The snow started to fall down hard outside and the wind flew heavily towards Luna. She closed down her book and held her hair, preventing it from getting tangled due to the heavy wind.
'I should head inside,' Luna thought as she stood up and walked inside the mansion where the temperature was much warmer and relaxed. Then, Luna saw Miss Zione along her way.
"Uhm, Miss Zione, can I get another drink you sent me yesterday?" Luna asked, smiling.
Miss Zione nodded and told her to wait in the main lobby. She immediately walked away which made Luna left hanging with her hands in the air. She didn't want to bother Miss Zione and instead get it herself but the latter thought that she's ordering her to get one.
Helpless, Luna chose to wait at the main lobby and continued reading the book. It was the book Akiro gave her and she almost forgot to read this because Luna was so preoccupied with the book found on her shelves. She turned the page after. Ever since Luna reached Vermillion, she noticed that her reading ability improved and it's proven by how many books she managed to read yesterday. Just as Miss Zione appeared, Akiro also went towards her.
"Miss Luna, this is the drink," Miss Zione said.
"Thank you, Miss Zione, and also I'd like to know where you get it so I won't need to bother you for one," Luna followed.
Miss Zione nodded. "I'll tell you later. Master seems to have something important to say," she said.
She left after which Akiro turned to talk to Luna.
"I forgot to tell you about the time of your training today. I have some extra work to do so head to the training room after an hour passed," Akiro said.
"Uhm," Luna nodded.
"And you don't need to worry about bothering Miss Zione. It's her habit to do every task in this mansion although there are some servants to do other tasks," Akiro continued.
He left after saying that he had something important to do. Luna sat in her usual seat near the fireplace since winter started and drank her hot chocolate drink in peace. When Lady Liliana walked to the main lobby's way and saw her, the lady hurriedly walked and reached the second floor in an instant.
Luna shrugged her shoulders at Lady Liliana's weird actions and sipped her drink after.
But before time has passed, she hurriedly turned her attention to the book and did her best to comprehend the time ability although some parts were indeed confusing. Since Akiro let her read it, he should be understanding if Luna would not understand some parts and that did not mean she didn't read all the contents.
'That should be it!' Luna thought as she flipped its last page after reading it for an hour. Then she closed the book and stood up. Walking upstairs, she reached the training room but it was still locked so she patiently waited for Akiro.
"He should've given me the key," Luna uttered.
Upon waiting, she saw a stairway that looked like the stairs towards the third floor. Curiosity entered Luna's mind because she hadn't been on that floor and there was also the fourth floor. Based on the mansion's exterior, there should be four floors in the entire mansion except if there's some secret floor or even a basement if there was such in Vermillion.
But before she could even attempt to walk up the stairs, she heard some footsteps which she supposed was Akiro. Because of that, she hurriedly walked in front of the door's training room. Akiro opened the door and entered, followed by Luna.
"Did you finish reading the book I gave you?" Akiro asked.
"Yes although there are some parts that were hard to understand," Luna said.
Akiro nodded, took the book from Luna, and asked which part she couldn't understand.
"Take a seat," Akiro said.
Luna followed him and then listened to his lectures which immediately cleared the questions about time ability. They took an hour after Akiro finished his lectures.
"May I borrow that book again? I want to familiarize it more," Luna said.
Akiro didn't hesitate and gave her the book. "I'll give it to you but first, we need to proceed with training in practice since you finished reading the fundamentals," Akiro said.
Then he sprinkled some Yellowbridge stone dust once again although he only made two circles contrary to the several circles he made yesterday. It's located on both ends of the room.
"You'll train with teleportation once more with only two circles which has a longer distance than your first try then it'll follow without using any Yellowbridge stones," Akiro explained.
Luna went slightly confused by how fast her training goes on. "Isn't our training a little bit fast and I don't know if I can teleport without that stone?" she asked.
Akiro shook his head and looked at her as if he was mocking her but it was just all in Luna's mind. "There's no need to train for several days or weeks to a single skill by how fast I saw you learn every single thing in an instant," Akiro said.
"Maybe it's just your powers working," Luna uttered.
"Hmm, maybe it is. Anyway, start your practice now. Do it a hundred times again," Akiro said.
With Luna's shoulder lowered, she started the boring repetitive practice. Nonetheless, she finished it in less than five minutes since she could use teleportation skills continuously with only a second of rest in between.
Akiro wasn't shocked by all her stunts this time because he already prepared himself to expect such moves. Meanwhile, Luna leaned on the wall and caught her breath as she tried to stand up properly.
"I-I can still practice the next one," Luna uttered.
"We'll rest for a minute before recklessly moving onto the next step," Akiro said.
Luna finally agreed and let herself regain some strength.
"Anyway, I knew that you used the time powers earlier. You managed to use it to your advantage but I advise you to avoid troubles as possible," Akiro said.
Luna slightly flinched. She didn't know that Akiro would notice it despite him being busy.
"Although you managed to scare off Ryle with that," he added.
They both ended up laughing. The usual blank face Akiro managed to let his emotion show at least once. But that did not last long as he told Luna to continue their training once more.
"The next one would be a bit harder. Your practice with the Yellowbridge stone is to get familiar with teleportation. The next will be teleporting without one. Of course, it wouldn't be possible without time powers and the other skill. I'll tell it to you next time, that's if you're still here in Vermillion," Akiro said.
"Then, summon your pocket watch first," he continued.
Luna followed his command while he flicked his finger which made the Yellowbridge stone dust to disappear on the floor. After that, she showed him her golden pocket with a silver crown in it.
"Hold it tightly and teleport like what you did earlier but concentrate properly and teleport on the other side of this room," he explained shortly.
Luna nodded and did it heartily, expecting that it would be easy like the other practice she did.
Holding tightly on her pocket watch she focused intently and feel magic inside her veins. When Luna opened her eyes, a frown appeared on her face.
"I-I didn't teleport?" she asked.
"That's alright, try it again," Akiro said.
Luna immediately repeated it for several times but the results varied. At one time, she only teleported at the center of the room while some were too far to reach the other end. Akiro sighed and thought that she had her limits as well.
"Well, try one last time and took a rest," Akiro said.
Since she'd do it for the last time, she did all her best. Nonetheless, when Luna opened her eyes, she's brought to an unknown room and uttered, "I think I'm still at inside the mansion."
Meanwhile, inside the training room, Akiro was left stunned. Her teleportation skills were so random that he couldn't think of another way to train her teleportation skills.
'What am I thinking? This is just the first day,' Akiro thought as he gently massaged his forehead.
He couldn't believe that his mind adjusted that Luna failing to learn a skill within a day was considered a failure.
--To be continued...