Chapter 6: Pet Teacher (3).

1.

The light from the crystals outside is a dim purple, giving everything a sleepy vibe.

I think this cave has a similar system to tell the time of day like we do outside with the sun and moon, I noticed the colors of the crystals slowly turn from yellow to purple within the past few hours.

That doesn't matter right now though.

I. Can't. Sleep.

I've been trying so hard, this mattress is super comfortable, but I just don't feel tired.

It hit me that maybe the only reason I could fall asleep in the cabin was because I had a mimic sucking out my life force.

If this healing ability really does stop me from feeling hungry, maybe it stops me from being tired too, but that doesn't mean I can't use something to make me fall asleep.

Medicine came to mind, but I don't want to wake anyone up right now to ask for some, so I guess I'll just wander the garden and read in the library.

I open my door, the place is dark, so it takes time for my eyes to adjust.

Once they do, I walk towards the entrance of the manor, it's a bit of a maze since the second floor is just a bunch of hallways that house guest rooms.

The closer I get to the entrance I feel the music of a piano fill my ears, it sounds melancholic.

I get lured towards it, walking down the steps and through the dining room into a living room,

the living room, which is just a bunch of couches and tables, sort of a party spot for people to mingle. As I walk through, I see two doors, the music is coming from this room.

I don't really want to disturb anyone, but if they are already awake it should be fine.

I open the doors, it's a music room full of different instruments, then to the right, a theatre, with rows of seats and a piano placed on the stage.

It was the maid; uh Emily was her name, I think.

The song was slow and sad, I don't know much about music theory, but I can tell the song was composed by someone super passionate in their craft.

I stand by the seats, listening patiently, she looks like she is in a daze as she plays, it's quite beautiful, her clothes bleed into the black of the piano. Almost making it seem like they are merged body and soul.

Suddenly she stops after playing a wrong note, I snap out of thinking to myself and see she is staring directly at me.

Is she angry?

She waves awkwardly.

I wave back, I should probably walk over and tell her how nice the song was.

I get up from the seat and walk towards the stage.

Since she wasn't saying anything, I decided to start the conversation.

"Sorry I couldn't sleep, I didn't mean to intru-"

"It's fi-fine! It's fine!"

She speaks loudly and softly at the same time, stuttering a bit, I can tell by her face that she was scared, scared of me?

"Uh, the song was very nice, I heard it from the entrance and had to find out who was playing it"

I awkwardly laugh, Urgh I'm making a fool of myself.

She just stares at me.

"Sorry for intruding."

Crap I already said that, I really need to get better at talking to people.

"Anyways, who composed that song? It's very nice"

"M-my mom… she taught it to me before she… before something bad happened to her."

Oh I see, dead parents, I know this game, this conversation is a minefield now.

I go with the usual response.

"She would be proud of how well you play it, it was beautiful, really"

"Well.. I can't play it as well as my mother."

What do I even say to that? oh I know.

"Can I play something?"

"O-oh. Sure!"

I climb up the stage, pulling myself up instead of using the stairs on the side, this was easy since I had basically become a professional rock climber by climbing rocks down and up the mountain every day.

Okay okay, now I just need to remember the piano lessons my parents forced on me, my parents always wanted me to be a gifted child so they spent a ton of money on useless hobbies.

My teacher always taught me this one song, it was apparently her original 'masterpiece'

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She always had to dumb it down for me, making sure to remind me that I could never play the full version.

I could play it fairly well, 3 years of constant berating and screams really etched the keys into my mind.

Man, that teacher was a bitch. No offense though, she was talented for sure.

Alright here goes.

2.

Body on seat, hands on keys, slouched position.

This is making me remember the lessons, I can already hear my teacher in my mind screaming about my posture and kicking my stool.

I begin to play.

It's rough, I make a lot of mistakes, but as I play, I get more and more refined, as if regaining my muscle memory.

This song was another sad one, probably not the best to ease the tension between me and Emily.

It was surprisingly fun, I started to surprise myself with how fluently I'm playing.

Sound echoes in the theatre, this piano must've been expensive, this room had also been designed to have great acoustics as well,

so it only added to the mood.

I get to the end, my hands hurt, haven't tried at playing piano in so long, it was kind of exhausting.

I look back at Emily, she is crying? Uh oh did I mess something up? Surely this crappy song didn't push her to tears, that wouldn't make any sense.

"W-where, where did you learn that song?"

Her face is serious, a cold gaze is sent right into my soul.

"Oh… I had a teach-"

"What was her name"

Her? How does she know it was a woman?

"Mrs. Kearny?"

Her face is full of tears, I can gather from this situation that either this is a small coincidence, or a huge coincidence.

She straightens her posture while crying “You need to quit. Miss Abel will keep hurting you repeatedly, get out, you don't deserve this.”

After leaving me shocked by her words, she begins to take her leave, walking then picking up the pace to a run.

Emily runs up the stairs and exits the theatre, leaving me alone.

It was probably the big coincidence, if she recognized the song and name that meant her mother was my teacher when I was younger,

small world.

I never thought that woman would die, she seemed too stubborn, she was only 22 by the time she last taught me at 9 to 12. She was a rising star in the pianist industry but took her time out of her famous life to teach an annoying brat like myself.

Damn she must've died young, that's common in this world though.

I close the piano and walk back to the entrance.

I hope Emily doesn’t hate me now, I hope I didn't ruin a song her mother made.

3.

Ahhhh fresh cold air, how does this cave keep itself so well fumigated and not scorching hot.

The wonders of the world huh…

From the garden, other huge mansions fill my view, but I can still get a good look at this massive cave city, every part of this huge cave has been turned into property, it's kind of sad but beautiful in a way.

I wonder how many people live here… I take a look at the flowers I saw on the fence as I walked in, they really are amazing, it's probably a new flower due to the rapid evolution of everything.

I never thought I'd see beauty in this world again.

As I walk through the garden, I spot a small shack, in the outer skirts, far away from the building, it was still on Immy's property though.

I wonder what's in there.

Against my better judgement I walk up to it, and right as I'm out to open the door I feel the cold feeling of a knife placed against the front of my neck.

"Who are you and why are you trespassing?"

It was a feminine voice, but still sounded rough, sort of like she was doing a fake evil voice.

Without moving I manage to mutter out.

"I'm the new tutor, I was just walking around is all"

"Okay!"

Her voice instantly became bubbly.

The knife quickly disappears, I look behind me and nobody is there.

Did they disappear as well?

A voice behind me says "so Mrtutor... this is a tough job you know, the last tutor was turned into a mushy paste after refusing little miss sunshine one too many times"

Turned into mush? That's a visceral description…

"Yeah, I'm aware. I'll be fine"

I say that with certainty in my voice, because I truly think I'd be fine, even though I'm not exactly sure if I could heal from 'mush.'

I look around my shoulder again, nobody is there.

The voice behind my back laughs then replies.

"So, you're strong! You don't look it, maybe tone your egotism down a notch"

I get kicked in the back, ouch, it wasn't that rough but didn't feel playful either.

I decide to ask a simple question.

"So who are you? If you don't mind me asking"

"I'm Holly Caldwell! You know!!"

Why is she acting like I should've already know her.

I look to the direction of her voice again, nothing was there.

"Are you invisible? Also is that name supposed to mean something?"

"Caldwell, one of the twins??? Are you really a tutor if you don't know basic information."

"I only know things that actually matter sorry."

Urgh she is annoying. I accidentally on purpose said something rude.

I get a slap on the back, then a head rests on my shoulder, I can get a glimpse of the woman beside me.

Very very pale skin, like almost corpse like, and white hair with a tint of red.

"I'm Diana's sword trainer, and your new friend, if you truly don't know me that is."

She moves her body to be in front of me in a very strange way, she is wearing pajamas, looking like she just woke up.

She looks awfully similar to someone I already saw.. but I can't really put my finger on it.

She is skinny, but seems strong, she is slightly taller than me and her piercing silver eyeswas something I needed to get used to.

I think she is that blue haired girls' sister, her eyes gave it away.

"I hope you don't die!"

She holds her hands out.

She really switched sides quickly, I could still be a trespasser, she is just taking me on my word.

I shake her hands, she seems surprised.

"So you truly don't know me??"

"Yeah..."

I'm so confused.

"I was just holding a knife to your neck, and you have no signs of fear."

She shakes my hand then let's go, keeping a casual posture.

Yeah, I guess it is weird how I reacted when I think about it,

"I guess I just have no self-preservation skills, you seem friendly though."

She laughs.

She really is pale, when was the last time she went outside? She doesn't seem sickly though, so maybe it's fine.

She looks young, probably a blessed child as well.

But yet again, as most women I've seen in this world, she was beautiful, but the surprise doesn't really surprise me anymore.

We just lock eyes for a few seconds.

"So tutor, you'll need training if you want to defend yourself against Diana, feel free to ask me for lessons when you are free, I'm usually here at night defending this place. Just act suspicious around this time and I'll find you"

That's actually, a pretty good offer.

"Thanks, but I better get going, I need to research some more stuff in the library"

It feels casual around her, it's nice.

"Okay!! Good luck, thanks for talking to me, it was fun"

Thanks for talking to you? Is she some kind of recluse that has no friends.

"Yeah, it was fun talking to you too, seeya around." I begin to walk back.

"HEY WAIT!!!"

I hear footsteps behind me.

"Take this! You'll need it in training!"

It looked like just the handle of a sword without a blade.

"It's a training sword, here press this button"

She presses a button, and crystals get pushed out and form a blade.

"You can also set what type of blade, so get used to it okay?? Make sure to come tomorrow at night!! I'll be waiting"

She is incredibly eager to train me, but I don't really feel any hostility so it should be fine.

This sword was cool though, the blue glowing crystal blade made it look like a magic weapon. I press the button again and the crystals flow down back into the handle of the blade.

"Oh!! I never got your name!"

Oh right.

"I'm Z"

At least, I think it is, I never actually asked about my full first name.

She begins fidgeting, moving energetically. "Z, z z, z, z, has a ring to it, that's my new favorite name."

She is basically singingthis,I'm getting secondhand embarrassment.

"Alright bye Z.." she slips out of view, the way she moved for a split second before she was gone looked unnatural, like she was pushing her body to the limits.

Well, that was interesting, I didn't know Diana had a sword trainer, so I guess I'm not the only teacher here.

Alright library time.

The crystals above me are beginning to turn black, signaling that it's midnight, have I really been awake for that long?

4.

Reading started out fun, but going through this unholy creature documentation book is just filling me with dread. There are some real world ending monsters documented in here.

I guess I should check out what blessings are.

260 documented blessings so far, most people who have a blessing are born with a unique one, so I guess there's 260+ people who are blessed?

I try to find the one Diana has, with the shifting black and white hair.

It was one of the first ones documented in the book by Immy, cool.

Apparently, each strand of hair works as her own limb, they act as a defense and offense system whenever she is attacked or feels threatened. The hair is strong enough to puncture steel and rip people apart effortlessly.

Nice. Good to know. Stay far away from Diana's hair, got it.

Now I wanted to find out what Holly's blessing was, since she obviously had something strange going on.

I Couldn't find anything on invisibility, which was my first guess, but there was one called 'slight of body'

It's apparently where you can move your body in unnatural ways to surpass speed and strength of a normal person. Basically, controlling yourself like a puppet.

It even mentions Holly in this entry, she is the only one with this blessing.

Gross though.

I was so focused on this book that the world around me became blurred.

"Whatcha reading?"

That really startled me, I jumped in my chair.

Oh god, it's Diana. She is sitting right in front of me.

I look up, her hair is white which means she is in a good mood.

"Oh, hey Miss Diana… Shouldn’t you be asleep?"

"It's morning silly, it's like 9 am"

Wow I must've been reading for a while.

"So, teach, whatcha reading?"

"Just stuff about unholy creatures and blessings."

She points at the title of the blessing I was reading.

"What's this say?"

She can'tread? Did Immy teach her nothing?

"It says 'slight of body'"

"Ohhhh like Holly's blessing?? So cool, she is so cool.

You two would get along."

I'm worried about the fact she can't read.

"So… Diana, do you know how to read?"

"Nope!" She says proudly for some reason.

"Do you want me to teach you?"

"Nope!" She says again, tilting her head up and crossing her arms.

Well, I can't exactly force her, so I need to come up with a plan, she seems too old to be illiterate.

She just watches me read for a few minutes, but I can tell she is getting bored. Why is she trying to spend time with me?

"Do you want to get breakfast??"

She says, with aneerie smile on her face.

"Okay..."

End of chapter 6.