Chapter 55: Becoming an Apprentice
Sebastian didn't stay at home to train his technique, he used the Blue Rose's training room. The sensation that he had felt when using it was something he could not replicate again.
"Why do you look so dissatisfied?" Hound nonchalantly asked while leaning on the doorframe.
"I was told that techniques felt like second nature. You assign a complicated move with a phrase or a word, and that makes it easier to do," Sebastian stabbed the spear into the floor and sighed, "I can't do it at all."
Surrounding him were tens of burnt and broken straw dolls and sandbags. He had been in the training room for several hours but the only thing he managed to accomplish was draining his supply of energy.
Sebastian half-expected Hound to leave Sebastian to figure out the answer alone but contrary to his expectations, she approached him and took the spear.
"Techniques feel like second nature. It means that you can't force it to happen, it will happen naturally. The first time you held a spear, did it feel familiar?"
"No..."
"That's because your skill with the spear is something you honed and trained. You didn't have the innate ability to wield it masterfully at the very beginning. That's what you're forcing yourself to do. A technique is not a skill. It's not a tree that will bear fruit just because you shout at it. Time and the right opportunities, that's what you need to have to create a technique."
Hound was telling him not to rush so much.
"Thank you."
"I don't remember anything that requires your thanks. Anyway, don't you have to catch me?"
"Ah, is it time?"
Sebastian stretched for a bit while Hound leaned the spear on the wall. Unlike Lyons' wooden spear, this one didn't burn.
There was only one door leading outside and there were no windows or other openings. Hound was on the other side of the room while Sebastian blocked the only way out.
There weren't any indications of either of them moving.
"Looks like you aren't as naive as before."
"..."
Sebastian couldn't put down his guard, not even for a second. He also couldn't afford to waste even a single breath.
Without any warning, Hound stepped to the left and Sebastian dashed forward.
"...!"
Just as his hand was about to touch Hound's sleeve, she jumped on Sebastian's shoulder then kicked him away. Sebastian stumbled forward and in the short instant that he took to regain his footing, Hound had already left the room.
"Damn it."
Sebastian clicked his tongue and followed after Hound. The two of them were still in the mansion but since the conditions for his victory were to 'chase' her and not to 'find' her, he knew that she had run outside.
Coincidentally, Wisteria had just returned from outside.
"Wisteria, did Hound come through here?!"
"Hound? Yes. She seemed to be in a hurry—"
Before she could finish, Sebastian already ran past her and into the streets. He quickly spotted Hound in the distance and used a fair bit of his energy to catch up.
Sebastian boosted his speed using flames but he made sure to hide from the citizens. Very few houses could manipulate flames to such a degree, his identity would be exposed in an instant.
Prior to this, he only enhanced his body, much like how the Walt House enhance theirs. However, Hound was still many times faster than him. Although Sebastian didn't know what her ability was, there was a significantly high chance that it had something to do with her body.
There were two common ways of speeding up among 『Inheritors』. The first is to enhance their bodies and the second is to use their abilities to complement their base speed. In the case that their ability was manipulating wind, they can make it so that they face less resistance or they can also push their bodies forward.
Sebastian was using both methods. By enhancing his body and supplementing it with flames, he was able to run two—threefold his regular speed.
But even then, he was still far from reaching Hound's level.
In just ten minutes, Sebastian had lost sight of her and he was forced to return.
...
"And so, you've given up after being outrun twice and come back crawling to me for help."
Wisteria looked at Sebastian with cold eyes.
"..."
Although Sebastian wasn't sure, it felt like she was angry at him running past her earlier without even trying to finish the conversation.
"Umm... Miss Wisteria?"
"What?" Wisteria gave Sebastian a glare which caused him to close his mouth.
After being subjected to silent pressure for a few seconds, Wisteria rubbed her temples and sighed.
"First of all, learn how to breathe properly. With the right breathing method, you'll be able to run even faster and longer. Next, don't be impatient!"
Wisteria leaned forward and knocked on Sebastian's head. It wasn't enough to hurt him but it was enough to make him move his head back.
"Do you know how many years Hound has been training? Do you know how many years all of us have been training? You expect to catch up to us on your first or second try, what else can I call that but utterly foolish?"
Sebastian lowered his head.
"I know. I haven't even trained for half a year yet. I know that it's stupid of me to think I can match the rest of you so quickly, even with talent. But—"
Sebastian stared into Wisteria's eyes with a fiery gaze.
"—ever since I've won against Gilbert. No, it even happened before that too. I've had this feeling that someday, I'd lose everything. With each day that passes, it torments me even more. Being shown the difference between me and the rest made it even clearer.
"I have to get stronger. No matter what. To protect what I have, so I won't have to give it up."
Wisteria had planned to scold him but after sensing the fear in his words, she stopped. She sighed once more and leaned back on her chair.
"Many years ago, when I was even younger than you, I felt it too. With each day I felt the warmth of my parents' embrace passed, the feeling magnified. Until one day, my fears were realized. I came back home to my home covered in blood, my parents' blood was strewn across the room and their bodies were left to rot."
Though she narrated a sad tale of her past, her expression didn't change.
"...If you want to get stronger to avoid what's about to happen, then I'll support you. But, what you need is time. You will provide me with time, and I will turn you into a capable fighter and an assassin."
Sebastian looked at her firm gaze and asked, "will I really be able to avoid the misfortune?"
Feeling like she had no need to lie, Wisteria shook her head, "I doubt it. But, with strength, you'll be able to deal with the aftermath much smoother. At the very least, you won't have to go through what I did, as a penniless and homeless little girl."
Wisteria stood up from her seat and stretched, "be prepared to face hell."
...
Sebastian leaped through one of the windows and jumped onto the roof. Then, he used the stigma to throw a small dagger at Hound who was running in the distance.
He didn't stay to watch the dagger and continued his pursuit.
Quite a bit of time had passed. Six months since he began training, and three months since Gilbert's defeat.
Wisteria trained him for a short while and then gave him exercises to do every day. True to her words, Sebastian really felt like he was dropped in hell when their training began.
He was beaten senseless while wearing a blindfold. Wisteria told him that sight was unreliable at times and he needed other ways to sense his surroundings. After that, she made him wear weighted clothing close to reaching a ton in weight and had him run around the city several times.
When his exhausted body finally reaches the mansion, he would then be subjected to more battles against Wisteria and occasionally, beasts until his entire body was tattered. He had to send a message to his mother and Amy plenty of times, that he was staying over at a friend's place. But, in reality, he was just recuperating from the wounds given to him by the training.
After surviving through all that grueling training, Sebastian was now at the very least, able to keep up with Hound.
Although Hound was fast, Sebastian found out during his training that Hound didn't have an ability that made her faster. It was the byproduct of her hard work. He was able to close the gap between them to ten meters using his stigma and then he threw daggers at her to slow her down.
Of course, he made sure that the daggers wouldn't accidentally hit any civilians.
'I won't be able to catch up at this rate...'
Sebastian narrowed his eyes and coated a dagger in energy and threw it at Hound. It shot out like a bullet and Hound, who was leisurely running ahead, turned around at the sudden sense of danger and deflected the dagger.
"..."
She stopped for a second to look at Sebastian before continuing her escape. She could no longer take him lightly. He was leagues ahead of when he first started.
However, even though he had definitely improved, he still hadn't reached Hound's level.
Sebastian returned back to the mansion to begin his next training session but contrary to his expectations, Wisteria had a solemn look while staring at a single parchment in front of her.
"Sebastian, we're going to stop your training for a while. Call everyone in the mansion and have them here in five minutes, we have an emergency."
An emergency.
Wisteria had never used that word to describe anything. Sebastian clenched his fists.
He had just become an Apprentice and now an opportunity had come to test his skills in the fullest. Fortune comes before misfortune, indeed.
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