Chapter 3 : The Noble Woman

"Draw your bow." Sekel stood behind the boy in the bush, before watching as the eighth old boy readied his bow.

Small amounts of wind magic were present at the top of the arrow, but he didn't infuse too much.

The boy was knocked, and Sekel quickly scolded the boy.

"Shoulders higher."

Zakai did as was instructed, raising their shoulders.

And he let go of the bowstring, watching as the arrow flew across the air and hit the stag in the air.

"Too blunt." Sekel watched as the stag ran away, but he quickly sighed.

His grimoire was beside him, as his own bow was masterfully knocked and shot an arrow completely infused with wind magic into the Stag.

It fell with great might, as it slowed down on the ground.

"The fact you could knock that bow at your age is something to be proud of at your age." Sekel saw how the boy was impatient and angry, before sighing. "You still have a lot to learn."

"Learn?" Zakai snickered, "You don't have that much longer left, Master."

"The essence of a hunter isn't that hard to learn." Sekel lit a medicinal pipe and took a puff of it. "Still tastes like shit. I miss tobacco."

"So, what are the key efforts of a hunter?"

"Patience, knowing when to strike and what to do."

"Haven't I showed you traits of that?"

"Your too young."

"So?" Zakai muttered

"Oh, my talented but prideful disciple." Sekel watched as the smoke burned in the cold air.

It didn't go out since Sekel's Wind Magic was protecting it from the cold winter air.

Zakai quickly calmed down as he carefully grabbed a knife and looked at his Master.

"Let me."

"Oh ho ho." Sekel laughed. "Do a shit job and that won't be the only thing I will be serving to the nobles."

Zakai seemed unphased by the threats as he slowly got the knife out of his winter coat pocket and started on the stag.

The magical energy of the skull had mutated even the normal animals to a certain degree, making the horns of the stag a lot stronger and more resilient, which means one of these could easily wipe out a group of people with relative ease.

They could also be used as poor magical ingredients, and since the nobles were only interested in the meat and the pelt, these things are fair play.

Taking the Stag back to the cabin, he slowly started to carve it.

He hung it up by the pole, with the legs of the deer open to serve as an entry point for his knife.

Zakai didn't flinch as the warm blood flowed out of the stag.

Every day he sees blood, in his dreams or when he's hunting an animal.

A man.

Holding a Woman.

At first, he cried every night and threw up.

Then he cried.

After that, he started to wake up normal.

What will a stag do to him?

Sekel did a sign, three points against his chest, to commemorate the animal.

Hunters need to respect the prey they hunt.

Zakai did the same without hesitation, before digging the knife deeper into the body of the deer

Around the blade of the knife, Zakai was using wind magic to make the cuts swifter

Skinning the animal, the blade slowly cut across the flesh, as the pelt slowly ran down from the skin of the Stag.

After an hour or so, he was done with cutting down the meat with extreme precision.

"You have sharp senses," Sekel commented, watching the boy from the warmth of the cabin.

Due to all the blood, Zakai was outside, so he had to deal with the winter cold.

Luckily, the weather was clear, so he managed to not spoil the meat.

"I'll send this to the Nobles," Sekai said, before walking into the winter snow, which had just started.

Going into his room in the large cabin, he rested.

Master Sekei only had a year or so before he died.

Magically enhanced poison from a beast.

Nasty stuff, since it was progressive, and it was slow and painful.

Cures were expensive, and Zakai liked his body parts, so he could only watch as his master slowly wither away and die.

He could see that Sekei accepted this fact, as he lived like every day was his last.

Sometimes he would be drunk and cry and do other things.

But he lost the feeling of sadness for the man long ago.

Why were his emotions becoming dull?

Zakai's mind flashed with the scenes of the man and the woman, before snorting.

6 years, and he will have to go to the capital for the training of a magic knight.

Not to mention receiving his grimoire.

Sekei taught him how to train without hurting his young body and making him unable to grow when he was older, so he was taller than most boys his age.

His copper skin was unlike people from around here, so he was called racial slurs he couldn't understand.

Nor care about it.

Every night he went into the libabry in this book-

no grimoire.

It wasn't an ordinary book.

The only thing that was in there was the same thing he read over and over.

The wolf.

The book was a well-kept secret, and he had no plans of exposing it to his master.

A thunderous knock on the door caused Zakai to walk over to the door, seeing a woman holding a man.

"It seemed his time has come," Zakai muttered, as his eyes flung open.

This was too soon!

"Boy, get me a hot rag and some tools!" The woman rudely barged in, laying the body of the dying man on the table.

Zakai did as instructed, watching as the woman did some care to the man on the table.

When she was done, she looked at the young boy and sighed.

"You are his student?"

Zakai silently nodded.

"He is going to die soon."

Lifting up his shirt, his abs gave way to a purple wound, as the purple wound carried the poisoned blood around his body.

"Mana can temporarily stop this, but he will last a couple of days as the natural mana in his body is fighting the poison."

Looking at the young woman, Zakai asked with a bit of doubt.

"Who are you?"

"Part of the Uniquas family."

Zakai did a polite bow in the presence of the woman , as she sighed and sat down on the chair.

"I was tasked to get the pelt and the meat from the wild animals today, but I didn't know that this would happen." She groaned slightly, as she smacked her face. "And your too young, how long have you been learning from Selek?"

"2 years." Behind Zakai's fake smile was a hint of annoyance.

"Good should be enough."

"For what?"

"He didn't tell you?" She looked annoyed. "Im Selena by the way."

Zakai introduced himself. "Zakai."

"Yeah... so basically he was in a contract with us to give us fresh meats and pelts, as there something most nobles want, and since we are the only noble village in this shithole, we use them to put pride in the peasants of the village." Selena looked at the countless bottles of alcohol, which were Selek's private collection, and took a swig out of a bottle of wine.

She looked stressed.

"I don't want no damn fucking child!" She muttered under her breath, before taking another swig.

"Is... is that my vintage wine...?"

"Selek, your awake."

"Put that bottle down, you harlot." Selek hissed, causing Selena to take another swig in defiance.

Aren't peasants meant to fear the rich?

"H-how long do I have left?"

"A week or so." Selena unphased said, as almost it wasn't on about somebody's life.

"F-fuck."

Zakai silently watched the two make pokes at eachover before Selena wiped the wine stains and muttered.

"What are we gonna do with this kid, Selek?"

"He will be the new hunter."

Laughing filled the room as Selena laughed.

"2 years ain't shit."

The noble image of an upper-class woman was instantly broken.

"One week isn't shit, and im not complaining." Selek retorted

"Why don't we hold a competition in the village of the youth and see who is the better hunter?"

"Serena, stop being cruel..." Selek lost all humour in his voice.

"Scared?"

"He's a kid."

"So?" Selena said, it seemed the alcohol got to her head. "Many kids want the job, and your skill is declining, I can swear to you that your disciple's skills are shit as well-"

"ENOUGH!" Selek screamed out, causing Serena to go silent.

"I assure you, Mrs Selena, that's my skills are adequate. "Zakai coldly muttered. "That pelt you got was dissected from me."

"Is that so?"

She took a look at the pelt.

"Should we find then," Selena muttered. "I was joking."

"Were you fuck." Selek reached to his pipe, before sighing.

He suddenly stumbled up and opened a drawer, before taking the herbs out of his pipe and cleaning it.

Stuffing a handful of tobacco, he sighed.

"I missed this taste."

"Guess you have 6 days left then," Selena muttered.

Selena's grimoire suddenly flew out.

"[Contract Magic : Basic Contract]"

"Aren't the Uniquas family water mages?" Zakai didn't flinch when asking this question, as Serena's scowl worsened.

"This is why im saw as a useless person in the family, because of some fucking water magic!" She took a large swig of wine, before releasing her lips from the bottle and burping.

"Give us 10 pelts and beast carcasses every two months and we will give you around 1500 yul," Serena said, finally putting the cork on the bottle of wine, much to the content of Sekel. "We will pay you less if the pelts or the meat is less quality than our standard, and this batch is..... satisfactory to say the least, nothing special."

"How am I supposed to sign it?"

"Bite your finger and spread the blood on the contract."

The contract suddenly whizzed and split in half when Zakai did as instructed, as he watched the contract set anew.

Something in his body felt heavier, before disappearing.

Sighing, he felt a new pressure.

A pressure of responsibility.