Chapter 17 - Old Wizard

Zaos's right hand was mostly fine, so he wanted to keep training that parrying technique, but doing that alone was impossible. He looked at his mother, hoping that she would help him with that, but she quickly shook her head.

"I am sorry, Zaos," Lyra said. "But I am not confident in my aim. You can still train what you have already learned, though."

"But all of that is boring," Zaos said.

"I was starting to wonder when you would begin to complain," Lyra sighed. "I suppose it took you long enough."

Zaos quickly gave up on that idea since the use of mana also tires out the mind. While he had no idea how much that could affect one's body, he decided not to use his mother to learn that. In any case, Zaos decided to wait patiently until the next day while he just repeated what he had done until now.

The next day, a gray-haired old man suddenly showed up at the mansion, and he was waiting for Zaos when he headed to the garden. He didn't look much like a warrior, but he had the same sharp eyes that his father had.

"My name is Merkin, and I was contracted by your honorable father to help with your training," the grey-haired old man said. "I was also contracted by your grandfather to do the same when your father was small. So while I knew lord Laiex already had a son, I didn't expect that you would be so young."

"My name is Zaos," Zaos said.

In the end, Zaos prevented himself from saying something about his honorable father since he knew he wasn't that honorable. In any case, it didn't look like Merkin was a nobleman, but he apparently was a decent wizard. Adding that to the fact that he was older, Zaos felt compelled to be polite.

"It seems you are not as imprudent as your father was when he was a kid," Merkin said. "Still, don't expect that I will go easy on you. I owe your father quite a lot and intend to make every single coin that I receive will be worth my services."

Zaos didn't want to have easy training, so he didn't have any reason to complain about it. Regardless, Merkin explained how the training would happen. First of all, Zaos would keep running from one side of the training grounds to the other while keeping his party stance, and when the time comes, Merkin will tell him to stop and fire a projectile.

"Your father said that you can already party his Earth Bullets, so we will use that for the time being," Merkin said. "However, keep in mind that I am a mage, so my spells are obviously stronger."

"You are a famous wizard, Merkin, so you can decrease the power and speed of your attacks, right?" Lyra asked.

"Yes, I can, my lady," Merkin nodded. "However, lord Laiex said that I shouldn't hold back. In fact, he told me to make the necessary adjustments to keep the difficulty high while your son gets used to my spells. I find that hard to happen, though. Your son is too young, after all. I didn't think that was actually the case, but it looks like lord Laiex grew up to be a man who overestimates his son's skills."

The old wizard sure liked to talk, to the point where Zaos was tired of waiting. In any case, that was a good chance in many ways. While apparently, his mother was a mage, Zaos never saw her using offensive spells. Likewise, while he saw his father doing it, Laiex wasn't a mage. So, Zaos finally would be able to see the power of a simple spell in the hands of a decent mage.

When Merkin gave the order to start, Zaos began to run for one side to another while keeping his parrying stance. Still, after a while, the old wizard didn't say anything. He certainly wasn't slacking off, but it looked like things wouldn't be as frequent as Zaos imagined.

"Your posture is good enough. It looks like you have been practicing for a while," Merkin rubbed his chin. "I guess you can indeed endure a full hour of training. Stop."

After he heard that, Zaos turned to the side without breaking his stance, and then the Earth Bullet came. The projectile came while making a high pitching sound, and upon impact, the projectile turned into dust, but those small fragments hit Zaos's face and Sting a little. Of course, his arm trembled entirely, and he dropped the wooden sword.

After cleaning his face, Zaos took a deep breath and then picked his sword. He imagined that Merkin would say something, but he just assumed his parrying stance and began to run since that didn't happen.

"Oh, he is disciplined enough," Merkin said. "I didn't think Laiex had been staying too much at home lately, but he has done a good job training his son."

"Zaos learned to be that disciplined by himself, my husband only told him what he should do, but only that," Lyra said.

"Really?" Merkin said. "Well, it looks like some interesting kids are appearing around as of late. "In any case, the warrior blood that flows in his veins is strong, so something like this shouldn't be surprising."

Although he was being paid to see and help Zaos with his sword training, Merkin couldn't help but feel a bit curious if he would show any result in a single month. After all, he was the son of one of the three strongest swordsmen of the kingdom, and he had the discipline and willpower that his father didn't have even when he was six. Hopefully, in Merkin's eyes, Zaos will keep that mentality for several years to come until he becomes an adult. If that were to happen, many people would be able to see how much someone can achieve by willpower alone.