This Clueless Hero

I slowly opened my eyes to feel a dull ache in my head. A weak orange glow came from outside, signaling the coming of evening.

It seemed I slept for a few hours. A soft sigh escaped me.

Time seemed to be slipping away from me, constantly taking away the moments I could use to memorize the control vines spell.

I sat up from the bed and thought about my routine for a moment.

...First off, I woke up really late, which took away a decent chunk of time.

Then, because I ended up taking a nap afterwards, I lost even more.

I closed my eyes.

The first point could just be attributed to oversleeping, however, the second point...

It was because I overdid it while watering the farm. Although the healing spell could restore my body, it was unable to restore the state of my mind.

By forcing myself under so much stress and unnecessary spell casting, I got a headache so bad my body would occasionally be out of my control.

Then, the only thing I could do was sleep some of the pain away.

A bitter smile formed on my face.

It seemed like there were no shortcuts. Although it felt so much faster to water the farm by aggressively casting the spells, it was actually slower in ways that were not immediately apparent.

...That was disappointing.

Next time, I should just gather mana normally. That should be significantly better than the results of what happened today.

I shook my head and got off the bed.

After pushing open the door to my room, I made my way down to the palace entrance, where the spells were.

It was not too hard for me to find where the spell was located, so I pulled out a chair and began memorizing once more.

Although it was only a day since I last looked at this spell, it felt like so much longer. The events that happened were a bit crazy, I guess.

I shook my head and sharply sucked in some air.

It was time to tackle this thing once more.

After quickly refreshing myself on what I had already learned, my eyes drifted back to the new paths within the spell. My mind still ached a little, but the small nap from before helped me power through.

I found myself back in the maze. After arbitrarily choosing a path, I began walking down it. My pace was slow and steady in an attempt to really soak in the details.

Eventually, I tried to retrace my steps by memory. It was fine for the first half, in fact, I would've been fine even with my eyes closed.

However, I suddenly found myself facing a wall when I thought it was time to go forward.

I incorrectly memorized the spell.

I slowly took in a deep breath before heaving a helpless sigh.

From there, I tried to salvage what I memorized and discarded the incorrect parts. From there, I walked through the parts I did incorrectly.

After memorizing that part, I went back to the beginning and tried to do it all from scratch.

A few moments passed. Eventually, I made it through one-third of the original path no problem, but took a wrong turn once more.

I clutched the side of my head with frustration, digging my finger into my scalp.

It seemed like the information was too scattered. That while I memorized the bits and pieces, my loose way of remembering made it too difficult for me to connect them together.

Once again, I tried to take a shortcut, but ended up wasting my time instead. I shut my eyes tightly and rubbed my temple with my knuckle. There was no point in remembering many little bits and pieces.

The spell itself was already huge, meaning I would have to break it down into pieces. If I decided to further break it down into even more, the number of pieces would become startlingly large.

It would be unbelievably difficult to connect these. Like what happened just now, I would end up thinking one piece was supposed to go next when it was really another.

A soft sigh escaped me. After thinking it through, this setback wasn't so bad, as I learned something from it.

After all, if I only learned this after memorizing the majority or even the entirety of the spell, I would be in for a massive headache. After all, I would essentially have to start from scratch.

I shook my head and tried my best to discard what I remembered from the path. Then, I began from the start once more.

It felt familiar, almost making me try to skip ahead. However, I forced myself to stop. It was best to do things right the first time, rather than have to go through it multiple times due to carelessness.

After a couple minutes of slow persistence, I was able to complete this section. From there, I attempted to retrace my steps once more.

Unfortunately, my old memories ended up interfering with my current ones, making me take the wrong path once again.

A soft sigh escaped me.

I started at the beginning once again. As anxious as I was to go faster, I made sure to slow down. There was only so much that I could do if I caved in to the antsy side of me.

And so, I walked down this path for the third time. After what felt like an eternity, I made it to the end.

I decided to do something different this time.

My eyes slowly closed as though I was drifting off to sleep. I focused on the path I just memorized and got rid of all the distracting thoughts.

Then... I retraced my steps.

The parts of my body that didn't need to move were deathly still, while the parts that did move hardly made a single excess movement.

Occasionally, an intruding thought of the wrong path would leak into my mind, but I was able to detect it early on and remain steady.

Eventually... I opened my eyes, as though lifting a magic spell.

I saw my finger placed squarely back at the beginning. In other words, I was able to make a full round trip without looking at the paper.

A wave of relief washed over me. The strain on my mind that I was not consciously aware of was released. I leaned back into my chair, letting my head fall back, and sighed.

"...That was tough."

"You finished learning the spell?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin. My body tensed from fear, before slowly relaxing. I turned to the side to see Erin, curiously staring at the spell.

She tilted her head to the side.

"It looks complicated!"

I laughed awkwardly.

"Ah, yeah. I only memorized a little bit so far."

Erin was sitting in the seat to my left. She was leaning over to get a better look at the paper. It was clear from how close she was that personal space was not one of her concerns.

Erin hummed softly.

"Wow, I don't think I would ever be able to cast this spell!"

A chuckle escaped me.

"I'm sure you would be able to get it eventually."

Erin stuck out her tongue.

"I wouldn't try to cast this spell! It's too hard!"

I scratched the back of my head.

"Haha, it definitely isn't easy. That's for sure."

Suddenly Erin turned towards me. Her face was a little close, so I recoiled back.

She narrowed her eyes.

"So..."

Erin puffed up her cheeks.

"Why are you trying so hard to memorize the spell?"

After a few moments of hesitation I opened my mouth, but-

"Don't lie!"

Erin cut me off and poked my cheek, pushing against it uncomfortably.

I helplessly raised my hands as though I wanted to surrender.

"Ok, ok!"

Erin pouted and crossed her arms.

"...Only if you are comfortable with sharing."

I rubbed the side of my face as a bitter smile spread out on my face.

"Well, do you remember what type of magic I wanted to cast?"

Erin tilted her head to the side. After a few moments, she gasped and raised a hand high in the air.

"To stop world hunger!"

I laughed.

"Yeah, it's basically that. The idea is, I might be able to create some spell that grows stuff if I can figure out how this spell works."

Erin nodded enthusiastically and raised both hands in the air.

"Ooooh! That sounds so cool!"

Then, she lowered her hands and pouted.

"...But it sounds really hard."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Yeah..."

There was a short moment of silence before I spoke.

"Say, how did you tell I was going to lie before I even said the words?"

Erin tilted her head to the side.

"How your body looked and the way your eyes moved."

My mouth was agape.

"...It sounds like you can see into the secrets of a person."

Erin smiled bitterly.

"I wish I could do that."

She sighed.

"People are really too confusing."