Soon, it has already been half a year since that first time I taught Marie magic.
I taught her a few more elementary leveled magic Her magic compatibility... is not that great. Some people just understands magic more than others, that is why I'm considered abnormal in this school after all.
After 3 months long of hard work, she can finally cast Ember consistently, but her control is bad. Another 3 months is spent into casting ember in a specific location, like the lamp training I put for her, and she still has trouble doing that twice a day.
That being said, I was right about the problem she faces. While her Mana control can use a lot of improvement, what's the problem with her is that her Reserve Mana is really lacking.
Sure, I have a huge Reserve Mana but even in terms of normal people she is still below average. Even after half a year of practise, she could only cast 4 Embers, as compared to when I was her age I could do 10 no big deal.
So yeah, she is lacking in talent. For now, she's only doing magic training for fun while she learns language from mom. I also secretly taught her by explaining complicated words in Japanese. And occasionally I would explain the grammar structure to her.
"You see, this sentence here means 'To kill', not 'To be killed'."
"I see... this is really like English it seems."
"Yep. I don't know the exact reasoning behind this but it seems that many things from our old world do exists here. "
Outside of her lack of vocabulary she's already quite decent at talking and listening already.
As for myself, since the entire winter I have been practising with dad in light sparring sections.
"Kyrie, do you think it's time for you to learn to actually fight instead of practising your body only? You have grown quite strong physically since 5 years ago after all. "
"You are right. How exciting, sparring with dad is exactly what I pictured my training would be like 5 years ago!"
"Well, when I say sparring training, I do mean that we only exchange some basic attacks and learn to block them. This is for building instinct and reaction speed for when it's a real fight. It's also about time I taught you about defenses, about blocking, deflecting and parrying."
"Alright then."
"A block is receiving a blow with your weapon in a static position. While easy to do, this is a rather amatuerish move because it not only damages your weapon, but also make you unbalanced, which means it breaks your posture. "
"That's right. That's exactly how you got an opening and stabbed that assassin about 4 years ago right? Because he blocked it."
"You got it. My attack threw him off balance which puts him in a bad position unable to dodge my next attack. That is what a block does, it puts you at an disadvantageous position and any experienced fighter would punish you for it. "
"So, what's the difference between block, deflect and parry then?"
"A block receives the attack. A deflect instead redirects the attack away from you, sort of like guiding their weapon away from your body using your own weapon. I'll just show it to you, try swinging at me. "
"Eh? Really? "
"Yes. This is to show you how to deflect, as well as to train you to not hesitate to swing at someone else. "
"...Right... Here I come!"
I swung my new wooden sword at dad and then dad skillfully received the sword mid swing with his own sword and redirects it to his side. I noticed how instead of throwing himself off balance, it instead throws me slightly off balance.
"This is a deflect. Instead of putting your posture at risk, you can have them throw their momentum forward and misses, which slightly damages their posture. The way you deflect your opponent's attack also allow you to counter them with a strike of your own with enhanced power because of the borrowed momentum from their attack. It is called a deflect counter."
From the lower position where he just deflected my right upper swing, he immediately follows up with an upper swing. I subconsciously moved my sword to block it and a loud bang was heard before my entire body was knocked backwards and throwing my posture off.
If he had continued attacking and I would have slipped my foot and left myself open to a death blow.
"Of course, the best counter for when you are being deflect counter'ed is to also deflect t that attack. If you attack sloppily and get all of your attacks deflected, they will always deflect counter you. That's why, you have to learn to deflect attacks, it's the basic entry limit for being an adept ranked fighter. "
"Alright. I hope that you will be my training partner for me to practise my deflects then, dad!"
"Of course, dad is super good at this you know?"
"So then, what is a parry?"
"In short, a parry is basically a better version of deflect, but it's more situational. While a deflect only slightly throw your opoonent off their balance, a parry completely knocks away their weapon leaving them open to a death blow. In other words, a parry is when the opponent's posture is losing, so you completely throw your momentum into your deflect to break their posture immediately and leave them wide open. "
"Hmm...I understand it but I don't really get it at the same time..."
"You'll see one day when you can deflect properly."
"Alright then. "
"For now, I'll teach you to deflect properly. Take your guard stance. "
So that was exactly what happened 6 months during early winter and then in spring. I am still learning to deflect to this day, because unlike magic which I had talent in, learning martial arts takes a lot of repetitions.
And since school starts in Spring and it's already early summer, I'm back in school again. That also means I won't be as lonely as I can get to meet Michael and Gerdur again.
(First day of school)
I was walking to school again after a really long winter vacation. At first I was not happy about ending my holidays after I had gotten used to a slow life, but then I remembered that I'd get to have fun with activities and friends again so that made me a bit optimistic.
And along the way, I finally saw Gerdur again after 3 months. I turned around a corner at the street and then saw her walking slightly ahead of me.
"Gerdur!" I yelled out her name and she turned back upon hearing it.
"...Kyrielle!" I ran up to her as she yelled my name back. And then immediately when I caught up I hugged her.
"It's been 3 months! Long time no see!"
"Ahaha, you are hugging me a bit too tight Kyrie!"
"Opps. " I released her from my bear hug.
"You are just too excited... Anyway it's nice to see you again Kyrielle."
"Yeah. While it was lonely, I got to play with my little sister instead. "
"Oh, you have a little sister at home?"
"Yea, she turned 1 last winter. I taught her to speak and also tried teaching her magic, but it was quite a challenge for her. "
"Well, not everyone is as good as you are with magic. You can already use Fused Magic while we are still learning to cast intermediate spells!"
"Well, I do think that some people need more practise to achieve the same result, but I'm not boasting. This just meant that I have more respect for the people without talent that can still best me."
"Yeah, if only that certain someone isn't a big jerk..."
She's talking about Richard. While I don't know how good he is with magic, he has grades above even mine. Not that I really cared much, I am not the type to compare myself to others a lot after all. I acknowledge my strengths but I try to be as humble as possible.
"If only everyone could be as understanding as you Kyrie..."
"Haha, you are praising me too much but thank you for the compliment."
We continued chatting as we walk and arrive at the school. We entered, checked our ranking from the finals of last year and then checked our class. Me, Gerd and Mike is in the same class again.
"Yes! I was kind of nervous that we'll be in different classes but I don't have to worry much now. " Gerd exclaimed happily.
"Me too to be honest.... "
I took a closer look at the rankings again and it seems that I am still second place while Richard remained on top.
We walked to the class together and then when we entered, we saw Mike in the class.
"Yo, my boy Mike. "
"It's odd how you talk like a guy but, well if it isn't Kyrielle and Gerdur. "
"It's good to see you too Mike."
"Anyway I don't think they are gonna make us sit apart, so let's just sit where we please. "
And after all these, the day went almost exactly as when it was a year ago. This time I had another homeroom teacher so it seems that Zodd wasn't gonna be our teacher again. Not that it's a bad thing cause Zodd kind of sucks at teaching despite being a good guy.
As for being the class monitor, I thought that I'd take a rest this year from doing all the activities. Being a class monitor means that your schedule is rather busy afterall. However, everyone in the class pushed me and Mike to the teacher to become the monitor again... That must be because we already cemented our identity as class monitors...
I hate democracy.... (Author : This is a joke, not an attempt to bring politics in here.)
After a bit of negotiating, we decided that Mike will become the Monitor this year, while I will be the vice. That means I can now sit back and relax a bit more, while Mike can trouble himself with the harder works. Not my problem!
And so, that was exactly how my second year in school started. And things went exactly as usual for 3 whole months. It was rather peaceful because, nothing happened at all except studying, playing, resting, and occasionally getting some small drama.
That being said, it's not as peaceful as I made it out to be. Richard and his gang started to get more and more annoying, and his specific target is often times me and Gerdur. He didn't mess with Mike a lot, I guess that might be because Mike is a boy who wouldn't take insults silently.
He'd sneer at us whenever we pass through and would just refuses to cooperate with us, to the point of even shoulder checking me whenever we passes. I really wondered what did I do to make him so angry?
In reality, I should be the one to be angry at him rather than Mike or Gerd, who is getting increasingly more frustrated at him. Somehow, while I get annoyed on the spur of the moment whenever he does those things, I could never bring myself to hate him as much as I try to. I don't know why is that.
In my mind, there is just one big question. Why? Why does he want to piss me off so bad? Why does he do this? Is it because that he has some kind of trauma and has developed this behavior as a response? Or is it because that his behavior comes from his emotional needs, exactly like the teenage me back on earth? Or it could even be a combination of all these factors?
Whenever I thought of him like that, my anger for him does down, even if just a little bit.
"Kyrie, did you zone out again?"
"Ah... sorry haha I didn't pay attention to what you was talking about.... "
Right now, it's lunch time. We usually eat back at the class, and I sit next to Gerdur and Mike so we usually head out to buy our food and then eat together. Today, Mike was busy with some school work so he had to head out immediately after he finished his food. It's just me and Gerd now.
"I feel like peeing, so I'm going to go to the restroom. Please come with me! "
"Nah, I'll just chill here, I'm too lazy to walk."
"Tsk, no one likes a lazy girl!"
"Shut up."
I headed to the restroom by myself. I usually go in pairs together with Gerd or some other girls in our class to make keep our safety since you never know if there are perverts. It's also a good bonding time.
At the restroom, I squated down and did my business in the toilet. Not that this is a toilet though, it's more like a hole with a gutter to allow the wastes to flow somewhere else to be disposed of by other people. At least unlike the roman's public toilet, these ones still has doors for privacy, so it's easy to zone out when in the toilet since there's privacy.
And surprisingly, you'd expect there wouldn't be any toilet paper in a medieval like world. But here, there are actually toilet paper.
Anyway, I washed up with a bit of water using a water spell, and then wiped off the water with a toilet paper.
Oh Water heed me, bring forth the beginning of rivers, and of seas, Water ball.
A small water ball is what really helps me out the most here. I flushed the toilet with it and then headed back to class.
Outside the classroom I heard a bit of a commotion, but I entered without thinking much.
"Kyrie!" As soon as I entered though, Gerdur immediately yelled my name. I know that this means there will be trouble.
"What's happening? Don't tell me that you spilled 'milk' on your body again?"
"No this is serious! Andy and his friends just saw the trio trouble makers dragging Mike into the back of the school. This can't be a good sign, we must go now!"
"Richard that bastard... Why didn't you tell the teachers first Andy?!"
"I didn't know what to do! Besides, it just happened about a minute ago so I haven't even got time to calm down!"
"In that case...! Gerd, you go get the teacher and I'll go see what's going on."
"Right!"
"Andy, where exactly are they? "
"They should be in the back alley just outside of the boy's toilet."
"Alright. "
Our school have a back side used for nothing at all. It's just an alley created from the school building and the walls surrounding the building.... Perfect place for a bunch of unsavory people like those trio, and this school was known to have trouble makers so I got even more worried.
I immediately exited the class and then ran towards the boy's toilet. I didn't sprint really fast though because I need to save my stamina, in the worst case scenario.
I reached the outside of the boy's toilet and then I entered the back alley from the exit just outside the toilet. And then across the corner I could hear sounds of punching.
I took the corner and what I saw was three boys ganging up on Mike. Those three was kicking Mike who are lying on the floor, covering himself up and his body is terribly bruised.
"Bastards! Stop it right now!" I yelled at them.
"Oh? What have we here? I thought that you were so cool and all, not even caring about me, when in reality you are pissed."
"Shut up!"
"What? Gonna cry?"
"You... you won't get away with this! The teacher is coming here already!"
"Oh don't worry about that. Healing miracles is really versatile after all, once I use this scroll on him there won't be any wounds on him. "
In his hand was a scroll. Most likely a rather high ranked Miracle because of his rich background.
"Hmmm, the teacher would even thank me for healing him after he accidentally broke his leg from a fall! Hahaha! "
"Kyrie... don't fall for it... " Mike called out to me with a voice full of pain.
I took a closer look at Mike and indeed, his entire body is full of scratches from being cut by the ground and bruises from being hit repeatedly.
"You...!" Out of adrenaline and anger, I started tearing up. Now that this happened, it reminded me that this also happened when I was almost kidnapped and I was filled with adrenaline.
"Hahaha! Look at her face you two! She's crying! Our cool headed class monitor is crying when her friend was beaten up! Did you think we were serious? Hahaha!"
...I didn't say anything because I am now thinking of how to beat them all up. I can't use magic because my magic is strong enough to kill them. I guess my best option now is to just physically beat the shit out of them.
"....She's clenching her fist. Do you think a little girl like you could beat the three of us together? Jennifer, Keith, looks like we'll get to use two scrolls after all."
"Run...Kyrie...!" Mike called out to me again.
"Shut up!" Richard kicked him in the stomach and Mike groaned in pain again.
The two boys walked forward, and one of the boy is almost a whole head taller than me. The other one was also bigger than me, I only reached until about his nose. Richard is about the same height as this kid.
In my best guess, I stand no chance against three of them at once, all of which are stronger than me. As such, I need the element of surprise.
The big boy walked forward in front of me and then he put his hand on my shoulder as I was glaring at him, even with tears in my eyes.
"...don't touch me...!"
"Yo, class monitor. How would you like a big boy like me forcibly stripping you? Just kidding, hahahah- "
'Bang!' I had put my entire body weight behind my right fist and them sent it towards his chin. This is one of the best knockout punch in boxing, it's called a lead hook, which is thrown with your non-dominant hand.
I had sent a lead hook towards his chin, planning to knock him out.
"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!"
(Chapter 26 end)