Valentina POV:

11 years ago.

“Mum, I’m hungry.”

I sat cross-legged while I watched Lissandra grumble about food again. A sigh escaped my lips; my hand tapping her arms and legs with a stick. I corrected her form that soon fell apart seconds later.

“Don’t call me ‘Mum.’ Call me ‘Master’.”

“...Why not? My dead mum and dad said, you’re my mum now...”

She pouted as tears soon pooled at the sides of her eyes. My eyebrows furrowed, and she immediately wiped them away before they could spill over.

“...S-sorry...”

She bowed her head, causing her cute purple bang to flop forward. Lissandra was my first disciple, but the situation that led to this relationship wasn’t exactly normal. Even if I wanted her to call me master, she would only ever look at me like a mother.

*Clap*

Lissandra’s arched back straightened in a flash. She twiddled her thumbs, unsure of what was about to happen next; her gaze rested on my two hands pressed together.

“You can call me Mum under two conditions.”

My lips curved into a bright smile.

“O-oh? Really...?!”

Her eyes sparkled. She jumped up and down like a bundle of happiness. She had spent that past week leaving most of her sadness and pain at the gravesite of her parents.

“Yep! The first condition is you can only call me that when it’s just the two of us.”

Her smile faded somewhat. Her short fingers poked out as she tried to calculate something in her mind. A few seconds passed before she nodded her head in agreement.

“The second condition is... Get serious.”

The cheerful tone in my voice vanished, replaced with a serious glare aimed at Lissandra. I wasn’t stupid. I knew that this girl was deliberately making mistakes, because she thought I’d leave her be if she did too well.

“A-ah...”

She looked down, not daring to make eye contact with me now that I exposed her act. The only reason I put up with it for the last few days was because I understood her situation. However, enough was enough. Her parents had entrusted me with her, and I would teach her the same way I was taught.

“Lissandra, look at me.”

Her body stiffened. She stared at the ground, afraid of what I was about to say. Several breaths left her mouth before her head rose. I pressed my forehead against hers and rubbed her small back.

“I’m not going to leave you.”

She bit her lip and looked up at me with her large dark grey eyes.

“Y-you promise?...”

“I promise. I won’t leave you, not until you graduate!”

I grinned while her small eyebrows curved inwards. She placed her small finger against her chin as she pondered over something.

“...Graduate...? What does that mean?”

“Hmm, don’t worry about it for now. Let’s get back to training properly.”

I watched Lissandra nod her head enthusiastically. She moved back into position and took a deep breath. It slowly left her mouth while she accurately performed Chon-Ji, the first teul I had shown her.

‘Hmm. Flawless.’

Lissandra linked it to Dan-Gun, finishing the second teul without a single mistake. She bowed her head and looked up at me with expectant eyes.

“You did great~”

Her face lit up like the bright stars of the night sky; her eyes beamed while she dashed toward me with open arms. I crouched down and embraced her small frame.

I replayed her form over in my head. Lissandra’s muscles were naturally flexible. She also had an innate talent of being able to keep her centre of gravity stable regardless of the kicks she threw.

‘This much talent...’

I pulled away from Lissandra and immediately showed her the next three teuls at a much faster speed. I glanced back at her and parted my lips.

“Was it too fast?”

She shook her head and copied my movements with almost pinpoint accuracy. However, towards the end, she managed to trip over her own feet. Her face smacked against the hard earth as blood trickled out of her nose.

“...”

I stood still, watching Lissandra’s reaction in silence. She got back up and wiped the blood away on her shirt before trying again. She tripped, then got back up; the cycle repeating itself for hours until she finally performed all of the motions flawlessly.

“Good. Quitting is never an option.”

“Yes, Mum!”

Halfway through her bow, Lissandra passed out. I caught her small body and made my way deeper inside the cave.

By the time she woke up, numerous plates of food were laid out on a table in front of her. She looked around the room and noticed me leaning against the wall with my arms folded.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“C-can I really eat all of this?...”

“That’s right. Dig in~”

I grinned while giving her the thumbs up, and without a second thought, she started munching away at a rapid pace.

And just like that, the following weeks flew by.

***

“Mum, how old are you?”

I watched over Lissandra’s form as she asked me a seemingly random question.

“21. Add more speed to your kick. It needs to have that snap I explained to you before.”

She nodded her head and redistributed the power across her small body. Her kick sliced through the air as she continued on.

“You look very young... Um... Like... 18?”

She finished her practice and pondered over whether she had said the right age. I chuckled as I poked her forehead.

“You’re giving me compliments now?”

Her lips spread into a wide grin as she jumped onto the bed beside me.

“I-It’s true!”

I squeezed her cheek before picking up a stick near the edge of the bed. I sketched 9 rings around a small circular core and tapped on the diagram.

“You remember my explanation about Ki, right?”

She nodded her head as her gaze shifted to the diagram below. I quickly added the numbers 1 to 9 and circled them.

“As I explained before, there are 9 Ki Stages. Each time a practitioner... A person reaches the next stage, their life expectancy increases. Let’s assume... Let’s say that a normal person lives for around 70 years on average.”

I glanced at Lissandra, checking whether she could follow my explanation so far. She was unusually adept at understanding Ki principles, but at the end of the day, she was only a 5-year-old child.

“The first three stages don’t increase how long you’ll live by much, but from the fourth stage onwards, the change becomes... Really, really big. So if you reach the higher stages at a younger age, you’ll look younger for a verrryy long time~”

She stared at the diagrams for a while before opening her mouth slowly. It was far from the most accurate explanation, but I didn’t want to go into too much detail and confuse her.

“Is... younger s-subjective...Here?”

I raised an eyebrow at Lissandra actively trying to expand her vocabulary.

“That’s right. Well done~”

I stroked her head while she grinned. She picked up the stick I had put down and got out of the bed. Her bare feet were littered with cuts and bruises, but it was a necessary procedure in order to develop calluses.

“Then... Where are you, Mum...?”

She pointed to the circled numbers on the ground. Her eyes filled with excitement at the possibility of finding out how strong I was.

“Which one do you think?”

I rested my cheek against my palm as the stick in Lissandra’s hand hovered over the higher numbers. She deliberated for a few minutes before eventually shaking her head in a dejected manner.

“...I don’t know.”

I opened my hand, and she placed the stick in it. My lips curved upwards as I threw it all the way past the highest circled number, through the cave tunnel and off the cliff.

That was the most accurate explanation I could give Lissandra at her current level.

She stared at the entrance to the tunnel, not saying a word for some time. Her cheeks abruptly expanded, and she pushed her lips forward.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding~”

I couldn’t help chuckling at her cute reaction. My finger poked her enlarged cheeks, which soon deflated before she jumped back into my arms.

“Mum... Can I sleep with you tonight...? I’ll work extra hard tomorrow...”

Her large, dark grey eyes twinkled. They pierced right through my heart, forcing me to accept her request.

“...Sure.”

I snapped my fingers, and the torches around the room went out. A wall of earth slid up from the ground, blocking the entrance to the cliff while I pulled the blanket over Lissandra. She buried her head into my chest, hugging me as tight as she could.

‘...This is why I refused them so many times.’

My hand hovered over the back of her head. A soft sigh escaped my lips, taking away the reluctance with it. I stroked her head and pondered over the past.

Lissandra had already fallen asleep, but her grip around my waist didn’t loosen. I could feel myself slowly becoming more attached to her, and that was dangerous.

***

One year later.

“Mum!! I can use Ki now!”

Lissandra dashed into the room while I let out a yawn. I scratched my back as I watched her flex her arms, releasing as much Ki as she could.

‘It’s not bad, I suppose.’

“N-no... This isn’t it!”

She stomped her foot in annoyance as a pillar of fire shot towards me. I raised an eyebrow at the sheer abundance of her flames charging forward. I snapped my fingers, dispelling them well before they could any ground, but Lissandra stood there in shock.

Her pupils dilated and her eyes bulged. Cold sweat ran down her neck; her trembling hand stretched out while she stumbled forward.

“N-no... I-it... Was... An accident... S-sorry...”

“Relax, Lissandra. I’m fine~”

I tilted my head to the side, observing the bursts of flames constantly erupting behind her. She had just broken through to Nagi but seemed unable to control her Elemental Ki, which made...

No sense at all.

I pulled her into a hug, opting to calm her down first. The flames soon subsided, and I examined the state of her body. There were no irregularities to be found anywhere, so I could only assume that Lissandra was doing this by accident.

“Mum... I don’t like fire...”

‘!’

She gripped my clothes when it finally clicked. Lissandra was trying to forcefully expel her Elemental Ki, not understanding that she was transmuting more of her Ki into the element instead.

‘Trauma.’

It made sense since she came from a war zone that had plenty of arsonists. Her own home had been burned to the ground multiple times as her family tried to escape the chaotic war. Lissandra’s biological mother actually died due to an excessive amount of burns littered across her body.

“...Remember what I told you?”

“You said... Not to run from it... But I hate it.”

I unlinked her arms and crouched down in front of her. I looked into her eyes while opening the palm of my hand.

“To you, fire reminds you of death. But there’s another side to it.”

An ember formed. It grew in size till it took on the appearance of a small child. It ran along the palm of my hand, falling over repeatedly as it jumped around, swinging its arms in the air. The flame grew along with the seconds that passed by.

The child became a teenager.

It didn’t run around as wildly as before. Instead, it settled and chose other activities to focus on. Its foot cut through the air; its figure performing a series of movements.

After each movement was complete, the flame changed. It became a little older and a little wiser. Its movements refined themselves over and over until it came to a stop.

It stood atop my finger, watching over the world below with its hands behind its back. It turned around and saw many other small flames mimicking its movements from its past. A slight smile appeared on its face as it looked up into the sky, fizzling away with the gentle breeze that came from my mouth.

“Fire does not only destroy, but it creates. The life of a small flame can inspire so many others. We may not know what their stories were, or where they came from, but we do know that in some way, a change happened inside of them. That flame will continue to pass on to various people as the cycle continues.”

Lissandra gazed at my hand.

“How do you want to use your flame, Lissandra?”

The fear that was present in her eyes burned away, replaced with unwavering resolve. A flicker of silver ran through her pupils before her eyebrows furrowed and she parted her lips.

“I want to save people just like you!”

A wide grin spread across my face as I clenched my open palm into a fist.

“Then embrace it.”

Flames erupted all around me, covering me in a partial sea of fire while I locked eyes with Lissandra. I beckoned her to do the same as her gaze shifted to my clenched fist. She took a deep breath and mimicked my action. Fire wrapped around her violently, causing her eyebrows to tremble.

“Relax, Lissandra. Don’t fight it.”

‘!’

Her eyes flashed, and the flames exploded behind her. It covered the entire room in a whirlpool of fire as I looked at her in shock.

‘Incredible. Her Ki Reserves surpassed that of my own when I first reached Nagi, but… these flames… There’s something different about them.’

My lips curved upwards as I fanned out my fingers, dispelling all of the fire around us. Lissandra looked at me with serious eyes.

“Mum, please teach me the Seung Style of Taekwondo. I want to be strong like you.”

I flicked her forehead lightly as she stumbled backwards, holding her head in shock. Her cheeks expanded, and she pouted at my sudden action.

“Not so fast. There’s a lot you need to learn first~”