~Terra perspective~

“Very well, Terra. Let me start by thanking you for aiding my realm and protecting my son.” Lord Henry said. He reached down under his desk and seemed to be opening a drawer. After a moment of fishing for something, he pulled out a ring. “Allow me to award you this as a gift for saving my son. And for your service to my town, I name you Hero of Bredon.” What… Hero… Who me? “Me a hero? What do you mean?!?” I exclaim, very surprised at this result. I helped out in the fight, but why am I being singled out as a hero?!?

The lord laughed at my recoil and said, “It’s not everyday that I get to meet with a humble cultivator.” His power is crazy strong! I know I’m only able to faintly make it out, but even with that I can see a huge difference in strength between us. “Make no mistake, you have rendered a great service to myself and my lands. If fact many would find it unjust for you not to be awarded a title for the aid you have given us.” He sets the ring down on the desk on the side closer to be and gestures for me to take it. I do grab it, but the whole time I have a cold sweat on my back, nervous I may do something that indirectly insults him and places me in a terrible situation. Then Lord Henry turned towards the maid, “my son Aiden seemed to want to talk with Terra after his recovery as well, would you escort him?” The maid gave a small bow and replied, “very well.” and began to walk off. I followed behind, glad to not be so close to someone that strong.

As I follow the maid I place the ring on a finger and then hear,

-integrating with storage ring-

Storage ring… that sounds like something rare. Plus there might be stuff in it… calling me a hero as well… This doesn’t sound real. Plus all that fighting I’ve been doing. What kind of fairy tale have I fallen into? Next thing you know, I’ll be saving a princess from a dragon, or fighting a demon king. What happened to earth? Why can’t I remember? I continued to have such thoughts as we traveled to our destination.

Soon we walked out to a courtyard where several people were training. I recognized one of them as the one who lead the battle against those bandits. He notices me and the maid i’m standing with and walks over to us. “Ah! It’s you! We haven’t gotten a chance to introduce ourselves, I’m Aiden Bredon. And you are?” Aiden asked. “My name is Terra it’s nice to meet you.” I’m still feeling uneasy from all this, but the least I can do is be polite. He’s apparently a noble as well, and isn’t it better not to be a nobody and be enemies with nobles?

~Aiden’s perspective~

“Well then, since we’re here, why don’t we spar?” I ask Terra. He seems surprised at the offer. “Perhaps it’s unwise to have someone whom has just recovered from their injuries ” The maid, Alice states with a reproachful look. “Now now Alice, there’s a reason to this!” I quickly say with my hands raised, hoping to cool her off, “he had a major breakthrough with his cultivation, this spar is just to help him stabilize himself.” With a sigh, Alice responds with, “very well.”

I lead Terra onto the training field. Off on the side, Alice watches while clenching her hands on her skirt and looking over here with worrying eyes. Her worry likely isn’t for Terra’s safety, but from the danger he presents. He directly absorbed all that demonic energy with fainting being the only consequence. Is he secretly a demon? Or will the energy take over him in a fight? Even now he seems fine, but will that stay the same throughout our bout? Everyone else here has stopped their own sparring matches and are watching over us in case of an emergency, but Terra doesn’t seem to notice the hostility in their gazes.

I had taken a practice sword for this fight and ready it to face Terra whom stands in a fighting pose with his raised level with his shoulders, “I’m ready for our fight, you should retrieve a weapon and then we can start.” To my surprise, he answers with, “I don’t really have much experience with weapons, I can give you a better fight with my fists.” From his tone, I don’t think he’s lying, and he also didn’t have any weapons on him when he first alerted us to the demons early attacks. “Very well then, let’s begin!”

~Narrator perspective~

Surprised by the sudden start of the match, Terra stayed in place as Aiden charged towards him with a downward slash. Having lost the chance to try and dodge, Terra raised his arms in a cross above his head to block. As he was slashing, Aiden lowered his opinion of Terra’s fighting sense, with how he was trying to deal with a sword strike. That is, until his sword clashed with Terra’s arms. It was then that he realized Terra was using his energy to wrap around himself to protect him.

While this alone wouldn’t be so impressive, his energy spiked at the area he was being struck at while the blow was being struck, weakening the power of the blow significantly.

For their training purposes, this defence perfectly safeguarded Terra from the attack. What’s more, Aiden didn’t even detect when Terra activated such a technique for this. Did it mean that Terra learned to have his energy protect him like this passively!?! The greater surprise for Aiden was that this also meant that Terra couldn’t possibly be hiding any demonic energy without it being detected.

While this all went through Aiden’s mind, Terra had long since parried the sword and released his own attack. It was a simple punch that ended up up knocking Aiden to the floor, as well as snapping him out of his thoughts. Everyone’s eyes turned towards the pair. Fights stopped mid blow and Alice showed a shocked expression. Terra had an felt uneasy, wondering if he accidentally committed some slight against a noble house. Aiden just started laughing.

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“Sorry, even if we were just warming up, I let my guard down too much and suffered for it.” Aiden said merrily as he reached his hand up. Terra grabbed it and pulled him up while thinking, that was just him warming up? “Well then, shall we continue?” Aiden asked excited to see more of what Terra has to offer. “Master Aiden, isn’t it time for you to move onto your other duties?” Questioned an old butler whom walked up after Aiden stood up. “Thomas! Oh I was just helping Terra here with stabilizing his breakthrough! I really should keep at it since we just started!” Aiden quickly stated, only to receive a swift response, “Ser Terra there seems to have stable form and ability, and you also don’t need to be his opponent for him to work with.”

Aiden sighed in defeat, “Very well, but lets bring Terra along!” he said grinning. “If that is your wish,” Thomas said in a tired tone. Terra started feeling drained, first meeting a someone really powerful, and now he’s dealing with the antics of his son. “What exactly are these duties Aiden?” Terra asked. “Hm? Oh, you’ll see when we get there” Aiden responded which gained a sigh from Terra.

After traversing various hallways, they finally arrived at… another hallway. “Alright we’re here.” Aiden said to Terra, earning a quizzical look from him. “While we were clearing out all the remnants of that group we fought, we found someone that they had taken prisoner.” Aiden explained. “We’ve been trying to talk to her and learn more about what happened and why she was the only one left of the imprisoned, but she’s barely said anything. Maybe you might have some better luck with trying to convince her to talk though.”

~Terra’s Perspective~

They want my help with an interrogation? “I doubt I’d be able to learn anything you haven’t been able to.” I tell Aiden. “Nonsense, you are the one who stopped the portal that would lead to the the demon’s realm, talking to a girl shouldn’t be that hard!” So demons really were going to attack… And why does it sound like he’s trying to hype me up towards asking a girl out! “I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise anything.” By Aiden’s grin, I’m guessing that he got the answer he wanted.

Inside the room, there is a young girl. She has a small build and a slender figure, her raven colored hair is shoulder length, and her hazel eyes looking towards us with annoyance. I very much doubt I’ll get any info from her. Strangely, I feel something familiar from her, though I can’t quite place it.

-Mission- Take the girl as a disciple.

-Reward- ???

A mission here? That and a mysterious reward huh. Something strange is going on. To bad playing along is the only way to figure out what’s going on. Though I don’t have a clue how to even get her to accept this. Well let’s start with the basics, “Hello my name is Terra, can you tell me yours?” I ask politely. “Eva,” she answers curtly. It’s progress though. “Do you know why your here?” let’s see where this line of questioning will get me. “Someone has something they want from me.” She seems so emotionless, even Aiden, Thomas and Alice seem confounded. Wait, why did Alice follow us? Not important right now. “Do you know why those bandits that had you before imprisoned you?” “They had something they wanted from me.” I think I’ve found a broken record. “Do you know what they wanted?” I am given a curt “no.” And there is a dead end.

“What do you want?” I ask. For once her expression changes as she shows a confused look, “does that matter?” she asks. This is finally going somewhere. “Of course it matters. So what do you want?” She closes her eyes and thinks. Aiden seems to be excited by my progress while the other two seem to be indifferent. “Strength. The strength to be free.” I can see a light of determination in her eyes. Maybe getting her to be my student won’t be as hard as I thought. “How do you plan to get that strength?” She seems shocked by that question. “Strength doesn’t just come from nothing. It requires work, and dedication. How do you plan to get strength.” She seems to be considering my question.

~Eva’s Perspective~

How to gain strength. How do I start becoming strong? It requires work, but what exactly does that mean. What work do I do to become strong? Why is this man even telling me this? What does he gain? Everyone only acts for what they can gain… what does he gain from this? His next question throws my mind into an even greater disarray, “Do you want me to teach you how to be strong.” The others in the room seem to be caught off guard by that question as well. They pull that man, Terra out. Was what he wanted different from the rest? Can I become strong? As I ask that question a feeling ripples through me. I have a chance. I won’t just be taken again. I won’t ever let myself become a slave!

~Terra’s perspective~

“What are you thinking Terra” Aiden says angrily. “We’re trying to find out why she’s so valuable to those demon worshipers. For all we know she could be targeted again!” A very good point he has there. Let’s use that as well. “All the more reason to have someone train her. She doesn’t seem like she wants to serve them, so having her able to fight means she won’t just live as a doll played with by those she could never resist.” Aiden, Alice and Thomas are once again shocked at me. “She clearly has secrets around her. And even if she doesn’t know what those secrets are, she knows they are there. Standing by her side is the best way to learn them without risking making her an enemy and possibly pushing her towards joining the demons!” Let’s see if the power of bs will carry me through this. “That makes sense, but are you sure you want to be her teacher, your still very inexperienced right?” Aiden asks. To that I respond positively, “A great teacher learns just as much from their student as they teach, what better way to grow stronger!” “Only if your a great teacher,” Thomas quips, prompting Aiden smirk. “Alright I’ll trust you with this, but it will be up to you to protect her from any forces that try and take her, you know that right?” “But of course!” I answer resolutely. I might not be the most qualified as a teacher, but I know what it takes to be a great one!

Alice left to inform Aiden’s father of what has happened, leaving the Aiden, Thomas and I to head back into the room. “So have you made your decision?” “Do I have any choice?” she asks. With a shrug I respond, “guess that’s a no” and begin walking out the door surprising everyone. “W-wait! I accept!” she shouts. I turn back around towards her with a grin and say, “Oh, well ok, it can be hard to understand you with how coy you like to act.” She turns away with a frown, clearly embarrassed.

With that out of the way I turn to walk out of the room. Aiden quickly follows and stops me before I could get past a few steps, “and just where are you going all of a sudden?” Realizing that I’d likely need help with a lot of what I had in mind, just traversing this building included, I answered with, “I want to prepare some equipment for her training. Things like a gi and finding a space to teach her.” Aiden gives a sigh and helps me get everything sorted.