Even though I said I like games, I’m not talking about something very physical. I’m more like an E-sport player who uses the power of his mind. Though I say that, I always lose in online chess.

***

“God I need a vacation! A traveling vacation, you know what I mean? The princess is a real pain in the ass.”

Sora who’s lying on a beach chair while wearing one of my sunglasses and half naked, let out his complains. We are beside the pool, relaxing. I also told him about my discussion with the girls yesterday a while ago.

“Chill man, I know you’re stressed out, but don’t vent it out on me. I’m trying to relax.”

On the other hand, I’m also lying on a beach chair while wearing sunglasses and wearing only my shorts.

“I know, I’m sorry, but I really can’t help it. I didn’t manage to get a wink of sleep last night since I was looking for her. If this keeps up, I’d probably end up turning senile.”

--To make Sora search the whole night, this princess is something.

“Who’s this princess anyway? What is she doing in this Capital? Isn’t she supposed to be at the ‘Royal’ Capital?”

Before answering my question, Sora sipped the chocolate drink I made and lied down again.

“She’s the first daughter of the King’s third wife. Princess Merthyr Valeshtyre. She’s here since she has been appointed as the Viceroy’s son’s fiancée. And I, on the other hand, was given the babysitting duty by the Military Commander. Even though he was fully aware that I’m still in school, he didn’t put that into consideration.”

I can feel the irritation from Sora’s sigh.

“Just because she didn’t want to get married to the viceroy’s son, she keeps on escaping her room. Just when will she learn that it’s futile to struggle?”

“Dude, you sound like a villain from a movie.”

“I know, but it’s the king’s wish. Whatever he says, we must follow. That’s the duty of a Royal Knight.”

A pride of a knight, I can’t really tell if it’s the real deal since I grew up in a modern world. He should be from the same generation as me, I wonder if staying here changed all of that?

“Leaving that aside, how’s your Fraction doing?”

I calmly asked Sora while reaching for an apple.

“Don’t worry about them. They’re not like the Helius. They won’t do anything rash and attract public attention. If they make a move, I’ll be the first to tell you.”

“Thanks, but isn’t it wrong for you to stay like this with me? I mean, I am a heretic in the eyes of your god. Doesn’t helping me put you in a bad position?”

He suddenly giggled while listening to me.

“For your information, they do not have the slightest idea that I’m together with you. If they did find out that I am your friend, things doesn’t change much for me and them. Especially the higher ups, they really hate my guts.”

“Hate you, but aren’t you their saint?”

“I am, but, my position doesn’t really have much a difference with yours.”

Then he positions sideways to my direction.

“I should probably tell you about me. I am your friend after all.”

After a little breather, Sora told me the reason why he has such a relationship with his fraction.

“It all started when I found out that the last head priest of Darkus Temple was a murderer for using innocent people as sacrifices in a ritual I don’t know. I was supposed to turn a blind eye to that they said, but my mind and soul were telling me that it was wrong. And as the King’s Knight, I told him about the situation. After that, I became a part of a Special Knight Order and got called [The Black Rogue]. I was ordered to assassinate the Head Priest, but when I did, I got found out by the higher ups. The ones lower than me didn’t knew about it so they still believe I’m their saint, but the ones like Lia look at me not different from a heretic.”

Wait… I feel like I heard something very important in there.

“Hold on a second, you killed the Head Priest by yourself?”

Sora scoffs and looked on the side.

“I know ‘killing’ doesn’t sound justified to you, but this is the reality. If you find something wrong, it’s up to you how to act. You make a mistake, you can end up dying. In this world Key, it is kill or be killed. Sometimes you just have to listen to what the devil says because it’s the truth.”

I don’t know what so say, more like I can’t say anything. It’s not because I’m told by my friend that he killed someone, but because I realized what could have happened when I got attacked yesterday. If I didn’t have the power to hold back, I could have really end up killing that man.

“What was it like?”

“Huh?”

I inadvertently asked Sora because my mind is in chaos.

“What was it like to kill someone?”

Sora lied down back to the beach chair and looked up into the blue sky.

“To tell you the truth, I feel nothing. But that wasn’t the case from my first kill.”

“So the Head Priest wasn’t the first?”

“Thirty-Seventh, he’s the thirty-seventh man I’ve killed. My first kill was when I was together with my fellow soldiers. It was when we were in a reconnaissance mission to find some mountain bandits. We got ambushed along the way. It was a bloodbath. Soldiers and bandits die one after another in front of me. And there I was, frozen by the sight of blood.”

Was it from the words he said, or from the expression he is making? All I know is that I could feel an unknown feeling from him.

“One of the attacking bandits saw me standing still. He tried to kill me, so I tried to protect myself. But it’s hard to protect yourself in front of a man who is trying to kill you. You can only save yourself if you try to kill him back.”

“So you killed him?”

“The moment I found an opening, I sliced his throat with my sword. At that moment, everything changed.”

Sora lifted his hand and overshadowed his face.

“A side of me I never knew existed came out and slaughtered them all.”

Then he looked back at me while wearing a serious expression.

“Listen, once you find yourself in such a predicament, keep in mind that you live in order to protect, not kill. Because once you did end up killing someone, you’ll get a feeling craving for more blood.”

He didn’t blink while looking at me, I think so did i. Both of us stared at each other sensing the seriousness in the air between us.

I understand what he’s trying to say, but I can’t deny it since I myself, received a whisper from the devil before. What he said was true, and I cannot keep staying on the defensive every time. There will be a time that I hill have to decide whether to spill blood, or protect. Either way, that thing is always in between. One wrong move, I could end up killing everyone with this power.

“I under—”

“What’s with the two of you?”

Just when I was about to speak, Cherry suddenly came. She’s holding a golden staff for some reason.

“We we’re just talking about--”

“Up, up, up! Don’t speak. I was listening to you two a while ago.”

She cut me off again with her staff on my lips.

“So what’re you doing here Goldy? And why are you holding you staff?”

When Sora asked her, she smiled and waved her staff.

“Since you have a problem with your power, I thought it might be best if you practice.”

Practice, can’t I laze around for today?

“Don’t give me that look Key. It is the duty of the wife to support his husband.”

“I hate doing practices. It consumes too much energy.”

Then she lightly hit my head with the golden staff.

“Don’t be lazy! Practices are supposed to use energy. Besides…”

“Besides what…”

Cherry fidgets while hugging her staff.

“I want to use your power.”

THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE FIDGETING ABOUT!? Wasn’t that supposed to be your reaction to the former? I think this girl’s an idiot in some ways.

***

“Okay, let’s start from the basics.”

I’m currently standing in front of Cherry who’s holding the golden staff while making an imposing stance. On the other hand, Sora fell asleep on the beach chair. He’s pretty much drooling.

“Do we have to start from the basics? I already learned that from reading the books from the library.”

“Don’t be stupid. Learning from actual combat is different from learning from reading. You’re only able to fight care-freely since you have some absurd amount of power. But if you don’t get serious, you could end up dead.”

I hate to admit it, but she’s got a point.

“Okay fine, but why are we still in the pool? There’s an open ground nearby, why don’t we use that instead?”

I got the point of training, but staying in the pool sounds stupid.

“This is part of the lesson. First I need to tell you about [Ether Affinity].”

[Ether Affinity] is something like an atom, since the books don’t have much explanation about it, let’s just say that it’s the mysterious part of the fantasy genre.

It is something that relates on the four basic elements. The [Ether Affinity] talks about human’s capability in using magic. Each magician can use every element, but in terms of affinity to the elements, most magicians can use skilfully one or two or even three elements. But this only applies to the [Elemental Category] of magic.

“So, since you’re using wind magic more frequent than other elements, you must have good affinity with it.”

“I really don’t know about that. I just used wind magic since the first magic book I read was about it.”

“Is that so? Then did you try using other elements?”

“I used Earth and Water. I was thinking of using Fire too, but I’m hesitant on it because I might burn the house down by accident so I didn’t.”

Cherry tapped her cheek with her staff while looking like she’s thinking of something. She looks cute when she does that.

Then she suddenly hopped a little while saying “I got it.” The two continents shake.

“Why don’t we use the pool? We use the pool at our house to practice water magic. Maybe your grandfather was a water mage too that’s why he was a pool.”

Now that she said it, I did really think that the pool isn’t actually a swimming pool because of its octagonal shape.

“If you want to use the water in the pool, are you telling me to use Fire magic?”

“#### ### ## ##### ## # ### >”

Without listening to me, Cherry started chanting and turned the water in the pool into a glass like wall with four sides. In other words, it looks like a theatre with my mansion from behind.

“Now you can use fire magic. I don’t know how powerful the magic you want to use, but this should hold out most spell spells. But since you’re using fire magic, I can say that it can stand no matter how powerful it is.”

“Really… just… what are you thinking about me? Don’t say it like I’m some pyromaniac.”

“Come on, just do it.”

This girl…

I faced the water dome and put out my right hand while thinking of the spell. Should I use full power?

[Element Row: Fire, Effect: Spread and Explode, Target: Front, Mana Consumption: 100%]

Maybe I should put a macro yet since it’s just a practice.

Since there’s no chant needed to be done, fire instantly came out of my hand the moment i finished thinking about it. Although I was thinking of trying to break that water dome, I didn’t know that I’ve done something too powerful.

The fire that came out of my hand spread out and bursts into pillars of flame, boiling the water in the pool. No matter how you look at it, what I did was too much.

When the fire subsided, I looked at my mansion. Luckily, neither a single scratch nor burn can be seen. However—

“Were you trying to kill me man!”

-I forgot that Sora was sleeping nearby. His face and body are covered in black ash. Some parts of his hair are burning.

“Sorry! I didn’t think that Cherry’s barrier was that weak. I didn’t mean to… uhm… sorry.”

“What?”

On the other hand, Cherry dropped on the ground with both of her hands. She kept murmuring something like “that barrier was an advance water magic” and “I perfected that magic as an absolute defence on fire magic” while looking grim. Did she honestly think that it was indestructible?

***

So we skip the part where I use elemental magic.

The second lesson is all about [Spirit Affinity]. This is something related to the magician himself. The magic used in this category are [Mind Magic], [Force Magic], [Soul Magic], and [Arcane Magic]. These magic are not about manipulation, but interference with the laws of Physics and Magic itself.

[Mind Magic] is the interference with the mind obviously.

[Force Magic] is like an extra-sense, for example; Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Telekinesis, Summoning, etc.

[Soul Magic] is the interference with life. Only a few people can use it since it’s hard to use.

[Arcane Magic] is the interference with the Ether itself. They said that most magicians don’t know this, but since my grandfather had a book about this, I managed to learn and use it.

“Okay, then what non-element should I use?”

“I don’t know. Just try something.”

By the way, we moved to the open ground in my villa to avoid any more accidents like a while ago.

Okay, since I’m in a large ground, I can probably use [Force Magic] and summon something large. Maybe not too large, I might disturb the neighbours.

[Non-Element Row: Force, Type: Summon {Familiar: Giant Crab}, Power: Earth, Mana Consumption: 40%]

After chanting, a huge magic circle appeared before us. Then, a huge pincer come our first, and then the whole body came out. Just like what I thought of summoning, a huge crab with two giant pincers came out.

The summoning of this is more complicated than other spells because you need to be specific. If I didn’t properly concentrate in summoning, something else might come out.

“Nicely done…”

“Thanks. I was thinking of summoning something like a golem, but since it’s too generic, I summoned this.”

“Generic?”

--Oh, that’s right. They don’t watch movies here.

“But, why a crab, why not something like, an elephant or lion?”

“It’s because I always wanted to see a giant crab. I’ve never seen a giant crab before.”

If this wasn’t my familiar, I’d probably kill and cook it.

Then the giant crab suddenly shook. Was my though conveyed to him?

Suddenly, I can hear a bark from a puppy nearby. When I looked behind me, Silver was running towards us.

-Guuuuuuu!

The giant crab makes a daunting sound. Did it get startled when it saw Silver?

-Woof! Woof!

-Guuuuuu!

Are these two having a conversation or something?

“Oh my god! You have a puppy?!”

And beside me, Cherry got enthralled by Silver’s sudden appearance. Oh that’s right, I forgot letting them meet him.

Cherry rushed towards Silver and lifted him up with sparkling eyes.

“Oh my god! You’re so cute! Why is a cute little thing like you inside here?”

Is it just me or the treatment’s totally different from before. Silver didn’t electrocute Cherry despite getting hugged tightly between the… THIS DOG’S A PERVERT! SWITCH WITH ME!

-Guuuuuu!

The giant crab walked towards me while shaking the ground and then lowered its body to me like its bowing. I touched its head to answer its pledge of loyalty.

[Thank you for creating me Master.]

Then suddenly, his thoughts are transferred to mine thru telepathy.

“Sure, you’re welcome.”

[I will follow and protect you to my last breath. So summon me whenever you need me.]

This guy’s a loyal one. I better macro this spell to let it become permanent. Maybe I should give him a name.

“Then I’ll call you, Shell.”

[To receive a name from master, it’s truly an honor.]

I feel slightly weird from his way of calling me master.

“Then, >.”

When I casted >, the giant crab became transparent and disappeared into thin air.

After that, I set the [Rune Recorder] and saved the rune formation and macro it under the name of >. I also enhanced his physical attribute by increasing his speed, his strength, and the durability of his armor by modifying the rune formation of the spell. Normally it’s hard to do this, but since I have a cheat ring, it’s relatively easy to do it.

“Did you talk with your familiar?”

Cherry who kept hugging Silver came to me and asked. I feel pathetic for getting jealous of a puppy.

“How’d you know?”

“It’s because I have my own too. You already met him before, although he tried to kill you at that time.”

She must be talking about >.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I thought that it was some kind of a water magic. So that was summoning magic.

“Cherry, I have a question. Why did the > has water for a body unlike mine just now?”

“Good question. It’s because I combined some of my water spell to the summoning spell to make him stronger. And as a result, his body became a torrent of water.”

-Ding!

A good idea comes into my head.

“Why don’t we try letting our familiars duel?”

She gave me a confident smile while still holding Silver on her chest. Damn it…

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

Anyhow, after the duel ended one sidedly by [Shell] getting a huge beating, I went back to the pool and continued relaxing. This time, Cherry is beside me, playing fetch with Silver. I don’t even remember teaching that puppy how?

“Did you learn something?”

Cherry rolled her body to face me. My left arm is in heaven.

“I-I guess I did.”

When I looked to her direction, I noticed that her face is very close to mine. I can feel her breath mixing with mine. She’s slightly blushing while looking at me.

“You’re welcome. Did I do well like a wife should?”

“I don’t know anything about having a wife, but I’m thankful that you taught me something today.”

“T-then, can I ask for a reward?”

“Reward, what reward?”

Before she could say anything, her eyes were looking around restlessly.

“Uh… can you… initiate a kiss with me?”

That reward?! This is so like her.

“Why a kiss, didn’t we kiss already?”

“But I was the one who initiated that one! This time is different!”

I get what you feel, but you don’t have to shout directly to my face.

Then, I held her chin up and make her look at me.

“W-wait! I did ask you to k-kiss me, but this is too sudden. I have to prepare myself mentally first!”

“You’re the one who told me to initiate, so I’ll do it now.”

As I get closer to her lips, she looked at me while ‘wawawa’-ing all over the place. I guess she didn’t really expect me to do it immediately.

“W-w-!”

Before she could say ‘wait’ again, I locked my lips on hers. But, it should’ve had only been a gentle kiss.

I don’t really understand what’s happening to me, but my mouth moved on its own and invaded her mouth with my tongue. I could taste the chocolate she ate a while ago which is good.

Cherry grabbed my shoulder and pulled herself towards me like asking for more. I grabbed her waist and pulled her towards me. Her bountiful continents are touching my chest while I keep our balance on the beach chair.

We were indulged on each other’s flavour and kept hugging each other. Only until—

“Damn, so the rumour about the Goldenbloom household women with succubus-like nature really is true.”

--Sora suddenly spoke behind me.

“Dude!”

“This is so embarrassing!”

Cherry covered her reddening face when Sora made fun of her. It’s adorable, but I won’t say anything.

“When you two are going to do it, do it in a room.”

-End of Chapter 9-