“Argh!”

“Heh!”

Followed by the sounds of two people yelling loudly was the sound of two wooden swords clashing with each other. The owners of the voices were Lucky and his father, Indra. Lucky was his nickname because it was the literal definition of his true name, which was Lakshman. As such, his family, including his magic tutor, Sumara Manjuvad, called him with it.

“Move your feet more,” advised his father as the father and son fought hard.

“I’m doing my best!” His son retorted with a glare as he gritted his teeth while moving forward.

It was early in the morning, with the father and son duo going through their routine training session. It lasts for an hour, where the two would run around the house for a while and do other body strengthening exercises while taking breaks in between. Finally, they would conclude the session by getting onto a mock sword fight, where Indra taught his son in the proper sword play.

“Don’t think and act! It makes you slow!” Indra would say sternly, side stepping his son’s charge and whacking him on the back.

“Ouch!” Lucky winced, rubbing his back and turning around to eye his father coldly. “Dad, I’m trying my best here.”

“I know you are,” his father admitted with a smile, but he became stern as he continued to say, “but you’ve got to move faster! You’re pausing to think about what I’m going to do. Don’t do that. Use your instincts, get a bearing of my movements and strike back appropriately. Anticipation is key.”

His son stared at him in dispassionately and muttered, “I’m know that.”

“Please, don’t be too harsh on him. He’s still just a kid,” said a voice from the entrance of the house.

The owner of the voice was Sumara, who was seated on the steps leading to the entrance of the house. Like them, she wakes up early in the morning, but instead of training, she mostly sits down and watches them train. She was a magic user and lacked any close combat capabilities, but she would provide some helpful tips from an observer’s point of view.

“If I don’t be this strict, he wouldn’t get any better,” replied Indra, turning around and looking at her sternly. “Besides, he’s not a kid anymore. He’s already ten-years-old.”

Indeed, it had been three years since the incident with the monster that had attacked the town and nearly decimated it. Since then, he had gone through a strict training regime; morning with his father in sword training, half the day with the family maid for his education, Mariana, and the evening with Sumara for his magic training. As such, his training had come so far that he was able to keep up with his father, but was still facing trouble in anticipating his moves.

“You’re right,” she agreed with a small smile, “but there’s no need to be so hard on him. Look. He’s been able to keep up with you and is fighting evenly, right?”

“He is, but that’s not enough,” said Indra with a sigh. “When you face a real opponent, you’ve got to keep anticipating what their next move would be and counter it as quickly as you can. That’s why I’m trying to push him to reach new heights because, as he currently is, he will face problems somewhere along the road, and I wouldn’t be there to help him at that time.”

“Yes, but there’s no need for—!” She began in an attempt to support her student by lowering his father’s expectations.

“Father’s right, miss,” said Lucky much to her surprise. “I’ve got to improve, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to move from where I am currently.

“Lucky?” She asked, looking surprised.

“So, you’ve noticed your drawbacks?” Indra asked, looking impressed.

His son nodded and replied, “Yes, dad. When I see your movements, I can somehow feel that you’re still holding back on me, and that I haven’t reached the stage where I could make you break a sweat against me.”

Indra stared at him in surprise before he let out a loud chuckle from the sheer amazement he felt inside.

“Oh, Lucky!” He boomed, grinning broadly at his son with great happiness. “I’m a Saint Ranked Swordsman, and you’re just at the level of an Intermediate Ranked Swordsman. There’s certainly a large gap between our ranks and skills, so don’t overthink about your skills and leave the training to me, okay?”

“But, dad—!” Began Lucky imploringly.

“No buts!” Indra said, drowning out his son’s words with his loud voice. Then he smiled serenely at him and said, “I’m being stern with you now because I’m trying to engage your basic skills by making them go to the next level. That way, you can reach the level of an Advanced Ranked Swordsman. Whereas, you seem to have set your goal a little too high, so cut it down and follow my lead, okay?”

Lucky appeared to be slightly troubled at his father’s decision, but he realized his father was more experienced than him. With that in mind, he nodded in agreement and smiled at him. Watching from the side, Sumara sighed and looked enviously at the wonderful relationship, where she felt as though she was watching the relationship of two friends having fun with one another instead of seeing a father and son at training.

“Okay. Let’s continue, shall we?” Indra asked energetically.

“Yeah! Let’s—!”

“Breakfast is ready!”

A loud familiar voice suddenly boomed out from the entrance, making all three of them to turn their heads and see that it was Lucky’s mother, Lakshmi. She was standing at the entrance way with a wide smile on her face as she watched them.

“What? Already?” Indra asked in surprise.

“It’s already been an hour since you started training, silly,” she replied with a light chuckle.

“Oh,” he said, looking bemused. “Time sure flies by without notice.” He turned to his son and said, “Well, let’s wrap things up here for today and get back to it tomorrow, Lucky.”

“Sure, dad,” his son replied with a smile and nodded his head in agreement.

They set away the wooden swords in the storage shed right next to the house and entered the house. Since the two men had been training from early morning, both of them took turns to use the bathroom to have a shower and come down for breakfast.

“Man, training sure is fun and exciting,” he commented when was in his bedroom as he waiting for his father to finish having his shower.

“It runs in your blood,” commented the spirit that had taken residence inside of him. “Also, don’t aim too high too quickly. Let’s aim for a steady growth, shall we?”

The spirit was a being that had lost its original body quite a long time ago and had taken inhabitance inside the spirit of the person that saved him, which was the first Phoenix Titan. Since then, he had apparently been reincarnating with the spirit of the Phoenix Titan until now, which the spirit had reincarnated in the form of Lakshman. Lucky still remembered how shocked he was upon discovering such a spirit had been dwelling inside of him for so long and smiled bitterly, especially since the spirit gave himself the title “Decisive Player” and wished to be called with it.

“Why? Isn’t it beneficial to get stronger quickly?”

“Maybe it has its advantages, but for the life of me, I don’t see any point in sacrificing your old age for today’s satisfaction.”

“Huh? Sacrifice my old age? I don’t get it.”

“You see, getting stronger fairly quickly is good, especially since you’re the future Phoenix Titan, but the consequences of overexerting your body for that reason will be felt in your old age. By that, I mean muscle pains, digestion problems, and other things that I don’t even want to think about.”

“Oh. Wow,” said Lucky, blinking in surprise and making a troubled expression on his face. “That’s… um… yeah… bad.”

“Right? That’s why, there’s no need to rush things. Let’s take it one step at a time, got it? Saves us the trouble of trying to come back and redo steps that we skipped.”

“Yeah. I suppose so,” agreed Lucky with a smile.

A while later, his father retuned from having his shower and informed Lucky about it. And so, the kid had his own shower and came out feeling very refreshed. Once he dumped his used clothes in the washing basket located in his room, he went downstairs and entered the dining room. There, he saw Sumara had already taken her usual seat and smiled warmly at him.

“You’re here quicker than usual, miss,” he commented as he took his seat beside her.

“What can I say? The cooking by the ladies of this house is excellent,” she replied heartily, causing him to chuckle with happiness.

A few seconds later, Indra walked in and took his seat at the head of the table and a few seconds afterwards, both Lakshmi and Mariana brought in their breakfast from the kitchen and laid them down on the table for everyone to serve themselves with.

“So, what’s your plan for today, Lucky?” Indra asked his son while placing food on his own plate from the variety of breakfast set before them.

“I’m planning on exploring the forest, dad,” he replied with a smile. “Since mom and Mariana said I should take the day off from studying, I thought of going to the forest and exploring for a bit.”

“The forest, ah?” Indra asked, appearing to contemplate on his son’s words. “Should I accompany you?”

“That won’t be necessary, sir,” said Sumara after having her mouthful and smiling reassuringly at him. “I’m accompanying Lucky to the forest, so there wouldn’t be any need for your assistance. Besides, I think you said something about you going on an important expedition to the capital?”

Indra nodded and replied, “Right. There’s that. Bummer that I was put on duty for it.”

“Hey. Don’t complain when the contractor is paying us a good deal of money for it,” said Lakshmi with a smile.

“That’s the only reason I’m going, otherwise I’d be lying at home relaxing instead,” he commented with a laugh.

Lakshmi smiled, and the family had their breakfast while making light conversation about the usual things. After having done with it, they went to wash their hands in the kitchen sink while Lakshmi and Mariana took care of the plates. With that over with, Indra got his sword and gear ready and bid the family farewell before he departed on his horse for the town.

“Let’s get going, miss?” Lucky asked his magic tutor curiously.

She nodded and said, “Yes. Ah. Just a minute.”

He waited as she hurried upstairs and disappeared from view. A minute later, she came back down carrying a small carrying bag while stuffing a book inside of it.

“Why do you need that, miss?”

“I want to jot down notes and such of anything that I find interesting or could be useful for future reference,” she said keenly. “Alright. I’m ready. Shall we go?”

He nodded and turned towards the kitchen as he called, “Mom, we’re off!”

A moment later, his mother hurried into the hall way and said, “Okay. Be careful out there.”

“I can guarantee to that, so please don’t worry, madam,” replied Sumara confidently in a reassuring voice.

Lakshmi nodded and followed them as the kid and adult woman exited out through the entrance and set out on their way towards the forest.

“Should I carry us there with my wind magic?” Sumara asked her pupil curiously.

He shook his head and replied, “No. I want to walk there. It’s good for exercise.”

“Oh. Okay,” she said, looking bewildered by his statement.

As they set off, Lucky heard the spirit inside him say, “Really? I could’ve sworn I thought I heard it sound like you were too scared to get flown there and wanted to safely get there on your own two feet.”

“I wasn’t scared,” thought Lucky indignantly. “I just thought it would be nice to walk there since I mostly get anywhere simply by riding on our horses.”

The Decisive Player laughed and said, “Good come back. You’re sounding more and more like your past-self, who was good at giving feble excuses to hide his weaknesses.”

“Very funny,” thought Lucky wryly as the spirit continued to chortle as he and Sumara went on their way towards the forest.