NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: Chapter 6 - Making progresses
"Thomas, son, are you alright? "
Hearing his name being called, Thomas breaks out of his stupor before he looks up at Touji. It took him a second to realize that he was on the ground when Touji helps him back to his feet.
"There you go, son. I'm sorry for what my daughter did. We have been trying to fix that side of hers, but alas as you felt, we don't exactly have made any progress."
Thomas blinked at Touji a few times, before he turned red, trying to hide his face in his hands, making the man confused at his sudden reaction.
"Uncle Touji…I-I think Irina hit me be-because of what I've done…"
"Now, Thomas, you don't have to take her side. I know how my daughter can react …"
"No, uncle Touji, it was my fault. When I fell on top of her, I accidentally grabbed something small but squishy. It felt nice and because of that I grabbed it again and again… after that, I looked at Irina and she was all red."
As soon as he heard Thomas's explanation, Touji let out a sigh, before he pat the young boy on his back.
"I take it you didn't do that on propose right?"
"No sir! It was an accident, I swear to God! I even want to apologize to her for hurting her, sir."
"Let's go inside then. I'm sure that my daughter would accept your apology, even if she wouldn't say it or show it."
When the duo walked into the living room, Myra, Touji's wife was trying to calm down her little girl, who just kept crying that she couldn't marry anymore. As soon as she saw her husband entering the room, she threw him a glance, only for him to shake his head before pointing with his eyes at Thomas, who was looking guilty at his new friend. Seeing how guilty the boy looked, Myra realized that what happened was nothing more than an unfortunate accident.
Touji nudges Thomas forward making the boy tremble, but after taking one deep breath, he turns towards Irina and puts his hands together.
"I'm truly sorry for what I have done. I know that I was in the wrong and I'm not asking to be forgiven just like that. If you don't want to be friends with me anymore, I understand and once again I'm sorry. Uncle Touji, aunty, I'm sorry."
Just as Thomas was about to turn around and leave, feeling horrible for what he had done, Irina, who stopped crying called his name.
"Tom, I forgive you, but ne-next time asks!" Before the young boy could comprehend what he had just heard, Irina dashed out to her room leaving a dumbfounded boy alone with her parents. After apologizing for the fourth time, Thomas finally left their home.
Just like that a whole week passed with Thomas coming to play with Irina almost daily sparring with her and even learning some less secret information about the church. It came as a big shock to him when Mars, who choose to remain behind at his grandparents' house told him that he recks of holy magic. However, when he starts to tell the snake what he had done, Mars explained to him that both of the parents, as well as the girl, were either part of the church or somehow related to it.
For some reason unknown to Thomas, Mars refused to go anywhere close to that house, saying that he didn't feel comfortable around something that feels so pure. Instead, he helped Thomas in his daily training on both magic and swordsmanship, and while he couldn't physically spar with Thomas, the boy's new girlfriend filled that gap, leaving only the magical side to him. At first, Thomas didn't care how Mars seemed to know so many things about this different side of the world, but now after almost three weeks of being friends with the cobra, he started to wonder if Mars was just a normal snake that saw a lot of things or if he was something different that just took the form of a snake.
Despite his curiosity, Thomas chooses to trust his friend, and rather than forcefully find the truth, he decided to wait for the snake to tell him the truth himself. After leaving him to do his own things, Thomas quickly made his way toward his new friend's house. As she did for the past week, Irina was already waiting for Thomas in the backyard for their daily spar. Even though he hadn't won once since their first time, Thomas got better at fighting with a sword to such a degree that even Touji started to doubt the boy's words. His progress felt surreal considering that until a week ago, the boy hadn't put his hands on a sword, but here he was paring the strike from someone who had been trained by an experienced exorcist for almost two years.
Today was no different as Irina closed the distance between them and slashes to the left. Unsurprisingly, Thomas parried, but first the first since the two of them start their daily sparring, Irina thrust her wooden sword forward. Caught off guard, Thomas fell to the ground, but he still hold the sword tightly in his hand. However, the chestnut girl didn't give him any chance to recover as she thrust and cut ruthlessly at him. Being forced on defense, Thomas parried desperately and tried to counter, but Irina pressed without yielding, never giving up the initiative, she had gained. After god knows which time he parried her attacks, Thomas finally made a mistake, giving Irina more than enough space for her sword to pass through Thomas's guard. In the next moment, her sword hit him in the face forcing the boy to surrender.
This wasn't the first time he lost, but today was the longest fight he had against Irina which made him happy, after all, he was progressing in one art at least. While Thomas was thinking about how little to no progress, he had made trying to cast the levitation charm, Irina walks beside him and gives him her hand.
"Thomas you are getting better. Soon you will be as good as I am and then maybe we both would join the exorcist program! Together we would be unstoppable!"
If only that could happen. Thomas knew that truth thanks to Touji talking with him about it on his third day at their house.
Thomas just finished his fight with Irina and while she went upstairs to change her clothes, Thomas, who already changed his, was watching some cartoons on the TV when Touji sit beside him.
"I won't beat around the bush, Thomas. Are you aware of what you are?"
For a few seconds, Thomas couldn't believe his ears and because of that he only stared at Touji with his eyes wide open. Seeing that reaction, Touji knew that the boy knew about it, but since he barely used his powers meant that either he couldn't train them or he didn't know how to use them.
"I'm sorry if this sounds harsh or rude, but I need to know if you are an affiliate of some faction or organization. I'm only asking you this because I love my daughter and wife and I would rather not have to deal with some political scheme that might drag us to hell."
"Uncle Touji, the truth is that until two weeks ago, I didn't even know I had powers, but when my parents and I were at the zoo, I somehow made the glass shatter when I tried to look at a snake. Ever since that day, I tried to control my magical powers or use them, but from what little I could research I need some sort of medium to actually cast spells or conjure charms."
Touji let out a sigh he didn't know was holding when he heard that the boy wasn't part of any faction or organization, after all, if that would have been the case, Thomas and Irina would have been forced to stay away from each other due to valuable Irina was to the church and any leak about her location or identity would be life-threatening.
"That's good then. Now, do you know what I am?"
"A priest? I mean you are preaching at the local church every Sunday from what grandma told me."
"Yes and no. I am a priest, but I'm also an exorcist. I won't go into detail about the nature of my occupation, but I'm kind of forced to tell you a little bit about my daughter. You see, Irina is being trained to take my place one day and because of that, once she becomes eleven years old, she would leave for the Vatican where she would get some better training from a superior of mine."
"Uncle Touji, I take it you are telling me this information because we both know that Irina would want me to come with her, right?"
"As smart as always. Yes, and due to the nature of your magical system, you will not be allowed to step foot inside the Vatican unless you either declare war against the whole faction or if you forfeit your system. Only then would you be able to put foot inside of the city?"
"It's a long way until that time. Let's go inside, aunty Myra is most likely done preparing lunch."
Just as the two of them were about to walk inside, they heard Myra's voice.
"C'mon kids, it's time to eat."
Soon after they heard Myra calling for them, Irina and Thomas took a seat around the table and enjoyed a nice, lively meal alongside Myra and Touji. As they ate, Touji start telling some of his stories from when he worked as a field exorcist making the kids curious about his life. Thanks to that, the lunch lasted for almost an entire hour and while Thomas would have loved to spend more time with his friend human friend, he had to get back home to his grandparents because later that day, his father would come to pick him up.
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