If I’d known that Ashara was going to be such a strict teacher, I might not have been so eager to form a contract with her. Now, in addition to morning exercises and afternoon meditation, she wanted me to train archery.

“There aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything! Can you at least reduce my morning exercises if you’re going to add archery to the mix?” I was pretty sure that the only reason that I hadn’t collapsed from exhaustion given my daily training schedule was because Ashara healed me of fatigue every day.

[Do you want the countess to be healed as quickly as possible? Then you have to train more.]

“This isn’t training. This is Hell Training!”

[Meditation helps increase your mana by a very small amount. Using mana with archery will help you level up your MP faster.]

Ashara had completely embraced the idea of the System MP.

“All right, I guess it’s necessary.”

After lunch, I went to the sports department to request archery equipment. The staff there acted as though they had never heard of a lady practicing archery, which gave me an idea. I went off to grab Elaine and include her in the training.

“Why would I do that?” asked Elaine.

“This is a good chance for you to get an easy medal. Just think of it, you’ll be able to tell your future children that you were at the top of your class in archery,” I said. “There are currently zero members of the Ladies' Archery Club, which means that both of us are guaranteed to get into the top ranks of athletes.”

Elaine pursed her lips. “Is archery even fashionable?”

“It’s a traditional sport for female summoners. Besides, the staff told me that there’s a budget for the club that hasn’t been used for the last three years. You can be in charge of it.”

“Ha! Now we get to the real point! I suppose we can use that money to host club activities.” Elaine gave me a knowing look.

The entire Academy knew of my circumstances. All of the other noble ladies hosted tea parties and lunches except for me, because I had no money.

“Yes. You need me because of my title, and I need you to organize everything, since I don’t have the time for it.”

She held her arms up to one side and mimed drawing a bow. “I suppose I'll look good while doing archery. I’ll do it.”

“Yes!”

The sports department seemed happy enough to have two ladies joining the archery club. We signed their logbook and got the equipment which we stored in our rooms until later in the afternoon when we would have our first training session. Ashara would teach me and I would teach Elaine. I asked the staff to set the targets for us in the Western Field, but they said we should use the existing archery field first, since we were beginners.

When I finished my meditation, I went back to my room to put on some trousers and the gloves, arm guard, and chest guard from the archery club supplies we had been given. I met Elaine in the hallway. Her room was right next to mine.

“Take that thing off.” She pointed at my exercise headband.

“It keeps the sweat from running into my eyes.”

“Wipe it off with a handkerchief, like a real lady would.”

“Fine.” People here didn’t use that type of headband, but it was a pity she didn’t like it because I had been hoping that I would start a trend.

The archery field was near the Arrowhead Stream, a few minutes walk away from the main college building. I’ve never been there, but we had no difficulty finding it since it was set up in a vast open field, with targets set up at varying distances. There was a line drawn in the dirt, marking where archers should stand to take their shot. Half a dozen male students were already there. Some shot with great precision, while others struggled to hit the target at all. The sound of arrows hitting targets was constant, as was the sound of laughter and chatter. It was a friendly atmosphere.

The first person to notice us was a redhead student. “Ladies, what brings you here?”

He must’ve noticed that we were wearing archery gear and carrying bows and quivers of arrows. “Didn’t the sports department inform you? We just formed the Ladies Archery Club. I’m Lynette Aurelian. This is Elaine Chandler.”

By the time I finished introducing myself and Elaine, the other club members had joined us. It wasn’t strictly necessary to give my title since training at the Academy archery field was an informal occasion. All of the students politely introduced themselves, and Elaine and I went to the end of the line to practice.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

[Keep your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent.]

I relayed Ashara’s instructions to Elaine.

“How does your spirit know about archery?” she asked.

“She had a contract with the summoner before, more than a hundred years ago. He was an archer, and my Lady developed quite a few good mana archery techniques.” Spirits’ real names were a closely guarded since they functioned as a sort of call. If a human said a spirit’s name out loud, the spirit would hear it, though they weren’t forced to answer. Therefore, summoners referred to their spirit as “Lord” or some other generic title. Ashara was referred to as “Wisdom of the Unfettered Sky” on official documents, the name that she had chosen when she first formed a contract with a human. For some reason, spirits loved long, convoluted, flowery names.

“Who was her summoner?” she asked.

“No one famous. His name was Sir Kay of Ravenmark.”

[He was a good man. Now hold your bow on your left hand, arm extended and elbow slightly bent.]

I did as Ashara said.

[Draw the bow with your right hand. Your shoulders should be squared. Keep your hips and collarbone parallel to the arrow. Shoot.]

As expected, my first arrow went wide of the target. Elaine did no better.

[Don’t lean forward or back. Keep your head straight and your chin level to the ground.]

“Ah, it seems easy enough. I thought archery would be much harder than this,” said Elaine.

[It’s not particularly difficult. You both just need to be diligent with your training. Don’t worry too much about hitting the center of the target today. Focus on getting your stance right.]

We took our time getting used to shooting arrows.

[Lynette Aurelian: Level 1 Summoner]

[Int: 1/99]

[Str: 1/99]

[Dex: 1/99]

[Cha: 1/99]

[Con: 1/99]

[HP: 10/999]

[MP: 10/99]

[Skills: Mana Breathing]

[Training: Basic Archery]

The System showed me an XP bar for Basic Archery and a blue popup +1 box every time I shot an arrow while I was in the proper stance.

[+1]

“This is kind of fun!” I said the first time I hit the edge of the target. “I can’t believe I hit it!”

“Is your Lady helping you? Are you using mana?” asked Elaine.

[+1]

“No, I’m just doing regular training for today. My Lady said she would teach me her techniques once I have the basics down,” I said.

“Don’t look now. Arthur Marcheford is joining us.” Elaine nodded her head slightly to my left.

I immediately turned to look.

Arthur was a minor character in Chaos Blood Summoner whom I only remembered because of his name. The novel had a sort of Arthurian Legend theme going on, though the story itself wasn’t Arthurian at all, as far as I could tell.

Despite the seemingly major significance of his name, Arthur died early on in the story when his ship was caught in a storm. He washed up on a remote beach where an earthly spirit took pity on him and formed a contract with Arthur. Alas, his body was too battered to survive. It was said that when he died, the spirit took its revenge on the person who had summoned the storm by opening up a sinkhole under his house and burying him alive.

That was all I remembered of the Arthur in the book. He could be useful in the future.

“I specifically told you not to look! I don’t want them to think that we made the club because we wanted to see him.”

“Why would we do that?”

“You’ll see.”

And I did. When he got close enough for me to take a good look at his face, I put my bow down and placed a hand on my heart.

“Oh, my goodness! Why did no one tell me about this?” I was amazed. The book hadn’t said anything about this.

Arthur had a face that looked like it was chiseled out of marble, with high cheekbones and a strong jawline. His eyes were a deep blue, with long, thick lashes. His hair was black and hung in soft waves around his face. He was tall and muscled, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. He was the most handsome man I had ever seen.

“Don’t fall in love with him,” she said. “It’s cliché. Half of the female students have a crush on him.”

“But not you?”

“No title or notable connections, and he has very little money since he’s the fourth son.”

“No connections? Then how was he able to enter the Academy?”

“I said no notable connections. Listen, his grandfather was a commoner who made his fortune in textiles. He married the daughter of a baron. The current baron is over seventy years old and has no heir, so Arthur’s father is due to inherit the title.”

The barony that she was referring to must be a very minor one for her to dismiss it likeness. Elaine herself was a commoner, and she had managed to secure a place for herself in the Academy as a female scholar, no mean feat considering only five such scholarships were granted each year. Her family had quite a lot of money, and her dowry was large, which meant that she could look forward to a good match. She was a bit of a snob.

“I’ve never seen such a gorgeous person.” I couldn’t stop staring at him.

“Look away. He’s going to walk over here to introduce himself, so don’t make a fool of yourself.” Elaine sighed and shook her head. “You need to aim higher.”

“I’m just looking. It’s allowed.” I knew what she meant though. My current family situation was such that the logical thing for me to do was to find a rich husband now that my former fiancé, Tristan, had abandoned me to my fate.

“Silly girl.”

After exchanging greetings with the male archery club members, Arthur walked over to us and introduced himself. His voice was deep and rich, and he looked even better up close.

“We know that your spirit is helping you, but please let us know if you need any help,” he said.

“How kind,” I said.

“Thank you,” said Elaine.

We exchanged courtesies then he left to train.

“Don’t bat your eyelashes at him like that again. Don’t you know about subtlety? And I told you he’s next to penniless.”

I took out a handkerchief from my pocket and wiped my forehead and eyes.“I wasn’t batting my eyelashes at him, that was because I had some sweat in my eyes.”

“Why are you so sweaty?”

“I’ve been training hard. How come you never sweat?”

“I’m normal. You’re just overly sweaty.”

“Stop it, you’re going to make me feel self-conscious.”

The rest of the afternoon was a wash since my concentration was disturbed by Arthur’s presence and the thought that I had some sort of perspiration disorder. When it started to get dark, we said our goodbyes to the club members and headed back to our rooms. There I pestered Ashara until she agreed to keep my body temperature constant while I was exercising so that I wouldn’t sweat as much.

“You’re the best!” I said to her.

[Pay me back by exercising more in the mornings.]

Oh, she was an exercise fanatic all right!