Times New Roman

Times New Roman 6 – Suffering Montage

​?

Archen​​

The first sunlight breaches gently through the slightly opened curtains, while the staff of the orphanage makes us a delicious and nutritious breakfast once more. With the blasted rooster gone I am able to have a morning devoid of noise.

...I wish.

I was woken up to tendrils of shadows and wood taking me off my bed and dragging me to the courtyard, only to be unilaterally dropped at the bench to wash up and prepare myself.

I got in my last free meal of breads, fruits, and meats, after which I had to chase it down with a smoothie-like drink tasting of earth, that I would have to drink every morning and evening.

While I was drinking the suspicious liquid, she explained to me that from now on I would have to either be at the courtyard by sunrise or get increasingly harsher wake-up calls.

I'm not going to lie, getting dragged by tentacle-shaped protrusions already had me terrified, but finding out she considered this entire morning a gentle way to wake someone up bodes a lot of bad mornings for me.

So far everything has been somewhat harsh but I still could accept it as fair and non-abusive. This quickly changed once I finished my meal and she was going to give me a tour of her domain.

First, we went to visit her 'food garden,' the place she keeps some of her farm animals and wild plants to grow without oversight for when she needs them.

"What am I actually looking at?" I just asked her with pants-shitting terror as I overlooked what I can only describe as a forest of death.

"This?" She happily asks, while she continues talking about it in a voice of a mother boasting about her children. "This is my little free-range garden. I keep most of my farm animals in this area, the natural environment and different biomes give them a delectable taste."

Yes, garden...

I think I just saw a huge oak tree use its roots to drag a sheep with metal wool and sabretooth teeth to its gaping maw.

With complete disregard for my fraying sanity, she adds, "here you will learn the essential skills of foraging and hunting all kinds of critters."

The more she is underselling the forest of doom as some kind of allotment garden, the higher my fear goes.

"So, without further ado, let's start our first nice and fun hunting lesson!"

All the casual sadism you are showing me, teacher, is not a good look. Please tone it down.

...

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Teacher, why is the grass in your garden trying to kill and eat me? Grass isn't supposed to move like a swarm of angry piranhas and it is definitely not supposed to jump out of the ground and try to bite my face off.

Teacher, why is the water of the rivers filled with giant lily pads that if you try to step on instantly turn into monstrous mouths that swallow you whole?

Teacher, why are your 'chickens' able to breathe fire and fly on dragon-like wings?

Teacher, why do the rabbits around here have antlers and wings while shooting bolts of lightning?

In the end, all I managed to forage for food in the first lesson is a sack filled with mushrooms. According to her they are a delicacy that tastes just like meat. I wonder, is it due to the teeth at the bottom of their caps that snap shut if you touch their stem?

One thing that has been made abundantly clear this morning is that I will be forced to go into debt for food.

I would have never thought...

Next, we walk past a massive fruit garden and vineyard, she explains that if I ever wish to trade for food, I can collect a few bags of fruits and exchange them with her for meat.

On the one condition that if I ever break any parts of the trees while collecting the harvest, she will break the same number of bones.

I wish she was kidding...

As we walked through the garden, I noticed the insects that are pollinating the trees and I suddenly understood the problem of this task.

The insects were the size of my torso, having to fend off the giant bugs, combined with all the other rules, is going to be a headache and a half.

At least, it can't get much worse, eh?

After she showed me my main two outing spots around the castle and warned me to never leave the area of the castle that is bathed in the glow of her spires. Until, at the very least, I reach 'high class' level of strength.

Whatever high class means anyway, it does sound somewhat recognizable. Which means nothing good as far as I am concerned.

With the customary tour finished, she brought me back to the courtyard to start my conditioning in earnest; while walking there, she explained the method to her training.

"Student, we start your training today. In a controlled manner, we will increase the total resistance your body can handle by slowly increasing the gravity on your entire body, while at the same time giving you metal bands around certain muscle groups to make all your actions cost more effort."

It's fucking gravity training; I've read about this and it always seemed so cliche and easy.

It's absolutely not easy. Everything hurts and moving sucks.

"This will slowly become your new normal until we increase it again and again."

Yep, I'm starting to notice a pattern.

"Stand in the middle of the arena and we can begin the second part of this exercise."

"Do I have to do pushups or something while being under higher gravity?" Why do I even ask, she's going to explain it anyway, curse my need to engage in conversation.

"There is no point in doing movements that will see no use in combat, no student, you will stand there and dodge." She answers matter-of-factly, my interest in the training is noted and accepted.

I'm afraid to even ask this, but I have to know. "Teacher, what kind of projectiles?"

She does a slow and deliberate ponder, as if she hadn't already planned out exactly the kind of torment she was planning to put me through.

"No, no student. You misunderstand, I am going to strike you with either my spear or a flying object."

That doesn't sound too bad...

"But if it seems you keep getting hit by the thrown item, it means that you are not motivated enough to dodge them. To combat this kind of behavior, I need to increase the danger of my shots." Her tone of voice doesn't betray anything, but the look in her eyes tells me everything.

I better dodge good. But thinking about what she just said...

"So, does that mean I can get rewards for doing exceptionally well in training?"

It would be awesome if she would give me free food if I complete her trials. Having to constantly save energy to gather food or cut in my sleep budget sounds like not a good time.

Her countenance completely changes to something immensely seductive as her eyes sharpen and her entire persona flips.

With a voice dripping with honey and sugar, she stalks towards me and whispers "ohoho student... it seems you want other forms of encouragement as well, huh. Not only the stick but the carrot is needed for people to give it their best after all."

As I stand rooted to the ground due to the increased gravity, as she stalks over to me, I can't help but think I either got a random success or made one hell of a mistake.

She drapes herself over my body from behind, my head between two pillows made of the softest clouds. They feel like a d-dream come truth.

Fuck. I've had sex with a woman before and I know what seduction sounds like, but she is on a completely different level and combined with my puberty brain I'm not going to be able to handle anything she throws my way.

ABORT.

"What kind of carrot do you mean?"

FUCK.

She laughs throatily in my ear, and she slowly and softly whispers "maybe... if you manage to impress me. I'll... "

Her voice lowering into a purr "give you..."

And she softly nips my ear, "some food."

As she steps back around and faces me again, while smirking heavily and looking me up and down, especially focusing on my lower body to hammer in the shame.

I just swallow heavily and hoarsely say, "yes, that's exactly what I meant."

She laughs heartily at my mortified state and turns serious once more.

"Prepare yourself student, we start now." As she throws a fucking rock at my face.

?It's already been about a week of body conditioning and I've gotten into the rhythm of the place fairly easily. It's a wonder how fast humans can adapt to new conditions.

Today is something new though. Teacher has decided that we start my esoteric training. She wants me to start using all my staff's applications in everything I do, to make it second nature.

From now on, every time she calls me student, she's going to throw a rock at me and I will have to use any of my powers to negate it, but never the same one back-to-back.

I never realized how often she calls me that until she started emphasizing it with identified flying objects to my face. Still, her calling me her student feels oddly invigorating.

?

It's been a few months of rigorous training. I've progressed swimmingly in everything so far. She mentioned that I am at a 'low level' now.

After getting increasingly tedious exercises and rocks thrown at my face to help me train my gift, she has decided that, 'yes, you are getting better at using your staff. So, how about we take it away from you now.'

Like bitch, what the fuck? Are you going to steal my soul? How else am I to lose, after all the explanations I got, an integral part of what is keeping me together?

"Student."

I speed up my senses to quickly understand my situation. After noticing all four knife-shaped rocks coming at me from the four cardinal directions, I slow down all of them while outright stopping one of the oncoming weapons.

The other three increase in speed and continue their path towards me. I phase a few seconds to the future and back, managing to arrive at the back of one of the rocks without it touching me.

My sudden movement makes the last two knives home in on my new destination. As I point my staff at one of the two, I shoot a blast of temporal energy, breaking it into fine sandy pieces, while making a small space with my other hand where time is looped to catch the last one in place.

"Good job, student." I hear suddenly from behind me, my awareness of everything around being overwritten by whatever bullshit trick she pulled out of her ass this time.

And of course, praising me while calling me her student doesn't take away from the training, so predictably, I get swept off my feet by the butt of her spear and fall heavily on my back again.

While I lay there, she kneels next to me and slowly puts her hand on my chest while mumbling multiple runic words back-to-back. Her saying one word usually ends in pain. Her uttering more than one means disaster.

With the last of her whispered high-speed incantation, I feel a disturbance in the force, as if a core part of my being has been sealed away.

...No, it can't be. My true and faithful companion has been stolen away. Is this what they call NTR?

She stands up and tells me, "Yours is a bit more stuck to you than the others I worked with. Instead of completely taking it out, I just limited what you could do with it."

"Today we start your foray into magic use without the boost of your stick. I already have a hunch about your esoteric affinities, but to be completely sure, we are going to do a ritual to find out."

She summons a whole bunch of crates to the courtyard and starts taking out medical herbs and incense. Various effigies of wood and stone. My increased sensitivity to 'magical energies' pings these items as something massively potent.

Once she has all the components, she waves her hand dispassionately and a section of the yard becomes flat and even, completely cleaned of all the debris.

She first draws a circle with a suspicious red viscous liquid while adding lines forming a triquetra. At each point of the drawing, she adds various symbols, from the triple moon to the sun wheel.

Watching her prepare a ritual is an entrancing sight. The way she moves while drawing the symbols is bewitching. When she bends over to draw the lines, her body contorts in provocative ways.

As the candles and incense are lit, the entire area is bathed in shadows and smoke, giving it the feel of an open field surrounded by a misty forest. Even the ambiance of the literal hell plane feels less provoking than this little clearing.

"Now, strip."

She doesn't wait for my response, already taking off her bodysuit. After having been around her for a while, you get used to being naked. Seeing her disrobe is still something that gives me pause every time it happens. Perfection deserves its due.

My pause never goes unnoticed. Usually, it doesn't matter, but now it seems the ritual has priority over my reactions.

"Student."

I instinctively duck under whatever she threw at me.

"Gawk later. I've bathed you more often than you have bathed yourself since arriving here."

Yes. Training until I either faint or get knocked out each day is really done by my own choice, not something that happens due to teachers who keep pushing.

"Stand in the middle of the triquetra, and I will start." She continues.

As I stand in the center of the ritual, watching her perform some kind of dance while chanting words in a language long forgotten, I feel an onslaught of visions assault me.

From tiny elemental particles circling around me, to a massive hourglass towering behind me, casting everything in its shadow. A single green leaf radiating vitality on my forehead to a fairly large planet orbiting me.

I think all the mushrooms I've been eating here have given me one hell of a trip.

I snap to clarity to see my teacher inspect me and whatever her ritual actually accomplished.

"It seems like most of my guesses were correct, but it's a nice surprise to find out that you have a small affinity for Norse magics."

She means the leaf, I think. Its vitality was unordinary, probably a fraction of the whole tree.

Continuing on, "Outside of that, your elemental affinity is minor at best. Even with training, it would never amount to much. On the opposite side of the spectrum, your main affinity is time, with a minor affinity for space. Given your sacred gear, that was a fairly obvious outcome."

Sacred gear... I recognize that word, but from what?

"Don't bother with other types of magic. Your main affinity is so huge it blots out any chance of you picking it up." She doesn't give me time to contemplate the feeling of recognition.

"Your staff works on the principle of enhancing and preemptively giving you access to powers you should be able to achieve on your own." Her smile sharpens at this.

"This means that everything you've been able to achieve so far with it as a crutch, you should be capable of doing without."

Fuck. I see blobs of water and dirt begin to form into spikes of mud.

"So, student. From the top."

Thus, I run from the witch.

?

It's been approximately a year and a half since I arrived here, and with time and experience, some inconsistencies have started to crop up. And I have some questions that need answers.

Yesterday, she declared me to be "in the middle of the pack," and I see this as a perfect opportunity to try and get her to answer some of them.

"Teacher! I've come to bargain." A direct approach, let's see if the bitch of Dún Scáith plays along.

"Student." Arrows materialize mid-air, and I freeze them instinctively. Her voice carries a lazy amusement. "What have you to offer, and what is it you demand?" She lounges on her throne, watching me like a cat observing a particularly interesting mouse.

"I wish for a conversation. One where my questions are answered." My confidence has grown, I've been through enough trials here to know that if I want something I should work for it. Confronting her head one is her favorite type of behavior.

"Oh?" Her eyes glimmer with mirth as she takes me in. My body may look the same, but we both know it has become far stronger. "And what do you have to offer in exchange for my wisdom?"

All I have of value are my experiences, specifically my memories of my transformation, transmigration or whatever it actually was that happened. That alone might intrigue her enough to grant me this request.

"My memories about the transformation I underwent."

She sits up slightly at this, interest sharpening her features. "Ready to finally talk, eh, student?" Her voice carries a pleasant lilt.

I stand still as dozens of small metal balls try to pelt my body, phasing through harmlessly.

Getting real tired of your shit, teacher.

"Very well, open your mind to me, and I will determine how many questions your memory is worth." Her tone is still teasing, but there's an edge of sincerity beneath it.

As far as I know, she has never read my mind before. Apparently, my face is "too expressive" for my own good, and she finds guessing my thought process far more entertaining.

I feel a knock in my head, like an ethereal hand knocking on a door. I don't know how I know, but I just do. All I have to do is open it.

The experience is odd but not invasive. She rifles through my memories for only a few minutes, and unlike what I expected, nothing surfaces in my own mind. I simply focus on not thinking horny thoughts.

"Ah, that's how it is," she murmurs, her presence withdrawing. I feel her leave my mind and I feel her 'closing' the door behind her as she exits.

Then, with a wicked smile, she delivers a verbal gut punch, shattering all hopes of a serious discussion.

"It seems... that my little pupil has a crush on me."

My brain grinds to a halt. I didn't think she'd bother looking at the recent memories. I assumed she'd only be interested in the ones related to my transformation, since she would have been there to witness my training first hand.

"Don't worry, student." I bat away a stone spear she lazily flicks at me, purely on instinct. "Once you've become a formidable warrior, your next phase of training will begin." Her voice turns sultry, the shift in tone making my spine stiffen.

She moves like a predator—stalking over with a slow, deliberate gait, circling before stopping behind me and just as a tiger she pounces.

Grabbing hold of me, she drags me toward her throne. Before I know it, I'm seated between her legs, my head resting against her chest. One of her hands trails over my torso—slow, deliberate. The other slides down my leg.

"Was it really just information you were after…" Her breath is warm against my ear, her body heat pressing into mine. "Or were you hoping to celebrate your promotion differently?"

God damn it.

Temptation, thy name is Scáthach.

I sigh, long and heavy. Priorities. Priorities.

"I wanted answers, teacher," I reply steadfastly. Everything is a test.

Her fingers continue their slow exploration, but she hums in amusement. "I've decided on the reward, your memories earned you three answers, my pupil. Use them wisely."

I hum back, taking a moment to compose myself before asking an inconsequential question to buy time.

"Before I ask… why did you look at the recent memories, weren't you there to witness..."

She doesn't even let me finish. "One answer is for the memories before your 'arrival,' the second for the manner of your arrival, and the third for me looking at your recent memories."

That's… an insanely good deal in my favor. I won't think too hard about the implications of 'memories from before my arrival.' Fuck em.

I have more than three burning questions, but I should pick the most pressing.

"What did you mean when you said I was non-human? It's been weighing on me the most."

She leans back slightly before answering, voice turning clinical. "Your body was made with state-of-the-art technology. A group of people meticulously combined genes from legendary warriors to create the perfect super soldier. You are a byproduct—a failed experiment of an artificial human, one created without a soul. That makes you a homunculus."

…That's fucking depressing.

I push past it. There's another question eating at me.

"Why have I been unable to grow since arriving here?"

A chuckle. "It took you long enough to notice that, student." A spear rockets toward our heads, and I quickly murmur, "Jera," looping it in place until it harmlessly drops to the ground.

She purrs at the display, nails digging into my chest in approval.

"To explain this, you must understand that your arrival in my castle was highly unusual. Reaching my domain is an impressive feat on its own, but the way you entered caused strange dimensional interactions." She shifts into a lecturing tone.

"I won't bore you with the complexities, but in short—when your staff was restored, and both dimensions aligned, a few things happened.

First, time in your world slowed to a crawl. The moment you leave here will be the moment the eclipse ends over there."

...Wait, she's known this from the start?

"Second, time in my domain has been sped up, allowing you to stay longer. The living shouldn't linger in the land of the dead for too long."

I've heard of that before, it can cause severe damage to the body.

"Thirdly, and this is what you noticed, your body exists in both worlds simultaneously. Because of this, you have been in a form of stasis, unable to 'grow' physically. Once you return, you will likely experience an immense growth spurt within days."

I take it all in.

…Fucking hell. I was already torn up about disappearing on everyone.

To find out, it wasn't actually a problem is a relief. I don't understand why she wouldn't tell me at the start, maybe, did she think that it would make me less motivated?

She tacks on an amused remark, "You told me you could always tell the time accurately, shouldn't the absence of that ability have been your first clue?"

…

I slump further into her embrace. I give up.

She takes my silence as permission to continue her slow, methodical touches—lingering over every sensitive area with infuriating precision.

…Wait.

She's trying to get me to nut without actually doing anything substantial.

I bolt upright and take several steps away from her, my training pants are not helping my case.

To protect the last shreds of my dignity, I back away slowly. "Thank you for the answers, teacher. You've given me a lot to think about. I'll take my leave."

She lounges back into her throne, eyebrow quirked. "Are you sure you don't want to finish now, don't you want your final question settled?" While her eyes focus on a particular spot on my lower body.

Yes. I am very sure. Thank you very much.

"No, teacher. I need time to process everything and to calm down from the revelations."

I don't run away.

I walk.

Briskly.