As I headed back to the maid supply room, I bumped into the old maid from before.

"Oh young master Fred, your mother is looking for you."

"Where is she?"

"She's waiting for you in her study."

"Thank you."

I started to head towards mother's room when I remembered I still had the hammer in my pocket.

"Wait, miss. Could you return this to the supply room for me?"

"Miss? You can call me Carmin, young master. I'm much too old to be called a miss. I'll be sure to return this master Fred."

I didn't delay my arrival any further and walked into my mother's room. She'd been sitting on the large sofa that adorned her study corner. She was reading a illustrated book to Ibis and Cassie, my younger sisters.

"Mom?"

"Ah, Freddy! Come on sit, we were just looking at one of your favorite stories. The sword of peace and the wizard of battle."

It was a story about the first emperor of these lands. He made a deal with the Zen god and united nearly three continents. This emperor ended his reign by establishing a magic academy in his homeland.

I sat next to my sister Cassie. She liked to lean on my shoulder and suck on her thumb while mother read.

"Was there something you wanted to tell me?"

"Well, I know you might be feeling a bit excited over yesterday, but please don't be too hard on yourself. If you feel like you're struggling and you can't seem to get that through to your father tell me. Okay?"

"I think it's going to be alright. I feel like I can do this, but I promise if I can't I'll let you know."

"It's a promise then Fred. What were you up to anyway?"

Ibis cooed and put her hands around mother's bosom while Cassie started pulling on my hair slightly. I put a stop to Cassie's hair pulling by holding her hand.

"I was just walking around the castle. I feel like I hardly know the place."

"That sounds like fun. Be careful if you go to the older wing, I haven't been there myself, but your father says it hasn't been properly maintained and it's not very safe."

"I'll be careful. I love you mom."

"I love you too. Iblis dear give your big brother a hug."

The three-year-old spread her arms around and slapped them around my equally small body. Mom didn't even ask Cassie to do it to but she piled on. Even if my older siblings act like I'm annoying just by being around these two have been kind enough to me to make up for it.

"Bye Fred!"

Cassie squealed once I was at the door leaving mother's room. I waved back as mother continued the story.

I ran back to the shattered lock, the doors were surprisingly light considering the rust of the lock and the overall decrepitness of this entire wing.

I proceeded through the doors. Ironically, all there was was another hall and a set of doors, but there were these strange torches that seemed to be ever illuminating their color fading to a warm white. I wondered if it was magic alone that had maintained the torches.

I had to pull the next set of doors open. They weren't any heavier than the locked ones in front of them. Beyond these doors was a descending stairway. It was very strange, there weren't any railings to hold onto and the walls expanded into an entire grand room.

At the end of the stairs was a rectangular training area. There was only a single dummy but the wide variety of wooden obstacles reminded me of an acrobatics focused gymnasium.

I looked around some more and caught site of a rack of wooden swords. I picked one up and it felt pretty light, but the second one felt purposefully weighted by the rings and tied on stacks of straw around the false blade.

Another object suddenly caught my interest. On the other end of the court was a ledger with a single tome laying closed on it. I had to climb onto the storage shelf inside of the ledger to reach up to it.

The tome wasn't covered in dust or dirt. A little weird I thought since there's a draft that could be felt sweeping across the room. This room felt like I was outside despite it being deep within the castle from an architectural stand point.

Fear. That was the main title of the tome. Really ominous if you asked me. However, the subtitle was way more interesting. It read 'A manual on the philosophy and sword style that dominated the world in the past.' The author's an ancestor of mine judging by the name.

"By Garrett Dreadtree"

I knew about the existence of swordsmen who would often fight alongside spellcasters and other mythical figures. I didn't think much of them, what could they possibly have to do to catch up with any of these things, all they do is swing a sword around, right?

Maybe that's why this wing's been abandoned. Magic might be too powerful to compete against in both the early level and later level. It's like that in fantasy all the time. Then again, I grew up in and matured in an era where muscleheads were protagonists that brute forced whatever magic was thrown at them.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I sighed. Am I really the type to focus all my training on pure physique? No, not really. On the other hand, I've got no room to talk I was pudgy throughout my life. I was obese as a teen and staying in all the time didn't help while I wasted my twenties.

Lifting weights and running across this obstacle course might not be a bad idea, as long as it doesn't break now after being abandoned for so long. The Zen god was a swordsman after all. Hmm. The theology of this world is rooted in polytheism. There are the ruling gods and the unruly gods. I don't think our father has really mentioned the patron god of our household, but he often prays to them before going to dinner.

I've still got a lot to learn about this world before I go and get comfortable and picky with what I decide to read.

I picked up the tome and opened it up on the floor.

The introduction was pure theory about emotion and the human will that lurks behind these processes in our minds we call feelings. I started freaking out when I realized I hadn't seen the time. I was so enthralled in the book despite being a slow reader, I forgot to make sure I made time to head back for father's lesson.

I tried to look for the source of the wind to see if there were some window that let me see where the sun was currently at over the world.

The draft led me to another room, as soon as I opened it and stepped inside I felt my heart skip a beat and my body suddenly flail. I tried to grab a hold of something. I yelled. There was no floor in this room, there was just a hole that sat over the edge of the cliffside this castle was built on.

The fall felt like an eternity, I closed my eyes hoping to avoid seeing the impact. But I kept opening them to see the ever closing distance between me and the rocks at the edge where the sea splashes onto the face of the cliff.

How silly of me. I laughed, the distance never changed between me and the deadly hard surface of the boulders. The floor in this room was odd, it was made of pure wind, its translucent appearance tricked my mind into believing I would fall straight down. My fear deluded me to the point my eyes gained the illusion of approaching death.

A fitting room to have for training the control over that primal emotion. But I didn't need this right now. I looked up to see the entire room is actually outside the walls of the castle. I could see the sun from here and it was still midday. My stomach grumbled. I hadn't had any breakfast.

While I finished at the bits of egg and pork that were left on my plate, I thought to the singular exercise found in the introductory chapter. The way to always put yourself in a mood of worry and general fear. Think about the worst thing that could possibly happen in that moment as having already happened.

I don't like that it's not much of an exercise for someone like me, it really felt like the author was targeting me, since that's how I was my whole life until now. It's not a way I want to live my life anymore.

Perhaps it's better if I gave up on trying to read more into that book. Heh. Giving up isn't the way I want to go about my new life either.

Fueled and mentally readied I returned to the swordsman dojo in the abandoned wing. In no time I had finished the introduction, it's sole phrase that stared back to me at the end is the epitome of any sword style.

"Fear is your strength. To use it properly you must understand it cannot hold dominion over you. You are the only master of yourself and your fate."

Now the so called manual began its true teaching section of the seventeen techniques in the Fear style.

I needed a wooden sword for this part. I grabbed the lighter baton that I could actually manage to hold easily with this young body's strength.

"Paranoia Panorama." It was described as a defensive circular strike. I had to swing the blade around my whole body. It didn't feel particularly special.

I gave it another shot with more force but there was no real threat behind it. It was just a swing that I could barely do around my body.

Reading the instructions for it again I realized the element that I'm missing is rather obvious. Why would a sword style manual spend the first half of its text explaining a whole thought process, if it had nothing to do with the techniques that followed? It wouldn't, I hadn't been giving it much thought, at most I was simply imitating the crude sketch on the book to perform the technique.

The name of the technique might be the link behind the theory and the execution. The slash is the panorama, it needs to cover my entire immediate area. As for the paranoia... if there were someone waiting to strike in a corner just outside my eye sight.

I tried to induce this thought of some unseen force moving just out of my sight. I started to feel my heart beat louder in my ears.

A sudden reflex possessed me to attempt the technique once more. I felt a surge of mana internally as my body twisted along with the blade to sweep across all sides of where I had stood.

I tripped and fell but the effort behind the swing was surreal, it seemed beyond what this body should be capable of. I was giddy in my achievement.

Starting that day I wanted to train with the sword in my free time and continue lessons with my father in evening. I further planned that if I needed to I would sacrifice some time with the sword to commit more to my father's assigned study.

For today's lesson, father decided to continue a bit more on the lectures from yesterday, but told my siblings to keep in mind yesterday's lesson for our practical training after the reading.

After about an hour, father led us out to the training ground again.

"Just like yesterday try to conjure up a ball of flame. Once you've got it down go ahead and feel free to fling them towards the targets around the yard."

Vanilla was finally able to conjure the fire but it would begin to vanish as fast as it showed up. Zeus was beginning to move it further and further from himself but inevitably the fire would give out before reaching a target. Luca tried to be more forceful and raised the sphere high before trying to throw it like a baseball, it wouldn't leave his hand of course, some part of him is afraid it'll go out so he's unable to let it go.

"Fred, for today I want you to learn another spell from the elemental set. Let's do water, are you okay with that?"

"I don't mind father, whatever you think is best."

I wasn't entirely ready to start picking out what sounded better to learn over what father suggested first. I'm still a child in some regard, still indecisive at times.

"Alright then, let's get started 'o drowner of land."

Father stopped speaking for a moment and stared at me.

"Can you try to cast a water ball? It's okay if you can't I'm just curious. I hadn't even taught you about the abbreviated casting chants."

"I'll try."

I meekly replied to my father's request. I wasn't sure of it myself but I believe the magic in this world relies solely on the limitations of the user's imagination. Of course, with the caveat of needing far more knowledge of how the world works and a clear image of the resulting effect in order for it to happen. It's either that or coming up with a chant to streamline it.

Concentrating all of my mental efforts on a sustained and clear image of dripping water in my hands, I started getting that internal valve again.

I let it flood and there was liquid in my hands. I could easily control it, I sifted it between my hands then made it into a sphere. Then I had the idea to make the sphere half filled to look like I was holding a piece of the ocean. I had waves crash in this half filled sphere that would stop at the edge and spill back onto itself while climbing the empty dome half of the ball.

"Having fun?"

"Yes."

"If you can, try to hit the dummy right over there, like you did with the fireball yesterday."

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Could I try doing something else to strike the target."

"Sure, if you think you can do it go on ahead."

I was interested to see for myself how malleable I could turn my spell.