Click-clack-click-clack rushed footsteps tapped rapidly against the antique dark oak floorboards as the door to my ‘nap-time’ room began opening automatically. A tired but dignified voice now flooded the once tranquil atmosphere. “Apologies for my late arrival, young mistress. Something came-up. We will likely have to move quickly through today's syllabus.”
Wearing her usual black robes over a simple black tunic, stepped in, who I had recently begun to dread meeting—the Family mage, doctor, physician, and now teacher, Lizette.
She was holding in her hand what She called ‘Coffee,’ a beverage brewed from a particular plant's roasted and ground seeds. Lizette had taken a strong liking to the popular, new invention, saying it helped her stay awake.
I honestly didn't think she should be ‘staying awake’ any longer than she already was.
She sat down casually opposite me, across a nicely decorated table, on an elegant leather chai. In contrast, I, on the other hand, sat on a rather uncomfortable wooden chair in front of her. She picked up some of her notes strewn messily across the desk. I wouldn't be surprised if they were today's lesson notes.
As disorganized as ever.
“Could you stop looking at me like that, Tene? I've repeated time and time again that If I caught you sleeping in my class, you would lose the right to a comfortable chair.” Stacking her disorganized notes, she looked at me exasperatedly as she spoke.
Staying quiet, I continued to glare at her. Why she hated sleep so much was utterly beyond me, But what did she expect me to do when She always came in nearly an hour late every day?
Sighing, she met my gaze and took her quill from the quill vase beside her. “Look, Tene, perform well today, and I'll consider returning your chair. Is that fair?”
Still glaring at her, I nodded my head slightly. I Would never admit I was in the wrong, but an opportunity to get my old chair back? Obviously, I wouldn't miss this chance.
Reviewing the sheet of paper at the top of her stack, she began her lecture, “So, we left off last week discussing several factors that combine to make up our country Aldara. Can you remember what they were?” questioning me was one of the ways Lizette liked to not only make sure I wasn't dozing off but to bully me at times too. Well, too bad for her. I was getting my chair back, so I would actually try this time.
“The main elements we discussed last week that make up Aldaras core as a country are Education, Law, Culture, and Religion” My childish voice resounded smugly throughout the room, my arms crossed in on themselves. My mother had told me repeatedly that my voice sounded pompous and that I needed to be more careful when speaking to royalty and whatnot.
I had made no efforts to fix this, however.
“Correct, and can you remember what the main components of our laws are? We discussed this in great detail last week.” Smiling, Lizette continued her questioning, clearly trying to catch me out. Unfortunately, It seemed she didn't understand just how much I wanted my chair back.
“A mixed monarchy and republican style court system called the Silanka is in place with the king at the head. Members of the court system include all the nobility, the sages, and the Resha representing the common people” Lizette smiled softly and nodded her head, urging me to continue.
“Each court member has a varying number of votes, from the king with 12 votes down to the lowest nobility, baron, with half a vote. The sages have a vote equivalent to 6 while the Resha has a vote of 8, second only to the king.” Pausing slightly, I glanced at Lizette to check for how much detail she wanted. After all, it was a relatively windy topic.
“Brilliant, looks like you're awake today, Tene, and can you just touch on the basic procedures for lawbreakers?” flipping through her notes to begin the lecture. She clearly didn't want me droning off while I was waiting.
“Small crooks, brought in for minor offenses, are usually at the discretion of the locations overlooking nobility where minor local punishments are handed out. A plea to the Silanka can be carried out if the punishment is seen as too severe where the court itself judges them. More vicious or unorthodox criminals are brought straight to the Silanka to be judged,” I replied, arms still crossed.
“Well done, Tene. See, you do listen. You just don't bother to appear as if you do. A habit that will get you in a lot of trouble at the school, no doubt, or at the very least disliked by teachers alike.” Sighing slightly, Lizette finished her repetitive speech and began her lecture for the day.
“So today, we will begin prepping for your entrance exam after your class unlock in the coming month. Since you did well recapping last class's material, I think some light Geography recap will suffice for today,” Lizette continued.
Fascinating, she was really doing this, huh? She knew I stopped paying attention in the classes mainly because I hated repetitive lessons. I usually memorized things after the first listen, after all. And what I hated most of all was boredom. That helpless sense of drifting in a pit of nothingness with nothing but my mind for comfort was torture. I would almost always rather fall asleep.
It looks like she really doesn't plan on returning my chair to me. No, in a way this could prove to be a rather interesting challenge with a nice reward.
Challenge accepted.
“The Kingdom of Aldara is located to the far north of the world and is only one of the countries within the continent of Aetheria. Aldara, however, being one of the most powerful on the continent, holds nearly the entire northern part of the landmass” Ugh, this is proving to be more challenging than I thought. I couldn't help but get drowsy as Lizette spoke. Her words entered one ear and directly exited through the other.
“As you know, within Aldara, The capital city Frosthaven is where the king and royal family live. Each separate Region is ruled by a duke. Snowpeak, where we currently reside, is ruled by your grandfather Duke Camilla. Your father, who currently has the rank of an Earl, was given a part of the region by Camilla to rule over. A smaller city named Likeberg.”
Ok, I'm not going to make it.
…..
Nearly one hour later, after running through every single city and region in the country, Lizette finally finished her lecture. Damn, I failed.
Finally standing up from her— no, my old chair, Lizette looked down at me with disappointment. “This is deeper than I thought. I had assumed you just weren't trying before. Look, Tene, you can't zone out just because you believe you know everything. You may miss crucial information you assumed you knew.”
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Hmm, well, it's not like I don't understand her point, but telling me suddenly to fix my ‘problem’ seemed harsh. Getting bored was more or less normal for everyone. I simply experienced it for an endless amount of years already and didn't want to experience it again.
Well, I could hardly tell her that.
“I'll try my best from now on to stay focused, Lizette…So” Indicating with my eyes, I attempted to play a trick that had generated highly positive results against my parents and Lita. Tilting my head upwards, bringing my brows together softly, and puffing my cheeks up slightly.
Shaking her head slightly, Lizette frowned, picked up her empty cup of coffee, and began to exit the room. “Nope, you know that won't work on me, Tene. You can keep trying it as many times as you wish. As the future head of the Renhart family, your future is more important than a chair.”
“Tsk” Well, I had to try anyway.
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It was now midday, and I stood within the large ballroom hall where my birthing ceremony had occurred. It was now, however, completely different, fitted with practice straw dummies, swords, bows and arrows, and other military-style weapons within crates separated by type.
How did I know it was midday? Other than my schedule, where combat training started after theory classes at noon, A handy trick using the moons and daylight was used in this world to estimate the time of day. This information was then read into a stopper device to calculate the time. There were 36 hours within a five-day week, with four weeks in a month and ten months in a year. Believe it or not, there were only four hours of daylight in a 36-hour day during the month of Moonwake, so with or without a stopper, the coming of midday was obvious.
Well, moving on from that, stretching lightly in front of one of the practice dummies was my current combat instructor, Lita. Her platinum silver hair was still cut short. She now wore light skin-tight battle gear instead of her usual maid uniform. She matured well within the last ten years, her looks developing from a youthful adolescent beauty to that of a young, blooming woman in her prime. I believe she will be turning 26 in a couple of months.
Finally finished her stretches, she agilely stood upright, flexibly like a cat, and began walking in my direction, two wooden swords in her hand. Throwing me one in mid-air, I swiftly caught it and changed into a battle stance.
Neither myself nor Lita spoke. Lita was the type that only spoke when necessary, I wasn't a particularly chatty person either, but if there was nothing to do, I enjoyed the space it could take up from my boredom. Honestly, with the many hours we spent in the training hall, it was standard for her to just say hello, goodbye, and a few words in between to instruct.
So was she a bad teacher? Well.
Dashing towards me quickly with the agile movements of a gymnast, with a single swift motion, Lita pushed firmly against the floorboards with one foot propelling herself forward with incredible force. No further steps were needed as she traveled the distance of nearly the entire ballroom with a single step. Then, her wooden sword lunged forward, piercing like a lightning bolt through the air.
Rotating my small body vertically, I quickly stepped back, barely dodging the tip of Lita's sword. Air rushed heavily against my face, haphazardly blowing my now long black hair in the opposite direction.
Raising my sword, I brought it down heavily against her unguarded form, still recovering from her sudden stop in momentum. Realizing she wouldn't be able to guard against my sword in time, twisting her body, she lashed out a sudden kick in my direction.
Not good. With my sword coming down, I couldn't guard against her kick in time, either. Giving up, I raised my left knee, attempting to cushion the abdominal blow.
BANG.
Like a pebble kicked effortlessly against the wayside, my small body was thrown halfway across the room, my back slamming harshly against the wooden floorboards.
uuuggghhh. What was the point in sparring without magic or abilities when she had such an advantage physically?
“Again,” A cold, ruthless voice woke me from my plight. Honestly, if it weren't for all the things I'd seen her get to when I was still a baby, I would think she disliked me.
She didn't even tell me what I performed badly on in the exchange, meaning I could only learn and grow from my own wits.
I stood back up and regained my battle stance.
Well, at the very least, I knew she still held back. After all, I had seen her kick through pure concrete, without any magic.
….
“haaaa, haaaaaa, haaaaa” Breathing roughly, I clutched my knees as Lita began cleaning up from the aftermath of our training session.
PING
[Intermediate Sword Mastery -> LEVEL UP]
Well, it's been a while since I gained any levels from basic combat training, and I had to give it to Lita. She was extremely good at balancing on the tightrope of an actual life-or-death situation and training practice. It was a factor as to why I had improved so drastically.
I would argue I would improve even more rapidly if she spoke, though.
“Got stronger?” clearly sensing a slight strengthening of my aura, Lita asked me a question inquisitively.
“Yes, My sword mastery only needs one more level to get to the next stage,” I responded. I needed twenty-five levels for the first evolution of the sword mastery skill. After that, It doubled to fifty for the second evolution, each stage more difficult to climb than the last. Lizette had told me only a handful of people had managed to surpass the third stage currently alive. Each was idolized as a sword saint of different calibers, having approached mastery of the sword in different ways.
Nodding her head lightly, she began to leave the training arena. You wouldn't think what I did was particularly special from just Lita's reaction, but apparently, I was the youngest child in the last 1000 years to possibly reach the advanced stage before age 10. Sadly a lack of actual combat experience using a ‘sword’ stunted my growth, but I would get the chance at the academy soon enough.
Glancing at my status, I looked at how far I had come in the last couple of years of training.
Name: Tene Renhart
Age: 9
Race: Human
Class: —
Stats:
Strength - 16
Mana - 200
Agility - 30
Intelligence - 90
Charisma - 40
Endurance - 8
Special Skills:
Void Aura [S] - Lv (5/40)
Matter Manipulation [S] - Lv (1/50)
Yafels Blessing [Goddess of ???]
Combat Skills:
Intermediate Sword Mastery - Lv (49/50)
Intermediate Bow Mastery - Lv(10/50)
Intermediate Melee combat techniques - Lv(40/50)
Basic Magic Control - Lv(45/50)
General Skills:
Pain Tolerance - Lv(3/10)
Analysis - Lv(2/10)
Illusion Discernment - Lv(4/10)
Further concentration on a particular skill or word on the status page allowed me to delve deeper and gain more insight into it. Pretty convenient if you ask me. For example, focusing on void aura returned…
Void Aura [S] - Lv (5/40) -> (Gained control over the space between reality and emptiness. Manipulate the void to Shift through or unleash devastating attacks on reality.)
Void Step - Lv (3/10)
Phantasmal shutter - Lv (2/10)
Spacial Bind - Lv(1/10)
Gravitational Force - Lv(1/10)
It even showed you how much more work you needed to master a particular skill. I couldn't help but feel like whoever designed this system had done so while doing some serious hand-holding. One handy skill I had gotten relatively recently was the analysis skill, A staple skill that was required for anybody wanting to gain strength.
Analysis - Lv(2/10) -> (read through the statuses of any living mana congruent forms in existence)
A useful skill that could look through the status of anything that allowed you to. Most sentient beings could deny outside forces peeking into their abilities. However, if you had the analysis skill higher than your opponent, you could look through the wall anyways. At an even higher level, you could even do this without being noticed. So it was pretty standard to try to max out your analysis skill. At that point, you could only look at what people wanted you to see and vice versa if you were at the same skill level.
As I stood up, just about to exit the room as well, the main doors opened as my mother, Zara entered the room.
“Tene! Finally, some good news came around regarding your father!!” Running up to me, lifting her white toga off the ground so she wouldn't trip over it, she hugged me tightly.
Now in her mid thirties, my mother had aged very well, still retaining her youthful beauty as signs of maturity began to express themselves softly against her features.
“He finally wrote back after he went missing. It's been so long, Tene!” Well, this was good news. Hugging my mother back strongly, I couldn't help but feel relief flood my brain. I trusted my father. He was capable, intelligent, and strong, so I had often told my mother he would be fine.
“Father is coming back!?” I asked childishly, unable to contain the happiness in my voice. No matter how hard I tried to hide it in my tone.
“Hic, Hic, he said he'll be able to see us again by your tenth birthday!” unable to contain her emotions, my mother began to weep. Whether they were tears of sadness, relief, or a mixture of the two, I honestly couldn't say.
“Come now, Tene, let's go and tell Lita. I'm sure she'll be ecstatic!!” Holding my hand, my mother led me outside of the training hall.
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