Three days has pass since I trained her. She show a great promise. Yes. She'll be perfect to be used in my plan. I am truly sorry for her because I only used her as a way to boost my 'Mysterious Man In Black', but well…
I did give her something back. A peerless sword arts. She already had the essential of how to efficiently use her sword, estoc. So I only need to improve her arts. I'm sure she'll forgive me if one day I told her about the truths. I hope so…
"How is it?"
She asked me when we're in the middle of exchanging strikes.
"It'll be better if you avoid parrying with another sword. Estoc, your weapon, are mainly a weapon used to stab the enemy. It's a light sword that need precision, speed and strength behind the movement. So, try to quicken your step, and used magic to make your body lighter."
She immediately do as I advised and then, her movement are so precise that it almost hit my neck. I wanted to parry her sword but she quickly move a step backward. Then she quickly entered my maai and, Kachi-n!
I reflectively swing my sword with a lot of power and made her sword flew away from her grip. She also lose balance and unable to stop her movement. She's throwing herself to my chest. I hold her with one hand and our eyes met each other. I don't know she's this small before. Slim, small and light. Though, it seems like most of her weight come from that soft two big buns in her chest.
C? Hm… for her small stature, I think it's about D-minus. What a big rack. Those things actually hinder you when in battle but I guess for someone who's learning about sword for such a long time, she has found her sense of balance well enough to be able to move that fast.
I think I saw her face getting red. Is she embarrassed? Guess right. For a noble lady with bad reputation like her, something like this might not happened at all in her life before.
Being hold by a man.
She seems to be backing away from me after I let her go, and closed her face while ducking her body in embarrassment.
Then, Pashi! She slap both side of her cheek using both her hand. She then stand suddenly. And honestly, it shook my heart a little that I jolted.
"I'm sorry. Let's try again."
"Alright."
I tried to sound as calm as I can, then continued our training for a while.
Zuun! Zuun! Zuun! Pasa! Zuun! Pasa! Kachi-n!
Sound of my sword and her estoc are heard. Right here, right now, it's just the two of us. I like this feeling. It's as if the world is our own and no body going to stop us from doing anything. Our practice continued until late at evening. Where I told her to go back home and take a rest.
We then walked separate way, though I seems to see her stop in the middle of her way and looked back at me. I stopped as well. She's about to say something, I think.
"Thank you very much for today, as well. I'll be here again tomorrow."
"I see, I'll be waiting then."
After I said that, I resumed my walk to nowhere, because actually our destination should be the same. Yes. Dormitories at Magic Sword Academy. But can't let her see that I'm actually a student there, so I'm faking my destination right now. I can feel that she bowed at me before continued to walk away from me. And after I confirmed that she's gone, I used magic on my body and the next step I take, I'm already up there, standing on the highest building in the vicinity.
*****
I'm sure that Lucille, my little sister, will go to that field again and having a sword training with that suspicious man. So I tailed her and keep my guard up while using magic to erase my presence.
Honestly, I never felt so worried like this before. It's because Lucille always listen to what I say. I know of her inferiority complex as she's younger than me and is not as talented as me. And for that, ever since she's young, she always run away from home at night and trained outside. She's been doing it since she's 10 years old. To be honest, she doesn't need to do any of that. Because my family already have me. I don't want to let her shoulder the same as I did, that's why I always told her to stay at home. Every time my family has some business out of the capital, I always let her stay at home. Those dirty minded old noble are forbidden to look at my little sister. That's why I always try to be hard on her. She's the cutest thing in this world. But after the incident, I have lost my bearing in her mind as someone to respect and strong, and now she only has that suspicious looking man in black inside her head.
Urghh! It's frustrating!
Looking from the distance at the two figure that is training with their sword, I cursed at the man named Geheim Nisubelschatt. That position are supposed to be mine!
I'm the one who's supposed to support her and training with her! Those are smile she's supposed to give to me! Grr! Today, I'm sure that Geheim is my own demon lord that I need to defeat to be able to get Lucille back. Then, Lucille somehow goes aggressive and inside my mind, I keep screaming her name.
Yes. That's it. Attack! Left side! Now! Good! Press him! Kill him!
Oops… That's not what a lady should be saying. Then, suddenly a loud clash sound from their sword is heard and I realized Lucille's weapon flew away from her hand. What a brute! How could he do that to my lovely Lucille!
Oh no! She's losing her balance. Then, the next scene made my head blank. The two figure are embracing each other. Or rather, the man is embracing Lucille.
@$#%@$#@#$><%<)(@#!!!!
I felt anger that I cannot subsided and glared at the man in black. That moment is when Lucille shyly moved away from him and go to where her sword dropped. Die, you ****! I'm filled with bloodlust right now.
His body jolted. It's a coincidence, isn't it? There's no way he know I'm here, isn't it? They both then continued their training until late evening. LATE EVENING!!!
This is the first time I see Lucille spent some time until late evening outside! With a man at that!
I hate him. I really hate him! I'm gonna kill him!
I realized that I'm being a bit repulsive and is spreading my bloodlust so I'm calming myself. They're about to left! Oh, yeah. What if I ambushed him? I think.
I sneaked and tried get closer with him while keeping my eyes on Lucille. He suddenly stop moving, as well as Lucille. So I hid between a bushes and used magic again to erase my presence. Did they know?! Did they?!
Then, Lucille said thanks for the training and bowed to him, while he seems to not care at all and walked away. How dare he?!!
Lucille thanks him and he just walked away?! Moreover, they're going to met here again tomorrow?!! Curse you! After Lucille is out of sight, I get myself close enough to ambush him. But he suddenly stopped again. Then, malicious black mana was seen all over his body. Then suddenly, he disappeared.
Whaa?!! Where is he? Where's he?! I looked around and tried to find him, but he's already gone for sure…
Damn!
*****
Geheim is now standing in the roof of a tall building while looking down to the dark alleys of this capital.
"Did they really think I can't detect them when they just concealed themselves using such a sloppy shadow walk magic? With such killing intent too…"
He said that with confidence. Yes. Since the beginning of today, he already know of the spies that are hiding and been watching him since he and Lucille doing training.
"One, two… Four in total. What an underestimation this is…"
He then grabbed one of his sword from the scabbard. When it was just in the way to be unsheathed, Geheim suddenly disappeared. Then, he's found standing in one of the dark alleys with his sword pointing forward in horizontal line, stabbing an air.
On the tips of that sword, droplets of blood is falling. Soon after that, that dark alley caused by shadow reflection by lights, shattered like glasses. Then, the shattered shadow turn into mana and flew away. And a man appeared out of nowhere. His body is hanging on the sword, with it going all the way from his chest to the back. His feet doesn't reach the floor, and that man feel soulless.
He's dead.
Though it just look like Geheim suddenly vanished and strike that man with a single stab, but a single stab couldn't kill a person instantly.
Yes. What Geheim used earlier is a strengthening magic that boost his speed up to the speed of sound. With the very same magic, he attacked that man. So a single stab may actually what a normal human could see. But in reality, he actually striking about 11 to 12 times in different area. Right and left shoulder, right and left arms, right and left thighs, lungs, liver, right and left foot tendons, and head. There's no way to see which is the first strike and which is second, but the last one is liver. This is what caused an instant death to the man.
"Hm… Perfect. Now, three more to go."
Then, Sha-! He disappeared again.
Zuun! Zuun! Zuun! Zuun! Another person died in the same way like the first. Then the third. For the fourth one, when Geheim find him, he's already dropped on the floor, screaming in pain without any voices…
There, a figure in black is standing. That figure mercilessly stepped the fourth man hand which has been bleeding from a wound of sword. The figure are using a heels, so this figure must be a girl.
While Geheim only stand in silent when he looked at that figure.
"Code?"
"Asterisk, milord."
The figure answered Geheim's question. The voice is of a girl. From it alone, one can assume that she's a monstrous femme fatale that could cause the world in war just to claim her.
"Ester, huh?"
"Yes, milord. Can you leave him with me? I'll pry on every single thing he know."
"Fine with me. Don't fail me, Ester."
"Rest assured, milord."
Then, Geheim walk away into the shadow of a building and once again, disappeared with high speed again.
"Aaa~~ As expected from milord, such a high speed acceleration magic, as usual. Marvelous."
She then take her eyes away from the shadow, and added more strength into her feet that stepped the man hands.
"Now, now… Know this, milord is a good person that'll instantly kill you without any hesitation. But it's actually a blessing to be killed immediately like that, isn't it? Not with me, okay? Don't expect a merciful death from me."
When she said that, the man peeked at her deep red eyes glowing in that darkness. And what that man could feel of at the time, is no other than fear, and fear alone…
The night has completed her duty, and now its her brother turn to take care of the world. Morning is arriving and the student who don't have plan and stayed in the dormitories are seen going to the cafeteria. Because most of the tutor here didn't take vacation, the cafeteria is open even in long holiday like this. Also because of this very reason, there's student that choose to spent their holiday inside the academy as well.
One of them is Raye. He didn't have much activity to do. After being disqualified from tournament, he has all the holiday empty without plan. So he just boorishly spent his morning in cafeteria alone.
"Hm… Today's menu is quite good."
He said that while having a bite at the food he get from spending money at the cafeteria. The food he gets are a typical western breakfast. A toast and scrambled eggs. A few bacon. And vegetables.
"Food like this is the best."
While having another bites, he saw Lucille walking in the park that could be seen from the cafeteria windows. She look quite easy going if she didn't wield her estoc. That thought just suddenly crossed inside Raye just now. Raye has been spending most of his time with Lucille under the disguise of Geheim in the past few days now. But honestly, Raye never even once interested in what she does before that. He just want to avoid any major character and claim his identity as Mob Character A.
While he's deep in his thought, Lucille and Jeanne is speaking.
"Why are you so stubborn?!"
"Stubborn? From what I see, it's you who's being stubborn, Jeanne-one-sama."
"You prefer to believe some suspicious man clad in black rather than your own sister?"
"Like I said, his name is Geheim Nisubelschatt. And, yes. There's nothing wrong in believing him, at all. At least he didn't try to control me."
It seems that they're quite close to where Raye is, and he heard all of that conversation. He stumbled and choked himself with the water because of what Lucille said. He's feeling guilty now. Sorry, but I did try to control you, is what he's thinking right now. I'll atone myself to the end of my life if you didn't forgive me later when my identity is revealed, is the next thing he think of. Then to avoid listening more into their quarreling, Raye casted a small scale magic that take away his hearing ability. So for now, he couldn't hear anything all. Then, suddenly, a student rush himself into the cafeteria, and screamed, "THE COMMITTEE HAS DECIDED THE DATE OF THE TOURNAMENT! IT'S TOMORROW!"
Oh. Now, I can proceed with my plan, is what Raye think after hearing that news.
Hearing, isn't right. He read that student lips and figured out what he said. That's a monstrous comprehension ability he had.
*****
"Today I'll teach you a simple magic skill."
The word he uttered just now made me opened my eyes as wide as possible. Magic? That's not something you can learn in a day.
"Magic?" I reflectively questioning him.
"Yes. It's a simple magic so you can learn it easily. Now, attention."
I stared him as he told, and suddenly…
He disappeared.
!!
"This is a simple magic skill called Acceleration."
!! I instinctively turn to my back and he stand as if he's always there from the start. Like the thing just now is an illusion. What is that?! There's nothing like that magic in this world!
He continued with his explanation after he show me something outrageous like that, as if it was nothing but normal…
"The essential of 'acceleration' is the same with usual body strengthening magic. By pouring mana to entire body, you create a body that strengths has passed the limit of human. You can see it as a specified strengthening magic. Because instead of using mana to our entirety, just put them on the sole of your feet."
"First, let me see how you usually accelerate and made me enter your maai."
"O… Okay…"
I took a stance of striking and then accelerate myself toward him. Doing just as he told me. I'm a bit dumbfounded right now so I just follow his lead like kids listening to a fable story of their favorite heroes. He then nodded and continued the lesson.
"Did you feel where the center of strength you use to accelerate? That's where you need to pour your mana. But first, I'll have you learn how to control the flow of mana."
Controlling the flow of mana?! That's something even more outrageous! Mana, a source of energy that was used by many creatures in this world including human, to generate a phenomenon called magic. It sometimes visible to eyes, but there's a study that mana is everywhere in this world, without color. How did he even control something like that? It's like saying he's trying to control the wind…
"Mana is the energy used in magic. But that's not all. Mana, in their purest form, is invisible. When they get contacts with someone trying to use magic, they responded and started to gather the essential force to generate the magic. It's a standard teaching about mana."
No! No! there's nothing like that in any books you can find in this world.
"You can think of mana as air, or land where you stand, trees over there, the sun, anything. Here, look at an example of me controlling the mana."
He put his hand on midair, with a gesture of handing something or receiving something. Then a little distortion seen over his hand, where black mana started to spark like a thunderbolt. This is really insane! Everything he show me right now is a knowledge that this empire has yet to had! It made me feel if it's alright for him to teach me that…
"This is an example of mana control. By imagining what I wanted to form around my palm, I focused mana there. Being lead by my imagination, the mana inside my body responded to it. I also set the limit of mana to spent on it, so that it won't exceed the necessary amount of what required to be."
He could even do that?! I don't know what kind of face I'm making right now, but I feel really excited. I decided to follow him and accepted his offer to make me stronger, but I thought he just said it on a whim. Never did I thought he's serious about it at all. Then a lot of question are asked inside my head. Why did he do this to me? What did I do that he wanted to teach me this? If he wanted to teach someone, then isn't my sister are clearly a stronger candidates? Just, why?
Then I remembered what he said when he invites me. That he like my sword arts. I feel a bit embarrassed to that thought and is shaking my head right now. Trying to focus to his lesson.
"Now you can try it yourself. Just imagine the mana flow like blood inside your body, and imagine what you wanted to make out of those mana. When you get used to it, you'll understand by yourself how much mana needed to perform the magic."
Thus he finished the lessons… Just like that?!
I'm nervous right now…
I put my hand in the same gesture like he did earlier and closed my eyes. Imagine the mana flowing from me to the hand. Now, imagine a thunderbolt like the one he show me earlier.
Biri. Biri. Biri Biri. A small electric shock can be heard from where my hand is. I opened my eyes then and saw a silvery mana surrounding my hand. They created sparks of thunderbolt like the one he did but smaller in comparison. Then a few second later a massive explosion suddenly happened. It caused me to flew back about a meter and lay down in the ground. Ouch… it hurts. So I failed…
"Come here. Let me see your hand."
EEHH? I shyly walked to his way, and show him my hand. He poured a bit of his black mana into it and suddenly, the pain in my hand disappeared. Eh? Is this a healing magic that the church priests and priestesses used? This is actually a magic exclusive only for the church! No teaching has reach outside of them and no one know how to use it as well. How did he learn it? But somehow I could feel that his healing magic is a bit different from what I experienced with the church. While the church did the healing, but it's only to physical wound. While I can tell that his healing even stopped my rising heartrate and nervousness. A warm and cozy feeling. How comfortable.
"A first is always a failure. You don't have to feel down or nervous. Just like how you learn to walk, you fell, you hurt yourself, but you keep trying until you learn it. Pain is the best teacher in your life. No pain, no gain."
Is he trying to comfort me right now? So he can be like this as well, huh? Hm? Now that I realized it, it seems like my hand has gotten softer than what it usually is. The hilts mark and bruises I have is gone. Permanently. So he also heals that…
He then told me to continue, and we just basically keep repeating the scene all over for at least four hour. Each hour pass, there's improvement in my magic control and the explosion caused by my mana going awry is not as bad as an hour before it until I finally grasped the essential to control the flow and amount of mana needed to use that magic. He nodded once like a teacher proud of the successful attempt from his disciples while looking at me smiling and happy because I finally learned it. But this is just the beginning of his training. Soon after, he told me to learn 'acceleration'.
He explain that acceleration is a body strengthening magic. Which different from what usual is only where the magic take effect. While body strengthening magic usually boost physical of the user, this magic only strengthen the essential parts of body that's needed. Hand, arm, legs, feet, or something like that. With similar way as the first lesson about controlling mana, you'll have to try all over again to learn the flow of mana going into the feet and how much mana needed to use to execute it like we wanted.
The first try make me fly backward for about 6 meter away and break my legs. He healed me immediately. Then I continued the training. Though his training may look harsh for someone, I'm actually quite liking his teaching style. On point, straightforward and without any unnecessary things such as theories, and a long boring explanation like one from the academy. It took me about three hours to finally able to use acceleration to the direction I wanted. All of them before always ended up failed as I always flew backward from the impact of mana going wild. But it still far from succeed. Though I can use it to any direction that I wish now, but I still can't grasped the landing, the distance and mana amount for it.
"We'll stop here today."
"Eh? No! I can still continue!"
"No. It's over for today."
I dropped my head and looking down to the ground below me. I felt ashamed and had my eyes teary. So I failed his expectations. That what I thought. Then, a hand touch my head lightly. It feels warm and comfortable. I don't know having someone pat your head would feel like this. It's different from how it feels when my parent or family does it…
"Like I said, a first is always a failure. Don't worry about it. I will takes time between the tournament schedule and watch you until you really learned it."
I cheered up immediately after that.
"I… I understand!"
I said it with a smile, and he responded with one. It was a bit too much for me to handle as he smile, so I turn my back toward him. "S-So… See you tomorrow in the tournament." I said it, while trying to sound normal and hid my embarrassment.
"Yes. I will."
And so we goes to different directions again. I peeked the back of his walking away, and smiled once again. "Thank you." I muttered in a small voice enough for myself to hear it.
To be continued…