"Do you want to be my student?"

Rennet had a big expecting expression and a smile showing his teeth on his face.

"What? What can you teach me? And why do you suddenly want to be my teacher?"

Janna didn't outright reject it. But she also wasn't sure she wanted Rennet as a teacher.

"I have been a mercenary for the past twelve years. A lot of people have joined and left my group in those years."

Rennet started talking about his past.

"Yeah but what does that have to do with me? I'm not joining your mercenary group if that's what you're after."

Janna understood it as him advertising his mercenary group.

"I'm just saying that I've met a lot of people. Which includes a lot of young people, people like you."

Rennet started explaining more.

"All those young people only chased after the best martial arts. The best sword art, the best spear art, or whatever. That's fine in my opinion as long as you know what you're doing. But all of them had flaws that they couldn't see.

I saw those flaws then and I see them now in you. A strong foundation is more important than anything else. Even using an average technique, you'll be able to overpower those with the best techniques."

"Are you saying you can teach me those?"

"Of course I can. I wouldn't be suggest doing so if I couldn't. But-

What if I could teach you something more?"

Rennet picked up his sword and held it using only two fingers at the handle. He pushed it slightly towards Janna's sword.

"Something that can rival those techniques that the strongest ten families use?"

The end of the sword touched Janna's sword as it moved forwards slowly. Something unexpected happened. The wooden sword that Janna was holding exploded at the spot the sword touched. There was almost no force behind it, yet it decimated the sword.

"What?! How did you-"

"If you become my student, I will teach you that and more."

"Sure!"

"I'll even-wait really?"

Rennet didn't expect an answer so fast.

"Yes! Now teach me!"

"Woah, woah. Calm down."

Rennet was caught off guard by Janna's eagerness to suddenly learn.

"I can't teach you this technique immediately. You need to learn other things first. The first thing and the most important thing to all martial artists you need to train is what?"

"Uhm, it's the body right?"

"Exactly. So you'll be training your body first."

"But I train everyday already. I should have the best muscles already."

"That's just what you think. You're hiding a lot of potential in those muscles and bones also. You don't even realize. I'm going to help you tap into that hidden power first and then we'll move on to the next step."

"Well, if you say so."

"First of all. Take off your jacket. You'll be training in the cold starting from now."

"What?! But it's only going to get colder from now on though?"

"Hmph. The strongest of warriors do not fear the weather. You will train to not fear it also."

"...It's not weird to want to be comfy..."

"What did you say?"

Janna murmured to herself but took off her jacket to reveal her fit body.

"Can you at least tell me what that technique you used was?"

"The martial arts of the Eastern Barbarian Swordmaster, my master."

"So it's the Eastern Barbarian Sword Style?"

"That's the official name. But you'll probably know it better if I told you who wielded the sword art in the past."

"Who was it?"

"Promise me to keep this a secret."

Rennet suddenly became serious.

"I promise. So who was it?"

"The Barbarian King."

"WHAT?!"

Janna was shocked. She had of course heard of this Barbarian King during the boring lessons at the academy about history. The first king of the current beast empire. No one knows where he came from but everybody has heard of him now. People call him the strongest sword user in history as there is no record of someone besting him in a sword duel.

Using his own sword technique, he was able to make the small beast kingdom of that time take over the the east. One person against the whole east won and conquered the east. Leading whole armies but in truth only he himself was needed to win the wars. That's the power he had.

"ARE YOU REALLY SAYING IT-"

"Shh! Don't say anything more!"

Rennet quickly shut Janna up.

"Do not ever reveal this to anyone. There might be people listening that you don't want listening."

"But is it true? You're not just making it sound amazing just so I learn it right?"

"What do you take me for?"

Rennet felt annoyed that his character was being questioned.

"I don't know? I just met you yesterday. Oh and you tried to kill me didn't you?"

"Ok fine. You have a point."

Rennet had to give this to Janna.

"I'm not lying though. It really is the same one passed down by that monster."

"H-how is that possible? Wouldn't everyone know about it?"

"That's a story for another time. And a personal one."

A sorrowful look appeared on Rennet's face, as if he was remembering something from the past and it was hurting his heart.

"Nevermind that. It's not even time to learn that technique. Let's get started with your training."

"Ok, what first?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"One of the best training methods. Running. You're going to run."

"Alright. I guess that's a good start. So how long do I run?"

"As much as you can. Around the village parameter."

"Around the village?"

"Yes."

The village right now has around six hundred people. It has been a slow grow but a few month ago there were only one hundred and fifty people or so. Silas said that they expect a large surge of people during the coming winter as there was another battle near the border of the Zatiax Empire.

But still the village area was kind of big. It's around one hundred and sixty thousand square meters where the current people have set up houses. One trip around the village was around one thousand and six hundred meters. This didn't included the area for farming, of which there wasn't much as the weather wasn't good for farming.

"You're running at full speed until you're exhausted."

"Haaa..."

Janna hated that. It was so much running.

"Can I make breakfast first?"

"No. From today onwards, it is running first thing for you. You will run until I say you're done. Now, move it."

Following Rennet, Janna was accompanied by Nem and Gwyn as they went to the edge of the village. People were wondering what was happening when Janna, Nem and Gwyn were running around the village.

And a strange new person who kept shouting at Janna to not stop running.

It was a weird occurrence that they quickly got used to as everyday they would see Janna running. Some of the kids in the village would come and watch her run. Some would join but they couldn't run as much as Nem and Gwyn and only saw it as something fun to do.

Around ten days later, Thea finally left her workshop. She had been stuck in that room for over a week and only came out to eat. The end of October passed during this time and the weather turned very cold.

"Leaf!"

Thea called out to Leaf. But heard no response so she headed out into the backyard garden. Leaf was there but there was something wrong. She had a worried expression and was sweating.

"What are you doing?"

"AH!"

Leaf was startled by Thea suddenly appearing behind her.

"U-Unnie?!"

"You're doing something again. And you're trying to hide it from me."

Thea could see Leaf slowly trying to hide a book behind her back.

"Alright, spit it out. What did you do?"

"Y-you know Su-Unnie?"

"Is that really a question when she comes here everyday?"

"Right, that's a dumb question...she gave me a book on magic."

"Was it an elf magic book?"

"How did you know?"

Thea put her finger on Leaf's nose.

"Su is an elf so she gave you one of her books. And you tried to cast an elf magic spell and it went out of control."

"...I'm sorry...I didn't know."

Leaf looked sorry.

"It's fine, why do you need to apologize? Doing something wrong is the best way to learn. Elf magic is not useable by humans as their magic requires the essence of nature which humans do not possess. And that's the reason why you failed. Humans just aren't meant to-"

"But Unnie! I didn't fail?..."

Leaf suddenly interrupted Thea and said something that meant against what Thea was explaining.

"What? Are you saying to successfully cast elf magic?"

"Yes, that's what happened."

"So when you nodded just now, you meant the magic went out of control after you cast it?"

"Yes, I couldn't control it."

"I don't know how you were able to do it. But what spell did you cast?"

"I cast this simple growth spell on a flower seed..."

Leaf moved aside and let Thea see the 'flower'.

The plant had grown to around the size of an adult's hand. It had thick vines traveling down into the earth. But there was no flower on top of it.

"Doesn't seem like there's a problem."

"Unnie, try to pull it out."

Thea put her hand inside the vines and pulled on it. But only the vines moved a bit and nothing much happened.

"I couldn't stop the spell and pull it out."

"So it kept growing?"

"Yes."

"So the spell made it keep growing and now it's stuck underground."

"That's what happened."

"That shouldn't be a problem. We'll just get Janna or someone to pull it out."

After getting Janna, they tried to pull it out again but failed.'

"You look tired, Janna?"

"That's because I am..."

Janna appeared to be half-dead.

"How much did this grow and why is it so strongly stuck into the ground? I can't do this."

Janna asked a question and went away. Her body was in too exhausted to do anything.

"Well, I'll just have to burn it."

Putting forth a finger, a ball of fire floated up from her finger. She put it down to the plant and the fire transferred to the plant. It slowly burned away at the plant.

"Ok, this shouldn't take long."

The fire went underground and spread around to other parts of the ground. It covered a large part of the garden.

"Ok, how did it grow this much underground?"

It really covered a large part underground.

"Alright, Leaf. Please don't use an elf magic spell again."

"I won't."

"But on the other hand, this is amazing, Leaf!"

Thea turned to Leaf. She had a happy expression.

"I don't know how but you can use elf magic. That's amazing, Leaf."

"Ah? T-thank you."

Leaf's face was blushing. Being praised by someone that she looked up to was making her heart flutter. Her heart was beating fast.

"Elf magic is one of the top three in the world. Training that would be hard but very worth it."

"Really? Then can I continue learning it?"

"Yes, of course. But..."

"But what?"

"I can't teach you elf magic. Which brings me to talk to you about something."

"What is it?"

"How do you feel about going to school?"

"School?"

"I can get you into the same academy me and Janna went to."

"Does that mean I will have to leave the orphanage?"

"You won't be able to learn anything from us here."

"...no, I don't want that..."

"Think about your future, Leaf."

"No! I don't want to leave!"

Leaf ran away after shouting. Leaving Thea behind alone.

Knocking on Leaf's room door, she didn't respond. So Thea left her to herself.

Rennet came back to the orphanage and saw Thea sitting outside in the garden alone.

"Yo, owner. Long time no see. Why does it smell like something was burnt here?"

Rennet noticed the burning smell.

"We had to burn something."

"I see. Why do you look so dejected?."

"I talked to Leaf about going to an academy to study and train her magic."

"Let me guess. She took it really well?"

"She shouted and ran away to her room."

"I wouldn't have guessed that."

"You're being really annoying. Weren't you supposed to leave like a week ago or something?"

"Well, I have a reason to be around these days. But I did find a house nearby to stay at. Did you know the houses around here are all in need of repair?"

"Just get to your point."

"All I'm saying is that these things take time. The Silver Fox merchants and the villagers work everyday to fix the houses. But there's only so much that they can do. Of course, they could have a mage like you do it for them immediately. But they prefer to do it themselves."

"What does this have to do with Leaf?"

"Just give her some time think. I've seen her around. She's a bright and intelligent young lady. Give her some time and she will understand what you want for her. Don't beat yourself up because you couldn't make her understand."

"I'm not beating myself up."

"Whatever. Just give her some time. She'll come talk to you herself."

"Why are you helping Janna and trying to console me?"

Thea suddenly asked Rennet. From her perspective, Rennet just came to their village and wasn't someone she was close with. But he was very invested in their lives for some reason.

"I don't know. Let's just say it was a feeling I had?"

"A 'feeling'?"

Listening to the word 'feeling' made Thea a bit angry. Rennet was able to notice it but did try to pry further. He had a feeling that he shouldn't do it. Call it a sense of self-protection.

"I'm just curious as to what you and Janna are. One who I can't understand and the other who is holding herself back. You two are a weird duo. Not taking into measure these insanely talented kids you have around."

"Aren't you just a spy sent by someone?"

"Haha. I'm not fit to be one of those. I prefer being bold and in the spotlight."

"You do draw a lot of attention with that bear like face."

"I don't have such a face. You want a fight?"

"Lalala. Look! It's your student."

Janna happened to walk in after buying ingredients.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Oh, your master here was gonna teach you how to use aura properly."

"But my aura is fine, though?"

Janna was a bit confused. She knew how to use aura. It was just a way to protect and enhance one's body as a martial artist.

"I can't take this. Come, follow me."

The three of them walked into the garden.

"Did something burn here? In the ground?"

Janna noticed the smell too.

"I had to burn those vines."

"Oh that. Why did you burn them? Couldn't you have called Su to take care those?"

"Why didn't you say that earlier?"

Thea had completely forgotten that Su was an elf. Someone who trained many years in plant magic. She would've been able to take care of those overgrown plants immediately.

"How is it my fault you forgot about her? You know she'll be so mad that you burned her garden."

Su took extra care of this garden. It was her favourite place in the whole world.

"Shit. I'll have to apologize to her somehow."

While Thea was thinking about a way to do that, Rennet and Janna started their lesson.

"What do you think aura is?"

Rennet started by asking her a question.

"It's a thing that you get after you train really hard."

"That doesn't answer my question. You do get it after a lot of hard training, but what exactly is it?"

"..."

Janna didn't know.

"This is what they don't teach you at those academy's. Aura is the manifestation of your life. It's your life-force energy."

"My life-force? How is that possible?"

"A martial artist puts their life on the line when fighting. Aura puts your life on the line and gives you strength, power, speed and whatever else."

"Is that why the more you train the more aura one has?"

"Of course, that is the case. But that's not all."

Rennet picked up a wooden sword from a corner. He channeled a silver colored aura into the sword.

"Try to strike it with your aura."

Janna did the same thing as Rennet. But her aura color was red. Striking the sword Rennet was holding, Janna was pushed back.

"Did you notice anything?"

Rennet asked Janna.

"That you're a lot stronger than me?"

"Haha. That is true. But did you notice my aura?"

"You have a lot more of it covering your sword."

"What if I told you I am using around one tenth of what you were using right now?"

"I would say you're lying."

"I'm not. Do you notice anything else?"

"Mine's red and yours is silver?"

"That's irrelevant. Do you notice how my aura flows?"

"The flow?"

Janna looked at Rennet's sword. His silver aura was flowing around the sword in a calm and control manner. Like a gentle stream of water. Whereas her red aura was chaotic. Big in some areas, small in others. It was uneven and looked like a red soapy cheese.

"Your aura is an incomplete one. You trained your body and manifested aura but you didn't understand anything. Remember this, when it comes to martial artists of any kind, the quality of your aura matters more than the quantity of it."

"How do I complete my aura then?"