A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 25: A Meeting With The Devil - Part 1

"…Good," Dominus said in a rare compliment. "You have two things going for you at the moment – your strength is improving rapidly and it seems the basics of martial arts come naturally to you too. Now, a kick."

This time Beam didn't make the mistake of scampering to ready himself. As soon as Dominus lifted his hand high in the air as a target, Beam leapt up, kicking up above his head and striking the target down.

He felt an unbelievable amount of satisfaction as he landed, pleased by his own transitions.

"As I thought," Dominus murmured. The basics really did come naturally to the boy. He'd only been given one lesson – even if it was a rather long one – yet he'd retained the knowledge seemingly perfectly. There was already a marked difference between how capable he was as a fighter today, versus how he'd been yesterday.

Against Dominus' expectations, Beam continued to flow. His progress was coming more rapidly than it ever should have for one afflicted by Ingolsol's curse. Dominus expected that to come with imbalance, he expected to feel the darkness rise of Beam more and to feel it consuming his soul. But he saw none of that. The boy remained himself.

'He has an unbelievably balanced spirit,' Dominus thought to himself. 'And to think, the boy would have gone his whole life merely struggling had he not managed to break through that Second Boundary… He'll be special – if only he can survive.'

"But it is merely a start. You are still far from ready," Dominus told him.

Beam grinned at that, sensing that a complement lay beyond it. "Heheh. Do I have a talent for fighting then, master? You said that you had talent if you improved quickly or if you started off better than everyone else, right?"

"Fool," Dominus said, flicking Beam's forehead. "Your training has merely begun. Do not dream of talent when it likely will evade you. Think only of progress. You have 3 weeks and 6 days remaining. There's much work to do."

"But I am progressing quickly, right?" Beam protested. "I managed to get 15 lifts of that second stone yesterday, didn't I? Isn't that crazy fast? It's only been a couple of days. I must at least have talent in strength then, right?"

"Fool," Dominus said again, flicking him harder this time. "Those are merely the improvements of a beginner. Your body is merely getting accustomed to the movement. It is too soon to declare that you have grown so much stronger. Besides, what of your speed? Not only have you not improved in that, but yesterday you were even slower."

"Geh…" Beam choked a little at that. It was something he couldn't even attempt to refute. Despite his strength steadily increasing, yesterday, his speed has gotten even worse, which he found truly troubling.

"Not only that, your reputation has yet to show any signs of improvement. Not to mention you making any friends," Dominus pointed out.

"I think the old lady in the bakery is warming up to me a little, right?" Beam said.

Dominus shrugged, barely hiding his grin. "It is my right as a master to make things as difficult for you as I please. Whether that happens to coincide with my command being rather amusing to me, that's pure coincidence," he said.

"Gr…" Beam made an exasperated noise, seeing that his master was clearly having fun with some of these missions that he was assigning him. But as his apprentice, or pupil, he figured he didn't yet have any right to complain too much.

"You will go into town again today, as I said," Dominus continued, "and get this business with your house resolved once and for all. You will also go to the bakery for my bread again and you'll bring it back – without getting it dirty this time, mm? No more failures."

"Yes, master Dominus," Beam replied seriously, determination in his eyes.

"Bow when you receive commands from your master, boy," Dominus told him.

"Like this?" Beam asked, bending slightly at the hips with his hands behind his back and his eyes cast down to the floor.

"Mhm. And don't forget it either. Even if it is for only a month, you will treat me with the respect expected of you as an apprentice. You have not put in your years of servitude like most apprentices are required to do, so you will have to make up for the lost time in other ways."

Beam nodded again. "Should I be off into town then, master?" He asked, seeing that the sun was already up and there was plenty of light – the village stores would be open already too.

"Mm," Dominus hummed thoughtfully, eyeing him up and down, as though trying to decide upon something. "No… I think you should train for a couple of hours first. Today will likely be your last day of such strong progress in strength, so you had better squeeze every drop you have out of yourself, if you wish to progress more rapidly in future," Dominus told him.

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