12. Training and Layla

"Can you see the test dummy over there?" Solas said pointing towards the dummy to the far right. 

"Yes, I can." Shisui replied with a nod of his head.

"Very well, look closely." Solas said before teleporting behind the dummy and blasting it with his demonic power even before Shisui could blink his eyes.

Shisui's eyes widened looking at the damage dealt by his father.

'What was that speed of teleportation?! It was even faster than 'Hiraishin'. Is that what our bloodline teleportation ability can do?' Shishi was gobsmacked by the sheer speed of teleportation.

Noticing Shisui's gobsmacked face, Solas asked with a smug smile, "So what do you think? It's convenient, isn't it?"

Shisui could only nod at that because what Solas said was true. This ability would easily be ranked above S-class if they were in the Elemental Nations.

"Now that was just a single teleport. Let me show you the consecutive ones." Solas said pointing towards 4 more dummies. 

"Now I will show you what our bloodline is actually capable of doing." Solas said before steadying his breath. And in an instant, he vanished and all Shisui could see was the explosion of the 4 test dummies. 

'I need to activate my Sharingan to be able to react to this speed.' Shisui thought, highly impressed by his father's skill.

After destroying the dummies, Solas teleported in front of Shisui. "You think you can do it?"

"I can try," replied Shisui with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Alright, you might be a fast learner but I want you to start slow," Solas said and Shisui nodded in understanding. Rushing the pace of learning bloodline abilities is always disastrous.

"The first thing required to use the teleportation technique is a marking. But you don't have to put a physical marking. All you need to do is mark the location in your mind." Solas said and pointed towards the door. "Mark the door in your mind, calm your other senses and strictly focus on the door and the distance between you two. Are you following?" 

Shisui nodded at the question. Happy with his reply, Solas continued, "After that, let your demonic power run through your body. Since you have the door in your mind as the top priority, your brain will believe that being close to the door is your wish and your demonic power will help you reach near it. This desire triggers the bloodline ability and lets you teleport to that place."

Solas put on a smug face. "But there are a lot of ways that you can use to cheat the system and you can improve the speed and overall efficiency with it. But we will discuss that later, for now, try teleporting near the door."

Shisui did as he was told and let the demonic power run inside him. Currently, his entire focus was on the door. 

It did not take him long before he could feel the distance between him and the door shortening, and before he knew it, he was already in front of it. 

"*Clap* *Clap* *Clap* As expected, great job son. You were able to use the basic teleportation on your first try, which is a good feat. Now, since you tried this method yourself, can you explain if you noticed any difference between this method of teleportation and the method used by other devils?" Solas asked, curious of Shisui's reply.

"It did not consume any demonic power, absolutely none. Normal teleportation methods consume a heavy amount of demonic power to teleport once so even the most powerful devils don't use it in rapid successions. Whereas this method only used demonic power to set the direction and direct the body towards it through a spatial rift, without consuming even the least amount of demonic power," Shisui replied instantly.

"That was a very good explanation. Now since you are trying it for the first time, you had to focus entirely on the area where you wanted to teleport. But with enough training, this will almost become reflexive and you only need to picture the place in your mind once to teleport. But this method can only be used for distances within a 500-metre radius," Solas explained to Shisui.

"But didn't you say that we can teleport to any place in existence without any restrictions?" Shisui asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hearing Shisui's question, Solas smiled. "That is where our secondary ability, 'treasure sense' comes into play." 

Shisui instantly cut his father off and asked. "Our secondary ability 'treasure sense' allows us to sense any treasure in this world and coupled with our teleportation ability we can teleport to that place in an instant. But what if there isn't any treasure where we want to teleport? We won't be able to teleport there right?" 

Solas laughed, he did not reply but laughed. This made Shisui confused. "Did I make a mistake?" He asked his father, curious as to why he was laughing.

"To answer your question, you need to ask yourself one thing. What exactly is a treasure? And when you find the answer, you will figure it out yourself. As that is the glitch I was talking about." Solas said while ruffling Shisui's hair. "This should be enough for today. Continue practising and try rapid teleportations."

Solas stopped ruffling Shisui's hair and continued, "Even if you can't find the answer yourself, it's fine. I will give you the answer tomorrow and teach you the advanced teleportation methods but it will take a few months for you to master it. And once you finish, clean yourself properly as we will be going out for dinner tonight." 

Shisui nodded at that and Solas teleported away with a smile. 

"What exactly is a treasure, huh?" Shisui mumbled remembering what his father said before deciding to go back to training. 'I will think about that later but for now, I need to practise consecutive teleportations.'

After that Shisui went back to his practice.

[Timeskip 4 hours]

"Shisui, are you there?" Came a sweet womanly voice.

Turning around, Shisui saw a smiling Layla standing and looking towards him.

(Flashback)

Young master... or Shisui as he prefers to be called, is very diligent. Kids his age prefer playing over studying or training but he prefers those over playing and spending his time like normal kids. Sometimes it worries me that he will miss his childhood if he only focuses on studying and training but a part of me also prefers him to remain this way. Not because it makes it easier to tend to his needs but rather because it will allow him to be a good Lord in the future.

He is both smart and kind which is a sign of a good Devil Lord. He is smart beyond his age. While it is true that devil children mature faster than humans, it is still astonishing that his growth is even above those rare geniuses. And it makes me extremely happy and proud to be able to work for him. And at least, this is way better than my past life before being a maid for the Seere.

"Layla?" a melodious voice snaps me from my thoughts. Turning around I find Lady Seere, the woman who saved me from the hellhole. The woman who I am forever indebted to.

"Yes, Lady Seere? How may I help you?" I asked, giving her a slight bow.

"I just wanted to have a little chat with you. We haven't had a womanly talk in a long time, now have we?" She said coming inside the room.

"Oh, okay Milady. I am almost done with cleaning the young master's room," I said dusting his bookshelf.

"No worries, take your time," She said in her usual calm tone.

After ten minutes I was done cleaning the room. Looking towards Lady Seere, I found her sitting near the study table.

"So… Umm… Did I make a mistake?" I was honestly afraid that I somehow upset her. Making my benefactor unhappy is not something I wish to do.

She shook her head with a smile. "No. As I said I only came here to talk with you. It's been a while since we had a good conversation, friend." 

"I see." I took a seat next to her. Just like Shisui, Lady Seere prefers to be called by her name when we are alone.

"So, how has Shisui been treating you lately?" Her question came as no surprise. A mother asking about her son's behaviour is common.

"He has been kind just like you. Unlike other pure-blood devil children, he is very calm, humble, kind and honest. He treats even the servants with respect. And he makes almost no demands, which is very odd considering he is still only five years old."

Shisui is a very unusual child. But that is a good thing in this case.

"He is indeed kind of an anomaly. But that is exactly what makes him more likeable and interesting than the others right?"

She was indeed correct. Despite being a child he carried every action with grace. 

I nodded while she continued her questions, "But that's enough about Shisui. So how have you been?" 

"Great." I replied instantly. "Looking after Shisui is a fun thing. I like being around him." Those were my honest feelings. Being around him was never boring.

Selene raised an eyebrow. "Interesting." She said before sighing. "How many hours do you work every day, Layla?" 

I was confused. Why was she asking me this? Was I being lazy? Thinking about the hours I work, I replied. "Umm… around 19 to 20."

This made her eyes go wide. "Tell me you are joking!" She exclaimed at my answer.

Confused at her sudden outburst, I replied with a tilt of my head. "Um? No. I do work for 20 hours a day." 

That was a good right? Or was I working less?

"Oh My Satan! You can't be serious!" She said face-palming. 

"Uh? No." I am confused here.

"What did I say about not overworking yourself all those years ago?" She asked.

As far as I remember, I was working without sleeping for days, which is one of the abilities provided by bloodline. But she forbid me from working without sleeping even if I didn't really need that.

"I got busy with a few things and you start overworking yourself. If Shisui hasn't said that you were overworking yourself, I wouldn't have noticed for even longer," She said shaking her head.

Shisui said that I was overworking myself? Is working for 20 hours a day considered overworking?

"Was I overworking?" This question left my mouth even without my realization.

"Were you, Layla? For Satan's sake, YOU WERE!!" Selene shouted, throwing away her noblewoman persona. "I know that your bloodline allows you to work without feeling exhausted, but just because you don't need to rest doesn't mean that you shouldn't. Enjoy your life, Layla. You know you are with us now and not with those old coots!"

When Selene talked about those guys, I felt myself subconsciously clenching my fists.

"Layla." Selene called my name before placing her hand on my shoulder. "You don't have to be so hard on yourself, you are now part of our family. So enjoy your life, you are young. You should be spending your time enjoying yourself and not overworking. Your happiness is what I- No, it is what we want, Layla. Me, Solas and Shisui. So, please for our sake don't overwork."

Sometimes I wonder, was this the happiness I was promised once I was to be freed from those shackles, because if it is. This is too good for me. I don't think I deserve someone as kind as them. If Selene wouldn't have saved me from those people. If Lord Solas wouldn't have pleaded to the council for my freedom, I would have been still shackled or worse killed like the rest of my pillar. And for this, I will forever be indebted to the Seere pillar.

That's why I decided to dedicate my life to the firstborn of Lord and Lady Seere. To forever tend to his/her needs and be his/her maid. 

But *sigh* after all, Shisui is their son and just as one would expect, he is too kind for his own good. And this gave me another reason to be by his side, that is to not allow the world's ugliness to corrupt him. And change his kind and pure self. 

"Will you promise me that you won't overwork yourself? And by that, I mean working for only the hours required and not above that. You will spend your time like every other young female devil would enjoying tea-parties and talking to other devils. Do you promise?" She asked me with a serious tone.

Smiling at her question, I nodded. "I will."

"Good." She said looking towards the clock. "Shisui should be done training by now, will you call and tell him to get ready? We are going outside for dinner tonight. And as a matter of fact, I want you to come with me." She said with a face that said 'I won't take no for an answer.'

"Are you sure about that?" I asked.

"One hundred percent." She replied making me smile.

(End of Flashback)

"Shisui, are you there?" I ask entering the training hall, just to find a sweat-covered 5-year-old boy.

He asks me not to overwork myself and he does the same himself. *Sigh* Sometimes I wonder, what am I going to do once he grows up? 

Well, that's a question for another time. After all, I got a boy to help get ready tonight.

[A/N: Thanks G-man.

Shisui will get his Evil Pieces after 2 more chapters.]