"Stop whatever you are doing and leave Vaan alone,"
Anderson ordered with a solemn look on his face.
"What are you talking about, Father?" Seraphina questioned with a frown on her face.
Anderson then sat on a nearby chair, then he leaned towards his daughter and,
"Sera, that person defeated six mages and killed one of them in front of everyone. He discovered a brand-new Magic Circle that is much more advanced than the current circles mages use, countless mages are trying to learn his Magic Circle and are buying the Theory he published like madmen.
The Theory whose price has spiked and is now 1000 times than what it was before and people are still buying it.
No matter how you see it, he is not the same person he was before. Vaan is changed and if you keep treating him like you did before, he would eventually snap at you.
That man is ruthless, Sera and even though we have gotten much stronger than we used to be, you have to know that we are still not his match.
So stop bothering him right now, apologize if required, and quickly back away while you still have time."
Anderson's tone was firm.
Seraphina who saw her usually gullible and agreeable father talking in that firm tone like that was taken aback, just from this she could tell how worried her father was.
However,
"I cannot do that, Father." Seraphina shook her head.
This time, Anderson narrowed his eyes, "That was not a request." His tone, strict, not taking a 'no' for an answer. Sera, however, shook her head again.
"Father, it is not that I do not want to do what you tell me to. Trust me, I wish for all this to end instantly the most, however, I simply cannot do that.
That man is not going to leave me alone. If I 'back away' and do nothing, I would simply become a motionless target in front of him, a target he could easily devour anytime he wants.
Vaan isn't going to just let be me."
"What…?" Anderson's expression changed.
"Roland is currently in Vesta House's medical ward," Seraphina revealed.
"Huh? Why is he there?"
"Vaan was the one who did that to him."
Anderson's expression changed,
"But Roland is a 3rd Circle Ma-" He wanted to argue, but then he realized the Mage Vaan killed yesterday was a 3rd Circle Mage as well.
"Instant Spells…" Anderson realized.
"That is correct. Vaan knew Ronald was close to me and did that to him and the way he addressed those rumors by holding a Challenge rather than asking me to reveal the truth and clear his name made his stance clear as well,
He is coming for me."
Seraphina spoke with a solemn look on her face.
"Then what should we do?"
Anderson questioned. He knew his daughter was a genius, she may not be a Magical Prodigy, but her intelligence was much higher than most people Anderson knew.
Since she knew how grave the situation was and was talking about it openly, Anderson knew that Seraphina had thought of a solution.
And whatever his daughter, he was there to provide his support.
Seraphina, however, shook her head again,
"There is nothing you have to do, Father. I will deal with everything.
I will meet Vaan myself."
"What!?" Anderson shouted in shock.
Seraphina, however, glanced at her father with a calm look on her face and,
"As I said, please leave it to me. I know what to do. Just trust your daughter like you always have been, and I will solve everything."
"Seraphina, I have already made it clear, do not play any more of your games with him, do not get to his bad side more than you already have."
"Please do not worry, Father.
I do not intend to get on his bad side."
Seraphina spoke, her eyes shining with a mysterious light.
…
"Haaah… Haahh… Haahh…"
Back in Astra's personnel Magic Training room, Vaan desperately gasped for air as he fell on the ground, dead tired.
His entire body was covered in sweat, from how wet his clothes were, he looked like he had been standing in the rain for hours, honestly, Vaan was currently so exhausted that even breathing felt like a chore to him.
"Your body is a mess. This is why I do not like mages, you people are just too weak."
Orion commented.
"You are married to a Mage…" Even being this tired didn't stop Vaan from calling out his father's hypocrisy.
"Your mother is an exception of course. She is not weak, plus, she has me protecting her all the time." Orion replied.
Vaan just rolled his eyes.
But he had to admit, Vaan's body was weak, he knew it as well, however, he had been training his physical strength every day from the day he came here and, he had made a lot of progress.
In front of his father's training, however, the progress he made seemed insignificant.
Unlike training normally by doing pushups, pullups, sit-ups, and other exercises, his father gave him a set of nine 'Stances' with each Stance being harder than the last one.
At first, Vaan felt like it was as easy as breathing, he even thought it was a little too simple, however, as he started to change his stances according to Orion's guidance, his hell started.
These stances stretched, pulled, and pushed his body to its limits. Within just one minute of getting in, Vaan had started sweating profusely and the longer he continued, the worse it got.
Within the first 10 minutes, Vaan couldn't only reach the 4th Stance, however, even with just that, his entire body felt like it was breaking, Vaan couldn't even feel some of his body parts anymore.
This torture however, continued, 5th Stance, 6th Stance, 7th, 8th, Orion forced Vaan to continue till he completed all Nine Stances, and 2 hours later, by the time Vaan was done, he couldn't feel anything.
Vaan felt like he was in a free state where he had no body at all, no matter how he tried, he just couldn't move. This feeling was much different than the sour body Vaan felt when he exercised for the first time.
And all this happened in just 2 hours and 9 different Stances.
"We still need to work on your body before I start teaching you something, only capable of doing 9 out of the basic 135 Stances, this is just nightmarish. You need to get to at least 54 before we start anything.
Anyways, we will be training lik-"
"W-Wait…"
Suddenly, Vaan froze.
"What did you say…? 135…? Are you telling me there are 135 of these…?"
"Of course. There are 135 Basic Stances.
Well, there are advanced ones as well, but those need Aura, so you can't practice them."
"…right."
Vaan nodded, a weird smile pasted on his face.
"But I have to say this, Vaan.
Your willpower is much stronger than I expected.
From sparring with you, I knew 9 Stances was your limit, but that limit was almost the breaking point of your body, anything further than that would have done permanent damage to your body, and honestly, not many 'veteran' fighters in this world could train their body to limits.
One needs to have an extremely strong willpower to do that and although the requirement may sound easy, moving your body when you can barely feel one of your limbs, that is not something just anyone can do.
Heck, even some of the renowned cannot do it.
But to think you would actually reach your limit on your first try, I am honestly surprised.
It takes years of battle experience and countless life-threatening situations to get a willpower strong enough to actually push your body to the limits and to think you just simply inherited this willpower like it's nothing.
You are a prodigy, Vaan.
And a ridiculously broken prodigy as at.
Your Martial Arts talent doesn't matter, just the fact that you can train your body to your limits means you can train in the most efficient way possible.
What most would take years to achieve, with your efficient way of training, you can do it within months, regardless of how talented you are or how late you started."
Orion was full of praises, his son had honestly surprised him, he didn't know how he never seen his child's talent before, but a 20-year-old having a willpower stronger than most of the 'warriors' he knew, this honestly didn't make sense.
Orion was actually so impressed that this time, he was even willing to go against his wife.
"Vaan, be a swordsmen.
You were not born to be a magician, Vaan.
No matter how talented you are in magic,
I promise you, if you follow me, I will make you the strongest Swordsman the world has ever seen."
Orion offered.
Vaan paused.
A swordsman…
Honestly, he knew being a swordsman suited his fierce personality more, mages just couldn't barge into their opponents like he does.
Vaan knew that for someone like him, choosing to become a swordsman was a better choice, however,
His eyes then fell on the two adorable little spirits looking at him with worried looks on their faces and seeing their eyes, Vaan just couldn't do what his father said,
"I cannot do that, Father.
I need to become the strongest Mage there is.
How else am I going to lead the Vesta Family?"
