Chapter 36 – Defining moments

Fen's Pov:

Yaaaaaaawwwwwwnnnnn.

Another early day of waking up before the sun rises.

'Better wake up quick. Mistress should come knocking any second.'

I don't know when but it has been a really long time since I've cared about sleeping in.

'I had that nightmare again. It's slowly fading away. This time everything was so blurry as if it was someone else's memory. I'm glad. The sooner I don't see it anymore the better.'

These nightmares of mine are from my time as an orphan and a slave. I'm usually in a dark and damp cage watching my memories from a distance. Reliving the darkest of days every night. This was how I spent most of my nights since I was brought into the lodge.

It's not all that bad actually. I had gotten used to it. Since I thought I would have them till the day I died, I had already told myself that it wasn't the worst thing.

That was the old me. The 'me' that had given up. The 'me' that had no hope. The 'me' that had no family.

I changed the day, my young master… told me that he considered me his family. I gained a little brother that day. A highly gluttonous, slightly silly, but always reliable little brother. The best little brother in the whole world.

That was and will be the best day of my life. From that day forth my nightmares began to recede. Now they have become so blurry and the cage around me has rusted. I feel like it may break any day.

'Ah! I lost track of time again. What's the time? I still have 8 minutes. Hurry Fen! Hurry!'

…..

Right now I am walking towards the entrance of the lodge. I'm heading out for the town.

The reason for this…

Lately, the young master's schedule of training left me completely free the whole day. This was good and I spent most of the day either in his room or mine trying to complete the task he gave me.

This was all good for the first 3 days until I realized how much knowledge I lacked in the field. Of the materials that I had known about I was able to test them all out within those three days. As for methods and techniques required in tailoring. That was a whole 'nother challenge.

I went to the sisters for advice first but they all unanimously sent me to the mistress. When I told the mistress about the problems I faced. I got a three-word response.

"Wait till tomorrow."

So I waited.

To my surprise… Mistress had gotten me a job. Not just any job, a tailors assistant!

I thought that was great enough but when I got to the store on the first day… Teacher, the man who I am now assistant and apprenticed to, was actually a two-star tailor. A TWO STAR TAILOR!

'That's the highest level of all the professions in this town. How did mistress pull it off? Well… The whole town respects her. It isn't hard for her to just give the word and wait for it to happen. Even my teacher speaks of her in a polite tone despite his foul mouth.'

Due to this turn of events, I now go and spend most of my day at the tailor shop. The only responsibilities I still maintain in the lodge are waking up the young master in the morning and being there to help him clean up when he's done with his training, late in the evening.

Lately, my responsibilities have been added to. The two new recruits who were supposed to be my help have now become my responsibility as well.

After practice, the three tire themselves out soo much that they eat dinner on the porch. Even mistress joins us there nowadays.

As soon as they finish devouring their dinner I give them all a good cleaning before they go and collapse. Young masters room has now become the shared room of the three.

The two girls forsook their room so quickly that I feel like they had never been given one in the first place.

As a result, I now have to wake up three sleepyheads. Thinking about this reminded me of today morning.

'The three were cute as ever today as well too. Young master was in the middle with little Luna on the right hugging his arm while Elaine had one foot on his face and the rest of her body displaced all over the bed.'

'I wonder how that girl can sleep in such an awkward position.'

Mistress did not seem to have any objections to this new arrangement so I guess it's fine.

As for the two girls, I've really grown increasingly fond of them. I was the youngest sister before they arrived so I never had any little sisters. Now with me taking care of them just like young master really makes me feel like a big sis. I don't know why but my heart gets this warm feeling every time they do something silly. I haven't really figured it out yet.

As for my individual opinion on the two.

Elaine resembles mistress a lot! I can see why young master can't help but be attached to her. Her fiery and passionate personality with a bit of eccentricity is so similar to the Mistress. Maybe that's why young master gets so easily annoyed with her? I'm sure that he hasn't realized it himself though.

Whereas Luna is the complete opposite of her sister. Calm, composed and most of all always jubilant.

The last characteristic is something that has been growing since she arrived at the lodge. It is so obvious that all the sisters in the lodge noticed it even the slightly dense ones. Sorry for throwing you out there like this sister but it's true.

Luna's thoughts are usually aligned with the young master's. I am pretty sure she does not do it on purpose which only further makes me certain of why young master gets along with her as well.

'I keep saying why young master likes them but isn't it for these reasons that I like the two sisters soo much as well? It's funny but I never thought I would grow so attached to these two so quickly.'

Honestly just the fact that the two girls brighten the place up and make the young master who was usually very quiet and only spoke when he needed to, speak so animatedly all the time was enough for me.

'Okay, Fen! The girls are already doing their part. Young master has given me a responsibility that only I can complete. Lets put my heart and soul into this. I will not let him down. I will do my best to be the best big sis!'

I made my way to the store for another day of learning through hard work. I also received a nice salary from my teacher on a weekly basis. I am planning on using it on purchasing a few more sample materials that are hard to come by.

Young master only wants me to make him some casual wear but I have set my sights on something more. I want to do my bit too. I want to protect him in my own way.

...…

In the backyard of the Four Ways Melody lodge.

A huge bustle had been kicked up. The noise was rampant from all the discussions that were being carried out.

One sweet voice after the other was sounded out which accumulated into the various chirps that could be heard.

All the girls that worked in the lodge had been assembled again today.

In the centre of the backyard away from the various training tools that lay strewn about were the two girls- Elaine and Luna.

Opposite to them stood Adam only a few metres away. The three were currently in a staring contest. None of the noise around them could distract them.

Clap!

Yuki who was standing at the forefront of the crowd gave a loud clap. The whole place went quiet in an instant.

This whole spectacle was her doing. She wanted Adam to be able to fight even in the presence of others without showcasing his dual class body.

This was not much of a challenge since the time that he had been able to control his weapons. The Monks moves were not flashy but very ordinary. It was very easy to hide.

His main class which he had registered under at the guild and he would showcase to the world openly was the ranger class.

As long as he didn't completely forsake his weapons and got into hand to hand combat it would not be too obvious. This exercise by Yuki had ended up benefitting Elaine and Luna the most.

Elaine would occasionally let her tongue slip when she fought with her sister or Adam. Being around soo many people was a good mental exercise for her. Luna, on the other hand, was the one who had to maintain her wind element usage. Casting under all the eyes of the other girls was good enough pressure to test and see if she would flinch in a real situation.

"Fen," Yuki called nonchalantly.

"Yes, mistress." Fen who was right behind her with a small gong and stick In her hands replied.

"Ring the gong. Let the match begin."

"yes! Young master, Elaine and Luna! I am going to ring the bell at the count of three. Get ready."

Everyone present began to count mentally.

3

2

1

Gong! The bassy sound reverberated in the backyard.

The daily spar began!

It had been 17 days since the first training session the three had had together and the first day that they had sparred against each other.

In the days that followed a lot of changes had occurred. Adam had won all the spars in the first week.

From the second week on the girls had started to win the fights intermittently. This was when Yuki had increased their spars and made it more often. The spars had been increased to 3 a day at its peak.

The third week. Which was this week! The fights had been reduced to 1 per day again. The reason? Their fights had begun to drag on. The reason Yuki had arranged the spars in the first place was to have them achieve a balance in their level of skill.

The fact that they were not able to determine a winner as quickly as they used to was an obvious indicator of them reaching a balance.

Their fights at first would drag on for 30 minutes then 1 hour and finally 2 hours. The longest time they had sparred for without getting a clear victor was 2 hours and 47 minutes.

In their frustration, the girls had ended up splitting their forces. This led to a three-way fight. Luna, Elaine and Adam had all fought separately. The result? Adam won at the 3-hour checkpoint.

The girls who had been one unit were weaker when separated due to the separation of their powers. It was inevitable that Adam won.

Every fight after that would begin with Elaine and Luna teaming up but would always end in a three-way fight.

Today after 1 hour of Adam flitting around the backyard trying to find a hole in the impenetrable defence that Elaine has created and dodging the random and unpredictable strikes from Luna was still running around figuring out his next plan of action. He would let loose his daggers as well but they would all be deflected by Elaine.

He would have to circle around and collect his daggers every time he would throw them. He could not get close as Luna's territory spell, the gust, was always active in a perimeter around the two.

The girls had perfected the fortress and ballista type of formation. To win Adam would have to take down Luna first, which would force Elaine to attack and give him the chance to strike her. The way things were right now, he would never win.

Elaine was a turtle with spikes while Luna was a snake which had coiled itself around the turtle. She was constantly striking out at a range with her venom but never straying from the protection of the turtle.

The three were maintaining absolute concentration at this moment. The noises and cheers from the girls around them were completely drowned out.

Still running around, he was about to throw another dagger when he stopped. The two girls were separating.

The three, almost as if they had a silent agreement in place, walked into positions. They were now standing at measured distances from each other. Forming a triangle.

The surroundings quieted down as well. Only the chirping of the crickets and insects could now be heard in the backyard.

Everyone knew that the real fight was about to begin.

Soundlessly the fight began. Adam and Elaine dashed forward. Their destination was the same place… Luna.

Luna cast her territory around her in a semi-circle. She was doing her best to conserve her magic power reserves. If not she would have cast it in a full circle around her.

It was an invisible wall. Both Adam and Elaine ended up walking into it and slowing down because of it.

Swish.

Elaine's double-edged sword came swinging in a horizontal arc at Adam's chest.

'The best time to take him out is in the start or in the confusion of all three of us fighting. Fighting him alone at the end, for either of us would be a disadvantage. He can get into close quarters and attack from range.' She thought to herself as her sword continued to slash sideways.

Seeing the tides shifting, Luna instantly chanted and created two dull wind blades that were aimed at Adam as well.

It was not that the girls had grown heartless but the repeated instruction's of Adam himself that had given birth to this situation. All three of them were now bloodthirsty hounds.

It would not be a real spar if they didn't treat it like an actual fight. There was no room for mercy in a life and death battle with a monster.

Adam took a single diagonal step back. The wind that was pushing him back helped him get behind Elaine in a blink. The blades that were being aimed at him were now aimed at Elaine by Luna.

Elaine crouched and deflected the blades that were forced to come at her from above with her buckler while she sent her sword in Adam's way who was pulling out his dagger from his arm holsters preparing to strike her the second she focused on the spell.

He was forced to retreat and all three were sent back into positions that were equally far away from each other. Only this time they stood in a line with Elaine at the centre.

This was just the first round. Not waiting for too long the three moved again.

Round after round went by. Fashy attacks, sneak attacks and bombarding attacks went off in the backyard.

This went on till the 11th round! Luna had run out of Magic power and was about to quit when the gong rang.

Gong!

"Enough! You all are ready. In three days you can make your visit to the dungeon." Yuki said with a beaming voice. She was smiling from ear to ear. The rate of improvement of Adam alone had shocked her but the two girls had not taken it lying down.

They had improved with him to the point that they had caught up with his level of skill.

Cheers rang out from the crowd all around. All the girls had a rough idea of the situation because they lived and were around them all the time.

What Yuki didn't know was that the girls themselves had found mentors in the form of their cards. This helped them catch up to him with the help of the spars. They all learnt from each other. Adam's speed of improvement had also skyrocketed because of the two girls.

They would have never reached their current level in just a short 27 day's if it had not been so.

Of course, Adam would always have an innate advantage because of his dual class which provided him with enhanced versatility and flexibility on the field. This was only natural but the girl's ability to stand their ground even in a three-way showed their ability even if they would eventually lose. This was good enough for Yuki to come to her decision.

"Yes, mother! Thank you!" Adam was over the moon. He had been dying to go back to the dungeon ever since he left it the last time. He was now finally able to go back.

This time he was so much more powerful and had two helpers at his level. He couldn't imagine what the scene would be like this time.