The next day, I told Bella about my sparring with Alea. I explained how I thought she had thrown the fight. That she was obvious in her moves and that she had mentioned being my partner as a way of paying back her behavior.

“That does sound possible,” she said. “But are you sure she would throw a fight like that? Wouldn’t the knights be able to tell she did it? Wouldn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of throwing the fight to begin with?”

Now that she mentioned it. The knights should have known…no they probably just went with it because she’s a princess.

“I don’t know, I don’t see how else I could have won against someone who’s been practicing with a sword for years.”

“Well maybe she was just flustered…It happens you know.”

“…Tell me about how things are going with your training,” I said, a bit flustered myself. “Any more progress on the war fork or magic?”

“Oh. Well sure. I’ve been practicing both. I can even store a small shield with my war fork now. Would you like to see?”

Opening the storage void she pulled out a small shield just under a meter in diameter. It was a wooden construction with steel reinforcements on the center and edge.

Bella’s mana began flowing slightly as she began to lift the shield.

“It’s a bit heavy,” she said hoisting it up. “But I’m getting used to it. Slowly.”

Should I tell her about being careful not to show off her mana? That that was how I beat the princess? No, I’m sure the high general will teach her all about strategy. He probably knows more than I do anyway. After all, I’m still new to magic.

“Are you learning any other magic skills?” I asked curious what kind of magic the hero would be learning.

“Well I’ve been practicing 【Void Storage】, 【Tame】, 【Claws】, 【Circulation】, and 【Light】.”

I’m guessing 【Circulation】 was the technique she used when lifting the shield and the other’s seemed fairly self-explanatory to me. 【Tame】 was probably something you used on animals to make them friendlier and 【Light】 was most likely just a light. Probably like the light Fiena had showed me outside.

I was a bit amused that she was learning the general’s 【Claws】 skill.

I began to wonder which magical skill I would be able to try first…no there wasn’t even any point in trying until I had built up my affinities.

“What about your Spirit magic affinity?” I asked. “Nothing for that?”

She shrugged. “Well not yet, but you never know.”

I wanted to ask her for a demonstration of 【Light】 to compare it to the 【Circulation】 skill. I felt like there must be differences between the types of magical affinities and wondered if that would be something you could see in the color or flow of mana when the skill was activated. Our time, however, was already up. And we were both due for training.

I was surprised to find Alea stretching when I arrived at the training grounds. I thought everyone else had a three-day rotation.

Deciding to take my chances I went over to her. “Greetings Princess Alea,” I said raising my hand to my chest just as Sir Aborisey had instructed me to do when greeting royalty.

“Oh you don’t have to do that,” she said with a grimace on her face. “You’re the hero after all. Not to mention you beat me yesterday.”

That didn’t seem right. Shouldn’t my being a ‘hero’ mean I should be just as strict as the soldiers of Acone?

“I…um…”

“You look well rested are you up for training this morning?” She smiled awkwardly.

It was a bit disconcerting to see her smiling like that at me at all. Just a few days ago I could have sworn she wanted me dead. What in the world could have changed?

“I um…well yes,” I said. “Thank you. I am well rested.”

I didn’t say that was because of Bella’s trait.

“Then we can go all out today,” she said with another awkward smile.

I knew it. She was holding back yesterday.

“Yes your highness,” I said formally.

“I said to stop that,” she said with visible discomfort. “I…I wasn’t behaving much like a princess towards you and your friend. I don’t …”

She trailed off momentarily then came back with an abundance of energy “…Let’s get going! Come on let’s get in at least one extra lap around the bailey.”

With that we began to run. I however, hadn’t stretched at all.

By the time we arrived back to the training grounds, Adekin and the other knights were ready to join us.

Around the bailey we went. Around and around again. Until my legs burned. But not quite as badly as they had the first day. I was definitely making improvements.

“A group affinity and skill training, B group muscle training, C group sparring, …” Adekin gave the commands for each group as usual.

Today I would be doing affinity training. Excellent. Which affinity should I train? Physical Magic probably. Yeah, let’s do that.

“Let’s practice together,” Alea said grabbing my arm. “You wanted to learn about the physical affinity attribute right?”

I felt a little…I mean she was a princess.

“um…yes,” I managed.

“Great, I can help you with that,” she said before leaning in to whisper to me. “I have the physical magic affinity.”

Was that supposed to be a secret? Didn’t everyone see you use it yesterday? Or did she just want to whisper something in my ear to fluster me…because it certainly did that.

The next thing I knew she was leading me through a series of poses which involved flexing and releasing various muscles. It felt like the training you would see martial arts masters do to exercise their chi or something.

“Concentrate on your physical affinity mana,” Alea instructed. “Let it flow into the muscles you tense and out of the muscles you relax.”

As she moved I could see the glow of mana flowing throughout her body. It was as if she were pushing it into certain parts of her body and then moving it around. It reminded me of what Perceval told me about training for tool affinity magic. That you had to deplete the mana in order to strengthen it. I wondered if this movement of mana did something similar. Making the muscles think they depleted the mana before replenishing it. Slowly cycling through the various muscles in the body.

I watched Alea very closely, watching the mana flow. I knew that I didn’t have much mana, but I tried to mimic her actions. I felt my mana moving slightly, but it didn’t feel like it was moving all that much. Hopefully that coupled with my attempts at visualizing my mana move the same way as her’s would be enough.

As we practiced the morning sun rose. It was a beautiful day and it made me think. Could a person train multiple affinities at the same time? Maybe I should ask Alea or Fiena. Why not try? I focused on the light hitting my skin and gambeson. It split my focus slightly, but overall I think I did fairly well. It’s not like I was expecting much growth in either affinity anyway. I might as well practice my mindfulness regarding mana absorption.