Ghoul Evolution

Chapter 44: Your sister hates you

After telling him about the first two forms of balance, Theo asked Oliver to summon his Royal Nectar so that he could show him some basic sword forms that were common to almost every sword style.

Oliver nodded and began to do as he was asked but before summoning it, he couldn’t help but ask,

"What about the third form of balance?"

Theo looked at him for a moment and then let out a small laugh.

"Haha... brother Oliver..."

He shook his head, a hint of amusement in his tone.

"To master all three forms means that you have the necessary qualifications to be known as a Sword Saint."

"Among all of humanity, there are less than a couple hundred who can do that."

He glanced at his own hands.

"Even doing what I just did, with the limited power I have as a Drifter, is enough to get called a genius."

"And as for achieving the third phase? I reckon that you have to be at least a Harbinger and gain your own domain."

Oliver was silent as he took that in.

’A genius, huh.’

Beside him, Korre crossed her arms and looked at Theo with a teasing smile.

"So you are amazing after all, huh...Theo. Weren’t you the one refusing it earlier and saying that you are nothing special?"

As expected, it didn’t take much time for Theo to go from teacher mode to shy mode.

His ears turned red as he looked away.

"I-I never said I was amazing!"

After a little more teasing and fooling around, Theo finally returned to his serious self.

"Alright. Summon your sword."

Oliver nodded and summoned Royal Nectar and hence, a black blade with thin yellow streaks appeared in his hand, radiating a dark and beautiful aura.

He circled around Oliver, observing the blade from different angles.

"The balance of this sword is excellent. Just as expected from a weapon inheritance though the weight distribution is slightly strange and is quite different from the swords that, I myself am used to."

Oliver raised an eyebrow as Theo hadn’t even held this sword yet.

"How can you tell all that just by looking at it?"

Theo gave him a look that suggested that it was common sense to him.

"How can you not?"

Theo then proceeded to demonstrate several basic movements.

A downward slash.

An upward slash.

A thrust.

A horizontal slash.

Each movement was simple and clean and there was no fancy technique and neither any flashy aura that Theo sometimes did.

Yet every motion seemed natural, as if the sword was an extension of Theo’s body.

Oliver stared blankly.

"Ahem...That’s it?"

Theo nodded as he summoned his sword back.

"That’s it."

Oliver looked at his own sword again and then at Theo. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

"But there was nothing special in all this," Oliver said as he looked at Theo in disbelief.

"No special technique, no aura... You mean what you did earlier can be achieved with just this?"

He looked at Theo as if he had just been scammed.

"This...this was literally just swinging a sword."

Theo smiled as he looked at him.

"Exactly and thats all you need"

Oliver suddenly had a bad feeling as Theo pointed his finger at him.

"Now repeat these moments."

Oliver sighed in relief, as when Theo had pointed his finger like that, for a second he had thought that he was gonna ask something super difficult.

’Oh.’

’That’s not so bad.’

"Start by doing them ahh....Ten thousand times."

Oliver froze as he looked at the kid in front of him.

"W-what? T-ten thousand times?"

Theo nodded calmly as if he thought that this was too less.

"I know that is less."

"But considering our situation, we can only spare this much time."

Oliver stared at him in disbelief.

’What do you mean less?’

’Who the hell does this a thousand times?’

"And do remember that it’s ten thousand times each."

And hence, his punishment began.

On the first day, Oliver managed to complete around a thousand repetitions of just one form before his arms gave out.

On the second day, he somehow performed even worse and nearly dropped Royal Nectar into the river several times.

Only on the third day did things finally start improving.

Though, the worst part wasn’t the training, it was Theo refusing to let Korre heal him.

"What do you mean I can’t get her healing effects?" Oliver complained while lying flat on the boat. His arms hurt so much that even lifting a finger felt like torture.

Theo looked down at him without even the slightest bit of pity as Korre giggled at his sufferings.

"Korre’s power won’t just restore your stamina and energy."

He pointed at Oliver’s arm which had reddened from all the repetitions.

"It will also relax your muscles and erase a part of the strain your body is memorizing."

Oliver frowned.

"And how exactly is that bad?"

Theo nodded as he expalained.

"Indeed...It’s very bad. All this training isn’t to make you stronger or to magically make you a master swordsman."

He pointed toward Royal Nectar lying beside Oliver.

"It is to make your body remember."

Oliver looked at him blankly as Theo sighed.

"When you fight for your life, you won’t have the time to think."

"You won’t think..."

"Should I thrust?"

"Should I slash?"

"Should I dodge?"

His expression became serious as he continued.

"Your body must already know the answer."

He tapped Oliver’s chest.

"And to make it remember...you have to let it suffer."

Oliver stared at him for a few moments and then he nodded as he said.

"You are a psychopath."

Theo was confused at this.

"Psychopath? Me"

Beside them, Korre burst out laughing as she heard his accusations.

"I told you!" Oliver pointed at Theo accusingly. "This guy acts all shy and innocent but he is secretly evil!"

Theo rolled his eyes as he looked at him.

"You’ve said that for three days straight."

"And I will keep saying it!"

Theo shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

"Maybe... this is harsh, but honestly, all this is nothing."

He looked at his own palms for a moment before smiling bitterly.

"When my sister used to train me, it was at least ten times worse than this."

Oliver, who had been lying flat on the boat pretending to die, immediately sat up.

"Ten times?!"

Theo nodded.

"She used special potions that had very specific effects."

"Some made my mind recover quickly but increased the pain tenfold. Some exhausted my mind while keeping my body fresh and others did the exact opposite."

He paused for a moment.

"There was even one that made me stay awake for countless days straight."

Oliver stared at him.

"Brother...I think your sister hates you."

Theo’s lips twitched as he slowly shook his head..

"She doesn’t."

Oliver looked unconvinced.

"You sure?"

Theo nodded as he went into remembrance.

"She always told me..."

He straightened his back unconsciously as if imitating someone.

"’If suffering could kill you, then you were never worthy of wielding a sword in the first place.’"

Silence filled the boat for a moment as Oliver blinked.

"..."

Then he looked at Theo with pity.

"Brother...Your sister definitely hates you."