It’s been almost a month since I arrived, and that also means tests are coming next Friday.

For that reason, I’ve decided to start running in the mornings.

I should probably have done this since the beginning but at least it’s better now than never.

“You do realize that he’s marking you more on your technique than strength, right? I can just help you correct it mid-test if necessary.”

“Don’t. I want to see how I do with my own abilities first. At least, for the first test.”

“Okay. Just know I’ll be cheering for you.”

“Sure sure. Let’s go.”

 

*Some time later

“Is that the best you can do? One more lap, come on!”

“Please…hah…. let me…. hah…. take a seat.”

“It’s only been fifteen minutes! Even the turtle in that one fairy tale did better than that!!”

“But….. hah….. I…..hah….. really….hah…. can’t anymore.”

“Fine, take a five minute break.”

I limped to the bench and collapsed on it. If I’m building my strength, it doesn’t really matter if Al comes along or not. Extra weight just means I get more tr-

"à̴̑́͜d̴͍̟͆̐̾s̷̨͖̞͗͝k̷͚͘f̵̧͍̿͆̐l̷̹̦̘̀͝ạ̵̌̊s̸̮̋̀d̶̨͑͋̌;̷̤͆͗͝f̵̻̜͂̏l̵̤̯͆̽́ͅ;̵͔̀͊͜ȁ̴̫̺͋w̵͈̓̏q̷̼̳͐̾̿͜ř̵̛̻̣̯o̴͕̻̎2̶̨͈̮̈n̴̟̝͘͝1̷̨͐͘2̴̻͔͘ͅṿ̴̨̊͠c̴̢̛̻̞̑͑q̸̩̖̂͂ŵ̸̗͈ë̸͈̪͐w̸̬͌͐̕ȓ̴̘w̸̻͎̙͛̆ĕ̶͍r̶̠̣̈̎è̵͎͓̘̍w̴̺̱͛͠r̸͙̫̺̊̃a̷̮͝d̸̢̥̥̅̆̏š̶̳̗̹̎k̶̢͕̯͒f̵̯̩͛̃̔l̷̹̣͖͑ā̸̪̝̚s̶̙͖̀͒͗d̴̯́̈́͐;̷̡̫͆̚͜f̸̞̱̤͐l̵̟̈́͌̋;̶̳͋á̶͍͖ŵ̵̧̬̓̒q̵̳͊r̸̠̣̈́̑̀o̴͚̠͑̚͝2̸̣̳̅̃͜n̷͓͘1̷͎͕̻͊̔̚2̶͕̅v̶̼̟͘͠ć̴̞̖̮́q̵̹̽ͅw̴̦̦͑͝ḛ̴̢̈w̴͍̞̋͐r̴̪̼͛́́w̶̛̜e̶̡̓r̸̲͑e̸͔͚̝͋w̷̘̼̼͗͝r̸̞̳̐̀͝e̴̗͔͈͐̔́r̸͎̲̆̈́͠2̷̪̠̎͋4̴̥̳̣͒͂͝ť̵̹͕̲̽̈4̴͚̘͊̈̄3̴̤̈́̌̿g̵͔͛͌̀v̶̮̫̤̀̚n̷̲̮̬͠b̶͇̹̔̃n̴̙̈́̏5̶͉͓̊̒4̶͇̐̈́ẙ̸̳̤͊͘y̷̗͇͛y̸͙̏n̷̠̫̋̒y̷̝̥͊̈ṋ̴̛̽y̵̹̽͑"

What.

“Al?”

“5̶̣̖͉͝2̴̮͓̚3̷̖̞͐1̴̤͕̽͗͠4̵̤̬͍͋̈́j̴̩̺̽͗͝ĝ̶̨̱͗̽n̷̥͊1̵̞̫̭́̒̐ȍ̷̢̝͓4̷͔̽͊̓2̵̱̌̾̑.....It’s to motivate you to run. Doesn’t it fill you with energy?”

“No…. Please stop…. hah….. your singing is…..hah…. awful.”

“Well, I was a lot better with the loot, but I don’t have hands, so this will have to do.”

“But…. you can just….. not.”

“Now where’s the fun in that? Tell you what, I’ll stop singing after you get up.”

This bastard… He’s trying to get me to start running again already.

I slowly regained my breath.

“At least.... sing a song I understand....”

“Fiiiiiiiiiine.”

I laid there, letting the thumping in my chest slowly calm down. I really am not fit for anything phy-

“4̸̻̥͇͛1̴̤͔̌̾5̵̺̓̑̌n̸̤͗4̵̜́5̵̖̰̀́̐ț̸̐͊0̷̡͋͂ĥ̸͇̏j̵̳͔͊͠͝b̸͈̱͆͒͜"

I guess that's just how bad his singing is. Or maybe it's the song itself.

“Don’t you know any good songs?”

“On the loot, yes.”

“Can you try humming them?”

“Don’t worry, my humming’s as beautiful as my singing.”

“Damn you….”

“Love you too.”

The five minutes I sat for still left me with the feeling of exhaustion but I had to get moving.

"Also, you realize it's not a race, right? You can try to space your energy so you could last thirty minutes , because it doesn't matter how fast you go right now, as long as you're training."

"Oh, right."

I had gotten too used to the morning warm-ups I didn't realize.

So I followed his advice and slowed down.

 

"See? Now you're not dying on the bench from one run."

Al said as I sat down for my second break.

"Yeah, you’re right."

"Now to go back to happy song time!”

“Please don’t..”

“Not nice.”

“Nor is your singing.”

“Doesn’t it fill you with energy?”

“It’s sucking my soul away.”

“Well, I guess you better start moving if you don’t want to keep hearing it!”

“Yeah, nice try.”

I waited out the full five minutes of brutal singing and began doing practice swings until the bell for breakfast rang.

 

Classes went on like usual. Swordsmanship still has me wheezing. Even more so today because I was training in the morning.

Magic was split into lectures and hands-on testing. Lectures were quite interesting just by virtue of how I always read about magic in books and wanted to learn what it’s like, but actually practicing magic is turning out to be quite a weakness for me.

Variety class got turned into free time so that we can practice for the tests. Apparently the heads of the school don’t value it that much so you could skip every class and still pass.

The information is more or less just extra stuff that might be helpful, so it’s not even going to be tested on. No wonder the teacher doesn't seem to care.

And there wasn’t really much to archery aside from just practicing how to fire a bow over and over again accurately.

After dinner, I went over to the kitchen and waited.

Heather showed up a bit later, her hair still tied back.

“Sorry I took so long! Did you wait long?”

“Only five minutes. Let’s get started.”

“Yeah!”

Even though she already paid for the ingredients, she still wanted to repay me for our little meetup during the weekends so I asked her to help me with magic.

“Thanks for this by the way.”

“Hey, it’s the least I could do after how much you’ve given me. Let’s get started.”

She took out a notebook and began drawing.

“Alright, to start it off, while the teacher does teach us that magic depends on the person’s ability, there’s a lot of other factors in it as well, such as how focused you are at the moment. It also helps a lot when you see similar magic being casted in front of you, because it makes it a lot easier to picture it, like this:”

She drew a cute little with a happy face inside it and recreated the exact image with fire.

“So what I’ll try to do is to cast some magic and you try to replicate it by watching.”

I closed my eyes and pictured something similar.

When I opened them, I found there to be just a smiley face made up of a few sparks that faded away a few moments after I opened them.

But still, shaping it turned out to be a lot easier than I expected.

I tried again, but this time, when I opened my eyes I was back to itty bits of sparks.

“Hey hey, don’t rush it. We have all night to do this. And don't exhaust yourself, you won't be able to focus on the written part if you do."

We kept at it for about an hour before I ran out of magic power and we were forced to stop. I thanked Heather and we headed back to our rooms to study.

 

And so, that was my schedule until the long awaited Friday.

“Alright everyone, please line up by student number. As you can see, I have five helpers with me. We’ll call you up five at a time and you will be paired with one of them. Your goal is to strike at them as much as possible using whatever techniques we learned in class for five minutes. Good luck.”

Mr. Brooks then went off to the side, leaving us with his assistants.

“Let’s go.”

“Alright.”

I got up with Heather and headed to his assistants.

“You ready?”

“Nope.”

“A shame. Well, good luck.”

“You too.”

At least because we’re first, we don’t have anyone to base our performance off of.

“Now that all of you are there, let’s begin!”

I immediately struck down hard at the burly man before me with all my weight.

Instead of blocking, he stepped to the side, resulting in my sword hitting nothing but the ground.

I swung again, this time at his side, but he effortlessly stepped back to dodge it.

Again!

And that's what I did, strike at him again and again. And yet he doesn’t even need to try and block it with his sword as he sidestepped it all.

My chest was starting to tighten from exhaustion as my breathing became heavier as well.

As I winded up for another swing, Al chimed in.

“I know you said you wanted to pass on your own or whatever, but you do realize no decent swordsman’s going to let you hit them, right? So why are you swinging at him full force?”

Oh…. I’m an idiot.

Even if I do land a blow on him, that would actually injure him, which isn't the best idea.

I turned my focus towards my posture and began alternating between downward and sideways slashes, the only two techniques we were taught.

Alright, just as we practiced.

First, take aim.

Second, check posture.

Third, slash.

Take aim, check posture, slash.

Take aim, check posture, slash.

Take aim, check posture, slash.

Aim, posture, slash.

Aim, posture, slash….

You know, doing the same two moves over and over probably looks pretty stupid.

But still, it got the assistant to start blocking with his sword.

Well, he could have still dodged it without the sword but I guess he wanted to tell me that I was doing good.

Before I knew it, the test was over and Mr. Brooks was calling up the next set of people.

I took a drink from the water fountain and then sat on a bench away from where the others were.

Can’t have them catch me talking to a sword after all.

“You owe me a beer for that one, okay?”

“You can’t drink though.”

“It’s the thought that counts dammit.”

“Even if you could, I’m not old enough to buy alcohol.”

“Nothing a little bribing can’t fix!”

“Which I don’t have enough money for. Or to buy the drink in the first place.”

“Gah, fine. But promise me you’ll treat me to something eventually.”

“Sure sure, when you have a mouth to eat it first.”

I grabbed the handle. That counts as a handshake doesn’t it?

 

After that was magic class. The test was on pen and paper for the most part except for the last bit, where we were supposed to demonstrate how strong our current magic is.

The demonstration part wasn’t for marks, rather it was just a survey to see how good we were. However, I was still somewhat eager to show the fruits of my training as I created a constant flame the size of a candle and held it for an entire minute. 

Archery wasn’t even much of a test, given how all we had to do was fire a few arrows at a few targets, which we have been doing since we got the bows.

 

I fired my last arrow and headed back to my spot, marking the end to the tests. The aim wasn’t perfect, landing on the 3rd ring from the inside, but nothing I can do about it.

Heather came a bit later and sat next to me.

“We’re not meeting tonight now that the exams are over, right?”

“Ah, about that. I was planning on making some scones tonight as thanks for helping me practice. You coming?”

“Of course I am!”

“Heather!”

Someone suddenly called her.

“Coming!”

She waved goodbye and headed off to what I assume are her friends.

I went back to hanging out with Al until dinner came.

 

 

Yeah, a bit of a shorter chapter this week. Before I thank you, I'd like to ask how this story is. I know it's probably really slow paced and slice of life but I'd like some advice and stuff on how to improve. 

Well, not like you have to. Whatever the case, I thank you for reading.