The Nave had beco more of a ho than reality ever was. Of course, there was the fact that I needed to heal all these atrocious wounds from running around Aetheris the past week, so it was a given that I had to rest.
What Tristan and the others did not know was that rest was very far from .
’I wonder if they even know that one can access their soul plane. Does Tristan have a soul plane? Do other summoners?’
Thinking about other summoners naturally led to my classmates, and my chest twisted like a knot. The thought of them — what they thought about , how they reacted to all of this — I pushed it away before it could settle.
Then a wicked cold voice broke my train of thought.
"Perhaps increasing the weight of the bracelet would be optimal, since you have the luxury to be lost in thoughts."
’Eh?’
"Onegaishimas, Kassie-san."
She frowned imdiately. Quite obvious that she didn’t understand what I said. She looked like I had just uttered so blasphemous curse at her.
But I grinned in return.
"I ant, please. It’s a language from my old world."
She scoffed it away and focused on with a remnant of that devious smirk.
"You’re taking longer... tired?"
"No!" I yelled quickly, then frowned. "And I’m not taking longer — are you teasing ?"
’This girl, she’s getting too comfortable. She teases now!’
Fun fact? I was standing.
Actually standing.
The last ti, I had crawled to get to her. And after that, it had been one agonizing crawl after another until I finally managed to stand. Progress asured in inches. In trembling knees and arms that scread for rcy.
Of course, outside the Soul Plane, I wasn’t wearing the bracelets, so I tried to do as many common workouts as I knew about. Push-ups, decline push-ups, Bulgarian squats, sit-ups to strengthen my core since she said I needed to draw strength from there, ah... planks. Side planks, leg raises, Russian twists... all of it.
Every day, I turned it into a routine so I wasn’t going to suffer every ti I had to enter the Nave. The pain was inevitable, but I could at least et it prepared.
With nothing else to do while the sea moved beneath us, the routine was surprisingly easy to keep to — except for being bothered by my injury, so I really had to take it easy. Baby steps — which ant listening to my body when it scread at to stop.
Moreover, going to the deck and gazing upon the vast body of water was hellish for . I looked at it that one ti and suffered severe ocean sickness, had to be confined to my room for the next two days. My stomach still churned at the mory.
So I rarely ca out, except at night where I could check what was going on without the endless blue triggering my guts. Sotis Po or the crew mbers would bring food — breakfast, lunch, dinner. I didn’t miss any, and I didn’t even have to pay!
Since coming to this world, aside from eting Lira and my Villainesses, this had been the only good thing that had happened to . Small rcies that I’d take them where I could find them.
There were other workout routines I revolved around the hours and days, and eventually, today, I was standing with all four weight bracelets and taking a gentle step forward.
My muscles burned. It felt like I could drop dead any mont. But they felt more... bearable. For one, the marble floor didn’t feel like quicksand trying to swallow anymore.
I took more steps and moved further, granted I was walking as if I was treading so impossibly thin wooden bridge suspended over an abyss. One wrong shift of weight and I’d collapse. But I didn’t collapse.
Kassie stood in front of the altar, her arms folded beneath her sumptuous breasts, her eyes following with a completely unreadable expression. Those crimson eyes tracked every wobble, every strain in my legs, every bead of sweat that I could feel forming despite this being a soul plane.
Eventually, in about three minutes, I reached her. The last ti, walking had taken about thirty-five minutes — I think — and before that, it used to take even longer.
It was progress.
’A pathetic one... I need to do better!’
She looked at and smirked.
I glared at her, but my glares were just fangs that couldn’t bite. Else I would get crushed trying. I could bite certain places though — places where she wanted to bite hard.
My gaze drifted to where her nipples would have jutted out if I could just touch her right now.
’Focus. Training, rember?’
"You did well."
I bead.
"But not well enough."
’Party pooper.’
I regarded her seriously.
"What do you an not well enough? How long did it take you to walk with them?"
She raised her chin.
"I never had to crawl. And the units my master at the ti used on were sixty each."
’Two hundred and forty units? Hey, this is completely different...’
"And I was ten."
’Hell no!’
Sha overwheld instantly. A ten-year-old version of Kassie, walking around with nearly two tis my current burden like it was nothing. anwhile, here I was — a grown man — celebrating the fact that I could stand.
But I deflected it with my supre shalessness. That was my greatest weapon, after all.
"So? I’m nineteen — that’s a nine-year difference. You should be ashad of yourself. Are you trying to one-up ? Really? Aren’t you supposed to be like, what, eight thousand years old?"
Kassie moved, circling like a predator circling its prey. The weight bracelets suddenly felt heavier under her gaze.
"By the ti you reach this Black Snow Company, it is imperative that you are able to walk and do your daily life while wearing fifty units — and also be able to swing the Frostfang. If you can’t achieve that by then, I’ll lose interest in teaching you." She paused, and grinned wickedly "You can turn to the fla wizard outside to teach you instead."
I entertained the thought for a minute.
The only thing I could envision was hell. Burning in a vicious white-fla hell with the Pyre Saint laughing evilly — bwahahahahaa — while claiming to be training . Her eyes glowing with that unhinged joy he got from watching things burn. Including, presumably, .
That path... was more bleak.
And suddenly Kassie was shining like an angel. A strict, terrifying, impossibly beautiful angel who would crush under weighted bracelets until I either grew stronger or died trying.
’I’ll take the angel.’
My gaze darkened with resolve.
"I’ll be able to match swords with you by then."
Kassie stopped and looked at .
Then a small laugh escaped her lips. She had tried to stifle it but was unable to. Instead, she just held her abdon and let out one hell of a laugh.
I froze there, not knowing whether to be happy or scared.
The laugh continued — loud, unrestrained, completely at odds with her usual composed deanor. I just stood there, staring in amazent with a small, shocked smile frozen on my face.
’So it’s true... the beautiful ones always co with an ugly laugh.’
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