Refuge in Audacity Chapter 36 Part 1

AN: I know this isn't much after the long silence, but I am hoping to get back into updating regularly again by posting bit by bit each day. 

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"So..."

The sound of metal clashing rang over and over again in the Gallagher Manor's courtyard next to the house. 

"So?"

Dodge. Counter. Roll. Block. Roll again. Parry. Counter. 

Finally a chance showed itself. 

Before Jeremy's next sword swing, I positioned my blade to block, and pointed, palm open with my other hand. I gathered the aether within me, shaped it with my will and imagination, heated it, condensed it, all so right here and now in this moment, my fire spell would be formed. 

CLANK!

My arm shook as I took on Jeremy's blow, and threw my other hand at his face.

He was greeted by a puff of smoke. 

"Wow, that wasn't even a full spark. That was just pitiful." My sword teacher chuckled. 

I took a mule kick to the stomach, and turned it into a roll, so as to try and shape my magical energy into another element. 

"Screw you, you're the one who insisted the best way to learn this, is mid-fight!" It isn't. You're suppose to learn spells by sitting down, doing some mental visualization while moving your aether and try to turn it into the spell you want. All in order to be able to access, the magic branch you want to begin to learn. 

Jeremy decided to skip all that, tell me what each element's visualization is generally like, what each element feels like, and just throw me into a spar, 'since stress is the best teacher'.

That completely sounds wrong! I wanted to shout in what I knew would just be whining. 

"Well you could always try and get Level 1 in multiple elements till Environmental Magic shows up on your stat sheet. But only lousy scrubs do that. Also you didn't answer my question." With that patient knightly smile, that looked so incredibly smug right now, Jeremy was in my face throwing another swing, that resulted in a sword lock with me.

Like always, I felt my whole body and limbs strain to hold ground.  

"'So' what? What's the question?" I grunted, focusing on that part of the conversation, than Jeremy's 'do or die' teaching method. For a guy who at times looks like a wind blown leaf could hurt him, he sure can act like the fucking terminator.

"Why didn't you inform me you'll be late an hour?" He asked. "Do you think my time is meant to be wasted? It's like you don't care about me?" He pouted. I swear to fuck, what is it with your bipolar attitude, Jeremy? It's either Drill Sergeant or tsundere with you! 

"I was having sex." I bluntly said back. 

I needed another plan of attack. Fire was no good. What can I go with next? 

"You could have sent the maid to tell me." Jeremy’s voice was whiny as he pouted. 

I felt the strength of his arm slowly increase, pushing my sword back and beginning to make my stance unbalanced. 

"I was fucking the maid." I growled back. I felt a feral want to just throw patience and tactics aside, and just attack with anything and everything till something stuck. It would certainly and might catch Jeremy off guard. But no, I had to get back to planning, to think and find a solution.  

I needed another element to try. Earth? No. It would likely be too slow as I would have to push it out of my body into the ground and then shape it. 

"Ah, so I was going to be stood up either way." He sighed in a 'this is what I have to deal with' tone. Screw you, buddy. I'm the one who has to put up with you, not the other way around. 

His blade was slowly pushing my own toward my face, and as I leaned away I was losing my footing. 

I can't stay in this blade lock forever. Jeremy was just humoring me by not breaking the stalemate right away.  

So it was time to take advantage of that. 

I gathered up my aether again shaped it into wind-feeling magical energy, and sent it to my feet. 

"Woah." Jeremy just stared in amused intrigue as I was launched in the air, managed to land a blow on his temple (which did nothing as usual), and continued to flail upwards, then sideways, then toward the ground. 

"Oh shit!" The one thing I could say about my first elemental spell was that I remembered to cut off the magical energy, so I wasn't going headfirst into the drift with extra force. I did use my arms to try and turn my nosedive into a roll, but I didn't manage it well, and still took some damage. 

"Not bad." Jeremy said as he was walking toward me. "Sorry I meant, hilariously lacking in style, efficiency or practicality. Now try and manage it with the other elements." 

I stood up and faced Jeremy, sword at ready. 

"I'm gonna make you eat dirt." I said, preparing a different element in mind to try and use. 

Jeremy just smiled. 

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Jeremy wouldn't stop laughing. 

"Shut up," I said with tired irritation as we walked into the large bathroom. 

"I have never seen someone misfire every single type of environmental spell there is." Jeremy kept chuckling. "I mean yes, no one gets the starter spells right from the get go, but usually people would at least get one right and just need to use the correct amount of aether for the spell to be full formed correctly. You just went to blew them all up one after the other." Jeremy went back to laughing. 

The bathroom had three showerheads taking one wall with metal covered drain holes near them. I suppose these are there just for someone to just quickly clean themselves from dirt or sweat, before going into the pool or tub available here. I rubbed myself with soap trying not to think about the training earlier, which inevitably caused me to playback everything that happened.

My first cast of a fire spell ended up making sparks from my nose, causing my nose hair to catch on fire. My earth spell just made the ground slightly harder under my feet, which I didn’t even notice till Jeremy paused the spar to check and point out. My water spell made my hands wet, which made my grip of my sword a bit slippery for a few moments. Moments I couldn’t hold the sword so got my ass handed to me as usual. My space spell made me away of object in a five meter semi-sphere radius. Under me. Basically ground. I want mentally blinded by all the dirt. My light spell made my hair glow for a second (Woo~ useless protagonist power, go! I was a traffic light cone for a second). My shadow spell just made my shadow slightly longer, and when I tried to make it do more, it wiggled. 

Jeremy got a laugh from that. I smacked him with my blade for all the good it did (it did nothing!).    

I kept rotating my attempts on the environmental spells throughout the spar, and eventually I got the Environmental Magic spell unlocked at Level 1. I can now use cantrips of elemental spells, but I have no proficiency in the actual elemental magics. Yet. It’s a good start all things considered, I suppose. 

I tried to at least made Jeremy wet and slip on the ground for a water spell, but sadly he easily saw through it, and the spell just shot a weak water arc that landed a pitiful of two feet from me. Jeremy snorted before slashing at the ground blowing it and me away, and having wet soil land on me. 

“You’re gonna have to try harder to get me wet, my Lord.” Jeremy cheekly said. 

I felt a growl rise up my throat. Stupid invincible knight. 

The words Jeremy said replayed themselves in my mind, and with the heated water falling on my head washing away the soap, feeling like warm taps all over my upper body, different images came to mind. 

“You’re gonna have to try harder to get me wet, my Lord.”

Instantly I pushed them away. Besides Jeremy’s hips and ass weren’t that large. My imagination is screwing with my memory. I peeked at Jeremy behind me in the pool for a second just to confirm. Huh, they were that large. 

“You’re gonna have to try harder to get me wet, my Lord.”

I looked forward with my eyes closed and rubbed my hair with shampoo, Jeremy’s words replaying themselves again. This time with the recent vivid image of him with the water falling down his shoulders, down the curvy slope of his back, waist, then slow down momentarily, before falling down the arc of his bubbly butt. The heat seemed to concentrate in my lower member. 

...Why the fuck did I take a look? Goddess dammit, now that image was stuck in my head. 

“You’re gonna have to try harder to get me wet, my Lord.”

Stupid sexy, trap knight. 

No, stop. Just ignore it. Think of something else. Something good and positive. Like my talk with Natalie this morning. 

“This maid is here for your every desire, my Prince~.” 

The image of Nat with nothing but bed sheet, her submissive longing look, and sultry voice appeared in my head. 

No! Dammit, not that!

As the shampoo washed away from my head and embraced the feel of the shower water raining on me, I also noticed my hard standing cock feeling like there was a flame within me I needed to unleash. I looked down to my cock in disappointment. Why do you easily rise from anything? Well, Natalie isn’t anything but still.

I need some self-control. I should finish up and leave. This morning with Natalie was one thing, but I won’t break the student-teacher bond between me and Jeremy. 

Time for some drastic measures. I considered using ≪Cooling Calm≫, but my aether reserves were out for a while, as usual after my spars with Jeremy. So I took the other option.  

I switched the water to cold. 

I involuntarily started taking deep breaths, as the cold moved like a shock through my body and killed my boner. I took a few moments to adjust and scrub the water all over to get used to it quickly. After those few frantic seconds where I was focused on the cold, I could think again without my thoughts going to Natalie or Jeremy’s bodies. Or at least not focus on them. 

Let's mentally revise this quest. 

Two adventuring parties arrived at this town before falling off the map.

The parties supposedly were slain due to coming into contact with Witches and a Demon.

Abigail the Innkeeper, her business partner Raven, and the Priestess Odessa Iolite are the main suspects of working with the Witches and-slash-or are Witches themselves (I'm going to be so annoyed if they turn out to be a red herring).

The Witches are likely the missing eldest Gallagher sister, and one of the present sisters (minor surprise if both turn out to be Witches). 

The odd piece in this story is Viscountess Rachel and where she fits in.

So the goal now is figure out which Gallagher sister is the Witch, and then, have a talk with the Viscountess. So for today, I think I'll just observe the Gallaghers and the reaction of the townsfolk under their rule. 

"How's the cold water?" Jeremy's amused voice took me out of my musing. 

"It's fine!" I shouted back.

"Glad you're enjoying yourself, your Highness." I could just feel the smug smile on his face. "Anyways, Aidan, do you mind coming and sitting here with me for a bit? I think we should talk about the progress of your combat ability."

I looked back, raising an eyebrow before I turned off the water. Jeremy’s more pointed tone meant this was a serious topic. I looked back to see him leaning on the pool’s edge showing off his back with it’s smooth muscles and curvy rump. 

I let out a long sigh, I walked briskly, eyes away from my lustrous combat teacher and entered the cozy warm pool. Still, regardless of his teasing, when he says he wants to talk about something, he wouldn’t lie about it. With a chuckle at my “prudishness” Jeremy moved back to sit in the pool against the walls, next to me. The pool was only deep enough that one needed to sit on the floor for the water to reach their neck. 

“So?” I began, trying not to be too relaxed from entering the warm water. It felt heavenly after the cold shower. “What is this about? We already reviewed the spar and all.” 

“Quite, but this isn’t about it. Rather I want to talk about your fighting ability as a whole.” Jeremy replied. I hummed, signalling that I was giving him my attention. “First I want to tell you, good job on how far you’ve come in your training. I believe you can now hold your ground and maybe win against any opponent close to your stats and combat Skills level on your own.” Jeremy smiled, pride clear in his voice. I found myself looking away, yet unable to help the smile that came to me or the warm feeling in my chest. “Do take note of what I specifically said though. You now know how to fight and can maybe win against those close to your stats or combat ability. So don’t get ahead of yourself and fight recklessly.” He followed up with a warning, his smile changing to a teasing one. 

“I’m not reckless.” Honestly, beyond the first time I met Lachniya, I’ve never been in a reckless situation. 

“Yes, but the words needed to be said given what I’m about to tell you.” Jeremy sighed. “You are too careful, Aidan.” 

“...Huh?” Say what now?

“Or rather you’re too restrained.” He said. “Let me clarify. Proficiency in physical activities usually comes down to two things. Muscle memory and instinct.” Jeremy started. “Practicing forms and techniques is to develop discipline and muscle memory. Discipline is used to push down some of your natural instincts, like closing your eyes when you see a hit coming, or covering your face, so you can learn to dodge or block incoming attacks. Once you’re done enough of the basics that your body knows how to move in a fight, you keep training to develop your combat instincts that help you survive and fight better. That's how it normally goes.” Jeremy smiled as he playfully tilted his head with his explanation. 

“That wasn’t not the case with me?” I raised an eyebrow.

“No,” still smiling, he huffed in a mock annoyed way. “You took quickly to focusing on forms and techniques, and rarely did you try to innovate or act creatively with what you learned when sparring with me.”

“But isn’t focusing on the forms a good thing for a beginner?” I asked. 

“To learn muscle memory, yes, but you’re too rigid in your fighting, at least against me.” 

“That’s the second time you mentioned that,” I pointed out.

“Yes. Although to be specific, it’s not just me, but from what I saw, any opponent stronger than you. You end up thinking too much. The fact the Mental Calculations stat aids in that, isn’t helping.” Jeremy explained. “Against opponents closer in ability to you, you relax a bit and allow yourself to observe them while trusting your training and instincts to guide you. You stop trying to mentally micromanage everything, and just flow into combat.”

“Sooo...there shouldn’t be a problem, right?” I pointed out. 

“No, there would.” He scoffed while looking amused. “The entire point of training is to develop all your abilities, forms and instinct in a relatively safe environment. If there comes a time where you fight a stronger opponent without the safety net, you can’t be stuck in your own head. You need to act swiftly while making the correct decisions, so that you can escape, buy time for rescue, or maybe even win. Don’t focus on the last one though.” Jeremy quickly added that last point after he was finished. 

“...Huh.” I leaned back against the pool’s side, as I turned his lesson over in my head. I do waste a few moments when fighting Jeremy, thinking of a plan to take, but is that really detrimental? I can’t afford to be reckless with stronger opponents. Yet, isn’t there merit in learning from failed tactical attempts when the harm is minimal? ...I’m actually doing it now, aren’t I? “I see.” I took a deep breath and let it go. “ I guess I’m too scared to fail that I fail anyway when we spar. Well, fail quicker.” The only win condition in my sword training with Jeremy is to be standing by the end, which I have yet to manage.  

“Astutely put your Highness.” Jeremy noded with a smile toward me. 

I nodded and we sat quietly for a few moments afterwards, taking in the comforting and relaxing feel of the warm water. 

I thought back to how I conduct myself in battle. Analyzing how I would act, and tried to imagine how things could have happened if I just went with my first ideas. I just kept seeing myself getting blocked or smacked but in a different way. Or maybe things wouldn’t go as I imagined.

Should I carry this conduct of following my instincts more outside of combat?

No. Obviously not. The whole situation with the joy gift, the nobles’ whose daughters I interviewed, were a result of my impulsiveness. Developing one’s instincts can also be seen as gaining life experience. I suppose there are some situation where I just go with my best judgment and what feels right, but without being impulsive. 

I nodded to myself. That’s the correct medium I should go with. 

I let out a sigh as a weight lifted off my shoulders. I felt more relaxed, by body in a content lazy warmth while also being energized by the shower and pool after intense training. An energy that went south and I was hard again. 

I sighed once more, in annoyance this time. 

I looked to my side to see Jeremy sitting relaxed with his eyes closed. The way the water glistened from his face down to his neck, along with highlighting his silky black hair, made him seem like a vulnerable maiden whose innocence was starting to transform into sensual femininity. 

And now I’m starting to feel self-conscious. 

...Nope. Fuck it. It’s time to leave, long day ahead and all. I’m not gonna let some awkwardness keep me here. Besides, it’s not the first time Jeremy saw my hard on. 

“Okay, if there’s nothing else, it’s time for me to head out.” I stood up from the water, cock pointing forward and all. 

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AN: I was told to give a warning for this in case someone gets squicked. Next Part will contain male-on-trap.