Feeling a sudden surge of danger, Lan and his father turned and found his mother walking up to them.

‘That was close, wasn’t it?’ she said as she cupped both of their cheeks, her voice made even more frightening by the smile she wore. ‘let’s not do that again, okay?’ she ended with a slight tilt of the head.

‘Uh, right.’ Lan and his father nodded. To be fair, she was right. Even if they had been swept up in the moment, using an ability like he had and lashing out like his father had could have ended badly.

‘Good.’ Lan’s mother laughed. ‘well, now that that is sorted, I have to say, you are picking up on all this quickly.’ She added, unable to stop herself from beaming at him.

‘Of course, he is. It runs in the family.’ Lan’s father said, making his mother laugh without humour.

‘Don’t remind me.’ she added, ‘although I must say, seeing you two train makes me a little jealous.’ She sighed.

Hearing this and his father’s attempts to cheer her up, Lan smiled as he reached into the Other World Chest and retrieved his mace.

‘This is the weapon I got my first kill with… and the next twenty or so.’ Lan laughed. ‘I would be happy if you showed me how to use it.’

‘Of course, my sweet.’ His mother beamed at him, and with that, Lan began to learn the spear from his father and the mace from his mother, starting with a demonstration.

After finding some weapons in the workshop, Lan watched his father go through some basic spear forms first and then the Blackspear form, although the normal spear forms seemed like a more practised form of what he had used against the Razerwolves. The Blackspear form was something to see.

Fast thrusts with the spear shifted into blindingly quick strikes with the ferrule of the spear, which at that point opened up for many different attacks, such as glaive or polearm attacks from slashing and using the shaft itself as a bo staff.

As Lan watched, it reminded him of the Arrow fist, using the same momentum-based philosophy, only with the spear, the defensive and offensive forms were more effective.

After the demonstration, Lan’s mother called for him to show what the form really looked like, and his father obliged. Picking up speed until the spear whistled through the air, he began to move with the expertise of someone who hadn’t put down the spear for twenty years. Somehow moving faster, Lan could barely follow the spear as it spun from one hand only to appear in the other and back.

Lan’s father began to mix in the arrow fist form, slashing and stabbing, throwing kicks and punches as Lan was sure he could feel the wind lashing from his attacks.

As his father stopped, Lan noticed the slashes around his father even though the spear had never touched the ground.

‘You got slow, hun,’ His mother teased.

‘Slow? I am faster than ever.’ His father grinned. ‘I would like to see you do better.’

‘Fine.’ Lan’s mother said primly before standing and picking up what Lan guessed could be called a mace. The head of the mace was only a little smaller than her own head, yet she lifted it with one hand before swinging it a few times as if it were a reed.

This was only a hint of what was to come. Even with his mace, which was made for humans to use, Lan had to fight the momentum of the mace. His mother did not have that problem. Moving what should have been an impossible weapon without any effort. Whereas someone else would need to wind up to get a weapon like that moving or deal with the momentum after the attack, she moved with the speed and elegance of a fencer.

His father’s style created offence through his endless links of attack, whereas his mother’s form of fighting created pressure by there being nothing that could stand up to her speed and strength, and with her nonexistent recovery time and skill with the mace, she was the definition of offence as defence.

And all that was to say nothing of what he saw when they fought together.

Lan had heard the cliché calling two people fighting together a dance, but there wasn’t a better term for what he saw when he watched them. They looked like a single soul that existed in two bodies. Their already perfect fighting form seemed to fit around one another, a form of harmony that could only have been born of years of fighting alongside one another as anything that could have been a gap in their form now obviously having been left for the other to fill.

Lan watched as his father used stabs and slashes to open up paths for his mother’s destructive strikes, which allowed him to set up another opening for her.

‘Wow.’ Maya breathed. ‘I didn’t even know people could move like that. They aren’t even looking at each other.’

‘They just know...’ Lily finished.

Seeing it, Lan couldn’t help but wonder if they couldn’t just deal with the Summoned Hero themselves.

As they finished their demonstration, they looked at each other before Lan’s mother laughed and jumped in his father’s arms.

‘You didn’t miss a step.’ She said

‘Oh. I thought I got slow?’ Lan’s father smiled.

‘Well then, so did I, ’ his mother replied

‘You were great.’ His father said before they seemed to remember that they weren’t alone and started with Lan's training.

With a few more instructions, Lan’s spear and mace training began, and after both he and his father got the chance to try out his sword spear, they added what sword form his father knew, seeing as Lan could, in theory, switch from one form to the other in the middle of an attack.

Although his father seemed to pick up on the idea quickly, Lan found trying to keep up with both parts of the weapon while they were apart hard to do, so they went back to learning both separately first.

Training with his mother was slightly different because her strength and speed played a large part in her fighting style. Even with his standard mace, he couldn’t move as she could. That was until he remembered the fight with the undead and his first Wisp Walk.

While surrounded by the Silver Wind, he should been able to control his movement and how he reacted to the world. Didn’t that mean he should be able to compensate for the weapon? With this in mind, Lan tried it.

He Wisp Walked and tried to swing the mace as his mother had shown him. Once the world stopped spinning, Lan found himself hanging upside down from the tree, and after his mother helped him down, they decided he should learn to use the Wisp Walk first before trying to use both together. Even if both agreed that, at that moment, he had become a spinning wheel of death.

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Despite the few setbacks in the more experimental fighting styles, Lan picked up everything else like he was born to it. Even with the boon he got from learning from his parents and his suspicion that he was learning faster by not having attribute points assigned. Lan learned like someone who knew life depended on it.

[Skill Acquired: Black Spear Form]

[Skill Acquired: Crimson Mace Form]

Aside from training, Lan still had his duty to the Guild, so in between his training over the next few days, he made sure to take a few jobs. On the first of which, Lan ran into Art, who seemed to be waiting for him even though he shouldn’t know he was coming in.

‘So, you mastered the Wisp Walk yet?’ Art asked, making Lan almost jump out of his skin.

‘What, no!’ Lan spun. He still had no idea how the odd man did that. Unless he was hiding, Lan knew he hadn’t seen him in the hall a moment ago, not to mention he had no idea how he snuck up on him. Lan thought before noticing that Tyr had wandered off and wasn’t watching over him.

‘Well, what are you waiting for?’ Art sighed. ‘you would think it literally being in your blood would make it easier.’

‘Yeah, one would think.’ Lan rolled his eyes, and Art reached into his shirt, produced another shackle, handed it to Lan, and walked away.

‘Wait, I thought you said you didn’t want me to use this.’ Lan asked ‘and how do you have another one?’ He added, wanting to know what part more.

‘Same way I had the first one, silly, and I don’t want you to use it a little less than I don’t want you to get yourself killed on your next job. Now shoo, I have things to do.’

After a moment, Lan watched the old man walk up the stairs, wondering how by the Light, things had ended up like this before he sighed and put the ring on.

[First configuration complete]

[Attributes.]

[Strength: 5 > 17]

|Body: 5 > 17

|Mind: 5 > 17

|Dexterity: 5 > 17

|Perception: 5 > 17

[Charisma: 5> 17]

Although he was happy for the increased stats, he really didn’t need it as with the coming campaign, almost every job was taken, leaving Lan with only gathering jobs, which was made a breeze with Tyr.

Over the days, Lan would look for Lock and the others in the Guild and the inn, but there was still no sign of them. Although he knew he should, Lan couldn’t help but start to worry about them. He tried asking Leah and Mai about it, and although Leah thought it was adorable and called him a puppy again, Mai said she couldn’t tell him about the job but that he shouldn’t worry that they would be back in a few days.

On returning from his second guild job, Lan stopped by Miss Lucy’s café.

The moment he walked into the café, Lan was greeted by the smell of freshly baked tarts and a frown from the older woman in white. The others tried to do the same while the women in green smiled at him.

‘You again?’ the woman asked, ‘you eat a lot of sweets for a young man,’ she stated, making the others giggle.

‘You are right. But I fear I have yet to find anything as sweet as being in your presence, my Lady.’ Lan bowed, and the woman bristled as he got a giggle from the other table.

‘Oh, it’s Lan.’ Miss Lucy said as she popped her head through the door before the two could go on.

‘Hi Miss Lucy.’ Lan smiled. ‘Busy day again?’

‘It was,’ she smiled back. ‘These ladies are good to me,’ she added, looking at each of them before turning back to Lan. ‘I thought those tarts would have lasted longer.’ She asked.

‘They did not. And that's why I am here. I was wondering if you still made those birthday cakes.’ Lan said, making Miss Lucy perk up.

‘Really. I never thought I would have anyone ask for that.’ She beamed, and Lan understood why. He and his mother were there when she tried to sell the idea of a birthday cake.

The large white cake covered with little sugar dots and candy flowers stood out but stood no chance, for the simple fact that in Crownguard, a sweet or dessert served at someone's birthday was meant to be a person's favourite, both to honour the person and to show kinship with them as you eat the one thing they favourited most.

Not to mention that the cake looked like it was made for children, making it so no noble would want it either.

‘Well, we had a little trouble coming up with something for a naming party for a group of kids, and that seemed like a good fit.’ At her questioning look, Lan explained what was going on.

‘Aww, Lan. that is so sweet of you.’ Lucy said as she took his hand.

‘Well, I am not the only one.’ Lan said suddenly, more aware of the eyes on him and the gentler looks.

‘Lucy is right.’ The noblewoman said, seeming to see Lan in a brighter light. ‘it is a very commendable thing you are doing. As much as we try to help as many of the most vulnerable of us, there is only so much we can do. So thank you.’ She finished, and Lan remembered that she was a real noble.

‘Thank you both.’ Lan nodded.

‘I couldn’t agree more.’ A woman in green with bright red hair who looked a little younger than the Lady in white said, and for a moment, there seemed to be an understanding between them. It didn’t last, and both looked away sharply.

‘Anyway.’ Miss Lucy said playfully, rolling her eyes at the two women. ‘I stopped trying to sell the idea of birthday cakes, but just for you, I’ll make the best birthday cake I can.’ Miss Lucy said before heading back into the kitchen.

With that done, Lan was ready to leave before something hit him. He was in a room filled with nobles.

‘My Lady.’ Lan turned to the woman in white. ‘if you don’t mind me asking, have you ever heard of a noblewoman with red and gold spiral eyes?’

The Lady's fork clattered on the table as her eyes took on a look of seeing into the past. ‘Yes…’ she said in a small, quick voice as the ladies around her looked worried.

‘Is there anything you can tell me about her?’ Lan tried softly, and she looked at him.

‘When I was a little girl, the children I grew up with and I would spend our spare time in the largest courtyard in the palace.’ She started to wrap her napkin around her finger. ‘Esther was one of them. She wouldn’t say much, just watch you, and when she did speak, it was to try to order others around, even me,’ the Lady added, looking at Lan. ‘We would just tell her off, but then one day she showed up with her eyes…’ she stopped, not able to finish. ‘you know, and she tried to order another girl and the girl, like always, ignored her. A few moments later, we heard the girl screaming as she was stung by an acid hornet.’

Lan frowned at that. Despite the name, he had never heard of one of the little things stinging anyone.

‘We all panicked,’ the Lady went on. ‘all but Esther, who looked… satisfied. And that was only the beginning. After that, anytime anyone did something she did not like, things would happen to them. Insects swarming them, or a loyal pet suddenly attacking their owners. And no one would believe us that she was behind it. Over time, we learned not to do or say anything that could upset her. Even then, hawks and rats would randomly attack some lower nobles. Worse, we started to feel like we wanted to listen to her, not just to spare ourselves but that listening to her was right. Then…’ the Lady took a breath as the others, even those at the other table, looked like they could not be paler.

‘She came to the courtyard one day later than normal and gathered all of us around her, and then she asked a girl to bite her finger off. The rest of us were as horrified as we were glad we hadn’t been told that we had to do so. But our horror turned into a nightmare when the girl refused. Esther's eyes began to glow, and the girl started to obey. I can still see the mix of confusion, pain and terror in her eyes. A boy was made to break his own leg, and two others were made to throw fist-sized stones at each other, which seemed to snap me out of the spell she had us under, and when I asked why she was doing this, she said that she wanted us to. then asked if I would pluck out my own eye for her.’ The Lady smiled weakly. ‘I almost did.’

‘What happened?’ Lan asked as softly as he could.

‘Are you not going to ask where our guards were?’ she asked. ‘Well, there was a reason why she was late that day. They were found later that day having torn each other apart with their hands. Luckily, a young knight heard the screams and came to our rescue. Esther just looked at him, and without a word, she got up and walked away. As we now had proof, our families looked for her, but she was never seen or heard from again. I will not speak of what was found in her family home…’ The Lady said with a hard look

‘Those who needed healing were healed, but I don’t think any of us really recovered from that day. The girl who bit off her fingers won't look at her bare hands, and despite having the best healers make sure there wasn’t even a scar, she is never seen without gloves. ’

‘I am sorry to hear that happened to you.’ Lan said, feeling helpless even though he wasn’t there

‘Feel sorry if you have ruined the mood of our gathering, young man,’ she shot back, regaining her imperiousness.

‘Forgive me.’ Lan bowed. ‘So… she can control people…’ Lan said without thinking.

‘No…’ the Lady said. ‘she… infests the mind, takes root in it, makes you want to do as she says.’ She sighed. ‘it is hard to explain, but… I think she needs time to take hold of a mind.’

Without thinking, Lan nodded, knowing full well what she meant.

‘Wait! S-she is not back, is she?’ the Lady asked, and for a moment, Lan saw the fear of a frightened young girl in her place.

‘Forgive me, my Lady, I did not mean to upset you. My guild master mentioned it, and I thought I would ask. There is nothing to worry about.’ He lied.

With a sigh, the Lady frowned at him.

‘So you just like upsetting your elders, Then?’ She said, and Lan realised he had used up the last of the goodwill he had just gained.