Althea paused. She turned to look at the man who still thinks that he owns her and this time he was not even hiding his intentions when he was talking to her.
"I thought that you would be worried about the safety of your family and learn a bit of fighting skills even if you are not good with the power of elements. But you are still thinking about rest. That is not good for a young and healthy girl like you. What if you gained weight?" he asked in a cold voice. He still remembered how he had been insulted because of her last time.
He has been thinking of a way to insult her since then. He must remind her that he was like a god who was only pitying her by marrying her, a waste! In an empire where power was everything, she was just a waste!
"You think I am gaining weight?" she asked back as she looked at her thin hands. Even she felt that she was too weak. In her past life, she was slim too but this body is just too malnourished. She was sure she would break her wrist if she fought with regular methods. Thank goodness she had special training that she knew how to not use much power to attack.
But this jerk must have wanted to handicap her so that he could not marry her.
"Aah! I want to learn some fighting skills too but I have no one to teach me. Duke thinks that I am too weak. Why don't you teach me since you are here?" she asked with hearts in her eyes, "you are so strong and powerful. I am sure if it would be you who is teaching me, i will learn well.'' Her smile was so charming that James skipped a beat and kept staring at her for a long time until he realized what he was doing.
He goaded in his heart as he nodded his head.
"Alright, as your fiance, this is my responsibility that I will teach you well. Come with me.'' With a tone full of arrogance, he nodded his head and turned to walk towards her personal garden instead of the training ground since he did not want to be seen.
He stood in the middle of the garden and picked up two wooden sticks and used his hands to mold them and turn them into swords. Then he looked at her with a smug look when he saw her standing there blankly and frowned.
Should she not be amazed?
"Here! I have used my inner power to make two swords. You should try to attack me with yours so that I can teach you how to defend yourself." he said in a cold tone when she wanted to laugh.
He was teaching her close combat! In the world where everyone had powers and atack from meters away, he was asking her to go so close to the enemy! Would anyone spare her to even pick a sword let alone attacking from it.
Even the knights in this world use their elemental powers to attack and defend and swords were only for those who had physical powers stronger than their elemental power.
Even if he wanted to kill her, he should be discreet about it.
She held the sword and nodded her head when he smirked and attacked her. He even used his power as he whispered a spell and sharpened his sword when he was going to attack her with full force when she jumped.
She took a step back at the last moment and instead of hurting her, the sword cut and struck in a tree.
James blinked as he stared at the tree. He was sure that he had calculated well,
"Oh my! Were you just telling me how I should not act while fighting?" she asked with a tile of her head as she saw him struggling like a monkey to take the sword out when he realized what he was doing.
He hid his irritation and nodded his head. "Yes! This will be the result if you use too much force in your attack. Did you get it?" he asked as he used his power of wind again and kicked the tree to cut it from mid and get his sword back.
"This time pay attention.'' He made sure to calculate their distance this time and even double checked her feet movements before attacking her with more ferocity. He did not care if she died, he would just make an excuse. It is not like anyone would be sad about her death.
With an evil smirk, he attacked this time only to stumble and fell on the ground. He was baffled. He looked around but there was no stone only to know that his cape was tied with his shoes.
"Oh my! Was it another lesson to take care of your clothes before fighting?" she asked with a smile as she crouched on the ground to meet his eyes.
Her smile was so innocent and pure as if she could not notice his misery when he cleared his throat and nodded his head.
"Cough cough! Yes! Look at your wavy gown. It is just not appropriate to fight. Therefore I will teach you next time." he said as he stood up and looked around, not sure what was happening.
"Now I shall go and meet your sister. She must be worried that her name was attached to me and I should go and apologize to her. Because of my enemies, she is bearing the brunt."