What do you see beyond the hill?

CHAPTER 5: TRAINING; THOUGH NOT REALLY (2)

We enter the courtyard and to my surprise, the butlers and the maid from earlier are already changed.

"That's some awesome speed they have."

I don't think it took us two minutes to get here. And yet, not only did they change but they arrived here before us. And they are not even sweating? Maybe they wore a one-piece armor above their butler uniforms?

The maid then comes to me. She is wearing a tight leather armor that follows her body to the clock. She also has daggers attached to her waist. She is holding a white shirt and pants and three different weapons made of wood: a sword, a dagger, and a mace.

"Sir, would you like to change?" She presents everything to me.

"Hm… I don't really care but, yeah, no problem. Just the shirt though, I don't want to waste too much time."

I take the white shirt with long sleeves then as I remove my school uniform, I hear a weird noise coming not from the girl but from Telestal.

"What is it?" I look at him while putting the shirt on and he seems surprised. Did I do something? Maybe changing before people isn't well seen here?

"No, it's nothing. But I may, how did you obtain those scars?" Ah, it's about that.

"Hm, well, we can talk about it later, right?"

"Yes, of course." What are you acting like a butler for? But it's true that forgot about those. They became part of me at some point.

"Which weapon would you like, sir?"

"I will take the sword." He trained me to use a sword anyway. "And do you perhaps have a chain or something that will act like it?"

"A chain? Well, we could give you a rope with a mass attached to it but…" The maid looks at Telestal and he nods twice. She then leaves with the other weapons and while she is gone, I walk inside the courtyard and stretch a bit.

The two butlers wearing their armors are looking at me silently, without saying anything. But I can tell, I know what they are thinking. But it doesn't matter. Now that I am in this world, I can only move forward and see for myself, how far of a dream or a reality it was.

The maid comes back after a minute, with a rope and a mass of about a kilogram attached to one side.

"Sir."

"Thank you." She politely gives it to me and I attached the other side to my right arm. This is the fighting style that I tried to develop on my own, based on what he taught me. I hope it won't be too far off from my expectations.

"Are you ready, sir?"

"Yes, I am."

The two butlers each grab their weapons: Bernard who was called by Telestal uses a sword like me while the other one uses a bow. The maid goes to them then raws her daggers as well.

"Why did you go back there? You could have attacked me directly, you know?"

"Huh…Sir, I-"

"Don't worry. She won't hold back." Telestal reassures both of us then the tension rises and I wait for them to attack. "Start."

With Telestal's signal, the maid and Bernard both jump on me. To my surprise, the bowman doesn't fire anything. Isn't it basic knowledge to cover your teammates? Could it be…

I move my arm a little bit but none of them are moving as they should.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Bernard the butler stops right before me. Like I thought, they were not going to attack me.

"Sir?"

"What is the problem?"

"What is the problem?" I look at Telestal who seems to act like he doesn't know what is going on. "Aren't you the one who told them not to attack? Are you fucking with me?"

"What do you mean? Bernard, did you do something?"

"S-sir, I apologize but I don't know what is going on."

So you two will play dumb until the end, huh.

"I guess there is only one way to find out."

I jump straight to Telestal and aims for his stomach. Unlike them, his body reacts instantly and his hand comes to hold my sword, I launch the mass attached to the rope in the meantime and as he grabs it with his other hand, I spin and kick his knee.

"Wow, I will damned." The guy didn't budge even though I just gave him a serious kick. Was it the armor? My own leg is throbbing a little.

Telestal looks at me with such a surprised face an owl would be seeing a comrade.

"W-what was that?"

"S-strong."

The butlers and the maid start making weird comments behind me as well. What the fuck are they talking about? Neither of us was serious so what is there to be surprised.

I retrieve the rope and Telestal releases my sword then touches his knee a little.

"You have managed to hurt the vice-captain of the order of the Diorial kingdom…Who are you?"

"Who am I?" So, they were not really playing around? "You guys weren't just playing around?"

I look at the butlers and the maid and they finally seem to understand what I meant earlier.

"Sir, it would seem you are already at the level where we can't be of use. Most of us are beginners or middle-class warriors."

Beginner or middle class…Wait it was mentioned that I am an advanced warrior when I first look at my status, right? That means I was already stronger than them, to begin with? How come? Did he not say that I was weak?

"It seems my time will not be wasted on you after all."

Telestal places his hands on my shoulders and shows me a large unusual smile.

"Start by teaching me magic then." Your time will be wasted on me? You better be a good teacher or I will send you flying.

"Don't worry. Your magic teacher will be here by tomorrow. But since you have the basics down, I could try to teach you how to unlock your aura. I don't really know if it is possible for heroes to use aura but since it is something all humans possess, I think you will be able to do it as well."

"Are you talking about this?"

I release my aura as he taught me and the vapor-like aura starts coming out of my body. Even now, more than four years after I managed to do it, it still looks like this. Even though his aura was colorful and waving around his body.

"No way…"

"Incredible."

"If you guys are surprised every time I do something, you will not last long." Telestal's eyes are about to pop out, if I do anything else, I am sure he will have a heart attack here.

"How? Who taught you?" He holds me with more strength and starts stretching my shirt, or his shirt since he gave it to me.

"Does it matter? I can use it so it is the most important, right?"

"I…Well, yes, it is. I am sorry, I was just overly curious." I don't want to talk about this or even remember it. Those weren't happy years for me.

"So, what do you say?"

"Yes, oh…hm…" Was it really surprising for him that I can use aura? Telestal doesn't know what to do anymore.

"We can leave it at this, for now, you know. I am sure you are tired."

"N-no, it's not really…Sigh, okay, I will let you rest for now. Tilf, Albert, you two will take care of the hero. Please, provide him with anything he might need. I will…I will be in my study for the night. Bernard, the reports, please."

"Yes, sir. Right away."

Telestal and Bernard leave us, creating a slightly awkward atmosphere.

"Sir hero, would you be so kind as to follow me to your room?" The maid advances to me but I can see it in her eyes now, fear and astonishment.

"Don't call me hero anymore, please. Just Will is fine." I am not a hero anyway. Nor did I come here to save you guys. "Also, I would like to have some books."

"Yes, of course, Sir Will. Which books could you want?" The butler coms as well.

"I don't know their names but if you have anything which talks about this world, about magic as well, and maybe some about the demons and the heroes, I would like to see them."

"I will see what I can do, Sir Will."

"Thank you."

The butler leaves and the maid brings me to a room as big as our dining room. There is a bed in the corner, not too close to the window. There is a table as well, a cabinet with books and a mirror with its stand. Is this room for a girl or something?

"This is your room, sir. We have tried to put anything that might be useful for any hero coming so I hope it is to your liking." I see. Well, it's true that they didn't know if it would be a man or a woman so I can't really blame them.

"As long as I can sleep, I don't have any preferences. If I need your help, what do I do?"

"I will right outside at all times. Should you need anything, you may call me and I will answer immediately."

"I see." Don't you have anything else to do?

"Don't worry. It is my duty to be of use to you."

"Right." She read in my eyes, huh… "Anyway, I am a little tired so if he comes with the books I asked, just leave them at the door and I take them later."

"Yes, sir Will."

She turns around and leaves. Is she not going to change? She still has her armor on with the dagger attached. Or maybe the butler will cover for her.

"Not really my problem, I guess."

I sit on the bed and look at my status window again. Nothing seems to have changed. But now, I can analyze that skill he said was so almighty.

"Amplify."

Yeah, obviously, nothing happens when I call the skill just like that. So either there is something missing or I still can't use magic. Which would mean that I went through all that suffering and all those hardships for nothing. But I refuse to believe it. It has to be another way. And if there isn't then I will create one.

"Let's see."

|A deep understanding of objects is needed.|

A deep understanding…So that means I can't just amplify anything as I want. I need to know what I precisely want to amplify. And that bastard couldn't even mention it in his diary.

But what does it mean to have a deep understanding of an object? I take one of the pillows on my bed and I look at it as best as I can. No matter of much I look, I can only see a pillow though.

"Wait a minute." I remove the fabric of the pillow and as I tear it down, I notice the meshes of the fabric. I pull one of them but it soon severs, leaving only a small part of it in my hand.

"Anyway…" Let's try to increase its resistance then. "Amplify." Still, I don't see anything changes. There is no apparent changes and no light miraculously appears.

"Status window." I open my status window and nothing has changed as well. My mana hasn't decreased.

What the fuck is this skill dammit? No, no, no. There must be something that I don't understand completely. It says that a deep understanding is needed so I shouldn't be looking at the string like a simple string.

That string is surely made of smaller strings, which are also made of smaller strings. In the end, each small string assembled with the others and form a longer, thicker one. Which means that to reinforce this big one, I must reinforce them individually.

"Fuu, let's do this... Amplify."