Twenty Eighth day since the summoning.

  It was an early morning. The sun had barely cast its first rays of light onto the land. The wind was gentle, cold and carried a slightly moist scent, intertwining ever so slightly with a soft lavender scent.

  Step, step, step…

  Huff, puff…

  Aihara and Raito were both running on a dirt road, the first rays of sun outlining their right sides. Sweat covered their faces, as heavy strokes of breath escaped their mouths, their gazes focused on the road ahead. “How…” Huff.. “..much do we have…” Puff.. “left?” Aihara asked the boy running next to her.

  Raito remained silent for a few moments at first, simply focused on the road ahead of them, before throwing his gaze over to the girl for a second and then turning it back towards the road ahead, letting out a heavier exhale of breath. “Not much. Just a kilometer and we’ll be done.”

  Aihara looked a bit somber upon learning how much more distance was left, however shook her head gently and slapped her cheeks, picking up her pace with a determined expression – clearly showing that despite her exhaustion, she wasn’t about to give up just yet.

  It’s been almost a month since we’ve been summoned to this world. Life in this world is so different from the life I was used to back home. Every day, me and Raito wake up early to start our training — with this run being the first part of it every time. According to Master Earl, a knight has to always remain in the best shape possible, as well as must train their endurance for the battlefield, since for the most part, Knights didn’t dash into battle with horses.

  Instead, they ran in themselves, holding their blades up high.

  He tasked me and Earl with running to Roria and back every morning, which Raito calculated to be an around ten kilometer run to Roria and back, so in total, twenty kilometers.

  It certainly… wasn’t easy.

  However, the improvements that these daily morning runs entailed, certainly showed themselves. I felt in better shape every time I finished one of them.

  Aihara and Raito eventually reached the cabin that belonged to Earl, finishing their run and catching their breaths as they stopped at the gate of the house. The sun had risen slightly in the time that they had taken to run the full distance, with more of its rays raining down onto the land – even causing the lake behind the house to shine and glimmer gently. “I’ll head inside already.” Raito stated, leaving Aihara behind, as the girl dropped down, sitting down and leaning her back against one of the fence poles, watching the boy leave.

  “Alright… I’ll join you all in a bit…” She replied, as the boy created greater distance between the two of them and then disappeared inside the house, closing the door behind him with a light thud.

  Aihara then turned her gaze away towards the sunrise, watching it as the gentle morning breeze played in the grass and swayed her hair. “I wonder how mother is doing…” She thought. Watching the sunrise every morning after the run, had become a bit of a habit for her. Her mother always loved to get up early to watch the sunrise right before leaving for work.

  Seeing the gentle sun rays fall over the land from the distant sun, it was reminding her of all the times she would find her mother in the morning, watching the sunrise.

  As she sat there watching the sunrise, the sudden sound of horse hooves hitting the ground caught her attention, causing her to turn her head down the road she and Raito had just finished their run on. Approaching, she saw a boy dressed in black clothing, with neatly combed back, red hair and a hat that had a white crest on it — the Crest of the Informant Guild.

  Aihara smiled.

  The boy on the horse approached, before stopping his horse just next to Aihara. “Good mornin’ Miss Aihara. Jus’ finish yer trainin’?”

  “Morning Harry and yeah, me and Raito just got back. I’m just taking a quick rest.” She chuckled gently, while Harry simply whistled and laughed afterwards. “I see that ol’ man Earl got yer two workin’ hard.” He rested his left hand onto his right, letting out a gentle, warm laugh. Aihara laughed as well, rubbing the back of her neck. “I suppose he is..”

  Then, she shook her head lightly, standing back up. “Anyways, are you here to deliver newspapers?”

  “Aye, jus’ got a new batch from the guild.” He responded, leaning over to the other side of his horse, opening up the satchel on that side and rummaging inside it for a bit, before taking out a small pile of rolled up paper that was held together with a small brown band. Closing the satchel, he handed the paper to Aihara.

  “Thank you, as always. I’m sure Master Earl will have a good time reading up on what news the Informant Guild has to offer.”

  “Hahaha! I be sure that ol’ man Earl mos’ certainly will hav’ a good time readin’ the latest news we got.” Harry then fixed his collar a bit, before taking his horses reins, before pulling them to the left side. “Aigh’ – I shoul’ get going to the next place. Pass me regards onto ol’ man Earl!” The boy stated, waving Aihara a goodbye as he rode off back the way he had come from.

  Aihara waved Harry a goodbye back, looking down at the rolled up newspaper, before exhaling and turning around, walking towards the house's front door and disappearing inside — gently closing the door after herself.

  Inside, she immediately walked into the kitchen area, where Earl was preparing some breakfast, before throwing the rolled up newspaper towards her teacher. Earl, without even lifting an eye from what he was doing, caught the paper, tasting the food he was preparing before placing the ladle back into the pot.

  “Thank you Lady Aihara.”

  “No problem Master Earl!” She replied, quickly making her way upstairs and with a rapid step making her way to her room, which she slid inside like a worm. Inside her room now, she exhaled, before walking towards her wardrobe and opening it, undressing and taking off the morning training outfit.

  In quick succession, she changed into her usual ‘squire’ attire, before checking herself out in the mirror and fixing any imperfections she managed to spot in her appearance — whether it was a slight fluff in her hair or anything else.

  Afterwards, she picked up her sheathed sword, placing it onto her belt and then leaving the room, right at the same time as Sarah was leaving her room, yawning lightly, with a sleepy appearance and disheveled night gown. “Good morning Lady Sarah!”

  The Holy Knight looked at Aihara, before yawning again. “Oh… morning Aihara…” She replied before sliding into the room just across the hallway from her room, locking the door behind herself. Aihara chuckled lightly. “Lady Sarah isn’t a morning person. She always appears like a bear that has just woken up from a long slumber every time she leaves her room in the morning.”

  The girl gently hopped across the hall, humming to herself gently as she approached the stairs.

  Click — creak…

  A door on the right side of the hall opened and out stepped Raito, who appeared to have just come out of the washroom, drying off his hair. She stopped, her face slightly lighting up red. The boy, though fully clothed, had an unbuttoned shirt that allowed a glimpse at the abs below the shirt, and his slightly wet hair, combined with an attractive face made him quite a… sight, so to say.

  Upon noticing her, a moment of awkwardness took place between them. Then, Raito spun around, his face flushed. “...I didn’t realise you were there…”

  “Ah… N-No, no it’s fine! I was just passing by, haha…” Aihara quickly slid past Raito and then ran down the stairs, trying to cover her face with her right arm a bit, while Raito remained in place, just staring at the stairs, his cheeks still flushed, before scratching his left cheek a bit and exhaling. “I should maybe take these morning baths a bit faster…”

  After a while…

  The four individuals were sat around the supper table, all enjoying Earl's prepared breakfast, which was a warm porridge, with some fruit pieces scattered all inside it — apples, pears, bananas… a lot of oddly recognisable things, that were things that Aihara and Raito were already familiar with, but neither of them complained. Better to have fruits they were familiar with, rather than ones that they were not.

  While eating, Raito looked at Earl, placing his spoon down onto his bowl. “What’s today's plan for training?” He asked. Aihara also glanced up at her master, her cheeks practically stuffed with the food they were eating. She appeared to be quite the glutton.

  Earl finished his bowl of porridge, placing it to the side, before resting his arms onto the table. “Simple. You two will be practicing your sword swings. First, you’ll get an hour to warm up, afterwards you’ll be facing each other, training together and then as a finisher, you’ll face me. And if we manage to finish everything in a timely manner, then we’ll be heading into the forest once more to level you two up a bit more.”

  The Knight explained with a gentle tone, while Sarah finished eating her portion of the porridge, hitting her chest gently to help with swallowing before standing up and carrying the bowl and spoon to the sink, placing them inside, before walking over to her sheathed sword and picking it up, placing it onto the back of her armour.

  “Alright, I’m off. The Church needs me to show around some new recruits today, so I might be later than usual. Good luck on your training Lady Aihara and Sir Raito.” She said, before waving everyone a gentle goodbye and leaving the house. Earl stared at the door for a couple more seconds, before leaning back and exhaling — scratching his beard gently, before standing up and picking up his own bowl and spoon as well.

  “Feel free to have more porridge if you want. You begin your sword swinging practice in an hour – so there’s no rush.” He walked over to the sink, placing his bowl and spoon inside, before throwing one more look towards the two teenagers. “Enjoy your meals.” He stated, leaving the two of them and walking into a back room of the house, which was where his personal ‘office’ was located inside off.

  Aihara finished her bowl, before standing up and reaching for the pot again, picking up the ladle and placing herself another portion. Raito watched her for a bit, before exhaling. “You know… from your appearance, it’d be hard to tell that you’re such a big glutton.”

  Aihara chuckled, sitting back down. “Well, it’s kind of hard to build up any weight with the type of training we’re being put through… In fact, I’d say it’s borderline impossible to put on any weight with our training, so… May as well stuff myself full of this delicious food made by Master Earl.” She replied, before clapping her hands together, stating a quick ‘thank you for the food’ and then digging into it.

  Raito observed her for a bit, before exhaling again and also reaching for the ladle in the pot, putting himself another portion, before sitting back down and also beginning to eat his next portion.

  After the two had finished their breakfast, they rested for only a few minutes more, before heading out to the back of the house. Aihara fixed her gloves, while Raito brought out training swords for the two of them. “Catch.” He said, tossing one of them to Aihara, who looked at him and caught the sword, smiling. “Thanks.” She said, placing it down to her side and quickly catching her hair into an upper ponytail, before picking her sword back up.

  “Should we start with practice swings?”

  “Do we have any other choice?” Raito asked, looking at her with a questioning gaze, which caused her to shed a slight sweat before chuckling. “Right… Stupid question.” She stated, while Raito exhaled and gripped his training sword tightly, raising it above his head before swinging it down with as much force as he could exert, which by now, was actually quite a lot. Of course, with a training sword there wasn’t a chance for him to do any real damage, but put a real blade in his hands and he, by now, was a genuine monster.

  Aihara, after a quick inhale, proceeded to do exactly the same thing as Raito, the two of them standing basically next to one another, practicing their sword swings for the next hour or so.

  Eventually, Earl came out and called them to the training ground in front of the lake behind the house. The morning sun was decently up high in the sky by now, with birds beginning to sing their first tunes of the day. Earl took a stance in between the two teenagers, who stood around fifteen meters away from one another, gazing at each other with strong stares. Earl crossed his arms.

  “Alright… Begin!”

  As soon as he announced the beginning, the two students leapt at each other, their training swords gripped tightly in their hands, before they clanged them against once another.

  The two fought in this training mock battles for a long while, with every time that one of them got the advantage, managed to push the other down or disarm the other individual, causing Earl to stop the fight, before telling them to pick their blades back up and return to their starting positions, before ordering to do the mock battle again.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  By the end of it, the two teenagers looked quite exhausted. Breathing rather heavily while gripping their swords tightly and looking quite beaten up, with dirt covering their clothes and even faces a bit. “Alright, that’s it. Take a ten minute break and then we’ll be moving onto your mock battles with me.”

  Earl announced, walking towards the house, while Aihara dropped to her knees, barely holding herself up with her training sword. Raito walked over to her, extending his right hand out to her, which the girl gladfully took, the boy helping her to stand back up. “You’re improving fast…”

  Aihara smiled and chuckled. “Maybe, but certainly not as fast as mister prodigy over here! Your sword skills are so good, it makes me doubt that you have been wielding it for the same amount of time as me.” Raito smiled gently, laughing at her comment, before the two of them walked over to the shade at the house, sitting down and resting for a bit.

  After their rest was up, the two returned to the spot that they had been doing their mock battles at earlier, where Earl awaited them, fixing his hands with bandages before placing one of his arms behind his back and taking a defensive stance. “Sir Raito, you first. All you have to do is swing your sword to the best of your abilities towards me and try to penetrate my defence. I will only be using one of my arms.”

  He invited the boy, who took a stance towards the man, taking in a deep breath and gripping his training sword tightly, before leaping at Earl, with a heavy swing from above to start off, which was easily blocked by Earl, who had a gentle, warm smile across his face.

  From there, the mock battle continued, with Earl gracefully stepping back and either dodging or blocking all of Raitos attempts at breaking through his defence. Aihara watched from a decent distance, resting her head a bit onto the handle of her training sword as she observed the fight. “Master Earl really is something else. He’s restricted himself to just one arm and isn’t even armed, and yet, is out maneuvering Raito with such ease… It just puts into display the difference in skill and prowess between us and him.”

  After a while, Earl flung Raitos sword out of his grip, before exhaling. “Good effort, however there is room for improvement. You’re far too aggressive with your sword style. You should learn your opponents moves and observe where they step, so that you can then begin to predict their movements. Simply swinging your blade will not win the fight for you.” Raito looked a bit disappointed by his defeat, however didn’t react in any way and simply exhaled, bowing towards Earl.

  “I shall dedicate myself to make those improvements.”

  Earl smiled, rubbing the boy's head. “Good to hear. At least you're passionate about learning the way of the blade and aren’t a stubborn prick that can’t admit his weaknesses.” Earl coughed.

  “I have a feeling that is targeted at Sarah…” Aihara chuckled.

  “Lady Aihara, come on up. Same task as Sir Raito, simply try your best to break through my defence.” Earl stated, taking a defensive stance once more. Aihara kicked herself off of the handle, before stretching out a bit and taking in a deep breath and gripping her training sword in her hands.

  Then, she leapt at Earl, swinging her sword towards the man from the right side, only to quickly kick herself around as soon as she noticed his block and swung her sword towards his left side. However, the man reacted quickly, still blocking the strike. “Not bad! You read my block and changed your trajectory to try and land a hit on an unprotected side.” Earl praised her before pushing her back. “But you’re too slow. Again.”

  Aihara brushed off her face, before charging in again.

  Aihara continued her mock battle against Earl for a while, lasting longer than Raito while constantly trying to find an opening at which she could strike Earl, but alas — just like Raito, she was eventually disarmed by Earl, before she collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily.

  “Not a bad showing, however there is room for improvement. For starters, you're far too slow with your swings — you have to try swinging your blade faster if you wish to make a strategy such as tricking your opponent work. Also, try to be less obvious that you’re going to switch the side you’ll be attacking.” Earl stated with Aihara nodding lightly, before exhaling heavily. Earl then threw a look at the sun, which was already above them in the sky.

  “Alright, you two can rest for an hour. Afterwards, we’re heading into the forest to level you two up.” He announced, before walking towards the house, while Raito walked up to Aihara and helped her stand back up. “Impressive display… You say I’m talented, but you yourself feel like a natural.”

  Aihara laughed. “I’m not… I hesitate so much when swinging against another human.” She stated, before exhaling and walking over to her training sword and picking it up, spinning it for a single circle, before resting it onto her right shoulder. Afterwards, the two of them headed back to the house as well, laughing together.

  After placing their training swords back where they belonged and taking a rest inside, by playing a few rounds of cards, the two set out with Earl to the forest.

  The sun was beginning to approach the afternoon.

  The shade from the treeline above them fell onto the trio, as they moved through the forest, eventually reaching a slightly open field in the middle of the forest, where Earl leapt into a nearby tree and sat down, taking out a whistle. “Are you two ready?”

  Raito and Aihara nodded, placing their hands onto their sheathed swords. Earl smiled, before bringing the whistle up to his lips and blowing into it. A loud shriek came from the whistle, which lasted for a few seconds, before going silent. Then…

  Shake…

  Stomp, stomp, stomp…

  A horde of goblins broke through some bushes, rushing out of the forest and towards the two teenagers, who unsheathed their weapons and leapt at the monsters, beginning their ‘training’ fight. Wave after wave, Raito and Aihara tore through the goblins that Earl would summon using his whistle. Despite the large numbers of the goblins being summoned, neither of the two young individuals showed any signs of exhaustion — it was like, by now, fighting a couple dozen goblins all at once wasn't very difficult for them.

  Their training in the forest dragged on, and eventually, before anyone knew it, the sun was beginning to set. The trio were returning back home, with Aihara and Raito pretty beaten up and dirty after all that fighting.

  “Nicely done you two. Leveling up a whole seven levels in a single day isn’t too shabby. However…” Earl threw a gentle gaze over his left shoulder. “You should try to aim for a higher number. We can’t drag on the leveling too much. After all, we’ve got a rather tight schedule.” Aihara and Raito nodded in response to Earl, not saying anything verbal.

  Earl turned his head back.

  “When we get back home, we’ll distribute your stat points. Well done today.” He praised the two of them, which made Aihara chuckle gently, before raising her head up and looking at the sky above.

  The sun had pretty much set by the time they reached the cabin once more. Immediately, Aihara headed upstairs to the washroom to hop into the bath, to wash herself off from today's sweat and dirt that she had built up. While sitting in the bath, the warm water covering her body, she exhaled, sinking a bit into it, while looking down at her status window.

  [ STATUS ]

  Rikako Aihara

  Gender: Female

  Level: 36 (0)

  Rank: E

  Class: Knight

  Stat Points: 0

  Health: 240 / [13]

  Magical Energy: 330 / [6]

  Strength: 230 / [19]

  Defence: 220 / [19]

  Agility: 150 / [12]

  Skills;

  [Interpreter]; Common Skill

  [Swift Step]; Unique Skill

  [Vanish]; Great Skill

  [Silver Sword]; Class Skill

  [ STATUS ]

  “I remember when we first arrived in this world and were told about this ‘system’ window we could open, I thought that there was no way I wasn’t dreaming. This window didn’t feel real to me.” She thought, examining her stats a bit. Though she had raised herself to a semi decent strength by now, at least, when comparing to her beginning stats, it still wasn’t a huge difference. She was stronger — but that strength wasn’t anything impressive.

  “Plus, we haven’t been taught how to use any of those ‘skills’ that we possess yet… Master Earl just keeps saying that we should first focus on achieving some kind of mastery over swordsmanship before worrying about skills and using them.” She exhaled. She understood where her master was coming from, however at the same time, couldn’t help but feel like she and Raito were being kept away from the really cool stuff they were capable of doing via these skills.

  Closing her window, she rested in the bath a little while longer before eventually getting out and drying herself with the towel that Earl had provided her. While standing in front of the mirror, she looked down at her right hand and squeezed it tightly a couple of times, before running it gently across her skin.

  “My skin feels a lot rougher now… It seems like the training I’ve undergone has caused me to lose the smooth skin I used to have. I wonder how I hadn’t noticed before…” She took in a light inhale, exhaling afterwards before lifting the towel onto her head and drying her hair.

  After getting dressed she stopped by her room, leaving the towel she had used in the laundry basket at the end of the hall, before joining everyone else downstairs at the dinner table. Earl had cooked up another absolutely delicious looking dinner, which, after a quick prayer and thank you, Aihara dug herself into. The food, as usual, was absolutely divine.

  It was a bit of a surprise every time, since she hadn’t expected a Knight to be this good of a cook, however she never complained. The food was absolutely delicious and that wasn’t a bad thing.

  After a fulfilling dinner and a little sharing of how their days had gone, Aihara and Raito went upstairs to their rooms, leaving Sarah and Earl alone. Sarah leaned herself against a cupboard in the kitchen, crossing her arms. “They two are really good students, aren’t they?”

  Earl laughed. “Indeed they are. They have a burning passion to learn and improve, which I respect and admire, especially considering how different their world is from ours.” The man replied, washing the dishes from the dinner. Sarah remained silent for a bit afterwards, before her expression turned more serious.

  “I received an invoice at the church today.”

  Earl exhaled. “Since you’re this serious suddenly, I’m going to guess it wasn’t anything good.” The man placed the washed dishes to the side, turning off the sink before picking up a nearby towel and drying his hands, turning to look at Sarah.

  “What was it?”

  “Two people were apprehended today, carrying… you know whose crest.” Sarah stated. Earl's expression turned serious as well, as he laid the towel onto the countertop and exhaled. “....What was the damage?”

  “I’m told that they managed to catch the two before they had wreaked havoc. However, it is worrying just how far they had made it into the Kingdom before being noticed. Apparently they were only a few hundred meters away from reaching the main block.”

  “Hmm… That indeed is worrying…” Earl responded, scratching his chin lightly. Then he sighed. “Anything that Oscar has decided to do about it?”

  “No idea. The Church itself is unsure what will be done – however as I understand the two apprehended individuals have been taken to the dungeons in the citadel for questioning.”

  “Will I have to attend said questioning?”

  Sarah shrugged. “Don’t know. However, I imagine that you will, considering your position as the Knight Captain of the Kingdom.” Earl exhaled heavily, before rubbing the back of his neck. Then, he moved past Sarah and towards his office. “Alright. Then I suppose I’ll try reaching out to Oscar to find out whether my presence will be required. Let’s just hope that this isn’t some sign for a greater disaster.”

  Sarah nodded.

  “We can only hope.”

  Afterwards, the man disappeared inside his office, closing the door after himself, leaving Sarah all alone in the kitchen, leaning up against the cupboard. Then, she exhaled, walking over to the lantern lighting up the room and turning it off, before moving upstairs and through the hallway, sliding into her room.

  The lights in the cabin faded, as the night's silence took place once more – with the moon shining brightly in the sky above.

  In the forest, a dark figure moved onto the field where Aihara and Raito had been training against the goblin hordes. The corpses of the slain goblins still rested there, their green blood staining the ground. The figure kneeled down, placing his right arm onto the grass. Black flames formed around him, before expanding to envelope the entire small field. All of the goblin corpses in the field then were incinerated, turning into small blue flames that flew all in front of the figure, forming into a fireball that continuously grew larger and larger the more flames joined.

  Eventually, all the goblin corpses had been joined together into the blue fireball. Then, the figure stood back up before stretching the fireball with his hands and then slamming it into the ground, sending a wave of blue flames through the entire forest, lighting it up for a second.

  Then, he stood back up.

  “That should do it. The distraction has been set.” The figure commented to itself with a distorted voice, a pair of bright blue eyes shining under its hood before it disappeared in a similar, black flame.