“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any wounds anywhere?”

“No.”

“Are you feeling hot?”

“No.”

“You’re sure there’s nothing wrong with you?”

“There is.”

“What?”

“You-OW!”

She knocked me on the head.

“Come again!?”

“Sowwy.”

I rubbed my head slowly to get the pain out. I felt like my head would have been blown off.

“Sheesh. This what motherhood done to you, Yellen?”

The person behind her asked.

She was Ichigo from what I could gather. A woman in a hoodie and sweat pants, wearing a cap on her head with shades. Her hair had been tied into a ponytail and she had piercings in her ears.

“Shut it, Ichigo. I’ll still beat your ass in a fight.”

“Woah. Is that the kind of language Mummy Yellen should be using in front of Ibuki dear?”

Ichigo teased.

“W-What? S-She didn’t hear anything.”

“I’ll beat your ass.”

I repeated expressionlessly like a robot to tease her as well. My worst mistake.

“OW!”

“Don’t use such language.”

She knocked me again. This woman was insane. She was seriously too much. I could have died.

“Aww, don’t cry.”

She started wiping the tears in my eyes. Damn my body and its low pain tolerance.

“As much as I’m enjoying the whole Old Lady Yellen Act, I want my sword now.”

“Fine, fine. Let’s go talk elsewhere. Daisuke. Watch over Ibuki for me.”

“Huh? But I just got back from a raid.”

“So, watching my kid should be no problem.”

“But if she’s yours she’s bound to be worse than a Nether Break.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. I’ll watch her.”

When she walked away, a new guy came over. He wore a beige-coloured cloak over a fine tight-fitting suit. His spiky hair was jet black, as were his eyes behind his round spectacles. He smiled at me and went down on one knee.

“Togashi Daisuke at your service, little lady.”

He raised his palm and casted a fire spell of a woman dancing on his hands. I snorted at his pathetic attempts at impressing me and looked elsewhere.

“Huh? That didn’t impress you?”

“No.”

“Seriously? You’re weird.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. No child hasn’t fallen for that trick.”

“So, you’re a perverted pedo?”

“How’d you get that notion?”

“You said it yourself. “No child hasn’t fallen for that trick.”.”

I tried with my best impression of him.

“I swear, you’re just like your mother.”

“She’s a monster. I’m not a monster.”

“Ok, truth there. I heard you awakened your core today. You know what kind of ability, you got?”

I opened my palm and although it had been a while, I tried to use my mana core.

‘First of all, allow the mana to flow through your veins like blood. Don’t fight it, let it come naturally. Next, send that mana into the atmosphere to react with specific types of mana particles in the air. Let’s go with fire mana particles. Yes, now attract those together and let them swarm up. They should be visible now. Ok, now can feel the warmth of a fire above my palm. Play with the fire mana particles. Twist them to my will, make a man on one knee, now a little girl, sitting on bench. Now the girl slaps the man.’

When I was done, I opened my eyes to the view. Daisuke’s eyes and mouth were wide opened with his glasses tilted the wrong way.

I cut off the fire and closed my palms.

“Yep, you’re Yellen the Second.”

He joked and I got bored and left the bench to explore.

“Take me around.”

“What?”

“I want to explore. Take me around.”

“Oh, um, sure.”

He grabbed then put me on his shoulder, while walking around. We first went to a place where several people sat. The reception hall, he called it. People would come here either to file a complaint about damage done to them during the cause of a battle, or if one wanted to join the guild, they would come to receive permission slips. The people behind the glass windows who listened to the civilians’ complaints were the receptionists and each one of them was a fairly skilled combatant. Apparently, my mother’s guild only took people of a certain skill level, no matter what kind of job they wanted.

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Next was the place they all termed “Paper Hell” and I could understand why. About 20 people sat behind desks and computers, going through a bunch of paperwork, making several phone calls and drinking lots of coffee. These guys were the backbone of my mother’s guild, mostly taking care of the financial and relations issues.

Next, we moved to the lounge, which was where the Chevaliers would go to take their breaks. All of them greeted me upon recognizing that Yellen was my mother and acted friendly with me. Still, I couldn’t identify a single weak person amongst any of them. I could have added any one of them to my private party and would have had no complaints.

Then there was the place where all the tests were being done. We watched from a glass door, where there were 10 participants lined up. The first guy shot of a what I could only call a water cannon, but the test instructor easily neutralized it and took notes on the person. They all kept throwing attacks at the instructor and even ended up dueling him 10 on 1. They lost.

We moved to the training room then. Some people were having light spars with wooden swords. Daisuke got a call from his phone and left me, telling me that he’d be back in no time. After he left, the building shook a bit, but since everyone ignored it, I did so too. The most surprising thing was seeing Daichi there, looking at the men sparring.

‘Eh? Isn’t he supposed to be in school?’

I approached him.

“Oi, slave. Why are you here?”

I asked, and as if he only just now noticed me, the boy put his hands to his lips, telling me to keep quiet. He waved for me to come closer, then I saw what he saw. Two men were sparring, but there was hardly anything special about it.

“Is something happening?”

“Zondrias.”

“What?”

“They are just like Zondrias.”

‘Huh? Hardly. Zondrias is a man in his own league. These guys don’t have a really impressive swordplay- oh, you meant they use swords?’

I realized what he was talking about. Still, what was he doing here?

“Don’t you have school?”

“My teacher came down with a cold and there was no substitute, so I decided to come here.”

“I see. In that case…”

“What?”

I approached the shelf where they kept the wooden swords. I tried to reach for one of them.

“A little help…”

He grabbed it for me and dropped it in my hands.

Oof! Boy was it heavy. I could feel it weighing me down.

“Isn’t that a bit heavy?”

“No. Just grab another one.”

“Sure.”

He grabbed one, but he held it lightly in his hands. Did he already awaken his core or was he naturally strong enough?

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll teach you how to fight.”

“Huh?”

I leaned my body back, keeping the sword to my far left back. With one step forward and the full force of my body, I swung the blade in a diagonally upward slash. Daichi tried to block, but I hit his sword out of his hand.

“Ow.”

“Just like that, you’re dead. Now pick the sword up.”

“What? No.”

“Pick the sword up before I incinerate you.”

“Y-You wouldn’t-“

I shot a fire ball to his side. I threatened him once again with a fire ball in my free hand.

“Shit.”

He jumped at it and managed to recover his sword. I didn’t give him time to relax though, as I jumped for his neck, with the sword coming down. He rolled out of the way and my sword hit bare ground.

‘Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! That hurts!’

The recoil from the attack made my soft palms bulge. Maybe I was too young for swordsmanship. Still, I finally found a motivation for Daichi. If he loved swordsmen this much, I would make him into one. He would be my sidekick. My squire and I wouldn’t have to worry about him most of the time.

“Are you ok?”

“Showing sympathy for the enemy? Fatal move!”

I swung at him, but he tried to avoid it. Having anticipated that, I made sure the attack landed on his ankle.

“Your tendons are gone now. You’re dead.”

“Ow. He fell on the floor and grabbed them.”

“What is with you.”

“Grab your sword and fight, Daichi.”

“No.”

It had been a while since I needed to do this, but a little bit of bloodthirsty aura should scare him.

***

DAISUKE POV

Daisuke was having a good time showing Ibuki around till he got a call from one of the guards standing in front of Yellen’s office. Something about tensions rising in the room and now he had to leave her, unfortunately.

“How bad is it?”

He asked the two guards who were sweating bullets.

“There was a lot of shouting in there…”

“Then they both turned silent all of a sudden…”

“Their auras started seeping out of the room too…”

“So, we thought something must’ve happened in there…”

“And you were too scared to check, is that right?”

He asked the duo and they looked at each other before shamefully nodding.

“Don’t worry, guys. You’re new, so I understand. The guys who used to have your jobs went through hell.”

“We heard that they lost their abilities to walk due to a monster incident?”

“Oh… um… yes? I guess that’s what we told everyone, huh. Anyway, good job. I’ll take it from here.”

Both started shaking after hearing him and trying to figure out what he meant by that. Daisuke passed by both of them and snorted.

“Can’t a man enjoy time with his niece?”

He slammed the door open and what he saw just made him sigh. Ichigo had a sword to Yellen’s neck and Yellen had a fist to Ichigo’s face.

“Are you two seriously planning on killing each other?”

“Of course not. Ichigo thought it would be best to test her new sword out against my barrier. I also felt like testing her speed. All good here.”

A film of magma popped up between the two, melting the desk and causing both of them to separate.

“What’d you do that for?”

Ichigo pointed the blade at Daisuke.

“Nice to see you too, Ichigo. How’s Hokkaido? I hear its especially cold this time of the year.”

Ichigo snorted then withdrew her sword.

“Honestly, are you trying to kill us?”

Yellen asked from behind the film.

“I was having a good time with your cute kid and then I get called for this.”

“Ibuki’s just the cutest, right?”

“Absolutely~! And you should have told me that she’s a magical genius.”

“She’s a what?”

Daisuke snapped his finger and film came down, showing Yellen’s confused face.

“Oh yeah. I showed her a trick and she copied it instantly.”

“You mean the one you use to woo kids?”

Ichigo asked.

“Who the fuck spread that rumour about me?”

“Guilty.”

“Ichigo you little-“

Daisuke was about to scream into the woman’s ears, but both of them sensed a thick bloodthirsty aura. They instinctively looked at Yellen, but she also noticed this and frowned.

“There’s an intruder? With such dense murderous aura.”

“I’ll go cut them down.”

Ichigo brandished her sword and bolted out of the room.

“Coming with you.”

Yellen followed closely behind, leaving Daisuke who was the least athletic out of the trio by himself. He walked onto the hallway and sighed.

‘It’s coming from the lower floor, so might as well burn my way down.’

He cast a fireball that destroyed the building and sent him down into the next floor.

He landed right in between Yellen and Ichigo, who were both simply staring. It didn’t take long for him to notice why.

The cause for the murderous aura seemed to be his cute niece. Not only was she producing an absurd amount of murderous aura, but she was doing so with the face of an angel!

‘I-I’m so confused.’

Ibuki was swinging her sword randomly at Daichi who would parry the attacks as best as he could or avoid them, but end with failure.

“I-Impossible.”

Ichigo blurted out after seeing.

“I know right? There’s no way Ibuki-chan is producing such murderous intent.”

Daisuke defended her cuteness!

“Not that you idiot. She’s totally producing that aura. I’m talking about her swordsmanship.”

“Oh… isn’t she simply swinging her sword?”

“That’s what it looks like, but it’s actually something else.”

Yellen chimed in.

“What?”

“Yeah. What looks like simple sword swings are calculated movements. She’s putting her muscle into it, focusing her breathing and posturing her centre of gravity. Her every step is like a planned dance, a bit rough, but nonetheless beautiful. I’ve seen this swordsmanship before somewhere, but I can’t remember.”

“Same here. It looks very familiar. We’ll have to research it later.”

“Y-Yeah. That means she’s simply beating the shit out of Daichi.”

Wanting to not feel left out, Daisuke added something.

“Are you blind? Can’t you see how Daichi instinctively blocks, parries and avoids? He has no proper training, but the swordsmanship is in his blood. Probably passed down from Yellen’s Cult Family. Sure, he hasn’t learnt any technique, but he should be able to beat his sister, but either he doesn’t want to hurt her or she’s ensured there’s a reason he can’t touch her. Sheesh, awakening as a saint? I’ll train both of them.”

Ichigo said bluntly.

“What? No! She awakened as a mage. I call dibs on teaching Ibuki. You can have Daichi.”

“I want both, you idiot. Mages are lame anyway.”

“You only say that because you didn’t awaken as one!”

“What was that?”

“Shut it! Both of you.”

Yellen grabbed both of their heads knocked them together. She then ran for both Ibuki and Daichi and slapped the swords out of their hands.

“No fighting, for any of you!”