The Hero Sidekick Is The Demon King

Opening mana channel

Lance hesitated for a moment. The process of opening a mana channel can be helped by an external force but the result won’t be as great as opening the mana channel alone. This is usually done by large clans that are helping their offspring so they won’t sully the family name. Although the result won’t be optimal, it is still better than having one less mana channel.

However, looking at Milla again, Lance decided not to help her. After all, this is also a kind of test from Lance to her. If she even needed the help to step into the world of mana, she won’t have a bright future and it is better for Lance to find someone else to help him.

Milla is unaware of the thoughts that Lance is having on his mind as she is fully focused on opening her mana channels. She feels that it was very tiring and about to give up but then she remembers the last moment she saw her mother. When she was about to accompany Clyde and the villagers to pull the holy sword.

“Please be a good girl and wait for me at home.”

A mixed feeling of helplessness, sadness, and more importantly anger. Milla screamed inside her head as if she is trying to go against fate.

“AAAAAAAAHHH!”

Powered by her emotion, the origin blood on her body grows even hotter as if it is burning. At that moment, the origin blood as if having a new source of strength slammed the mana channel door harder than ever and it is opened.

At that moment when Milla successfully opened her first mana channel, Lance smiled looking at her.

“Not bad. Although her aptitude was just okay since it took her this long to open her mana channel, it seemed that her potential is good and the fire element is actually so dense.”

The moment Milla opened her mana channel, the fire elements in the air as if it was surging towards her body, making the air feels dry and hotter. Milla opened her eyes and at her forehead, a small glowing mark can be seen. It was interlacing lines making the form of fire.

“So, this is mana?”

As if she has become another person entirely, the scene that Milla is looking with her eyes is now different. It was as if previously the world is only black and white and now, she could she fully see the colors. That was because Milla can see the elements in the air. She can see that a lot of red lights floating in the air and started to float slowly towards her. There’re also blue, yellow, green, and other colors in the air but the dominant one was red. Since the fire element was gathered around her when she successfully opened her mana channel. She can also see yellowish-red lights around Clyde, just like the color of the sun.

Surprisingly is that when she looked at Lance, she couldn’t see any elements near him. It was as if around him, there’s a shroud that makes the world colorless. Lance seemed to notice Milla’s behavior as he smiled at her.

“Congratulations on successfully opening your mana channel.”

“It is all thanks to you.”

“No problem, but I think you better change your clothes now.”

Milla was a bit confused about what Lance said but when she looked at her current condition, she suddenly turned her body and looked a bit shy.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Well, I thought you would have realized it but you didn’t.”

“I’m going to change my clothes then.”

Milla then skirted off after she said that as if she was a shy cat.

When Milla successfully opened her mana channel, Clyde seemed to sense something but then his expression turned to normal. After all, with Lance present, he could easily hide the process of Milla’s successful opening of her mana channel.

As for Lance himself, currently, his body has opened 20 mana channels and it barely makes him satisfied. When he first reincarnated into his new body, before he goes out of the house, he opened his first mana channel easily with his experience and ability. It didn’t even take him three seconds to open his first mana channel. Although the origin blood on his body is thin, different from Milla who tried to open the door by brute force, Lance refined the origin blood into a small yet sharp needle. It was able to easily pierces the door and opened the mana channel without trouble. Since then, whenever he thinks that the origin blood in his body is sufficient, he opened another one.

Although Milla has successfully opened her mana channel, that wasn’t the end. It was only the beginning of her mana training. On the journey, Lance then teaches her some basic spells to control the mana. Milla once again shows her tenacity personality. She isn’t able to execute the spell on her first try but she didn’t give up.

Milla tried to imagine that all of the red lights on the air is gathering on the tip of her forehead. The mark on her forehead that disappears when she doesn’t utilize any mana shows up again and she directs the mana on her body as if she is directing the origin blood. After successfully opened the mana channel, she could sense the mana inside her body.

With the mana inside her body as the fuel and the red fire elements as the catalyst, she tried to execute the spell.

“Torch.”

Milla quietly muttered the name of the spell and this time, there’s a small ember forming in front of her. Seeing that she manages to actually execute the spell, she jumped in happiness and the first person she is looking for is Lance. Of course, all of her moves couldn’t escape his notice.

“be careful, you don’t want to get your hair burned.”

“Ah!”

Realizing that the spell is hovering in front of her forehead and almost burned her own hair, she is panicking. Seeing her cute display, Lance only laughed as she needs to be able to control her own spell before progressing further.

“I think it’s better for you to accumulate mana inside yourself first than wasting it training spell for now. You should aim to open the mana channel on your fingers first so you could launch a spell from your hand, not your forehead.”

Milla feels a bit embarrassed hearing Lance’s advice but she takes notes of it and going to follow it regardless.

Without them realizing it, the time passed so quickly and they have arrived at another village. When they arrived at the village, all of the halflings decided to stay there except for Milla and Lance. The villagers are curious as to why they decided to stay with the group. Especially Clyde, when he looked at Lance and Milla who has similar age to him, he feels interested and approaches them.

“Although we’re from the same village, I don’t think we know of each other. My name is Clyde, I wonder why you have decided to stay with the group that’s heading to the city?”

“My name is Lance and I’m her friend. I just can’t let her be alone so I am accompanying her.”

Hearing Lance's explanation, Clyde is even more interested. He looked at Milla and waiting for her self-introduction.

“I’m Milla, Sana’s daughter.”

Milla is giving Clyde the cold look with a hint of bitterness on it. The moment her mother’s name is brought up, Lance can see the change of expression on Clyde’s face. A mix of guilt, sadness, and feeling lost. After saying that Clyde immediately went silent and needing Lance to break the awkward situation.

“If there’s nothing else you want to say then please go back.”

Seeing that Clyde is just standing there dumbfounded, Lance decided to be the one who walks away as he wanted to escort Milla away with him. Seeing that, Clyde immediately jolted awake from his dazed state and calls out to them.

“Miss Milla, I am deeply sorry for what happened to your mother. I don’t know what to do but if there’s something that I could help you with, please don’t hesitate to tell me.”

Milla and Lance stopped for a moment and Lance replied to him politely. “If there’s something that Milla might need, I will immediately inform you.”

“Thank you, Lance.”

After that, Lance and Milla move away from Clyde who immediately being surrounded by the villager. After making sure that they are quite far away, Lance immediately lets go of Milla’s shoulder that he has been supporting with his arm. Lance immediately gives her a smile and pats her head.

“Good job out there.”

Milla’s forehead immediately shined and a bright ember emerges from it.

“If it wasn’t for you, I might have already got out of control and wanted to burn that person to ash.”

“You know it won’t be possible. However, with this, we have secured a card to get closer to him later.”

“If it wasn’t for your explanation about his ‘God’s blessings’ and seeing his battle with the ogre, I might have attempted to stab him already.”

“Don’t worry. You will have the chance in the future. I promise you.”