It was currently the next day and I was lying on my bed… bored. We got a day off because of our field trip yesterday but part of it might also be from the strange portal that appeared.
We weren't meeting up at Mia's house until the afternoon so that meant I had some free time to waste… but I had no idea what to waste this free time on. I already had breakfast and I've been watching videos for about 2 hours.
"Guess I'll just practice shadow sparring by myself," I mutter, hopping out of bed.
I change into a short-sleeved shirt and sweatpants before going downstairs. I moved some of the furniture around so I had some space and then immediately focused. The one person I wasn't able to beat in hand-to-hand combat so far is Auntie.
She's fast, really fast. Her kicks are also insanely powerful. When I got sent flying during our match, it felt like my arm broke in half. If it wasn't for my high pain tolerance and new body, I would've been screaming and crying on the ground.
I recreated the scene in my mind and realized the stupid thing I did during the match.
"I can't believe I drew so much attention to myself. How am I just realizing this now? I guess I was just so focused on wanting to fight her that I didn't even realize the amount of attention I drew to myself… *sigh*, it is what it is," I say, shrugging my shoulder and taking a fighting stance.
I just need to hope that they think it's a fluke… that's most likely not going to happen but I'll hope they think that…
Over and over again, I replayed the entire fight from my perspective in my mind. I then transitioned it to real-time and practiced dodging and countering Aunties moves.
My recreation was much slower than the actual thing, but with this, I could adjust and maybe even copy some of the moves that high-level hand-to-hand combat users do.
Time seemed to flow extremely fast as about 2 hours passed. I didn't stop my training session but was instead interrupted by the knock on my door.
I was covered in sweat and before I opened the door, I drank some water. It was refreshing and I felt my image training mixed with shadow sparring was helping me advance greatly.
Once I finished my refreshing glass of water, I opened my door.
"Oh forgive my interruption. Lunch is here," The maid in front of me says.
"Thanks, just leave it on the kitchen counter," I say, letting the maid push the cart full of various dishes into my apartment.
"We have a training room if you want to use it," The maid says.
"No thanks,"
I gesture for her to leave my apartment but before she could step out of the doorway, I see Auntie exit her apartment door. We locked eyes and she saw how I was working hard so she came skipping over to me.
The maid let Auntie in before leaving my apartment and closing the door behind her.
"Why did she let you in so casually?" I asked Auntie who sat down at a barstool next to my kitchen's island.
"Maybe cause she knows I'm a Brave," Auntie says with a smug face.
"So that means you can trespass on somebody else's humble abode,"
"Yeah, of course,"
This fuċkɨnġ grandma. I hate how smug she is. How is this grandma a primordial brave…
"I see you've been working hard. You're practically drenched in sweat," Auntie says, taking a bite out of my steak.
"I was about to finish up anyway. Can you please get out of my apartment?"
"Nope, I wanted to ask you a few questions,"
"If I answer your questions then will you leave?"
"Maybe… Now the first question, you don't seem like the person who wants to draw attention, so why did you decide to spar me in front of everybody including the teachers?"
"Dunno, I guess it was one of those 'my body moved on its moments.' It felt like nothing around me mattered besides our sparring match…" I say, taking Aunties fork which was originally mine, and eating the piece of steak she sliced for herself.
"Alright next question, how was the field trip? Did you like it? Did you learn something?" Auntie asked.
"I guess I learned some things about history. Overall, it was pretty boring besides the sparring session and the battlefield we were able to walk on,"
"Yeah, to be honest, that sense of death is thickest it will ever be within the border. The current front lines are nowhere near that feeling of death. It's pretty easy to guess but at the wall of ice, we lost the most casualties.
Even collectively, we lost way fewer soldiers and humans during the future battles after the battle of ice. It was a grim 8 years but I'm glad we're past that," Auntie says, looking up as if she was reminiscing about the friends she lost during that battle… well that's what I ȧssume at least.
Battle of Ice? I guess that's the first war we had and how we built the wall…
"Wait, it was only 8 years? Since there were so many casualties I thought it would've lasted longer? ," I say, snapping Auntie out of her daze.
"Y-yeah only 8 years but that was when humanity was still naive. We continued to send armies after armies, powerless humans with guns or humans utilizing weak power stones. We didn't have many strategies since we were panicking and didn't know much about the monsters yet," Auntie says.
"I see… Humanity is good at adapting but we are not perfect beings which is why we have such a great divide between the rich and poor,"
"Yeah… Alright! Last question! I'm very interested in how you learned to use bloodlust. It was at a very high level and it's to the point where you devour the bloodlust of any beings. It took me about 5 years after becoming a primordial brave to master devouring bloodlust… are you a genius, no, a super genius?"
"I just did what came naturally. Articles always described it as a strange feeling when you kill something so when I first killed something I was surprised by how it felt. I immediately knew it was bloodlust and within a few attempts, I was able to grasp it as if it was a tangible thing.
I continued to do that as I slaughtered dungeon monsters and was able to get to where I am now. Of course, I always enter alone and if dungeon runners are in there, I wait for them to die or kill them mysel-"
Before I could finish my sentence I felt as if gravity had increased 10 fold and I dropped to my knees.
"I don't mind letting them die since that just means they weren't strong enough, but I can't have you killing them slide," Auntie says, her voice colder than ice.
"I-I haven't killed any in a dungeon. It was just for the future. If I ran into anybody in the future I would've killed them but I promise I won't anymore," I bȧrėly squeeze out under the immense pressure Auntie is exuding.
"Oh really… you won't be entering any dungeons in the future until you can get your permit though," Auntie says, reeling in the crazy amount of pressure.
"You kill humans if they're a nuisance. Why can't I? This world is survival of the fittest," I say, slowly standing up.
"If you were my kid I wouldn't have given a crap, but… you're Marina's kid. She would've never wanted you to start killing humans if they were just a hindrance in your life,"
"Why do you keep bringing up mom? She's gone and I'm trying to get over her death. I've been frequently having the same nightmare including my mom and I just want to get over it somehow. I thought I got over it but the nightmares keep reminding me of it. The sight of her hanging body repeats over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over-"
"It's alright… You haven't created a grave for her yet, right? How about we do it this afternoon?" Auntie says, pulling me into her ċhėst.
"I'm going to my friend's house this afternoon," I reply.
"Oh, nice! Okay, how about we do it this weekend. I'm going back to the front lines on Sunday so we'll do it this Saturday and… I'll make an exception. You can go to dungeons and kill monsters BUT! You have to notify me when you enter a dungeon and you can't kill any dungeon runners currently in there.
Plus the reason why I keep bringing up Marina is probably because I regret not trying to give her more support. This might be selfish, but as her only daughter, I want to protect you at all costs and that means you can't be a fugitive and I don't want you to lead the same bloody path as me," Auntie says.
This damn grandma… saying such cringy and embarrassing things…
"Oh, that's the second time you've internally called me grandma," Auntie says, a vein popping out of her forehead.
"H-how-"
"It's practically written all over your face. Now go and take a shower. You reak of sweat," Auntie says pushing me away from her.
"... Can you leave now since I answered all your questions,"
"Nope. I feel like staying a bit longer. Plus I want you to show me your room,"
"I don't want an old lady looking through my room," I say, grabbing my towel and walking towards the bathroom.
"Damn brat! I'm going to eat all your food if you don't take that back!" Auntie shouts as I close the bathroom door behind me.