Back in action

(Lex POV)

"Huuam~"

I yawned deeply in the morning I rubbed my eyes, and felt a weird sense of vertigo, when I stood up. I was honestly exhausted mentally from training for 2 weeks to fighting someone for what felt like the entire night.

I softly patted the blonde hair of the little girl in bed with me. Her blue eyes fluttered open she was also fairly tired for staying up so long. It seems that spirits need their sleep as well... I could now touch her cheeks and ended up getting a little lost in the squishy feeling. I don't know why I could come into contact with her perhaps my theory about the gate is wrong...

She got really annoyed and tried slapping my arm,

'Luckily we're not in the spirit realm otherwise I'd be worried to lose an arm haha~'

She annoyingly grumbled and following the usual routine I met up with Esel and Lily to head to the kitchen.

While I was cutting up a few vegetables rather skillfully that even Lily felt impressed at my grasp over these movements. I could only applaud myself.

'System don't you think you should give me a skill for my cooking ability hmm~?'

Of course I was joking inwardly, but unexpectedly did receive the skill,

[Decent cook lv. 8 earned!]

I grinned slightly I wondered if I would be able to level it up beyond the max and earn something that could help in the future. There are isekai'd where these lifestyle skills can become super OP.

-Clank!

"Oy! what happened?"

I asked because I hear something fall in Lily's direction. I thought it was a utensil or something, except it wasn't only that there was Lily being held carefully by Lily who's face was warming up and heaving heavy breaths. She didn't seem to be I'll before but now she was laying weakly in the worried arms of Esel.

He was measuring her temperature forehead to forehead style.

"Esel, you can take Lily to the infirmary near the third squadron knights place quickly but carefully I'll catch up soon..."

Esel unhesitatingly nodded and dashed of in a stable form to not create any discomfort for her. I sighed it was a bit random for Lily to be sick out of no where and since I don't particularly feel a lot of trust for the two of them, just in case I took a look at their feelings to make some deductions that it wasn't a faked illness. For whatever reason that it could have been for.

"*Sigh* Guess I'll bring it to Arlan by myself this time, follow me Angie!"

Together we walked through the castle bustling with other servants, I was able to catch a glimpse of some early birds amongst the nobles. There are some admirable ones that exercise for around an hour and some are pretty passionate about the sword and other weaponry. Though till now I've not gotten any opportunity to interact with them.

There are multiple reasons for this, and though I've seen some interested gazes my way when they see Arlans crest. They still are a bit wary around people there's a tension amongst the people in the castle and there's all sorts of rumours circulating in regards to a rebellion from commoner factions, people with different religious beliefs involvements and the like.

-Knock!

-Knock!

"Yeah! Wait a second!"

Arlan yelled from the inside in a bit of a hurry, I waited for his instruction to come in.

"Alright, come in now."

I pushed open the door with one hand, since the other is occupied with a good tray.

"Good morning master, is everything well?"

"Kheum! Yes, yes everything's fine today we're starting you martial arts training correct?"

"Yes that's right."

I stated, and he nodded. I stood for a around half an hour silently in thought and observation of Arlan's experiments today it doesn't seem all to successful as not a single one had him yelp in a Eureka! Moment.

Arlan groaned in frustration like a hormonal teenager,

"Ughhhh, Lex it seems your luck is not kicking in today..."

I chuckled lightly his reactions are a bit funny, he very enthusiastic about these experiments he performs. To be honest I've learned close to nothing from them but it's funny to watch some explode in his face.

"Hehe, master you sure have faith in luck huh?"

Unexpectedly I received a bit of a cold look from him, his ears wiggled up and down in an amusing way,

"*Sigh* Not really, luck is just a good target to blame everything on..."

I merely looked at him matching his gaze, and maintaining a small smile. He was a bit perturbed by it and stretched a little.

"Okay! Perhaps that's enough for today, a break from magic is good once in a while... shall we go and prep for your training?"

I was excited, my heart was beating rapidly the adrenaline already getting to my head a bit. The very idea of learning a powerful martial art got the nerd in me giggling like a madman.

***

"Master I'm going to check on Lily and Esel. Lily fell sick this morning could you wait a few minutes?"

"Sure go ahead I need to call someone else anyways."

We nodded and parted ways for a little bit. I eventually found the area that Lily was being kept after asking around.

I pulled on the curtains and found Esel holding Lily's hand worriedly.

-Clip

Esel seemed to just notice my presence from the curtain sound and nodded to let me in.

"What's the reason she's like this?"

I asked Esel who was the only one keeping watch of Lily since the nurses were helping the knights.

"They say it's exhaustion..."

I raised an eyebrow, he was looking and feeling hesitant about something.

"Do you not believe that?"

He looked at me, a bit surprised and chuckled.

"Heh, yeah I don't think it's simple exhaustion. As you already know she's pretty athletic and she can't use aura but she's usually healthy..."

'Guess he isn't going to mention her magical capabilities...'

"I see, you can feel free to take care if her as long as you want I'll help myself."

He looked at me hesitantly,

"B-but we're here to protect and help you young- I mean sir Armine I can't leave you alone. Since you know my abilities you should know masters purpose."

"I do and while I appreciate I'm well aware if how much you two care for eachother. If it gets worse then there's a lot of talented people here to help. You can even send a letter to father for a break I'm sure he'd listen if I also insist in my next letter."

"O-ok thank you, I'll take it into consideration."

I nodded and after adjusting the blanket in Lily and doing some other little check ups and adjustments with Lily and took my leave.

"Lex will Lily she be okay?"

I looked at her walking beside me, though she couldn't talk to them she liked being around them since at least appearance wise they were in a close age range. I sigh at her question,

"Yeah they'll be okay, their my servants so I'll do what I can to help them if they need it."

Angie nodded and smiled sweetly.

***

-Thump! Thump!

Right now in front of me were three people, two were familiar faces and one new one. I was excited as they stood in front of me and Arlan said he'd bring my trainers.

"Lex, you already know the one of my left, Ichiro Takashi. He'll be handling your sparring and hand to hand techniques."

I smiled and waved to which he responded in kind.

"Then here on my right is, Terrence Euler, he'll be teaching you the use of weapons he's friends with a few creatine users and will teach you their fighting method."

I nodded excitedly, the man named Terrence in front of me was scratching his lightly shaven beard, he stood in a straight position but felt tired.

He has black hair and black eyes that seemed to lack any youthful light in them. He also said hello so he's not the rude type.

"... and will you be teaching me anything master?"

To my question Arlan gave me a devilish smile,

"That's right, while these two teach you to use your body, I'll have you be learning the theoretical part of your abilities, that includes inscriptions, molding and also non-magical alchemy."

'Why is he looking at me like that? I'm prepared for whatever he throws at me.'

Arlan seemed a bit disappointed by my reaction, and I bet for creatine related subjects he'll be disappointed to not be able to teach me much at the city level as where Amber would put me.

"Tch, okay here's your new schedule you'll still get some free time in the evening, I hope your willing and prepared to sleep for only four hours a day."

"I'm ready."

I'm already lacking a certain level of decent sleep required by a human being, and I'll only get better at it when [Sleepless] levels up.

I took the sheet of paper that had intricate details for my schedule for the next month, I thanked Arlan for preparing this but he told me to think nothing of it.

"Okay Ichiro will get you acquainted for the first two hours, then Terrence the next 3 and then finally me... we'll just see to it you learn everything you can till you drop near death."

I couldn't help but shiver a little why is he such a sadist. If you're going to give me such hard training do some yourself!

"*Sigh* alright, Ichiro I'll be in your care."

Ichiro smiled and gestured,

"I will as well."

***

"You need to bend down lower at this point here, your back in this position so that it's not exposed or at least you can react in time to defend."

Ichiro and I went a few rounds auraless, even then he's still in much better shape than I am. The human bodies limits are not as apparent in this world, it's not so visually telling but aura is a art of a person even if they don't course it purposefully it's like an imaginary muscle with unknown limits to train.

According to Ichiro what he's currently teaching me is an agility based hand-to-hand martial art. He's had a few discussions with Terrence and they decided this would come closest to helping in his part.

"You're very impressive in copying my position, unfortunately there's just some things you don't see that help me do what I do."

"Like what exactly?"

"All sorts of things, your breathing, mindset, eyes acuity, and in spars what your missing is experience.

"You have both the talent to learn the positioning and instinct to react before something happens however it is not ingrained in you. Sometimes instinct won't save, for example you get held in a good lock hold in order to escape it your body has either the physique or technique to get out of it..."

...

We would spar and he'd correct me for every little mistake, I'd still use [Pathway Maker] which levelled up, in some rounds but almost nothing beats the satisfaction of not using outside support and still accomplishing something.

I could now produce three hypothetical holograms that would predict around 4-5 seconds in the future.

All in all learned a lot from Ichiro he's easily able to explain the nuances of a fight in hand to hand and told me to not get lost in the techniques because their not always useful and instead it requires lots of thinking in the middle.

The name of the martial art I'm learning is from a collection of nature inspired arts called, [Tempest blossom arts] named after a legendary tree in the east. It's a popular martial art to learn due to its simplicity and practicality. It's rather mainstream.

Two hours went by and so, Ichiro gave me a book manual that had the different techniques and stances in illustration form, since it'd be "easier for beginners".

***

Terrence was up next and he seemed more into it then when I first saw him, he had all sorts of weapons from long range ones such as muskets to the more up close and personal knuckle dusters.

"Welcome, your names Lex was it?"

His voice was a bit hoarse as if it was collecting dust and hadn't been used in a long time.

"Yes thank you for being willing to teach me here today."

"*Sigh* it's alright sir Arlan asked me to teach his slave to use his abilities properly and he's paying me."

'Didn't have to mention the slave part did ya?'

I lampooned inwardly I could pick up on his sloth like personality pretty easily.

"Sir Euler what is it that you do exactly, forgive me for being blunt but you don't seem like... the knight type."

There wasn't any sign of being offended on his face he just sighed again.

"Well your right about that, though I was once a knight of a certain caliber... I'm now a humble watchsmith."

******

A/N finally feeling better! Writing two chapters today whether it will come out or not is for you all to see. Hope you enjoyed reading I felt much more comfortable writing now.