Parry, Parry,  Block, counter, attack, and parr-  WOAAH! IT'S A TRA- I mean, FEINT!!

“Geh! Can you–" parry "–go easy on me–" multiple hit "–UGAGAGAAAAH!!!”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I'm done.

Ah... the sky is so beautiful...

I sprawled on the ground after getting hit by those continuous attacks. Dad sure is merciless. If every single dad in the world are as spartan as him, every children will look like a walking wall of muscle. But fortunately, that kind of thing is nearly impossible to become reality... Yes, it is impossible... Once more for sure, impossible....

Let's not– no... Don't even think about it.

Actually, the training intensity had been lowered because I openly protest regarding me and my sibling –or more specifically, my –growth rate could be grandly influenced by the training difficulty so it was lowered... By my dad’s standard, unfortunately.

Spare me from a future with a body stature resembling a dwarf...

“Already down Rein? Is stamina training more preferable for you?”

Dang it, this father of mine...

“What the heck, dad. Do you enjoy bullying me that much? I'm still ten, dad. I'M ONLY TEN YEARS OLD!!”.

“I already did harsher training when I’m your age”

“And that's why you can’t get tall eno– “

“...You sure have much energy left, heh? Let's continue the beat– I mean, training”

Okay, digging my own grave isn’t really what I want to achieve but... Floop it, I'm dead.

My dad is really sensitive about his height. You can’t consider him as short, but considering an environment with everybody around him has a height of around 170 cens (a measuring unit), he with only around 155 cens height got a slight inferiority complex.

His name is Richard Blackwing, and he made a tradition 'every male in the family must have a name starting with ‘R’ ' so named me as Reinhardt. It’s cool, as in not-need-to-be-despaired-for-life-because-of-miserable-name kind of cool. In exchange for that, my mother gets the right to name every daughter without his meddling. I don’t want to imagine my sisters name become masculine, so that's good.

Oops... not the time to think about that.

Now, let's begin my burial ceremony...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The storm has passed while laughing loudly... Literally.

“You’re like a tattered rag, brother”

And the beautiful sky become cuter... Nope, it's just my cute sister coming to my sight.

“Will you help this hapless brother of yours, Lily? I can’t get up”

“Sure brother! What can I help?” she says while slightly tilt her head.

Awww... this cute lil’ sister of mine... what with the head gesture? Do you want to knock down this brother of yours with your cuteness? Her name is Lilianoize Blackwing, and as you can guess, our family name is Blackwing. The origin of our name ‘Blackwing’ isn’t known as dad never told us, including mother, about it. The definite fact is that it's from dad's lineage and dad still uses it even though a long time has passed since he contacts his parents, our grandparents. My sister's characteristic is more from our mom’s lineage though.

“Get me a towel and water for drinking”

The last part needs to be added because the last time I ask for water, she splashes it to my face while saying ‘now you’ll get up, right?’ and laughing. Unfortunately, my mouth was open, and choking from water is really not cool. What a mischievous little sister... still cute though.

“Sure brother!”.

And she left.

While she is gone, I need to recover some strength for at least sitting down. Falling helplessly into her prank is something that I don’t want, so... time is my enemy. Looking around, some people are training vigorously (though not as spartan as my training, I’m jealous...). Some are swinging their weapon, some are doing basic training, others doing a mock battle, and some insignificant number of people doing some weird dance. Ignoring the last bunch, everyone sure is lively like always.

Here is the mercenary group ‘Distorted Jewel’ base with my dad, Richard Blackwing, as its leader. Even if he didn't look like a good father in front of me, he is still a good leader in front of Distorted jewel’s members. He creates this mercenary group from scratch after leaving his father, my grandpa’s mercenary band. I don't know the detail after that, but after one event and another he creates this mercenary group.

There is still one mystery for me though, why did my father leave grandpa’s group and create one himself? I think he will tell me when I’m old enough or when the time is right.

“Here’s your water brother!”

Oh! Lily is already here!. There is a taint of displease in her smiling expression... Thank goodness I already have some strength to sit.

“Wanna sit here for a while, Lily?”.

“Sure brother!”

“...Wait, wait, not at my–  OUCH!!”

She quickly sits (drop her little sharp butt) in my lap(which is still sore plus some bruises) which results in an agony on my side. The pain is REAL... And she still innocently smiling with a mischievous smirk. Yes, a mischievous smirk that looks innocent at first sight... what a scary little sister...

"...Dang it Lily..."

"Ehehe..."

"are your training had finished?"

"Yes! today I learn to do 'phew! phew!' with magic! and it goes 'kaboom!' "

". . . . ."

Okay, that sounds legit enough... what did I expect from a five-year-old-child explanation? The gesture is cute though, reached forward and spread both arms... I really can't handle the cuteness.

" Did mama praise you?"

"Yeah! mama said that I'm already doing better than brother!  Brother sucks at magic!"

". . . . . ."

Really? mom... I know my mana capacity is bad, but please don't talk about it to others!! It's embarrassing!!

Lily could just see it though...

"Isn't this brother time for magic practice?"

". . . Yes"

Even though my mana capacity is small and makes me incapable to use most of magic, mother feels that magic training is a must. She says that I still need to at least have full control of it.

Today's magic training menu is... Mana control!

. . . Like always . . .

Ah, well, let's just go to mother now...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Good enough for today, Rein. But you still have a long way to go"

Fuuh.... Magic training is mentally exhausting. To move the mana inside one's body, a great amount of concentration is needed. A little bit of slip can make a part of my body blow up. Which unfortunately almost happen at my first training (mom help me to control it before it reaches the point of no return...). Now I can control my mana at unconscious level.

By the way, the greater someone's mana capacity is, the harder it took to control and harder to go out of control. Also if out of control happen, someone with greater mana capacity got greater backlash. There is a long explanation for it but let's just leave it at that

" I think its time for you to start learning magic usage again, your mana control is already good enough that you wouldn't blow up from backlash after using intermediate magic like that time"

. . . . .

Yep, that's my first day of training...

. . . . .

A few years ago, after I got a grip on mana control, mother teaches me a spell for each tier of magic: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, Master, and Grandmaster. There are also more tiers above it, such as Supreme, Heroic, Demi-divine, and lastly, Divine tier. But the grandmaster tier is the highest tier that she knows –which actually quite amazing. Everything went well until I tried intermediate tier magic, Or you could also say it as the second-easiest tier...

Well... Enough about that, let me tell you about my mom. Her name is Emily Blackwing, a former knight of a certain country. Before she retired, she was known as 'The Rosy Wall' because of her extraordinary ability to defend, parry and counter. Her achievement in defending several sieges in that certain country also contributed to it. Why a certain country rather than that country's name? it's because... I forgot... or more like 'do I know about this? maybe. And if I don't, why should I?' kind of feeling.

The point is, my mom is amazing.

And my dad who can sometimes beat my mom who is that amazing in arm-to-arm battle is amazing too.

That is also why I always turn into a rag after battle practice....

Her personality is good too. she is usually a gentle mother, but when she is mad...

...Eh?...

I don't remember?!

Is my mind automatically forget it?!!...

That scary?!!!

. . . . . . .

Well... At least I remember that she is strict when she is teaching... I mean strict as suuuper strict like a failure will be paid with ten more tries which can make another failure...

An endless circle of failure until the practice time is over...

That kind of mom now tells me to advance my training. This means there is no other way than to advance...

Sigh... More hard work coming through...

Well... deal with those! Tomorrow me! I'm cheering for you!!

. . . . . .

...That was depressing...

. . . . . .

"Rein? Are you spacing out? Need another 'focusing mind' practice? ".

"NO! Please! No More!!"

"Then are you ready to learn magic again?"

"...This isn't about ready or not..."

"Rein?"

"YES!! READY!"

"Good"

...What else can I say... Do your best! tomorrow me!

. . . . . . . .

sob...  sob...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Night comes....

Everyone at 'Distorted Jewel' eats together with an exception for everyone in the cooking duty. This could happen because Distorted Jewel's members are still in three digits range and some super long table inside a big building everyone called 'The Hall'. This building is used as an assembly point for everyone and usually almost empty except at dinner time or war meetings. By the way, our mercenary band has joined several wars in my lifetime, How aggressive.

It's not like I have joined any war though, nor that I can.

Well, let's enjoy today's dinner! On the menu today is... Ashuraguma stew! Boiled together with mashed potege, its tough meat texture disappears and turned into a creamy and chewy substance! It has a particular sweetness of potege and hard, meaty taste of an ashuraguma... This is one of my favorites! Lucky!

There are other menus too, but not as great as ashuraguma stew. If I have to say all of it, there is semi-hard garmlich bread which is salty to add more taste to the stew, some fruits for washing your mouth with its freshness, and also freshwater. Good, old freshwater.....

But before we enjoy the food, we listen to dad's speech first...

Boring...!!

. . . . .

Okay not boring, so please don't look at me with that intimidating gaze, dad! Please!!

"Ehm. Today, another day is going to pass. And here we are alive and well. For proof of that, let us see what's in front of us. Today's dinner is thanks to our comrade Arnold, Thanks, Arnold! Don't overhunt those ashuragumas! Again!"

You can see Uncle Arnold with his big physique raise both his bulky arms upward in a handshake gesture. It seems he didn't take dad's warning to his head, or should I say, again.

"Okay Arnold, cut it. sit down will you?"

Still not listening~~

"ARNOLD, S.I.T.  D.O.W.N.!!! "

Dong

That's... quite a powerful sitting motion, hope the chair didn't break.

"Thank you. Now let us feast! For those who had gone, and for the future that awaits!"

" " " " " " CHEEEEEERSS!!!" " " " "

Time to Eat!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fuuh... My tummy is full...

Thanks for the meal!

... No one say that loudly as everyone is also in full belly and relaxed state.

Today's dinner is awesome... Thanks again, uncle Arnold!... And he is already down from drinking too much in this early night. Good work means a good rest too, eh?

Oh yeah, thanks to everyone on today's kitchen duty! Oh, mother is also in it, thanks, mom!

Oh, she waves at me!

After dinner, we have a free time. Most people continue drinking and laughing like madmen, but hey! You only life once and that phrase are especially true toward mercenary who live with their life on the line. The rest just went to sleep early or doing some night training.

And I'm in the first category.

An early sleep is what my tired body needs to welcome tomorrow, or more precisely, tomorrow's hell.....

Again, do your best! Tomorrow me..!!

Sob... Sob...