Shadow in Lightning

Chapter 5

When I woke up in the morning there was a note on my desk neatly folded into a long rectangle with my name written along it. It read

"Good morning young master I have prepared your first training regimen and will be waiting for you in front of the garden. Please wear an outfit you wouldn't mind getting dirty and or damaged. "

So I picked out a simple brown linen shirt with black pants among the outfits in my bag that someone brought to my room as I slept. I then went to the garden as instructed and met with Victor and another man who was talking with him. The man was wearing a white shirt with brown pants. He had two wooden swords sheathed in his belt and he was built. I mean built like a bull made of brick that had been polished to a shine. With his black hair pulled back into a top knot and his tan arms practically bursting from the blue shirt he was wearing. When I got close enough the man bowed to me and introduced himself. Apparently he was the manor's quartermaster, it was his job to train all of the manor's guards and to assign weapons and armor from the armory. His name was Kagaru, Ikawa Kagaru. He told me that he and Victor had been talking since late last night and that they decided he would be my weapons and basic combat instructor.

So we began training first and we started with basic exercise which lasted about 2 hours. He had me running around the manor with bags of sand on my shoulders until I was unable to walk anymore. He told me that he was impressed with how long I lasted and that normally people would give or fall around an hour. I honestly was shocked how long I lasted as well, every part of my body felt like fire ants moved in and were excavating my insides for construction. We then moved on to sword practice. He taught me how to draw a sword... for 3 hours. It was sooo boring. The wooden swords were sheathed in leather and we would just take out the sword, assume a stance then put the sword back in the sheath.

After we finished with that we had lunch then Victor took me to the part of the manor where the tower was fused into the mountain. Inside were two hallways. One led to the armory and the other led to a massive library. We went to the library and Victor began instructing me on Architecture and Calligraphy. We continued our studies until it was dinner time.

We made our way into the manor where my adoptive parents were sitting. Dinner was put out on a distinctly large crescent shaped table. There was a chief standing inside of the crescent and behind him was a portable hibachi grill where he was making food then serving it to us right as it was finished. Before each portion was served the maid I spoke to in Urr was tasting each portion before it was served giving us the go ahead as she determined it was safe. Victor stood behind Yuuki and Sakuri while Yazui stood behind my seat. She was dressed in that yellow kimono awaiting for any task that I might need.

While we ate Yuuki asked about my outfit at which time I told him about Victor training me. I told him about the quartermaster training me with my body and Victor handling my education. After I told him, he seemed pleased to hear it and dropped the subject.

After we finished eating I went back to my room where Victor met me. He had a stack of books in his hands and some loose paper. I was to read these books and complete some assignments he had prepared for me. The books were on "Glyphs" and Runesribing". Glyphs were the magical formulas they were required in order to use magic. While Runescribing was taking parts of glyphs and turning them into special symbols that empowered items with magical effects. My assignments were simple. I had to draw the basic glyph for each element of magic then I had to runescribe 5 sheets of paper with a basic enchantment. The enchantment wouldn't work because I'm not using any arcane stones to activate the enchantment but I still needed to show my knowledge. So I began with the Glyphs and by the end of the night I had mastered the glyph for lightning. It came so easy as I pictured the element the image just formed in my head. Kind of like I always knew it, that had to be because of my evolution it thought to myself. The rest of them however took much longer to learn. The elemental glyphs took in total about 3 days a piece while the arcane glyphs took about a week each. The elemental glyphs consisted of fire, ice, water, lightning, wind, earth, wood, and gravity. While the arcane glyphs were made up of dark, light, force, time & space, life, and death. So yeah in all it took a little over 3 months of study all the while I had drill sergeant Kagaru working me to the bone.