Although it had been difficult to take even a single proper step, even that eventually yielded to Mitchell’s relentless efforts.
Thanks to that, after two days, he had reached the point where he could perform the footwork from beginning to end without falling over.
If he kept training like this, he should at least be able to walk like a normal person within a few days.
The problem was that someone who interfered with Mitchell’s training had started following him a little while ago.
Clatter, clatter—
A carriage moved slowly along with a steady rhythm. A familiar voice came from inside.
“How long are you planning to keep walking around like some colt?”
“.......”
“Whew, I went through all that trouble sneaking out, but when are we ever going to arrive at this speed?”
“.......”
“By the way, we definitely need to stop at the inn nearby. That’s the last inn.......”
“Would you shut up already?!”
Mitchell finally snapped at Grant’s endless chatter and shouted.
“And what do you mean, you snuck out?! Can’t you see the guards sitting up front?!”
The driver’s seat Mitchell pointed at held the two guards who had accompanied Grant.
Their presence was anything but ordinary, and both seemed to be at least Grade 4 Aura Users.
“It’s fine. These guys wouldn’t have said anything. Right?”
“We did not say that you were heading for the Demonic Region.......”
Even as he answered Grant, the guard subtly averted his gaze.
‘They told him.’
Yet Grant apparently believed him and smiled brightly.
Watching him, Mitchell muttered under his breath.
“I can’t tell whether he’s stupid or naive....... He’s perfect prey for a scam.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing. I said you’re amazing.”
“I feel like you just insulted me....... Anyway, you’re planning to keep going like that all the way to the Demonic Region, right?”
“Yeah, so stop interrupting my training.”
At Mitchell’s words, Grant nodded and climbed down from the carriage.
Then he began walking, using movements identical to the footwork Mitchell was practicing.
“You’ve been doing Ghost Soul Steps and the Forgotten Soul Movement Art since earlier, right? Looks like Father taught them to you. I’ll move alongside you, so whenever something isn’t working, watch me and use it for reference while you train.”
This guy really was a good guy after all.
He was willingly going through all that trouble just to help him.
Moved by Grant’s consideration, Mitchell said one thing.
“Sorry.”
“Huh? For what?”
“For saying a little while ago that you’re the perfect type to get scammed.”
“.......”
“Ah, and I’m sorry for saying I couldn’t tell whether you were stupid or naive.”
Mitchell pushed Grant in the back after he stopped dead at those words.
“Come on, hurry up. I need to watch you.”
“I’m not doing it!”
“Seriously, I said I was sorry. You’re a grown man, and you’re sulking over that?”
“You expect me to hear something like that and still.......”
“How did Heaven-Breaking Annihilation work again?”
“.......I should help. You apologized, after all. Yes, of course.”
And so Mitchell and Grant slowly continued forward while performing Ghost Soul Steps.
One step at a time.
Whenever Mitchell’s footwork became tangled, he watched Grant moving beside him and reconsidered what he was doing wrong.
Grant’s actions certainly did help.
It was better than struggling alone as he had for the past two days.
[That descendant of mine is proving utterly unhelpful.]
Grant unknowingly earned Calian’s displeasure because of it.
Well, Mitchell did not care.
It was not as though the two of them were ever going to talk.
With Grant continuing to help him along the way, they eventually arrived in front of an inn.
“This is the last inn. After this, there isn’t another village until you get close to the Demonic Region.”
“Really? Then we definitely need to stop here.”
The village was located farther inside, so it seemed best to buy whatever supplies they needed at the inn before moving on.
Things would probably be more expensive, but after seeing the balance in his account recently, Mitchell was not particularly worried.
When he opened the door and stepped inside, the interior of the inn came into view.
It looked similar to the rural inns Mitchell had seen on his way north.
The building and interior style were somewhat different, but it had the same simplicity and coziness.
Grant entered behind him, looked around, and sniffed the air.
“Wow, that smells incredible.”
A savory aroma filled the inn, apparently from preparations for dinner.
Once they sat down, a young male server approached and took their order.
“I’m going to the bathroom for a bit.”
While they waited for the food, Grant headed for the bathroom.
That left only Mitchell and the two guards at the table.
Earlier, Mitchell had been too focused on training to pay much attention, but now that he saw them up close, the two men looked exactly alike.
Judging by their appearance, both seemed to be in their mid-to-late thirties, so even their ages appeared identical.
“Are you twins?”
“That is correct. I am the older brother, Raidric, and this is my younger brother, Bendric.”
He pointed with his hand as he spoke, but Mitchell doubted he would notice even if the two switched seats.
“I remember your faces, but we never exchanged names. I’m Mitchell.”
“Haha, who in the Runei Family does not know the name Mitchell these days? Besides, we were there when we first fell into that trap as well.”
Now that he mentioned it, Mitchell remembered them.
When Mitchell had first met Grant in the forest, they had been among those fighting bravely at the forefront.
“Oh, I remember you!”
Mitchell happily exchanged greetings with them, then abruptly asked something that had been bothering him, still smiling.
“But you did tell the Family Head, right?”
“Yes....... The Eldest Young Master would not listen no matter how much we tried to persuade him, so we sent a carrier pigeon.”
Of course they had told him.
It also sounded as though they had already tried quite hard to persuade Grant.
Grant simply had not listened.
However, there was one thing Mitchell did not understand from Raidric’s words.
Grant was not a child.
He was also quite skilled.
If Kayden had still assigned two experts to protect him, there had to be some other reason behind it.
Mitchell stared at the two of them and narrowed his eyes.
“But why are the two of you guarding Grant?”
“Well....... It’s because of the remnants of Rapel. It’s nothing serious.”
Bendric hesitated as he answered, but Raidric cut his younger brother off.
“Let us just tell him properly.”
“But the Family Head told us not to say anything.”
“I have a bad feeling about this. I think it would be better to tell him everything and ask him to persuade the Young Master.”
“Ugh, you really have a bad feeling?”
When Raidric nodded, Bendric’s expression darkened.
Mitchell had no idea what they were talking about and could only stare blankly at them.
“I have fairly good instincts. Whenever I get a bad feeling, something really does happen. In any case, the reason we were assigned as guards is because Barke is still alive.”
“Barke?”
Mitchell thought over the familiar name for a moment before remembering who it belonged to.
Was that not the Martial Corps Commander of the Rapel Family?
Seeing the surprise on Mitchell’s face, Raidric continued.
“After the battle ended, they went to recover Barke’s body, but apparently it was gone. There was also an empty potion bottle nearby.”
“That means.......”
“Yes. It seems Barke disappeared with the remnants of Rapel.”
“Ugh.......”
“And since the Eldest Young Master was the one who defeated Barke, we were assigned to accompany him in case Barke seeks revenge.”
That certainly seemed quite possible.
Mitchell’s expression darkened at the seriousness of the situation.
“How can I help?”
“Please persuade the Eldest Young Master to return to the Family.”
“Wouldn’t it be enough to tell him about Barke?”
“Well....... It seems the Family Head is worried that the Eldest Young Master might instead do something rash and try to capture Barke himself.”
‘I don’t think he’d do that.......’
The Grant Mitchell knew was not stupid enough to charge headfirst into danger.
He had only run around doing dangerous work because Kayden had tasked him with the matter involving Chief Steward Hail. Otherwise, he probably would not have done anything so risky.
‘Even when we infiltrated Rapel, he seemed like the type to prepare pretty thoroughly.’
Though it had turned out to be a trap.
Either way, Mitchell could certainly persuade him, but the whole thing suddenly felt more troublesome.
“Okay. I’ll talk to him.”
Mitchell nodded and began eating the food that had just arrived.
Grant happened to return at that exact moment and shouted when he saw him.
“What the hell! You started eating without me?!”
“Right here.”
Mitchell picked up a piece of lamb from the table and stuffed his mouth full.
It was Grant’s punishment for making things troublesome for him.
***
After dinner and his evening training, Mitchell was drenched in sweat.
[You are getting fairly good at it now.]
“It’s thanks to Grant.”
Mitchell could feel that his proficiency had risen thanks to seeing Grant demonstrate Ghost Soul Steps and the Forgotten Soul Movement Art on the way to the inn.
That was especially true of Ghost Soul Steps. Though still clumsy, Mitchell could now imitate the underlying principle of unsettling the spirit and strengthening the soul.
[Hmph. If merely having someone demonstrate it beside you were enough to help, every Family would conduct its training that way.]
“Grant said it helped him when he was training.”
[That is a different matter.]
Simply being able to perform the footwork correctly and being able to draw out its underlying principles were two different things.
To perform footwork imbued with those principles, what mattered above all was understanding the flow of Aura and the principles themselves.
In that regard, both Grant and Mitchell were geniuses.
Of course, Calian had no intention of praising them unnecessarily, so he changed the subject.
[In any case, the two of you are the strange ones. More importantly, send Grant away quickly. He does not seem likely to help your training in the slightest.]
“Okay. I’ll tell him when I go upstairs later.”
Mitchell trained Ghost Soul Steps a little longer before heading up to the room he had taken on the inn’s second floor.
He planned to sleep here tonight, then begin training in earnest tomorrow as he made his way toward the Demonic Region.
‘First, I need to send Grant back.’
Mitchell shook his head slightly and headed straight for Grant’s room next door.
Grant was still awake, maintaining his weapons.
“Oh, what is it?”
“I have something to tell you.”
“Something to tell me? Don’t tell me you’re finally going to teach me Heaven-Breaking Annihilation?!”
Mitchell clicked his tongue.
Grant’s head was so full of Heaven-Breaking Annihilation that Mitchell wondered how he had managed to endure the entire past week while Mitchell focused on his own training.
‘Well, I have been putting it off for a long time because my own training was urgent.’
He felt a little guilty, but quickly pushed the feeling from his mind.
He was going to teach Grant everything eventually anyway. A slight delay was hardly going to cause a disaster.
“That’s not it. Why don’t you just go back to the Family?”
“Why all of a sudden? Is this because I snuck out?”
“You’re not a kid. What are you doing running away from home? Get proper permission and come back.”
Mitchell figured that if he could at least send Grant back, Kayden would take care of the rest.
Grant, however, had no idea what Mitchell was thinking and shook his head.
“Forget it. Father even assigned guards to me because of the remnants of Rapel. Like he’d ever give me permission.”
“What? You knew about that too?”
“Of course I did. But the remnants are just small fry anyway. What danger are they supposed to pose? And I knew Father would worry, so I didn’t even ditch the twins when I left.”
As expected, Grant knew nothing about Barke.
‘This is going to make persuading him even more annoying.......’
So Mitchell decided to simply tell him outright.
“Barke’s alive.”
“What?”
“They checked after the battle ended, but Barke was gone. The Family Head thinks Barke is hiding somewhere with the remnants.”
“.......”
Grant sank into thought.
He was probably piecing the situation together in his head.
After a moment, Grant finally spoke.
“Tch. If Father had told me that from the start, I would’ve stayed put. Why didn’t he tell me?”
“That’s your own fault.”
“What is?”
“You got tricked like an idiot and walked straight into Rapel. He’s probably worried you’ll do something similar again.”
“No, that was because Father told us to.......!”
“Anyway, just in case, I’ll tell you this. If you wake up tomorrow and go straight back to the Family, I’ll teach you the complete Heaven-Breaking Annihilation.”
Grant scratched his head vigorously.
“You don’t need to say that. I’m going back anyway.”
“Good. Then I’ll teach you after I finish training in the Demonic Region.”
“Oh! You promise.”
Grant held out his hand, and Mitchell took it.
Both of them were smiling.
Calian clicked his tongue at the sight.
[Disciple, it is all well and good to indulge in such embarrassingly youthful camaraderie, but should you not pay attention to what is happening outside as well?]
“......?”
Just as Mitchell wondered what he meant, the window shattered and a flaming arrow flew inside.