Darkness' Touch

Chapter 22: Coming Back

(The current time)

Avy was already breathing heavily while bathing on her own sweat after running three laps around the training grounds that were approximately seven hundred hundred fifty meters in perimeter. She was glaring at the people who made her do the 'Easy Training' that she was basically staking her life for.

"Are you okay sister?!!! Are you dying?!!!" Light shouted from across the vast grounds where the others were also watching.

"I AM!! NOW SHUT UP!" she shouted back, annoyed.

"I'm cheering you on My Lady!! You can do it!!" Mariel waved her red handkerchief in an attempt to cheer her mistress up.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL IF I DIE!!"

"Seven more laps to go My Lady!" Clerivan responded.

"GO TO HELL!!"

"I think we should let sister rest for a couple of minutes, Raux. Her body is not accustomed to these kinds of things." Ciel told the head chef who had his arms crossed in front of his chest while watching Avy suffer from the training regimen that he gave.

"The purpose of this training is to help her get accustomed to the sensation of having her energy drained to the extent, Young Master, because using Magic does the same thing. I am surprised that the lady could only last for a couple of minutes physically, if she had continued taking Mana control as her first step, her body would've suffered a lot from exhaustion from the inside." Raux told the young Arkwright.

"What you're saying is, you're goal is to make sister run until she drops, is that it?" Light commented.

"Yes, Your Highness. Fatigue and stress cause nausea most of the time, therefore she must've felt no different from earlier if not for the distraction of moving around. However, mana control could only help a person control his mana, but the amount of mana that she accumulated over the past years of not manifesting would harm the body before the Lady could even get used to using Magic. It is like putting a child in an environment where only adults who had lived in there for years could survive." the former assassin explained making Ciel and Mariel look at him in astonishment, as they were living under the same roof as him and never have they heard the chef talk more than three sentences in a row. Just like how he was always described, Raux is a Man of few words.

~~~

"You did great today, Mi'lady." Mariel proudly told her mistress is she clean up all the dirty dishes on the table on Avy's balcony after she ate to her heart's content. She didn't have the strength to go down to the dining hall after taking a bath to clean her body covered in sweat that went through hell, a.k.a. running more than ten kilometers, basically her running for hours until her knees gave out.

"My whole body is sore. My muscles are numb, my legs are shaking, it really was a great day." Avy remarked sarcastically with a fake smile and lifeless eyes staring into nothingness as if her whole life was ruined and her future was taken away from her.

"But you did your best, Mi'lady. You will be able to control your Magic in no time." her maid said with Clerivan standing on the corner, nodding his head in agreement.

"I wonder if I'd still be alive by then." the Lady breathed out on exaggeration. Remembering how she used to sit in front of her desk all day to read a book or create something and the only thing that kept her body working was her crazy uncle's occasional shenanigans. Her dad used to scold the both of them whenever she passes out due to lack of stamina after her uncle teach her self-defense and other martial arts just because he thought it was fun.

"I wonder how's Dad doing..." she muttered. 

"The Lord stated that His grace will be arriving tomorrow night at the earliest, Mi'lady. You need not worry." her Knight answered, not aware of the fact that Avy was really pertaining to her previous father.