The morning came and at the training grounds, the place was quiet and normal, but somewhere in the area, Book was face-flat lying on the sands, his clothes were wet from the sweat and from the unused armors. Nobody noticed him for he may be in need of help and after some seconds, he slowly lifted his body when he pushed the sands with his shaky arms and hands. His arms were shaking from the number of armors he carried that if the weight was totaled, it would be somewhere one to two tons, his face was covered with sands as it stuck with his sweat, he was panting heavily, his hands and arms were covered with scratches, and his body was cramping so painfully after he rested for less than an hour but he still didn't give up. He wanted to continue more and rushed his training to become a knight.

When he fully lifted his body up, he was showing a weak face of taking all the pain within himself as he clenched his teeth. He stood up and then was about to fall down because his body was really weak from the lack of rest, water, and food, but he regained balance.

He looked at his dirty and his hands were in pain and numb and clenched them tightly, I will show him...

He was not mad but determined to himself to show Kairos that he would become a knight.

He looked in front of him and there were still parts of armor on the pile so he continued again. He walked slowly towards the pile and struggled to lift the cuirass with both of his arms and hands.

Inside the castle, Kairos was walking inside the entrance hallway to visit someone, a friend of his. He proceeded in the north of the hall and approached the door of the king's throne room. He smiled and opened it. When he opened it, Rugen walked by from the left side of the door to the right side of the door in the wall. He noticed Kairos when the door opened. He was surprised and happy to see him.

Rugen was an adult man who was wearing a knight commander's badge on his red coat and black pants. His short straight hair was light red and his eyes were dark. He looked muscular, tough, and strong. Despite his appearance, he looked kind and friendly who liked to smile.

"Ah! Kairos, you came!"

"Yes, I'm back again. Is Zarthus here?", he spoke in a calm grown-up voice.

"He will come here soon, you can sit on the throne if you wait."

"Okay, thanks."

Rugen was busy early in the morning and went to the right door. He left Kairos to wait for Zarthus. As for Kairos, he didn't sit down on the throne but stood near it as he waited.

Somewhere within the hallway of the first floor, there was only one entrance and one exit as the end of the hallway was a double door that had golden lines around the door and a welcome sign doormat in front of it. Inside the room, there was some ruckus as noises of things falling down and breaking were heard. Also, Zarthus was shouting at someone, "Hey! Give me that milk back! Get back here!"

His voice didn't sound angry, but the reply to that was a little girl's laugh and it sounded she was having fun.

Then, a pure white-haired little girl with jet-black pupils and white irises, wearing a white frilly dress that ended to her knees, a pair of white stockings, and a white pair of shoes, came out running from the door. Her hair was so smooth and silky that it swayed left and right as she was running and her hair was long to reach her hips. She was cute and innocent and in addition, she was playful, energetic, and kept smiling with happiness and joy as she was having fun. She was six years old and she's at the age where having fun had no limits even it was dangerous. She was holding the three bottles of milk around her arms, tightly squeezed them on her chest to avoid the bottles from falling and ran to the exit of the hallway.

"Hahahaha! These are all mine! "

Zarthus was panting hard and sweating profusely when he went out from the door with his tied sleeping robe. He shouted, "Eve!!! Give me back my bottles of milk!! I need my calcium!"

She didn't say anything but laughed. Her laughed echoed through the hallway and Zarthus continued chasing her.

Eve had a head start so she was able to move far away from Zarthus so he was lost as he was roaming around the hallways and halls of the first floor. Not only he was exhausted from the running and chasing, but he was getting crazy.

"Hahahaha... Hahaha... Haha... Ha...", as her laugh echoed louder and more within the halls and hallways.

He stopped in the middle of the hallway and grabbed his head to contain his sanity, "Am I getting crazier or what!? I've been hearing the same voice over and over again! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Then he heard her laugh again and quickly looked behind him. He started shaking in anxiety with wide eyes, "Is... Is she there? She has to be there!"

He ran towards the end of the hallway, but then he heard another laugh that was louder which was behind him. He swiftly looked behind him and said, "No... She's there!"

He ran towards where he currently heard the laugh and when he went turned left to another hallway, he saw Eve in the middle of a hall and she was about to pick up the dropped bottle on the floor. She noticed him and both of them stared at each other. But slowly she picked the bottle with her right hand while staring. Zarthus didn't make a move yet and so, she was able to grab it and slowly moved backward while still staring at him. She was acting like he didn't see anything. When she disappeared and he heard running from her footsteps, Zarthus started to chase her, "Come back here, Eve!!!"

"Never!"

She ran while laughing again and she saw an opened door, she entered and went inside the king's throne room. She saw Kairos and he noticed her presence so he turned back. He was not surprised by her as she lived in the castle, "Ah. Eve, good morning."

"AH!", she dropped the bottles of milk and pointed at him, "Kairos!"

Her voice was so cute and energetic that it sounded like a shout or heightened volume and she was really surprised by Kairos' visit so she continued, "What are you doing here?!", and went near to Kairos.

"I came here in this kingdom to relax like a vacation and visited the castle to see a specific friend."

Clearly, she ignored that and ran to the throne. She placed one of her legs on the seat and pulled her body with her hands because she was short. She struggled at first and eventually, was able to place both of her legs on the seat. After that, she stood upon the throne, gave him a fierce and serious look, and pointed at him. She then shouted at him, "Listen here! I will become the king of kings!!"

"..."

"Hahaha!"

"Don't laugh at it!"

"... You mean queen of queens?"

''..."

Eve started to realized her mistake as she was thinking deeply about the difference between a king and a queen. Kairos saw her face that she was contemplating, so he laughed again.

"Hahahaha."

"Shut up, you dumbass!!"

After that, Zarthus saw the bottles of milk on the floor and shouted, "I found them!"

He was not able to notice Kairos and Eve in front of him as he was too focused on the bottles. But, he was heard by them. Kairos looked back and saw Zarthus picking the bottles and said, "Zarthus! How are you?"

Zarthus picked the second bottle and looked at Kairos then, he looked down and picked the third bottle. He was slow to react and immediately knew him. He was surprised and shouted in happiness like it had been a long time they had seen each other, "Ahhhhh! Kairos!"

He dropped the bottles of milk and ran at him. When he approached him, he hugged him. After that, he let go and said, "It's been long Kairos. What are you doing here?"

"I came here for a short vacation after traveling far from the northeast. How are you, Zarthus?"

"Ahhh, I'm getting old and things were almost the same as yesterday, but it's all fun and happy."

"Good to see you well and healthy."

"Thanks. But I think it's the title, king, that keeps me to live longer."

Kairos chuckled and smiled.

"Stay as long as you want, Kairos. We have a lot of things that you need for your travel."

"Thanks, Zarthus. But we'll have to leave early after the fight. We're just taking a break here because we were exhausted from traveling."

"I see, then hope you will enjoy the fight and the stay in the kingdom."

"Thanks."

When both of them were talking, Eve was secretly walking around them back to the area where the bottles of milk were. She was staring at them cautiously and grabbed the bottles. After that, she left without them noticing her and she enjoyed the bottles of milk to herself.

Somewhere on the second floor, there was a room that was shared by Airis and Polly. The room was simple as the floor was covered by a red carpet, two separate beds from each side of the wall, a table, closets, and other bedroom furniture. The color of the room was predominantly red and on the ceiling was a chandelier with diamond-shaped crystals that would reflect lights and light the whole room. There was a room for the bathroom and some necessary rooms.

Airis already woke up as she lifted her upper body slowly while Polly was still sleeping under her blanket. Both of them were wearing sleeping clothes and she woke up without a bed hair. She still looked tired for now as she slept early and had a good amount of sleep.

She placed her feet on the floor and noticed a mail near the door as it was sent by someone from the outside.

A mail...

She went and picked it up, I wonder what's the mail for?

There was nothing on both sides of the mail and that made her curious about who could have sent it.

She opened it and read the mail. She reacted to a slight surprise from the mail and understood the letter. After reading the mail, she called Polly with a tired voice, "Polly?"

Polly didn't reply to her call as she was still sleeping so Airis went near to her bed and sat down. She called her again, "Polly."

"..."

"Hey, Polly.", she started to move her body left and right to wake her up and notice her that she was being called, "Hey... Polly... Polly."

"Hmmmmmm?... What is it?", Polly mumbled as she didn't want to wake up but now she could listen.

"There's a change in our schedule. Our class today for the whole day will be with Teacher Jarine. We are notified by her that we will go the Magibry—a library about Magic—because, in the afternoon, we will have an exam."

"Hmmmm... Okay..."

Then Airis fixed herself and after a couple of minutes, she prepared to get out of the room with her outfit for training, "Polly, I'll head to the cafeteria to eat my breakfast."

"Okay..."

"Don't forget about the change of schedule and the exam today."

"...", she slept.

Airis thought she got that information and exited the room from the door. After that, she went to the cafeteria to eat breakfast and Polly was still sleeping.

Back to the training grounds, Book went inside the storage with a cuirass and a pair of greaves. For a couple of seconds, he went out and shouted in fulfillment while he was panting.

"Haaa. Haaa. Haaa. IT'S FINISHED!!!"

Then, he passed out and fell on the sands because he wanted to rest already from his weakened and exhausted body.

After some minutes for him to rest, a ray of sunlight hit the east side of the castle and it was starting to get hot as the ray stayed in place.

Kiji entered the training grounds and saw Book on the sands. He was surprised that he finished his task and thought, Huh... Did he finish bringing all the armor in the storages for one night? I thought, he would do it today.

"Well...", he went near to Book, "Are you still up Book? I have another task for you to do today. It's quite fortunate that the place got hot from the sun."

Book heard his words well and his strong determination to get the suit of armor forced his body to stand up. His condition was worse than before and he smiled at Kiji like it was nothing.

"Yeah...", Book said it like he wanted more.

For Kiji, he knew Book was in pain, suffering, and all, but this was exactly the result Kiji wanted. So he told him, "I want you to carry all the armors you put inside the storages in the middle of the training grounds."

"No problem..."

Kiji thought something new from him that he was doing the tasks properly, Huh... What happened to him?

Book started moving and carried back the armor, he just put in, in the middle of the area. The purpose of the training was to let him get stronger and get a build-up from his body. Kiji wanted to see muscles, abs, and all as a result.

For the girls, Airis and Polly, they've done this separately with the same amount of armors that it was not their first time doing it as they had done this when they were young. Of course, they started low and slowly increase their numbers to carry as they were taught early back in Grigmor and they enjoyed doing it. So they finished this training in less than a day. It was quite remarkable that Airis and Polly didn't have a muscular figure from the training. They still had a feminine body, but they're really strong.

When Book was doing his task, Kiji went inside storage and picked eight stone dummies. The dummies only had the torso and the head and underneath the torso was a wooden stick with a sharp tip. He went to a side of the perimeter of the training ground and placed two dummies on the end of the line and one in the middle. The training grounds were shaped like a rectangle so, in each edge, there would be a stone dummy, resulting in four dummies already and in the middle of them would be another four dummies in one line.

The sands of the training ground were not thick and below them was the hard soil so he was able to make the dummies stand up firmly strong.

After doing so, he called, "Book!... After placing all the armors, punch each dummy with your hands and when you destroy one, head next to the other dummy."

Book listened and shouted, "Alright!", while carrying armors.

Another purpose for the armors in the middle of the training grounds was that after placing them all there, Book would leave them and start punching the dummies. As the sun heated up the place, the armor would absorb the heat and make it hard and painful to carry because he would be carrying them back to the storage. This training was to let Book train with his body to get muscular as he carried the armors, punch the dummies for his arms and hands to get stronger, and carry the armors again with painful heat to endure pain and hopefully to make him feel less pain from heat or fire or resist it all.

An hour passed by and Polly just woke up from her sleep. She stretched and yawned when she stood up with a face that was satisfied with the slumber.

"What time is it?"

She still had time as she looked at the clock on the wall.

After that, she fixed herself and wore the same clothes for training, but now she wore black flat knee-high boots. She was already prepared herself for today's class but before that, she went upstairs for breakfast.

"Time to eat!", she was excited to eat as she was really hungry.

When she was in the cafeteria, she really ate a lot of food for breakfast.

For Airis, she just entered the Magibry, the Magic library. The room was cylindrical in shape, inside the walls were bookshelves filled with books, the bookshelves in the room was arranged like a circle, facing towards the middle of the room. There were five circles, so there were five circular layers of bookshelves. In the middle of the room was a huge empty area that was filled with long tables and chairs. This library was known to learn a lot of techniques using different kinds of Magic.

She proceeded walking to the middle of the room and saw Teacher Jarine sitting down on a chair in front of a table.

Jarine was an adult woman who had a blonde short hair, she was wearing a commander's badge on her red mini dress and underneath was a black long sleeves shirt. Her eyes were yellow and she had a quiet look with her glasses. She had a slender and curvy physique. Generally, she looked poised, beautiful, and lovely.

When she noticed Airis, she smiled at her arrival. When Airis approached her, Jarine greeted with a sweet voice, "Good morning, Airis."

"Morning, Teacher Jarine. Polly will be arriving soon.", she sat down in front of her.

After Airis told that Polly would be arriving, Polly arrived and Jarine noticed her and said, "Well, Polly is already here."

Airis looked back and saw Polly waving her hands at them with an energetic face, "Oh..."

Polly sat down and they were complete. After that Jarine told them what to do for this morning, "Okay, girls. I think you know you will have an exam this afternoon. So what I want you to do right now is to read books about your Magic because your exam will be all about accuracy."

"Accuracy?", said Polly as she was confused.

"I can't tell you about it once we start doing the exam. Unless they are hints. So Polly, Ground Magic, right?"

Polly nodded in agreement.

"Read a lot of shapes, structures, and figures."

"Okay!"

"Airis, since yours is Electricity Magic, read about ."

"Thank you, Teacher Jarine."

"I should give you a lot of time for this so before I will let you go, I will give you something to remember... Magic is an art of life and death, for it creates, moves, and most importantly, it destroys. Okay, you can read books now.", she smiled at the end, stood up and left.

Magic would be a power found within anything in the world. Humans had it, plants and animals had it, and even the non-living things. Its origin was unknown and how it would work was mysterious, but some were able to know how to use it and make it work. In addition, Magic was mostly connected with elements like Polly could use ground Magic while Airis could use electricity, but it could go more than that like the walls of Drigmor.

The girls stood up and went around the library to find the books they wanted to read. After that, they went back to the table bringing a column of books with their hands and arms and started reading them. They were reading them carefully and understood the words written.

From the open hallway of the east, Kairos walked on the east hallway after he finished talking with Zarthus. He just wanted to roam around the castle as enjoyment and relaxation. Then he saw Book punching a dummy on the training ground.

"Heeeh... What's he doing?"

He noticed that there were eight dummies and none of them was destroyed yet. He saw Book punching the dummy continuously with his fists and they were already bleeding that the blood was already dripping down from the dummy and his hands. His face was so serious and fierce that he didn't flinch when he hit the stone dummy with his wounds on his knuckles and fingers.

Book clenched his teeth and didn't say anything from the pain at all. He was still holding everything in to become a knight and get a suit of armor. Each punch was his strongest even with his weak and tired body.

But Kairos noticed something in his pattern of punching, Hmmmmm...

So he went down and approached Kiji who was sitting down observing Book, "Kiji, may I take your position for a moment?"

"Sure..."

Kiji stood up and as he was leaving, he told Kairos, "I'll get back for food and water. Watch him for me."

"Sure."

Kairos smiled and started walking towards Book. Kiji understood Book's condition that he was hungry and thirsty and now would be the right time to take a break after he arrived with food and water. When Kairos was near to Book, he notified, "Book, if you want to become a knight, then become a knight that stands in my standard."

Book punched and stopped when he heard what he said. Blood was dripping down in between his fingers and the dummy. Then he moved his head at Kairos and looked at him fiercely. Book had nothing with hate towards Kairos, but he wanted to prove to him that he could do it.

"What do you want?"

Kairos just smiled faintly and continued, "Punch the dummy only with your left fist with all your might."

Book said confidently, "No problem!", he retracted his hand from the dummy.

Then he clenched his left fist tightly and strongly threw a left punch towards the dummy that when in impact, the blood exploded in between of his fingers and the dummy. There, Book felt intense pain from the single punch that he shouted in pain and kneeled down. He held his left forearm tightly as the pain was too much to bear.

"GRAHHHHHHHH!!! It hurts!!!"

His left hand started to bleed more and the pain felt intense and it was always constant and he kept feeling it. Together with the previous punches, the pain was added one hundred times from his left hand.

In the beginning, Kairos noticed the pattern of Book's punching that he was punching more with his right fist because it was his dominant hand and the stronger hand. Also, he knew that Book used a lot of strength to punch the dummy with his right fist so he had to teach him to punch with his left.

Kairos continued, "Rest, Book. You're going to need it."

Then Book stopped holding his left forearm and slowly stood up. Kairos couldn't see his face as he was facing down. Slowly, Book faced the dummy with a pissed and angry face. He was so mad from the word, Kairos said to him. His atmosphere changed and Kairos felt it.

He said intimidatingly, "Rest?... Rest?!"

He clenched his bloody left fist to its tightest that blood squirted out, "You want me to rest when I can show you that I can be a knight in your standards!?!"

He pulled his left fist at its maximum and put all of his strength into his arm that muscles were formed like biceps and etc..

He faced the dummy with an angry face and started to throw the punch while shouting, "RAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The punch was so fast that his fist created a sonic boom. When his fist was going towards the dummy's chest, he thought, I will destroy this to pieces!!!

Upon impact, a shockwave was released from between his fist and the dummy. He looked at the dummy with raging eyes and face.

Slowly, his face changed to a silly face who felt a lot of pain.

"IT HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURTSSSSSSS!!!"

It was all in his imagination. It was fake. There was no sonic boom or anything, except the pain he was screaming right now.

He fell on the ground, rolling over and over again, holding his left forearm to hopefully ease the pain. He's definitely very weak in punching. Blood was squirting out more than before and the pain was unbearable.

Kairos chuckled and Book heard it.

Book screamed in anger for his laughter at his failure, "DON'T LAUGH!"

Kairos couldn't hold it and laughed hysterically. Book stood up and pointed his finger at him, "You bastard, I will become strong. Just you wait!"

Behind Kairos and Book, Kiji was holding a bag of food and water. He saw Kairos laughing at Book while Book was screaming angrily at Kairos. Something happened between them and he didn't know about it, but he didn't care about that. He shouted, "Hey! I got food and water!!"

Kairos stopped laughing and looked behind at Kiji, "Ah, perfect timing. Book, it's for you to rest."

Book stopped shouting and became quiet. Kairos heard someone fall on the sands and looked in front. He was not surprised that Book would eventually pass out from exhaustion, blood loss, and everything.

Kiji went near and told Kairos, "I'm too late, huh?"

"Yep."