ILIAS VAN PAYNE

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Two days after the party, Camaro was ready to head back to the Capital to act as the plaintiff against John. Colonel Fundin came back just in time from Rockbell with news that the colonel General Clegane sent to oversee the mining town had arrived. Just like last time, Fundin would be acting as Gilead’s colonel regent with Doria as his advisor.

This time around, only Camaro and his unit were leaving. Tank was accompanying them, but it seemed as if the armoured lizard would rather stay behind.

“Colonel, what about us?” Jaime asked as he dropped her off at our house.

“What about you two?”

“You promised me you were going to teach me a bit of jynx when you got back.” She pointed at me. “And you said you were going to continue teaching Ilias swordsmanship.”

“You’re right. I did say those things.”

“If you’re going to be gone for three months, what will we do while you’re gone? Our skills will grow dull and we won’t improve or learn anything.”

“One of you wants to learn swordsmanship and the other jynx.” Camaro flashed a smile. “I’m looking at a swordsman and a jynxist right now. I bet you two would make good teachers.”

At noon, Tank, carrying the colonel, Kaiser, Gama, Hendrik, Rudolf, and an arrested John left for the Capital once more.

“We’ll make good teachers—what kind of riddle is that?” Jaime asked when they were gone. “Does he want us to teach people? Who would want to learn from us?”

“Jaime, I think the colonel meant that he’s trusting us to teach each other the basics of swordsmanship and jynx until he comes back.”

The moment Camaro’s words reached her, Jaime dragged me to the back of the library and handed me a wooden sword.

“I will deduce what I need to teach you based on your performance. We will now spar.” Jaime rested her sword on her shoulder. “I’ll move when you move.”

“Woah, so you’re so good that you can figure out what I need to learn from just one sparring session?”

With all my force, I threw my sword at her as if it were a giant knife. Her eyes widened, but she managed to deflect my attack with a simple swing.

I then sprinted towards her, levitating my sword back to my hand and unleashing a fury of blows.

“Hey! No jynx!”

Jaime struck me one after another, her movements were like a flag dancing to the wind. She’s gotten so much better in such a short amount of time. Unlike before when I only had to dodge her attacks, her blows were much more focused and harder to read. I constantly had to block some of her attacks as opposed to just dodging them.

This was the result of either letting my swordsmanship dull or because Heloise taught me to think like a jynxist. Perhaps it was both.

While I was blinded by the thrusts, and stabs, and slices Jaime threw at me, I was taken down with a sweep to my legs. She didn’t give up the opportunity to press her sword against my neck.

I’ve got a lot of relearning to do.

“That was pretty good,” she said as she helped me up. “For a jynxist.”

“You’ve gotten pretty good at reading and countering me.”

“Thanks. I read in a book that Decan and Valentine chased cats to practice reading their opponents. They said cats are good at reading people and if you can catch one then…”

“You’d be better at reading people than cats.”

“Of course you know that. You’re a Decan’s Rebellion enthusiast after all.” She cleared her throat to sound more authoritative. “Before I can start teaching you, I need you to catch three—no—five cats by sundown. And to make sure you aren’t using jynx, I will follow you.”

“Fine. But you know, a State Jynxist chasing cats isn’t going to look good for me.”

“You are not a State Jynxist, you are my student. Bwahahaha!”

The look on her face was all I needed to verify that she enjoyed bossing me around.

This feels a bit funny. I’m being taught my own teachings by someone who looks up to me.

By the end of the day, I was only able to catch two cats. Unfortunately, Jaime noticed me sink one into the ground and didn’t count it. I caught another one, but since that cat stood perfectly still, she assumed I used jynx and didn’t count it either. All in all, I had to have Mother heal the deeper cat scratches all over my body.

Jaime was already settled into the guest bedroom and had grown fond of how Mother wanted things to run. Usually, I had a set schedule at night, but Jaime always kept me up late and I had to constantly push her to not sleep in.

Jaime and I decided to alternate days of teaching each other. She would spend the entirety of one day teaching me swordsmanship and I would spend the entirety of another teaching her jynx.

When it was my day to teach her, I had her continuously let mana flow through her gates and tasked her to use the books in my father’s study to name and explain all the types of jynx. While she was focusing on that, I took it upon myself to expand my arsenal of spells.

Heloise entrusted me to keep teaching myself after all.

Since Mother finally allowed me to use the study as I pleased, I tried to find clues to the identity of my father. I gave up on that quickly.

While skimming through books, I found a spell that piqued my interest. An arcane spell that summons a transparent barrier to protect anything behind it called The Shield.

After trying it out, I recognized it as the shield King Diablo used to protect himself from even being touched.

A spell that protects anything behind it? That should be useful.

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As Jaime strengthened her gates and researched jynx, I spent the time learning the spell. Arcane was the hardest category for me to learn as instead of manipulating things that already existed using my mana, I had to fabricate something out of it.

The problem I had was focus. The bigger I tried to make the barrier, the weaker it became. But a small barrier was as impregnable as Headrig’s Pass as of the moment.

While on the topic of Headrig’s Pass, the government finally had answers. The flying whale that had been wreaking havoc across it was finally identified as an ancient leviathan named Moby Dick. Not only had it terrorized the seas, but it had also begun to do so to the land and sky.

Other than that, there had been no progress in eliminating the albino whale. There was no news from the east either.

Gluttony could open portals, but if they haven’t done that up until now, then the limitations to his cursed artifact must’ve been preventing him. Otherwise, he could’ve been the steady communication between the country’s halves.

Ever since Camaro said to try and think of a way to deal with the whale, I had been theorizing some solutions every now and then.

My suggestion to him was to try and unite the east and west into a coordinated attack, but the problem was communication. But if we couldn’t go through Headrig’s Pass, over it, or around it, why don’t we go under?

Digging may take a while, but it shouldn’t take hundreds of years.

When the colonel finally wrote to us, I wrote a letter back suggesting my suggestions to King Arthureus.

After a few weeks, I was able to catch five cats and Jaime was able to present the seven categories of jynx effortlessly. What I noticed about Jaime was that she wasn’t getting ill from using mana. When I first started using my gates for extended periods of time, I used to fall sick. But Jaime remained as hyperactive as ever. I thought it must’ve been because she was unconsciously shutting off her gates, but that didn’t make any sense. Strengthening one's gates revolved around letting mana flow through it, not shutting it off.

She then revealed to me that ever since Camaro explained to her why I kept falling ill when Heloise was training me, she had been strengthening her gates in secret.

Apparently, Mother was teaching her a couple of basic healing spells while I was gone as well.

“Okay,” I said. “You already having strong gates was something I wasn’t expecting. It looks like we can start summoning spells.”

I began training Jaime by making her repeat the incantation to Water Ball and going over setting up a spell, activating, and triggering it. She thought it’d be fun if the trigger for her Water Ball spell was her mimicking the actions of throwing a small ball.

“Ugh,” she complained. “This is frustrating. It’s much more complicated than learning the sword.”

“Of course it is. Do you wanna know why?”

She nodded.

“During battle, short-ranged combat needed fighters that can think and react quickly. In close range, steel wins fights. Jynxists need to do so many things that the way they fight is complicated. That’s why they prefer supporting the swordsmen and love keeping their distance.”

“So what you’re saying is do the complete opposite of what I was doing when learning the sword.”

“Something along those lines.”

Many weeks passed and Jaime and I’s lessons had been going rather smoothly. At the end of every week, we had a sparring contest behind the library mixing our fighting styles. The matchups for these were much more even.

Jaime used Water Ball to throw off my rhythm while I used my sword primarily for defence.

During this time, Colonel Fundin received news that Doria passed onto us: “Scar has been efficient with his killings. He’s been murdering higher-ups on an almost day-to-day basis and by the looks of it, he’s moving closer to the Capital. I just hope Colonel Camaro is safe.”

That brings up the weird relationship Camaro, Jaime, and Scar have.

The colonel told me the truth behind why Jaime was an orphan and entrusted the secret to me. If he were to be slain by Scar, it was my job to tell her the truth.

I find the colonel dying to Scar was unlikely. Dr Creed was sure the colonel was safe from Scar’s sights. But even if he was a target, Camaro could always summon an army of his Marching Dolls. The colonel had shown he was more than capable of protecting himself.

But everyone deserved the truth and I promised to tell Jaime everything behind her parents’ demise.

After breakfast one day, Jaime went straight back to bed because the training she had the other day was rigorous. Mother was tending the garden so I decided to help her out.

I watched from the porch as she held out a hand. She spoke an incantation as a field of flowers began to grow on the beds she made.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen you use jynx that’s other than healing, Mother,” I said, approaching her.

“Oh, Heloise left me some spells she thought I would enjoy. This was the first one on the list.”

“I can certainly say that she knows you.”

Mother reached into a basket of vegetables and produced an envelope. “You have a letter. It’s from an Ivan Van Vanir. He’s a State Jynxist so I’m assuming he’s the other participant who passed.”

“No, he was the proctor. But I don’t know why he’d be writing to me.”

“Why don’t you find out?”

I ripped open the envelope and read the letter.

Dear Ilias,

I know it’s a bit random getting a letter from your proctor. You probably know that you’re the youngest person to ever become a State Jynxist. Since I wasn’t allowed to tell you anything personal about myself during the exam, I would like to do so now.

I am a professor of zoology at Fern University located in the Capital. I study ecosystems, labyrinths, creatures, monsters, and anything natural within our country. I was recently asked to help identify the white whale wreaking havoc along Headrig’s Pass.

I know that at some point, there will come a time when you will struggle in learning something new. I had the same problem. I just wanted to let you know that if you ever want to attend Fern University and enhance your understanding of jynx or even want to find work here, just ask for me and I’d be happy to refer you for both. We’re both State Jynxists after all and we should have each other’s backs.

Sincerely yours, Ivan

“He’s offering you to learn at Fern University.” Mother was reading from behind me. “That’s nice of him. Personally, I wanted to go there to learn about medicine.”

“Or a job. It depends on what I want.”

“What do you want?”

“Well, I am struggling with jynx recently. Without Teacher to guide me, I’ve been lost trying to figure out new things to learn. On the other hand, it would be pretty weird for a State Jynxist to attend school.” I put the letter back in its envelope. “I’ll definitely consider this, but after the colonel teaches me swordsmanship.”

I then helped Mother tend to the garden until it was time for her to open the office.

After changing into her work clothes, she asked: “Are you still curious about your father?”

Her question left me off guard. “Of course I am.”

“I see. I’ve been thinking recently that you might start hating me for hiding something that means so much to you. But now that you’re a State Jynxist, I feel like you’re ready to know—the next time you ask me about him, I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Just tell me when you’re ready to have the talk.”

I just stood there, excited and nervous at having the chance to learn who my father was. “I don’t know if I’m emotionally ready to know right now, but can you answer three questions for me first?”

“Sure.”

“Is my father alive?”

“He is. He hasn’t been in contact with me since he left, but I just know that he’s alive.”

“Are you still in love with him and did he love you back?”

“We loved each other very much. Even now I carry that feeling.”

“If he loves you so much, then why did he leave you all alone to take care of me?”

“Because he had more important things to take care of.”

“So to him, those things were more important than us?”

“I don’t think so. He’s trying to keep us safe. If this thing he left us for does that, I just know that it’s important.”