“Biscuit!” Jenny said in her most stern voice. She conjured her best impression of Father Dearest’s perpetually disappointed tone. “Pay attention.”
Biscuit got on her hind legs, one paw going to her head, just above the eyes, in a strange movement.
Jenny had yet to learn what that meant; she ignored it and started again. Jenny pointed to herself. “Me.”
Biscuit deflated, her gaze shifting from Jenny to the ground and back again. The rabbit grumbled, flopping belly up. “Ee.” She repeated.
It wasn’t the best of pronunciations, but that was fine. Jenny next pointed to the rabbit. “You.”
Biscuit looked even more dejected; she whined, got on her paws, and nuzzled Jenny’s hand; the rabbit even danced. Jenny kept her face stern, with no hint of her smile showing up.
“Yuu.” Biscuit repeated after what felt like an eternity.
Trying to teach the rabbit wasn’t going well. For some reason, Biscuit wouldn’t concentrate. She had, well, the attention span of a rabbit. They had already gone over this, and Biscuit hadn’t forgotten, even if it was a hurdle getting the rabbit to repeat things. The pronunciation was still horrible, but Jenny couldn’t ask for more. She’d taken to drawing stuff on the floor with a stick and naming them: beds, doors, windows, cups, plates, as well as everything she actually had in hand. The rabbit was a quick learner, though she disliked the repetition needed to practice her pronunciation.
Jenny sighed. It was enough for now. She picked up Biscuit, fingers scratching the critter’s ears. Rewards encourage good behavior, right? She settled the plans for the following days. Her immediate concern was getting used to her new weapon. She had two goals. The first one was to be able to hit the armor consistently. For that, she would need to visit even older memories and the years of training. The second goal was to get used to the weapon’s weight and parry, deflect, or evade most attacks. She didn’t have expectations that she could defeat the thing. How do you stop something that doesn’t feel pain or fear or even get tired?
The mornings to teach Biscuit, afternoons to train, and evenings to revisit old memories and re-learn from them.
Jenny sighed; she hadn’t forgotten the parchment in the morning with the advanced skill. The name [Memory Manipulation] wasn’t what her mother called it. Mother had a fancier name, “Theater of the Mind.” Jenny didn’t want to revisit the years before meeting Gizelda but also didn’t want to die. She hated that she agreed with her father, but any advantage should be abused to the best of her abilities. She looked at the rabbit flopped on her hands, paws twitching. Teach the rabbit the language, then convince Biscuit to share the spells.
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And what about the outside situation? Jenny didn’t care about being blamed for the Lord’s death, aside from how Gizelda would react to that. Should she confront Gregory? Would that make things worse? Jenny suspected that Gregory and Ferdinand knew each other or were even acting together. She put that idea aside. There was no way to do anything before leaving this place. The only plan she was sure was sending Gizelda a letter as soon as possible and telling her the truth about the events.
Gizelda would believe her. Jenny was sure of it.
Jenny packed the bag again but left it by the orchard. She picked only the water skin. Her only plan for today was to train and revisit the memories. Carrying the bag around wasn’t needed.
“Biscuit, come.” She called out.
The rabbit hopped closer a few moments later, mouth stained with berries. Biscuit chattered away, head tilting in what Jenny thought was a question. Jenny even heard “you” there amid the many incomprehensible sounds.
“We,” she started, finger moving from herself to the rabbit and back, “are going,” she mimicked them walking, “fight,” Jenny choreographed the fight with the armor, even being hit a few times, “the armor,” she finished moving her hands up and down her body in the same silhouette. She felt ridiculous doing that.
By her side, Biscuit laughed.
Jenny snorted, ignoring the blush creeping on her cheeks and ears. Biscuit needed to learn the language and learn fast. Jenny wasn’t a shy woman, but even she had her limits.
----------------------------------------
Yuki sat on one of the stone seats around the arena. It had been a few hours, and Jenny was still at it with Rusty. Yuki was starting to think that aside from being a crazy witch, Jenny was also a masochist. Rusty slapped Jenny up and down without mercy, and the girl always went in for more.
“Go, Jenny! You can do it!” Yuki yelled her encouragement. Jenny stiffened but didn’t look; she leaped away from another attack from Rusty.
One of Yuki’s goals was to ensure her pet was happy and motivated. The other was to learn more about sorcery and magic and maybe skills. She hadn’t forgotten about Jenny’s new skill, but now that they were learning to communicate, she didn’t see the harm in waiting until she could discuss things with Blondie instead of scaring the girl into doing stuff.
Yuki hadn’t been idle for the past hours. Even if she kept an eye on Jenny, she also reviewed the more esoteric things about shaping. Biscuit poked around things in her mind, and almost reluctantly, the implanted knowledge gave her more. Yuki realized that with time and patience, she might be able to recreate the original version of dominate or even create one of the specialized versions. The same with shapechange. Another thing she learned is that there was a limit to the number of spells she could keep in her mind-space, ready to use. She was halfway there; ten more spell slots then.
The same as her INT. Coincidence? Yuki didn’t think so. She’d seen Jenny’s attributes and realized that depending on how evolution worked here, having super high mental status might not be harmful, even if Yuki was liable to die to a flying cockroach.
Metal hit metal and Yuki looked at the arena. Jenny tried to parry Rusty’s attack, but the armor overpowered her block and sword-slapped the woman away. Jenny fell, and this time, she took some time to get up again. When she did, instead of facing Rusty again, she turned around and hobbled away, dragging the spear behind. Yuki got up from the stone seat and hopped toward her pet. She’d do her part as a magical creature and heal her magical girl. She could also take her time to examine the spell [Regeneration]; perhaps she could learn more about it.