Soothing, or helping others resolve their heart demons is an art, a practice in patience, and understanding of human nature, but it is so much more. A good soother often needs a wealth of life experience, knowledge on various topics, and sometimes even expertise in certain crafts.

  — Excerpt from On Sooting

  Day 376, 8:00 AM

  Well, we had a scheduled meeting—No, playing dumb will only hurt me.

  “With Lord Helmsworth making their gaze so obvious for my sake, it was hard not to sense it.” I bowed deeply and stood like that.

  “Bootlicker, but a smart one,” Lord Helmsworth said. “At least you are competent enough. I must admit I was dubious about letting you work with my heir, but the breadth of your knowledge and skills was fascinating enough, and the decision proved wise. You may stand.”

  I straightened, observing the man, his entire being a black void in the world’s mana.

  “Your praise flatters me, Lord Helmsworth.” I could recall telling my guide to drop the formalities, but just two moons passed before the Glory City’s culture had dug itself under my skin.

  Not that it was voluntary. The fact that higher realm individuals were allowed to break your limbs for not showing the proper amount of respect played a major part in my tonal shift.

  “What do you think of this room and the equipment?”

  I think I hate people like you. But that was natural; he was doing what I usually did, examining the one I was conversing with, but he had too great of an advantage in both mental and physical stats for me to feel comfortable.

  “The room is the work of someone more skilled than I am; I can’t even fathom its worth at my realm. As for the equipment, it’s fine work, but nowhere near the level of this chamber. It’s balanced and resilient enough, but that’s about it. If I were to make a guess as to why, I’d say it’s so that the equipment doesn’t become the crutch of the youths training here.” I paused, once more finding myself irritably similar to my poor guide. “Lord Helmsworth.”

  The man inclined his head the barest fraction of an inch and noted that I had noticed the gesture.

  “An acquaintance of mine is looking for a tutor for his daughter. I will mention your name later today, he may have more work for you. Are you ready for your lesson?”

  I nodded.

  “Pick up the spear. I’ll adjust my strength and speed to the peak of the third realm, even though you seemed somewhat stronger when you sparred with Honor.”

  As soon as the spear was in my hand, a spear-tip was stabbing at my head. My danger sense flared, Lord Helmsworth wasn’t pulling his punches. If I performed poorly, he would brain me where I stood.

  I took a step left, tilting my head at the same time. Still, the spearhead trimmed several stray hairs too slow to move out of the way.

  Since that was the way we played, and there was no way I could even pierce the mageknight’s skin with the dummy spear, I slashed in a sideways sweep. He jumped back and sped up when he saw he wouldn’t leave my strike’s reach in time.

  I kept pace, stabbing, dodging and parrying as Lord Helmsworth forced me to reveal more and more of my real ability until we reached the limits of what my body could do.

  Lord Helmsworth stopped increasing his speed and strength, and our duel turned into one of skill. At first I dominated, minimal movements dismantling his sloppy technique, but as minutes passed, his technique tightened, the inefficiencies hammered out.

  The bastard was mimicking me, learning and stealing shamelessly until he grew very close to my level. He had probably gained two tiers of spearmanship over the course of a two-hour sparring match until he pulled back and stopped.

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  He glared at me, with a mix of gratitude and wounded pride in his eyes. “Thank you. Once you reach the seventh realm, you may address me as Dread instead of Lord Helmsworth. You may address my children by their names. Watcher will inform you of everything.”

  Lord Helmsworth blurred as he left, but my eyes were fast enough to recognize the man was casually walking, but still moving at a ridiculous speed. A rush of wind from his passage hit me, telling me whatever his element was, it wasn’t air. Considering Honor gave off a metal aura, his father almost certainly favored the same element.

  I took a moment to breathe and consider what had just happened. Lord Helmsworth declared me a friend of Clan Helmsworth, with all the political implications that status entailed. The list of people who would dare cause trouble for me in Glory City had considerably shrunk, but the list of lethal enemies went from empty to unknown over the course of a few exchanged words.

  I replaced the spear on the weapons rack, and left the training hall. Watcher was waiting there, but showed no hint of wanting to discuss anything with me.

  “Lord Helmsworth told me I should address his children by name from now on, and that you would have all the details.”

  “Right,” Watcher nodded. “Lord Helmsworth has three scions, Honor, Duty, and Hope.”

  The butler proceeded to describe Honor’s two siblings, along with their social circles and places where I might meet them as he led me out of the mansion and into the courtyard.

  “Lord Helmsworth will probably invite you to a social event in the near future in which you will meet the Young Master and Young Mistress in person. I will send the invitation and write down instructions on how to dress. Please follow them to the letter, Master Dandelion.”

  I returned to the scribes’ guild, choosing to believe something good had happened, even if I was disappointed that I didn’t get an actual reward for teaching some of my spear skills to a freakin’ imperial minister in charge of running a cog of the most massive country I had ever seen or heard of.

  “Master Dandelion,” Scroll, a blonde man seemingly in his fifties, greeted me. “Are you here to take a commission?”

  “No, I have some three hours left in the meditation chamber.” I set another third realm crystal on the counter. “And here’s for another twelve hours.”

  Sculpting my realm was the most important thing. The level up condition was to shape it beyond human ability, and I was fairly certain my attempt at mimicking the real world qualified. I just had to complete the work to make sure.

  My weapons and martial skills are impressive enough. My control of mana unparalleled for my realm, mostly thanks to my experience from Everrain. The imperial library has several hundred tomes for fifth realm awakened, and I will loop through them eventually, once my mind stabilizes enough to endure another ten or so loops.

  I considered my state. Certainly, I was getting better, more stable, but I wouldn’t redo until I was done interacting with high realm mageknights. They could read more from me than I would like, and I didn’t know where that limit lay. Better stay safe and beneath their radar.

  I worked on my realm patiently, then took two commissions, which forced me to expand my repertoire of runes and granted me free access to the guild’s manuals. The masters’ category had several dozen tomes, half of which I had already read, but worming my way through them felt satisfying.

  Days passed, and like in the weeks since I started seeing Honor, my work focused more on learning than earning, but getting paid to hone your skills was marvelous in its own right and worth the lesser pay.

  The next meeting with Honor started much more intimately. For starters, the man addressed me by my name, which he had been skillfully avoiding by using “Instructor” whenever he had anything he wished to ask.

  “Dandelion, how have you been?” he asked with a smile. “I have lasted more moves than ever, and I even managed to nick him once.”

  While Honor’s skill was increasing, what mattered in the encounter with his heart demon were mindset and confidence, and since I, who clearly surpassed his former rival while at a lower realm, was improving and approving of his swordsmanship, the effects were showing.

  “Excellent. In that case, I’ll push you even harder today, and hopefully you’ll treat me to drinks the next time we meet.”

  The wealthy young master laughed, and we dove straight into the battle, his therapy a clash of blades and a song of steel. Honor’s situation was really tough; it was nearly impossible to win a competition with a dead man. No matter how much Honor’s skill grew, a part of him would tell him that his rival would’ve done better.

  That was why a more skilled, lower realm combatant was the key to the cure. Honor had to restrict his speed and strength to a lower realm, further hurting his swordsmanship, but progress under such difficult circumstances pushed his confidence even further.

  I “let my attention” slip, and the sword caught my upper arm, drawing blood.

  “I’m so sorry!” Honor drew his blade back, suddenly terrified that he had injured his soother.

  “Why are you sorry, Honor?” I asked with a grin. “I can bet you Lake wouldn’t be able to draw my blood.”

  Honor’s eyes went wide. “I’m sorry, I need to meditate.”

  He ran off, and Lord Helmsworth appeared behind me, this time his presence much fainter than the last.

  “You did a splendid job. Here, for your “wound”.” The minister smiled and gave me a vial radiating a whole lot more mana than a regular healing potion should.