Chapter 41 – Rumours
Seeing the beautiful lady, Aile walked towards her and said:
"Hey, Emily, sorry that I kept you waiting here."
Emily smiled back, her response was simple, and Aile understood that she did not mind the wait. She then gracefully took out a scroll holder and gave it to Aile.
Aile opened it in anticipation, there were two scrolls.
The first scroll was called "Blade Art Foundations."
The second scroll was called "The 7 Moon Slashes."
They looked ancient and worn out, and they seem to have been written on a well-designed paper. From the design, Aile concluded that the two scrolls were part of the same technique or written by the same Author. However, most of the borders and designs were worn out over the years.
Emily then said: "You should focus on learning the first scroll to have a proper foundation, without a strong foundation, every technique will become mediocre."
Aile nodded, "Thank you!"
Emily then smiled and asked, "Where did you go?"
Aile then gave her a brief recount of what happened and mentioned that he had given Sophie a mission.
Aile also asked if she is OK with Sophie taking a mission. He did not expect her to reject, but Aile wanted to keep her in the loop. Emily chuckled and said that Sophie was his maid now and she should expect this much work.
Aile giggled at her response, he had predicted that she would respond in such a manner. He then explained Sophie's mission to put her at ease.
Emily had a relieved expression when she heard about it, and the little bit of worry that she had about the mission evaporated. She trusted Sophie enough to do something of this level with ease.
They talked for a bit more and then she left.
Aile was not planning to sleep tonight, he planned to meditate, cultivate and start to learn the foundation manual of the blade.
Aile did his essential training of the night, and at midnight he finally had time to look at the two scrolls.
He opened the Blade Art Foundations manual. It was divided into two parts.
The first part was the four essential moves. That was the horizontal, verticle and diagonal slashes. Then there was the piercing shot.
When he looked at the second stage, the first line stated, "That one must have practised each move 10,000 times and must have reached the point where the blade feels like an extension of the body to continue."
The old drawing showed two moved for the horizontal slash. One starts from the left and end at the right and the other from right to left.
The vertical slash similarly had two moves, that was from up to down and from down to up.
The diagonal slash had 4 basic moves, which were in the direction of an "X." However, underneath it, in a semi-worn out text, it was written that those that seek to learn The 7 Moon Slashes must complete a moon.
By this what they meant was that the horizontal slash would be considered zero degrees and following that degree higher would be 1-degree diagonal slash. 1-degree higher would be a 2-degrees diagonal slash. One must do this for 365-degrees and master it, to be able to utilize the Moon Slashes properly.
Aile looked at the amount of work ahead of him and knew that this was a genuine-high-tier training system for the blade. He was looking forward to what level of mastery he will reach after completing this.
He had inherited some memories of training in a similar style. Therefore, he believed he can gain more from it.
He started his slashes based on the drawings in the scroll. His inherited memories came into play, as he knew which slashes were done correctly and which were done with mistakes. Thus, he continued his training in a mindless state. He no longer felt time and was in deep concentration. Time flew, and it was already morning when he finally woke up from his flow mindset. He had not kept count of how many slashes he did, but he felt more familiar with the blade at his hand.
The door of the room opened, and the person that entered was
Fiona.
She had a surprised expression and said: "You are still awake?"
Aile nodded.
She then said, "Are you worried about your trip?"
Aile smiled back and shook his head.
Fiona had a confused expression.
Aile said with a smile: "I was lost in training."
Fiona nodded in understanding, after chatting briefly, she then took out a few jars of the healing cream that she brought and handed it to Aile as promised.
Fiona then quickly left as she had to arrange for someone to pick up Danny and she had to start her work as discussed with Xue yesterday. Aile said goodbye to her one more time, and she left.
Aile then started to pack his things for the trip, he took out an old-looking rugged suitcase that was blackish brown. He put the new clothes that Sara bought him and the healing cream.
Aile then wore the chainmail underneath his clothes and picked up his blade and placed it at his side. He was ready to leave. He got his shoes ready and waited for Sara and Hazel to call him.
He placed the two scrolls he got from Emily at the treasure box underneath his bed.
Soon there was the noise of his door being opened, he thought it would be Sara calling him to leave. He went towards his shoes to get ready. However, the door opened, and it was Emily. She had brought in his breakfast.
Sophie was not with her as it was too early in the morning, and she was either asleep or training. Emily smiled at him and said, "Good morning, I brought you breakfast."
It was Diana's turn to take care of him, but he did not mind her not coming today as her son Danny would be leaving.
Aile was surprised to see Emily. He felt fortunate that Emily paid so much attention to him and even brought him breakfast.
Emily and Aile finished their meal when the house became noisy, and he soon heard Sara calling for him.
Aile, are you ready?"
"We will be leaving in 30 minutes."
Emily looked at Aile as she picked up his plates and glass and said, "Have a safe journey."
"Thank you and take care of yourself, Emily." Aile also gave her his treasure box for safekeeping.
Emily then left, and Aile picked up his shoes and wore them. Then, he picked up his old looking suitcase and got out of the house for the second time during day time, since he came to this house.
Aile came down from the house, his skin colour had become pale from barely seeing the sun in the last 10 years. Seeing and feeling the morning sun was quite annoying and enjoyable at the same time.
Everyone at the estate looked at him in surprise, they had heard stories of the loner who does not get out of his room, but this was the first time they saw him. They treated Aile like a unique creature, and slowly a rumour spread that the loner was out of his room. Groups of maids and guards came to see him.
Aile had heard these rumours and just wanted to laugh.
Some assumed he had mental problems, others said he was missing a limb, looking like a monster and all sort of rumours had spread over the years.
Soon there was a crowd of people that wanted to see Aile.
Everyone had a chance to see the person that all the rumours were based on, they did not want to lose this opportunity.
Aile was not bothered by them. He just asked one the guards, "Which one is my ride."
The guard pointed at one of the horse-like creatures. He then placed his worn-out suitcase behind it and started to secure it.
Securing something behind the mounts was a skill, and not everyone could do it. The guards were observing him and hoping that he would fail.
He professionally secured it, which surprised the guards because they knew he had never been out of the house and expected him to fail. They wanted to see a show of him trying and failing so they can laugh in the morning. However, seeing him succeed and do it so professionally made him a mystery for the guards.
He did not waste time and just closed his eyes and started to meditate. Everyone seemed a bit disappointed that Aile did not act crazy or was not a unique existence. Nonetheless, he did give off a mysterious vibe to them, making all of them curious.
Soon Hazel and Sara arrived. Seeing them, the crowd scattered back to do their jobs.
Sara came towards Aile and poked him in the forehead to wake him up from meditation. After waking up, Aile and Sara greeted, and they gave each other a hug.
She then pointed at a horse-like creature next to Aile's and asked the guards to settle her stuff there.
She had 2 suitcases worth of stuff.
<gdiv></gdiv>