What do you see beyond the hill?

CHAPTER 4: TRAINING; THOUGH NOT REALLY (1)

A guy comes out from the knight. He is wearing a red armor and the gold lining on it creates the shape of a predator's jaw which is ready to bite. His brown hair are attached behind his head, allowing his face to be seen clearly. He has no scar on his face and

"Vice-captain of the order, Sir Telestal, the kingdom thanks you for your cooperation. We hope t-"

"Spare me the pleasantries. We all know you don't mean it."

"I see. Then, I shall take my leave."

The guy leaves just like that. And the others turn around and start talking among themselves, as if to flee from my eyes. What are you all feeling guilty about? It is perfectly understandable that the weaks are cast away. I see nothing wrong with that.

"Let's go, then."

Telestal turns around and starts walking. I follow him and as we get past the other knights, I notice that some of them have recent wounds. Are they already at war?

We leave the courtyard through an iron gate and outside, a carriage with the same color as his armor and the same gold linings awaits us. Is gold really that cheap here?

We enter the carriage and once inside, the menacing aura he was emitting disappears and the mood settles down a bit.

"To my castle."

"Sir!"

The coacher answers vividly from outside and the carriage starts moving.

"Vice-captain? So you are the second behind that woman then?"

"That woman?"

"The one with the blonde hair and blue eyes."

"I see. Well, yes. But let me correct you first, it is not that woman, she is the Valkyrie of war and her name and person should be respected."

"That's more like a title, I think."

"She was granted honor by the high council of the kingdoms. Calling her by her name would be disrespectful."

"Right. But you still call her captain though."

"That's…how do you even know that?"

"it's irrelevant. Anyway, what are you going to do? Abandon me somewhere to myself or make me disappear?"

"What?"

"None of you wanted to take me in so I guess you must have a plan of your own, right? Since I don't to waste time in unnecessary talks and escape plans or pointless fights, I would prefer that we speak frankly."

"I see. Then, let me speak frankly. Right now, the demons have launched a big scale assault on our kingdom and time is very valuable to us. I want tell you the details but you must know that for us to spend time to train you is costing lives of soldiers, good ones, who have family and children. So, training a guy with almost no potential is by far the last thing I want to do."

"Good, then we agree, right? You can just drop me off somewhere and I will be on my way."

If the fight has started already, then that's where I should be instead of wasting time here.

"I would like to. I would really like to do so. But my pride doesn't allow me to. I have accepted to be the one who will a warrior out of you and I will do so to the end."

"Or you can just leave me be and pretend like you are training me while doing your other chores normally."

"Sigh…you really think this is a game, don't you?" Telestal looks at me with firhgtening eyes but sorry, I have seen worse, way worse than this. Even the small amount of aura you are releasing isn't enough to intimidate me.

"I don't. And that's precisely why I don't want you to waste your precious time."

"If that's the case then do your best to become stronger faster. Only then will you be of help to me." We have a really stubborn guy here, don't we?

"Sigh…okay, whatever you say."

***

"You have been grinning for a while? Are you sure you are okay?"

Ten minutes after our departure, the carriage has been going through the city and I get a peek of it from time to time when I am not too focused. It looks clean and well built. They don't seem to suffer too much here.

"Yeah, don't worry."

If you could see what I am seeing right now then you would surely be grinning as well.

                                                                  [

                                                            Will Otun

                                                        Gender: Male

                                                              Age: 16

                                              Mana points: 12006 (10 pts/s)

                                                      Class: Magic knight

                  + 50% damage against demons when using swords and spears

                    +60% damage against demons when fighting with no weapons.

                                          +30% damage when using magic

                                          Class bonus: + 10000 mana points

          Your deep understanding of magic and the high compatibility of your body with mana                                        has made your class evolved to adapt to your body.

                                                                Passive skill:

                                                                  Mana flow

                Mana flows naturally in your body like blood, allowing you to increase the output of skills                                                        and regulate your mana pool.

                                                  Skill: Amplify (Rank F-S)

                                      You can increase or decrease a property.

                                                      Current rank: F (0%)

Current level restrictions: You can increase or decrease the properties of objects you touch and            yourself. A deep understanding of object's structure is needed to efficiently amplify them.

                                Mana cost: 5 mana points per seconds of usage.

                                              Affliction: magic cancer (Diminished)

        Your body has absorbed too much magic and is slowly deteriorating. Mana flow is currently                diminishing the illness's progression. An overuse of magic will aggravate the illness.

                                      You have drawn the attention of the god of law and balance.

                                                                  ]

This…apart from the parts that don't interest me, this is fantastic. I never thought that near-death training he made me go through would pay up so much. If my mana pool gets ten points back every second and I only need 5 points of mana to use Amplify every second then this is amazing.

But I am not sure it will stay like this until I reach the S-rank of the skill. Still, it is pretty impressive that he was right. Especially for my magic cancer. I thought he was joking when he called it a magic cancer but I see he was right. I wonder how long I have left now.

"We will reach my mansion in about five minutes now. It would be better for you to eat first."

"I am not hungry."

"You really don't act like I thought you would. Stories of the heroes say that they are very reluctant at the beginning, especially when they are separated. Yet, you are acting as if all this is normal to you."

"What did you want me to do then? Pointlessly struggle and refuse everything like a newborn. Please, I have better things to do."

"I see. Well, how about a light spar against me then? I know you might be afraid but I only want to judge your level and see what we need to train."

"Yeah, I am totally up for it." I also want to see your level compared to that bastard.

"Sir, the mansion is on sight now."

The coacher warns us from outside and when I look, I see a castle the size of our school.

"This is what you call a mansion? You are filthy rich then."

"An elite knight deserves to have the best. A soul that is not comfortable may not serve well after all."

"Or it might become a lazy one." So every single one of those guys back there has something like this. Well, I guess they really don't need us to teach them how to live well.

"Fufu. Well, yeah, there is that as well."

The huge gates which are somehow also partially made of gold open and while we enter, I see a butler on my side of the gate. He lowers his head as our eyes meet and the carriage passes him. Then it continues and stops before the entrance of the castle. That castle is big. It is really big. The stones it is made of look really new. Does someone polish them or something?

"Let's go."

Telestal gets down first then I follow him, stumbling upon a plethora of maids and butlers aligned on each side of the entrance to the castle.

"Everyone, please welcome Will Otun, a hero from another world who has come to save us."

"Welcome, Master Otun!!!"

Like a single person, they all greet me while lowering their heads.

"Thanks." This is so over the top for nothing. Once you will know the skill I have, you all will change anyway.

"You don't seem too happy."

"I don't like ceremonies. Let's go and have our spar. My body is itching."

"Is that so."

Telestal walks forward first and I follow him. It is only when we are the last row of maid and butler that they all lift their heads up. Would they have stayed like that if we didn't move for an hour?

Anyway, the last maid and butler comes before us and opens the doors, which have door cuffs made of gold once again. I am tired of thinking about it.

Inside, we enter a hall first. It is as high as a two-story building and there are statues of people everywhere, either busts or full bodies.

"Your predecessors?"

"Oh, you are familiar with this?"

"Not really, but we have things like that on earth as well."

"I see" Telestal draws a large smile for a moment then goes back to his usual self. "Well, just know that each generation of the Telestal has to protect the kingdom, as my pupil, you will be considered a Telestal as well as a hero; so I am expecting the same from you."

"Right."

"Bernard, courtyard." He then speaks to one of the butlers who silently nods and goes through another door, followed by a maid and another butler.

"You want me to fight them first?" I wasn't too sure but it seems he underestimate me. Or maybe I am really weak? I mean, I never won against him so I guess I am not that strong.

"You are a clever one. That's good quality." And you didn't answer my question, that's a minus for you there.

We walk through another room that is more normal, with couches, paintings, and carpets then through a glass door, I can see it, the courtyard.

Telestal opens the glass door and his courtyard stands there, with dummies made of wood standing at the corners and traces of fight everywhere. What kind of designer thought it was a good idea to place a room like this near the courtyard made for fighting?