Chapter 06: Unease

Everyone else is asleep,it should be 1 in the morning right now.

I glanced outside the window,the darkness is static.

The darkness is static , My Darkness is in motion.

I thought of the silence when I was in the dark abyss.

I raised my finger and pointed it towards an empty glass bottle on the table.

Immediately,swarms of thin darkness layers formed around the bottom part of the bottle,levitating it above the surface.

I imagined bringing the bottle towards me,to which it followed slowly.

After that,I pointed my finger towards the meat bun that sat all the way across the table. It lifted up into the air,and I bring it towards my finger.

"consume..." I whispered.

A small tentacle like fingle appeared from the tip of my finger,pulled the bun into my fingertip.

It magically dissapear into me. However, I felt nourished.

This is called the Consume magic. The first dark arts I learned.

Well,I don't actively learned it actually. Instead,it was already there,imprinted inside my head so all I need to do is remember the step and it magically happens.

Pretty easy,like a video game. I just need to click on the spell icon and the game does the rest.

The consume magic,allows me to well,consume thing,edible or not and turns it into nutrients. Directly enhancing my body.

However,the more I use this spell. The more I feel like losing my sense of taste,so I need to keep in check on how frequent I'm going to use.

For now,I only allowed myself to Consume twice a week.

...

As I leaned my back on the bed frame,I remembered not being tired at all after using the dark arts.

Usually,dark arts consumed a lot of mana,even for the low tier spell.

I don't know,I only read stuffs from the study room. Maybe this particular spell is a low cost or I just have an infinite mana pool.

Although...there's a difference between the mana pool used by normal people and the dark arts practitioner. The latter being called a dark mana pool,it doesn't automatically regenerate like its counterpart.

The dark mana pool only regenerates through cruel deeds,or simply living in the underworld.

In other words, Aesir's prison.

I can safely cross out the the latter option since I'm not living in the underworld.

The surface is the land of mortal,particularly I'm in the human kingdom.

There's also the other option...and I've never hurt anyone or anything...

Have I?

----------

Knock...knock

"...."

knock..knock..

"..."

Knock...

The door clicked open. I glanced towards the door direction,noticing the small silver haired girl walked in.

It was Yukino,she started at me dumbfounded,looking at me from top to bottom.

I was doing an exercise,however I tend to lose concentration of everything around me.

"Why didn't you open the door?" Yukino inquired,visibly a little bit off the mood.

I mean,it's still early in the morning and it's also my fault for not noticing her.

Quickly,I bowed my head a little, "Sorry,I didn't notice anything."

Yukino stared at my sweating body. I was still wearing my night t-shirt so she noticed those sweats pretty easy.

Yukino nodded,expressing her understanding of my situation.

'Gosh,she has such a lovely attitude...I hope she ends up with a good husband in the future' I thought,whilst gazing into her purple eyes.

"S-stop staring.." Yukino spoke,her face looking flushed. I noticed that I have been staring at her for quite a while.

"Oh,right,so what are you here for?" I asked Yukino,it wasn't supposed to be magic-training day since it's the weekend.

"e-eh?!"

Yukino still assumed her awkwardness when I asked her that question,invoking a shocked expression.

"What's wrong?" I asked,then continue, "Are you sick?"

After that,I walked up to her but then Yukino shoved me away when I was only a step closer to touching her forehead.

"U-uhh,yeah! Master told me to h-have a training session with y-you twoday-" Yukino said in a hurried tone and accidentally biting her tongue in the middle of her sentence.

I tried my best to hold in my laugh from her antics. The corner of my lips curved upwards,forming a smirk.

I let out a small chuckle.

Yukino heard my chuckle and looked up on my face.

She only gave me a pout and left the room shortly with her arms crossed.

Seeing this,I quickly followed behind her.

...

Yukino stood in front me. From behind,I looked at the row of dummy lined up in the distance.

"Is that the dummy from the warehouse?" I inquired,curiously.

Nasir had kept those dummies in the warehouse for quite a long time according to Yukino's answer.

She told me that those training dummies are expensive since it's made out of Hardened Deadwood Tree bark which is certainly a rare product.

The sole purpose of the dummy to be made with such luxurious materials was so that it could withstand up to a tier-7 magic.

Basically,the power equivalent to that of a royal mage standards,who are at the rank-7 enabling them to cast spells equivalent to their rank or below.

Yukino tapped her finger on my shoulder,intending for me to give her attention.

"Look at me and copy this movement" She says.

Then,Yukino placed her palm pointing at one of the dummy in the middle of the row.

After that,I heard her whispering incantation.

From that,I deduced that it was a tier-3 spell.

'Impressive' I thought. Looking at her small stature after distancing myself a bit from her.

Normally,children around her age are mostly still at an early level 1 mage. The coming of age ceremony,for children aged 15 are at best a first level 3 mage.

Which means,Yukino was years above her peers.

As I listened to my train of thought,a water spear has shot past her,creating a whistling noise and leaving a whirlwind as it moves towards the dummy at a great speed.

As it makes a contact with dummy,a water explosion occurred instantly instantly forming a thick water mist around the target.

Despite standing about 25 meters away from the blast radius,the shockwave phased through my body knocking me back a little.

I had to shield my eyes from the dust that also flew from the explosion.

Yukino looked towards me and quickly ran to me. She was sighing, "Sorry,I overdid it this time with the explosion...." she says apologetically.

"It should be me apologizing,I'm sorry for being a not up-to-standard hero" I sighed.

I noticed Yukino's soft gaze,her eyes lit up and she encourages me, "No! I won't give up on teaching Ryuuto until Ryuuto becomes the best among the best!"

Ah,how radiant her voice were. It reminds me of the energetic Yumiko.

"Yumiko...." I muttered involuntarily.

"Huh? It's Yukino" Yukino corrected me when she heard me.

I gazed into Yukino's eyes momentarily.

That eye.

That burning passion.

She was being true to her word,it's hard to believe sometimes whenever I looked into her eyes like that.

She seems to bring out the darkness that resides within me,constantly lifting the mood.

If she was this passionate about supporting me,as the one receiving her teachings,I couldn't possibly give up.

I guess so.

'Yeah,I've made up my mind,I'm going to make her proud' I thought.

Instantly,I was reminded of my parents. I've managed to make them proud,but it's too late for them to celebrate it with me...

That's alright though,I gotta face reality. I have Yukino here,physically existing with me.

I will strive to become stronger,and watch her proud look.

That's what I wanted to achieve.

And so,the training continues for weeks after that incident.