Chapter 17: Try harder

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“Perseverance is the key to success, if you aren’t hardworking -if you don’t put the effort, you will never be anything. Talent on it’s own isn’t success, talent which is cultivated by endless training is power -is success.”

Ninja Ubaba, Art of Training

Year 147

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--POV: Laurence—

--Place: Clarissa’s Dorm Room / Time:13:26—

“…43…..44..…45..…46…” I count her push ups, as she struggles to lift herself off the ground with my gravity magic on her, that increases in intensity every 30 seconds, yet she keeps going.

“ha…..ha” She breathes heavily as she completes the 50^th push up, she has truly exceeded my expectations this time.

I hand her a glass of water as she stands up, completely covered in sweat “Good work, I am truly impressed” She seems to get really motivated whenever I praise her for her efforts, it was a good idea to use praises as encouragement, because it seems her performance today is thanks to her pure will to keep going.

“Haah….I’m hungry” While you did exert yourself plenty, you still are a glutton.

“We’ll have lunch, and then I’ll hit the library after dusk” I didn’t go to the library this morning after all.

“Again?” Yes, again. Unlike your lazy ass, I enjoy learning.

Speaking of learning, I found out that this world has 2 things I have never heard about before such as slimes and mermen/mermaids.

Slimes are said to be intelligent, even getting documented as being able to understand humans. While mermen are said to be half-human, half-fish. Some adventurous explorers even claim seeing mermen sometimes, by the coast.

They have similar intelligence to humans, but have gills on their cheeks instead of human lungs. Giving them a weird, if not ugly look. They also can’t stay above water for a certain period of time, as the same as humans, who can’t stay under water for a certain period of time.

Of course, I have magic that can overcome this. But neither the humans or mermen have such convenient things going for them, as such, what they know about each other is limited.

The reason I hate going to the library afternoon, is because I find it to be way busier than in the mornings, and for a butler such as myself, going too many times with my social position may be considered suspicious.

So, to attract as little attention as possible, I usually go at either very early mornings, or very late evenings, with little to no visits in between.

--Place: Blackberry Street / Time:14:44—

“Actually, how did your tour with Mark go?” I’ve been wondering about this for sometime now.

She starts frowning “As horrible as I expected it to” That bad, huh? “Well, ever since the banquet, I have never had any expectations in anything to do with Mark”

“You don’t like him, do you?” I wouldn’t be surprised if she says she hates him.

“Well, he seems to view me as some type of trophy that should be obtained” I bet the first princess is involved in this somehow, or at least encouraging Mark to make his advances “He is way too pushy, and is this sugary nice person. Like a cake that looks so delicious that it’s nauseating, and it tastes like shit to boot” That’s way too specific of an example.

“Watch your language, my lady” I remind her to keep these lovely words to herself, especially when we are outside in public.

“We’re here” She enters a Patisserie shop, or was about to, before I grab her wrist.

“My lady, we didn’t have lunch yet” What kind of a sweet tooth does this girl have?

Her face turns crestfallen, and tears well up into her eyes “You are a good actor” I have to admit it, anyone but me could’ve been fooled.

“Thank you” How shameless can you get to accept sarcasm as praise? You know what, forget it.

She recovers instantly, as if the previous face was a complete lie, and starts looking for an actual restaurant to eat at, realizing I’m not going to allow her to fill her mouth with sugary foods right after her training.

--Place: Blackberry Street / Time:17:23—

With a stomach full of food, Clarissa somehow manages to get off the chair and leave, after trying for 15 minutes, yes, she indeed ate that much. While my stomach can easily burn through that food, I have no idea how a human could possibly eat such a quantity.

As we walk through the crowded street, I notice four, no, five presences following us, in broad daylight.

‘We are being watched

‘How many?’

‘Only five, they aren’t strong….or sneaky actually’

After taking some turns down a few less popular and more quiet streets, we stop “I’ve never been here before” Clarissa says as she pretend to take interest in the shop on this shady street.

‘I’ll leave one alive’ I tell her though the telepathy.

They are split up into 2 groups of two, and one guy alone a bit further away. In order to deal with this as quick as possible, I set 2 strong gravitational areas on the two groups, this should smash them into the ground so hard, turning them into fleshy mush.

As I do this, I immediately teleport to the last guy, who happens to have been watching us from the top of a building, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him in the air. “Who are you?” I start my interrogation, because I need answers.

“Kuh…kha….aha” I loosen my grip, that seems to be choking him to hard. The wind behind me indicates that Clarissa used magic to fly up here, and is now watching behind me.

“I’m not going to repeat myself, mortal” I leak out bloodlust, showing him the situation he is in.

“Kah….I…am…” Just as I was about to hear it, he starts leaking out a lot of blood from his mouth. In surprise, I let him drop to the ground before he starts squirming by our feet, leaking out more blood.

After 10 seconds of doing this, with us watching him, he suddenly starts convulsing violently before throwing up what I can only identify as….

an organ.

He is vomiting out his insides, this can only happen if he is under a curse of some kind, and from the looks of it, it’s a strong one.

“What is happening?” Clarissa asks in a confused, and a bit of a curious voice.

“He has been cursed”

“Oh.....” I ignore Clarissa's disinterest tone, as I put my full attention towards I'll do next....

Realizing that I won’t get any information out of him, I put him out of his misery, before dealing with the corpses of him and his friends. Followed by me teleporting myself and Clarissa to her dorm, so we can absorb in what just happened, and plan our next actions.