Emmet ran along the road of the backstreets with a brown bag in his arms. The bag was filled with bread and apples.
One of the apples fell from, and he turned around to pick it up, but a shout of angry men reached his ears, so he turned around and ran, giving up on the apple.
He took twists and turns so that no one could follow and find him.
Eventually, he reached a ruined building and stared at the decrepit, broken door for a moment.
"I'll get us out of this place, just you wait."
***
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Dark shoes stopped before the apple that had fallen previously.
A hand reached down and took up the apple, raising it towards his face. The person wore a cloak over black bishop's robes with silver linings.
A wave of light washed over the apple, and the person took a bite out of it.
The hurried steps of two men passed by the person. One of the two men stopped and turned to the cloaked figure.
"Did you happen to see a brat run a pass here just now? He had black hair and purple eyes."
The person perked up.
"Purple eyes?"
The man nodded.
"They say he is the child of a demon and a human."
The figure tilted their head and placed their hand on their chin.
"Is that so? But no, I haven't seen him."
Sigh…
"It's fine, he's probably long gone anyway."
After saying this, the man called the other man who was with him and turned back the way they came.
The cloaked person watched the two men leave before turning in the direction Emmet took.
"The child of a demon and a human, huh? How interesting."
The person smiled, then took a step forward.
***
Aries walked with Marisa to his room. Because he came to them so much, they decided to get him his own room to stay in whenever he came two years ago.
While he didn't need guidance to the room at this point, Marisa still walked with him as she was going to check on Alice to see if she was awake. From what he knew about Sharon—the new Alice—she was the type to get as much sleep as possible on weekends, and since today was Sunday, Marisa was probably going to check if she was awake.
Soon, Marisa stopped at a specific door and knocked. Aries walked past her and entered the room beside the one she stopped at.
Closing the door behind him, Aries rested his wooden sword on the wall beside the door, then placed the books he received from his father onto the bed in the room. He stared at the two books for a moment, thinking.
"I'll check this first."
He took up the blue book with the silver sword first. He looked at the cover, font, and back. Other than the sword, the book was entirely plain.
Opening the book, he laid his eyes on the first page.
'KNIGHT TRAINING: FUNDAMENTALS'
'Volume: 1
'On your journey to full-fledged knight, you'll meet many strong foes and want to quickly learn strong techniques, thinkin': 'I know how to fight, I don't need fundamentals.' But you're wrong!
'What makes a strong warrior is not who has a strong and flashy technique, but who has mastered their fundamentals!
'This book is the first of many that will teach you how to become a full-fledged knight. It contains the PERFECT training for any aspiring warrior of any weapon type. I've also added a little secret of mine that will enhance the training and learning speed of anyone of any talent!'
'By the best ever: J. Howard.'
Twitch.
Aries's eye twitched as he read through the introductory message.
'J. Howard huh? I sincerely hope that we never meet, on behalf of my sanity. '
Sighing, Aries flipped to the first page of the actual content of the book. What he saw caused him to hold the book closer to make sure that he wasn't seeing things.
Being titled 'body training', it showed a training regimen that strengthened the whole body seemingly more efficiently than most. It also implemented a meditation technique that calmed the mind and rested the body, but that was not why Aries was shocked.
From what he could tell, this meditation technique could also improve chi control. Not only that, It could also improve chi purity as well, which can strengthen any chi-based abilities. Improving chi quality can also improve one's appearance, but while less effective, just increasing your chi amount alone can do so as well, so most do go through the trouble for only that.
'Holy shit, this guy is actually impressive.'
While Aries's chi management and control were impeccable, unrivaled even,—In his original body at least—he lost his mortality, and thus his need for such techniques long before they existed, so he had none in his mental library.
'This was just the thing I needed. My chi control is a bit off with my disguise, so this is the perfect way to fix that. Even if you didn't know, thanks, Dad!'
After seeing this, Aries closed the book with a smile.
'I'll try this later, I'm just looking for now.'
He placed down the book before turning back to the other one, the leather, silk-bound book.
'Now what is this? Another sword practice book?'
Aries placed his hands on the cover of the book and cracked it open. Light burst from inside the book, and an invisible force forced the book open.
"What the!?"
White covered his vision as more light flooded from the book.
'Bright Eyes!'
Light surged into his eyes and enchanted them. Normally, this would allow him to see through the blinding light, but this time, nothing changed. His vision was still filled with the white light, and all he could do was wait for the light to dissipate, if it ever does, or close the book.
Despite the invisible force, Aries closed the book quite easily.
Plop!
Dropping the book, Aries looked at it with caution, prepared to defend himself.
The Image of a featureless man holding his sword horizontally etched itself into the cover of the book. It took no more than a few seconds, and once it was done, it forced itself open once more.
'Shit.'
Aries blocked his eyes, preparing himself for the wave of light coming from the book. However, the wave of light didn't come; instead, A shadow shot out and took the form of a burly man with glowing white eyes, standing before Aries.
Aries tensed himself, prepared for combat.
The darkness faded from the figure, revealing its form. It revealed the translucent form of…
"DAD!?!?"
"Hey, Aries."
Keel smiled mischievously.