Chapter 48: Is it funny that Master ran away and left me behind?

Little Charlotte, holding her ice sword and standing on her broomstick, darted out of the icy mist. This action completely caught Rhynes off guard.

Rhynes truly hadn’t expected little Charlotte to have the courage to charge at her, especially in this manner.

Before she could even set up any defense, little Charlotte had already raised her ice sword, rushed in front of her, and swung it in an upward arc.

‘I got her!’ Little Charlotte cheered internally.

As expected, even though Mom was a more powerful witch than Master Chloe, she couldn’t escape the weakness of having virtually no close-range defense.

If this strike landed, Mom Rhynes would immediately have her clothes shredded. Then, little Charlotte could do whatever she pleased.

However, just as the tip of the ice sword was about to strike Rhynes, Rhynes suddenly extended two fingers and lightly rested them on the ice sword.

“Using this move against your mother? As expected of my daughter! Too bad, this move is useless against me.”

Instantly, the long, thick ice sword shattered and dissolved, breaking into countless small ice fragments that scattered in all directions.

Little Charlotte’s attack was neutralized just like that.

“What?!” Seeing Rhynes so easily destroy her ice sword, little Charlotte’s face was filled with disbelief.

“Charlotte, why are you making such a shocked face? Didn’t Alice, who taught you swordsmanship, tell you? Her swordsmanship was personally taught to her by me! I guess that makes me your great-Master of Swordsmanship!”

Saying this, Rhynes covered her mouth and chuckled.

“Mom is Sister Alice’s swordsmanship Master? No way!”

Little Charlotte was utterly devastated by this information.

That meant that she was not only facing a magical artillery cannon that could fire advanced spells as easily as drinking water, but also a killing machine that could tear through enemy lines like slicing tofu.

‘There’s no way I can win this!’

Charlotte felt a surge of dread and wanted to flee this dangerous place.

But Mom Rhynes gave her no chance to escape.

“Since you’ve used your strongest swordsmanship technique on your mother, Charlotte, I can’t let you leave empty-handed! Take this! This is your mother’s most passionate gift!”

Saying this, a longsword wreathed in fierce flames appeared in Rhynes’s hand. Without needing any fancy swordsmanship, she simply brought the longsword down in a straightforward chop, cleanly slicing through little Charlotte, who hadn’t had time to escape, as if cutting a cake.

After a brief silence, countless flames erupted from in front of Rhynes, and a mushroom cloud formed.

The scorching hot wind blew back Rhynes’s long hair, but Rhynes wore a look of nonchalance.

“I think I went a little too hard. Charlotte should be alright, right?”

Well, even if little Charlotte was accidentally blown into pieces, Rhynes could still use Holy Magic to piece her back together.

Holy Magic was truly that amazing.

When the smoke cleared, Rhynes looked closely and was shocked to find that the scorched grass before her was completely empty. Her dear daughter seemed to have been burned to ashes and had vanished.

“Eh?” Rhynes looked utterly perplexed.

If she was reduced to ashes, she couldn’t be pieced back together with Holy Magic.

But things were not what Rhynes thought.

She looked carefully into the deep crater at her feet and noticed some unmelted ice fragments scattered inside.

Come to think of it, when she swung her sword, she hadn’t felt like she was cutting into a human body. It felt soft, like slicing through tofu.

‘Could it be that I didn’t slice little Charlotte herself?’

Thinking this, Rhynes hurriedly searched the surroundings for magical fluctuations. Immediately, she felt a powerful magical signature descending from directly above her.

She quickly looked up. In the blink of an eye, little Charlotte landed behind Rhynes and pressed a small ice knife against Rhynes’s throat.

“Mom! Surrender! You’ve lost!”

From the very beginning, little Charlotte hadn’t placed any hope in the Heaven-Soaring Dragon Slash. After all, charging through a huge cloud of smoke to get into Mom Rhynes’s face carried quite a few risks. If she had been splashed in the face by a water ball from Mom Rhynes, she would have been forced to surrender immediately.

And so, little Charlotte had devised a plan: use an Ice Golem substitute to distract Mom Rhynes while she stealthily circled around to a place where Mom Rhynes wouldn’t detect her, waiting for a chance to ambush.

Rhynes’s position directly above her was clearly the most opportune moment.

It seemed Mom Rhynes didn’t know that she could fly freely without a broomstick.

Thus, Mom Rhynes mistook the Ice Golem charging in on a broomstick for Charlotte herself, giving Charlotte ample time to prepare.

Finding her neck held hostage by little Charlotte’s ice knife, Rhynes looked surprised. She hadn’t expected little Charlotte to break through her imagination and launch a surprise attack in a way she absolutely could not have predicted.

Although Rhynes could easily break free from this threat, she looked completely relieved, given how hard little Charlotte had worked.

“Alright, Mom loses! Mom admits defeat wholeheartedly! As expected of my daughter! You truly are my pride!”

Saying this, Rhynes grabbed little Charlotte, who was still riding on her neck, hugged her tightly, and began to rub her face endlessly against Charlotte’s cute cheeks.

“Eh?” Little Charlotte didn’t have time to react and could only allow Mom Rhynes to continue pampering her. The ice knife in her hand accidentally dropped into the cleavage of Mom Rhynes’s chest, where it instantly melted away.

“Mom, stop rubbing my face! I’m your daughter, not your kitten!”

After Rhynes pampered little Charlotte for most of the day, she finally reluctantly put down little Charlotte, whose face looked utterly spoiled.

“Mom Rhynes, since I won, you should keep your promise and release Master Chloe!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll help you release her right now.”

Rhynes snapped her fingers, and Sister Shiro threw the giant ice crystal confining Chloe onto the grass in front of them.

Rhynes chanted a few spells softly, and the giant ice crystal shattered in response. Chloe, soaking wet, knelt on the grass, desperately gulping the fresh air.

Seeing Chloe alive and kicking, little Charlotte was overjoyed. She ran to Chloe and hugged her tightly.

“Master Chloe! I finally see you again!”

“Little sister Charlotte! That’s wonderful! With your help, I can finally see the light of day!”

The two unfortunate master and disciple hugged each other, crying tears of joy and sorrow.

“Master, Master! Mom Rhynes promised me she won’t stop me from learning magic anymore! You don’t have to take me and hide anymore. You can teach me magic anytime and anywhere!”

“Is that so? That’s just too…” As she spoke, Chloe suddenly felt Mom Rhynes’s murderous gaze, which made her entire body start to tremble uncontrollably.

“Master, what’s wrong?”

“Uh… it’s probably because I stayed in the basement for too long. I must have caught a slight cold! It’s nothing serious!”

“If it’s nothing, then continue teaching me magic! I can’t wait to learn new spells!”

“Cough, cough. Actually, little sister Charlotte, I don’t have much left to teach you.”

“How can that be? I haven’t even learned many advanced spells! And I don’t know a single special-grade spell!”

“That has nothing to do with how many spells you know. What determines a witch’s strength isn’t how many spells she can use, but how skillfully she can apply them and whether she has the determination to never give up when faced with difficulty. It’s clear that you passed Mom Rhynes’s test using those very qualities. That means you are already a qualified, official witch! Congratulations, you have graduated!”

“Eh?” Little Charlotte’s face was filled with astonishment after Chloe patted her shoulder with such solemnity. “Does that mean I can’t continue learning new spells with Master anymore? No! I don’t want that! I still want to learn magic with you!”

Little Charlotte lunged into Chloe’s embrace, trying to hold her back, but Chloe only gently stroked little Charlotte’s head.

“Little sister Charlotte, you’re all grown up. You can soar freely in the sky without your Master’s protection now. But you mustn’t slack off! Your magical journey has just begun!”

As Chloe spoke, she gently pushed little Charlotte away, pulled a magic book from her dimensional space, and handed it to Charlotte.

Unlike the one from two years ago, this was a genuine magic book.

“Consider this a farewell gift!”

“Eh? Are you leaving, Master?”

“Yes. During the year I spent with you, I realized I actually quite enjoy traveling. I’ll probably continue traveling now, but we’ll definitely see each other again, little sister Charlotte. You don’t need to be so sad!”

“Master!”

“Alright, you live happily with Mom Rhynes. See you in two years at the Starsea Magic Academy!”

After saying this, Chloe, soaking wet, with her hair disheveled like a female ghost who had just climbed out of a well, mounted her broomstick and quickly flew toward the distant horizon.

“She’s running away, isn’t she! What a scumbag Master!” Yukina commented on Chloe after finishing the episode.