Chapter 59: A Week's Time

“How do you grow this seed into a plant?” Clare asked suddenly as she walked with Lav and Lif to the training pools for her morning swimming session.

Lav turned her gaze to Clare for a moment before turning it away. “Apologies but I’m forbidden from helping you out. His majesty will have my head if I do so.”

Clare glared at Lav for a moment before sighing. It had been a week since Frey had given her the task of growing the magic seed and Clare had yet to figure out how to grow the damn plant.

She had read the books multiple times but there was nothing in them to help her. Frey was no help and even going through other books in the royal library didn’t help. Nothing worked when she even experimented on feeding the seed with her magic.

Thus, she had turned to Lav, hoping her sword would give her the answer. Too bad Frey had gotten to Lav before Clare could get anything out of her.

Still, there was one more person Clare could ask. She turned her attention to the flying Lif, wondering how she was going to bribe him into giving her the answer.

“Don’t even think about it.” Lif muttered without turning around.

Clare frowned for a moment before she said, “Not even for those red berries you like?”

“I…” Lif suddenly stopped and turned to face Clare. “I can’t give you the answer. Frey has banned everyone from giving the answer away…”

Guess that plan’s a bust. Clare groaned in frustration to herself.

“But I can give you a hint instead since it wasn’t banned.” Lif added. “For two weeks’ worth of red berries.”

“A hint?” Clare mused, wondering if it was a good idea.

Well, she was desperate so getting a hint was better than nothing at this point. She would just have to solve the hint to get the answer.

“Yes. A riddle to be exact.” Lif said. “Do you accept the deal then?”

“Alright.” Clare nodded in understanding. “I’ll take the riddle then. It’s better than nothing.”

“Good choice.” Lif stated, pausing for a moment. “I’ll tell you the riddle once you give me the berries. For now, just focus on completing your morning training. You have yet to complete all the laps.”

“Yeah…” Clare sighed.

She didn’t need a reminder of another one of her failures. Swimming a few laps around a pool seemed fine until Clare realized the pool was twice the twice of an Olympic swimming pool.

At least the pool was heated but it was still tiring to do forty laps around the pool before doing some more magic training, which mostly was just Clare trying to hold her glamor out for long periods of time.

Still, she could see as time went by, the training was getting better and the swimming really helped with her magic training.

The trio soon made it to the pools, a few Fae using some of the pools for training or relaxing. Clare and Lav quickly went to get changed and when they were returned, Clare began swimming laps with Lav, Lif hovering above them to make sure she completed them properly.

After a few laps, Clare began to slow down but she kept pushing, wanting to get through the training and learn more interesting things.

“Let’s go again.” Alre instructed, watching as Xavier dusted himself off.

The two had been sparring for the past two hours, Xavier yet to land a single blow on Alre. It was frustrating to be constantly losing every time they sparred over the past week, but Alre seemed to think Xavier was improving with every spar.

Of course, Alre had centuries of training behind him so it was unlikely Xavier was going to get in a hit any time soon.

Once Xavier straightened up, he swiftly moved into a boxing stance despite the aching protest from his muscles. Seemed he was going to have to ask Clare to put that ointment on again.

Noticing Xavier’s stance, Alre walked towards him without raising his guard. It annoyed Xavier for a second, making him take a deep breath to calm down.

Xavier edged closer and faked a hit, hoping Alre would block so he could do an uppercut. However, Alre blocked faster than Xavier could see while also sending a hit Xavier’s way.

Thankfully he could block it before not the calf kick Alre sent his way. Pain flashed up his leg, making him wanting to crouch down.

Instead, he gritted his teeth and went for another attack when Alre made an attack of his own. Next thing Xavier knew, he was on the ground with Alre gazing down at him.

“You seemed to have lasted longer this time.” Alre murmured. “Your laps have been increased to seventy five from tomorrow onwards.”

“Right… thanks.” Xavier muttered, running a hand through his hair as he slowly sat up.

One day he was going to introduce Alre to his father. The two seemed to have similar styles of training although Alre seemed a little more intensely.

“Are we going to spar again?” Xavier asked as he got up from the ground.

“Ye-” Alre started.

“Your majesty, an urgent message!” Someone squawked out, interrupting Alre.

Alre gazed up at the sky, holding out an arm. A giant, black bird, maybe a crow, swiftly landed on Alre’s outstretched arm. The bird held a small box in his beak.

Alre took the box and gave the bird a pet. He used magic to open the box, a frown forming on his blank face which scared Xavier a little seeing as his teacher rarely showed any emotion.

The box soon burst into flames and the bird squawked once more, Alre holding out some seeds. “Thank you, Bia.”

He then turned his attention to Xavier and said, “It seems our lesson will be cut short today. Thus, for the remainer for your morning session, you’ll spar with Bia.”

Xavier turned to gaze at the bird who had disappeared. However, next to Alre now stood a small woman will long black hair and black, feather wings.

“Understood, your majesty.” The woman bowed.

Alre nodded. “Good. I’ll be going then. Don’t go too hard on him.”

With those words, Alre disappeared, leaving Xavier alone with Bia, silently wondering what Alre meant by his words.