"Is this really my father?" Sophia was shocked as she kept on reading her father's accomplishments. It seemed like he was the most favoured one by the Gods, almost like a protagonist of this world. Becoming a Grandmaster of the Blade at the age of twenty three was ridiculous, even the most accomplished would consume half of their life trying to reach Grandmaster.
Damien, becoming a Grandmaster of the Blade, settled down in the Verdant Estate and hardly appeared in The Dirian Empire. He had made the announcement that he wanted to focus on his family, more like his wife and wanted to give her the time that he couldn't due to stabilising the Verdant Estate. Damien was now twenty eight and was the most loving and caring father Sophia had met.
"It feels like all his accomplishments happened in a distant past, but it happened just a few years before my birth." Sophia was astonished at her father's achievements. She hadn't thought much of her parents' past, but knowing Damien's past, she felt like both were different persons. The Damien she knew now was not even close to the War Demon and the Genius Swordsmen that read about. To her, he was the most loving and caring husband and a parent she had ever met.
"Oh, what has occupied my beloved daughter so much that she didn't even hear the knock." Sophia, who was thinking about Damien's past, was taken aback by the voice.
"Ahhh…Daddy, why did you scare me like that?" Sophia asked Damien who was now standing behind her, while she sat on her desk.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that." Damien immediately apologised, he didn't know that sneaking up on Sophia like that would scare her. He was worried that what happened a few days ago would repeat, so he immediately apologised to her.
"Don't apologise like that, I was joking." Sophia said as she saw Damien's saddened face. She imagined the same Damien wearing a terrifying look, wielding his sword as he faced his enemies but it didn't match with his current look.
"So, what had you been so occupied with?" Damien asked as he looked at the book that was on her desk. Reading just one word from the book, he knew that it was the book on Verdant Household and he guessed what his daughter was reading now.
"It's the book on our household." Sophia replied as she showed the cover of the book. She wanted to ask him a lot of questions about what was written in it. "Daddy can you tell me about the things that are written inside about you?"
"Dear, it's not that I don't want to tell you. It's just that you are too young to know about things like that. Once you grow up, I'll definitely tell you about it." Damien said as he patted Sophia's silky hair.
"Okay, but why did you come here?" Sophia was curious and wanted to hear it from her father, but he didn't want to tell her and make his image of a loving and caring father be replaced by that of the War Demon.
"Well. I wanted to talk to you about the Stelle Academy that you would be joining. The age requirement of the Academy is sixteen, so you have eleven more years to learn about magic and swordsmanship." Damien said as he sat down on her bed, facing his daughter who was seated on her chair at the desk.
"I know. But what about it?" Sophia asked. She knew that she had to learn everything she could by the age of sixteen and after reading about her father's accomplishments, a fire was burning inside her. She wanted to break all his records, not to prove someone anything, but it was because she felt like her father was the highest wall that she had to climb above and beyond.
"It's just that eleven years is not a short time. You would miss out on the fun that you could only have in your childhood. Once you reach the 1st Circle in Magic and an Initiate of the Blade, you would experience the thrill of power and would want more of it." Damien said, letting the depth of his words sink in Sophia's mind. He knew that she wouldn't understand it, but as a father, he had to warn her, so that she would not stray away from her own life.
"I know that, but I won't regret missing out on my childhood. I want to grow up fast, in order to explore the world. Even if I experience the thrill of power, my goal of exploring the world would never let it outgrow." Sophia said, as the fire in her eyes was visible to Damien. Her words were not something a five year old would speak. Damien knew that his daughter was different from the other kids, but he wouldn't behave any differently towards her, in his eyes she would always be his cute little daughter that he would protect from the rest of the world.
"Alright. But know this, I will support you all the way until you don't need me to." Damien said as he stood up and took his daughter in his arms.
"Okay." Sophia said as she comfortably snuggled in Damien's arms.
-Next Day-
"So, are you ready?" Thomas asked Sophia, who had just arrived at the training grounds. But behind her, was Iris. She had wanted to see the training that Sophia was going under, thus came early to the Verdant Mansion. She had seen Sophia running around her room, getting ready for the morning training.
Yesterday when she arrived at the mansion earlier, she got to know that Sophia was learning magic, not swordsmanship. She got to know that Sophia was alternating between swordsmanship and magic.
Iris had observed Sophia closely and she knew that Sophia was trying to hide the pain that her body was going through due to the swordsmanship training. Even Damien knew about it but didn't mention anything to her.
"Yes !" Sophia shouted as she approached the track and got into the staring position. "Go." Thomas said and Sophia launched herself forward. She started slow but soon amped up her pace, keeping her breath even and her movements steady. She continued to run for about half an hour, she felt like she could run for a few more minutes and she did.
Iris, who was standing beside Thomas, observed Sophia's movements and she could spot some of the errors at first but as Sophia kept running her movements became fluid and the errors or more like unnecessary movements disappeared.
Iris was impressed that Sophia could keep a steady pace and run around for so long. She thought that with the body of a five year old, Sophia would stop after a ten minutes but she just kept pushing herself to the limit.
"Stop." Thomas shouted and Sophia collapsed where she was standing, her legs were burning up with pain but that didn't mean she had given up.
"Good, rest for twenty minutes and start with the stances." Thomas said.
Around twenty minutes of resting later, Sophia got up and went towards the rack that held the wooden swords. Picking up the longsword, she swung it a few times with both her hands.
Getting back to the center of the training ground, Sophia took up the stances and started practicing.
Iris was again impressed at the impeccable stances and the swings that Sophia was practicing. She herself had practiced them and knew where the errors might generate, yet she couldn't find any faults in Sophia's forms.
"She's a natural." Thomas spoke up. He knew what was going through Iris's mind, a young child like Sophia was impeccable in her form. This would come as a shock to even the most experienced swordsmen.
"I can see that." Iris replied.
She had thought that being a young miss of the Verdant Household, Sophia would only focus on becoming a renowned noblewoman. But the young miss was different, she wanted to learn swordsmanship and even magic. Iris thought back to the promise Sophia had made to her. She thought that the promise might become a reality and she would be able to experience what she couldn't while staying with the Verdant Knights.
-Two Months Later-
"Good ! Excellent !! You've made a lot of progress coming this far." Thomas said as he patted Sophia's back. The daily routine that Sophia had been following had improved her uptime by twenty minutes.
"Huff–huff…thanks." Sophia said as she bent over, hands on her knees. She had been constantly training, alternating between swordsmanship and magic. Her progress in swordsmanship had been great, but she was stuck on the magic part.
Her schedule had already changed to adjusting both training sessions on the same day since a month ago. Her efficiency in swordsmanship was great, her stamina had increased by a lot, her endurance much greater than before. Overall, she was adjusting well to the swordsmanship routine.
As for the magic, she was stuck at creating all three parts of the magic circle at the same time. Gathering mana was now effortless to her, refining had taken some time but she became a natural at that too. Releasing the purified mana in small quantity while keeping the density and etching the runes on the circle was still difficult. The process to succeed in placing the magic circle on her heart was difficult, most people took years but Sophia's progress was already way ahead of them. Juan was sure that she would succeed in at most a month but Sophia didn't know about it.
Sophia had been learning the basic spells of all kinds. Due to her photographic memory, she didn't need much time to remember the magic circles for the spells. She had also learnt the necessary rune language for all the basic spells. The only problem was forming the 1st Circle and connecting the Mana Core and Mana Paths.
"You should now increase the repetitions. Make it three hundred each starting tomorrow." Thomas said to Sophia.
"Yes, teacher." Sophia wasn't scared of the increase in the repetitions of the stances. She was more worried about her progress on one end and not on the other. Learning all the basic spells, like water ball, fireball, earth spikes, lightning speed, and a lot of other spells was fine, but not being able to implement was something she didn't like.
"Good. Now off I go. I'll see you tomorrow." Thomas said as he walked away from the training grounds.
"Good work, young miss." Iris said as she approached and handed her a bottle of water. Iris had observed Sophia for more than a month now and she was impressed each time by the determination that Sophia showed. Iris hadn't neglected her own training all this time though, she had been constantly training in the afternoon, during Sophia's magic training.
"Thanks a lot Iris. I should get going though, I want to rest before Juan arrives." It was ten in the morning, Sophia's training schedule was swordsmanship in the morning from seven to ten and after a rest of three hours, in the afternoon at around one to four it was magic training. Her determination to learn swordsmanship was on another level, despite being just a five year old, two months of vigorous training had forged her mind to withstand far longer than her first day of training.
"Okay." Iris said as she watched Sophia walk away. The little girl was just five years old but her ability to learn and grasp the teachings was phenomenal. Iris had seen some of the magic circles that Sophia drew in her freetime, all those complex runes would give her a headache but she knew the meaning behind those and the accuracy that Sophia had when drawing them was insane. It was astounding for a five year old to even remember the intricacies of the magic circles.