In the king's palace in the town of Azieu, on a stage in the backyard, a young girl was fighting against a young man with a longsword. The girl did not wield a weapon. Arthur ran towards the girl.
"Ahhhhhh take this!"
He swung his sword in a wide arc from left to right. The girl bent 90 degrees to avoid it and made to attack Arthur, thinking the inertia from the swing would leave him open to attacks. She did not expect him to immediately turn his back on her and use the inertia for another swing, this time as an uppercut.
She quickly dodged the strike, but he was prepared for it. He immediately brought his sword down while moving forward. The girl shifted to the side, and then instantly moved to his side.
Arthur could only watch as the hand of the girl stopped inches away from his neck, but he could still feel a bit of blood trickling down. Chiyo, having won the match, calmly stepped back.
"If I had not stopped my hand, then your head would have flown off your neck. My hand was coated in sword qi."
"I know"
"If you knew, then why did you leave yourself completely defenceless after the strike downwards?"
"I.....I don't know"
"Haaaa...well, you still did alright. I was not prepared for that uppercut"
"Thank you for the compliment, and the great match, Chiyo"
"No worries, you can step down now. I will teach you all the basics of sword qi"
"Okay"
"It is not easy to learn sword qi. It will take two years even for the most heavenly geniuses. I learnt sword qi in two years and was a very distinguished member of the samurai. My father was also a genius but it took him 5 years. Most people only get sword qi after 50 years of training."
Akira took over for his daughter.
"With the emergence of mana, people who get strong enough can live upto 1000 years so it isn't as bad as you think. However, you do not have much time till the demon lord rises and brings his army with him. After one year, if you make no progress, we will give up learning sword qi but will teach you martial techniques instead."
The students did not want to be left behind. You know how people are. Competitive and full of fire, no one wanting to be weak and then shunned. Part of the reason why they were mentioning all this was to ignite that spirit. It was the only way to get the best out of everyone. Both the demon and god know they needed it.
The king then started speaking.
"I and my subordinates will teach you how to master magic. These two things will be taught simultaneously. You will have a total of 7 years to get ready for the journey."
"What journey?"
As soon as she heard the question, the mad maid looked straight at the student who had asked it. The student nearly pissed his pants. 'I didn't say anything wrong did I? It's a valid question, isn't it?'.
Most people agreed with him, but the mad maid was not having any of it.
"DO YOU IDIOTS THINK THAT THE DEMON LORD WILL EMERGE FROM WHEREVER YOU ASK HIM TO?! THAT HE WILL MOVE ACCORDING TO YOUR WHIMS AND APPEAR RIGHT HERE?"
"Calm down Sheila, I pesonally think that question wasn't that bad"
"Sorry, Your Majesty"
All the students sighed in relief.
"However, Sheila is right, the demon lord will appear at another continent, the Eastern Continent. The only way to get there is through the Cave of Horizon or by sea. We cannot go by sea as there are millions of beasts and we cannot gauge their strength. The ocean is even harder to explore than space, isn't it?"
They all replyed to him together. "Yes, Your Majesty"
"Good that you all understand, you shall now continue your training"
Akira then told the students to divide into people who wield the sword and people who don't. A student without a sword decided to ask the question that all the others without a sword wanted to ask.
"Ummm, sir, can we learn sword qi?"
"Ah, I am sorry but both my daughter and I only specialize in sword qi, we do not know qi technique in other weapons, we only know some skills in those weapons. However, that does not mean that you cannot learn the qi technique for other weapons. It is just that you may have to comprehend it by yourself. It is possible to do so if you are able to understand the concept behind sword qi."
"Don't worry, while those sword users are learning their qi techniques, I'll teach you how to feel mana in the air and use it to strengthen yourselves and for the mages, use spells."
The students turned to look at the mad maid and started shaking in their boots. This madwoman was going to teach them?! They would rather die! But when they saw that gentle smile on the face of that madwoman they knew that they would not even be able to kill themselves.
Their hell was just beginning. The sword users had it tough. They were taught just one stance and one movement. They were told to practice this one movement ten thousand times. If they stopped even once they were kicked till their backside was bruised. Nothing too bad.
The other students were told to sit in a meditative position and concentrate on their surroundings and try to feel and difference in the air. The first thing they should feel is the air getting colder. Then they should smell a kind of soothing scent, kinda like a rose scented perfume or candle or something. Then if they open their eyes, they should be able to see a golden coloured fog around them. This was mana.
Unfortunately, as simple as it sounded, it was pretty difficult to achieve. The punishment for those who could not do it was ten times harsher. They would be injected by an absurd amount of mana, which caused no permanent damage, or any physical damage for that matter.
It did cause unbearable pain which made the poor kids scream and squirm like they had been struck by fifty bolts of lightning, which they might as well have been struck by.
It wasn't even their fault, it seemed that the madwoman just wanted them to suffer. Just how much longer did they have to train??