"Okay…" Zaos said with a slightly puzzled expression.
Zaos had no idea why his mother said such a thing right at that moment, but in the end, he quickly realized that she had a point. While he more or less had a goal, Zaos wasn't one hundred percent sure that he wanted to follow that path. According to the voice, he had to protect someone, that someone probably was the princess, but Zaos didn't want to spend his life as someone else's watchdog.
Zaos didn't make much progress in parrying a two times more powerful Earth Bullet for the next three weeks. However, his eyes got used to the flying speed of the projectile, and now Zaos barely flinched when his sword was hit by it. On the last day of Merkin's services, Zaos decided to try something else. Instead of just waiting for his wooden sword to be hit, Zaos increased the power of his grip by suddenly moving forward a little bit in the moment of the impact. In the end, his sword and right arm trembled for a while, but Zaos still dropped it after a couple of seconds. As if that wasn't bad enough, the wooden sword cracked, revealing an iron pole inside of it.
"No wonder this thing didn't crack a single time after thousands of those attacks," Zaos frowned.
"It looks like you found an answer to the problem," Merkin said. "Too bad you managed to find it too late. Our training ends here, young lord. You are not half-bad. Someday, if you keep training for four or five days, you might surpass your father."
Zaos frowned after hearing those words that certainly weren't encouraging, but in the end, he sighed and slightly bowed to the old man. While Zaos didn't learn much, he sharpened his senses in the last month, and despite all the failures, the training had been quite fun as well.
"Thank you for your help, Merkin," Zaos said. "I hope to learn more things from you in the future."
"What is that? Why did you have to make this uncomfortable?" Merkin scratched the back of his head. "A brat like you should have been pissed at my words, thanking me for something that was paid for is just too much."
In the end, Merkin left in a good mood. While he didn't know about it, he also helped Zaos with his magic training. He had taught Zaos some tricks like moving one's hand to simulate a symbol that is more difficult to draw. While Lesser Heal only had a single difficult symbol, that still helped Zaos a lot. He was pretty close to achieving his next goal when it comes to magic.
"You did well, Zaos," Lyra said. "We always should thank those who helped us in some way, it doesn't matter if they are low or highborn. Now let me see your hand."
As much as that troubled Lyra, Zaos's hands weren't that bruised as they were when that training started. He wasn't at an age where his hands shouldn't be that tough, but the training made Zaos grow a bit stronger.
Later that night, now that Zaos was feeling more relaxed, he finally managed to use Lesser Heal in less than five seconds. So, he began to feel pretty proud about himself since he had drawn twenty of those magic symbols in such a short time. His hard work really paid off.
"I guess you can learn something else," Lyra said. "What do you want to learn, Zaos?"
"… What do I want to learn?" Zaos frowned. "Shouldn't I learn all the basic spells first?"
"You are really greedy… there are several types of magic, but I only know support and healing spells," Lyra said. "We only have one type of magic book here as well since they are rare and the kingdom's magic school keeps most of them."
Magic school… that was the first time Zaos heard about that. Still, it seemed like a boring place since only kids would be there. Zaos also assumed that at some point, his mother studied at such a place. That was probably why she was so serious about following certain rules. Most likely, the teachers of those places would be even stiffer since they couldn't risk the safety of someone who belonged to such an important family.
"If you want to learn a certain type of magic without going to the magic school, we will have to buy a magic book," Lyra said. "I will try to convince your father, but he shouldn't say no since your sword training is going well."
"What types of magic are out there?" Zaos asked.
"Healing is in the same category as support, aside from that there are four others," Lyra said. "They are fire, water, wind, and earth magic."
"Only that? They seem pretty plain…" Zaos frowned.
"A long time ago I also thought the same, but it can't be helped since few people study magic these days and try to develop new spells," Lyra explained. "Since the demon god use it, most people see mages with doubtful eyes."
"Why? Merkin seems like a good person," Zaos said.
"People fear what they don't understand and we don't understand a lot about magic," Lyra said. "Those twenty-five centuries didn't change that…"
In the end, Zaos felt pretty good knowing that everything that there was to know about magic hadn't been discovered yet. He would feel bored if he could learn everything just by studying some books. In any case, while the other types of magic seemed more offensive-oriented and thus more interesting, Zaos decided to keep studying support magic. If anything, he liked to be taught by Lyra.
"It is okay, mom," Zaos said. "You can teach me all you know about support magic."
Lyra smiled after hearing that. Despite the fact that he was quite curious and a kid who was always in a hurry, it didn't look like Zaos wanted to find a better teacher.