My New Life in TBATE

Arthur's return

8 months have passed since I started attending Xyrus academy, it's been an interesting time to say the least. After my scuffle with Reginald, the older boy gave me a wide berth and no more 'lessons' were had. Fewer incidents between students of opposite races happened than I expected, only 15 incidents in the whole year.

Which at first glance I'm sure sounds like a lot, but with everyone living on campus and in such close proximity for 8 months I expected the number to be at least double. Perhaps the punishments I had personally dealt out when these things occurred was a worthy deterrent. Apparently people don't like to get what they had done, done back to them by another person.

My name had already become the talk of the school for being friends with the 2 Princesses, being the future student council president, and now for my strength that I had shown pieces of in retaliation against the discriminators and bullies. Hopefully this makes the next year run even smoother, with the integration of another wave of students. A wave in which Arthur will be a part of.

My trainings with Tessia had also persisted throughout the 8 months and I have to say I'm impressed with her rapid growth. Not only in tea making, but sword fighting. Of course her plant magic improved as well, but I had expected that. One thing that had added another boost to her power was that she was also a wind mage alongside her plant capabilities.

This allowed me to train her in my various uses of wind mana in tandem with her plant magic. Wind to sharpen her sword, or a wind barrier to block incoming attacks her vines would be to slow to stop. Reducing draft on her or her weapons to increase her speed, or increasing it for training purposes. Yes, she had come a long way in these 8 months.

I had also visited Cael at Caellurum a few times to find the progress of the island to be quite frankly, astonishing. Small but decent sized houses could be seen littering the island around the base of the mountain, where already the makings of a castle were beginning to form. A spiraling smooth slope wrapped around the previously craggy and rocky mountain face, to act as a way of accessing the castle from the lower town area.

Docks made of both wood and stone formed along the inner edge of the bay for the future port. Outer walls along the edge of the island had risen, though they were currently only standing about 20 foot high. Which is fine for now, as it's planned for it to grow as well as build another wall directly around the houses that are being built. However that's for far in the future.

My and Kathyln's relationship had also progressed in these past months and she was no longer as shy with public displays of affection as she was before. It has its own charm for my acts to be reciprocated, but I will miss her timid and demure nature at the start. She and Tessia had become recurring figures in the Helstea manor and that leads us to the current moment of sitting in the living room when we hear a knocking on the door.

I had received a letter earlier in the day from Kaspian telling me about the happenings on Arthur and Jasmine's delve into the dire tombs. I wasn't too worried for their safety not only as they had survived in the books, but also because they had improved tremendously in our sparring sessions before I left. Just 8 months again Arthur had already broken into the dark yellow stage, so I couldn't wait to see how far he had progressed.

If he stuck with my training he should be close to light yellow if not already light yellow, unless he reached a bottleneck. Which is entirely possible as the quickest growth happens when you have someone to spur on your improvement.

I had thought to attend the trial myself, but seeing as there was truly no point I just decided to wait here at the manor for them to arrive. Waving off the maid with a smile I approach the door, Kathyln and Tessia following just behind me. I open the door to see Jasmine standing there with Elijah standing just behind her and to her right side.