“Keep your posture straight. Put weight on your front foot. Everytime you decide to attack, optimise the weight on your front foot. If you go all in with your force, it will be very likely that your opponent will use it against you.”

Grandpa Blake walked around us slowly as he taught us the basics of hand to hand combat. This was the first day we were getting actual lessons as before this, we had only been made to exercise and mould our bodies, as this shitty old man says. While I was pretty happy with the training, Sirius didn’t seem to like it that much.

“Grandpa, if I’m going to be a sorcerer, why do I need to learn hand to hand combat?”

Sirius asked with a stained face as he tried to balance his posture. It was extremely funny to see this little bird brain struggling in such an easy task.

“No one can know what you would become later on, Young Master. And even if you were to become a Sorcerer, you should know basic hand to hand combat at the very least.”

Sirius was pretty excited to learn mana utilisation today. However, we had to get through this lesson for that. The only reason, I believe, due to which Sirius was still standing and had not collapsed yet was the promise that he would learn how to fly. His eyes sparkled every time he talked about flying. Well, it would suit him though. Bird brain flying like a bird.

I giggled inwardly at my own joke before performing a thrust with my staff. While Sirius was using a sword, of course, I was using a staff. Grandpa Blake had asked us to choose our weapons before we started training and I chose a spear, obviously.

So here I was, thrusting and swinging around a staff with a wooden blade attached to its end. It seemed pretty shameful to me. I, once a great general, was swinging around a child’s toy.

“Good. Mehr! Good posture and weight balance. Young Master, you should also learn from Mehr.”

I looked at Sirius with a triumphant look on my face. I had imagined Sirius would be looking at me with a crying face and pleading with this great master to teach him some pointers. But he looked quite pleased as he looked at me. I hated that expression of his.

“But Grandpa, if Mehr stays in the front, with his hand to hand combat, and I stay in the back, with my sorcery, wouldn’t we be plenty strong?”

Grandpa Blake looked at Sirius with a smile on his face. He stepped towards Sirius and patted his head gently.

“True, but that would mean you both would have to stay together always.”

“Hmm? But isn’t Mehr going to live with us? That means we will live together.”

Sirius looked at me with the same smile he always had and his kind eyes. I hated it. I didn’t like Sirius for some reason.

No, I know the reason.

Sirius was innocent, gentle and always found good things about people. He really was a lovely child. And that was the reason I hated him. I had heard we have an aversion to people who are either most like us or the ones who are the exact opposite. Sirius was everything I wasn’t. To me, his kindness seemed like a facade. After all, I could never be that kind and trusting to other people.

Well, I have to work on these feelings anyway. I can’t carry on my past burdens in this life as well.

“Young Master, why do you think that two people are better than one?”

Old man Blake asked in his same genial tone. He had a habit of tilting his head down and peeking through his glasses whenever he was intrigued by something. At first, I had been on guard against him for days. But the wall I had put up was slowly being chipped away. He wasn’t trying to find out things about me. He was genuinely just training Sirius and I.

“Aren’t two people stronger than one, Grandpa?” Sirius asked while he kept standing in the same straining posture. I had noticed that even if Sirius complained about physical training, he always did it seriously.

“Are the both of you stronger than I am?”

Grandpa Blake giggled as he said, “Both of you can relax now.”

We relaxed our bodies and stretched our muscles as we sat on the ground. Grandpa Blake brought us water and wet towels as he stood next to us and started speaking.

“Numbers don't mean strength, Young Master. Did you forget what the Sword God did?”

Sirius' face lit up as soon as his hero was mentioned. He stood up immediately with a bright smile on his face and tugged at Grandpa Blake’s sleeve.

“Grandpa, can I also become as strong as him?”

“.....You will become someone greater than him, Young Master.”

……..Man this much love can sure make me sick. Now, I didn’t want to ruin this lovely moment between a young master and the butler, but I had to ask a very important question.

“Sir Blake, in your opinion, who is stronger between a sorcerer and a hand to hand warrior?”

Grandpa Blake looked at me as he pondered on the question.

“It's a good question, Mehr. But there isn’t a simple answer to it.”

The old man gestured us to follow him as he started walking. The place we trained was towards the back of the palace. We walked a bit across the small training ground to enter a stable like area. Guards could be seen everywhere here, some resting and some training.

As soon as the guards noticed the old man with us, they all stopped in their tracks, stood up straight and then bowed deeply.

“Greetings Sir!”

The guards roared at the top of their voice as they showed respect to this family butler. It was interesting to think how a former Royal Knight, someone whose authority was only below the King, was serving as a butler now.

“Keep up your work. Act as if we’re not here.” The old man said while nodding back to the guards.

“Now then Mehr, Young Master. Who do you think would be stronger, a warrior or a sorcerer, if they fought each other?”

I turned to Sirius for the answer. Sorcerers never existed in my old world. The trace amount of mana only allowed us to fight in the close quarters. Regulating our mana used to be our biggest concern. While in this world, there was a near infinite amount of mana. If I had never come to this world, I couldn’t even imagine what a sorcerer would look like. Staying at a distance and making long range attacks. That wasn’t possible in my world. So, I turned to the person who would answer this question,

“A sorcerer, of course.” Sirius answered confidently with his chest puffed out.

“How so?”

“A sorcerer can attack from far away while a warrior will have to get close to the sorcerer. If a sorcerer doesn’t allow a warrior to get close, he can just keep attacking.”

“I believe today is the day you’ll start comprehending mana? Well, let me tell you one thing for the future. Using mana requires not just comprehension, but strength as well. The more mana you use, the more stamina you’ll deplete. And long range attacks need far more mana than short range ones. So…. a sorcerer is not necessarily stronger than a warrior, Young Master.”