I sat down on my bed and checked the watch; I had 48 more minutes before we fought.
My muscles felt fine again, weirdly.
I guess I should go find Irene.
I stood up and marched out of my room; she would probably be near the gun room.
I was practically running down the steps of the stairs.
I arrived at the gun storage room; Iva was sitting there reading something off a clipboard.
"What's got you moving so fast?" Her voice was cracking as she spoke to me.
"Just kinda seeing what's up, wanted to talk to Mia for a moment before I have to get back to training." I looked around and didn't see anyone.
"She just left to go show the new girl how to properly trim the garden." She didn't even look up from the clipboard.
"Thank you." I bowed and then ran towards the garden.
I passed multiple maids on my way there; they would stop talking and face me while I ran past them.
I exited through the front door; I saw them standing in front of a large bush. Mia was holding the trimmers.
She was probably teaching her how to properly maintain them.
I ran up to them; if my suspicion was right then I would need to keep a close eye on Irene.
"Hey, what's up?" I yelled; I was still a short spring away from them.
"Still teaching Irene how to do things around here." Mia didn't even look up from trimming the bush.
Irene was intently watching Mia, not missing a single movement or action.
"I actually needed to speak with Irene for a minute." I looked down at my watch: 39 minutes remaining.
"Ok, I'll give you some space to talk then." Mia walked towards the door.
"So, Master Levi, right? What did you need to talk to me about?" She had dropped the sweet-sounding voice; it was still in a tone that felt fake.
"You're not who you say you are... we've met, too, haven't we?" I was staring directly into her eyes, quite easy since we are the same height.
"Hmph, have we?" She smoothed over her hair. "It's been a while, and you've grown quite a bit since we last met."
Could they be from Levi's life? "Has it been a while?"
She smiled, quite fakely, "Last time we met you couldn't hold a sword."
Only two people knew about that and made fun of it, Thalia and Laurence, and Thalia would be at the academy. "Why are you here? What do you want from my family?"
Her smile turned into a frown. "Just repaying a debt."
What could she have owed me? Maybe my silence, but that stuff wasn't any of my business. "Continue your learning duties, I guess."
She nodded and then bowed before walking towards the front door.
The sun reflected off my watch; I covered it and looked at the time. I had 26 minutes left.
May as well get ready; I walked towards where I was meant to meet Sebastian.
The surrounding area had a neat path of stones; when I got closer, I noticed embedded into the ground there were three separate areas to go. The one to the right was a forest, the middle was a desert, and the left one a marsh.
I walked down to the middle section; easiest to fight in a desert.
I sat down on the sand; I didn't expect it to be burning hot. Spoiler: it was extremely hot.
I just stood there for another 24 minutes.
Sebastian appeared in the center. "Good to see you're on time, Master Levi." He had some stuff with him, and when I looked around the top section, I saw there were quite a few people watching.
"Don't worry Levi, it's just me and you fighting."
He brought his hands up, seemed like a defensive stance. "Ok, Master Levi, come at me with everything you've got."
I faced towards him and pushed myself forward; I was quite fast, and if I had mana, I could have been faster.
My punch connected with his forearm. "Stronger than I thought you would be." A grin formed on his face. "You've left yourself open to counterattacks." He, in an instant, had grabbed my arm and flung me across the arena.
I hit the ground pain exploded up my left arm, i could feal the muscles tearing away from the bone, then again, i skipped across the ground 3 times, each time i hit the ground i felt the bones in my arms fracture just a little bit more.
"Well done, Master Levi; I've done that to others, and they didn't get up." He appeared behind me; I felt his shoes push against my back.
And once again, I was flying. This time, though, I was going to hit the wall, and I think I did since the world around me was black.
I could hear people jumping down, and I felt the pinprick of needles being injected into me; then I felt nothing.
Hours later?
I opened my eyes; I saw two outlines of people: one stood near the door, which I could tell was there due to the light shining through the cracks, and then there was someone at my desk.
"He's awake." I could tell it was Sebastian.
"You know Levi, you could just give this up, the pain of training." Her voice attempted to tempt me into quitting.
I slowly brought myself up into a sitting position; I could feel the numbed pain near my ribs and my left arm. "You know I won't quit."
The door clicked open. "Rest well, Master Levi; we have a lot more training to do." The door closed behind Sebastian, leaving me with just Iva.
"Still worried about me?" It seemed like everyone around me wanted me to quit.
"I've always been worried about you, from the moment you disappeared for three years, then showed up in the elven kingdom, to even when you enrolled in that damned academy." Her voice sounded like she had been crying "to even the point when the doctors called and told us about how most of your body had scars on it."
We sat in silence for a while. "What happened to you during those 3 years you were away, Levi?" her voice was a mix of curiosity and concern.
And I wish I could tell her, but I don't even know myself. "Sigh." "I don't know what happened, I can't even remember things from before waking up in the cave, I just knew who to trust and who not to."
I heard her stand up. "Just know, Levi, we all care about you and hate seeing you get hurt. Goodnight." She left.
And it was just me again.
6 Days Later
my training was going well enough, or so I thought.
"Levi, tomorrow you'll be getting experience killing monsters."