A New Teacher

Jack opened his eyes and two piercing lights shone from the very depths of them as the qi in the environment suddenly lunged towards him and he devoured it with the voracious appetite of a starved man.

He had just succeeded at entering the fourth level of the martial realm by the Alacian empire's standards. In fact, he already had cleared eight hundred and eighty-nine of his body's acupoints; in comparison to a normal individual at the fourth martial realm, he surpassed them by several hundred-fold.

It had taken him close to a year to reach this level, but he was exceedingly pleased with himself given that he was dedicating long portions of his training schedule to consolidate his break throughs before pursuing the next level. Even if you still took all of that into account, the speed with which he was advancing was completely unprecedented.

Currently, he was sitting in what had formally been the workshop's second storey storage space which he had redesigned into a superb meditation chamber. He looked around and felt the qi around him steadily flowing into him and supplying him with energy to recuperate from the expenditure. The feeling was invigorating, almost euphoric.

Jack clenched his fist and let his bones crack. Judging by the gains of previous advancements, he could now easily defeat first level Foundation realm martial artists even if he didn't catch them off-guard and he could give a fourth level one a tough fight if he used all of his techniques and trump cards.

He rose to his feet and examined himself for a moment. From a physical point of view, he didn't resemble a five-year-old child; in fact, he looked closer to ten. His muscles were too well-defined for an infant and his bearing had grown to be extremely regal. Most of the time he kept it hidden, but closely inspecting him would reveal that he didn't carry himself like a child.

Jack put on a clean set of clothes, a simple white lwool shirt and leather brais, and tied up his dark brown hair. It had grown in the last few years and he was now forced to tie it up in an elaborate knot in order to keep up with social conventions – a fact that he profoundly disliked – before emerging from the chamber.

Downstairs he saw Jadelere fidgeting and clumsily pacing around nervously with his walking stick poking the ground out of rhythm. "Careful there, uncle Jadelere, or you're going to wear out that poor cane of yours." He said with a broad smile on his face as he walked down the stairs.

"Funny, very funny." Remarked Jadelere. "I am in awe at the cleverness of your very original joke."

"Ah, sarcasm, the ever-lasting recourse of fools trying to sound intelligent."

"That's a good one. I'll use that in the future."

"Feel free." Jack sat down on the unused furnace that he'd kept in exactly the same condition that he found it in and looked at his teacher with examining eyes. "Now, will you tell me what's bothering you?"

"Well, here's the thing," Nervously began Jadelere. "I don't really want to tell you."

"Then don't."

"But I must."

"Then tell me."

"Not that simple."

"Abyss take you, uncle Jadelere, you're sounding like a harlot trying to demand payment from a customer she hasn't told that she's a courtesan." Jack rolled his eyes. "Just be out with it."

"How do you know what a harlo-? Doesn't matter, I don't want to know." Jadelere shook his head a few times. "Do you remember the day you had your martial talent tested?"

"That hoax? Aye, I remember. What of it?"

"Well, Ichabod was extremely worried that Brant was wrong with his diagnosis…"

"Which he was."

"Aye, he was, but Ichabod didn't know that." Jadelere walked forward and sat down next to Jack.

Despite the never-ending bickering and the semi-constant cursing, the two of them had become much closer over the last few months. In fact, Jack had gone so far as to alleviate the pain Jadelere felt in his crippled leg using the medicinal properties of the Revolving Trigrams by injecting some qi in the right acupoints. At this point, Jadelere only carried on using his walking stick out of habit and to keep up appearances.

"The thing is, he wanted a second opinion, but he knew he would find none in Groamburk." Sighed Jadelere. "One of the great many benefits of living in a rural city."

"I see. I always wondered why my father never called for another doctor to examine me; so that's the reason why." Nodded Jack in understanding. "But my father isn't one to just let matters be without trying to find a solution."

"No, that he is not." Added Jadelere. "Actually, I've never known him to take a loss, except to your mother. I still remember when she got him to trim his beard. Did you know he used to braid it with rings?"

"You're beating around the bush."

"Dragon's balls boiled and served in vinegar! Have you never heard of a little thing called empathy? I'm struggling here!"

"Fine." Sighed Jack. "I did know he did that. As I recall, you mentioned he did it to distract people when he negotiated with them."

"Aye, a superb business tactic." Jadelere started to fidget with the head of his walking stick nervously, knowing full well that he couldn't dodge the topic any more. "He asked me to send a letter to an old peer of mine to come examine you."

"I see."

"And I did."

"I assumed as much."

"But my old peer had a condition."

"What condition?"

"He wanted to be your teacher, too." Jadelere's head drooped and he seemed genuinely troubled with the idea of Jack having another teacher.

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Well, he and I… don't exactly get along." Explained Jadelere. "We went to school together and had a falling out after we graduated. A severe falling out."

"How severe?"

"Severe enough that he refused to come unless he had status equal or greater than mine, in every sense of the word."

"Great." Jack massaged the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "So what you're implying is that at some point in the near future I'm going to have to deal with the fact that there's going to be another teacher on my shoulders."

"Aye."

This is going to be troublesome. Thought Jack as he fought back the urge so sigh. The last thing I need is another pair of eyes watching me. Leah has recently become suspicious of me, judging by her efforts to constantly supervise my activities. Maybe I need to come up with a plan to deal with both her and the new guy.

"First thing's first." Said Jack more towards himself than to Jadelere. "How is he as a teacher?"

"Dreadful. Appalling. An ignoramus. A true enemy of all academia!"

"Jadelere."

"Fine." Sighed the accountant. "He's brilliant, particularly in the field of runic inscription and archaeological research; but he's also extremely accomplished in medicine and alchemy. During his time as a scholar, he has taught many exemplary figures of the kingdom and has even taught the crown prince. He is both wise and cunning."

"Sounds like you two would get along very well."

"We did, despite some healthy rivalry between us."

"So, what happened?"

"He started helping me and my wife conceive a child."

"That's hardly something to cause a drift between people."

"Aye." Jadelere chuckled. "But he was helping us by being in the room while I wasn't in it."

"Oh."

"Oh, indeed." Chuckled Jadelere once again.

"But you don't seem too troubled about it." Half-asked Jack. Truth be told, despite his long years of life, he'd never been emotionally entangled with anyone and thus all matters of the heart were somewhat foreign to him. "What's his name?"

"Erik. And, if we're being perfectly honest, the bastard did me a favour. Turns out that the woman in question was a real bitch. She took all his wealth, destroyed his reputation, and burned his prided research to ashes because he wasn't paying her enough attention. Erik ended up having to flee the kingdom from her!" To this, Jadelere slapped his thigh and began chortling. "Imagine his face when he found out she was a bona fide lunatic! HA! He's blamed me for his misfortune ever since."

"Sometimes I wonder where in the name of the Abyss my father found a crazy old imp like you." Said Jack as he let his face fall into his palm. "You're far too great a man for me to compare to." He said in defeat.

"One day I'll tell you the story of how I came to be under Ichabod's employ."

"I wonder if I really want to know it." Grimaced Jack. "When is Erik arriving?"

"Well… that's the thing… He… well… How to say this…?" Jadelere began biting his finger, a gesture he did whenever he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't. "He's arriving today."