Kian Goldmaul POV

  It’s been 2 days since Niko arrived. He settled in at the city in a house that Count Thaddeus has assigned for him.

  Today should be the day that he will start teaching me, and so I woke up earlier than usual, which would be a norm for 5 days of the week with 2 days for rest.

  I just finished breakfast and am sitting on the couch waiting for him to arrive, as he should be here in 5 minutes, thinking to myself about what he might teach me.

  He did say it will be footwork and martial arts in the morning. I did some boxing and judo in my past life, but for only 4 years combined, unlike the many years I did archery but I still should have some basic footwork knowledge but without any muscle memory.

  As I continue thinking to myself, I hear knocking on our front door, as Mom comes down from upstairs and opens the door.

  “Hello, Niko. Did you come to teach Kian?” she says with a polite smile.

  “Yes, Miss Mira,” he nods politely at her.

  She moves aside and lets him inside the house before closing the door.

  “Kian, Knight Niko is here. Change your clothes and go with him to the backyard,” she says after entering the living room.

  I nod before standing up and head to my room to change. After 5 minutes, I come out and head toward Niko, who is standing in the hallway connecting to the door of the backyard.

  He nods at me with a gentle smile. “Alright, kiddo, let’s go. You have some basics to learn for a while.”

  He leads me toward the center of the backyard.

  “Alright, before I could teach you how to fight, you would first know how to move your body, and so I will be teaching today and the next few days on how to hold yourself, balancing yourself, and walking correctly. After you finish, we will make you hold a simple stance for a few minutes.” I nod at him. “I understand.”

  “Very well, then. Let’s start with stretching so you don’t get injured while training.”

  After what seemed like 7 minutes of stretching with him showing me how we finish.

  “Now go for a jog around the backyard. I’ll watch your running form, and I will be correcting if there’s any fault. Before going, while you jog, keep your chest straight and your head looking forward. When breathing, inhale from your nose and exhale from your mouth. Keep your feet straight and run at a steady pace. Go slowly—don’t go too fast. You’re not racing. This is merely to heat you up and help you get used to walking and running in a correct form. Make sure every step lands on the ball of your foot and not the heel. I will demonstrate. Watch carefully.” After saying that, he starts jogging and takes a loop around the backyard and pausing in front of me. “If there’s anything you didn’t understand, tell me before you start, and I will answer you and demonstrate.”

  I nod. ‘I already knew this either way, but I can’t tell him that, or he would find it weird for a child with no martial arts or training history besides some simple archery to know that.’

  “Alright, first do single loop for me to see first.”

  I nod before starting to jog around the backyard—not as perfect and a bit imbalanced due to the lack of muscle memory.

  After finishing the loop, I stand in front of him as he nods slightly. “Not bad. You can start now, and don’t stop until I tell you.”

  After 8 minutes, he stops me as my breathing is a little heavy. “Don’t stop your feet movement. Keep up the heat and copy my movement.”

  After another 4 minutes, as my breathing grew even heavier, he stops.

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  “Alright, sit down on your knees and calm your breathing. Inhale a lot and slowly before exhaling.”

  “After you collect yourself, we will be doing some balancing work and making you get used to your fighting stance.”

  After an hour and a half, we finish as I’m soaking wet from sweating.

  “Alright, this will be it for today. I thought it would be harder since you’re still young. Now I understand what your father meant by being mature for your age. After you increase your endurance, we will be increasing the amount of time you spend training daily, and by this pace, you might finish the foundation for swordsmanship in less than a month—maybe even in a few weeks you would be ready. As for the archery of the afternoon, there’s almost nothing I can teach you from what I saw two days ago and from what I heard, and so your father would be teaching you instead on how to control and use your Veythar correctly. After you finish that, I will be teaching you archery.”

  “How would you be teaching me after I know how to channel my Veythar?” I ask him curiously.

  “It’s just some Veythar magic that helps in archery. There are so many of them, and they need a person who can control how to use his Veythar before even thinking about learning them.”

  …

  …

  …

  It’s been a few hours since I was trained by Niko, and now it’s 4 pm. in the afternoon, and I’m standing back in the backyard, but this time my Dad is here instead.

  “Alright, Kian,” he says, smiling. “Niko should’ve told you I will be taking over his afternoon lessons temporarily to teach you how to use your Veythar correctly.”

  Before I could nod, he resumes talking. “Before we start, we have to do something about the Veythar you’re storing. It would be too time-consuming and annoying to wait every time your core gets empty from training.” After saying that, he points at my eyes.

  “Use The Fool’s Line until your core is empty. After you do that, nod and start holding your breath, alright?”

  I nod as I start using The Fool’s Line.

  ‘This should be the first time I used The Fool’s Line with a living being in front of me,’ I think to myself as I look at my father.

  ‘Huh? Nothing?’ As I stare at my dad, I notice there are no lines coming out of him or connecting to him.

  I look at a nearby tree, and it’s the same. Before I could panic, I look at the bench, and it has lines connected to it and coming out of it.

  ‘Could it be that The Fool’s Line doesn’t work on living beings, or is it because I’m channeling too little Veythar? Sadly, I can’t verify that, as 1 point of Veythar every second is my current limit.’

  After a few dozen seconds, my core gets depleted. I hold my breath and nod at my dad.

  He smiles and puts his hand on the underside of my neck before closing his eyes.

  “Open your mouth but keep holding your breath,” he says as I obey and open my mouth.

  After doing that, I feel something suddenly leaving my mouth, and before I can think about what it was, I feel my core getting filled with pure Veythar.

  “Alrighty, done. You can breathe now,” he says while petting my shoulder.

  “What did you just do?” I ask him.

  “I expelled the other gases that were in your core—like oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and other things—when I told you to open your mouth, and after that I filled your core with Veythar using my horns.”

  I nod after hearing his explanation. “So what are we going to do now?”

  “Well, first I will be telling you what I’m going to be teaching you. First, how to fuel your core.

  You should’ve noticed that you can fuel more than 1 point of Veythar per second but the extra is useless, but before this, I will be teaching you how to use your Veythar more efficiently. For example, when you used The Fool’s Line, you were actually using an extremely small amount of that 1 point, while Veythar that wasn’t being used was getting expelled into the air uselessly. And so I will be teaching you how to use less Veythar more efficiently so that your current 1 point equals 0.1 point. And don’t worry—this is easy to learn.”

  …

  …

  …

  It’s currently nighttime and I’m eating dinner. “So how was it, Kian—the training?” My mom asks.

  “It was okay, I guess.” I say.

  She nods. “Your father didn’t try to tell you to do anything weird, did he?”

  “Hah? Why would I tell him to do anything weird? He’s still a novice.”

  “Huuh, so you were planning on making him do something, weren’t you? It better not be like the thing you made people do back in the Academy,” she says with a scary smile.

  “Ah, no, no, no. I was never planning such a thing. Oh, right—I have something to do.” Before teleporting, he looks at me. “By the way, Kian, you should be able to make the first Core filter after what you learned today.” After saying that, he teleports away.

  After finishing dinner, I head back to my room to try and make my Core filter.

  I sit down casually, as there’s no need for me to sit cross-legged or anything, as it will not assist in any way—or at least from what I read about.

  I started creating the filter as the guide has described, and after a while, I notice the difference between my previous attempts and this one.

  After what seemed like 10 minutes, I finished the first filter as I sigh in relief.

  ‘Finally. This thing took a year. Who would’ve thought it’s because I can’t control my Veythar correctly? Well, sorry for being stupid.’ I look at the clock. ‘It’s still too early. I’ll go watch some TV.’

  Chapter End