On the outskirts of Lacrima a reasonably sized wooden home with an aesthetic rustic design can be found a little bit within the Forrest bordering the town. On the empty space beside it Ingram, now a seven year old boy, holds a wooden sword towards his mother who's teaching him in the ways of the sword for the first time. Fen and Alice are staying underneath one of the trees both worrying for the well being of Ruth. He would argue that Ingram is still far too young for this but he's too afraid to say anything to his wife knowing how strong and brutal she was during the times when she was an adventurer.
((He's going to get beaten up...))
both Fen and Alice say to themselves at the same time.
(Don't worry young master ill be sure to nurse you back to health! He might even fall for me! hehehe)
Alice, who's 5 years older than Ingram, thought to herself while grimacing.
Beside her Fen, who caught a glance of her expression, was shocked at what he saw while a chill ran up his spine.
After exchanging hits Ingram was driven to a corner. He is now tired and weary, as his mother is too overwhelming for him in terms of combat prowess. He begins to slowly panic, knowing that the price for not being able to hold his own against his mother would be more days of training and thus lessening the time of reading books in his father's study.
(I can't afford to lose or pass out! Quick, think of a strategy!)
As Ingram gets serious his mother grins.
/HAHAHA that's good Ingram! Show me what you got! I'll give you five minutes if you wont be able to land a hit on me by then you lose!)
While thinking of strategy he recalls what his father said to his mother when she was carrying Ingram in her arms as a child.
/Darling if your injury on your knee start to act up please let me carry Ingram for you or have Hildi carry him when I'm not around./
/Don't worry too much! I used to be an adventurer remember, this much is nothing./
She replies proudly.
/That's how you got that injury to begin with!/
Fen says scolding her.
/ahh.. but.. but.. im still capable of moving around and I'm still much stronger than you! Hmpp!/
(Mother didn't talk to him for days after. Hahaha i guess that's what they call a warriors pride. She still always sits down and rests when she was carrying me when i was a baby or hand me over to Hildi when she was tired.)
Though after remembering he still doesn't know which knee was injured as she never really showed any obvious signs of being injured.
(I need to be able to see which knee is injured through her movements!)
So he quickly closes the gap between him and his mother and aims for her legs.
His mother's guard was low despite her lack of openings, for she underestimated Ingram and was taken by surprise of him aiming for her legs as if he knew she had an injury there. She jumped back instead of blocking his attack, when she landed her left leg staggered. Ingram instantly saw this and went for the attack this time aiming for her head with a swift stab, she parried his attack and made his sword fly, impaling the trunk of the tree where Alice and Fen were leaving them both of them pale. To her surprise Ingram intentionally let go of his sword before she parried it and charged forward grabbing her by the waist taking advantage of her unbalanced footing. Unfortunately Ingram miscalculated his mother's strength and wasn't able to make her fall over.
/HAHAHA that's my boy! Good but not good enough!)
She says smiling, then striking him in the back with her elbow Ingram faints.
Ingram wakes up in his room with his body hurting all over. He tries to get up but remembers the ordeal he went through with his mother and goes back to laying down in bed.
/Nope, I'm not going to go out after all that. Now then, I heard it again during the fight with mother before i threw my sword at her./
[User is able to quickly asses targets weak points.]
[Warning: May not work on opponents with higher level or status concealment skills]
(The Voice of the World is what father and mother told me it's called you'll hear it when you receive a skill or title they said.)
/The last time I heard it was when I was reading books in father's study when I was five, apparently I accomplished the requirements by reading plenty of books before I reached the age of six and by having a deep love for reading./
(It told me I acquired the title of Bibliophile and along with it the skill Scan III that not only allows me to read books and documents of a language that I know instantly but at Tier II gives me the ability know description of objects and statuses of people bellow my level and at Tier III it gives me the ability to scan in detail my surroundings within 10 meters of range. The second and last skill I received is Decipher I, the skill gives me the ability to understand and break down any symbols and codes.)
/I read in one of father's books that skills are normally difficult to learn and may take years of practice to learn them. It's amazing how I'm easily able to learn these skills... Well I'm not really what you can call normal, being able to think the way I do ever since I was born isn't normal according to the story books in father's collection haha - but well thanks to that I received Bibliophile./
Ingram heard a knock on his door, it was Hildi and Alice. They were told by Ruth to check up on him if he was awake and alright but before they could enter he went back to pretending that he was asleep. Seeing that he wasn't yet awake they went out.
/I thought he was already awake, I swear I heard him talking to himself again./
Hildi said while closing the door behind him.
/haha... I guess I'm not normal in that regard as well./
Ingram says under his breath so he wouldn't be heard.
(After all that's happened today I just remembered father returns from his trip tomorrow, finally I can get to learn magic! I found out of its existence in a specific book father had but it didn't really go into much detail. Before he left, he promised to come home with a tutor in magic. Well only after I pestered him for one for a long time, he finally gave in and told me he has a friend who could teach me, though he also told me not to get my hopes up because magic related skills are very rare and take even longer to learn. Knowing that, learning skills is easier for me I don't need to worry about that. Hehehe I can't wait!)