Death Frost | Deathsworn #2

Chapter 20 ❆ 101

Maun took over turning the chicken over the fire when Mistress Kora tired. It gave off that tantalizing and fragrant smell that made water pool in my mouth.

Our time in the camp with the others have been very peaceful so far—so peaceful, in fact, that it was sort of boring. I'd rather have it like that, to be honest. Though this event with the Temple's competition was keeping me busy enough.

"I'm going to the tent to freshen up real quick," he said. Then stood up.

Mistress Kora was not in a prime state. Appearance wise, he was on the haggard side. The herb dressing from the pheasant had stained his old clothes and his hair was up on that messy bun. It wasn't a strange appearance—that was how he usually looked whenever he worked on the garden back in Oblivion.

Of course, considering our living conditions, it wasn't like he had the time or instruments to gussy up at all. I was very interested in his methods—especially since we were outside the House of Oblivion, and this wasn't the sort of occasion that the party he would be targeting would be consciously putting themselves in.

"As of the moment, our neighbors from Vertvalden were in a similarly peaceful state. As Mistress Kora made his approach, I unwittingly began observing the rest of the camp. At first glance, everything was seemingly tranquil—but I felt an underlying current of trouble that ran its course throughout the community. One reason why Mistress Kora had been hesitant to rely on our neighbors too much was probably because they hardly had enough for themselves too. It was amazing they could even be so generous with the things they had, to begin with, especially considering there was so much lack of it.

It made me wonder what kind of lives everyone here lived before they were forced away from their homes. There were many things I didn't know about them. I had been quite hesitant in confronting them before...but as time passed, I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable with accepting the idea that I had to, somehow, face the past I had been taken away from.

Past life or not, these were my people too.

"What is up with this silence?"

We all jumped to attention.

Turning to the sound of the voice, Mistress Veronika had come back. She had a worn-out leather satchel over her shoulder, with one brow raised as she came over to join us before the bonfire. Erenol and I looked away, not knowing how to reply.

"Um..." We both chuckled, speechless.

"You've already burned the food, Maun," she gently reminded.

Maun, realizing he'd stopped turning the pheasant, hurriedly resumed to do so.

"How long until the food is ready?"

"Ten...twenty minutes more?" Maun signed.

"Ten or twenty minutes," I translated for him.

"I see," she said. "I've gone out to find some things to help you with your next fight."

She rummaged through her bag and pulled out some books. "These are materials that I went through a bit of trouble to acquire. Though I'm not expecting you to familiarize yourselves with this in such a short amount of time, I'd like to give you some pointers about the things you can make use from these for the meantime."

"You'll be teaching us, then? Just like before?" Erenol asked, eyes lighting up with excitement.

"Yes. Especially with who you'll be up against," Mistress Veronika replied.

"Aw." Having been reminded of her impending doom, Erenol's shoulders rolled down in dejection. "But at least I don't go down without a fight."

"You're all smart kids. I'm sure you will be able to learn fast if you all try and work very hard, but we're very short on time. Thankfully, none of you will be fighting in the loser's tournament. Based on the previous trend, this should be around two days long. We should have, at the very least, five days. While all those other competitors are fighting, I'll train you in these new techniques I have acquired to further reinforce your skill and ability."

We all nodded.

"This can go two ways," she said. "Either it helps you, or it confuses you to the point that it brings you down. Still, there's room to improve here. So I ask all of you to work very hard, alright?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

We had no choice but to take the risk. It was much better than sitting around and doing nothing to improve the situation. Training in the techniques that Mistress Veronika spoke off would be much better than just scoping out the enemy and finding out about their weakness. The key to winning this thing would both be information and personal ability. Without those two things, we would be losing this tournament faster before we would be able to recover.

Did that mean Mistress Veronika went out to search for stuff that would suit Erenol and Maun? She did mention how it would be unsuitable if they were given skills they weren't compatible with.

"Starting today, every morning, you are to execute thirty repetitions of the Movement before doing anything else."

"Thirty?!"

That was way worse than the training we went through back in Oblivion. Back then, we only had to do five to ten repetitions. That was three to six times the usual amount!

I have revised this chapter previously for offensive content. I understand the previous mention of "turning someone gay" is not right at all and this misconception of mine is damaging. This was probably a result of me reading similar content. I understand that what I read isn't necessarily applicable to real life.

Thank you for the feedbacks. I am going forward with revisions and a learned mind!