Kazuma's POV
I was just looking at the window with Subaru standing there with Puck on his head, by using {Far sight}, {Lip Reading} and {Eavesdrop} I had listened in on the entire conversation. Before a mini-explosion of black smoke just erupted from Subaru that covered the entire area, making me unable to see what was going on.
"So that is why Puck said "UH OH," Subaru's magic just went haywire," I noted to myself as someone came running down the hall.
"Kazuma, could you show me how to steal as effortlessly as you stole that metia from Subaru?" Felt excitedly requested, while dragging all of our gear on her back.
"Nah, I don't think I could really teach you that skill, I just do it, and it works,"
"Come on, we've been hunting together the whole day, and I have been dragging all our stuff along, I should be trustworthy enough, just show me, I promise not to tell anyone else about it,"
"Felt, you fell asleep after eating all the food I prepared, so I had to carry both you and all the equipment back to the mansion, bringing up something like that won't convince anyone," I rebutted, causing her face to turn a faint shade of red.
"That's not fair of you to say, it was super boring watching you kill those Mabeasts by just touching them for a few seconds, anyone would fall asleep not just me, so please teach me how to steal as you just did," She pleaded as she got closer to me.
"If I showed you, you are going to get pissed, and you're still not going to be able to perform the trick, which would lead to even more frustration,"
"No, I am patient enough to learn it, if you would just teach me," Ok, her nagging is starting to get on my nerves.
"Ok, I'll perform the trick on you, but you'll first have to hand over all of my equipment that you're carrying," As soon as I had said that, she dropped off all of my equipment at my feet. She REALLY wants to know how I perform {Steal}.
"Now show me!" She basically demanded as her crimson eyes went wide with anticipation. Why does she have to remind me so much of Megumin?
"Very well, but no complaints about what I steal, because it is completely random, and you have to steal it back without anyone noticing," I set down the rules as she nodded furiously in agreement.
I then proceeded to open up a door that unsurprisingly enough led into Beatrice's library. I got an annoyed look from Beatrice as I dumped all my stuff in there, with Felt waiting expectantly outside.
"Ok, now pay close attention," I said, raising my hand in the air, before I performed {Steal} on her and quickly shut the door behind me.
"Quick Beatrice, change the room so she can't follow," As soon as I had said that, it felt like my legs went wobbly as the room started to spin before the environment finally stabilized. I could then inspect what I had stolen from Felt, it was unsurprisingly a pair of panties, surprisingly they were black.
I quickly pocketed the panties as I walked over to the glowing basket filled with charged mana stones, before walking over to the bed Beatrice was pointing at.
"You have made a lot of progress, I suppose," she remarked as she sat down next to me on the bed.
"Surprisingly so at that, I thought it would be harder to find Mabeasts, but it was like they were already swarming the area, so it made it easy to lure in a ton of them, so I think we charged up all of the stones you gave us," I responded, letting a little of my joy slip through.
"Hmm, 50 stones in just one day is above every expectation we had, I suppose," Beatrice noted with a hint of disappointment in her tone.
"Well, should we get started with the memory reading then?" I asked, which got her to jump off the bed.
"Indeed, you must first lay down on the bed and get comfortable, I suppose," Following her instructions, I laid down with the basket in my left hand.
"Now you must transfer mana from the basket to yourself, and again exert mana with your right hand," Again I did as she told me and created a little flame in my right hand, which she quickly smacked away, instantly putting out the fire.
"Are you stupid, I wonder?" Beatrice yelled at me "Why would you use fire magic in a library filled with multiple old and precious books, I wonder," She continued to reprimand.
"Ok, my bad, but it was to test if I managed to keep the mana flow constant, which I did for your information," At that her anger eased down a bit.
"Very well, then we should be ready to perform the memory reading, I suppose," She confirmed as she climbed on top of me, and seated herself on my stomach.
"Now place your right hand on my left cheek then proceed to transfer mana to me. After that I will follow up by transferring a lesser amount of mana to you, this is to keep the memory link open and stable, I suppose," Beatrice calmly explained as I continued to follow her instructions, as she put her tiny right hand on my cheek I proceeded to transfer mana to her.
After just a minute Beatrice's eyes went blank and unfocused, or rather she was focused on something that I couldn't see. Then after some time, she started to switch between chuckling and gasping in surprise, before she returned back to chuckling. There were occasions when she would bite at her lower lip in suspense, but the chuckling returned shortly after.
It had maybe passed about 7 minutes when she started to bite at her lip for an extended amount of time before she suddenly jumped off me and fell down onto the floor. Beatrice had gotten her dress over her head, as she fumbled to get control over her environment again.
"Kazuma! Kazuma! KAZUMA!" Her voice sounded panicked, forcing me to jump off the bed and lift her back onto the bed. She calmed down slightly as she saw my face before she grabbed ahold of my collar and inspected my neck.
"There is no scar on your neck, but how is it possible when the winter shogun chopped your head off, I felt it, how were you completely fine afterward, I wonder!?" Beatrice continued to demand as she ran her fingers over my neck, inspecting it closely.
I grabbed ahold of her hands and made eye contact to make sure she was listening, "I'll show you later tonight, there is still some energy left in these mana stones after all, but first I got to eat," I retorted, before dashing out the door.
I started to walk down the corridor before I put my hands into my pockets. My hand touched something soft, and I mindlessly pulled it out of my pocket, revealing Felt's black panties.
Why did it have to be black panties, why couldn't it have been- SWOOSH. My thoughts were interrupted as my {Auto-dodge} kicked in, which saved my head from meeting Felt's boot. However, I could feel the panties being ripped out of my hand before she continued to run down the hallway.
"Eh, got nothing better to do right now, {Steal}," I mumbled while stretching out my hand, as a blue flash emitted from my right hand when clenching my fist. Unsurprisingly the panties returned to my hand. Felt went down into a roll as she turned around to look at me in surprise.
"HOW?!" Felt yelled at me after she double-checked and confirmed that her hands were in fact empty.
"Looking for these," I teased, before unfurling the pair of panties I had restolen, like a matador holding up and waving his red carpet around to gain the attention of the bull. It might just have been my imagination, but her crimson-red eyes seemingly flared up, before she rushed at me.
"Dodge this!" Felt shouted at me, as she threw her fucking unsheathed dagger at me, luckily {Auto-dodge} kicked in and saved me from getting skewered, but Felt quickly followed up the attack by kicking hard into my knees making me fall on my butt. I could then feel a blade pressed onto my throat as Felt got on top of me and pinned me down.
When I opened my eyes, I could see that it was my katana that she was using. My left hand was pinned down by her right, and my right hand was free, but filled with her black panties. And even if I could do anything with it she could spend no time slitting my throat.
"I win, so give me back my panties," Felt's voice was commanding and angry.
"Ok, they are right here, just take them," I said, opening my clenched fist to surrender the panties back to her, but she didn't move a muscle.
"If I go for them, I'll leave myself open to one of your tricks, and you'll just gain the upper hand again, so throw them to the side and I'll let you go," Felt ordered, and I followed the command as she pressed the blade harder onto my throat.
"Ok, you win, please remove the blade from my throat, and get off me now," I asked very nicely, but she just got a malicious grin on her face as she leaned in closer to me.
"Promise me you will teach me how to do that stealing trick, and without using it on me, and then I will let you go," She put forth her demands, and proceeded to press the blade harder against my throat, wait a second, wouldn't it have cut into me by now? I am pretty sure I sharpened it this morning, she must be using the dull side.
I took a gamble and shot my right hand towards her and grabbed ahold of her left hand pressing the blade to my throat, and I activated {Drain touch}. Felt fell limp after just a few seconds, but I stopped draining her before she lost consciousness. With that, I was now on top of her controlling the situation.
"So this is what you did to those Mabeasts in the forest," She concluded, as she started to get grumpy over having lost the advantage.
"Correct, but do you want to know how you lost the advantage here?" I teased, as she tried to struggle free, but with so much of her stamina gone, I easily held her down.
"No I get it, I shouldn't have held back, and actually cut you a little bit," Felt retorted with frustration.
"Sure that would have made me more obedient, but pressing a newly sharpened blade into someone's throat should have yielded blood with how hard you were pressing it at the end, but it doesn't do that if you use the dull side," I happily explained as she got grumpier.
"Not like I wanted to cut you," She suddenly mumbled, while breaking eye contact and looking towards the pair of discarded underwear. Doing that is just unfair, but I am a fair man.
"I will now offer you a deal, I can give you back your energy if you stop asking me to teach you-"
"Never going to happen!" Felt yelled back at me in an instant.
"Well then-"
"What are you two doing?" Ram's voice interrupted me, as I froze instantly with fear.
"W-we are j-just, w-wrestling, right Felt?" I stuttered out as I sent Felt a pleading look.
In return, she just mouthed, "Teach me, and I'll play along," I didn't have a leg to stand on so I just nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, we were just wrestling, now let me get up Kazuma you already won," I did as she asked, helping her up as I transferred mana back to her.
"Miss Felt, are those the same ones I prepared for you this morning?" Ram asked, directing our attention down to the black panties lying next to the wall.
"Yes, could you handle them for me?"
"Of course MiLady, I will handle them at once, and please refrain from "wrestling" in the hallway, in the future leave those activities for the bedroom," Ram said with a warm tone, as she shot me a cold and judging stare. She then left me and Felt alone.
"Before you ask, can I try to teach you after we have eaten dinner?" I quickly shot in before she could ask me what Ram had meant by her last statement.
"Fine by me, just don't delay it any further than that,"
Felt's POV after dinner
"Why did you two ask me to come outside?" Subaru asked hesitantly.
"Someone needs to hold the target," Kazuma retorted as he gave Subaru one of his gold coins.
"Hey, I don't want to be target practice," He protested, as Kazuma turned on his heel to face him.
"Relax dude, we are just going to take the gold coin from you, and you will remain completely unharmed, if you do get hurt by one of us, I'll even pay you," And with that Subaru pocketed the gold coin and stood still, as Kazuma walked back over to me.
"I don't know how I am supposed to teach you this, but I guess we can start with some observation, so pay close attention," Kazuma instructed as he stretched out his right hand and aimed it at Subaru with an open palm.
"{Steal}!" He chanted as she clenched his fist and a blue light erupted from his hand. When the light faded away he opened up his closed fist to reveal the gold coin he had given to Subaru.
"What the heck are you chanting when you do that?" I queried, never having heard the word before. It might even be the key to mastering this skill.
"That isn't impressive, even I can do something like that," Subaru butted in with his claim.
"Ok then, steal this coin from me without even touching me, or getting anywhere close to me," Kazuma challenged as he pocketed the gold coin, and folded his arms together. That seemed to make Subaru's resolve falter.
"I can't do something exactly like that, but if you give me the coin and can showcase the trick,"
"Ok, but this counts as you admitting your loss to me,"
"Yeah, yeah, just give me the coin," Subaru hurriedly agreed as he got close to us, and got handed the coin.
"Felt are you ready to keep track of where the coin is?" He inquired like I was a little child, as he displayed the gold coin in his palm. I played along and nodded, as I noticed Kazuma walking a bit away from us.
Subaru started to close his hands into fists, while Kazuma disappeared into thin air again, before reappearing. In the meantime, Subaru started to flail his hands around before he presented with two fists.
"So where is the coin?" He asked again in the same demeaning tone, if I was correct even he would be surprised.
"It's in the right hand-"
"ERR, that is wrong it's behind your-"
"OF KAZUMA!" I interrupted the interrupting asshole as I pointed to Kazuma behind him.
"No it's-" Subaru stopped talking as he witnessed Kazuma playing with the gold coin in his right hand, as he found his own hands empty. Damn, I want to learn how to do that so badly.
"You're wasting our time, just go over there and do your one job of being our testing dummy," Kazuma said as he tossed the coin back to Subaru.
"Ok," A dejected Subaru accepted as he walked over to his designated spot.
"Let's just begin from the start," I suggested, with Kazuma agreeing with a simple nod.
To be continued...
Ok, I haven't been posting for a while, which I am sorry about, but at the same time this has been a hectic time in my life, so this kept getting pushed back time and time again.
Hopefully, the next chapter comes a little faster. No promises though, I am wildly inconsistent.