First Visit

“I fear that I am not too talented in this regard…” said Jania Oie as she sat down on a chair, the sun casting a bright light down on her and the surrounding grass.

“It is merely that you are a beginner with no experience. Such things are complicated for everyone in the beginning” replied Edrick. As promised, he paid a visit to the city lord’s manor to see the eldest daughter of the lord.

He was currently exchanging insights with her, and so far, he had done nothing that could be considered odd or suspicious. It was merely a meeting between two noble cultivators, everything was perfectly normal.

“Any reason why you decided to train with a sabre in particular?” he asked.

“Oh… It’s just a common weapon amongst nobles that directly serve the crown. The king himself is a master swordsman with a sabre, too” her response was simple, for there was no real, deep reason as to why she was attempting to learn how to wield that particular type of sword. It was merely amongst the most common weapons that nobles of her status would carry around, regardless of whether they knew how to use it.

“...Mister Anoteros, you have given me very precise pieces of advice to offer, would you happen to know how to wield a sabre?”

“I do”

“Then, if I may enquire… I have heard that you are proficient with other weapons as well. How many arms do you know how to wield?”

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“I know the basics for quite a few of them” he undersold himself. Saying the truth would make it sound like he was exaggerating. After all, he was supposed to be a twenty-one-year-old young man... His century-long life before this was unknown to all except himself, and it was during that period that he had learned and mastered many different weapons in his free time.

“Is that so? I must admit, I am quite envious, Mister Anoteros. You seem to be talented in everything that you do!” Jania smiled awkwardly, evidently not too used to having casual conversations like this with someone her age. The only other person of similar age she conversed with was her sister, and, of course, the dynamic was entirely different from now.

“Everyone has their strong and weak points. Miss Tylia said that you were better than her at spell casting, and from what I could see, she was pretty good herself… I would assume that you have cultivated your familial techniques to an advanced degree?”

Jania took a few moments to come up with a response, finding it a bit difficult to focus as Anoteros kept smiling and speaking softly with her. She couldn’t tell if he was just being polite or if she was supposed to understand that he was flirting with her! She could not tell at all! And it did not help that Edrick was so... Handsome and charming.

Surely, the first man she had to interact with could have been a little bit more mundane-looking, then Jania might have at least been able to keep her cool…

“You could say that… My father has a lot of praise for me, but I have never gotten the opportunity to compare myself to the average person. I must admit that I am not quite certain how ‘talented’ or ‘impressive’ I truly am… I can only compare myself to my sister, and she is not that much worse than I to begin with. I am just a bit quicker and can train in more techniques at once, but that’s it…”

Edrick looked at her face and body language as she spoke. The noble lady was quite a nice girl, clearly not wanting to overshadow her sister’s effort by placing herself too high above Tylia. The two sisters were obviously quite close to one another, being each other’s only friend.

Following this first meeting, Edrick began to show up more and more often. He mostly spent time with Jania, but also conversed with the younger sister, who, unlike her older sister, was certainly quite energetic and unrestrained when her parents were not around to keep their youngest daughter in check.

Unlike Jania, who was doing her best to make it seem like the difference in talent between the two was not that great, Tylia continuously propped up her older sister in that regard. Tylia’s mouth was also not nearly as tightly sealed on supposedly secretive details.

“Mister Anoteros, Jania is quite impressive, you know? I heard that you can cultivate a whole bunch of techniques in parallel. Well, my big sis can do the same, at least six at the same time! But I am sure it can be more than that! It’s just that we only have six techniques in the family as a whole, and she is killing it with all of them… Well, one is harder to say, but maybe soon we’ll be able to tell?” the redhead laughed like a little mischievous imp.

“Six techniques? That’s quite a lot”

“Oh, it sounds impressive, but you know, Mister Anoteros, unlike the great clans, our six techniques aren’t unified into a singular manual. We don’t have a Sutra or anything like that, our six techniques are similar, but independent at the end of the day, they don’t have any real synergy”

“Is that so?”

“Yep, but hey! They are still pretty nice! You should ask Jania to show you! I can only cultivate three techniques at once, so I can’t demonstrate them all”

“Ah, but you know that your older sister doesn’t want to reveal the family’s techniques…”

“Heheh, she is quite stubborn! But Jania will definitely agree to show them to you eventually… You see, she has been getting quite-”

“Tylia! W-What are you talking about?”

“Oh, Jania! I was just telling Mister Anoteros how awesome and beautiful you are, and he absolutely agrees with me on that point. Anyway, see you guys later!”

One thing to note was that despite her rather modest height and big dress that should get in the way, Tylia was quite a quick girl... At least when it came to running away.

“H-Hello, Mister Anoteros… Ahah… Tylia can be a bit tricky sometimes…”

“She is quite the earnest girl, but although we were not quite speaking of that, I do have to agree that you are beautiful, Miss Jania”

“Aah… Mister… T-Thank you?”

“No need to thank me for stating the truth- By the way, Miss Jania, I was wondering if you would allow me to behold your cultivation techniques today? I am but a beginner myself, but perhaps I could help you in some regard” he said with a charming smile.

Jania needed a few seconds to collect her thoughts.

She wanted- No, she should say no as the techniques were not supposed to be shown so easily to those outside the family, however…

“Why not? Let’s go somewhere quiet. Maybe you could show me your techniques as well, Mister Anoteros?”

“Naturally”

Thus, Edrick and Jania went deeper into the manor’s backyard than ever before, settling into a small grove of trees.