Accumulation (1)

After parting ways with Arya because of an important matter that she needs to tend to. Lily was left dispirited. I held her hand. "What's wrong?"

"It just hit me... How can we handle her?"

'She's your benefactor though...' I thought.

"Are you planning on restraining her?"

"No way. Why would I risk my life? I'm not dumb."

"Well, the way you phrase it... So what do you have in mind?"

"I don't have one in mind. Firstly, forcing her is absurdly impossible considering she's stubborn. Perhaps, leaning on a psychological approach to changing her way of thinking. Doesn't that sound plausible? A subtle approach."

"Basically, your solution for Arya is by manipulating her mind? That sounds evil."

"If you make it sound that way, it definitely does. My purpose is to tone her aggressiveness and carelessness down. This is for my sanity. It's like I'm tending a child because of her stubbornness even when's older than me! Then her father is also troublesome and her mother too... If you were able to meet them, you could see why Arya became like that. No, every dragon in that place is all the same!" Lily said angrily.

It suddenly became a rant.

"Y-Yeah... Goodluck. I don't think you'll be able to execute that plan of yours to Arya. Arya's pretty smart despite acting like that."

"Then I'll outsmart her," Lily said as her inner competitiveness incited.

"Good luck, you have my full support. Arya is your responsibility."

"Oh, are you sure? She is also your responsibility."

"Huh?"

"Don't, 'huh' me. You caught her interest which means you will also be dragged in her shenanigans in the future. Isn't that fun? Let's have fun, shall we?" Lily flashes a smile at me.

Right now, I'm utterly confused by Lily's words. It took me a while before it occurred to me. I pinched the bridge of my nose. "You're right. I clearly remember Arya telling something about whipping me into a fighter or something."

"Told you. You're already caught like Adelle and Clara. But the upside of it wouldn't be bad considering she's honed to be better than everybody. We may learn a thing or two from her. But at the same time, I doubt that. From my experience, she's relying solely on her instinct."

"But in the end, she's still strong regardless."

"Irk, that's true. Wait, if I could beat her once, she could view as an equal which means she'll finally listen to me. Why didn't I think of that? I'll go now, Claude. I need to get stronger." Lily turns her heels the other way and disappears in a blink of an eye.

"Wait!" Before I could stop her, she disappeared. I was left speechless. "Most of the time, she acts like an adult, but at times, she's also childish... Well, she is not alone on that one. If my competitive drive got tickled, I'm certainly going to act like that too. Haaah... I'm sure she'll snap back to reality later."

After Lily disappeared, I sensed some eyes on my back from wherever I go, not leaving their sight on my back. They don't emit malicious intent towards me, so I didn't take action and observe them. It looks like they're just observing me.

"Three of them...?"

They concealed their presence and mana, but I can still see them regardless. At first, I'm not even able to sense mana because of how weak they are for me, but as time passes, I gradually gain the power to do so. It came naturally without even doing anything—I became aware of the space around me. It's like there are these unknown variables in the space floating around me.

"Did he send them to me? No..." I look in their direction one by one, suddenly, all of them began running in the opposite direction. "Hm...? What do they want from me?"

Because of that, I went to my dorm room for that day to prepare myself for tomorrow's Instructor Sienna's sparring session that I requested before. I liked sparring against other people to gain experience, and luckily enough, Instructor Sienna agreed. I'm not the only person who will be participating in this, as my other classmates are also doing it since she said it's unfair for others. Basically, she will be sparring against the entire class.

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The wind brushes through my hair and face, along the mix of the dust. In front of me was Instructor Sienna, she was standing straight as her feet were shoulder-width apart, facing forward, and her arms alongside her body. Behind her, my classmates are watching from the sidelines.

A weak gust of wind has begun surrounding her feet. She's maintaining her stance while breathing naturally. I step my left foot forward and slightly bend my knees, keeping my arms tight around my chest and face. Gradually, I reinforce my body with my quintessence.

"Are you ready, Claude?"

"Yes."

"What's with your response? Give it more energy!"

"Yes!"

"Fine, let's start!"

I loosen every muscle in my body and lean forward before charging toward Instructor Sienna who's also approaching me at disturbing speed, along with the disturbing look of excitement on her face. As soon our face was about to clash, I duck down, shifting my weight to the left as I let my right arm hit her neck.

However, I didn't anticipate that she would read me like a book. Or was it reactive? Nevertheless, her fist that's on her waist was about slam against my face. I instinctively teleport a few feet away because of the dangerous feeling that I felt from her fist. I lost my sense of balance, resulting in me eating the dust on the ground.

"Uaaagh!"

"Whoa, you vanished instantly."

"I thought this was a simple sparring?!"

"It is." She then turns around toward my classmates. "First lesson. As I demonstrated, Claude stumble upon himself because he was caught off-guard by my sudden approach. You need to always surprise your opponent, making it hard for them to counter or read your attacks. In short, throw them off. A simple tactic like this would gain you massive advantages against your opponent. I don't care how dirty it is, do it. It may not be chivalric, but that's not the point. The point here is that you're already at a disadvantage because you're a cripple, so gain whatever advantages you need to get to make your opponent stoop down to your level. I know, it's not chivalric, but you also need to understand that the world is unfair. It would still be up to you whether you will apply it or not. I don't care."

At first, I was surprised by her unforeseen speech. Naturally, my classmates and I were baffled.

Instructor Sienna turns around. "Shall we continue?" She said with a smile plastered on her face.

"Seriously? I didn't know this would be a lesson. And, I'm the dummy?"

"Hey, we're technically still sparring. I'm just adding insights into what had transpired. Killing two birds in one stone. Now, ready yourself."

"O-Okay..." I stood up and shake the dirt on my uniform before taking a stance.

Instructor Sienna took the first step. Immediately, she's already right in front of me. She pivots her left leg and swings her right fist, aiming directly on my guts again. I cursed Instructor Sienna inside my head because of it. I focus all my attention on coating the area that would surely get affected like my stomach, hands, and lastly, my back. Hence, I was sent flying, crashing into the wall. I was able to withstand her attack perfectly.

"Arrrgh! Tch... I want to get rid of the smugness on her face."

Dropping down the ground, I shake the stone debris on my uniform before dashing forward. Furthermore, I may have cheated a little because I teleported in front of Instructor Sienna and gave her the same medicine she gave to me earlier—A little payback. Instructor Sienna quickly reacted to it by thrusting her knife hand on the same spot as earlier; however, it's too late because my fist connected and sent her flying to a pillar behind her. But before that, I saw a glimpse of her twisted expression upon receiving the blow.

-Crash! Crash!

From the destroyed pillars, Instructor Sienna emerges. "Oooh! That's a good hit, boy. Aw, aw... Also, you hit hard. You don't hold back."

Instead of being happy, I frown. Looking at my knuckle, apparently, when I punched Instructor Sienna it felt like I punched a mountain, resulting in my knuckle being wounded from my own punch and making my entire right arm numb.

"What kind of body do you have..." I mumbled.

"That's the power of body strengthening with mana. I would also say the same to you earlier." Instructor Sienna said.

Despite me being a student, she's not holding back and continues suffocating on every step I make. She's reading me like a book. Was it because of the vast difference in our experience? It seems so, but there's more into it. I don't know how, but her anticipation of my attacks is absurdly ridiculous because it seems like she's predicting the future.

I retreat by putting a reasonable distance between us. I went into a stance, but before I could take my first step. Instructor Sienna was one step ahead of me. She jumps forward. I preemptively block her kick in the air. Because of my previous stance, I was left in this awkward motion where I'm still overtaken by the transfer of momentum from her kick to my body. Yet, I manage to take a hold of her leg with the hand that I block her with and drag her along with me as I was about to fall on the ground.

But I changed my mind midway and opted for another course of action. Instead of wrestling against her on the ground which I'm obviously at the disadvantage, I teleport above her and punches Instructor Sienna's left-back shoulder with my left fist. She took it like nothing. She then twists her body, grabs my left arm, and kicks the side of my right thigh with her knee. I kissed the ground because, before that, she pulled me down before letting me go. She retreated, putting a distance between us.

-Boom!

Suddenly, my eyesight was blinded by the smoke that came from the blue magic circle. Following that, it felt like someone pulled my left arm and hurl me across the training ground, crashing into one of the empty rooms at the third floor.

"Aaaaah! Damn, it! Oh, heaven..."

"Second Lesson. In a fight, don't always expect that your opponent would play clean. As I stated in my first lesson, the world is unfair. Let me help you." Instructor Sienna casually walks to me.

Once she reach forward with her right hand, I pulled her in and throws a left punch to her chest. But instead, she preemptively dodges it effortlessly and elbowed my tricep. Suddenly, my entire left arm became numb.

"What? I can't move my left arm. Oh my god, what did you do?"

"That's a secret. And remember the second lesson. Now, come here. The sparring is over." She winks at me.

"Only one round of one-sided beating?"

"Beating? I hardly call it that way since you did some numbers on me. Look at here. This is the worst hit I've gotten in a long time." Instructor Sienna points on her side to where I hit her earlier. It's swelling in redness.

"Well, it also almost broke my hand too."

"Think of it as an achievement."

"Not an achievement in my books."

"Take small steps, you greedy boy. You'll get there. Do you want to rest here?"

"Yes, please." I rest the back of my head against the hard debris behind me. They're quite sharp too.

"I'll sit beside you since I want to have a little chat with you."

"What about the class?"

"I want to take a rest. It's not like taking a few minutes of rest would be bad for the class."

"Ah, I see... What are we going to talk about? Honestly, I find it awkward since I'm in this state. Moreover, we're acting normal."

"I've been in a situation worse than this. So, how are you? How's the academy treating you?"

"Great, I guess? People are ignoring me. Nothing special."

"That's depressing to hear. It sounds like you don't have any friends at all. Anyway, are you familiar with the Rite Festival?"

"No?"

"Rite Festival is an event that occurs once a year."

"Once a year? A gathering of some sort?"

"Kind of. You can call it that way."