POV Aron Brightcloud

When I woke up I felt great, my entire body was relaxed. I opened my eyes and saw Sephiroth sleeping in a chair next to my bed. Remembering all the pain she had put me through, I couldn’t refrain from getting angry at her, but then stopped myself. First, I had to check my body. I feared that I had taken serious damage from over-drafting myself.

I should have stopped earlier, despite her pushing. But at some point I was in so far gone that I didn’t think straight anymore and simply followed her commands. I stood up and moved around. To my surprise, I continued to feel great. I had no aches, and I even felt like I had gotten a little stronger.

Turning my body, I looked at Sephiroth again. She had woken up while I was doing my gymnastic exercises and had been observing me quietly. When she saw that I had seen her, she didn’t move but observed me further.

Having eased my fears, it was time to take care of my emotions. When I thought about all the torture she had put me through my first impulse was to yell at her. But as I wanted to open my mouth, it dawned on me that this was the influence of the young boy. The soldier in me had no problem with this sort of training. Breathing out I relaxed.

“You did quite a number on me there, I didn’t expect you to be so brutal and sadistic.”

She held to her neutral face and answered, “I wanted to push you over your limits to find out what you could do. Although I have to admit that I overdid it a little. I am quite surprised by your perseverance and discipline. I thought you would try to use your authority, or break down much earlier. I think you have a chance if you pursue your goal in earnest. Now that you know how the future looks, what do you decide? Do you think you are strong enough to proceed and want to walk the path with me as your instructor or do you fear the pain and struggle too much and want to quit?”

Seeing the provocative glint in her eyes, I thought she wanted to get a raise out of me on purpose. In fact, it felt like she tried to manipulate me towards a certain answer. I had to laugh in my mind. I was no newbie in the department of mental manipulation, we got loads of it during the hunter program.

Having understood her aim, I felt strange. Yesterday I had been sure that she wanted to have nothing to do with me. But now she suddenly tried to steer me into soldiering on and hoped to guide me.

I felt inward to weigh the benefits versus all the pain and disadvantages. I assessed the results. At that moment it was clear that following her lead was the right thing to do. I wanted to grow and thrive in this world.

As I was certain, I gave her a slight smile, “Hell no! That little bit of pain was nothing. I will train further with you.”

Acknowledging my answer, her smile got wider and brighter. I could feel that she was thrilled. I looked into her beautiful eyes and shortly lost my train of thought, but pulled myself out of the mindless starring after a short while. I had to pay attention, she was really too gorgeous.

Having cleared my head, I observed her in earnest. Something had changed, and I was not sure what. I only knew that she had somehow opened up to me, although she tried to hide it. Something had to have happened during the time I was out, but I couldn’t remember what. I only felt warmth and safety when I tried to remember how I had felt during my unconsciousness. Resigning myself that I wouldn’t find out the truth, I focused on another topic.

“Tell me why do I feel so well at the moment? I should be laying in the bed and feel immense pain all over my body.”

When I saw the embarrassment in her eyes, I was sure that my condition had something to do with her attitude change.

“As I may have overdone your training exercise yesterday, I felt guilty and used a secret family cure to heal you. Fear not, there are no side effects. Please don’t ask me for more accurate information, I can’t tell you.”

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Thinking it through, I was 80% sure that it had something to do with her hidden identity. But as she didn’t want to tell me, I would have to wait a little longer until I found it out on my own.

“Okay, forget it. So, when will we proceed with the training, and how long should we train each day? It would be great if we could start with some weapons before the summer begins. I will have my aptitude test for the magical elements during the first summer week. Somehow I have the feeling that it would be wise to be able to defend myself until then.” I said dryly.

Thinking through the new information she answered, “let's start with three hours during the morning and two in the afternoon, we will adjust the plan depending on your progress.”

“Great, that means I still have some time to study other things during my free time. By the way, will you use your secret medicine on me in the future again?”

A sadistic grin spread over her face. “Probably.”

I felt my hairs standing up on my back and the boy’s part of my soul shuddered a little. She was a real devil.

The rest of the week went as planned. In reality, that meant that Sephiroth crushed me into meat-paste for five hours per day and cured me afterwards with her secret cure. At the beginning I had hoped to find out what the medicine was, but she always hid the potion making from me.

After the second day where she had pushed me until I had lost my consciousness, she decided to change the application method. From then on she gave me a diluted version. With that, she didn’t have to push me until I lost consciousness. Because of the dilution, she didn’t have to fear that I would recognize her medicine.

It had the appearance of red syrup and smelled like iron. Ha, with its reddish hue one could think it was diluted blood. Yea.. right, as if she would give me diluted blood to drink.

She was still as sadistic as ever, but now I could feel a certain warmth and cheer from her when she saw me overcoming her challenges.

The rest of the day I studied magic, magical beasts and herb lore. Everything was at a general level, I wanted to build a base of knowledge before I proceeded with learning specific theories. One reason for that was that I was unsure of what element I would have as a mage, and another was that my understanding of this new world was still too narrow.

Aside from that, I tried to secretly research creatures that could hide their true nature. I wanted to find out what Sephiroth’s true race was. Sadly, I found nothing that would give me a clue to her real nature.

My mum and sister were quite surprised at my newfound zeal for training and study. Luckily they only saw a minor part of my effort. Otherwise they would have stopped me immediately. I had told Sephiroth to ensure that my mother and sister would not find me during the later stages of the training. I would be too far gone during that time. They would never allow me to break my limits in such a hazardous way.

It was only possible because of Sephiroth’s secret medicine that I could push my body so much in such a short time. Thanks to that, the returns were plentiful. My thin body filled out and was now on a completely new level. From outside you didn’t see a too big change, but if I undressed, you wouldn’t find any part of my body that was not lean and full of streamlined muscles.

Thanks to the fact that Sephiroth stayed all day with me, she had also opened up considerably. She even joked or teased me a few times when we weren’t training. That was a big step forward. Now she comfortably called me by my name when we were alone and also slowly lost her vigilance around me.

I needed her to trust me before I could breach the topic about her being not fully human. Otherwise the outing would have a high chance of leading to a poor end for both of us.