We all got upset when Ophelia called out to the others, telling them to take the box with that creature inside somewhere else. Now everyone in the dining hall is talking about the tentacled eye, making fun of whoever has to eat it.
"The cult leader said that thing sells for a lot of money. Are you crazy enough to buy it?" Claire asked, sticking out her tongue as if she were disgusted.
"Someone who wants to torture someone," Elias said, shuddering.
"That's not good for torture, they're like pills, if you eat them you get strong," Isolde corrected him, pulling his cheek.
Something I noticed is that Isolde and Elias always sat together or seemed friendlier. It seems that Elias is doing better than us. Along with these thoughts, a boy asked me from another table.
"Hey you, the one who can't see out of one eye. Since you arrived, I've noticed something: you always address the leader of the sect informally."
"Really? I don't think that's bad..." I thought.
Luckily for me, Anna defended me, although not in a way I liked.
"Don't blame him, he's just a kid, he barely has any air reaching his brain," she said in a mocking tone as she rubbed my head.
This has happened several times. Anna seems to defend me, but she only sinks me deeper and deeper. What bothered me the most was that I couldn't defend myself. Anna was older than me and knew more. Because of this, I decided to explore the place, looking for something like a library or something that could help me defend myself against Anna.
It didn't take me long to find the perfect place, full of students with books everywhere I looked. I decided to approach a table, sacrificing a book that was within my reach to get to an empty table and sit down.
"Are you reading Conan?" someone asked from behind me.
I jumped up from my chair, looking back at them. I let out a sigh when I realized it was just Isolda, who was looking at me curiously.
"Yes, I wanted to read. What are you doing here?"
"I read too, but since everyone is more interested in learning martial arts, there's never anyone here."
"Aren't you?" I asked curiously, looking around to make sure there was no one else there besides us.
My words seemed to confuse her, and she raised her eyebrow as she replied,
"I am, but I also read other things."
"I see... Hey, where do you learn about martial arts?" I asked, embarrassed.
"... Since you haven't been here that long, you can only go to the East Wing," she said, looking at me with what seemed like disappointment.
Now that I had stayed in that library with Isolde for a while out of embarrassment, I decided to go to the place she had indicated. Luckily, the place had a sign that said "Rising Sun Pavilion." The name was cool, so I figured this was the place I had to go.
I expected there to be more people there than in the previous library, but to my surprise, the only ones inside were Jumyeong and Ghislaine, sitting on the floor with several books near them.
"What are you doing?" I asked, approaching them.
"We came here to learn something. We won by a narrow margin in the previous sparring match, so we came here after asking around," Ghislaine told me.
Ah, they also came to learn. I sat down in front of them, looking through the books they had nearby. One of them was titled "Initial Breathing Technique." Although it took me a while to read what the title was, in the end it was in vain; it has nothing to do with what it seems in the book.
"What happened to you?" Jumyeong asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at me.
"I don't understand," I said, scratching my head in frustration.
"No worries, I'd be surprised if you did," Ghislaine said, putting down the book she was reading.
Ghislaine took the book from my hands, glanced at it before handing it back to me and deciding,
"It's comprehensive. I didn't think a breathing technique would be so difficult to understand."
"If this is a basic one, what will an advanced one be like?" I asked, throwing the book on the floor. "I'll just copy what the book says, it won't be that difficult, will it?" I thought, sitting up straight as I imagined the instructions.
Following the first step, I inhaled deeply, deciding that I had to concentrate on the man entering my body and then carrying him throughout my entire body. Concentrating as best I could, I began to carry the entire man through my meridians, which wasn't that difficult since I had made them thicker before.
I could feel the man's body moving through my body, and even though it was painful, I thought it was just because of the new sensation, as it felt like an itch inside my body. After doing variations several times, I could feel myself getting better, lighter, and stronger.
"It wasn't that difficult," I said, looking at my hands.
The problem was that I didn't last very long, because as soon as I stopped controlled breathing, my whole body burned, as if I were on fire. That made me cry out in pain, while I felt my chest burning. Luckily, Ghislaine and Jumyeong were with me, helping me calm down.
"You lost your concentration, didn't you?" Ghislaine asked me, looking at me with a mocking smile.
I still couldn't speak because of the burning in my chest, so I just raised my middle finger in response. They both sighed before deciding
"Calm down and try again, you were doing fine, you just lost your concentration." Jumyeong helped me sit up, patting me on the back.
The pats hurt just as much as the rest of my body, so I put my hand up to block him. Again, with this thought in mind, I sat up straight and breathed the way the book said, calming the pain. After a few minutes, the burning sensation subsided, although my body still hurt.
"I didn't like this as much as I thought I would..." I said, looking at the book far away from me.
"You're not lying down, once you get better. Breathing techniques are very important," Jumyeong told me.
I want to get used to it now... I sighed as I picked up another book from the floor, reading it while trying to breathe the way the previous book instructed. Even though I lost my concentration, the pain wasn't that bad, so I was able to calm down.
As I read, I realized how much Jumyeong seemed to know, even though it was too late. Curious, I asked Jumyeong
"Hey Jumyeong, how do you know so much about this? Were you in a cult like this?"
"Yes, I was in one before I was enslaved," he said, looking at the broken technician thinking.