“Okay, here I go! Watch closely, now.”
Earnest was already unconsciously covering her chest as she addressed the group. To properly demonstrate her Materialize skills, she naturally had to get naked, so this little reveal event was taking place in the thermae. Going around the Proving Ground or a school building in her birthday suit would be kind of weird, but it was only natural to be nude in the bath…right?
Starting from her naked form, Earnest slowly began to produce the necessary miasma from her body. The cause of her negative emotions was right there in front of her, after all. Lunaria was watching, so Earnest didn’t even need to imagine her. In fact, Lunaria was standing with her arms crossed, looking at Earnest with a “go ahead and do it if you can, you stupid ape” expression on her face. (At least, that was how Earnest saw it.) It couldn’t have been a more encouraging setup. Producing vast clouds of miasma under these conditions would be like taking candy from a baby. Almost too easy.
Once she had enough density, Earnest compressed the miasma she had generated and set it in place. Once again, she reached the point she had with Deemo earlier. She created matter from nothing, materializing a suit to cover her naked body—in other words, she’d made clothing.
“Well? What do you think?!” she said.
She stood up straight, exposing her entire body to everyone’s gaze like a fashion model. Sure, the outfit was a little sexy, but she’d made clothes! So there!
“Hey, uh…” Blade was the first to speak.
“Yeah, I know,” added Yessica as she looked at the others in turn.
“Yeah… That sure is clothing…” Clay picked up the baton in this relay race of furtive glances. Then he quickly passed it on to Kassim.
“Well, um, I don’t think it’s that weird.”
“Don’t be mean, Kassim,” said Claire, reprimanding him.
Huh? ‘Mean’? What are they all talking about? I worked so hard to pick up this new Materialize skill, and now I’m showing it off to everyone…and this is what I get?
Instead of looking surprised, or impressed, or praising her, her classmates were just giving her awkward looks. Claire even used the word “mean” when scolding Kassim.
Huh? What’s going on…?
Now Earnest wasn’t sure what to think.
“Still, though…it’s quite a sight,” said Blade.
Ahh! Finally, someone praised me! And it was Blade, too!
Praise me more! Praise me, praise me! ♡
“I mean,” he continued, “I’ve never seen a human master Materialize before.”
Huh? A super-being like him, and it’s his first time? Now that’s praise, right?
“What?” Yessica’s voice rang out. “Not even you, Blade? That’s crazy!”
“Yeah,” added Clay seriously, “I hate to say it, but she’s becoming more and more monstrous by the day…”
That seems kind of mean, actually.
“Come on, everyone,” Kassim said to the group. “Whether she’s a scion or a magic beast, she’s still our Empress, isn’t she? We’re all friends here, right? So stop saying stuff like that.”
Was this Kassim’s way of protecting her? Was he taking her side here?
“My lady… Truly, truly marvelous. Even if you are stained by darkness, even if you lose your humanity…you will always be beautiful to me.”
Leonard was spouting his usual nonsense. These cheesy pickup lines were pretty much his standard operating procedure. Even worse, the actual content wasn’t very encouraging.
You really are a useless stud, aren’t you? At least push back a little…
“N-no, um… I mean, this technique…wasn’t that hard to pick up. I bet all of you could learn it with enough practice. Why don’t you try?”
“Forget it,” Blade said. “It’s impossible for humans. Creating miasma requires a whole set of species-specific traits. That’s why I said I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
The super-being had now weighed in, and “impossible” was his final judgment.
“Well…um…congrats on becoming an upper-level magical being, Anna.”
“Congratulations!”
“Congrats!”
“Yeah, good one!”
“Whoo-hoo!” shouted Cú. “You’re one of us now!”
Cú was the only one who sounded remotely enthusiastic. The others’ cheers died down almost immediately.
“Here, Blade, I’ll wash your back for you.”
“Oh! Thanks, Clay.”
“I need to wash my hair, actually. Anyone bring any shampoo with them?”
“I can lend you mine, Yessica. Do you mind citrus aroma?”
“I got some soap here. Can’t you just use that?”
“Are you really that stupid, Blade? I mean, really?”
No one was looking at Earnest anymore. They were too busy washing up, lathering their hair, scrubbing each other’s backs, and so forth. Earnest, meanwhile, was just standing there, all alone, her feelings ignored.
The way everyone was politely ignoring her only made it all hurt worse. It was clear that no one would call her the Red Avenger again, but now she wasn’t so sure that was a good thing. Perhaps she’d done away with something she really shouldn’t have.