For the past few weeks, Aachman was meditating and practising yoga every day. Even though he had not sensed prana through meditation, which might usually take two to three years to accomplish for the average martial artist.
This is also the reason for the fatty and the baldy not to have sensed prana. According to the chief, baldy might sense prana within a year and fatty might take some more time to achieve the same. The Aachman's body condition did not impress the chief; he stated it had very poor compatibility with martial arts.
The only person in their little group who could sense prana was the young lady. It seems she was born with a supernatural strength that allowed her to sense prana even before her meditation training started. When Aachman learnt about this information, he sighed and thought the young lady could do anything.
Every week, the young lady and the old chief would spar. This was the chief's way to gauge the young lady's improvement in her martial arts. The chief was a great duellist in his youth with his talent and dedication; he raised to the level of a national champion for the country. So the young lady was getting the best martial arts coaching available in this country.
It could be considered that even a martial artist twice her age might not be guaranteed to win when confronting her in a duel, but for a young lady, anxiety and panic riddled the sparring day. The chief's strict way of teaching the young lady might have something to do with him losing his extremely talented son abruptly in the war, but the chief's attitude affected the psyche of the young lady.
Aachman witnessed his first spar, and that made him realise the difference between a normal person and a martial artist. The next spar differed from the usual. In this, the young lady did something weird. When the chief was pressuring her to defend herself, she started to dance.
It seems the young lady got insight from the careless words of the Aachman and was also inspired by his shuffle and robot dance, which made her look awkward during the spar. Her dance literally imitated Aachman's awkward movements.
This made the old chief to pause and double-take to understand what his granddaughter was doing. It looks like the young lady realized she was doing something crazy because her face was so red, but the young lady persevered in her efforts.
In the next few spars, she made these movements as her own. These movements were no longer awkward or jerky, but smooth and fast, like all other movements of the young lady.
The young lady moved so fast in shuffling it created the illusion of two young ladies fighting the chief instead of one. She successfully added shuffling and twisting to her martial arts repertoire, which already included jumps, flips, spins, rolls and somersaults.
This recent development did not change the outcome of the spar. It seems nothing worked more than once against the chief. The young lady also did not exploit her newfound footwork to the full extent. She was still only used to defending and was not trying to gain any reasonable advantage against the old chief.
The improvement of the young lady impressed the old chief greatly; he praised her. This, inturn, made the young lady happy.
Usually, the young lady acts soulless after the spar. Even the usual praises that would work so well would not raise her spirit, but on this occasion, the young lady was grinning ear to ear for the rest of the day.
Lackeys and Aachman were concerned about the young lady's mental health and felt very creepy to see the young lady laughs for no reason. Jubilant mood of the young lady led to the unfortunate or fortunate event for Aachman.
****
"Aacha, tell us what you want?". Fatty pressured the Aachman.
"Yeah, tell us, Aacha, it seems you helped the young lady immensely for her improvement in martial arts," baldy repeated what fatty had said.
The young lady was silent but was pressuring the Aachman with her gaze. Aachman was thinking he might have hit the jackpot and wondered what to ask.
"If you want sweets, we can get them from the kitchen," fatty said proudly.
"How about milk? I can arrange from the barn staff," baldy enquired.
Aachman came down to earth after he heard the options given to him. What did he expect? Money or land. These are kids. How can they provide him with an expensive gift? Still, the young lady's silent stare made him understand he needed to ask for something. Aachman wondered, then abruptly an answer came to him.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
"I like to learn to read and write?"
"Eeeh, oh yeah, Aacha doesn't know how to read and write. " fatty was disappointed because he was cheated out of sweets this time around.
"Now that I think about it, it seems Aacha cannot make friends with animals. He seems to lack too much young lady," baldy made the observation which made Aachman think about punching the baldy's face.
The young lady was silent and was thinking about Aachman's request. She suddenly nodded energetically and made a fist and waved it in front of Aachman's face. "Don't worry, Aacha, I will teach you to read and write.”
After a few hours, a five-year-old boy covered in red marks all over his body carefully wrote on the ground with a stick. A seven or eight-year-old girl was hovering above him like a hawk ready to catch her prey.
The boy suddenly shouted in pain. "Young lady, why are you pinching me?" Aachman asked, teary-eyed.
"You made a mistake. Write it again," the young girl said sternly, but her eyes were flashing. After a few more hours of this marathon, the study ended with the maniacal laughing sound of the boy.
"Haha, I am a genius. Within a day, I learnt alphabets and can even write a few simple words. " Aachman was smug about his achievements.
The young lady was silent, but the lackeys were not. "Young lady, you were amazing. Aacha learnt all the letters because of your teaching method," baldy praised the young lady.
"To make Aacha like a person who is lacking in different ways to learn all letters within a day. Young lady, you are magnificent," fatty did not want to fall behind. So he praised the young lady lavishly.
The young lady stood straight and acted as though she did not care about these praises, but her chest was pushing outwards and a smug look said otherwise.
Aachman got mad because of these lackeys. They were trying to steal his achievement. "Hey, I am the one who learnt all the letters in a short time. Why are you praising the young lady?"
"What do you mean, we have to praise you? You accomplished this because of the young lady's foolproof method of teaching." Fatty rejected Aachman's unfair claims.
"Yeah, it is not like the young lady did not have precedence in teaching. She already perfected her teaching method, who learnt even faster than you."
"Who?" Aachman could not believe that someone learnt letters much faster than him.
"See there," fatty pointed towards the corner of the garden.
"Heh, what is Jaa doing here? Is he scratching the ground?" Aachman enquired.
Aachman's last few hours were a blur, and the young lady was a hard taskmaster, so he could not observe the surrounding area properly. Jaa the white young goat, ignored the commotion and was scratching the ground seriously.
"Oh, he is writing a petition to the old chief. He wanted to stop the goats from being treated as livestock and wanted to recommend the sheep as a replacement. Jaa is a true goat supremacist," fatty said proudly.
"What?" Aachman truly cannot understand the situation. When he tried to get near Jaa to confirm what the fatty said, Jaa's glare made him stop in his steps. The world is becoming a truly absurd place.
****
Aachman ran to his house after work. He needs to reach home before the sunset. Otherwise, he could not show off his literary skills to his family. It would have been too dark for him to write his letters.
Aachman reached his house, and he was breathing heavily because of non-stop running from the chief's house. Aachman's parents and his elder brother, Aabha, were sitting on the veranda after a hard day on the farm.
"Aacha, what happened? Why are you running?" Kari questioned his youngest son.
"Aiyo, why is your body full of red marks?" Bhumi was also concerned about his well-being and rushed to him.
Aachman was still breathing heavily and could not reply to the flurry of questions.
"I want to show this," Aachman replied after his breath came to normalcy, took a stick from the ground and wrote his mother's name.
"Aacha, can you write? When did you learn?" Suprised Kari enquired about Aachman’s writing skill.
"What are you writing?" Aabha curiously asked Aachman.
Aachman's family members surrounded him and curiously looked at his writing.
"Haha, this is my mother's name," Aachman said boastfully to his family members.
"Oh, it is my name. My baby!" Bhumi was happy and hugged her son tightly.
"Hey, write my name too. I need to know what my name looks like?" Kari said enviously.
Aachman freed from his mother's grasp with great difficulty and obliged his family members' request. He wrote all his family members' names on the ground.
"Haha, my son definitely would have a better future now he can read and write," Kari boasted about his son's bright prospects.
"Yeah," Bhumi nodded happily.
Aabha, the elder brother of Aachman, looked enviously at the writings. He even touched the words written on the ground.
"Aabha, do you want to learn to read and write?" Aachman questioned his elder brother.
"You will teach me!" Aabha asked in a surprised tone.
"That's my boy. Now both my boys will know how to read and write. Their future will be bright," Kari declared cheerfully.
Aachman gingerly touched the red marks on his body. He promised to teach the alphabets, as the young lady did. Because it was a foolproof method for learning. He repeated this over and over in his mind that it was the most benign and efficient way to teach his elder brother.