CH19: Countdown To Second Awakening

***

CH19: Countdown To Second Awakening

I don't think I've mentioned it, but appearance in the world of Arun is all over the place. Hair colour and sometimes even skin colour have nothing to do with race or genes. It's mostly random, but often times influenced by mana.

I guess humans of Arun aren't Homo sapiens, but a different human species entirely. Hence, they don't have the same hereditary traits as the humans of my first life. Very few things are inherited from parent to child.

Hair colour in particular came in different shades.

I had red blonde hair, but from the images I saw in an image crystal (similar to Comms Crystal), my father had yellow-blonde hair while my mother had violet hair.

Similarly, in Rowland's family, the man had black hair, Ingrid had green hair, Jarrett has silver hair while Zora had red hair.

If it wasn't for the faint facial similarity, you'd think they weren't related.

*

Also, contrary to popular beliefs in fantasy stories of my previous life, mana did very little in improving one's appearance. The presence of mana didn't make everyone handsome or beautiful. There were still people society considered physically handsome or ugly.

This has very little meaning to me, so I'd likely ignore describing the appearance of people unless absolutely necessary.

P.S: Don't blame me. I can barely recall the appearance of some inconsequential people from my past right now. You should be happy if I even remember their names. Chances are I'd just forge a name for them and move on.

Now, where were we.

Ah yes. Time Skip.

*

I spent two months training Zola.

Thanks to the presence of mana, the wealth of the DoomMane Guild and the simple facilities I asked for, my special boot camp finished construction in under a week.

Since then, Zora hadn't stepped a foot out of the camp.

I spent most of the two months working on her poor physique and mentality. I also threw in a bit of proper indoctrination (not that nonsense I saw back at basic school).

At first, the girl complained that she couldn't do it. However, after understanding that she wouldn't eat if she didn't reach the threshold I gave her, she soon realised it was in her best interest to at least try to do what I asked her to do.

I wasn't exactly the gentlest drill sergeant.

No, scratch that. Have you ever seen a gentle drill sergeant? Well, I haven't.

Anyway, I did the same workouts as her, but at a tenfold intensity, so there was nothing to complain about.

Not to mention the food (reward) she got at the end of it all was delicious.

Beasts might be dangerous, but I can't deny that their meat was delicious, probably due to mana. Then, add in my proficient cooking, the food she ate could give a four-star chef a run for his money.

The girl soon started following the regimen without complaint.

Perhaps because she was seeing the fruits of her labour, in a fortnight, she asked me to raise the difficulty of her regimen. Something I was happy to do.

I could see she was already shedding the weak mentality she had.

The shyness was still there but the ferocity hidden within her was surfacing.

I'm a firm believer that no one was truly shy. Give them something they enjoy, are proud of or are good at, they'll naturally come out of their shell.

I can't deny the camp was pretty much a prison to a girl of her age, however, I tried to make her training as enjoyable as possible. I made sure to praise her improvements and encouraged her when she was at her limits.

This was also why I worked so hard on her meals.

So, I guess it was a given she would begin enjoying her time in the camp.

It's just that six weeks into the training, she started overdoing whatever I told her to do.

And she expected me to praise her for it.

I began getting worried.

I hope I didn't make the poor girl develop Stockholm syndrome.

That would be troublesome.

Anyway, I could only keep her under watch for the moment.

*

Zora's training progress rapidly.

By the end of two months, she was like a different person from the lass that entered my camp.

Sure, she was still the same sweet, good natured girl who entered the camp, however, everyone who knew her could tell there was something different about her.

Physically, she was no longer frail.

Most of the training she did were geared towards building a satisfactory amount of strength, stamina, endurance and flexibility.

I especially focussed on the last attribute.

Zora was a beautiful slim lass. She was innately weak, physical power-wise.

I had to change this if she was going to hold her own in a fight. However, at the same time, I had no intention of making her into some She-hulk.

So, I raised her strength, stamina and endurance to just above what you'd expect of a girl with her physique, then focussed on improving her flexibility.

The idea was to leverage on her flexibility to multiply her strength. This method was dependant on her base strength. Fighting styles in this school also had a demand for stamina and endurance, which was why I brought up these three attributes first.

It was a lot of work and I really pushed the little lass.

If it were in my old world, it would've been impossible to achieve this much in two months. Fortunately there was mana here which sped up the body's natural healing faculties.

Though not as exaggerated as my body's healing speed under mana, the ambient mana plus the mana-infused high-protein diet I fed her meant she was in a good enough shape to continue her training the next day.

Aside training her body and mentality, I also taught her some self-defence methods.

It wasn't anything too fancy.

There was a limit to what I could teach her, and she could learn, in two months with her jam-packed training schedule.

The methods I taught her could at least let her hold her own against her peers even without mana.

My efforts were vindicated when I saw the exaggerated reactions of her family when I finally allowed people to enter the camp after eight weeks of closing the doors.

Rowland, Ingrid, Jarrett, the Butler who I found out was named Ian and the old veterans of the guild who were friends with my father trooped into the camp.

Why?

Because it was my fifteenth birthday.

More importantly, it was time for my second awakening.

"I was going to send her out today. You didn't all have to come in to see her." I said stoically.

"Do you think we'd let you go through your second awakening alone?" Rowland said.

"There's nothing to worry about nor see. I don't have mana so I won't be awakening a Pangea. I'm at best just going through the motions."

"Brat, don't underestimate the second awakening. It can be dangerous. Pangea or not, we have to make sure nothing happens to you."

"We won't be able to face Vice Leader Lionheart if anything happens to you because of a mere second awakening."

I shrugged.

I knew I couldn't change their minds so I didn't bother.

I led them to the camp's open area.

To my surprise, Ingrid and Jarrett came along.

I thought they only entered the camp for Zora, but it seemed that wasn't the only thing.

I couldn't help taking a good look at the mother-son pair.

Ingrid looked at me with a complicated expression I couldn't decipher; annoyance, gratitude, regret? I wasn't sure.

Jarrett was easier to read.

He had naked admiration in his eyes.

I found that strange, however, I had better things to do than try to come up with a reason.

It was finally time to awaken the blessings of Loki.

The User Interface reappeared midnight of the eve of my fifteenth birthday. A 24-hour countdown to its launch appeared at the bottom left corner of my vision.

Now, there was only an hour left, meaning an hour remaining to midnight of my fifteenth birthday.

This was an important moment because it was usually when parents or guardians took precautions to help their child or ward through the awakening process. This included drawing the mana circle that would help ease the mana flow caused by the awakening.

I couldn't sit still all day due to the constantly falling timer at the corner of my eye. I made all the preparations ahead of time.

I even drew a mana circle during the day.

Plus, I had the time to make some changes to the circle based on the information I had read on the subject.

The circle was drawn at the centre of the open field I led the guest to.

It was a levelled, hard ground devoid of grasses so it was perfect for the circle. The mana lamps encircling it made sure the place was well lit.

"You've already drawn the circle?" – Rowland.

"Yes." I smiled reminiscently. "Asta made sure I knew how to draw the circle in case something ever happened to her. Who knew I'd be drawing it myself."

The adults flinched at the trace of melancholy in my tone.

"You drew this yourself?" One of the middle-aged veterans asked.

"Yes." I nodded.

"Is there a problem?" The grey haired man asked.

"No. It's perfect. He even considered the inscriptions to extract away the excess mana since he won't be awakening a Pangea. I'm not sure I could've done better."

I realised the man should've been responsible for drawing my circle. I figured the man was likely an enchanter, a profession who made extensive use of inscription circles.

Talking of the circles. There was something about them that felt oddly familiar. But that's a matter for later.

"The circle only needs the mana stones to power it when the awakening starts." The enchanter added.

Rowland looked at me with a strange smile as usual. I had learn to ignore the smile at this point.

However, I didn't expect him to say something completely strange this time.

"Hey, Lion cub. How about I betroth Zora to you?"

"What?!"

Rowland laughed.

"This is the first time I've seen you lose your cool. So? How about it?"

I faked a cough to calm myself.

"I'm her master. I can't have that kind of relationship with her."

"I don't see why not?" Rowland threw a look to the veterans with him.

"Sure. There's no problem. It's not like anyone would believe you're her master. Even if it becomes known, it won't be a problem considering your ages and the relationship between your fathers." The grey haired man said.

He flashed a knowing look at me.

I realised my words from two months ago came to bite me.

By saying, 'give her to me', made it seem like I was asking Rowland to marry his daughter to me.

I knew I should've cleared the issue two months ago, but I hadn't thought much of it so I didn't bother.

Don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with Zora. Even now, she was a beauty. She would definitely grow into a nation-toppling beauty.

The problem was, I had a mental age of plus fifty!

The thought of being betrothed to an about-fifteen-year old was... (Anyone else see the police behind them?)

I looked to Ingrid.

At this time, I hoped she would step in for me.

However, dammed woman just looked at me with a complicated expression. How unreliable can she be?!

I wondered why she wasn't following the script.

Wasn't this the time for her to strongly oppose this? Why was she looking like she was considering it?

I turned to the siscon for help.

Unfortunately, he was nodding his head to me. He even had the guts to give me a thumbs up.

Forking unreliable!

I looked back to Rowland.

"I'm destined never to have a Pangea. It would be unfair to Zora to be tied to me." I tried to come up with a well-sounding excuse.

"I didn't peg you as someone with low self-esteem. It's clear you don't intend to let this little detail hold you down. Besides, does she look like she minds?"

Rowland pointed to his daughter.

The lass in question blushed and hid behind her mother.

'Dammed girl! Why are you acting like that after all my training? Don't you realise you're making this worse? Guess I have to cut things resolutely.' I thought.

I was about to harshly turn down the offer when my heart suddenly throbbed.

I held my chest as my breathing became laboured.

The memory of my last conversation with Annabelle that day on the field within the military base surfaced in my mind. Then, the image of her cold corpse in the coffin followed that.

The harsh words I wanted to say choked in my throat.

"Are you Ok, Leo?"

"I'm fine. I think the awakening is about to start."

I sighed.

"First and foremost, I'm her master. I will only consider her best interest. For now, no matter how we sugar-coat it, this betrothal is unfair to her considering my situation. Let's leave this to when she's eighteen and has experienced the world. If she agrees then, I'll consider it."

This was the compromise I came up with.

It was only after I said this that the pain in my head and chest stopped.

It seems more things followed me from my past life than I realised.

*

With the matter aside, the adults went through my preparation methodically to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Although their constant nagging of everything I did was annoying, I did feel a sense of warmth.

It felt similar to the warmth I got from Asta.

Family, huh...

For someone like me, it was a luxury.

A luxury that I wasn't sure I would always have.

As if to remind me of that, the timer clocked down to zero.

The awakening was about to begin.

I was about to begin my journey on the dark path of an Assassin!

(To be continued...)