Chapter 22 - Again

"Why… again? Why now of all times?" Zaos facepalmed and asked himself. "Please don't tell me you got lost again looking for the toilet."

Nyana already more or less knew Zaos, so she wasn't scared of him. Zaos also had seen her a few times spying on him and his mother through the window of her room. So, she nodded, even though that was an embarrassing thing to admit. She was a kid, so that much was to be expected.

"Wait a minute, I will guide you to your mother's room…" Zaos said after grabbing a book that had some techniques about sword and shield fighting. "You need to stop getting loose, though."

While Zaos was holding his half-sister's hand and guiding her, he was also reading the book. While the house was completely dark, he still could understand the instructions of the book by the drawings. One of the most straightforward techniques one could learn by using a sword and a shield was something called Smash. After parrying one melee attack with a one-handed sword, a fighter had a fraction of a second where his opponent was surprised and lost the momentum to attack.

The best way to use that technique was by making the opponent trip after parrying their attack to below and their left side. Their stance would break, and then their chin would become exposed. It was the best place to hit with a shield and cause massive damage.

"… Maybe I shouldn't use this against other kids," Zaos frowned. "Come to think of it, the sparring partners will probably be beginners as well, so they won't know much more than me."

While Zaos was thinking about that, they arrived at the toilet, and once again, he waited for Nyana in front of the door. This time she took her time since she probably had a stomach ache, and Zaos cursed his lack of luck. As if things weren't bad enough, one of the doors of the servants' rooms was opened, and Jeline appeared. Naturally, she froze when she saw Zaos on that side of the mansion and began to tremble like a leaf once her daughter left the toilet.

"She got lost and ended up at the library," Zaos said while he was reading the book. "Don't worry, I will keep quiet about it. So, don't tell anyone that I was at the library in the middle of the night."

"… Yes, young master," Jeline said while she still was pale like a ghost.

In the end, Zaos managed to hold back his sigh until he returned to the living room. Why does he have to deal with such situations just because his father essentially was a scumbag? While his mental age was higher, he still has the body of a four years old boy. He didn't have the time and the energy to waste with such a situation.

In any case, while Zaos didn't intend to use such dangerous moves on other kids, he still memorized some others before putting the book in its right place and returning to his room. Fortunately, Lyra didn't notice that he had left. 

Zaos only noticed that he had a problem in his hands when he and his mother arrived in the garden the next morning. He had memorized the movements he needed to practice to learn some techniques, but he couldn't use them in front of his mother. If he were to use it, Lyra would notice that Zaos left his room in the middle of the night, and he also was disobeying his father.

"Crap… what should I do now?" Zaos muttered.

Zaos's life was pretty intense, given that he was only four years old. While he was not practicing his swordsmanship, he was learning magic with his mother, and when that wasn't happening, he was probably resting since magic, and physical training took a heavy tool on his body and mind. Lyra was with him most of the time, so he couldn't train alone either. In the end, during the next two days, Zaos could only practice what he already knew and mentally train what he wanted to learn.

Zaos and his mother found Laiex and another armored man waiting for them in the garden when the mentioned day arrived. With them, a boy slightly taller than Zaos was also armed with a wooden sword and shield.

"His name is Tars, he will be your sparring partner for today," Laiex declared.

Zaos nodded after hearing that. Most likely, the other man was one of the people who worked with his father, and he was also the boy's father. Regardless, Zaos couldn't see his face since he was wearing a helmet. As for Tars, he had some bruises in his arms, and that showed that he spared more than a few times.

"The rules are simple," Laiex said. "Use whatever moves you want. However, kicks and punches are forbidden. Throwing sand is also against the rules, the fight will only end when one of the sides admit defeat."

Zaos frowned after hearing that. Do kids have the judgment for that? Most likely, the spar was supposed to end when one of the sides started crying… In any case, at least it looked like Tars wasn't a bad kid since he was fidgeting for some reason. While his father worked for Zaos's father, he didn't want to hurt Zaos, even by accident.

"Begin," Laiex said after the two boys assumed their stances.

While Zaos waited for a charge, nothing came. Tars were mirroring his stance, with the shield covering half of his face and with the wooden sword slightly away from the body and in a semi-relaxed position. In the end, Zaos got tired of the staring competition and decided to charge while raising his wooden sword. He hoped that the sudden movement would scare Tars, but that didn't happen. The boy just stared at him and waited for the attack… that was obviously suspicious, but that didn't stop Zaos from continuing. 

In the end, his wooden sword landed a clean hit on the shield that trembled slightly. But Tars defensive stance was strong, and nothing happened with it. While Zaos was recovering from the attack, something that he had experienced happened again… Tars raised his sword and attacked.