'It's cold.'
A malnourished and skinny girl was walking through the snow-filled slums of Alpy the capital of the north with nothing but a torn black dress.
'I'm hungry... tired.'
Slumping down on the corner of one of the buildings that seemed surprisingly clean considering she was currently in the slums, Rin crouched down in a fetal position and tried to keep warm.
'It's painful..'
Her dark blue eyes glazed over as a tear fell on the snow, freezing in an instant.
'Why.. would they.?'
Her ears drooped as they folded on the top of her head, trying to keep warm as much as possible.
Her pitch-black hair flowed in the wind. At any moment she could close her eyes and die. Right there, in the dirt-filled snow of the slums.
And yet...
'I do..n't want to.. die yet...'
"Well look here. I finally find a nice place with no people to do my experiments in peace and on the first day I have a homeless girl lying in the snow in front of my window."
Rin felt a surprisingly warm breeze on the top of her head.
She slowly tilted her head back, only to see the most beautiful of individuals staring back at her.
Long light blue hair, pure white almost silver-like eyes, a mostly mature figure and a black cloth mask covering the bottom half of her face.
Before Rin could do or say anything, the person looking down on her narrowed her eyes slightly and started speaking.
"Hoo~. You sure do have quite a few unique features. The hair, the ears, the eyes, the looks, the talent, the blood... that element."
Upon hearing her call out everything that she considered unique about her, Rin's eyes widened upon hearing mention of her element.
'Yes.. the reason I had to leave and stay in this disgusting, dirt-filled place. This curse of an element that made my family kick me out.'
Another loose tear dropping on the snow could be seen.
'I want to go back to my room.'
The person looking through the window had her eyes briefly glaze over with a silver and golden light before flashing a knowing look.
"Hmm. You don't seem entirely spoiled. Okay. Come inside."
Before Rin could finish her sob, a warm wind picked her up and carried her through the window.
That was Rin's first meeting with her future teacher along with the start of her new life.
...
4 years had passed for Rin.
Her daily routine had amounted to her getting multiple times stronger every month, she was strong enough in pure swordplay to beat every knight in the capital at once without using skills or magic, but one thought still crossed her mind every time she made a breakthrough.
'Not good enough.'
One year ago, her teacher told her that she would leave to continue her journey.
Rin had adamantly wanted to join, only to be shot down with one sentence.
"You are not strong enough."
Before her teacher's departure, she was trained daily in sword arts and simple education, this simple education was of course tens of times harder than even the biggest academy in the North, not that Rin could have known.
Questions like 'The weakness of an orc chief who boasts incredible healing abilities' and 'The composition of a fairy's heart'.
And pointing out mistakes like 'If you swing like that then why don't you use a mace? Use your thumb more.' and 'If you would stand like that in a battle you would lose your toes to a dagger before even taking a step.'
Although Rin considered these 'lessons' it was really just her teacher asking some questions and pointing out everything she did and said wrong while being busy with her own research.
And yet Rin's growth in intelligence and the art of the sword was still considered 'impressive' by her teacher. Coming from her, this compliment could be considered astronomically rare.
After 1 year of this routine, her teacher finally had a spar with her due to Rin's constant nagging.
After the duel, her teacher let out a sigh and had gone off on her.
"The blood running through you has incredible potential and you have a mutated fusion element of ice and earth yet you can only do this much? Has that year's worth of training only gotten you this much? Only 'Impressive' and nothing more?"
The words 'only impressive' were carved into Rin's heart, as after the spar she barely took any rest and asked her teacher hundreds of more questions and put in thousands of times more effort.
The reason was simple. Her teacher had taken her in, clothed her, fed her, trained her and acted like a caring big sister. Disappointing the person who saved her life would have her kicked to the slums again, or at least this is the conclusion Rin had arrived at.
After the 2nd year of living with teacher, they had another spar.
The conclusion? Another overwhelming defeat.
"Your growth is stagnant, it has neither grown nor shrunk. I know that this is not your limit yet. Am I wrong?"
What Rin took from this statement was.
'Thousands of times more effort is not enough, tens of thousands will not be enough either, maybe at the millions or maybe at the billions I will finally leave her fully awestruck.'
Her routine changed again. No sleep, no food. Only swinging her sword and reading.
She had pleaded her teacher to place a magic circle on her body, removing the need to eat and sleep. After a week of convincing, her teacher placed the spell on her telling Rin that she would remove it after a year.
And that she did. After a year they had their last match.
Rin could not even blink before it ended.
'Too fast..'
"Too slow."
Her teacher had removed the spell right after she told Rin that she was too weak, leaving her to recuperate her energy for a month, unconscious.
After Rin woke up all she found was a letter from her teacher. It read.
You currently have neither the strength to follow me nor to protect yourself.
You are now 17 so you can and should go on a journey of your own, what you will find and experience I do not know but I recommend the Eastern continent.
Till now I have kept you safe in the house for a reason. That reason you should be able to find out for yourself if you are smart enough.
If you do not wish to travel you can keep the house, the royals owe me a few favours anyway.
But if you really do wish to travel, I have left a small present, some instructions, a few hints and some recommendation letters for you in your room.
I wish you the best, and if we ever meet again and you happen to be strong enough, I will welcome you into the Cinders with open arms.
- Your Teacher>