After Athena's speech, William still remained curled up on the floor.
A dark shade covered his eyes as he said, "Athena… you must know how important a certain part of the body is to a man. Let's continue tomorrow, I'll be ok by then."
Athena thought for a while before saying and leaving without saying a word.
William stayed glued to the ground. He looked at his legs and saw his classic black shoes were missing. That was the final straw that broke the camel's back. Suddenly, tears rolled down his eyes nonstop.
"Hieck…" He cried and hiccuped as a child would.
"I swear I will kill that f*ckin' goblin. I swear… I swear…" William chanted with a new resolve. Defeat truly tasted bitter.
…
In the fields of the manor, the sun had shown its full glory, and gusts of wind blew against the short grasses.
William held a wooden sword and stood a few meters away from the training dummy.
"Nova, sincerely, thanks for removing the pain. I didn't even notice when you did this for my burn scars."
「I just temporarily prevented your brain from processing the information from your nerves.」
"You're being too modest. I'm sorry for calling you useless. I don't… I don't have any cheats genetically." What the goblin did to William's little brother made him more thankful for the things he currently had, that which he had not lost.
William continued, "You're the edge I have against others and the only one I can trust in this world with all the secrets that are being kept from me. If you can stop me from sensing the pain that means you can do the same for my mental exhaustion, right?"
「Yes, master.」
"Great. I sorta understand how you work now. Firstly, I understand I always entertain myself with my thoughts because these past 10 years were immensely boring and they helped to keep me entertained and prevent me from losing patience and acting rashly. It's not every day my thinking becomes this clear so can you automatically put me in this type of state of mind when the situation calls for it?" William asked as politely as he could.
「Of course, master.」
William nodded at Nova's response and swung the wooden sword down.
Woosh…Woosh…Woosh…
William swung the sword downward repeatedly without missing a heartbeat. He remained in the same stance as shown in the book his father gave him to learn.
…Swing down. Swing down. Same force. Not more. Not less. Same angle. Not a centimeter more. Not a centimeter less… William was absorbed in the training.
His hearing was filled with the sound of the air gently splitting apart when he struck down, the ruffling of the grass, the buzzing of bees, and the chirping of birds.
His arms felt heavy but he didn't feel tired at all. No, he must keep going on.
…
At around 7'oclock, William swung his last for the day. He exhaled.
On the grass, around his body were several bandages. They were soaked not because of water, but with sweat.
William's face looked as fresh as they were before. Not a single scar could be found on his porcelain skin. His hair was shorter compared to last time. His eyes that were lazy before now we're filled with unbridled determination. The only bandages left were the ones wrapped around his arms and legs.
It had been a week and a half since he was involved in the explosion, but he had recovered to this extent within that short period. However, William believed this to be the effect of the holy water he was fed.
Holy water differentiates from church to church and the only holy water capable of healing life-threatening injuries was Water of Life by the Church of the Holy Mother of Life. This holy water could only be created by the Matriarch of the church and was immensely expensive and inaccessible, even to the Emperor of Maen. A drop could heal one of any sickness, rid any type of disease, drive away madness, and even restore lost limbs.
But, William never knew that the Temple and Viscount Maxton never saw eye to eye and even regarded each other as enemies, way before Princess Marybeth's death.
"Fuu… that's refreshing," William said after he cleaned his forehead and drank a cup of water Gilde brought for him then he continued, "Nova, how many times did I swing the sword?"
「10,234 times, master.」
"What? That's 10 days' work already. Why didn't you inform me when I got to 1000?"
「Master never gave me such an order.」
"Tch. Anyway, forget it. I don't think it's that much of a bad idea to do 10,000 daily. Since I've gotta learn and get way stronger faster."
「But master, your training regimen is incomplete. You are still missing basic jogging.」
"Ah yes, thank you for reminding me. I'm learning the sword so for now I don't need stuff like press-ups. I only need speed, precision, and a little amount of power. I sincerely don't want to stunt my growth and remain a midget."
Afterward, William went to have his bath and dinner and retired after the long and stressful day. William lost something of immense value today but he had gained hope and a new resolve.
❈ ❈ ❈
The next day, William woke up feeling refreshed. He was surprised he didn't feel any muscle fatigue in his legs or arms.
"Woah, that holy water was really effective huh…" William said before getting ready for the day.
He checked on his father briefly and went to the empty storage room with a large blue summoning circle with complex geometry and ancient writings in the middle of the room with Athena.
William was feeling confident and said to Athena, "Summon that same f*ckin' goblin. We have unfinished business."
Athena just shrugged and infused mana into the summoning circle.
Immediately the goblin appeared, William charged at it with his slim sword ready to slash the throat of the other-realm monster.
The goblin was unprepared but it noticed William at the dying second and used its heavy bludgeon to counter William's sword.
William used his strength to push his sword down on the 4 feet tall goblin.
The goblin left its bludgeon and swiftly ducked then swept the floor with its leg to trip William.
…I expected this. William smirked and added more strength to his footing, but immediately the goblin's leg came in contact with William's–
*Fwoosh*
William suddenly saw himself in the air. He was perplexed, didn't he train yesterday?
He wasn't given the luxury to process his thoughts. Before reaching the ground, the shadow of a thick bludgeon appeared on William's face.
His eyes widened, his brows lifted and his body tried to respond to the immense urge to cover his face but he wasn't fast enough. And just when he was about to scream–
Tum!
…
A pair of eyes gradually opened. Everything was blurry. The owner of these eyes briefly looked around then stopped when it noticed a short figure in the blur.
"Huh…?" William's blurred vision cleared up and the short figure he saw was the goblin that just defeated him! It was trying to take William's shoes!
"What the f*ck!" William cursed as he kicked the goblin's head hard.
"Gurrr…?" The goblin was sent to the floor because of its small physique.
William was furious. He had a huge ball protruding from the middle of his forehead and the back of his head, "Athena! This sh*t monster's trying to rob me and you're allowing it?!"
Athena was sitting on the floor in a corner, absent-mindedly staring at the ceiling with a large piece of paper spread on her lap with complicated symbols and writings on it. She didn't bother with William.
The goblin picked up the shoe leg it managed to remove from William's unconscious body and hugged it tightly before shooting a glare at William.
William's head became red hot till steam came out from his ears. He picked up his slim sword and screamed, "I'll pulverize this little pr*ck!"