"Coming!", a young girl's voice called out. Rapid yet controlled footsteps hurried toward the door, and it was opened to reveal a young elven girl, no more than 7 or 8, with white hair that draped past her shoulders. She bore a striking resemblance to the woman who was walking with Lady Christina on the day when I stumbled into this manor, so I figured she was probably her daughter. She had a refined air about her, and lacked the carefreeness that children generally had, but she had not yet seemed to lose her spirit like her mother had.
"Ah, you must be Ikarus." She said, scanning me up and down. "You're pretty young indeed," she muttered, "but you do seem competent." She leaned in uncomfortably close to my face, her intense icy blue eyes further inspecting me. My brain considered for just a moment being flustered, but quickly shot down the possibility as I ridiculed myself. No way am I going to be unnerved by a child, even though I may be one as well. Do not forget yourself Ikarus! She was certainly skilled at hiding her mana, because now that she was up so close, I could tell she was somewhat powerful. Unflinchingly, I asked, "And you are?"
I am Lady Adela's valet, or maid if you will." She responded, backing up from me. This girl is only the maid? My curiosity now peaked, I decided to ask the Elven maid a few questions as she escorted me down the large hall past the stairway to where Adela apparently was.
"I never did get your name?" I asked politely. She chuckled to herself and then responded, "Livi Heirel. Unusual that you'd ask though. Maids don't really need names." She said, a hint of bitterness in her tone. "Is that so? How did you come about being a maid in the first place?" I questioned further, despite already having somewhat of an idea.
"My family has been in service to the Milbournes for generations. I've been Lady Adela's attendant since she was 2 years old, and I was only four." She responded with a sour face. She spoke with much more formality than the average kid, but her expressions gave a glimpse into her real feelings as a child.
I imagined she had been forced to grow up quickly, with her being a lifelong butler and all, so it wasn't surprising that her childishness still lingered after being suppressed all these years. Before I had the chance to continue my interrogatio—- I mean, my conversation with Livi, we walked through a door at the end of the hall that opened into a large room with a clay ground held up by four pillars that looked to be a training facility, with dummies and weapons scattered about, and several children and teenagers sparring and being taught by instructors. All this fits in the one manor? Just how rich are these guys?!
"Finally Livi, took you long enough!" A jacket was tossed into the arms of my escort by a young girl with long braided blond hair, just like her mother, who seemed to view Livi as nothing more than a coat hanger. "I apologize for the wait, my Lady." Livi responded, her face in a practiced smile. Finally taking note of my presence, the blond girl snorted. "So it's true. My bodyguard is a little kid the same age as me, and he's not even nobility." She shook her head. Looks like Adela too had her fair share of arrogance, though it wasn't surprising with the environment she'd been raised in.
Choosing to ignore the less than friendly comments I had received, I introduced myself to Adela. "Nice to meet you, my name is Ikarus Velor. I might not look like all that, but I can assure you I will not fail to keep you safe." I mimicked Livi's friendly smile. "Hmph! I can assure you that I'll be just fine without your help!" She marched off to join a few other girls who were sparring with wooden swords, who I assumed would later be joining us on our adventure. "Don't mind her…" Livi said as she noticed me pushing back my reproachful expression. Taking my mind off of Adela for now, I turned to face Livi.
"So, what exactly is this place?" I asked her. "Oh yeah, I forgot you were—- not a noble." She corrected herself, obviously about to call me poor. I see how it is. "This is a training facility owned by the Milbournes, where they spar and conduct lessons for not only their family, but other noble's children as well."
Huh. So why the hell didn't we use this when I fought with Braxton?
Either way, I was still curious to find out more about Livi and her magic. In such close proximity, I had sensed a fairly large quantity of mana that she controlled rather well, given how I didn't even notice at a distance.
"Say, could we spar right now, before I set out on the adventure with Adela? You know, like a warm-up?" I asked Livi, who seemed to be caught off guard by my sudden invitation. In truth, I didn't much care for warming up, but I figured a spar would be the best way to learn more about Livi.
With this training facility and the constant pressure Adela and Braxton likely had to grow stronger, the Milbourne children themselves were no pushovers. But Livi was different. Even without the reincarnation advantage that I had gotten, she was unusually adept at controlling her mana for age.
"Uhhhh… Yeah, I think that's okay." Livi responded. We walked over to an open area in the room where training equipment like wooden swords and breastplates lay on the ground. I tried to hand her one of the swords, but she shook her head. "I'm not much of a swordswoman, so I'll just be sticking to magic if that's okay. But you feel free to use one if you'd like." She said with a sheepish grin, scratching the back of her head. "No, I'll follow your lead then," I replied, tossing the wooden sword back into the pile. We lined up facing each other about 10 yards apart. "Ready when you are," I called out.
Livi's face shifted into a focused expression, her icy blue eyes bearing into me. It was a bit surprising, seeing her sudden change in composure. From what I knew about Elves, I was expecting her to have an elemental affinity towards wind. Bracing myself for any gust that could knock me off balance, I steadied myself only to find my feet suddenly encased in ice. It was supposed to be rare for Elves to have an affinity to anything other than wind, but in front of me stood a water mage capable of manipulating ice. Being able to use mana to create something so far away from oneself was no easy task. Especially something this solid.
As I struggled to melt away the ice by creating fire around my legs, I looked up to see four icicles flying towards my face. Breaking free at the last second, I sidestepped the oncoming icicles and broke into a dash, attempting to close the distance between Livi and myself. Instead of backing off like I thought she would, Livi engaged me in hand to hand combat. I coated myself in mana, enhancing my physical abilities, expecting her to do the same. However, she made no move to do so and fought only with her base physicality.
I repeatedly swung at her, and though she managed to deflect some of the blows, this clearly wasn't her strongpoint and I began to overpower her. Maybe she's not all that good at decision making under pressure, she should have just backed off and abused her long range magical ability, especially if she won't even enhance herself with mana.
We continued to exchange blows, with her not having hit me once as of yet, and me having got in a solid few strikes. After a few seconds of my onslaught, Livi's strained expression shifted into a smirk. My confusion regarding her expression only lasted a moment, as I felt a sudden jabbing pain in my back.
An icicle had just crashed against me, and if it weren't for me protecting my body with mana, it probably would've pierced through me. It seems even the Milbourne's servants take duels seriously. I whirled around to see the next three icicles following suit, flying toward me at high speeds. I created a ball of fire in the palm of my hand, and launched it at the three oncoming icicles. But instead of being destroyed by my fire, the icicles swerved out of the way in mid air, and continued on their path towards me. I narrowly avoided the three remaining icicles, cursing myself for underestimating her.
She was controlling each Icicle's movement individually? Seems like I was right about Livi, she had something up her sleeve after all. The three icicles hovered around her, and a fourth reformed to join the others. I assumed she can only control four at a time, but I remained wary of that being a ploy to make me let my guard down, only for her to control a fifth.
I rushed in again, hoping to regain my advantage in melee combat. Only this time, she wasn't alone. I danced around the rapid attacks from her icicles, which she controlled with such efficiency it was almost like they were her own limbs. Every time I would throw a punch or kick, the icicles would swerve in her defense, acting as both a shield and a weapon. At this rate, I was going to lose. But I wasn't without a plan.
As of now, my most offensively potent magic was fire, because of its naturally harmful attributes. Because of this, the only element I had used in this spar was fire. Even if she had heard of my use of wind in my fight against Braxton, she would have no way of knowing my proficiency in water magic.
I encased my right fist in flames and began attacking furiously. While I did manage to melt away the icicles on impact, she was able to quickly reform them and not lose any advantage. I forcefully changed my expression into one of frustration, and acted as if I was exasperated and growing careless with my fire magic. And as I had hoped, Livi was a perceptive child. She noticed my "growing frustration" and immediately tried to take advantage of it. I threw a flaming punch directly at her, which she evaded, and then I feigned losing my balance. All four icicles swerved in the direction of which I was falling, and Livi wore a proud and victorious grin.
The flame around my right fist fizzled out, and I shot a large blast of wind from my palm that propelled me into the air directly above Livi. Throughout the entire second portion of the battle, my left hand, which appeared to be doing nothing, had been collecting and condensing water attribute mana into an extremely small size. This was a technique I had learned from Elise, who specialized in water magic, that takes advantage of how dangerous high water pressure is.
Livi's gloating expression quickly shifted into one of surprise, as a large and devastatingly powerful jet of water rained down from above her.
"You got me." Livi said with a laugh, laying on her back spread out like a starfish against the clay ground, drenched in water. "Your control over those icicles really is impressive," I said with a sigh as I laid down next to her. She snorted. "I'm impressive? Coming from the guy who can seamlessly swap between using three different elements, that doesn't mean much."
"Fair enough," I let out a chuckle.
"Wait, don't tell me, can you do earth magic too?!" She asked with a starry-eyed expression, finally acting her age.
"Hah, I certainly wish I could. But for some reason I just can't get the hang of it."
"Really? Hm. Well me neither, I'm pretty much a one-trick pony with ice."
"I think you're being a bit harsh on yourself, you're the most talented person my age I've met," I replied, eliciting a flustered expression from Livi.
"Hehee, you think so?" She snickered with an aloof grin.
She let out another long sigh and faced back up at the ceiling, but had a big smile on her face. She turned her head on her side to face me, some of her hair falling over her face.
"Ikarus," she said in a hushed tone.
"Yeah? What's up?"
"Thank you."
Before I had the chance to ask why she was thanking me, a loud and commanding voice boomed out over the room, silencing the chatter and commotion.
"Adela and those accompanying her, be at the front entrance in exactly fifteen minutes!" A man of rather short and plump stature exclaimed, his voice authoritative and proud. He had slicked back blond hair and a beard that seemed to have gone unchecked for a while too long. He wore a fanciful brown coat and a puffy red tie, with a pompous black hat that looked like it belonged on one of the three musketeers.
Accompanying who I assumed to be the head of the Milbournes was a young man with longer wavy blond hair and blue eyes, who wore bright white pants and a purple jacket, so he clearly had no qualms with expressing himself through fashion. Despite his flashy appearance, I could tell he was powerful. His eyes darted around the room until he stopped on me, giving me a less than welcoming glare. I could feel his harmful intent from all this way away, but I had no idea what I had done to upset this guy.
The two walked back out of the room, and Livi gave me a puzzled look.
"Did you kill Luthor's dog or something?"
"That guy's name is Luthor? I don't think I killed anything of his," I replied.
"Yeah Luthor Milbourne, next in line for the head of the house. If you haven't even met him then why was he looking at you so angrily?"
"I thought you would know."
"Well, It might be too late, but I would avoid getting on his bad side. He's not someone you wanna mess with."
Lovely. Somehow I had ticked off this Luthor guy. I'll just try to keep my head down around him, and hopefully he won't bother me.
"We should get going," Livi said as she stood up and dusted herself off.
"We? Are you coming too?" I asked as I did the same.
"Of course, I go everywhere Lady Adela goes," Livi replied with a mocking tone.
We walked together through the long hallway and out the entrance where we were again greeted by quite a few familiar faces. The two men from earlier, Adela and her friends, and even Braxton were all standing around two large wooden horse-drawn stagecoaches. Livi and I joined the circle around Luthor and who I presumed to be the head of the Milbourne house. I had forgotten to ask Livi for his name.
"Alright, everyone is here now, yes?" The man asked. "Very well, I will begin. There has been a slight change of plans as to which dungeon you all will be entering, due to a disturbance in our original location. Not to worry, the new dungeon is similarly ranked, the only difference will be that the cave has some areas with very high drops, so watch your step and everything will be fine. As my daughter has specifically requested that no adults are present, just in case, I have assigned Braxton to accompany you as an extra measure of caution."
Adela gave an annoyed frown at this news, but didn't argue. I guess she didn't like the idea of her brother lording over her even on this trip.
We all loaded onto the wagons, Adela and her three friends in one, Livi, Braxton, and I in the other. I was worried that Braxton might still harbor some ill will after our confrontation the other day, but he seemed amiable enough as of now. "It'll be a few hours trip, so get ready!" the man driving the front coach called out. I tried my hardest to get comfortable on the hardwood seats and settled in for the journey.