endless path, infinite cosmos

chapter 59

The three continue to eat breakfast in silence. Vahn was eating much slower than usual, while Lili had hardly touched her food. She just kept fidgeting in her seat while periodically eyeing the door as if trying to come to a decision. Tsubaki, who was the closest to the exit just gave her a 'gentle' smile while enjoying the meal.

After the meal concluded, Tsubaki collected all the dishes and told Vahn and Lili to wait in the training area. Vahn nodded mechanically in response. Once Tsubaki had left the room, Lili got close to Vahn and urged him, "Vahn, we have to run! We can flee into the dungeon until the storm passes. It's safer than staying here!" Lili seemed to be very fearful of Tsubaki, and Vahn wondered what had happened between them.

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The previous night...

Two voices echo loudly, breaking the silence brought by the nights' stillness.

One voice sounds like the laughter of an evil creature as it revels in the suffering of its 'victim'.

The second voice cries into the night, hoping to find release from its torment

Passersby stare in horror towards the tall bamboo walls, urgently fleeing the horrifying sound

A boy sleeps contentedly in a nearby room...

(A/N: The Author is confused.)

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Vahn ends up moving to the training area with Lili following behind while dragging her feet. So as not to get caught off guard, Vahn find an area where he can easily see the connecting corridors and begins performing light stretching exercises. After watching for a moment, Lili sighs and begins following the routine. She determines that escape is impossible, and believes Vahn's precaution is the best course of action for the time being.

After ten minutes, Tsubaki shows up and nods after seeing the two seriously preparing. The dark aura from earlier has faded, and her carefree smile has returned. Vahn and Lili are elated to see she has 'calmed' down, but after hearing Tsubaki describes their next training, even Vahn wants to run away...

Tsubaki has Lili assume a horse stance atop small bamboo platforms with both arms spread to her side. In each hand and on top of her head, she has to balance small metal disks that hold several small cups of water. Her assignment is to transfer each cup from one disc to the other without spilling anything in the process. To make the process even more difficult, Tsubaki is asking her questions about various monsters and their ecology. If Lili fails to answer or takes too long, Tsubaki uses a brush to tickle the underside of her arms.

For Vahn's training, Tsubaki has him stand in a strange formation of bamboo and ropes. Each bamboo is weighted on the inside and attached to a rope. The ropes are attached to a mechanism that slowly pulls the weighted bamboo to a specific height before releasing them towards the person inside. To increase the difficulty, Tsubaki has Vahn wear a blindfold while restraining both of his arms. She tells him to restrain his domain to the smallest possible size and places various rocks along the ground around his feet. He not only has to focus on evading the random attacks from the bamboo but has to avoid stepping on the jagged rocks with his bare feet...

For Vahn, the training was slightly 'easier' than expected, though he still suffered minor setbacks on occasion. He was quickly adapting to sensing the unseen attacks and had been able to evade more than 10 in a row. It was at this point his ears picked up on a subtle 'clink'. After the strange sound, the bamboo seemed to increase in number and frequency causing Vahn to begin to sweat while desperately evading around the small area...

Tsubaki, who had just finished tormenting Lili, saw that Vahn was adapting much faster than she expected. She moved to an area connected to the training device and added a weight to the mechanical components driving the swinging mechanism. This made the gears that only increased tension periodically begin to spin faster. Of the total 10 stages, she had just increased the degree of difficulty to 2.