Chapter 20
“Huh…? What?”
A cold gust of wind swept through the wide training ground. Meanwhile, Finn smiled even wider, his eyes crinkling. As I stared at him with my mouth agape and a blank expression, something suddenly flashed in my mind.
Oh, Finn must have brought my ability instructor.
“Ah, Finn brought my instructor?”
“Pardon?”
“Where is the instructor? I want to finish quickly and go rest…”
I peered past Finn’s body, which was blocking the entrance to the training ground, and mumbled. Finn’s body was surprisingly thick, so I had to tilt my head quite a bit to finally see the door.
“Hmm… The instructor is right outside the door. Should I tell them to come in?”
“Yes! Hurry, hurry.”
I want to finish this quickly and go eat cookies and relax. Since it’s the first class today, they’ll probably end it early, right?
Finn, who had been smiling at my urging, said to wait a moment and went outside the training ground. After he disappeared, I couldn’t hide my anticipation and waited for the instructor. A moment later, the door opened and Finn came in again.
“……?”
I stared at him approaching me with a puzzled look, and he bowed to me.
“Allow me to formally introduce myself again, young lady. I am Finn, and I will be helping with your ability training starting today.”
“Uh…?”
“Please call me Finn, as you normally would.”
After he finished his greeting, he smiled even wider than before, his eyes crinkling again.
I blinked in confusion and turned to look at Ellie. But she also seemed flustered, covering her mouth with her hand, unsure of what to do.
“Finn… is my instructor?”
“Yes.”
“Huh…? Why?”
My bewildered question came out as a voice. Finn then placed his hand on his chest and spoke. His every action was so natural, as if he had expected my reaction.
“It is the Duke’s order. Now, let’s end the greetings here and start the lesson right away…”
“W-wait! Just a second!”
I held out my hands and waved them frantically, interrupting him.
“Finn… can you use an ability?”
Yes, I had to clarify this first.
“Yes.”
“Huh…”
His fresh and simple answer left me speechless. My mind was in chaos. Based on what I had briefly looked up about abilities yesterday, they were only supposed to be used by people of a family blessed by the World Tree. Even so, not everyone with the family bloodline could use them; only a select few and direct descendants could.
“Then… are you an Eleyton, too?”
“No, I am not.”
“Then?”
“Hmm…”
At my continuing questions, he gave a slightly troubled smile and slowly raised his hand. At that moment, a damp and cold air surrounded me, and several small water droplets began to float around.
“Whoa…”
I couldn’t help but let out a gasp of admiration as I saw the water droplets sparkling in the sunlight. One of the slowly floating droplets touched the tip of my nose and burst. A cool sensation instantly spread across my face.
“Water?”
“Yes, that’s right. My ability is related to water. Well… I can’t use a great power like the Duke.”
I unconsciously nodded. I could still not forget the force with which the Duke’s single gesture had destroyed a house and sent it flying.
Right, not all ability users would have that level of power. The people with abilities were all high-ranking nobles, to begin with.
Wait… does that mean?
“Finn, were you a noble?”
Right, I had thought there was something unusual about him. But if he was a high-ranking noble who could even use an ability, why did he become a servant here? Wouldn’t an ability user be sought after even by the imperial palace? No, at the very least, their position within their family would be considerable…
My doubts piled up one after another. The more things didn’t make sense, the deeper the wrinkle in my brow became.
“No, I am not.”
“Then why do you have an ability…”
Finn didn’t answer this question and just gave an inscrutable smile.
“Finn, what is your true identity?”
“That’s a secret.”
“What’s that?! That’s suspicious!”
“Are you curious?”
His atmosphere instantly became serious. He had only slightly hardened his expression, but it felt so different…
“Yeah!”
Because of that, I also swallowed dryly and slowly nodded.
“Why?”
“Huh?”
Huh? What? The atmosphere didn’t seem like it was time for another question… I blinked with a flustered expression. The unexpected reaction had left me speechless.
“Uh, well… that is…”
What should I say? Should I be honest and say he’d been on my mind for some reason since I first saw him? Or should I just pretend and say I was curious? I had no idea what kind of answer he wanted, so it was hard to say anything rashly.
“Pfft!”
As I was trying to find the right words to say, a little puff of air came from Finn. Did he just laugh?
“Every time you succeed in one of the tasks I give you, I’ll tell you something you’re curious about.”
“Tasks…?”
“Yes, I will give you tasks to help you develop and master your ability.”
“What? That’s all?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I figured it wouldn’t be anything too difficult. After all, I was Harold’s daughter and a direct descendant of the Duke’s family. Pepe said that those with a strong bloodline of the family were more likely to have a stronger ability, so wouldn’t it be easier for me to awaken mine?
With that thought, I put on a confident face and lifted my chin.
“Fine! Bring it on.”
I’m confident! That’s easy.
“Huff, huff, huff…”
“Young lady, are you already tired? You’ve only gone one and a half laps.”
“Gasp, gasp… W-wait, let me rest for a bit. I’m so out of breath…”
I plopped down on the floor and gasped for air. But my heart still felt like it was about to burst.
“Hmm… This is a problem. I didn’t know your basic physical fitness was this… lacking.”
I glared at Finn, who was rubbing his chin and muttering to himself as if he were being serious.
“Why are we only running? We should be doing training to make the ability come out!”
“When you first manifest an ability, it puts a great strain on your body. You need to build up a certain level of basic physical fitness to be able to withstand it.”
The first mission he had demanded of me was…
‘Run one lap around the training ground in twenty minutes.’
At first, I wondered why I had to do something like this, but I soon changed my mind and started stretching.
‘It’s better than having to manifest the ability right away.’
To be honest, if he had told me to manifest the ability out of the blue, I would have been completely lost. Moving my body was much better than that, of course.
I definitely thought that… but less than ten minutes into the running, I took back that thought. The training ground was so wide and big that my body had already reached its limit, even though I hadn’t even finished half a lap.
I realized this only now, but I had no experience running properly in this body. The only active things I had ever done were playing hide-and-seek or tag with Jessie.
So the result was disastrous. I ended up running about half a lap in ten minutes and then having to rest for twenty minutes.
Finn’s expression changed in various ways as he looked at me, lying on the floor like a piece of clay.
“This is serious. I didn’t think your stamina would be this pathetic… I mean, weak.”
What did you just say? Did you just say ‘pathetic’? I heard that. My ears are working just fine, even if my body isn’t.
But I no longer had the strength to argue with Finn.
“…Should we stop here for today?”
“No… just, just a little more rest…”
“Actually, it would be much better to keep running without resting for physical training…”
If I could do that, I would have already done so. Right now, every time I gasped for air, my heart and lungs felt like they were about to pop out of my mouth at the same time.
Yes, to be honest, I had greatly underestimated the manifestation of abilities. I never thought I would have to start with basic training like in a shonen anime.
But if I said I couldn’t do it now, I wouldn’t be able to get money from the Duke.
“Come on, young lady! You can’t rest. Get up and finish the lap! Come on, come on!”
Also, Finn… he’s seemed oddly excited every time he cracks the whip at me. And he’s even smiling so innocently.
“I’ll run with you!”
I don’t need that kind of consideration!
I swallowed the words I wanted to say and staggered to my feet. I had started, so I was going to finish.
