[AELOR’S POV]
Over the past six years, I had been growing incredibly strong thanks to the magical purification of my Essence of the Healer.
During my very first year as a helpless baby, I mostly focused my limited physical energy on mastering my skin-changing talents.
I used all my free time to drastically increase the mental control I held over my powers.
Not to sound completely arrogant, but knowing the future history of this world from my past life, I know for a fact that I am already vastly more powerful than the future Brynden Rivers.
I achieved this incredible magical mastery even at just one year old because I have a powerful tool safely under my belt that he will never possess.
I have the Essence of the Healer.
My absolute mastery works flawlessly due to how my healing aura neutralizes the standard negative consequences of the magical bond.
Ordinarily, the minds of the skinchanger and the animal constantly influence both of their personalities.
If you are just an ordinary skinchanger, the more often you slip into an animal, the more your human mind will eventually have to fight desperately against the primal instincts of the beast.
This fatal flaw is exactly what makes me so much more powerful than any ordinary greenseer.
The Essence of the Healer makes my human mind completely immune to any kinds of negative mental effects or feral traits.
This divine protection allows me to skinchange into countless animals simultaneously without facing any lingering problems or risking the tragic loss of my own humanity.
I genuinely feel that I possess the raw magical strength to violently enter the mind of another human being.
However, I have strictly refused to try doing it during these past six years.
I absolutely do not want to accidentally cripple a human mind and create another tragic situation like Hodor from the fictional stories of my old world.
But even though I refuse to directly possess a human mind, I was successfully able to passively develop this mental ability in a much safer direction.
I have trained my mind to clearly read the true intentions and surface thoughts of anyone standing in the same room with me, making it function exactly like a form of limited telepathy.
Through this passive telepathy, I can confidently confirm that every single member of our massive household is extremely loyal to our noble house.
I have no doubt that this unwavering devotion is largely due to the passive effects of the Essence of the Healer.
Simply being around my magical vicinity gently heals their deep psychological wounds, allowing them to naturally become a much better person overall.
This continuous healing aura directly erased their dark resentments and hidden treacherous ambitions.
Those vile thoughts were entirely replaced by a fierce loyalty toward my mother and me.
I always made absolutely sure that their genuine loyalty did not go unanswered.
I ensured that there was always plenty of fresh food piled high upon their plates.
That generous provision might seem like a very small thing to do in a modern world, but here in these harsh medieval times, a full belly truly means everything to a commoner.
I even made sure that absolutely no one would ever get fatally sick anywhere around our territory.
This perfect health ensured that our valuable manpower would never be hindered by plagues or winter fevers, which was especially vital since I knew perfectly well that my mother had a lot of incoming architectural projects she desperately wanted to finish.
Speaking of my ambitious mother, she had been extremely busy organizing the realm for these past few years.
I could clearly see through my telepathy that she really wanted House Towers to eventually become an extremely powerful house, entirely separate from the political entity and the suffocating control of House Targaryen.
Due to this grand ambition, a lot of things had changed among our growing household staff.
Among all these new faces, I easily claim Rysio as my absolute favorite.
He not only serves as my elite personal guard but also acts as my dedicated tutor for my daily martial training, a grueling routine we started ever since I reached the age of five.
Rysio is an extremely skilled water dancer from the hidden canals of Braavos, remarkably similar to the legendary Syrio Forel from the beloved books of my past life.
He proudly served as the First Sword of Braavos for a lot of glorious years before he was unfortunately replaced by political rivals when his patron Sealord suddenly died.
Rysio remains a dangerously skilled swordsman.
Every single time we sparred against each other in the dusty yards, he would easily be able to outmaneuver my strikes with his blinding speed.
Interestingly, Rysio possesses a particularly different weapon than his peers.
He actually wields a massive greatsword in battle instead of the thin, lightweight blade that the nimble water dancers are traditionally known to use.
He perfectly combined the brutal, heavy strikes of Westerosi knights with the flowing, evasive footwork of Braavos, creating a devastating martial style that I was incredibly eager to learn.
“Come on, young lord, you must control your flow. It truly does not matter if you are not the absolute fastest nor the physically strongest man in the yard. You must master your own rhythm as well. Finding that perfect balance will easily allow you to become vastly better than most of the other skilled fighters in the realm,” Rysio instructed me.
I swung my heavy wooden sword directly at him.
He parried the fierce strike without any visible problems.
However, I immediately followed his sage advice.
I let the gathering momentum that I was experiencing fully guide my body.
I used this flowing kinetic energy to spin rapidly and deliver a sharp stab aimed directly toward his torso.
The attack would have certainly hit him squarely in the chest, but I was forced to freeze when I saw the wooden blade he had smoothly pointed right over my neck.
“Please, I am the one who originally taught you that specific move. Do you honestly not think I would have known exactly how to properly counter it, young lord?” Rysio said provocatively.
He would often taunt me like that just to test my patience and focus.
“I could easily have your tongue removed for that bold insult, you know,” I answered back playfully.
I smirked widely at the older man, and he just smirked right back at me before we clashed our wooden swords together once again in the dusty yard.
“Please do not start telling poor jokes now, young lord. We both know perfectly well that you are not a very funny person,” Rysio teased.
He continued teaching me by actively correcting my physical forms and my martial thinking before any bad habits could fully take root in my muscle memory.
As Rysio would often declare to me, the warrior who finds their own natural rhythm will always win the fight.
I easily understood that this profound wisdom came directly from his deep philosophy of being a Braavosi water dancer.
‘I know I could already defeat Rysio in a real fight.
I am physically stronger than he is and even remarkably faster.
But I would often deliberately limit my raw physical output during these daily sessions.
I do this specifically to ensure that I properly learn the technical skills that Rysio is trying to impart to me.
I know perfectly well that being highly skilled and being brutally strong are two entirely different things.
Mastering both of those aspects will ultimately prove to make me a much better and complete fighter in the long run,’ I thought to myself as we traded heavy blows.
——————- This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
After another grueling hour of intense sparring and martial teaching, Rysio finally ended our training session for the day.
He heard the incredibly loud screech of my dragon echoing from above, and Rysio knew perfectly well that Ancalagon is one hell of a terrifying creature to be around when she lands.
“You have improved greatly once again, young lord. Perhaps you could already join a grand tournament when you reach ten name days, especially with your physical size being so typical for someone much older. Maybe you will even reach the size of a fully grown adult at that young age,” Rysio said as he bowed respectfully in front of me.
He then hurriedly left the training yard to give me some privacy, as the shadow of Ancalagon was noticeably getting larger and larger in the sky.
It was completely obvious that the massive beast was planning on landing directly in the dusty yard.
When Ancalagon finally landed, she immediately pushed her massive scaly snout gently toward me.
Due to the deep magical effects of our skin-changing bond, Ancalagon possesses an incredible intelligence that is remarkably similar to a human mind.
If not for her physical inability to actually talk, I would have easily said that my Ancalagon is extremely similar to Smaug from the fictional tales of my old world.
Only, instead of hoarding gold, she is fiercely greedy for fresh food and endless flying.
She would only ever bother to land in the castle if she genuinely missed my company; otherwise, she would fly away and freely explore the skies all day long.
“You know, you really should not be leaving me completely on my own all day long. What if someone treacherous decides to attack me and kill me? How could you possibly protect me then if you are miles away?” I said directly to Ancalagon.
The great beast simply looked around our immediate vicinity and then turned her piercing gaze back in my direction with a flat stare that could only mean one specific thing.
‘You are literally one of the most heavily protected people in the entire world, you absolute fool.’
I could easily tell that she was thinking this exact sentiment.
I knew exactly what she was looking at.
She was staring at my massive pack of guard animals.
I have a lot of large animals that I had personally bred over the past few years, with my most prominent protectors being a specialized breed of giant dogs.
They are a magical mixture bred from intelligent sheep, herding dogs, and aggressive hunting hounds.
They are rapidly reaching the sheer size of a fully grown mountain lion, packed with dense muscles that allow them to scale our high stone walls without any problems.
Their incredible bite force is the most prominent feature they possess, as their massive jaws could easily bite right through the heavy steel armor typical in these medieval scenarios.
I currently have more than twenty of these fearsome beasts, all of which are equally divided into males and females.
I fully plan to populate them to become the official hunting dogs of House Towers.
“Alright, you win this round,” I said affectionately to Ancalagon.
My unique relationship with Ancalagon is very much like Hiccup and Toothless from the movies of my past life, and both of us are extremely close and deeply bonded with each other.
“Come on, you can go now. I still have to go inside and study. I will see you later tonight,” I finally said after playing joyfully with Ancalagon for more than an hour straight in the yard.
I still have my daily educational session with the resident maester.
He is going to teach me my complex numbers, the High Valyrian language, advanced reading, and so much more to properly lay a solid foundation for my advanced learning in the future.
Ancalagon let out a low groan but obediently followed my words.
She then took powerfully to the skies once again and flew directly to her usual resting spot.
It is the exact same place where the Blood Wyrm Caraxes had stayed in the television show House of the Dragon from my past life, resting right along the muddy shores of the Gods Eye.
She loves that spot because she can easily drink fresh water there whenever she wants.
Meanwhile, the dragon of my mother has mostly stayed in one of the abandoned outer yards that is no longer being used, simply due to Dreamfyre currently nesting and protecting her eggs.
With a tired sigh, I began to walk back inside our sprawling castle, ready to finally begin my quiet studies with the waiting maester.