Chad: "Has young master been learning swordsmanship somewhere? Your skill in that part was nothing near like a newbie sword practitioner." asked Chad.
Yoro: "ummm…. nope~. I haven't...I'm just trying to swing my sword in the way that my heart intended, that's all." He was basically lying through his teeth, but there was no way Chad could know that with how muscle-headed he was.
Chad: "....is that so…..? But I commend you for being able to force me to counter-attacking your last strike earlier." Chad said, nodding his head a couple of times in a mixture of self-agreement and amazement as he recalled at that moment."It really took me off-guard."
But hearing that, Yoro only shook his head. A bitter smile made its way to his face as he said. "Yeah you said that, but I can't even make you move an inch from your previous spot."
Chad: "GAHAHA! You have a long way before you can achieve that, young master!" Chad grinned, showing how happy he was to be flattered like that.
Afterwards, Chad headed away first.
Yoro was still staying in the yard, saying that he still had something to do. And thus, Chad suspiciously left while advising him not to push himself too hard, reasoning it could make his muscle injured and whatnot. Yoro didn't have a mood to correct his misunderstanding, so he only waved him off without any further word. Soon after confirming Chad's departure, he opened his status, memories about their battle came to his mind.
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[New Skill Acquired]
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Name: Yoshiro Ehren
Title: second son of Ehren Marquis, apprentice swordsman, otherworlder
Skill:
Rare-grade swordarts
Basic-grade clairvoyance(growth-type)[new]
Perk:
Legendary-grade attunement of space and time aspect.
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It was right at their last moment of battle, when Yoro realized he moved too slow compared to Chad no matter how hard he squeezed out his strength. Adding more to his frustration, Chad had one hell of abnormal reflexes. Regardless of the fact that he had a swordsmanship skill or not, he realized very soon that he couldn't overstrength him.
And as Yoro got very frustrated with himself, something happened.
Suddenly, he could see a glimpse of a translucent shadow. It's faint, but Yoro could see it clearly for some reason.
He paid it no heed initially, thinking that he was hallucinating amidst the battle, only for the shadow to get clearer and clearer as the time passed. Until then he realized it was the shadow of Chad's figure. And more precisely, a shadow of movement that Chad's going to make.
In the end, he trusted his instincts and changed the sword trajectory mid-way. And god! How elated he was when his wooden sword just an inch before it reached Chad's neck!
But then the shadow shifted as another vision came, revealing a Chad who slashed his sword at Yoro's body. Luckily, he could make it in time, and he twisted his sword between Chad's sword and his body. But he underestimated Chad's strength, resulting in him being flung for some meters away.
Different from Chad, his surprise actually didn't come from that very reason, but it was because something suddenly got into his vision when he was still in the air.
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Congratulations!-
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Yet sadly, he could only saw that much before-
*Crack!
-before his back suddenly felt an intense pain. His vision and mind became blurry, and he couldn't focus until some time later.
Yoro heaved a tired sigh upon remembering that moment. Shaking the thought of his head, he clicked the skill to make the skill description to show up.
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Basic-grade clairvoyance
Clair-voyance, or a clear vision, is an ability to gain information about the future or past about an object or person based on the data gained by the eyes in the present time.
Effect: user able to see 1 second in the future
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An understanding exclamation came out of Yoro's lips. Turned out it was this skill doing before, which made Chad's movement earlier became strangely predictive. A dry laugh came out of his mouth, the sharp pain he felt was still vivid in his mind. 'Predicting his movement is one thing, making an appropriate response upon it was another whole different matter.
Dusting himself up, Yoro then headed towards the mansion.
The mansion yard was very large. There was no tall building nor skyscraper seen on the horizon, and it made the twilight of the dawn clear for Yoro to see. A smile unconsciously appeared on his lips, he wondered if he would ever see this scenery in his past life. Even if there was a very small chance for him, he was sure it was impossible with how busy he was to even life for the other day.
His heart ached, hating the earth even more when he remembered about that.
'Maybe…. going to another world really is a good choice after all.' he thought.
When Yoro was back, he saw one or two servants sluggishly walking in the hallway. It seemed the people who got the longest job hour here were the guards. He noticed they even did some night patrol a night ago. Well like a saying, mo pain no gain.
On his way towards his bedroom, he stumbled upon a maid, maybe around 14 years old in age. She was frantically looking right and left like she was searching for something, or someone? But she looked relieved when their eyes met.
Yoro could tell who it was in an instant from her lovely face and figure. It was Cecilia.
He waved at her and beamed the most handsome smile he ever made. "Good morning Ceci...lia?" As she hurriedly approached him, it was when Yoro realized she looked very pale. Her face was sickly white, looking like she had just seen a ghost… or maybe not? She looked oddly natural with that pale skin.
"Cecilia, what's wron-"
"Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere? You didn't just get hurt don't you? Don't you!? You are sweating all over the place!"
Yoro was overwhelmed by her sudden outburst. It didn't need one to be a genius to guess that she was looking for him in his bedroom just now. Yoro scratched his head, guilt painted all over his place. His mind already imagined how panicked she was when he wasn't there as she opened the door.
If being compared to the earth, it was like a guard tasked to protect some expensive jewel, then found it gone to the thin air the next morning.
Nope, he wasn't a museum security in his past life, luckily.
He shook his head, his lips curved into a reassuring smile. "No Cecilia, I am not hurt any-where." Yet he still choked on his last words, memories about him being flung away played in his head at that very moment.
Cecilia squinted her eyes, trying to find any lies in his face. But in the end, she said nothing. Yoro knew he needed to come up with another explanation about his circumstances, so he faked a cough and reassuringly said. "I only took a walk around the mansion. Nothing more, nothing les-"
Suddenly, Cecilia hugged him. It honestly felt weird because she was slightly taller than him by inch due to their difference in age, yet he couldn't utter any word upon hearing her next words.
"You're lying."
".....yes?"
"You lied, young master." She said directly to his ear.
Yoro could directly feel the hotness and the tickle of her breath, but he didn't give a response. He couldn't do it because his mind was too occupied at the moment to even give literally any healthy response for it… well he was only an 11 years old boy, so it didn't actually count.
Back to the issue, Yoro racked his mind and searched for a believable response, or anything that made sense in the ear. And he found nothing. He found no idea as he didn't even know what the fuck thing that made her so sure that he was lying just now.
How!?
Just how the hell does she know!?
Is it magic!? If so she has to tell him how- no no, it's not the problem damnit. He had to get out of this first.
And there was a saying, never admit anything even if you are caught red-handed.
"Yes ma'am, I am guilty…"
FUCK! WRONG BUTTON
Retreat! Retreat! We need backup-
Cecilia's giggle then entered his ear. Just when Yoro thought that he heard things wrong, she released him from the hug and took a step back. Yoro raised his eyebrows when what appeared there was an amused smile in her lovely face instead of a rage-filled face of a security guard who had lost his diamond.
Cecilia's amused grin only grew wider upon seeing his confused face. Tilting her head cutely, she explained. "Well, I know you don't want to talk about it. It's actually fine by me. You can do anything you want, and I won't forbid you from doing it. I just ask one thing. Please don't lie. No matter what, don't lie to me, alright?"
Yoro was flabbergasted as his brain fell into a short-circuit state for a while, it just couldn't comprehend anything that was happening right now. At one time, he found himself to be caught wandering around unprotected in the silence of dawn, which was in fact, forbidden thing to do, considering the fact that he was an ill and weak person. While at the other time, he suddenly found himself forgiven and even got a nice hug from a beautiful girl.
Is he daydreaming or what?
When he came back to his senses, he found no Cecilia anywhere in sight. It seemed she had gone off first and left him here in his own confusion. He fell in thought, thinking about what she said to him.
'don't lie to her… huh.'
Hmm, maybe it was the 'woman instinct' that everyone was talking about. Anyways, he moved his feet back to his initial destination, but now without anyone to intercept him in the way. Before long, the sun then raisen, and it was the time for his lesson with his mother Diana.