Reminiscence

*TAK* *TAK* *TAK*

"Guh!"

I rolled on the ground right after receiving a hit from Arch's sword.

With shaking arms, I pushed myself up and stood back up once more. Lifting the wooden sword in my hands, which was already splintered in some areas, I took a stance.

"...again," I said.

I rushed back in. Arch responded by attacking. It was a diagonal slash. I stopped running and backstepped, narrowly avoiding the sword.

Right after I swung my sword to counterattack. Arch easily deflected it and elbowed my face.

My nose started bleeding after that.

"Enough. Get some rest, Luka." Weiss ordered.

Arch straightened his back, gave a salute, and walked away.

Seeing that, my body relaxed as I slumped down, gasping for air.

After the first spar around 5 hours ago, I've been continuously sparring with Arch with some breaks in between.

As soon as we sparred the 2nd time, I realized that Arch was taking me easy the first time. That was the only reason why I successfully hit him back then. My weird limbo dodging took him by surprise, which gave me an opening.

But after that, he started taking me seriously. I tried taking advantage of my flexibility multiple times to throw him off, but he seemed to already expect my flexibility.

This was the 86th spar in the past 5 hours. So far I've only been able to hit him 21 times. Other than that, I was basically a punching bag.

I was really weak. It frustrated me so much. The initial hit I got on Arch on the first spar made me overconfident.

Weiss gave me another potion, which I drank. The disgusting strong herbal taste permeated my mouth once more.

Immediately after, my bruises started healing. But as Weiss said before, healing potions don't restore stamina.

I stood up and walked to the side. There were various benches in the training grounds for the knights to rest on, and so I went to one of them.

I sat down and exhaled deeply.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaah..."

I was tired. So fucking tired. I want to sleep, but I can't. I have to do this if I ever want to escape and find the bastard that took away what's precious to me.

I felt rage boil within me. My chest felt hot. Every time I felt like giving up, I remember that day.

I couldn't help but clench my hands into fists.

"Woah there kid. You're giving off a scary vibe there."

I glanced to my side and saw William sitting next to me.

"You okay, kid?" William asked me.

I didn't answer. I was too tired to even talk. I was also extremely hungry. I want to eat something.

"Here, beef jerky!" William was giving me strips of dried meat.

I looked in confusion. How the hell did he know that I'm hungry?

"Ah... you know how healing potions don't restore stamina even though it heals injuries? While I'm not a mage or alchemist myself, I do know someone who is. She said something about the potion increasing the 'metah-boolis-im' of the body, causing your body's resources to be depleted, which needs to be replenished, and 'cause of that, you become hungry."

"You mean metabolism?"

"Yeah that! You finally talked back."

Huh... that makes sense. How else do potions even heal stuff?

This world, or at least the alchemists already know about metabolism. I wonder if they've already discovered other modern scientific stuff. There's also the possibility that someone like me, a person from Earth, introduced these ideas to the inhabitants of this world.

I took the beef jerky and devoured it. The saltiness of the meat spread as I chewed on the tough dry meat.

I've had jerky before, in the village. While it wasn't beef, we had pigs, so we usually stocked up on pork jerky. Sometimes we had sheep, so I occasionally get to eat lamb.

There weren't any refrigerators and such, because of that we had to cure and dry meat for the winter season. We also stocked up on vegetables and fruits, we prolonged their shelf life by making use of the snow.

I miss them. That humble life, I miss it. My parents, my friends, our neighbors. I still remember all their faces. Their smiles and laughter. The plains where I used to run, the hills where we used to slide on. The gentle breeze when I lay down on a hill with the sun gently shining down on my face, providing warmth. I miss it all.

Reminiscing about my life in the village made me relax. I felt nostalgic and melancholic. The adrenaline from the earlier spar with Arch faded away.

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Thanks," I said to William, without glancing at him.

"Hehe, no problem." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him smile.

I couldn't help but smile in response.

================================================

"What do you think?" Weiss asked William. The latter already left the young boy alone on the bench after giving him food.

"Well... he's a poor kid. He's got a lot of stuff weighing down on him. There's something that he wants to do, someone he wants to kill. So much so that he was emitting bloodlust earlier. That's not normal. It's not normal for a kid his age."

"Mhm." Weiss nodded. He agreed with William's assessment of Luka.

It was dangerous. The path the boy was going to walk in the future will be an arduous one. One that will cause more grief and suffering for the boy.

Weiss was worried. He was loyal to the Montampes Duchy, that's why he's even training Luka, because of the Duke's orders.

But if Luka's going down a thorny road, Weiss felt that he should guide him. For Luka's sake, and Rosaline's sake.

If Luka wasn't properly guided, he might bring harm to the person he's supposed to protect.