| Meeting and Private Lessons (3)|

"What! Talk done?" His way of talking made me realize something...

"You were asleep weren't you?" I asked,

"Me? Sleep?...No..." He tried denying it, but the answer is obvious.

.

.

I decided to share my room with Merlin, so he wouldn't cause trouble elsewhere.

The room we were led to was large, but elegantly simple in furnishings. While the only furniture consisted of a couch, tea table, master bed, and dresser, each looked to be handcrafted out of wood by seasoned craftsmen.

As soon as we got into the room, I closed the door behind me, stripped and went straight for the bathroom after inviting Merlin to do the same.

The shower was a pleasant surprise; it was a simple waterfall that seemed to naturally flow from the ceiling and drain back out in the floor. However, the constant flow of water that didn't seem to ever turn off was a surprisingly pleasant temperature, just warm enough to relax my body and pores.

Merlin seemed to enjoy this shower more than I do. Well, it's his first time seeing and using soap.

It was uneventful in the shower other than stopping Merlin from eating a bar soap. Also, the pain in my core started getting worse and I think Merlin noticed it too.

As I finished dressing into a very silky robe just for your top and short pants, I placed the stone Sylvia left me inside the chest pocket inside my robe and once again, tried to study my mana core.

While Merlin just enjoyed himself by jumping around on the soft master bed. He didn't wear his iconic wolf mask here. It's still surprising how such a pretty boy could be so wild.

About thirty minutes in and making only minimal progress, I hear a knock on my door.

"Coming!"

Opening the door, I'm greeted by a pouting Tessia who threw a light punch at my chest.

"You dummy! Why did you act all unfriendly when you were with my family back there," she harrumphed, slipping past me and greeted Merlin before sitting on our bed.

"Well first of all, you didn't mention to me that you happened to be the princess of this entire kingdom!" Shaking my head, I gripped Tessia's hand and pulled her out of my room. Kids or not, I didn't think her parents were going to like her being in a boy's room.

I calmed Tess down and suggested her to show us around the castle.

I then went in my room and dragged Merlin out. As I came out with Merlin, I hear a slight sniffle as Tessia suddenly broke down into tears, trying to talk while sobbing.

"Art! Merl! I don't want you to *Sniff* leave…"

"…You're the first *Sniff* people I've gotten ever close to…"

"...Ok..." Merlin said when he's suppose to let Tess vent.

"…"

I just gently patted her head while she was rubbing her eyes.

As we continued walking in silence, except for Tess' soft sniffles, we made it outside, in the courtyard at the back of the castle. The floating orbs were giving off a dim, luminescent glow, lighting up the well-kept garden in a gentle atmosphere.

I couldn't help but imagine how differently this scene could've been played out if we were ten years older.

Before I even had the chance to finish my thought,

>DOOOM!<

A blatantly clear killing intent bombarded my senses. Milliseconds later a faint glimmer gave off the position of a projectile aimed at Tessia. I pushed the still crying princess out of the way and I prepared to parry the projectile with a mana infused hand.

At that instant, a figure in black was facing my back, his right arm in a stance to attack. Grabbing the projectile, I immediately spun myself to block the assassin with whatever was thrown at me. To my surprise, I was face to face with Tessia's grandfather.

Only then I saw Merlin brushed past me and spun kicked Tessia's grandfather. Unfortunately, the grandpa blocked it by raising his mana reinforced arm up.

I jumped back out of his range from before angrily shouting,

"What the hell! Why are you trying to kill us?!"

Merlin too leaped back after an unsuccessful attempt to bring down this granpa.

"Kid. It may hurt a little but I doubt that toy you're holding could kill anyone," he chuckled.

I looked down at my hand to see a pencil sized projectile with both ends blunted and coated in a layer of something close to rubber.

I was tricked!

"Haha! Nice reaction, nice reaction! I didn't think you'd catch my little present and use it to block my next attack! Truly marvelous! However, your usage of mana was mediocre at best! I also didn't expect an instant counterattack from both of you. That kick was certainly something."

He then proceeded to throw us a wooden sword fit for our size each as he took out a wooden sword of his own, just a bit bigger.

Merlin puzzledly picked the sword up despite not knowing how to use it.

"Here I come!" Not even giving me the time to get in a stance or even the chance to accept his impromptu training, he lunged towards us.

This crazy old bat!

I lowered stance and, instead of being defensive, I launched myself at him as well, accelerating my speed to throw off the timing of his swing. Aiming for the fingers gripping his sword, I swung upward, reinforcing my entire body.

It seemed that I'm not the only one thinking of this, as I saw Merlin entered his hunting mode, his eyes glowed purple, before launching himself to my right, not getting in my way.

Seeing this I unconsciously smiled, he has high potential.

Right before my sword came into contact with his hand, I was met with only air as he disappeared from my sight.

Whipping my head back, I spotted him a couple meters apart from where I was standing.

"You're a scary little brat, aren't you? Looks like I'll have to be a bit more serious!" the grandpa smirked before ducking, evading Merlin's simple horizontal slash.

His speed increased even more. Even with my previous life being a life of only training and battles, I was only barely able to keep him in my sight. However, being able to see him and being able to respond to his attacks are two different things.

I felt like a sandbag as I could only curse at my own body.

I was able to block one move of his out of every three he landed on my body. Merlin seemed to be in a worse situation than me as he had no knowledge regarding swordplay. But thanks to his heighten intuition and senses, he was able to evade and parried some of this old bat attack.

Screw technique, this old bat was messing with us through sheer speed. The only reason I was able to somewhat keep up was by using sword techniques and footwork to minimize my movement, along with the fact that, because of my size, I was a small target.

After about ten, long minutes of being treated like a wooden training post, I started noticing some patterns in the grandpa's attacks and also Merlin's growth as he's starting to cope.

As he flashed behind me about to do a horizontal sweep to my legs, I put all of my strength into my legs and leaped back with my sword tucked into my armpit pointing at his head.

With a solid thud created from my blow landing, the old bat stumbled a little before gaining balance.

But then I felt mana gathering from behind.

>FWOOSH!<

A red fireball...? brushed past me and headed towards grandpa at an alarming speed.

Thanks to him letting his guard down from getting hit by my attack, he wasn't able to completely evade the fireball, with only a tiny portion of his sleeve caught fire.

"HAHAHAHA! I guess I deserved that one!" he laughed, rubbing his swollen forehead and shook his sleeve to dispel the fire.

Throughout all of this, Tessia was surprised at first but after realizing it was just a spar, she settled down. She used this chance, though, to jump out and stomp towards the elder.

"Grandpa! You hurt Art and Merl too much! You should've gone easier on him!" Pinching the elder's side.

"AHH! That hurts little one. Haha I'm afraid if I went easier on either Arthur or Merlin, they'd be the one bullying me!" he gently answered as he picked up his granddaughter.

"By the way that fireball..." Grandpa muttered which caused me to realize.

"Merl!" Tessia called out to Merlin who's laying down face first on the ground. I followed her to see his condition.

"Don't worry. He's just exhausted...This is my first time seeing someone materializing elements at mere Light Red Core stage. Resting is the best recovery for him. As for you" Grandpa stated before turning towards me before flashing in front of me and suddenly places his right palm into my sternum.

"Just as I thought. Your body is in a dangerous state…"

***

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