After our spar—I headed back inside the house with Cindy. It was time to eat lunch, and my stomach was letting me know it with every step I took.
The door clicked shut behind us as we stepped out of the warm sun and into the cool shade of the hallway. My forehead was still throbbing with a dull ache from where Cindy had struck me, but I did my best to walk normally and keep a straight face.
As we walked into the dining area, the savory aroma of freshly prepared food hit my nose, instantly making my mouth water.
"You two finally came, the food is getting cold."
Ahri was there, sitting at the table and waiting for us while scrolling through her phone. The food was already set on the table, still steaming slightly.
"Huh?"
Just then, her eyes turned to me, or to be more specific—on the swelling bump right on my forehead.
Her eyes widened in instant concern.
"W-What happened to you?"
She asked, completely surprised as she leaned forward to get a better look at my injury.
"Ah, it’s nothing. I just tried something while training and it didn’t work."
I replied to her, scratching the back of my head.
"It’s nothing serious."
I added, hoping she would just let it go.
Ahri just looked at me with a worried frown, her eyes searching my face to see if I was hiding some kind of terrible accident.
From the corner of my eye, I could see Cindy standing beside me, looking incredibly awkward as she stared down at the floorboards, probably feeling guilty for knocking me out.
We both waited in tense silence for Ahri’s reaction. But after a while—
"Okay... be careful next time."
Ahri just let out a heavy sigh and told me that.
"I will, thanks."
I said, letting out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding, thoroughly relieved that she believed my words.
Even Cindy beside me was visibly relieved, her stiff posture relaxing just a fraction.
Anyway, after that small hurdle, Cindy and I immediately joined Ahri at the table for lunch, and just like that... my day went as usual.
We ate the delicious food, cleaned up the kitchen, and I spent the rest of my day resting my throbbing head and studying the game notes on my phone.
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*****
The next day, I stayed true to my routine—after eating breakfast and doing some chores around the house to help Ahri out, I went outside to run for hours.
I ran through the nearby streets, keeping my hood pulled low over my white hair so nobody would pay attention to me. The physical training was tough, but I could feel my stamina slowly improving with each passing day. My lungs still burned, but the recovery time was getting shorter.
After running, I would go back and head to the backyard to train my fencing skill along with Vael’s abilities.
Standing in the center of the green grass, I focused on summoning my ice rapier. The process was becoming faster and much more natural now.
But I wasn’t just focusing on my swordplay today. I was honing my buff and debuff skills now as well, so that I could actually use them in a real fight.
Both of these skills were still so weak that I didn’t even attempt to try them during my spar with Cindy yesterday. They drained a lot of my mana, and the actual effects felt barely noticeable. If I had tried to use them in our fight, she probably would have knocked me out even faster while I was busy trying to activate them.
I knew I needed to practice them daily until they became as effortless as summoning my ice sword.
Anyway...
After training my fencing and abilities for a few hours, the back door of the house creaked open.
CREAK--
Cindy walked out into the yard, holding her needle-like wooden training weapon.
"You ready?"
She asked, her voice calm and even.
"Yes, thank you for agreeing to another spar."
I replied, stretching my arms to get ready.
"Well, I need to train too... watching you train consistently makes me feel like I’m slacking off."
Cindy told me, spinning her weapon lightly in her hand.
Adding to my routine was that before lunch, we would have a short spar. This time, Ahri was already aware of our training sessions, so we didn’t have to hide it anymore. She didn’t mind it at all and just told us to have fun and be careful still.
"Haha, you’re already strong. I’m just training my ass off because I’m still weak."
FWISS~!
I replied with a casual shrug, letting my ice rapier form in my hand with a sharp hiss.
"..."
At my words, Cindy just stopped and stared at me, her dark eyes blinking in confusion.
"Why?"
I asked her, keeping an easygoing smile on my face.
"It’s just that... I thought you’re really strong. Everyone in the Frostguard main family is insanely strong after all."
Cindy mumbled, her voice quiet.
Her words made me stop for a little, but I kept the poker smile on my face.
’Right, the Frostguard family is supposed to be full of monsters.’
I thought to myself, remembering the information I gathered about them after arriving in this world.
I needed to give her a believable reason for why I was so weak compared to the rumors, otherwise she might start getting suspicious about who I really was.
"Well, I have a rare body condition."
I said to her, sighing softly as if it was a painful topic to talk about.
She looked at me intently, her eyes widening slightly as if asking what it was. Her reaction confirmed that, at least, not many people outside the main family knew about Vael’s body restriction. It was probably kept a secret to protect the family’s reputation.
"I have something that doesn’t let me use projectile magic or abilities. I can’t use my ice powers to its full potential."
I said, pointing to the ice rapier in my hand.
"And up until recently, I can’t train properly because I couldn’t control my powers. I’m just starting."
Then I added a quick lie to make up for the reason of my current weakness. It was the perfect excuse for why my combat skills were so basic.
"So that was why you were using a melee weapon, so unlike all the Frostguards..."
Cindy said, her voice softening. She actually sounded like she felt bad for me.
"That’s right."
I just agreed with her assumption, letting out a small, self-deprecating laugh.
"So you really got into the academy with just your extraordinary mana."
But then, Cindy went and said that.
My ears perked up instantly. This wasn’t the first time she had mentioned my mana. She had said something very similar yesterday after our first spar.
I wanted to ask her more about it, but I didn’t want to be too obvious and make it seem like I didn’t know anything about my own body.
"Umm, what about my mana?"
So I feigned ignorance and asked that, tilting my head slightly.
Cindy looked at me like I was some kind of idiot when I asked that. She stared at me for a few seconds, as if waiting for me to laugh and tell her it was a joke. But when she saw the genuinely confused look on my face—she just shook her head with a heavy sigh and started explaining it to me.
"You were the talk of the family when you were born... you have exceptional mana capacity and density. Because of it, you can materialize massive ices in one go and at such speed as well, and with the density of your mana—they’re much tougher as well."
Cindy stated, crossing her arms.
"Everyone under the Frostguard family heard about you and thought you were a genius that appeared once in a century, then all of a sudden—all the talk about you disappeared like a bubble."
She added, looking at the grass.
This was a massive surprise to me. I had absolutely no idea about this specific piece of information regarding Vael’s background. It was never mentioned in the game’s text or his character sheet.
But as I thought about it, it actually made a lot of sense.
That was exactly why Vael in the game was so incredibly good at defending. His ice walls were nearly indestructible in the early stages because his mana density made them as hard as steel. He couldn’t shoot ice, but the ice he did make was massive and incredibly tough.
"Ah!"
As I was thinking of that, it seemed like Cindy suddenly thought of something. Her eyes lit up.
And before I could even ask her what it was—
"Do you think your exceptional mana and your body condition are connected? Like in exchange for your absurd mana; you can’t use projectile magics or something like that. There might be even more restrictions on you that you haven’t discovered yet."
Cindy suddenly blurted out.
"There are some cases like that recorded thoughout the history, and most of them became super strong!"
She followed.
That theory was incredibly logical and highly likely to be the actual case. I was actually thinking along the exact same lines as her. In fantasy stories and games, massive power often came with a heavy trade-off.
’A body that holds too much dense mana might not be able to expel it quickly as a projectile.’
I thought, realizing how deep this world’s magic system actually was.
I don’t know about the part where I might become super strong just like the others who have similar cases to me.
Anyway—
Cindy and I talked about more of that back and forth, sitting on the porch before we actually started our physical training. I asked her various questions about the magic of this world, acting like I was just trying to understand my own limitations better.
And she answered all of it without suspicion, helping me gain more crucial information about this world, the current technology level, the Frostguard family’s history, and many other things that would help me survive at the academy.
She just thought that I was a really pampered young master that’s why I’m so oblivious of such things.
We did this for a while, sharing thoughts and theories, before finally standing up to have our daily spar.
This time, when we fought, I managed to last a little longer before she knocked my weapon out of my hand. I didn’t get knocked out today, which was a huge improvement.
Well... she did hold back more this time.
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My routine continued the next day, the following day, and so on, turning into a steady rhythm that I actually began to look forward to.
Added to my daily schedule was our regular sparring sessions and the long question-and-answer conversations with Cindy. We talked about everything from academy classes to the types of monsters that appeared in the gates.
As we spent more time together, we actually grew quite close.
The cold, distant girl from my first day had slowly opened up, showing a competitive but incredibly helpful side.
Honestly, I was surprised. I had initially thought she would just ignore me and remain entirely passive until it was finally time for me to pack up and leave for the academy. I didn’t expect to make a genuine friend so quickly in this new life.
But having her around made the constant, exhausting training much more bearable.
And just like that, before I even realized how quickly the days were slipping away...
Time passed, the calendar on my phone kept flipping forward, and suddenly--
I only had a week left before the academy started and the main story of [The Star Academy] officially began.