying a word and left. He walked to his daughter and whispered in her ears.
"No matter what, make sure you get Adrian’s attention. He’s got much higher potential than we expected."
"What did he do for you to say something like that?" she asked as she glanced at Adrian who was using one of the arrows as a toothpick.
It was an act so unbecoming of a noble that Felicia couldn’t help but feel a sense of disgust.
"You’ll see. If he didn’t have that curse, I wonder if he’d be sitting on the duke’s position instead of his brother." he said and walked away to talk to the other guests and cheer them on.