Ardere, Melodi and Kenji had been in the library for a couple of hours now. Ardere had been going over what Kenji had missed the first week while he was in the Infirmary and they had already gone through most of everything.
Kenji already knew everything they had gone over, but the reason it had taken them so long to study up was because Ardere had ended up tutoring Melodi more than she did Kenji.
"Sorry for slowing you down like this, I had been having trouble in class all week." Melodi said, a bit embarrassed considering it was only the first week.
"It's not a problem at all. Kenji probable knows more than both of us so he doesn't need to study at all and i had been keeping up farley well in mathematics."
Melodi had glanced towards Kenji and handed him her paper.
"Can you check my answers for me?" Melodi said
Kenji scanned the piece of paper and handed it back to Melodi.
"Technically the answer is right, but in math you need to show your work and don't forget to write the unit of measurement or else it could also be considered wrong."
Melodi looked over her answers again and began correcting her mistakes while Ardere sat silently in awe at how smart Kenji actually was.
In all reality Kenji was never a top student and what he had just said was very common knowledge.
Ardere was a bit worried that Kenji wouldn't be able to catch on to everything on time, but in the end she didn't have to worry at all, but thinking back to Nels class a certain memory was nagging her.
"Kenji, back in the classroom when the teacher had handed you his book you said you couldn't read it; why is that?"
Kenji looked to Ardere for a moment and grabbed another piece of paper and wrote down a few different sentences and handed the paper to Ardere.
Looking at what Kenji had wrote down she could see three different languages.
All of the languages were a bit similar, but she could only understand one.
"The first sentence you see is my first language, back where i come from it is one of the most common languages on the planet, it's called English. The second one you see is also common, but it's not as common as English; that one is called spanish. The last one is the one you know about. That one is actually a dead language called latin, but i took it as a elective."
"Wait so you speak our language and write in it, but you can't read it?" Ardere said with surprise
"No, in all honesty i had been speaking in English this entire time, but somehow we can understand each other; however your written language is a bit difficult, i did try to learn it and i got a good portion if the language down, but i never finished my classes on it and so im mediocre at best."
Ardere was most surprised at how many languages that kenji actually knew as for the translation of languages, she could only assume that was the contracts doing so that they could communicate with each other.
"So why do these other two languages seem similar to Latin."
"That's because some words from both languages are derived from Latin, but not all; some come from other languages and my version of english is considered broken by a good portion of the globe since quite a few words aren't exactly spelt the same as other parts of the world. some items we have are even called something completely different by everyone else, but where i come from we are as stubborn as they come."
Ardere was getting more and more interested in the world Kenji came from everytime he told her of it.
"So why did you learn Latin if it was a dead language?"
"My dad forced me to go through with it. originally i didn't want to, but since a portion of the language happened to be words i was already familiar with i was able to learn quite a bit."
"But then you stopped."
"Yes i did."
"Why?"
At that point Kenji stood from his seat and left the table going around the library scanning the books that lined the shelves.
"What was that about?" Ardere said looking at Melodi.
"Maybe he just didn't want to finish taking the class." Melodi replied.
After a bit more time the three finished their study session and continued to the training room.
Melodi and Ardere continued to fight the doll as Kenji sat and watched.
Currently Ardere was fighting the doll and she wasn't winning. Ardere began to slow from exhaustion and her colour began to look more pale as her mana reserves were running dry.
The doll had sent a fireball at Ardere and she made the motion to move, but her legs gave out and she fell to the floor as she had run out of mana and the attack hit her in her stomach singeing her clothes.
[Level 2 Failed]
[Would you like to try again?]
The doll said as Ardere lay still on the ground gasping for air.
"Melodi, would you like to take over?"
Melodi sat beside Kenji taking heavy breaths as she was still too exhausted from her last fight with the doll.
"My mana is still recovering along with my body." She said.
Both the girls had been working hard training with the doll and now they could win more battles, but they were also trying to make up for their low stamina using their magic causing them to have to finish a battle quicker.
"I guess I'll give it a go." Kenji said as he stood up and stretched his arms.
As Kenji approached the doll Ardere slowly shuffled back to the bench that Melodi was sitting on and laid down on it still huffing for air as she let her head drop to the side and watched Kenji.
[No Mana Detected]
[Would you like to switch Modes?]
"Yes"
[Please select a mode]
"Hand to Hand combat"
[Martial Arts has been selected. Please select a difficulty]
"Level Seven"
[Level Confirmed]
[Beginning Battle Sequence]
Just like before the doll raised all four of it's arms and came at Kenji
The doll attacked quick and gave no time for Kenji to do anything other then take a stance that Ardere had never seen him use before.
The doll attacked with its palms as Kenji used his hands to block and parry while the doll continued to attack.
The fight continued like so for a short time before the doll changed tactics and tried grappling Kenji with one of its stationary arms and managed to grab Kenji's left arm with its right hand and used its second right arm to attack Kenji, aiming for his head.
Kenji ducked underneath the dolls attack grabbing the arm that was holding on to him and in one swift movement he threw the doll over his shoulder and slammed him on the ground.
[Level Complete]
[Would you like to continue?]
The fight was quick so much so that Ardere and Melodi still had not yet recovered.
Kenji looked up from the doll on the ground and noticed the surprised looks he was getting, not only from Ardere and Melodi, but also from others who were in the room.
To some the feat seemed amazing as an attack like that looked impossible to dodge and counter, while to others it felt quite underwhelming since they felt like they would never fight Kenji with their bare hands.
Kenji saw that the two girls were still too tired to continue on and decided to go again.
"Change modes."
[Please select a mode]
"Magic combat"
[Magic combat selected]
[ERROR]
[NO MANA DETECTED]
[Would you like to switch modes?]
"No"
[Please select a difficulty]
"Level 2"
The eyes on the doll flashed purple and the doll stood silent for a moment
[Mode locked in. Are you sure you would like to proceed?]
"Yes."
[Beginning Battle Sequence]
Suddenly the doll lifted its hand and sent a fireball at Kenji.
Kenji turned his body avoiding the attack and began walking towards the doll.
The doll sent spell after spell aiming for Kenji and there was a clear difference between the girls and Kenji as he moved to dodge each spell as soon as it came his way.
"How has he managed to avoid every attack so easily?" Ardere said with surprise
As Kenji got closer, each spell the doll sent out had reached him sooner then the last and as soon as he had avoided one attack he would make the movements to avoid another.
Once Kenji was within a certain distance of the doll he rushed forward, the doll attacked him with a fireball and Kenji ducked below it not giving the doll time to adjust its shot and kept moving in an unpredictable pattern avoiding attack after attack, until finally he was within striking distance of the doll.
The doll had attempted to shoot Kenji at point blank, but Kenji directed the attack away from him by pushing the dolls hand away and down to the floor and finally using the palm of his hand Kenji went from underneath the dolls head hand hit it under its chin knocking its head back as the doll fell to the floor.
[Level 2 Cleared]
The fight had lasted less than a minute, but to the girls it felt much faster.
"Kenji you really are amazing you know." Ardere whispered underneath her breath as Kenji approached the girls and the doll reset to its normal position.
Even though Ardere had meant to quietly say what she did it was audible to both Kenji and Melodi
"What i did wasn't impressive I told you two that the doll has an attack pattern, you just need to find it and you can end a fight like that faster than I ever could."
To Ardere the dolls movements seemed too difficult to actually notice any pattern to them
"Can you just tell us the pattern?" Ardere said finally, giving up on figuring it out for herself.
Kenji dropped his head and pinched the bridge of his nose in disappointment.
"What would you do if someone fired a spell at you?"
Ardere and Melodi looked at each other as Kenji spoke with his eyes still closed and his head low
"I would try to dodge the spell." Ardere finally said.
"Now what would you do if someone fired a spell at you while you dodged?"
"I don't know any defense spells so i would have to continue to dodge."
"Exactly, now if i knew this then all i would need to do is keep attacking until i eventually hit you."
"What the both of you girls need is a battle sense, you need to think past what your enemy is doing and think about what they are going to do."
"For example, if i attacked you right now what could you do to protect yourself."
Ardere blinked in confusion and in less than a second Kenji's fist was inches from Arderes nose. Kenji had stopped his fist just before it collided and Ardere couldn't even react.
"...And Just like that you would have been on the ground." Kenji pulled his fist back and stood up strait.
"Where I come from there is this game called chess and some of the best players in the world can see what moves their opponent will take 5 moves before they actually do it. Of course this wont work for a real fight considering people are unpredictable and erratic, but that doesn't mean you can't guide a battle into an outcome that suits you."
"People are uncontrollable, but they are also very influential, if you know what your doing then you can force your opponent into a corner."
Ardere and Melodi had felt like there heads would burst from how much they were trying to understand; they had never heard Kenji speak so much, Ardere figured he must have been very passionate about fighting.
"When the doll attacks you, you know that if you get hit you lose; so it keeps attacking and not giving you a chance to get close, think about it when you do manage to win it's when you actually attack any other time you lost was because you weren't given the chance to attack and you kept avoiding the spells until you eventually ran out of stamina."
"The trick to the doll that both of you missed is it's ability to force you into a corner, but instead of thinking ahead the doll just tries to force you into submission."
" As the levels go up the dolls reaction time becomes quicker and the doll begins to become more intelligent and more Human like...or should I say more Demon like. Any way the point is the doll begins to act more like a live person as the levels go up and so it becomes more skilled and more erratic becoming more and more difficult to defeat if you don't know how to force it into a situation that suits you."
"This is only level 2, I want you to be at level 5 by the time we go out on the hunt and when the hunt comes around I wont help protect you, you're going to have to do that for yourself."
Ardere's head swam with emotions; surprise, worry, but mostly frustration. She should have known he would act like this when they heard that they would be going out for a hunt.
To be able to get to pass level 5 by the time of the hunt sounded exhausting and not only that Kenji wouldn't help protect her.
What was he supposed to gain from this. Ardere had thought that they were getting on better, but now he was leaving her to complete this assignment on her own.
Ardere must have let her emotions slip as Kenji could tell she was upset.
"Don't look so down. Do you really want me to save you everytime you get into a bad situation, Besides It's not like i'm going to do nothing while you get your asses handed to you."
Just then Ardere remembered the dual the other day. Kenji had put off his fight in order to help Ardere when she was against Ian. Suddenly it made sense if Ardere wasn't strong enough to protect herself then how was Kenji going to protect them both, it seemed impossible with how Kenji was at the moment and even though he was hard on her he was truly trying to better Ardere; something she had been trying to do for most of her life.
"Once we get our third member I'll let you know more about what I have in mind."
"Okay." Ardere said smiling at Kenji
'I had figured getting a summon would make my life easier, but in the end it looks like things will only become more difficult as time goes on. I hope we can both become better versions of ourself.' Ardere had thought
The rest of the day continued as Ardere and Melodi continued to train and eventually they took Kenji's advice to heart and soon began winning more often.
Late into the night Kenji called for everyone to stop as there wasn't a student left in the halls and the moon was high in the sky. Ardere and Melodi agreed to call it a night and everyone left to their rooms
...
The next morning Ardere and Kenji were taking Nels quiz. The room was silent excluding the scribble of pencils and the rustle of papers.
About ten minutes after the quiz began Kenji had stood from his seat and walked to the front placing his paper on Nels desk.
"There is still 40 minutes left young man." Nel said
"I don't need it." Kenji said as he walked out of the room
Nel glared at Kenjis back as he walked out the room before taking a look at his work. At first glance the answers all seemed correct, but this seemed improbable to Nel.
'He must have cheated.' Nel thought before another paper was placed on his desk.
Looking up he could see Ardere hesitantly leave the room as everyone in the class eyed her.
Outside in the hallway Kenji was waiting for Ardere and when she came through the door he nodded his head down the hall and they both walked to the empty room they used the day before that Kenji named "The Garden Of Eden".
"Why do you call this room that? This is hardly a garden." Ardere said
"My mother used to like to garden and she always dreamed of the day she could visit the garden of Eden. It was a story, in the story the garden was told to have every plant known and unknown and even holds the tree of life."
"It was a paradise on earth, but after two people went against the wishes of the one who made the garden he cast them out, then he placed a guard at the entrance of the garden with a flaming sword to protect the garden from those who were no longer allowed. Eventually the gardens location was lost and even now it has yet to be found."
"My mom was certainly passionate about visiting this paradise, but since it was thought to be fake or no longer exist she had to settle for her own little garden in our yard."
"Wow...that sounds amazing, do you really think a place like that exists or did exist?" Ardere said with a surprised tone
"Mom certainly thought so."
"Anyway the point is that this is going to be our little paradise, do not tell anyone of this place unless you get my permission to; the same will go for me I wont tell anyone about this place without talking to you either; it's best if people don't know we use this room because we already have plenty of enemies."
"Yeah, I could feel everyone's eyes burning into my back as i left the room."
"Oh that was just the people who are going to have the mindset that you think you're better than them so they often get jealous and self conscious."
"How can they think something like that, I don't believe i'm better than them."
Though Ardere was a noble she never believed herself to be above others, she was always at the bottom when it came to noble status. In reality she had the title of noble, but the other noble houses didn't recognize her as one to be respected because of her rank, so she didn't fit in with other nobles and because of her title she didn't fit in with common folk either.
Ardere really was alone for most of her life, there was very few outside of her house who actually treated her with respect and sincerity.
"Well, you are better then them, they could have finished that test just as quick as you, but they chose not to study as much as you. Listen closely when i say this, people wont point out your flaws if they weren't ashamed of their own."
"Those people are jealous of you and the fact that you ignore them and act like the bigger person shows that you really are better than them."
Ardere blinked at what Kenji said, she had experienced the hatred of the common folk and the cruelness of the nobility her entire life. Not once did she think that they were jealous of her.
"What makes you so certain of that."
Kenji smiled a genuine smile as the bells rang for the next class.
"I spent my whole school life surrounded by people jealous about something they didn't understand. So trust me when I say i'm certain."