10 Morning Practice? No Sweat! (2/2)

As he found a somewhat short and straight practice sword, he trotted over to where Mei was stretching, and started mirroring her actions. When she stretched her legs, the bottom of her round cheeks sometimes peeked out from the bottom of the shorts. This didn't elicit a reaction from Kal however, as he was used to the naked bodies of women.

Maybe due to the nature of succubi, or maybe it is just due to the nature of his family, but he had never been taught to advert his gaze or to feel shy because of nudity. Though, modesty wasn't a large concern with most people. Many powerful adventurers, both male and female, enjoyed the gazes of admiration their bodies would get and would often wear little, and in rare cases, to no clothing at all. It was strange to think if one were to contemplate this. The most impoverished of people wore little to no clothing, seeing nice clothing as a benchmark of happiness. On the other hand, the rich and powerful often displayed their prestige by wearing little to no clothing, often paying exorbitant amounts of money for tiny and skimpy garments. Who were to stop them either? If a person strong enough to break the skull of a dragon with their bare hands decided they were going to walk around town wearing only their skin, who would be brave enough to say otherwise? Though, I digress.

”Why don't you attack me?” Mei asked to Kalin, ”That's the fastest way I'll be able to learn how strong you are.”

As he wasn't a stranger to sparring- well, not a stranger to being beaten by Lili, he had no inhibitions against attacking a girl. All the strongest people he knew were women, so the thought of holding back against one never crossed his mind. Excitedly, he made a stance and started swinging at Mei, without any need of further pushing.

Though somewhat caught off-guard, as she didn't expect him to attack without even a word of acknowledgement, she easily blocked all his strikes. Though they were obviously better than a complete amateur, it was quite obvious that he had only used a sword for a couple years, and that he had never killed anything before. The only thing that surprised Mei is that Kal's stabs and thrusts were somewhat impressive. She even theorized that if she gave him a short spear, he could become the core member of a party of young adventurers. However, the rest of his attacks were wild, too wide, and easy to predict. Though, that is if you compare him objectively. If you remember that he is only 8 years old, he already had quite an arm and a descent combat awareness to him. For a child, it was very impressive, though not surprising knowing who his sister and mother are.

After a couple minutes of defending his attacks, she started throwing in a few of her own. Though she went easy on him, she ended up having fun as well, which surprised herself. Everything about the lavender-haired boy in front of her seemed to catch her off guard. Though a somewhat rude thought, she wondered if being around Kal was what owning a pet would feel like.

As their 'sparring' came to an end, Mei had a smile on her unchanging face, while Kal was breathing rather heavily and had a thin layer of swear covering his body. His sweat had a pleasant smell to it, causing Mei to raise her brow a bit. She could smell the strong pheromones they contained as she subconsciously took a deep breath of it. It was somewhat reminiscent of expensive perfumes, although it didn't have that nauseous feeling they often gave. It reminded her of walking through a field of flowers, while at the same time strangely made her feel a little hungry and salivate.

The sound of the door opened as Lili walked outside with a sleepy look on her face. Though she was still sleepy, she was properly clothed, unlike her earlier appearance. She started to speak very slowly, with a slight slur between her tired words, ”Kal, go wash yourself quickly, we need to get to the church early.”

He nodded before he put the practice sword away and headed inside, only leaving the two girls behind.

The sunlight helped Lili eventually wake up as she leaned against the wall. Eventually, she broke the silence and asked, ”So, what do you think?”

”As far as strength, he's strong enough to become an adventurer already. He has at least one powerful combat skill, or two regular ones.” Mei responded confidently. ”As far as personality, he has a long way before he's ready. I feel like he is almost incapable of keeping secrets for a long time, he trusts people too easily, he gets overly excited, and would be easy to be taken advantage of. Though he is somewhat mature in cases like when I followed him around yesterday, in most instances he's more innocent than most children his age.”

Lili nodded, ”I would like it if you could teach him how to use a sword. Although I'm not terrible with them, you are definitely a better option.” Seeing Mei about to immediately reject, she interrupted her, ”I know you're concerned about having different fighting styles, but it's still better than a mage trying to teach him how to swing a sword. You don't have to decide now, as we still don't even know his skillset. Just think about it.”

After she said her piece, Lili reentered the house, leaving Mei standing alone in the middle of her yard. Mei just shook her head, as she replaced her wooden sword against the house, and entered the house to prepare breakfast.