Lorelei and Corie both collapsed onto the ground, panting and covered in sweat. They let out groans.
“Is that the best you two can do?” I said, crossing my arms and glaring down at them.
Corie responded by flipping me off. Meanwhile, Lorelei rolled onto her back and covered her eyes with her arm.
The hotel we were staying at had a private backyard for guests to use. Most probably used it to host tea parties or some such. I decided to use the backyard for our morning training sessions.
We must have made an odd sight. The hotel employees kept finding excuses to wander outside and watch us. At least they kept their distance, so we could talk in private if we kept our voices low.
Last night, after my conversation with Annabelle, I walked back to the hotel. I could have hired a carriage, but I decided against it. Walking helped me clear my head. When I returned, the hotel employees gave me two messages, as well as a bottle of Rosewood Wine.
The first message was from Lieutenant Hayden, letting me know that the caravan would be leaving about six days from today.
The second message was from Lady Rosewood. It contained the name and address of a local merchant who sold Brightwood. It also told me that if I name dropped Lady Rosewood, I could get a discount.
After receiving the messages and the bottle of wine, I returned to my rooms. Leroy was there waiting for me, and gave me the expected lecture.
I held off cultivating the next morning. Instead, I brought my disciples outside and led an exercise routine to help them condition their bodies. Neither Lorelei and Corie were weak or out of shape, since they were both adventurers, but the exercises I put them through pushed them to their limits.
Leroy was out there as well, doing his own training. He didn’t participate in the group exercises, since he was already in excellent shape, so he practiced his sword work.
“Why are you such a slave driver today, Master Gabriel?” Corie said, sitting up.
“I’m sorry,” I replied. “Is a little light exercise too much for you?”
“You call this light exercise?” Corie asked in disbelief.
“Yes.” I gestured to my body. “Look at me. I haven’t even broken a sweat.”
It was true. I performed the exercises alongside my disciples, and I wasn’t even winded. To be fair, I had several advantages that Lorelei and Corie didn’t.
“Ugh,” Corie said, laying back down. “Is all this really necessary?”
I went to a nearby bench and grabbed the glasses of water I had prepared earlier.
“Yes,” I said. “Cultivation is a form of internal alchemy that allows you to reach higher and higher states of being. Your body is a part of this. It is the vessel that holds your soul. Don’t neglect it.”
I handed my disciples the glasses of water. They both sat up and took them. Corie gave me a look that was full of both gratitude and resentment.
“Make sure you’re paying attention as well, Leroy,” I said. “You may not be my disciple, but you can still benefit from listening in.”
“Yes, young master.”
No one said anything for several seconds as my disciples drained the glasses dry.
“Corie is right, Master Gabriel,” Lorelei said after she finished drinking. “You were harsher than usual today.” She tilted her head. “Did something happen yesterday?”
I snorted.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “I’m just putting you through the same training I went through when I first started out.”
Ah, those were the days. Ancestors, I was an ignorant shit back then. A guttersnipe who thought he had what it took to become a cultivator and walk the path towards immortality. Well, that ignorant little shit ended up being right.
Aurora poked her head out of my dantian region.
“Don’t listen to him,” she said, speaking out loud. “He met with Lady Annabelle Thorne yesterday. That’s why he’s in a bad mood.”
I stared at her in surprise.
“You can physically talk?” I asked.
“Of course,” she said with a snort. “I always could. I just never needed to before.”
I shoved her back into my dantian before she could say more.
“That’s enough out of you.”
Unfortunately, the damage was already done. Both Lorelei and Corie perked up, like sharks who had scented fresh blood in the water.
“Lady Annabelle Thorne?” Lorelei said, with an air of faux innocence. “Who is she, Master Gabriel? A friend of yours?”
“A lady friend?” Corie asked, wagging her eyebrows.
“No one you need to concern yourself with,” I said, giving them both my coldest look.
Aurora poked her head out of my dantian region again.
“She’s the Otherworlder who shattered his Circles, and the lo-…”
Before she could finish her sentence, I shoved her back inside my body. This time, I also grabbed her with my divine energy and threw her into the pool of mana inside my body. Since she and I were one now, I could affect her to a limited degree with my divine energy. She wriggled about in my grip, but couldn’t break free.
When I turned my attention back to my disciples, I saw Lorelei giving me a concerned look, while Corie wore an evil grin on her face.
“Are you all right, Master Gabriel?” Lorelei asked. “Nothing happened, right?”
I shook my head.
“Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine,” I said. “It was just an unpleasant reminder of the past, that’s all.”
“Hmm,” Corie said. “I’m not so sure about that, Master Gabriel. Otherwise, why would you try so hard to downplay it?” Her grin widened. “Maybe I should meet with this Lady Annabelle Thorne. I think she and I would get along quite well.”
I gave Corie a flat look. Forbidding her from meeting Annabelle would just make her want to do it more. The chances of them actually meeting were low, since Annabelle was the scion of a Great House, and Corie was just a minor noble. The difference in status between them was the difference between the heavens and the earth. Not impossible to surmount, but quite difficult.
Still, no need to leave things to chance.
“Continue with this line of thinking,” I said, giving her a grin of my own. “And I’ll double your training’s difficulty.”
Corie blanched at that.
“You’re no fun,” she muttered under her breath.
“I’m not supposed to be fun, I’m supposed to be your teacher.”
Speaking of being her teacher, and Lorelei’s, there were a few things I needed to do. I came to a decision when I woke up that morning. While it was fine for me to only rely on myself when it came to my cultivation, at least when it came to resources and such, I couldn’t do the same for my disciples. I had neither the means nor the time.
And it was unfair of me to not provide them with some support as their master; unfair and irresponsible.
That was why I decided to use my family’s money to aid their cultivation. I would limit myself to my quarterly allowance, but it was still my family’s money in the end.
That didn’t mean I would be crazy about it. They still needed to be self reliant, but I would support them to the best of my ability. If nothing else, I needed to get each of them a starting kit, as well as a gift.
After we finished with morning exercises for the day, my disciples went out again. I learned that they spent most of yesterday just walking around and exploring Rosewood City. Today, they planned on visiting all the nearby cafes and sampling what they had to offer. It turned out that Rosewood City’s love of art also applied to cooking.
I decided to stay at the hotel and focus on my cultivation. Since I was so close to breaking through to the third small realm of the Energy Condensation stage, I figured I might as well go ahead and get that done with. Thankfully, I had the bottle of Rosewood Wine that Lady Rosewood provided.
It contained more mana than I had expected. A lot more. So much mana in fact, that half the bottle was enough to give me the final push I needed. I would save the rest for my disciples. They were still wizards, and this would help them form new threads.
I sat in my room and gulped down half the bottle of Rosewood Wine in one go. It tasted sweet and smooth, without a hint of bitterness. A comfortable warmth filled my stomach as my body absorbed the mana contained within the wine.
While the Wood mana wouldn’t be as useful to me, I could still use it. On the other hand, my body took in the Water mana the same way dry earth would take in rainfall.
I added the mana to the pool of mana inside my dantian, refining and purifying it in the process. Aurora helped. While her presence alone would be enough to increase the effectiveness of my cultivation, it went faster when she actively participated.
The pool of mana grew larger and larger. I felt a barrier, a bottleneck, hinder my progress. With an effort of will, aided by the mana from the Rosewood Wine, I broke through the bottleneck with ease.
The pool of mana increased in size, growing so large that it could almost be considered a lake at this point. Almost, but not quite. I circulated my cultivation base, letting it strengthen and purify my being. Impurities, in the form of greasy and foul smelling black sludge, oozed out of my body.
I spent the next few hours stabilizing my new realm, before I relaxed. A smile lit up my face. It was a small increase in power, but it was an increase. My body grew a bit stronger, I could use a bit more of my divine sense, and the power of my spells would be stronger now. This was what cultivation was about.
While there were times when one received a sudden increase in power, usually thanks to a fortuitous encounter or a blessing from a more powerful being, it was the little steps that mattered the most. Slowly refining one’s being was better than jumping ahead all the time. Steady growth led to a stronger and more stable foundation.
Of course, this was all a bit hypocritical coming from me. My progress was ridiculously fast. It took most people at least a few years before they reached the third small realm of the Energy Condensation stage. I did it in months.
I mean, I had several advantages that most people didn’t. Half of cultivation was about learning and understanding the laws and principles that governed the universe. Some cultivators spent centuries searching for that one little insight that would help them break through to a new realm.
Since I already went through all of that, I just needed to worry about increasing my power.
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After consolidating my new realm, I headed out to meet with the merchant Lady Rosewood recommended. She must have already warned him about me, because the man gave me a warm welcome when I arrived.
The merchant, whose name was Gibson Hayward, was a fat and jolly fellow who liked to laugh a lot. However, his laughter didn’t grate on my nerves. He reminded me a bit of that one uncle who arrived at Christmas parties and gave expensive gifts to all the children.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I learned that Gibson specialized in dealing with magical materials, including Brightwood. This surprised me because the man was a regular mortal. There wasn’t a drop of magic in his blood. However, despite his lack of magic, I soon found out that the man was a shrewd businessman. He knew what he was doing.
I liked the man, despite knowing that his cheerful and jolly demeanor was a tactic to lower peoples’ guard. Some of it was genuine, I was sure, but he wasn’t above using it to his advantage. That just made me like him more. It was fun to haggle with him.
In the end, I got the amount of Brightwood that I needed. The wood was yellow gold, and had a slight glow to it. It took all of the money I made from selling all those Protection Talismans, but I thought that it was worth it.
I also ended up buying more than a few supplies from Gibson. Not for myself, but for my disciples’ starting kit. Each kit consisted of three mana cores from low-rank First Circle magic beasts, ten mana stones, and several mana potions.
During my visit to the Adventurers Guild yesterday, I learned that most adventurers measured a magic beast’s power by the Circle of magic they corresponded to, as well as the number of threads within that circle. While some used the specific number of threads, like I had, most went with three broad categories.
The three categories were low-rank, mid-rank, and high-rank. Low-rank meant magic beasts with power equivalent to the first, second, and third threads within a specific Circle. Mid-rank referred to magic beasts with power equivalent to the fourth, fifth, and sixth threads. High-rank meant the seventh, eighth, and ninth threads.
Low-rank First Circle beasts were the weakest of magic beasts. Inferno Wolves were one example of these. Alpha Inferno Wolves were considered a mid-rank First Circle magic beast.
Since this system was simple and easy to use, I adopted it as well.
Buying all this stuff cost me a good chunk of my quarterly allowance, but since I bought so many things at once, Gibson gave me a discount on top of the one dropping Lady Rosewood’s name gave me.
In the end, both of us walked away from that transaction happy with the outcome.
After that, I headed back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day carving out formation flags from the chunk of Brightwood I acquired. Well, technically they could be called formation stands. Formation flags used silk for the flag part, or paper in some cases, but I always preferred to carve the whole thing out of wood. It felt right to me, so that’s how I did things.
Thanks to my skills, I managed to carve out the formation flags while wasting as little of the Brightwood as possible.
I could have used sword intent and my newly acquired magic daggers to speed things along, but I decided not to. There was just something satisfying about working with the Brightwood as I slowly carved out the formation flags.
The next few days passed like this. I spent most of my time in the hotel, cultivating and training in the morning, and carving out the formation flags in the afternoon. The internal wounds I sustained from the fight with the Black Wolf Gang healed, and my shoulder felt better.
Meanwhile Lorelei and Corie continued to explore Rosewood City, sampling what it had to offer. Listening to them over dinner, as they recounted what they had seen, always made me smile. I made sure to give them the rest of the Rosewood Wine. They were delighted, and made significant progress towards forming their next threads.
I did my carving outside, so Leroy could continue with his training instead of standing around and doing nothing while I worked. It was an arrangement that suited the both of us.
It wasn’t long before I carved out the first set of formation flags. I used it to create a mana gathering formation and was satisfied with the results. It wasn’t as good as a dedicated mana gathering formation, let alone a mana gathering magic circle, but it was certainly better than nothing.
Leroy was surprised by how effective the formation flags were, but after a brief moment, he shrugged and moved on. Heh. He really was getting used to the weirdness that surrounded me. Then again, he had witnessed my true form when I formed the familiar contract with Aurora. It was kind of hard to top something like that.
It was during the fourth day of our six day stay in Rosewood City that things went wrong.
----------------------------------------
I was in the hotel’s backyard, carving out the second set of formation flags, while Leroy trained nearby. It was early afternoon on a beautiful summer day, and the temperatures were soaring. These were the dog days of summer, as they called it back on Earth, when the season was at its hottest and most unbearable.
For me, it wasn’t much of an issue. As a cultivator, I had a higher tolerance to heat. Even if it grew too hot for me, I could always just summon a breeze with my Air magic, or cool myself down with Water Spray.
I had just finished carving out a formation flag, when one of the hotel’s employees approached me.
“A message for you, Lord Gabriel,” the employee said, handing me a piece of paper.
I took the paper and thanked the man, before dismissing him. As he left, I read the message. My expression grew dark.
“Leroy,” I said. “Get ready to go out.”
“What happened, young master?”
I looked at him.
“Lorelei and Corie are at the Church of the Sun,” I said. “Something happened at one of the local art galleries, and Lorelei was injured. She’s unconscious. Corie is with her now, though she managed to send this message.”
Leroy nodded. Without another word, the two of us headed back to our rooms. I dressed in my best outfit, and armed myself with my magic daggers. I also brought several talismans, including my two remaining Ghostfire Sealing Talismans.
While Corie’s message didn’t include that many details, there was one line that drew my attention. Apparently, Lorelei’s injuries were the fault of a “pink-haired fuck”.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out who she meant by that.
I had Jeffrey ready the carriage, and soon we were off.
Rosewood City’s Church of the Sun stood out when compared to its neighbors. The Church was a simple and unadorned building made from gray stone. Somehow, despite that, it didn’t look ugly. Rather, its humble appearance had a beauty of its own.
When the carriage stopped in front of the Church of the Sun, a junior priestess exited the Church and approached me. She wore a set of simple yellow robes.
“Lord Gabriel Sturm?” the junior priestess said.
“Yes,” I said.
“Please come with me. Your people are in the House of Healing.”
I gestured for her to lead the way. The junior priestess nodded. We walked around the side and entered the Church through a side entrance. It was cooler inside, thanks to a combination of magic and the Church’s thick stone walls. Divinity and holiness pervaded the place. I could feel it with my divine sense. The mana in the church was high as well. It made sense, since this was sacred land. The smell of incense filled the air.
Like the exterior, the interior of the Church was simple and unadorned. While there were paintings, statues, and other art pieces, they were the exception rather than the rule. All of them depicted Sol, his wife Luna, or one of their many children in some form or another. There was also a lot of sun iconography everywhere, as could be expected.
The junior priestess led us through gray stone hallways. Occasionally we passed by other priests and priestesses of the Church of the Sun as they hurried about their own business.
Soon, we reached the House of Healing. It was a large, rectangular room with two rows of beds running along both sides. Tall narrow windows let in sunlight, and there were magelamps for when it grew dark. Most of the beds were empty, though a few were occupied by patients. Junior priests and priestesses tended to the patients.
The junior priestess who guided us bowed, before leaving to continue with her other duties.
Lumina had hospitals and mortal doctors, but mortal medicine couldn’t compare to the healing provided by Holy magic. The two weren’t mutually exclusive, however. There were plenty of priests who learned about the mortal forms of medicine, becoming doctors themselves. Armed with the knowledge of mortal medicine, as well as Holy magic, these healers were literal miracle workers.
Each Church of the Sun had a House of Healing, though they varied in size. The smaller Churches often just had a room with a single bed on it. The larger ones often had a separate building altogether. No matter how large or how small, the Church of the Sun’s healing spaces were all Houses of Healing.
At the far end of this House of Healing, I saw Corie kneeling next to a bed occupied by Lorelei, who was unconscious. To my surprise, I also saw a familiar pair of women standing next to my disciples.
“What are they doing here?” I growled under my breath.
Annabelle and Avianna looked my way as I approached with Leroy in tow. When Corie saw me, she rushed over and pulled me into a tight hug. That caught me off guard. I hadn’t realized we were that close now. I returned the hug, before pulling away and studying my disciple.
From her red and splotchy eyes, and the tear streaks running down her cheeks, it was clear that Corie had been crying.
“Sorry about that, young master,” Corie said, wiping one of her eyes with the palm of her hand. “I just…After what happened with Lorrie, I really needed that.”
I patted Corie on the shoulder.
“Don’t apologize for seeking comfort during a trying time,” I said, giving her a reassuring smile.
Corie nodded, before turning around and heading back towards Lorelei. As we approached, from the corner of my eye, I noticed Annabelle giving me an odd look. Avianna glared at me as usual. I paid them little mind and focused my attention on Lorelei.
She was naked, with only a blanket to protect her modesty. Her face was pale and drawn. She also looked thinner than she had just this morning. Her chest moved up and down in a steady rhythm. Despite whatever happened to her, her condition was stable. She didn’t look to be in any danger now.
I studied Lorelei with my divine sense. While she looked whole, it was clear that the healing provided by Holy magic had taxed her body. That meant that her injuries had been significant. It would take her some time to recover.
Corie knelt next to the bed again and gripped Lorelei’s hand.
“What happened?” I asked her.
Corie glanced at Annabelle before looking back at me, a guilty expression on her face. She didn’t answer right away.
I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at her.
“We…” Corie started to say, but Annabelle interrupted her.
“It’s my fault,” she said.
She stepped forward, a tight expression on her face.
“How so, Lady Annabelle?” I said, giving her a fake smile.
Despite the situation, I couldn’t help but notice Annabelle’s outfit. It looked like something she would wear on Earth; a tank top and a pair of jeans. I have no idea where she got the jeans. I hadn’t realized Lumina even had denim.
The tank top left most of Annabelle’s upper body exposed, revealing her lean and tone form. Ancestors, I had forgotten how busty she was. It took a considerable amount of willpower to keep my eyes on her face.
Focus, Gabriel. This isn’t the time for that.
“These two got caught up in one of my messes, and Lorelei ended up getting injured because of it. I’m sorry. It shouldn’t have happened.”
“No, it shouldn’t have,” I said in a cold voice. “But that isn’t the full story, is it?” I looked back at Corie. “Tell me everything. Now.”
My disciple hesitated before answering.
“Lorrie and I were at one of the art galleries, when we ran into Lady Annabelle. We didn’t know who she was at first, so we talked with her for a bit and asked her to join us.”
This didn’t surprise me. Annabelle had always been good at making friends, even with complete strangers. The question was, had she befriended my disciples by accident? Or had it been a deliberate move on her part?
I glanced at Annabelle.
“I didn’t know who they were either,” she said, as if reading my mind. “I only found out that they were your people when Corie asked a priest to send you a message.”
“I see,” I said. “What happened after that?”
“We went to a nearby cafe for lunch,” Corie said. “When we got there, some pink-haired fuck came out of nowhere and started an argument with Lady Annabelle.”
“Lord Bertrand?” I asked, looking at Annabelle.
She nodded.
I suspected as much, but it didn’t hurt to get confirmation.
“He’s still pursuing his feud against you?” I asked. “I thought Lady Rosewood would have talked to him about his behavior by now.”
Annabelle was a guest of House Rosewood. That alone should have been enough to curb his shitty behavior. The Houses took the laws of hospitality very seriously. Violating them was an egregious offense.
“She did,” Annabelle said. “That just made things worse.”
I guessed Lady Rosewood just lectured her son, but didn’t actually punish him. Ugh. No wonder things kept escalating. When bad behavior wasn’t punished, the offender never learned their lesson. It didn’t help that Lord Bertrand was such a petty little bitch.
“Lorrie tried to calm everyone down,” Corie said, continuing her story. “But the pink-haired fuck bumped into her. He claimed she attacked him and he had his bodyguard-…” She paused, unable to continue for a moment. “-…he had his bodyguard stab her in the chest. If we hadn’t carried some health potions on us, she would have died. After that, we carried her here.”
I stared at Corie in shock, unable to believe what I just heard. The laws of the Solarian Empire heavily favored the Houses, but there were limits to their behavior. Unprovoked attacks and attempted murder were two of those limits. Lord Bertrand couldn’t be that stupid, could he? Did he think that just because his mother was Lady Rosewood that nothing would happen to him?
I glanced at Annabelle for confirmation. She nodded.
Rage filled my heart, cold and sharp, like a blade made from ice.
I would make him pay. I would make Lord Bertrand pay for hurting Lorelei.
“I’m going to put an arrow in his eye,” Corie said, her eyes burning with fury.
“You’ll do no such thing,” I said.
Corie gaped at me in disbelief.
“You can’t be serious,” she protested. “That bastard almost killed Lorrie. We have to do something. We can’t just let him get away with this.”
“‘We’ won’t do anything,” I said to her. “You’ll stay right here and keep an eye on Lorelei. I’m going to Dawnrose Hall to deal with this.”
“But-…”
“Corie,” I said, interrupting. “There is an etiquette to this sort of thing. Going off half cocked will just make things worse.” I walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. “Trust me. Let me handle this.”
Corie looked up at me, fury and sorrow in her eyes, before she nodded.
“Make it hurt,” she said. “Please. For Lorelei. And for me.”
“I will,” I promised.
I stepped away from Corie and faced Annabelle.
“Lady Annabelle, I have a favor to ask of you,” I said. “I need to go to Dawnrose Hall, and I doubt they’ll grant me entry any time soon. Can you help me with this?”
Annabelle studied me for several long seconds, before she nodded.
“Yes,” she said. “Since I’m partially responsible for what happened, I’ll help you. Are you sure you want to go through with this? As the challenged, he’ll be able to appoint a champion in his place.”
Of course she figured out what I planned to do. Then again, there weren’t many other ways I could get justice. As the young master and heir to House Rosewood, Lord Bertrand had a lot of advantages. If I went to Lady Rosewood, I didn’t know if she would do anything about what happened. Even if she punished him, she might give him a slap on the wrist.
That only left me with one real option: challenging Lord Bertrand to a duel. Since he hurt one of my people, I had that right. However, I needed to get to him first. That was where Annabelle came in. Since she was a guest of House Rosewood, I would have a much easier time getting into Dawnrose Hall if I accompanied her.
“I’ll be fine,” I said.
Annabelle did not look reassured by my words.
“Very well,” she said. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Follow me.”
With that, the two of us headed out with our bodyguards in tow.