“What in the hell…?”
Veylara mumbled as she crouched next to Kael, seeing how his bruise was healing in real-time.
“…Are you sure this is only a warm-up?”
Kael, who was lying on the floor, questioned as he felt pain all over his body.
Right now, he was in Arlan’s training hall that was built under his mansion. It wasn’t as large as the one in the royal palace, probably only an eighth of its size. The floor, walls, ceiling, and the pillar supporting everything were all made of silver stone. Clearly, no further efforts were put in to make this place beautiful.
Arlan didn’t care about such things.
And unlike in the Training Hall in the Royal Palace, where different weights, targets, and other fancy props were placed all over the place, in here, other than a large bunch of silver swords and a few other weapons, there was nothing else.
Kael noticed that the number of swords here was nearing almost 500. He even wondered who in their right mind would need all those swords, but he didn’t say anything out loud.
His friend might have different fetishes.
Who was he to call them out?
Kael was an open-minded person who believed in free will. Swords or spears, Arlan was still his friend.
Also…
Kael wasn’t exactly in the position to think of such trivial matters. He was still in pain. Because of his regeneration, most of his wounds had healed, so he was back in shape in no time.
This, however, didn’t make him feel any better.
‘I failed to consider Regeneration’s downside.’
He realized in his head.
When he trained under brutes like Arlan and Deren before, the two stopped every time he was too weak to continue. That was Kael’s resting period, and more than once, he had faked a few of his injuries that allowed him to rest a while longer.
That was how the Hero had been surviving all this while.
But now…
The Hero needed no rest simply because his body would return to its peak condition on its own.
And from the wide grin on Veylara’s face, Kael could already guess what she was thinking.
“Your body’s perfect to learn the sword.”
Veylara praised, then, she glanced at her son and,
“You must be having fun with this one, huh?
So much that you didn’t even reveal such an important detail to… anyone.”
“He didn’t have this ability before.”
Arlan shook his head. Even he was surprised by how the brat healed on his own.
“I unlocked this ability this morning.”
Kael answered.
Honestly, with how many things happened today, it was difficult for him to believe that only about 18 hours had passed since he completed the mission.
Hearing his words, Veylara’s grin widened even further.
“This is good. Almost as if Lord Feraos gave it to you before you to meet me. At the very least, we can say he is looking out for you.”
She then stood back up. Kael’s bruise was already gone, it was time to continue.
“Stand up, we continue.”
Seeing that, both Arlan and Elira stared at their friend with pitiful looks on their faces. None, however, said anything.
“…Haven’t we warmed up enough?”
Kael questioned.
“This is not a warm-up.”
Veylara shook her head.
“But you sai—”
“You haven’t maximized your body’s potential.”
Veylara interrupted.
“What?”
Kael frowned at those words, and Veylara continued.
“Your body is faster than your mind. You react to feints much more strongly than you should because your body can afford to do so. You are wasting too much energy on movements that could be done more efficiently using less energy.
Whoever taught you the sword must have never held a sword before.”
At those words, Kael, Veylara, and Elira all turned towards Arlan.
“To think you have held a sword ever since you turned three, and yet you are still no good at it. I am embarrassed.”
Elira didn’t miss the chance to take her shot.
“Don’t blame me. I trained him according to what he was capable of.”
Arlan quickly defended himself.
“The last time I trained him, he was as strong as an Early Third Stage Warrior. After he returned from the test, he was comparable to a Late Fifth Stage Warrior who might even be able to defeat an Early Sixth Stage Warrior.
All this change happened in a mere week.
How was my training supposed to keep up with that rate of change?”
Honestly, Elira and Veylara couldn’t even counter those words. Kael’s growth was simply absurd. Let alone Arlan, even if the strongest swordsman had trained him, the rate at which his body grew would still outperform the training.
“He is practically made to be a warrior.”
Veylara commented.
“No, he is as good of a mage as he is a warrior.”
Elira was quick to defend her position as Kael’s instructor.
“Do you not see it? He is already at the level of a Fifth Stage Warrior.”
Veylara narrowed her eyes. This time, however, Elira didn’t step back.
“That is only because warriors aren’t restricted by the quality of their Mana. He is a weaker Mage because he can only form two circles. How is he supposed to face a Fifth Circle Mage with only Two Circles?
Once the quality of his Mana improves, he will be a much more dangerous Mage, especially considering how absurdly large his Mana Pool is.”
The Court Mage then stared at everyone and,
“And don’t forget, the only reason you people can even think of teaching him Sword Aura is because he is a Mage.”
Veylara observed her daughter for a while.
“So… are you going to teach me Sword Aura or not?”
Kael questioned directly.
“If you are just going to ‘maximize’ my body’s potential, then I’d rather go sleep.”
He yawned.
He already knew there was no point in maximizing his body’s potential or whatever.
You do that when you cannot grow any further.
And he…
Well, he had quite a lot of room to grow. The time it would take for him to maximize his potential would be more than enough for him to level up even further, and he would fall into the same situation again.
Kael had no plan to repeat the cycle. He would rather focus on levelling up and strengthening himself and his little children. Not to mention he already had Ancient Call that would continue to help him get used to his body, so he didn’t need this training.
Elira and Arlan froze when they heard those words. After all, their mother was known for perfectionism. The kind she hated the most were the ones who tried to learn more advanced things without having a solid foundation.
She called them show-offs, and most of the time…
Her encounters with these show-offs ended up with the show-off sent to the Healers with injuries that would take days to heal, even with Healing Magic.
“Moth—”
Arlan tried to defend Kael, but then,
“Alright then, I’ll directly teach you Sword Aura instead.”
“!!!”
Veylara nodded at Kael’s words, her words surprising both siblings.
In an instant, the siblings turned towards each other, and once again, their eye conversation started.
‘Did you see that?’
‘You think I am blind?’
‘She agreed! Instead of beating him up, she agreed with him!’
‘Something’s definitely wrong. There is something we do not understand here.’
‘But what is it…?’
The two stared at Kael and Veylara for a moment, and then, Elira narrowed her eyes.
‘He hasn’t… seduced our mother, has he?’