Many of the fights that happened the rest of Saturday were great learning experiences for Alfred. He even got to see quite a few weapon fights. Despite feeling the need to review all that he witnessed today, he couldn't.

It was two hours past lights out. That was the time that Alfred had chosen to take himself to the courtyard to give his answer. After looking around to find minimal slaves were awake, he jumped softly out of his bed and made his way over there.

He followed the exact path he and 119 had taken to get to the meeting spot. Not knowing if he was allowed to be out of bed or not, Alfred avoided any of the few guards he saw on his way there to be safe.

Arriving at the courtyard, Alfred noticed 119 waiting for him.

He cut to the chase: "I would like to be your disciple" he said while bowing.

Alfred's relationships with people in general weren't great. Getting tortured didn't help, and neither did dying. His mind has grown distant, to say the least. When it comes to teachers, though, it isn't difficult to accept them knowing you will get something out of it. In fact, he would be, as 119 said earlier, stupid if he refused the offer.

The man nodded and said "Good, you aren't some stubborn brat." The man walked closer. "I accept you as my disciple, girl. Do you have a name?"

Alfred had already guessed that 119 would accept him quickly, so he thought about the question. The name of this body was Catharine, but he didn't really care for it too much, seeing as it came from… unsatisfactory "parents". Alfred wouldn't do either. Despite the fact that it was his true birth name, it wouldn't fit in this body. In the end, he shook his head.

"Not a problem. According to tradition, I shall name you after the first woman who practiced our discipline. You shall be called: 'Öthe', from now on."

Alfred put his index finger and thumb up to his lips and pondered for a second. "... Acceptable," he finally responded. "... Master, what should I call you?" he asked.

119 nodded. "I am called 'Cysandoth', call me that, sir, or master" he responded.

"Yes sir!"

Cysandoth nodded again and then retrieved a stupidly large book without delay from a medium-sized backpack seemingly made exactly to carry it.

His more aloof and catlike appearance disappeared and was replaced with a serious and stern look, making him feel like a real teacher. Cysandoth said: "Öthe, for now, you have three assignments. First and foremost, we must correct your abysmal footwork."

Alfred was surprised at the bluntness of his evaluation of the "footwork" he used. Still, he didn't interrupt.

Cysandoth continued, "You will learn the basics of our core 'Isolation' footwork. I expect you to do this whenever you walk, no matter the time, no matter the place" He looked up to make sure Alfred was following along. "The next two will take much longer. First, you and I will set out a refining path for you to take. Second, you shall memorize our book of arts."

Alfred nodded letting Cysandoth know that he understood his assignments.

"We'll start now," he said while tossing Alfred the book. He caught it, and estimated it to be ~0.75m tall and ~0.5m wide and at least 1500 pages thick. "The Isolation footwork is located on page #1" Cysandoth informed.

Alfred sat the book down on the ground and opened to that page. Before he could read the plethora of notes and descriptions written in many different handwritings, the page flashed and shot out a wisp of gray light. Alfred shot up, but calmed down when he saw that Cysandoth barely reacted to it. The wisp then matched Alfred's height, and then turned into a featureless body with a similar structure to his.

"This device was created by the third master of our discipline. He personally knew the man who created those artifacts that the guards carry around, and they combined their manifestos to create this wonderful artifact" Cysandoth explained. "That wisp will show you the exercises necessary to learn the footwork. You will practice this until I tell you to stop, and then switch to the every-day walking exercise until nightfall tomorrow. Understood?"

Alfred nodded. Seeing the determination and excitement in Alfred's eyes, Cysandoth sat down under the tree and began to watch.

By then, Alfred had already focused back on the wisp. Nothing happened, but Cysandoth noticed his confusion and said "Stand in the wisp, you must copy it exactly. This trains the initial level of the technique, so nothing more than the movements need to be followed."

'Makes sense' Alfred inwardly remarked. 'So… manifestos can even create such advanced… "technology". Now I really want one.'

He stepped inside and activated HSM. He needed to memorize the movements before learning to do it through muscle memory, and HSM was a perfect crutch despite the energy cost.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Starting off, the wisp got into a nimble-looking stance. Alfred felt slightly awkward, as he had never stood as instructed before this moment. Slowly and methodically, the wisp began to step in a predetermined pattern that, from the outside, looked springy and quick even though it+Alfred were moving slowly. When his body inevitably messed up slightly, a slight shock was administered. He barely felt it, as his pain was still numbed, but it didn't fail to get a faint "Ai~" out of him.

Cysandoth snorted at the reaction, obviously reminiscing to the first time he felt the shock.

Alfred ignored the muffled laughter that followed from his master and carried on with the exercise. Eventually, most of his body had been administered a small shock, as the movements of the technique were still completely unnatural to him.

When he started the program again, and got into the stance, it did something unexpected. Instead of following the exact same pattern again, the wisp stepped in a completely different direction. Still, Alfred had HSM up, and his natural reaction speed was great, so only the edges of his feet were shocked.

'Oh!' Cysandoth showed a slightly surprised expression. 'This child's reaction-speed is truly otherworldly. Almost my whole leg was shocked the first time that happened to me!'

Continuing on with the exercise, Alfred made many more minor mistakes with the position of his head, arms, knees, toes, heels, really any part of his body. Since he couldn't memorize the pattern exactly, he began to focus on memorizing any similar ideas displayed between subsequent runs. After ten attempts, each lasting three minutes long, he felt comfortable enough to deactivate HSM and began grinding away.

.

.

.

Despite it being late and despite fatigue setting in, Alfred never stopped practicing the exercises. Through the next three hours, he noticed a significant drop in shocks administered by the program, and was beginning to anticipate internally which move was likely to be made next depending on his weight distribution, foot placement, and speed. The whole exercise was still unnatural-feeling despite this.

Alfred had sweat all over his body. It came to the point where Cysandoth had to stop the program himself.

Alfred looked over to his master after snapping out of the daze. 'That was similar to what I felt during refinement. It seems that I like training techniques as much as I do training äura-'

"Öthe," he said, "honestly, you did pretty good with this exercise. I still have a few pointers to give, though."

Alfred nodded and stood straight up to listen.

"First, your arms. I could tell that your shoulders were not as loose as they should be. Because of how tense they were, your actions were more robotic, same goes for your hips and ankles. I also saw that you kept flipping your hair out of your face, let me help you with that."

Cysandoth softly materialized behind Alfred and grabbed his hair before Alfred even noticed he had disappeared from his previous position. On top of the surprise from him disappearing, this type of contact was almost unknown to Alfred, who reacted by tensing up. Cysandoth ignored this and proceeded to create one thick braid out of Alfred's silvery hair, which had reached past his shoulder blades.

Once finished, Alfred felt immediately liberated. He was mostly able to ignore it getting in his face the days prior, but the braid was obviously much better. 'I'll ignore the fact that he knows how to do something like this well, but first-'

"Thank you, sir!" Alfred said with a bow. Cysandoth nodded and got down next to the book, motioning for Alfred to join him.

"Before I send you off to bed, I'll teach you how to work this thing," Cysandoth said while placing his thumb on the front of the book, which he had closed. Alfred felt a small fluctuation of energy flow from Cysandoth into the book, which then lit up in a more orangey-grey hue and began to blink. "Place your thumb on the spine and push some äura into it."

Alfred nodded and did as Cysandoth told him to. Through refining, Alfred had naturally figured out how to move äura through his body. After he did so, the book glowed a more green-gray hue once before settling down.

"What you've done just now, is connect your signature to the book. You can now activate its functions without needing me to. I can't now, but in the future I'll let you hold on to the book so you can practice on your own time, so I can't have you rely on me to activate it forever." He flipped back to the Isolation footwork's page. "Touch the page and push some äura into it, it doesn't have to be with your thumb."

Alfred did so, which resulted in the same color that pulsated before when the wisp came out. He felt in his mind a few options. One was what he was just doing, another two were separate exercises, and the last seemed to increase or decrease the level of the exercise currently selected.

"Select exercise two," Cysandoth said.

Alfred did so, and kept the level the same. Not long after, he found that another wisp had formed a featureless figure matching his own. Alfred didn't need an explanation from his master, as he could now see the instructions/explanation for the exercise in front of him. He read: '... the passive exercise of "Isolation" will lead into the true passive use of this basic technique. The Disciple must commit to practice it every time they walk outside of regular training. The wisp you will be provided with will disappear from vision in one hour's time, but it will still provide instruction throughout the day. Come back at the end to see your percentages.'

Cysandoth could tell when he finished reading. "As you read, it will disappear in one hour's time. That is when our day shall end today. Come back here tomorrow immediately after dinner, the guard's won't care if you're with me."

Alfred nodded and stepped into the wisp. Now that Alfred had connected with the book, he was able to control when the exercise started and stopped. To not waste time, he began immediately.

The wisp began to walk forward utilizing some familiar ideas from his training. This exercise was much less erratic and hard to follow, but Alfred made sure not to lose focus despite sleep weighing on his mind. It led him around the area in straight lines, arched lines, backwards, sideways, and one time as if he was weaving through a crowd. Alfred followed along diligently.

One hour later and much faster than he had expected, the wisp disappeared from sight. Alfred knew it was still there due to the small mistake he committed while stopping his movements.

"See you tomorrow, Öthe" Cysandoth said before jumping into his tree.

Alfred gave a deep bow, showing his gratitude for being accepted as a disciple and for the instruction he was given that day. Even though the torture incident that Alfred couldn't shake out of his mind gave him a perma-glare, making him seem like he would scoff at any offer for help, he still knew how to show gratitude.

'You still can't be trusted, but I'll be damned if that wasn't fun' Alfred thought.

He spun around and began his slow walk back to his bed. During his practice with the passive exercise, Cysandoth had told him that the wisp would know when he planned on walking, and that would initiate the practice.

On the way back, he continued to feel the shock as he messed up (which had become more frequent after he lost his visual aid), but that didn't stop his march back.