'she is close to breaking through',
As I followed her back in the middle of the training ground, I thought to myself, Apart from Valeria, she is the strongest person I know of, and maybe in a year or two she will be able to breakthrough to the next level.
"Sit down, everyone",
As soon as Sylvia arrived closer to the three girls, she said this as she stood in front of us.
I was the first one to sit on the ground, and whenever she trained me or gave me a lecture, she would make me sit on the ground.
Once I asked why she would do that, she told me that it was to teach me to be humble so I wouldn't grow into some arrogant bastard who thinks he is above everyone.
If you don't have the strength or brain to back it up, never be arrogant. And I fully understand that, even though I was a former young master myself.
As soon as the others saw me sitting on the ground, Linda followed shortly, followed by Elysia, and after some hesitation, Nadya also sat down, albeit frowning a little.
"Now, listen up,fledglings. I will call your name, and you will tell me your path, affinity, or preferred weapon if you use any",
She said this as she looked at the girls, one by one, who nodded their heads in affirmation.
While calling them little bird babies is funny, but I doubt Linda liked being called that.
"First, Linda".
"Knights Path, preferred weapon: sword".
"Nadya".
"Mage path, affinity water, and lightning".
"Elysia".
"Complete path, preferred weapon spear, and affinities are metal and fire".
'Wow, the main heroines sure are amazing',
I thought as I looked at the girl Elysia, who was like me—a person who can use both aura and mana, and she has a variant affinity as well.
"Both of you have a variant affinity, huh".
Sylvia mumbled as she looked at both of them curiously.
"Master, is having a variant affinity good?" ,
I asked as I stretched my hand in the air, which brought Sylvia's attention towards me.
Though I do know about variant affinities from the game, as most of the main cast members have them, I still asked to confirm my knowledge.
"Not really; they are just rare, but if they are properly controlled and used, they can overpower normal magic pretty easily".
She replied as she stretched both hands in front.
"But that doesn't mean normal mages are weak", she snapped both of her hands, making a small fire and a small tornado in both hands. "If you have more than one affinity and you have enough experience and control over your affinities, you can do something like this".
With a "woosh" sound, the fire got sucked into the tornado, giving birth to a mesmerizing fire tornado right before our eyes.
"Normal mages can combine two different affinities to make something that is close to a variant affinity", she said as she made the fire tornado bigger in size. "A variant affinity is a combination of two or more different basic affinities; if you have those affinities, you can make a variant spell of your own, but the same cannot be said about a variant mage."
She then moved both of her hands away, trying to separate the fire from the tornado, but that did not happen; all that did was disturb the spell, making it unstable.
"You see, combing two different affinities is not that hard, but separating them after that is close to impossible."
"Now, Elysia and Neil, step on up," Sylvia commanded, closing her hand to make the fire tornado vanish. Elysia and I rose, ready for whatever was coming next.
"Grab a spear and get ready for a little sparring session," Sylvia instructed, tossing a spear to each of us. "Keep it simple—no fancy mana or aura stuff." With a wave, she stepped back, giving us room to do our thing.
I swung the spear around me, getting the hang of it as I positioned myself two meters apart from Elysia.
'She isn't thinking of getting revenge for what happened earlier, right?'.
I thought as I eyed her determined gaze on me.
Elysia was an orphan; no one knows who her mother or father were. Nadya's birth mother, who was on an expedition, found her in a forest as she was crying.
She then took her into her family, giving her their family name and an identity, while Nadya got a sister she never wanted.
She is a person who strives to be perfect in everything, be it literature or combat. At a very young age, she showed the signs of a genius as she was able to do every task given to her pretty easily, while in comparison to her Nadya, who was also trying her best to live up to her family's expectations, she failed miserably to even come close to her adoptive sister.
As time passed, Elysia became everyone's favorite for being the next heiresses of the family, and people's opinions made a huge change in her relationship with Nadya.
Nadya slowly started to feel tried with all the comparison and disappointment.
But that wasn't enough to make her hate Elysia; she could still bear her existence because her mother loved both of them equally and never compared them, unlike her grandma, who had started giving Elysia a little more love and priority.
Things were going well until one day their mother disappeared without a trace. With no reason or information, she just vanished, and that affected both of them in different ways. It's been 5 years since then, and as of now, they both pretty much hate each other.
Nadya hated her because she felt unwanted and insecure due to Elysia's presence in her life, and Elysia started to hate her because she saw Nadya as unworthy of being her sister.
Nadya's insecurity is the reason she turned towards the dark side, while Elysia's obsession for winning and being perfect will only get worse as she grows older. She is someone who wouldn't think twice before sacrificing 1,000 soldiers if that increased her chances of winning a war.
Do I hate her for that? No, I don't. I am neither a saint nor a sage. If anything, I pity her because, after she awakens her bloodline, expect those she loved; before her bloodline awakening, she will not be able to love anyone ever.
Having the bloodline of a virgin goddess comes with its own set of problems.
*Woosh*
As I was deep in thought, Elysia made the first move, lunging forward with impressive speed. I quickly sidestepped, feeling the breeze as her spear whizzed past.
With that one strike of hers, it was evident she was skilled, and this wasn't going to be a walk in the park.
I countered with a series of quick jabs, testing her defenses.
Our spears clashed, the wood hitting wood sound resonating on the training ground.
Elysia parried skillfully, a confident smirk on her face. It seemed she thought she had more experience in traditional combat than I did. I am going easy on you, idiot.
The spar continued, each of us trying to outmaneuver the other.
I focused on adapting to her moves and finding openings in her defense.
As the spar intensified, I could feel the energy flowing through me. It wasn't the usual surge of magic, but a raw, physical connection with the spear. The weight, the balance—it all became an extension of my body.
'Is this the legendary one with the weapon?"
I thought as I sidestepped her strike. Though I thought that was a joke, I was seriously trying to comprehend what was happening; it was something entirely different, as if my body could do things that I wasn't capable of doing before.
"Stop it; well done, both of you. Now go get some rest", Sylvia's words brought me back to reality as I stopped my attack, and as soon as I stopped, the feeling also disappeared.
I placed the spear back in its place as I looked around to find a place to rest. As my gaze moved, I noticed a pink-haired girl sitting in the corner, reading a book.
'Did she always like to read books?'
I thought to myself as I made my way towards her; as far as I remembered, there wasn't any mention of Nadya liking to read books. Curiosity got the best of me as I made my way towards her, and as soon as she noticed me, her brows frowned in discomfort.
'Damn, that really hurts'.
Standing in front of her, I thought as she tried her best to ignore me.
"Hello", Pretending to be oblivious to her discomfort, I greeted her as I sat next to her.
"Hello", she replied meekly as she tried to go back to her reading.
I was intrigued by the book's title, "DOMINEERING DADDY CEO'S LOVELY SLAVE WIFE."
"What the fuck are you reading?"