I honestly thought that it would’ve of taken a lot longer, considering that the kingdom’s king was still more or less in charge of approving stuff like that, but the materials and funds only took about 2 weeks to arrive since that day, and the repairs started immediately after. It was the same night that they had arrived in which Maia had warned me that she’ll start our training tomorrow, and that I’d need to get some rest so without a single ounce of defiance on me I obviously just said yes mam and went to sleep. After the attack we set up a sleeping area at the northern tip of what remained of our once banana shaped village. There were more or less 200 survivors total, and since we didn’t have much at disposal, we had decided to make larger tents for families, and have them share in order to limit the needed space and materials.
Fortunately or not for me, I was granted the magnificent honor of having my own tent, which frankly speaking made it extremely comfortable for what it was. I’m glad I didn’t have to share especially with the twins. Nala is a restless sleeper, while Rune is fairly calm, but clingy. I love both of them, but their older brother needs some privacy during the night, also for other reasons. The unfortunate part of not sharing my tent however was that when the next morning arrived, barely any light outside Maia had bursted right in to wake me up, shaking me a bit while doing so.
“Good morning Cael! Starting today, your amazing older sister is going to start turning you into a strong and independent man with her magnificent training, isn’t that awesome?! So I’ll give you 5 minutes to get dressed up and meet me outside, then we go. We’ll be out the whole day so just keep that in mind. Now then, I’ll wait outside, you better be ready in 5 minutes or I’m bursting in again!”
The 2 active brain cells I had after she left quickly processed the information that they had just acquired, and I did what any sane person would in that situation. I dressed up as fast as I possibly could, and in the time record of which I’m humbly proud of 3 minutes and 20 seconds probably? Something like that, I was out and ready.
“Good morning… What's with that big backpack?”
I yawned in between my sentences as I walked towards her.
“Some things I’ll need for your training, and then, uhm… we’ll anyway, it’s time to go!”
at least remember what you have in your backpack…
“You said we’re going out all day, but where specifically?”
“A few kilometers away from the closest town I went to 2 weeks ago. I’ll explain why once we get there.”
Without giving me any time to answer, she quickly started invading my personal space and lifted me up, holding me up her shoulder.
“Wait, wait, wait! Why are you picking me up?!”
“Quit making so much noise, you’ll wake up the others, you know? It’s faster this way.”
“Faster? What do you mea- woaahhh”
Before I could finish my sentence, she jumped up so high that I could see the entire remains of the village area below us, then strengthened her hold of me, and in the next instant I was suddenly a passenger. Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is. I was a passenger flying on the Maia agency, at speeds which I honestly don’t think a plane could reach.(at least in this short amount of time) describing what I was seeing was pretty hard honestly, especially because it didn’t last long whatsoever. I wasn’t counting it in my head or anything like that, but as everything below us passed by faster than I could even try to process and recognize the ground below, she landed after what felt like 2 minutes and a half at most.
“Here we go. Down with you.”
She carefully put me down, surprisingly enough.
“Since when are you able to fly anyway?! And why didn’t you just do that 2 weeks ago as well instead of cornering the whole area just to avoid the forest…”
“Hm? That’s because I don’t think the others know that I can fly, and I can’t be bothered to let them find out when they’re busy with repairs and stuff, no? I obviously decided to go this early because most people were still asleep so at the very least no one in our family would directly see us.”
While her point made sense to a certain extent, it still was weird for her to hide it to begin with. Our parents already knew just as much as anyone else that she is an undoubtable prodigy, so I don’t really see a reason for her to need to hide it. At the same time though, does it really matter? We all have a secret or two. It’s none of my business to pry in hers.
“Is that so? Anyway, are you going to tell me why you brought me all the way here yet?”
“Yeah, yeah, just give me a second.”
She put her ridiculously large backpack down and took something out from it, and as soon as I saw it, I had a painfully bad feeling about it. Why she had just pulled out a shirt my size from it was something I didn’t really want to find out, but at the same time couldn’t do anything about other than wait for an explanation.
“Uhm… my dear older sister, I’m already dressed you know haha?”
“Of course, I can see that my dear little brother. This shirt and also pants, socks and shoes I have inside are your training clothes that you’ll change in now.”
What’s with that calm yet devilish abomination of a smile on her face?! Alright, this was just straight up creepy. Not to mention, the clothes were clearly designed to also be fashionable for fucks sake. I extended my hand to take the shirt, and unfortunately my sixth sense I developed because of her was right. As soon as she let go of it, my tiny hands had to fight for their life because of the unexpected weight. I have no idea how much this thing weighed, but I’m fairly sure that no other kid my age could hold it. Only reason I managed to was because of the already semi hellish training I went through since I was 5.
“What the hell is wrong with you?! Are you telling me to train in this thing?! How much does it even weigh?!!”
“Even after I specifically got these made for you, you sure like to break your sister's heart don’t you?”
“Don’t give me those puppy eyes after you handed me this thing!”
She let out a sigh before talking, for some mysterious reason. You don't have the right to sigh in this situation for god's sake!
“Shirt and pants weigh about 5 kilos each, and the socks are half a kilo each, while the shoes are around a kilo and a half each. We’re about 7 kilometers away from the town, and we’re going to walk there to have breakfast, then walk back here and start your first lesson.”
That’s a scarily calm tone you have while telling your 7 year old brother to walk 7 kilometers with 14 kilos of weight on him… but I guess this wasn’t unusual for her, huh?
“Where did you even get these from anyway?”
“2 weeks ago, I hid more than just my flying from others, in particular mom since she was with you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well… when lunch time arrived after my first set of waiting, I was reaally hungry, but didn’t really have money on me…”
“Wait, don’t tell me?!”
“This girl saw me, and offered to pay for my lunch haha… haha. Oh but we became really good friends from it, I swear! I’ve been coming here every day and even got some pocket money from helping her with some errands!”
Is this airhead really the same person that’s seen as a prodigy?! She took advantage of a poor girl’s kindness then befriended her… I didn’t know you could be this much of an idiot, Maia.
“Hey, why are you looking at me like I just took advantage of a poor girl?! That’s very mean!”
“Because you did, you absolute airhead of a prodigy! Did your brain not develop like your magic skills?! You better make up with her somehow…”
“You know I can modify your clothe’s weight with magic almost instantly, right?”
…shit.
I hadn’t changed in them yet, but I was about to soon, so I did the most reasonable thing in that situation. Bowed and immediately started apologizing to my clearly superior, amazing, kind and sweet older sister.
“I’m very sorry for the rude nonsense I just sprouted from my mouth!”
Even as she smugly looked down at me, I most definitely wasn’t going to do anything about it. In this sibling battle, she was the winner.
“Forgiven, forgiven! Go behind that tree over there or something to change, then we’ll start our walk.”
“Yes mam!”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You really haven't changed, Cael. Even though the story I told you was also a lie, you still believed me and even did something that only one other person has ever done. Pointed out my wrongdoings in it, and actually fought back against me. You really are still as gullible and kind as always. And that’s why I’ll apologize once again. But we cannot let you find out the truth yet. She’s watching from above the clouds right now as you’re changing, and I’m aware of it. But neither of us can explain why. Not yet. What really happened 2 weeks ago wasn’t exactly what I told you and mom, nor the second made up story I told you. It was actually…
I'm slow… my muscles, my bones. They all feel like they’re being put on fire and stabbed at the same time…
During the night of the attack, she appeared. She unsealed my memories of something I cannot explain yet, then quickly explained some of the situation to me. And also she unsealed some of my true power. She couldn’t unseal all of it for 2 reasons, one of which I cannot explain. The other was simply because my body wouldn’t be able to take it all at once. Even now, I’m in such excruciating pain it took me half an hour to get where I am now. A few hundred meters away from the town entrance. If it wasn’t for my constant body regeneration I was doing, all of my muscles and bones would be shredded to pieces. I slowed down as I saw the town in the distance, and that’s when it started. I felt something in the sky a few meters ahead, and I put whatever strength I could into a single motion, which I knew would be sufficient. In the consecutive instant of my realization, a dagger came downwards aimed directly to my skull, at speeds which an average human’s eyes wouldn’t even perceive. But I timed my movement to dodge it right before it would hit, and I was successful. But even if I wasn’t, I knew that it wouldn’t leave a single scratch on me. Why’s that? Because she’s the one who threw it.
“It’s pretty funny to see you this slow, haha! Took you a whole half an hour to get here.”
She landed a few meters in front of me, in a fairly flashy and intentional way. Why did I call it intentional? Because the moment she landed, some of her mana sprouted around her, in a way of which I couldn’t deny the coolness of, but I also knew that she could have just landed normally without any “Vishal effects” to it.
“Spare me the poor humor. My body feels like it’s getting grilled on some high quality charcoal.”
“I imagined that much. Though I only unsealed a small portion of your power, your body was definitely not going to adapt to it right away. With the amount that I unsealed it shouldn’t take you longer than a second to get here if you could use it fully after all.”
Her words were fairly annoying, but I wasn’t actually feeling any discomfort from them, because I knew her better than anyone other than Cael himself. And I could clearly see how worried she was from her eyes. We then slowly started walking towards the town, still talking on our way.
“What about you?”
“Hm?”
“Your body. I can tell that you also don’t have a lot of your power unsealed, but is your body used to it? You’re younger than me as well, you know?”
“Oh, that. I had this much of it unsealed from my birth, so I had time to adapt to it. I can use all of what I have unsealed, plus my natural growth will further increase its potency. Though that’s the case for you as well.”
Our respective amount of unsealed power was relatively close, or so it seemed to me at least, because I was aware of how strong she really was, I could tell to a certain extent how much of it she could use. Even though it was just a small portion, she still had enough power to kill me before I could even blink, but I wasn’t scared of her. Because that wouldn’t even be the last thing to cross her mind, it just wouldn’t ever happen. As we approached the gates, I mentally prepared myself for whatever the guards might’ve done or said to me, due to my hard to miss eye color, and she definitely noticed it, but her next words weren’t of concern. Rather they were words of reassurance.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be alright, Maia. Just keep walking.”
I nodded. We got closer and closer to the gate and the guards which usually never really bothered to stop anyone for questioning unless they genuinely looked suspicious, which is why I expected them to stop us specifically… but we managed to pass right through without any problems. When I turned to her in order to ask what that was about, she simply smiled before answering calmly.
“I used illusionary magic to make everyone other than me see your eye color differently. Though its effect only works within this town right now at least.”
I was going to thank her, and explain why I was here, but before I could tell her any of it, she stopped me from talking while extending her hand.
“I already sent the materials and funds on their way. It’ll take about 2 weeks still, but I can’t force it too much. Today you’re going to entertain me for a while, and I won’t take no for an answer.”
That’s why I’m absolutely certain of it. She had already solved my task I needed to take care of in my current dreadful physical situation, and used some poor excuse like “you’re going to entertain me” instead of directly admitting she’s just worried and wants me to take it easy. This girl is the epitome of humanity, the strongest any human will ever get. And also, she’s just a regular young girl. And my best friend.
“There’s a very good cafe close by! They sell great pastries, so let’s go there to continue our chat! Oh, also since I know you don’t have a single dime, it’ll all be on me, don’t worry about it.”
The possibility that I might not be the same person she also considers her best friend didn’t even cross her mind. And while it obviously isn’t the case, regardless of only unsealing my memories yesterday night she still treats me the same as usual. You’ve always been just painfully kind. So much that it worries me. Only until I remember who you are, that is. After all, there’s only 2 people, me included, that could take advantage of your kindness. After quickly following her inside, the moment I sat down I could feel my muscles and bones getting more relaxed, and it wasn’t because my regeneration works better while I’m resting or any stupid things of the kind. She was using her own healing magic on me, to further ease the pain. When I looked at her, I was greeted by her usual warm smile that only a few have ever seen, and she stopped me from thanking her.
“The waiter is here, let’s not have her wait too long and order our pastries, alright?”
Of course, I was aware that she only used the waiter as an excuse to avoid receiving any gratitude from me, but I decided to play along for the sake of actually not making her wait too long.
After ordering our food, I decided it was time to get some more clues on the situation, so without holding back I went straight to it.
“If both of us are here, then does that mean?”
Her expression showed no signs of wavering. It remained as casual as usual, while also still having a hint of her everlasting confidence within it.
“This is the last one.”
As I thought… the time for “that” was really approaching.
“How many times have passed since the last time we were together?”
“7641. It’s been quite a while haha.”
“I see. Then I’ll ask you this wh-“
As if already knowing what I was going to ask, she stopped me from talking and answered right away.
“We’ll wait. The goal is the same, turning the world into a peaceful and easy to live one for him to wait for us in. But I won’t just go and kill the lizard overnight and call it a day.”
you’re the only one who’d call the dragon king a lizard…
“I see. Can I ask you why?”
“It’s nothing complicated really. Simply put, it’s a pain. The lizard probably hasn’t gotten his direct order to go after him from them. I have no reason to do it until then. It’ll also give him more time to have his well deserved rest.”
I expected this type of answer, so it didn’t surprise me when actually hearing it. After all, even though she played it off as simply being an annoying matter for her, she actually just doesn’t want to interfere with Cael’s wishes. She knows him as well if not better than me. We both are aware of his innate desire to have fun, explore and make all kinds of memories, and we also both know about his unshakable will… to protect.
“I see. By the way, mind explaining to me what the deal is with that sword you gave him?”
“You know that it’s his preferred weapon, so I don’t need to tell you that I assume.”
“You know what I mean. I told him that he’ll need to face even more physically intense training and forcefully expand his mana pool by expanding the amount of mana his body needs to sustain itself. It would be extremely embarrassing if I changed my Training plan mid way because I misunderstood that sword’s effect…”
“Haha, you really don’t want to have a bad image in front of my Cael, huh?”
“Hold your horses. He’s not yours yet. He’s still my sweet little brother, of course I want to look cool in front of him.”
“I guess that makes sense too. But anyway, to answer your question. You’re not too far off. While I don’t approve of you making my beloved go through your hellish training, you shouldn’t need to really change the plan for it.”
“Thank god… but what’s the actual deal with it?”
“It basically just makes sure his mana stomach productivity will never decrease from its set point. Which is filling up his stomach in a “normal” amount of time. As long as the pool quantity capacity increases, the blade will keep filling it up. The effect will last as long as the blade isn’t broken.”
I sighed at the way she casually announced she created something with an almost permanent cure to an incurable disease, but at the end of the day that’s just how she was. She did it for his sake after all. I know it better than anyone in the world. There isn’t a single soul that loves Cael as much as her. And I couldn’t be more glad that she is the one who’ll be by his side.
“Alright, alright. While I’m at it, I need you to also make something I’ll need for Cael’s next training session.”
“Before you try to exploit my amazing, unparalleled skills, let me ask you thi-“
“Yes, yes. We’ll start the day after the materials and funds arrive, and I’ll have him train close by to this town so you can watch. As long as you don’t do anything indecent while watching my cute little brother, and you also keep yourself hidden.”
She wasn’t really surprised that I answered before she even asked, just like she did earlier, if anything her grin was honestly scaring me for the purity of my little brother, but I knew she wouldn’t do anything yet.
“As expected of my best friend. So? What is it that you want me to make you?, oh and also do you need me to cast the illusionary magic for your eyes in case you come inside the town?”
“We will be coming inside, which will also require you to use your amazing powers and make some money for us. But I don’t need the magic. Though I will cover up his hair with a hat or something, I’ll be fine.”
“Openly treating me as a wallet… oh, I am so hurt! I feel as if my heart had been stabbed by a thorn!”
“Sure, sure. Spare me the acting. Now for the real thing I need you to make…”
“What is it?”
I intertwined my hands and with both elbows on the table, I glanced at her with an extremely serious gaze before answering.
“I need you to make a bunch of outfits for Cael. Heavy ones so he’ll get physically stronger. You can choose the design for everything. Besides underwear.”
She matched my act of extreme seriousness, then answered in a tone that also matched mine.
“You’ve come to the right person. I assume you want me to make them the night before the training so you don’t carry them home now, am I correct?”
“I’ll take that as a yes then?”
We smiled at each other as we exchanged a very businessman that just concluded a life changing deal hand shake, and with that we went back to normal as if nothing happened.
“Oh by the way, what do we do about that?”
“That?… ohhh. Let’s just wait until you claim your position. I’ll just delay any matters that are important until then. And I’ll personally attend that since you’re not going to be allowed to.”
“I see. I don’t have any complaints with it. I’m not really sure how long it’ll take though. I won’t leave until I teach Cael everything he needs.”
“I assumed so. What is your plan for his training other than physical torture?”
“Don’t put it out in such a rude way. I’ll first teach him how to enhance all of his physical stats. Defense, strength, durability, stamina, speed? Next is how to regenerate. Then how to fly probably, and uhmm, I think then how to strengthen weapons and objects and I’ll conclude it with teaching him how to release his condensed mana through a blast and with a weapon. I’m looking forward to my acting performance at that point, haha.”
“What are you talking about-… ohhh! Haha I see. Yeah, I’ll also look forward to seeing how you’ll act surprised when you see that. He’s the only one besides me who can do it after all.”
“Don’t make this about yourself…”
“I’m not, I’m not. I’m obviously praising him. But it’s nothing surprising, after all that’s the least to be expected from my lover, is it not?!”
“Right, right. But anyway, now that we ate and my muscles are better, let’s go and hang outside until I go back.”
“Alrighty. Even though we have a lot awaiting us, I’m glad that I have you with me, Maia.”
“That’s my line. I’m also glad that you’re with me.”
We then mostly just hung out for the rest of the day doing stuff like checking out shops and what not. Most of our conversations were still surrounded around you, Cael. So even though we cannot tell you the truth yet, and we’re technically deceiving you, I hope you can forgive us. We are both against your training, as none of us would mind handling it all ourselves, but I couldn’t bring myself to deny your wishes. Because even after all you’ve been through, even though you play it as just wanting to get stronger for your own benefit later on as an adventurer, I know the truth. And that is that deep down, all you want is the strength to protect others, because that’s just the type of person you are. One who loves his freedom, loves to have fun, but above all… you’re someone who does anything he can to protect others, even if it’s unconscious to you. Like the night of the attack when you put your life on the line to save dad and Aldric. If you hadn’t gotten in the barrier when you did, Alduin was surely going to kill them both. Without even being aware of it, you have not only saved them but everyone that has survived, as neither me or her would've made it in time. So even though you’re unaware of it. You’re already a Hero. And I’ll help you acquire all the strength that you want, because I know you’ll use it in a good way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
she wasn’t joking about their weight…
After I put on the painfully heavy clothes she provided me with, I slowly walked up towards her and found her grinning as she looked at me to check my outfit.
“W-what?”
This is such an embarrassing man, I really want to disappear so badly right now. Stop defiling my innocent body with your “I knew they would look good on you” Glare!!
“Hm? Nothing, nothing. Let’s go.”
She waited for me to reach her and with a smile on her face, our walk towards the town began.