Chapter 9 - 009 : Spar

The next morning after cleaning himself Arthur ready to face the world but what comes to his view when he opens his eyes is a big wide library with a little girl sat on a stool in the center of the room earnestly reading a book.

'Oh, I nearly forgot about Beatrice..'

"Wow this is a very huge library, hello my name Arthur Spencer and I will work as Emilia's knight from this day onward, please to meet you"

"So you're that half-back little girl knight? But to Beti you're very weak, I suppose?"

"Well if we fight in this mansion or rather in this library I will lose but if it outside I think the result will be different? "

"How do you know Beti need this place to defeat you?"

"You're drawing mana with this library right? I will just say I know it"

"So other than boasting yourself and introducing yourself what do you need, I suppose? If there is nothing I want you to leave soon"

"How cold.. you can't have a friend if you keep up like this"

"Who is need a friend I suppose?!"

"Well, of course, you need it if you did not want to become like Roswaal, or he is your role model?"

"Who wants to be something like that weirdo, I suppose?!"

"Haha, well our fun time is over I need to get going"

"Who is having fun here! As I said just get lost already, I suppose!"

Arthur leaves the library with a slight smile on his face and he makes a way to garden if he didn't remember wrong this is the time for her to converse with lesser spirits.

"This mansion is really huge... I think I need to take a shortcut "

"Good morning Arthur, you woke up early"

"Well it looks like you just wake up when I come"

Puck let out a yawn and rub his eyes with his paw

"Well as a contracted spirit I can't draw mana from the atmosphere so I depend on Lia's mana"

"Do you need some? Even if I can't use mana or store it in my body, for now, I can still work as the catalyst you know"

"So you also know I can use mana drain? Well I will not dwell on your secret as long as you didn't endanger Lia"

"Don't worry I will not endanger her because I need her for getting my daily meal and if I failed to protect her there is no one who willing to hire me again"

"Do you need to use Lia as your reason as cover your regret?"

"Ugh... I forget you can read my tough... just let it be can you?"

"I didn't use anything to you but I just guess it, I live this long is not for nothing. The way you see Lia is like there are a pain and regret from your eyes. I don't know who is very important to you to make you like this but... I hope we will never be enemies... I wait for a long time to see her have a friend"

"You're a very caring dad"

"Of course, she is the reason of my life and she is my everything"

"What the two of you talking about?"

When the two lost in their own mind a bell-like a voice is heard

"We are talking about how beautiful you're Lil' miss, right puck?"

"Yeah, Lia is always beautiful no matter how much someone looks at her"

Arthur and puck nodding their head and look like they already prepare for this

"Moo.. please don't play a joke on me"

Even if she answers in plain voice if someone looks carefully there is a slight blush on her cheek

"Also, Arthur can you not call me Lil miss? No matter what I still older than you because I'm is a half-elf"

"But what I can see you're mentality 15 so I'm who might be in my 24 is older than you"

"But you can't call me that! Don't treat me like a kid!"

"So how I need to address you? As your knight, I can't just call you your name"

"You can call me like yesterday, I fine with it"

"But if I call you Emilia-sama the face of Roswaal is pop up in my mind so please..."

"Than don't use the honorific "

"That can't do.. how about the princess?"

"Reject!"

"My liege?"

"Reject!"

"My lady?"

"It's sound I'm very old though "

"You said it yourself! So how about Emi?"

"Why you shorten my name?

"Well, this is a sign of my affection. It's like how Puck calls you Lia… A way for two people to show how close they are to each other."

Emilia's face expressed surprise at Arthur explanations then her cheeks reddened a bit.

"F-fine. I'll accept that. Hey, don't look at me like that!"

"Er? I thought I was getting rejected again? What's that positive reaction? Do you mind to explain this, Mr. Puck."

As Emilia turned her face aside, Puck sat on her shoulder and twirled his mustache.

"My daughter doesn't have many friends, so being called by an intimate nickname makes her happy. Put simply, she's easy."

Arthur exclaimed in surprise, " So my lady's easy! Ah, joke aside are you finish with your training?"

"Yes, but I feel weird why all of those lesser spirits curious about you? This is not happening normally "

"Maybe I'm too charming for them"

"You're really know how to boast about yourself right"

"Well, then Emi do you want to spar with me? I think you also need to hone your fighting ability other than politics and spirit"

"Are you sure about this? You confronting spirit user in a frontal fight is not a wise choice"

"Maybe that's true for other people but not for me let's go to change places"

When they're in a spacious place Emilia and puck is ready to start the battle but they stop when seeing Arthur in relax manner

"Emi, I will be serious here. I know you're a good girl and have a soft heart but because of that I want you to have a strength to protect yourself, I just fear there is a time when I can't reach you in time. So for the first thing I want to say is...

Never leave an opening for your opponent to launch an attack "

When Emilia listening to Arthur speaks he vanishes from his place and appear in her left side and swinging his sword luckily puck react in time and make ice shield to block the sword and Emilia move because of her instinct told her to stay away from there.

And she feels lucky because she believes her own instinct because when he sees where she stood before the ice shield is slice evenly and look very smooth at the place where it cut through by the sword.

Emilia and puck launch ice shard to Arthur but what they look is really a surprise

All of the ice shards is vanish one meter around him

"He.. how?"

"He cancels the magic?"

"Well not really... I just scatter all of the ice element around me... if you want to beat me then you need to increase your output and speed of your ice magic "

"Before that, that's very dangerous Arthur! What if puck late to make a move are you seriously want to cut me?!"

"How can I emi... but as I said in a battle you should never leave an opening for your opponent to launch an attack "

"And that's also valid for you"

Booooom!!!

"Puck... I think that's a bit powerful? What if he is seriously injured?"

"But that Arthur is nearly sliced you, Lia! This is just a bit of payback"

"But-"

"Well that's right puck that's also valid for me but I never said I leave an opening for you to exploit "

"Double element? But seriously lightning? It's been a long time since I encounter something like this "

Puck murmuring about something but Emilia stating toward Arthur with disbelief in her eyes because she knows puck put a lot of magic on that attack before.

Arthur did not move a little bit from where he stood from the start but there are countless ice particles that floating around him.

"Congratulations you're right but there is no reward, the second thing I want to say is after you successfully hit an attack to your opponent don't let your guard down and ready to strike again or you employ your defense in case your opponent is fooling you and launch sneak attack"

Emilia reflects on her mistake where she engaged conversation with puck and didn't focus on the battlefield

"And the third thing is... when you face someone like me you must be run because it's impossible to win again me"

"You're quite full of yourself boy"

"Come on puck you, I know you have a high pride but if you launch an attack and try to confront me that just make you lost your mana in a very fast rate, other than make a futile attempt you must slow down an opponent and run with your life and try again when you strong enough "

"You talk as if you already defeat me, Arthur"

"It's not like that emi, but if you insist I will make you witness another ability I have, scatter senbonzakura "

At the end of his speech, Emilia feels the temperature is turned down and countless small petals that floating around of Arthur.

"In case you didn't know this is cherry blossoms petals but you must not touch it, this is made from my blade, in other words, this is just countless sword shards and even if it can attack physical thing the main purpose of this ability is to kill something that doesn't have physical concepts like spirit or soul"

"So you said it's checkmate for me and Lia?"

"Well I can still add a thirteen-time amount of the current petals so I hope you surrendered"

"You're right...if what you claim is true then this battle is meaningless"

'He is really strong, and look like he held back very much. I'm glad he will be Lia knight maybe he is not as strong as sword saint but he is clearly stronger than just ordinary royal guard knight '

As puck and Arthur speaking Emilia turn away and sat in a gazebo with dissatisfaction plaster across of her face

"Well, I think... I overdid it a little?"

"You need to make her happy again Arthur "