“Would you introduce me?” Emelia asked while casting a cold look at Shina who was still clinging to Ash’s arm.
“Ye-yes this is Shina, Yuki’s mother,” Ash said, pulling his arm from Shina’s grasp.
“Shina, it is a pleasure to meet you,” Emelia said in a cold tone. “I will have one of the maids show you to the room you and your daughter will share.”
“No need to go through so much trouble for me,” Shina said locking gazes with Emelia. “As master’s slave, it would be best if I stayed in the same room with master so that I could serve him.”
As the two women looked at each other Ash could have sworn that he could see sparks. Yuki on the other hand didn’t seem to notice or care she just kept clinging to his waist while smiling. “That won’t be possible,” Emelia said in a matter of fact tone.
Shina looked to Ash for help, but in this instance Ash had to agree with Emelia. If he had to sleep in the same room as Shina every night, he would lose his sanity within a fortnight. “Shina, you will have to stay in the servant’s quarters with Yuki.”
“Understood master,” Shina said, her shoulders slumping.
“Yuki, why don’t you show your mother to your room?” Ash said, looking down at the small girl still clinging to him.
“Don’t want to,” Yuki said as she rubbed her head against him.
“Yuki,” Ash said, making his voice a level sterner.
Yuki looked up and him and puffed up her cheeks. Seeing that she wasn’t going to get her way, she let go of her death hold and grabbed her mother’s hand and led her into the building. Seeing the girl’s attitude change so quickly, Ash couldn’t help but laugh.
“Ash we need to talk,” Emelia said as they followed behind the two fox girls keeping her voice low enough that only he could hear her. Ash didn’t reply, he simply followed her into the large study.
Ash started to take a seat in one of the chairs, but Emelia gave him a reproving look and he quickly stopped and took a seat next to her. For a long time Emelia just looked at Ash not saying anything. For some reason Ash started to feel as if an invisible pressure was bearing down on him. “Did something happen?” Ash asked, trying to escape from the deadly silence.
“You could say that,” Emelia said, laying her head against Ash’s shoulder. “The king is thinking about going to war with the Lor Kingdom.”
“What will that mean?” Ash asked, seeing the worried look in Emelia’s eyes.
“First the kingdom will start drafting all non-humans within the kingdom to serve on the first line. To make sure that no one can escape the draft, people with analyze will be dispatched…If that happens…You won’t be able to hide in the city.”
As Emelia spoke, her grip tightened on his shirt and Ash could feel her fingernails digging into his skin. “How long will it be before they send out the search groups?”
“They will send them out a few weeks after the declaration of war. Right now it is just a rumor, but I think it’s highly possible. Most free non-humans will escape for the border, but the kings will have large number of troops looking for those trying to cross once they have decided on war. I think it would be best…If you left now.” As Emelia forced out the last part, tears started to form in her eyes.
“If they declare war, I will think about it then, but right now…I-I don’t want to leave yet,” Ash replied honestly. He had an idea of how Emelia felt about him, but he was still unsure of how he felt about her. When he was with her, he felt a warmth spread throughout his whole body. Right now he didn’t want to lose that just on the off chance that there might be a war. “For now, why don’t we just worry about what is, and not what might be,” Ash suggested, his voice sounding awkward even to his own ears.
“Ok,” Emelia said, her voice catching slightly.
For a long time Ash and Emelia just sat next to each other without a word spoken. Every now and then Emelia or Ash would start to say something, but it would quickly fade away. “What do you plan to do now?” Emelia asked as she forced herself to let go of her hold on Ash.
“Train with Zelan and get stronger,” Ash said in a determined tone.
“Will you make me a promise?” Emelia asked, her eyes starting to water again.
“If I can,” Ash said as he worried about what she would ask for.
“If you do have to leave, can you send me letters to let me know how you are doing,” Emelia said, her voice trembling. “And if you can, visit. If it becomes safe for you again.”
“It’s a promise,” Ash replied easily.
Emelia smiled while standing from her seat and wiping her eyes with a small silk handkerchief. “Then I better get to work. Though it is only rumors, I have to prepare my lands in case war does come to the kingdom.”
“Then I will see you at dinner,” Ash said, giving a light bow before leaving the room.
After leaving the study, Ash headed back to his room. Along the way he passed three maids who gave him odd smiles. “Master!” Yuki yelled, jumping and clinging to him from the back, nearly making him fall face first onto the stairs. “You can’t marry momma…You can’t.”
“What are you talking about?” Ash asked, completely caught off guard.
“Momma, momma said that she and master were going to give me a new brother or sister,” Yuki said between tears. “I don’t want that. Master should only love Yuki.”
Looking around Ash saw Shina who was hiding in the doorway leading to the servant’s quarters. “Shina, come here please?” Ash asked in a commanding voice.
“What is it master?” Shina asked in a light tone as if not understanding what he was mad about. “I was just letting Yuki know that I was going to have master’s child.”
“When did that decision come about?” Ash asked, furrowing his brows.
“Ara…I just thought that since Yuki was still underdeveloped, I should take care of master’s urges.”
“Yuki is not underdeveloped, so Yuki can take care of master,” Yuki said, glaring at her mother while hiding behind Ash. “Mother is just an old lady.”
From there everything started to go downhill. Soon a number of maids and even Emelia had come out to see what the commotion was about. Ash looked around for help, but no one seemed willing to lend him a hand. When he looked to Emelia she turned her head with a “humph,” as if saying that he had gotten himself in the mess and could get himself out of it. While he was trying to figure out what to do, the fight between Yuki and Shina had escalated and now the two were face to face yelling at each other.
“Enough! I order both of you to be quiet and sit down,” Ash yelled at the top of his voice.
Shina and Yuki either didn’t hear him or were trying to ignore him, but after a few seconds their slave brands flashed blue and both cried out in pain. Ash felt bad for them, but he steeled himself and repeated his order. This time both of them closed their mouths tight and slumped to the ground.
“Shina and Yuki, you are both my slaves and even more, you are family there is no reason for you to fight,” Ash said in a disapproving tone. “And if you must know, at the moment I don’t plan to be having babies with anyone. The next time I catch you fighting, I will sell both of you.”
“Master, Yuki is sorry,” Yuki said almost crying. Shina on the other hand just looked at him pouting. Seeing the two sitting there next to each other, they looked more like sisters than mother and daughter.
“Now, go back to your room and think about how you have acted,” Ash said dismissing them. As they left, Ash let out a heavy sigh and felt like collapsing onto the ground. He felt bad about threatening them and he hoped they didn’t call him on it, because he couldn’t honestly find it in himself to sale either one of them.
With his head hurting, Ash looked back to where Emelia had been standing a moment before but found that she had already left. “What a pain,” Ash said, walking to his room while rubbing the temples of his forehead.
3-8
Thanks to all the commotion mixed with the
news that Emelia had brought him about the possibility of a coming war, Ash had a hard time sleeping. When he was awoken the next morning, it felt as if only a few moments since he closed his eyes.
“Sir Ash, Sir Zelan is waiting for you,” a maid said through a half opened door.
Looking out the window he noticed that the sun was already well in the sky. Cursing, Ash leapt to his feet and quickly dressed before rushing outside to find Zelan leaning against a tree. “You wasted enough time, let’s get going,” Zelan said in an annoyed voice. “We only have five to seven months before your contest.”
“What do you mean master?” Ash asked, not understanding what Zelan was talking about. “I thought you wanted to wait a year at least before I fought against a member of the seven swords guild.”
“I wanted to, but things have changed,” Zelan said, his voice showing his dislike of the situation. “All last night in the bar, rumors of war were everywhere. At best, within a year the idiot of a king will start to amass his armies. Once that happens, the people within the guild will be too busy to care about coming just for a challenge. So this morning I sent off a letter to the guild hall noting I have found a challenger and to send someone to fight against you. It will take two months at least for the letter to reach the guild hall and another two to three for whoever they send to reach us.”
“So you heard about the war as well,” Ash said sighing.
“Any news of war spreads fast among the common people,” Zelan said with a sneer. “They know that if a war starts, they will be the ones to bear the brunt of the losses; both financial and personal.”
“Wait!” Shina yelled as Ash and Zelan started to leave the manor grounds. “Master can’t leave without me.”
“We are just going to train,” Ash said rolling his eyes.
“Just let her come,” Zelan said while enjoying looking at Shina’s body.
“Ok, you can come along but you cannot get in the way of my training,” Ash said sighing.
“I promise Master,” Shina said while her tail was waving back and forth.
The trio walked to the labyrinth, Ash leading the way as Shina held onto his arm with a large smile and Zelan walking slightly behind, his eyes glued on Shina. Every now and then Shina would look back and scowl, but Zelan just laughed and winked at her.
“What floor should be start on?” Ash asked as they reached the doorway leading down into the labyrinth.
“What was the highest level you were able to reach on your own?” Zelan asked.
“I was able to make it to the seventh floor, but I found fighting the fire lizards to be a bit out of my ability.” Ash replied.
“Then that is where we will start. You already have the basics of the sword forms I am allowed to teach you down. All that is left is honing your skills and the only way to do that is facing opponents that force you beyond your own capabilities. Thankfully your stats received a boost. Unless they send one of their top students, you will have a good chance, even though the person might be slightly older than you.”
“How much older?” Ash asked.
“Well from the age of five until they reach sixteen, trainees are kept within the main temple of the clan to train their bodies. Once they turn sixteen, they join a group of three people and from sixteen to twenty-five they are given mission to accomplish. The people sent this time will be one such group. Since I notified the guild hall that you are already level ten, then they will send a group that has someone with a level of no more than eleven when they leave the temple. Most likely though they will be level twelve or more when they arrive. Since groups are changed every few years, it will vary, so it’s hard to tell which one you will fight.”
Zelan continued to tell Ash about the training in the seven swords guild as they were transferred in front of the boss door of the sixth floor. The Seven Swords Guild was considered what was called one of the three major clans. They had a large temple located between two of the kingdoms and were considered sovereign ground.
As he listened to Zelan talk about his guild, Ash opened the door to the boss’s room and entered. When the swirling darkness cleared, Ash once again found himself facing the large spider that had nearly killed him. Unlike last time, he was stronger, but this time he didn’t have the bonus of his sword or armor.
Just as with the other fights, Ash was not allowed to use any skills or abilities during the fight. All he was allowed was his sword and personal skill with it. Taking a deep breath, Ash rushed forward, his feet moving in the patterns he had been taught by Zelan.
At first the movements were done only while standing and he turned in a small circle. Once he had learned the patterns, he was made to do them while walking then while running. They were seemingly simple movements, but if you didn’t execute it correctly, one would fall flat on their face.
As soon as he reached in front of the spider, Ash let his weight fall on his left foot as he pushed off and shot to the right side. As he came to a stop, Ash then pivoted on the tips of his toes and pushed off again dodging one of the spider’s legs while striking at it with his sword. Unlike the other sword, the copper sword didn’t cut through the leg complete, instead it left a wound on the leg, not doing much real damage to the spider.
Ash continued to dance around the spider, striking at the legs. The first spider splintered like a piece of dry timber. The loss of one leg didn’t bother the spider much, but it did inhibit its turning and attacking speed slightly. Ash didn’t let up and continued attacking the spider’s legs, but before he could take out a second leg it retreated to the corner of the room.
Having fought the spider once before, Ash knew what was coming, but he also knew the risk of rushing in when the spider had effectively cut off many of its blind spots. Soon, three smaller spiders appeared and Ash went on the move. This time he didn’t aim for the legs, but the head. Hitting the spiders that were near the same height as him whenever an opening appeared. The first spider died quickly, the second looked as if it would go down just as easily, but Ash had let the third spider slip out of his sight and was captured by an unseen web. If he could use his corrosive poison ability, the webs wouldn’t be much trouble, but currently he wasn’t allowed to, so he was forced to find another way.
The spider web had covered most of Ash’s upper body, but it was more like a net than a cocoon so he still had a limited amount of movement, but wherever his body touched the sticky thread it stuck. With his feet still free, Ash quickly got to his feet and did his best to dodge the smaller spider’s attacks, but seeing him in a weakened condition, the larger spider started to move out from its sheltered spot.
As he dodged the attacks, Ash worked his sword against the strands of spider web. While sticky, the spider web wasn’t very durable and after fighting against them, they started to tear. Though they still clung to Ash’s body, they didn’t affect his movement much. Just as Ash freed himself, one of the spiders shot another strand of thread, but Ash was able to just barely move out of its range, coming up right in front of one of the smaller spiders and cutting off its head.
With only one small spider left, Ash moved quickly while keeping his eyes on the larger spider that had started to strike out with its spear-like legs while also spitting poison from time to time. Within a few heartbeats, the other small spider was dead and Ash once again went on the offensive against the larger spiders legs and within moments another leg fell to the ground.
While the loss of one leg didn’t mean much, losing two on the same side made its movements awkward, making it even easier for Ash to strike. Soon three legs had fallen and the spider crashed to the ground. With its movements sealed, Ash had no trouble moving in and striking at its sides, but he still attacked the remaining leg on the right side of the spider to keep it from regaining its feet.
Ash didn’t know how long he fought, but he felt exhausted when the spider finally shuddered and stopped moving. As soon as the spider died, Shina rushed over to Ash and quickly checked him for wounds. “I’
m fine,” Ash said trying not to laugh. The fight had been hard, but throughout the whole fight he had only lost five HP and that was only because of his own carelessness.
“Not bad, but you have to mind all of your opponents. It would have ended much sooner had you not allowed yourself to be captured,” Zelan said in a harsh tone. “Well, no use waiting around here let’s get a move on. Every moment we sit here is a moment wasted.”
The seventh floor looked just as Ash remembered it. It was as if he was in a large underground cave deep under the earth. Gripping his sword tight, Ash wanted to get his revenge for last time when he had almost died thanks to the fire lizards. He didn’t have to wait long to run across his first target as one appeared only a few yards away. Ash felt the urge to use his skill to check the area for other monsters, but he knew that if he did Zelan would punish him. The only method he was allowed to use to sense enemies was his own natural abilities.
As soon as the fire lizard saw Ash, it shot out a ball of fire in his direction, but Ash was easily able to dodge it. As Zelan had taught him, Ash watched the lizard closely as he moved and attacked. Unlike humans, low level monsters couldn’t think or adapt quickly to changes and acted based on instinct and reflex. Against a new opponent it didn’t mean much, but the more you fought the same kind of monster, the easier it would become if you learned how they responded. The fire lizard attacked with a fireball,l if you were about ten steps away it started using its claws, tail, and teeth. It had rock hard scales covering its entire body so it was hard to get in a good strike, but if you could hit its soft underbelly you could do a lot of damage. The only problem was hitting something that was only a few inches off the ground.
The trick was to attack the lizard’s foot. If you could land a solid hit, it would raise its foot and give you a brief opening to its belly. With a precise strike, you could hit its heart and cause a fatal strike, though it took Ash four tries to accomplish this. As the lizard died, Ash welcomed the “Tring” in his head indicating he had finally reached level eleven.
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