SOML – Chapter 8: Sarah

Chapter 8 – Sarah

…

Once more, little people packed the room. And a while later, the teacher entered.

He still wore the same clothes and carrying the same book. He glanced around the room before doing the attendance. But his forehead knitted when he found out there was one missing. But it soon smoothened out.

He knew the girl enough to understand why she didn’t come. But he didn’t blame her for her attitude. He wasn’t surprised. He was not as good as his master in teaching; it was easy to see. Children paid less and less attention to his lessons even he was trying his best.

Nevertheless, he needed to continue.

“What is patience…”

This was the only thing he knew. There were teachers better than him. He didn’t even have any training for teaching. It was only because he was the disciple of his master made him eligible to teach.

His name is Von Ruler, someone who took everything by its measure or worth, and also walked in the already paved path. He was an orphan. The man didn’t have any family until he met his master.

He was just like others, begging in the street for small food or coins to satiate his hunger. He was thankful with other people’s alms, but he didn’t trust them even when they showed kindness to him. It was his darkness. He knew it was bad to think of others like that, especially to those giving every time. But he still harbored this idea in him.

Why is it others have more than him?

This thought didn’t even diminish after a long time, and it grew stronger by day. Until his master saved him from darkness.

He was like a sun to him. A sun that came down for him. And for the first time, he had ‘more’ than others. A wealth that no one have other than him. And it was because of this person who made him from being pitied to being respected by people.

“Subira thought about all of her actions. She regrets not being able to do anything for not being able to wait.”

“For all we know, she said. Patience is a person who keeps his attitude while waiting for someone late.”

“Patience is an animal that sleep during winter.”

“Patience is a building built from foundation to its ceiling.”

“Patience is a time of seeing the eclipse once in your lifetime.”

“As for you, what is patience?”

Jigen almost yawn loud. He was twirling his black hair and tapped quietly on his table. The freckles on his face were static. He didn’t seem to have patience, he thought. But he didn’t care. He wanted to go home now. “It is not fun. Eh, Sarah is not here? It seems she has little patience too. Too bad, I can only be a good boy. I can’t copy her or else my old man will badmouth me.”

In his boredom, Jigen scanned his classmates. But it perplexed him that both of his new friends were focusing at the teacher. “Why are those guys looking at teacher with those eyes?” The boy wondered. His eyes kept switching on both Jigen and Ben. Yet, their expression didn’t change at all. Heck, looking at the two, they seemed reaching an enlightenment after hearing the teacher’s story.

This hurt his ego a little. He felt that he was lesser than these two sheep. Thinking about Jed, who was shy and silent, and the stupid-looking Ben who had too much energy, he felt stupider than them.

“Am I stupid? But the lesson is only about patience, right? Why they looked like they understood something?” Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted when Von Ruler mentioned Sarah.

“Everybody knows Sarah as a freak, but do you know her aside from that?” Everybody in the class had confusion on their eyes when they heard it. She hailed from Pendragon. It was nothing sort of miracle for freaks to emerge there, they thought. This only spared Jed and Ben. Jed was an outsider, but Ben didn’t know Sarah too.

“Patience is a virtue that everyone lacks. Everybody just wanted to grasp success easily, losing its importance in the process. And this word, patience, is something Sarah has in abundance.” The teacher looked at the table. It was the papers he had prepared for this morning. But he noted everything was in vain.

 “All of you and most others probably wanted to train in any sort right away because you wanted to grasp power immediately with no cost nor effort, or at least with only minimum effort.” Von felt he was clutching on straws. And it was the last.

“Don’t you know that with all the resources and inheritances the Pendragon Family have, Sarah still not training on any Combat and Spell Art?” A few gasped. Confusion clouded their eyes. Not visible, he put on a wry smile. News was better than stories, yes? He felt his back slouched down.

Exhaling, he continued. “You only see her as a genius, but do you know how many times she chanted each rune-words for each element in the world every day?”

“Probably thousands of times, if not hundreds. And at the same time, she keeps pushing herself on every exercise you can found in the dictionary.” A child who had a knowledge gulped.

“How much you have sweated today? She has gallons of it.” The hand of a girl with short hair and brown complexion trembled. She stared at her teacher; her eyes were blazing with intent.

“Day and night, only training is on her mind. She didn’t complain. No, even her complaining, sneaking, pranking and all of her antics is all because she wanted to train. She always wanted to go in the forest and experience the outside world.”

“You’ve heard what she did, but you didn’t know the process how she killed a Beast.”

“Twelve hours, twenty-four minutes and fourteen seconds. That’s how long the six-year-old girl endured, consumed, waited, and needed in order to kill that Beast.” In that moment, Von’s voice became magnetic.

“She is a freak of hard work.”

“Right now, while you are listening to me, she is training. During the time you are walking or riding to your home, she is training. The moment you got home; she is training. And when everybody else is sleeping, she is training.”

“Based on the news I’ve got; she hadn’t slept for four years already. She is only consuming tonic and nutritious food. Anyone on her place would already be broken, but she didn’t. She is talented, but she is also hardworking.”

“Anyone of you will be lazy to train on your foundation arts and skip to the more outstanding and flashy arts. But Sarah will not.”

“So, I understand her from not coming here.” He exhaled. The clog in his chest lifted slightly.

The class ended once again. However, most people felt strange. His words were still as profound as yesterday’s or as crappy by others’ description. But today was different.

He gave them an example.

They wanted to run and start training, but they also feared by being desperate will only make them less patient.

The person feeling this effect the most was Jigen. Err, from a different reason. It was because of his friends. Jigen felt estranged with this two. One of them run after their teacher while the other pointed towards the library before disappearing. And when he said disappear, Jed really vanished from his view.

“Oh! Quite fast.” Jigen thought. He shook his head. “What a bummer. They are getting worked up over nothing.”

…

A weird scene happened when the students were just exiting the school. A koala—no, a chubby boy clung on their teacher Von’s arm.

“Teacher! Teach me how train on Foundation Arts!” Ben shouted. He stared at Von with burning eyes.

Von patted his chest from shock. Fortunately, he was strong, so he didn’t mind the weight. Though, he minded his appearance.

“Ben, go down first.”

“Aye. Wait! How do you know my name?” Two eyes sparkled. Don’t tell me he was also a strong person! Thought by the owner of the eyes.

Speechless, Von rolled his eyes. He knew, of course. His name was in the applications. After all, there were only several students.

“Get down.” His throat was itchy. But he thought his sideburns were itchier.

The boy beamed. He let go of the arm and acted cutesy. “Okay. But you have to teach me.”

Helpless, Von straightened his collar and sleeves. “Alright. Just follow me.”

“Yehey!” Ben bounced.

The two went toward the rear of the school building. At first, Ben was asking sorts of questions. However, Von kept quiet throughout the journey. His teacher’s silence infected Ben, so he also shut up.

On the distance, they could see an outdoor table and chairs hidden under the foliage of plants. There’s a teapot and cups, utensils, striped table clothes on top of the table. Von headed there, sat with grace and beckoned towards Ben.

“I assume, you wanted to ask about Foundation Arts?” He got a tea bag from the side, put it in the cup and poured a boiling water.

Ben’s eyes shone. “You are really a strong person, don’t you?”

The elder man’s mouth twitched. He decided not to comment on it. “What do you know about Foundation Arts?”

Ben shook his head. “Nothing.”

“So, you only know Combat and Spell Arts?”

Ben scratched the back of his head. “Actually, Sir, I’m ignorant about everything.” He hehe’d.

Von blinked. “Hm. That’s unusual.” His face was peaceful. He patted his book. “Okay, let’s introduce them to you.”

Ben felt at ease. His teacher didn’t judge or pried to his case. “He is a wonderful person.” He thought. In return, Ben used his utmost to listen.

“In the world, we have something called World’s Energy. It was invisible, but we can sense it when training Foundation Arts.”

“But most people like to gain strength immediately and trains on Combat or Spell Arts.”

“Indeed, you can manipulate the World’s Energy by using other arts, but it was accompanied with danger.

“So, Foundation Art is the integral factor you needed to become strong. It enables you to absorb the World’s Energy and it will belong to you. By then, training on other arts will be danger free.”

“The disadvantage of Foundation Art is that it took a long time to train. Moreover, each Foundation Arts has nine levels so you can imagine how long it is. Fortunately, everyone only needed to train up to third level.” Von looked sideways. “You have attempted to train, aren’t you? Then, you should know how hard to sense it.”

“That’s indeed the case.” Ben supported his chin with his hand.

Von nodded. “I can clarify to you it will take time before you can even sense the World’s Energy. It also depends on your talent. So, you don’t need to worry.”

“How long it usually takes?” The boy blinked.

“Untalented people took one year before they can successfully sense the streams.”

“That’s only sensing?” Ben gulped down.

“Yes. But after that will be a lot easier because you only needed to collect the World’s Energy to light up veins or create spell circles.” Von smiled.

…

When Jed arrived inside the library, he went to find four things. First, he searched for a blacksmithing book. This didn’t mean he wanted to become a blacksmith; he just wanted to advance his knowledge because eventually he needed to have his own treasure.

After picking a book, Jed found the next thing–a book about herbs. The book was very thin and its contents are very elementary. It limited to the herbs found in the county. But this already satisfied Jed. He brought the two books with him before searching for the book about geography.

The book he had found only described the counties in the Kingdom of Miracles. County of Hopes and Dreams was very near to the capital county, the County of Miracles. A forest and mountains surrounded county of Hopes and Dreams. Reading this introductory part, Jed concocted a series of plans. Though, a short later, he shrugged and went towards the corner where Ben found the book called Transcendence.

Jed saw the same books Ben had seen. But unlike Ben, Jed knew what these books were.

Combat Arts.

Most families didn’t have Combat Arts and those who have made their Combat Arts as their heirloom. Although Jed had an already inheritance from his parents, he still wanted to look for more basic combat arts. And from the bunch, he only considered the Basic Hope Combat Arts and The Art of Grappling.

One, the Basic Hope Combat Arts, introduced the way of kicking and punching. With this, he could put on a fight. But from his perspective, this was only effective against one or two people. So he picked The Art of Grappling alongside it.

In an actual fight, your opponent won’t take turns on attacking you, they were more likely to wrestle you with numbers before dealing with the finishing blow. But if he understood the basic, then he would know how to deal it.

There were far more formidable characters that knew wrestling than boxing or kicking. Because it was effective against large numbers. And it also helped being able to lift mountains with ease. But Jed couldn’t imagine himself having that ability.

One reason was the limitation of his inheritance.

While the most important reason, pertained to his goal.

Of course, the Art of Grappling was rudimentary and merely talked about how to strangle a solo opponent. But the thought and idea were there. He could get another that would explain further on the course. But this was in the future.

Jed glanced at the sea of books and wondered how the teacher going to fill the missing books. He could only shake his head because there’s no answer. Maybe the teacher was just rich and able to replenish his stocks of books.

Walking down stairs, it was like a light welcoming his future to come.

…

Faso. It was an unfamiliar word, but nonetheless important for her everyday activity. During the entire day, Sarah was training non-stop. She pushed herself to the limit until all of her body could not handle it anymore. She would do this every morning. After that, she rested for a moment before walking towards the courtyard.

Arriving, there were many people already training. Combat Arts, Spell Arts, Foundation Arts… she could see many kinds of training. And without further ado, Sarah leaped on the center and kicked towards one person. The latter was stunned, but he wasn’t flustered at all. In fact, he was used to it. No, everybody was used to it.

Sarah always wanted a sparring partner, but because of her position, no one wanted to be the latter. So, the genius made an ingenious move towards them. Because of that, they couldn’t say no anymore or they would be in a lot of pain for underestimating her.

Sarah didn’t know any Combat Arts or even a Spell Art. All of her techniques came from instinct and quick-but-long term learning. She picked up things and made changes towards the most convenient for her.

She composed her training by three parts: exercising while chanting, sparring and training in foundation arts. During exercise, she would always chant the word Faso in her mind. It was negligible, if not for being her sole concentration. The only thing in her mind. Because of it, she won’t even feel the amount of exercise she’d had done if she didn’t stop. The amount of repetition she had made molded her body of doing things that only adult have–experience.

Sparring was the simplest task she did all day. This where all the experience accumulated. Reading and studying on the Mortal Lands was very rare for the children. It was usually at the prime age that people started their studying. The reason was that being young means they needed to focus on excavating their potential in training. By then, in their prime age, their brains work faster than what their bodies could do.

People could reach hundred times faster than an arrow. Or as fast as the speed of sound or light. So, a brain capable of working faster than that was miraculous.

Most people stayed on their bottleneck for a long time. So they needed something to inspire them. And the most effective way was to understand the world–how gravity works, how to compute logarithm and exponential equation, the black holes, the eternal life, etc. And in this way, they abolished their mortal coil and transcended what normal meant.

Sarah embodied such prowess even though she was only nine years old. Her movement was quite eccentric but nimble. Her opponent could not even close to her unless he used his power. But it would lose the meaning of the sparring. Hence, seeing that this was too easy, Sarah immediately jumped again on another person. By this way, her opponents increased until they numbered in tens.

Panting, Sarah knew she could not win if not for it being a sparring. This was for the sake of learning, after all. The normal leg’s speed, breathing, tempo, accuracy, trembling of muscles, and many more. She was like a super computer, collecting and computing it and integrating them to store all of them into her head. Thus, the experience.

Many people thought she was monstrous existence unleashed upon this world. She knew it wasn’t far from the truth. Hence, she wanted to excavate all her potential to build her foundation.

Seeing up close, the training drew cuts and marks on her toned body. But they were too faint. They were not much visible anymore because of the clan’s pills and tonics. These resulted from every grinding.

Right now, she was too tired to walk, so she rested at the center. But it was too short for a break because she needed to train her foundation arts next.

While others were lazy to train in ‘one’ Foundation Art, Sarah trained in two. Even though all she was doing was basic, she had a big goal and to achieve it, she imposed a very large condition to herself.

There was only a handful of people crazy enough to perfect one Foundation Arts. An individual only needed to be on the third level to train in convenient arts like Combat Arts. But to train in two foundation arts and even perfected them? That was a thought of insane.

But this insane was Sarah.

…

Chapter 7 | Chapter 9