Children’s training

After a long night's rest, Sian woke up excited to go train the kids again after a while.

He wasn't the only one going to the training center, with him went Emily and Danna, who to avoid drawing attention was using her goatkin illusion. As for the other girls who came from the demonic continent, at Milka's insistence, they went out to explore the city and do some shopping.

With the sudden increase in the flow of people in the city, security had declined considerably. The situation is even worse when it comes to the beastkins. Because Poutis is a kingdom that glorifies human supremacy, even the children in Charlotte's orphanage have faced some troubles.

Because of that, whenever Ophi went out around city without him, Sian would monitor her for safety. But since Milka and Becca were with her, even if they encountered trouble, everything would turn out fine.

The instant Sian entered the combat hall of the training center, a little girl with long white hair jumped on him, grabbing onto his waist.

That little girl was Agnes.

Usually she came only at breakfast time, but probably due to Emily's visit last night to the orphanage, she decided to come early today.

Holding tightly onto Sian, she looked up with her big blue eyes and inflated her cheeks.

"You're a bad guy! I'm not letting you go anymore!"

Since Emily was on his shoulders, Sian didn't even make an effort to get Agnes off of him.

"Agnes, leave the teacher alone."

Orion held Agnes' arm as he tried to pull her up, but it was in vain. Despite her thin little arms, she had great strength.

"No!" she said. "Aunty Anna said he'll make it up to me for leaving me behind!"

As Sian cursed Illianna internally, Danna approached Agnes and gently stroked her hair.

"Who's this cutie?" she asked.

"I am the papa's daughter," she replied.

"Another daughter?" Danna smiled as she looked at Sian. "Looks like you weren't wasting any time."

"She's Emily's friend and my self-proclaimed daughter," Sian said.

"She's a cutie." Stretching her arms out to Agnes, Danna continued, "Come here."

Looking at Emily on Sian's shoulders, Agnes asked, "Who is she?"

"She's one of my many mommies I've talked about," Emily replied.

Upon hearing Emily's words, Agnes immediately accepted Danna's invitation and went into her arms. Without saying a single word, she just stared at Danna as she touched the horns to her forehead and then to her own.

"They're bigger than mine," Agnes said. "I like you. Since you're Emily's mother, then you're my mother too!"

Faced with Agnes' words, Danna looked happy, "If you are master's daughter, then you are my daughter too."

Receiving the confirmation she wanted, Agnes hugged Danna as she was hugged back.

Although demons were known as evil beings, this was far from the truth. Danna herself is an example of this, she likes to play with children a lot.

As the two new acquaintances showed affection to each other, Emily interrupted.

"Daddy, can Agnes live with us?"

"Better not."

Sian denied it, since that would be the same as adopting her.

Placing both of her little hands on Sian's cheeks, Emily arched her back as her head came down over his head. Facing him with her big abandoned puppy eyes, she said, "Pretty please."

"Pretty please!"

Having listened to the proposal, Agnes also asked as she attacked him with her big blue eyes.

Being attacked by the two pairs of innocent eyes, Sian faltered and momentarily felt tempted to give in. But before he could make a response, Orion spoke to Agnes.

"Agnes, you're causing trouble."

Bringing his hands to her, he tried to pull her out of Danna's arms.

"Ouch!"

Before he could catch her, Agnes bit his hand, causing him to hastily withdraw it up.

"You don't boss me!" Agnes shouted.

"Master, why don't you accept her?" Danna stepped in on the girls' behalf. "I think it's a good idea for Emily to have someone close to her age to play with."

With the three-pronged attack, Sian couldn't immediately deny it like he always did and decided to rethink his decision carefully.

"We'll talk about that later," he said. "For now, enough of stalling and let's train."

***

Although Sian was excited to train the children after a while, he didn't take it hard with them and at the end of the training, he still gave each one a gift.

The gifts were spinning tops, simple tools used to exercise magic. The night before, he had given the same to Tina and Emily. To make them more appealing to the children, he said they were magic-powered toys.

Staying crouched, Sian placed a spinning top on the ground and held it with his index finger on top of it.

"The way these tools work is pretty simple, you put magic in, and it will spin until the magic runs out," he said as he put magic into the spinning top through his finger.

In the same instant, two bright blue stripes appeared on the side of the spinning top as it began to spin. Pulling out his finger, Sian stood as the spinning top continued to spin on the ground.

Watching at the children who looked amazed, Sian said, "We are past the stage of feeling the magic inside our bodies, now is the time for you to start controlling it."

Although the children were already impressed and determined to learn, he wanted to make them even more determined and eager to do so.

"Making the spinning top spin is just the beginning of training," he said, and in his right hand, he held the coin that made a set with the top.

When he inserted magic into the coin, the sides of it glowed blue, just like the color that the spinning top had.

"Now watch this!" he shouted excitedly.

At the same instant, the spinning top shot forward toward the children. As they jumped in fright and ran, the spinning top was skillfully sliding between their feet. Since it was only a short demonstration, Sian brought it close to himself, causing the children to calm down.

Stretching out his left hand and opening it palm up, the spinning top that was at his feet jumped up onto his hand.

Seeing the scene, the children were amazed. But that wasn't the end, Sian wanted to impress them even more.

"The infusion of mana into those spinning tops is pretty simple, the hard part is controlling them," he said.

Controlling the spinning top, he made it jump to the ground. Going around the top, Sian drew a circle with his foot.

"Danna, how about a duel?" he asked.

Taking out a spinning top from his magic bag, Sian tossed it with a control coin to Danna, who received them. In the same instant, she threw the spinning top back towards Sian's. Although it was quick enough that the children couldn't tell, Danna had inserted magic into it, making two red stripes appear on it.

With Danna's top landing in the same place as Sian's, the collision between the two was inevitable. With blue and red sparks flying everywhere, the spinning tops began to collide continuously.

Being training toys for children, these spinning tops obviously had no power at all. All the sparks were just gimmicks added by Sian, so every time they collide, they will create eye-catching sparks to impress the children.

Showing that his idea was right, the children were amazed and couldn't take their eyes off them.

The plan was to encourage children to use the spinning tops to duel each other and thus improve their control over magic. For experienced people, it is easy to control them using magic, but for beginners, it is extremely difficult and strenuous. Therefore, Sian intends to make children learn how to have control over their mana while having fun.

As expected, when they tried, none of the children could make the spinning tops spin. But since Sian explained to them how to infuse mana and how to control it, they probably didn't take them more than a few weeks to succeed.

In general, because of their magic circuits, magic tools are expensive, and so it is most common for only the wealthy to learn magic. Without relying on training spells or magical tools to improve control over their own mana, it often takes years for people to master a single spell.

The girls who stayed at Sian's mansion all learned using these tools and auxiliary spells. He intends to use the same method to teach the children.

After he finished with the children's daily training, it was still early, so Sian was preparing to improve the teleportation array. Since he made it in haste, it still wasn't as efficient as it could be.

Leaving Danna behind playing with the children, he headed for the array in the back courtyard of the hotel, but before he could get there, a merchant came to meet him.