Master and student
**Bomb!**
"Kyaaa!" I exclaimed.
The mansion's practice court is covered in dust.
There I was, flying through the sky, emerging above the dust cover.
I was so high up I could see the whole town of Vismagia, I mean I could have if I was conscious, that is.
Mind you, we are on the outskirts of town in a secluded cabin close to the forest.
☆☆☆
"Aaaaahh...! I rose from the bed like I had just had a nightmare. "Where... am I?"
"Finally, you're awake."
"Master..."
On the side, sitting beside me was my master, Reina Stacia. But I just call her master Rei.
"Ahh!". My head hurts..." I put my hand on my forehead.
"Well, you did hit your head pretty badly when you fell from the sky earlier."
"..."
"Pfufufufu... The way you fell was pretty funny."
"Huh!!?... Are you being freaking serious right now."
It's been 6 months since Mary found me on that island and welcomed me to stay with them at the mansion.
After, master Reina immediately took me in as her pupil to teach me about combat.
She was fascinated to see how I would perform in combat.
Mostly, it has been strength training to increase my stamina, speed, and power.
And to improve my reaction time to different attacks.
I was not allowed to attack back, but today she thought it best to move to sparring matches with her.
"Master, would you please stop using powerful spells on me... And weren't we supposed to be using swordplay only?"
"Haahaha."
"And stop laughing!"
"What are you talking about? I didn't use powerful spells... That was just low-level fire magic."
She just chose to ignore my question.
"Low-level fire magic doesn't explode the whole practice court!!"
"Those are the whining of a weakening." She said, waving her hand at me.
"Wait..." Then it dawned on me. "I thought fire magic was not your forte... so what was that?"
"Oh, that was just the use of my skill."
"...Skill?"
People in this world not only have magic, but some are even fortunate to have special powers outside of magic called skill.
They might be outside of magic, but can be used together with or to improve one's magical powers.
And Reina must have been talking about such skills.
Not everyone possesses these skills; only 1 in 1000 people have them, and only those who have pushed the limits of their mind and mana have acquired them.
Miss Mary, Master Reina, and Sir Marcus are the only ones I know of who have skills.
"You poor sap... I forgot you don't even have a skill."
Look at her, with that smug face of hers mocking me.
Doesn't she have any shame in belittling her pupil like that?
"You hag!!"
Grinning my teeth and clenching my fists, I somehow let those words slip out of his mouth.
It was unintentional, but there was no turning back.
Reina shifted from mockery and got angry.
The smug face disappeared, replaced by veins about to pop on her forehead, and her body was surrounded by a blue mana. The color is nice and kind of refreshing, but the feeling it instills in me is not.
I was about to receive a punch from the angry Reina, fully charged and cloaked with her mana, when a sound coming from the door saved me.
But for some reason, it didn't feel like I was saved.
**CLAP!!**
It's Mary standing at the door.
She looked pissed and oozing with unsettling black mana.
It wasn't the kind of pissed where the person blows their fuse and start going crazy, no. This one was more disturbing because all she did was close her eyes, wear a quick smile, and ooze black mana.
She is beautiful, but doing that made her scarier than any woman I've ever seen in this new life of mine.
"So, mind telling me what all this ruckus is about?"
"..."
Both of us stopped in our tracks, and there was silence for a moment. Anything we say wouldn't change the outcome; her face said it all.
"Well... you see Miss Mary..."
**Thud! Thud!**
She smacked both of us on the head with her fist and then made us kneel before her like two disciplined, mischievous kids ready to receive a lecture.
"Stop wasting time. You still have to finish your training for the day with Marcus."
"What! But I just finished training with Master... Can't I take a little break?"
Mary's eyes instantly darkened.
Though this time she was not oozing with magical energy, her demeanor was more intense.
She just opened her eyes and looked deep into his soul.
"Pretty please?"
I mastered the courage to speak again, trying to milk pity out of her, mimicking the cute, cat eyes.
Since she's always sweet and kind to me, I thought she would let me slack off.
"You will take a break once you're done with your training... Or would you prefer it when you're dead?"
"No ma'am."
My voice squeaked under her pressure. For the first time I understood what it will be like if i ever piss Miss Mary and go against her.
That feeling sent a cold sweat running down my neck.
I didn't want to die, so training was the only option left. Running away was another option, but with that one, no one will be victorious in the end. I'll end up being weak, and they will just be disappointed and worried.
I don't want that.
"Good! Now, be a good boy and go train with Marcus."
I did as she said and walked out of the room, exiting the mansion into the practice court, where a man was waiting for me.
The man stood in the center of the court.
"He sure has grown, hasn't he?"
Reina, who was previously kneeling with Krai, now sat in a boyish manner in the butterfly position with her hands on her knees.
"Yes. Though he is still in danger and doesn't have much time left... We need to act quickly."
"..."
☆☆☆
"Come on, Young Krai... Is that all you got?"
Said Marcus, grabbing his wooden sword with both hands on the back.
Marcus is the butler of the mansion and looks like a 50ish old man.
He has the build of someone who looks like they have experience lifting weights.
He's got white hair and a white goatee beard. Which makes me wonder: Do you get white hair when you're 50?
On his wrinkled 50ish face, he has a scar that stretches out diagonally to make a cross on his cheek.
"Keep slacking off and you will get hurt."
Marcus looks like a wise man under his monocle glasses.
I support myself with my sword, grabbing it by the hilt.
This old man left me covered in bruises on my face and covered in dirt, and now I am feeling pain all over my body. It's even hard to speak properly.
"Shut it, old man." Although it was hard to speak properly, somehow I managed to say my inner thoughts out loud again.
I stood up and held the sword in my hands, ready for another round.
"Oh oh ohh! I see. An old man, huh?"
Marcus released his arms from his back and got into a lunging position.
The sword in his right hand pointed to the side to allow for quicker movement. If it were in front, it would act as a barrier to slow him down, but to the side would not do that.
"Well... Let me show you what this old man can do!"
He lunged at me, sword in hand, at full speed, and took a strike from above.
Though this man was fifty-ish, his movements were still legendary.
There was a gust of wind reacting to the speed of his lunge, and dust moved out of the way to create a path. This man broke the wind barrier without even using magic.
**Clack!**
I managed to block his strike with the skin of my teeth.
"Oh! You reacted to that, huh?"
Our swords were locked into each other. I could parry his strike, and so the only thing to do was to block.
Man, his swings are heavy. I'm struggling to stand straight.
He didn't stop there.
"Body enhancement magic. Mana build."
Marcus's body started to glow.
There was some kind of colored air flowing into Marcus' body from all directions.
It seems he was absorbing it.
After a moment, he was surrounded by the light emitted by the mana he absorbed.
"Hey, no fair. You can't use enhancement magic on yourself!"
"I'm an old man... So I need all the help I can get."
Suddenly, Marcus disappeared in front of me.
Within a second, I was receiving attacks from all directions, attacks I couldn't block.
How could I, when I can't even see them coming? It was even harder to predict his next strike, so all I could do was just receive the beating I was due for calling him an old man.
I was beaten until I fell to the ground. Now I was even groaning in pain from all the severe bruises he gave me. I couldn't even feel my face.
And the old man stood there watching with a satisfied grin on his face while the glow from his body was disappearing.
"Now let this old man go rest his old bones... Hahaha."
Damn. That old man is scary. Where does Master find these servants with monstrous powers?
"Argh!.. I need to stop thinking out loud."
