39 Introducing A Spear Boy's New "Friend"

(Scathach POV)

My disciple was an interesting one.

Techniques from nowhere, an endless amount of creative use of his new powers, and a mentality that seemed older than what should be expected by a 14-year-old boy. But I would assume it was due to his upbringing and life experiences, as those in this world have to grow up much faster than most.

Another possibility came to mind, but if he did not want to tell me, I would understand as such a thing is sacred in this world.

Yet as I trained on one of the floating islands he made just for me and my castle, I looked up from my island to that main island that held that large throne. I had seen thrones before, such as the ones in England and Ireland as well as in Scotland, yet that one always reminds me of something like an annoying feeling at the back of my mind that I just can't answer.

 It was definitely beautiful, but it seemed intimidating, which I assume was the purpose, and when I sat with my disciple on that throne, I felt as if I could rule the world, but that would be ridiculous as I remember the amount of work that went into ruling a small kingdom so the world is ridiculous.

When he left, I was satisfied with his progress as he seemingly had no limit to his strength, and while most teachers would be jealous or solemn at the rate by which their student grows for me, with the benefit of time and endless patience, I felt differently.

For it is inevitable for the student to surpass the master eventually, and sometimes I am unsure if he ever required my training in the first place or just used the land of shadows as a sort of vacation from the supernatural world. The latter made me laugh, as a place of death, carnage, and darkness is more appealing than the whole world.

It truly does show how the supernatural world makes others so desperate. According to my disciple, he was going to get his first ally or minion. 

He preferred the first one, but I knew it was always the second as there must always be a clear and defined hierarchy, or else there is chaos. It's why whenever I read about the various political philosophies of my other prospective students, I can never understand Socialism or democracy as it would seem too slow and too susceptible to corruption.

 But I was not so blind as to not remember the corruption of kings and royal families as well as nobility, and even to this day, no government has truly cracked how to rule for longer than a couple hundred years. 

I will always watch out for my disciple as for how much he believes he is a fool, I can tell it stems from something else. Maybe some profound loss in his past or how he had been raised, yet his confidence feels built on a house of cards.

 His increasing strength definitely improves his general mood, but it's as if he's going through the motions or simply what is expected of him in a way.

 The endless mystery is what draws me to him, in addition to his general respectfulness in my presence, as most boys his age would not be able to stop looking at me as I am not oblivious to my form and how it would be appealing to most. It brings me back to one time when a man walked into my room just to see if the legends of the fact that I had the best thighs were true.

 Let's just say he never made it out of the castle for that one.

He also held a book called The Holy Thighble, which made me almost want to burn it, but for others, it would seem like a good source of comedic reading. During my student's training, I showed him the fact that I had such a book, and he looked at it. Sweat seemed to form on his face as he glanced back to the book and to me, and even with my suppressed emotions, I had the urge to laugh at his expression.

But when he released the chains of the dimension from me, I felt a weight lifted from me, but due to the sudden change, I fell unconscious, and during my time when I was unconscious, my disciple had to fight his first god, and I missed it!

After thousands of years of preparations and training, I was unconscious for my students' first battle!

My anger was so great that I nearly wanted to break that throne my student left me on. I was no damsel in distress, yet it felt as if I was. 

What made it even worse was that my emotions had been returned, yet my ability to use runes other than the ones I knew was gone. He did not judge me, and it felt even worse.

So I trained, and as I was no longer held back by the land of shadow's curse, I could train my strength once more. So, before I knew it, my student had returned, although the expression on his face made it seem like he was guilty of something.

And then I saw her.

A woman with red hair who would not let him go! And the story my disciple told me was even more absurd as this woman, whose name was Scylla, went from a giant and grotesque beast to what I assumed she looked like before her transformation. And her body was ridiculous and was seemingly made to entice men.

So, as he walked in through his portal, his face was the personification of fear, as if I was a parent walking in on him doing something stupid. "Hello, master, it's good to see you active. How is your training?" My disciple asked statically.

The woman who saw me did recognize me but refused to let go of him, and as I gave him a look, he explained, "Well, master, I was conducting an experiment to see if I can reverse Divine curses, and when I went to the Sea of Monsters to find the Golden Fleece I ran into Charybdis and Scylla and so I decided to try some experimental magic and runecraft, and this is what happened."

Giving him a smile, he started to sweat as I grabbed the woman from his grasp. She then turned some of her body into tentacles and heads as she growled at me. "He is mine! He saved my life and made me human again, so he is mine."

That logic makes no sense as I replied, "Well, he is my student, so I have a say in this as well, and you do not seem worthy of him. Weren't you Poseidon's lover back then? Why would I allow my student to be with a woman like you?" I then gave my disciple a we will talk later look and he nodded quickly.

She then hugged him closer as he looked done with life and began muttering some words like cliche and how could this happen to me? This was odd, to say the least, but I then used runes to teleport us to another island away from my disciple and asked, "In all seriousness, are you willing to devote yourself to my disciple as he is rather eccentric."

The woman then puffed out her chest and said, "While he is odd, it just adds to the charm, and someone has to teach him the ropes. But I understand your feelings as you feel threatened by me and worry that I may occupy his attention more than you do. But you won't need to worry about that." I raised my brow at that answer as she continued.

"When I woke up, the Clone which brought me here was connected to our beloved spearman, and when I was looking at my returned form, I was broken, to say the least, and thought it was a dream until he sat down next to me and held my hand, and when I felt the warmth of his touch, I knew that this wasn't a dream. I was human again, and I am going to spend the rest of my life making it up to him for his odd form of benevolence, and when I was lucid enough to speak, all he talked about was either his training or you." 

This makes sense as while my disciple believes himself selfish, which he kind of is, he seems to empathize or at least feel compassion for others. But his willingness to help and his thankfulness of my teachings felt nice.

Placing my weapon on my back, I put my hand on her shoulder and asked, "You do understand what it means to say that, right? You are placing a life debt on yourself that only he can fulfill. Are you truly willing to never betray him? I know for a fact that my disciple would never betray anyone willingly. It's almost funny as my disciple, when he was freeing me from the Land of Shadows, could have left months earlier but stayed in order to try and find a way to free me of this place of corruption. It was a debt, he said, but I knew he cared. I believe that this behavior is what he calls tsundere." The woman visibly calmed and nodded.

"Well, if you are going to serve him, then you are going to get into shape, as while you are still Scylla, you need to develop your human skills again, so prepare for pain." She then asked hesitantly.

"Don't you mean to prepare for training?" Scylla asked as I smiled and said with a bit more happiness than I would have liked.

"Oh no, I do mean pain. If you can't survive my training for a week, then there is no way I'm going to leave my precious disciple with you. So start running." I then took out a spear, and she tried to run while dodging my strikes and run blasts while having more fun than I had in a while.

(Clone Cao Cao POV)

Based on the screaming I'm hearing from another island, it seems that my master has decided to keep her here, which is good. 

Still, I'm definitely going to have to keep a close eye on her to make sure that she does not die again as I'm unsure if she would remain human if she got dusted again, but I could bind her using my binder essence skill which I should do if she survives.

So, as the original arrived, he asked, "So, do we need to initiate a plan for harem survival?" I shook my head, and he sighed in relief as the plan was to integrate a harem protagonist aura-like skill in case of conflicts. I then asked our original.

"So, did anything else happen after you got the fleece?" I asked as he nodded and explained.

"Well, I went to Circe's Island and copied all of her magic knowledge, but she may be after us for the foreseeable future as, according to Cato, most goddesses with a domain relating to knowledge are very intense when it comes to collecting more knowledge." I sighed in exasperation as I then asked.

"You didn't show her other forms of magic, right? Because it's basically catnip for sorceresses?" My original then began to lift up his finger, but then frowned and put it down as I took a deep breath and dispersed.

(Cao Cao POV)

Oh boy, my clone was mad at me, but it doesn't really matter as Circe will have a very hard time finding me, and I could quite literally appear in multiple places at once should I desire to keep her off my trail. And thanks to things like trace and information defense, she won't even be able to find me with scrying or precognition spells, so she has to search the old-fashioned way.

( You do know that's not going to stop her, right? Goddesses like her can be very intense when it comes to collecting new knowledge. I mean, look to gods like Odin as he threw Mimir into The Well of Yggdrasil to see if you actually would learn more of the world before he ever decided to take an eye out of his head.) Cato said as I stopped.

"Wait, he threw Mimir into the well? Damn, no wonder he's just a head. That pool is coalesced knowledge, and a normal body, and even divine ones, would suffer immense pain with only a touch should a sacrifice not be made." My mental question makes Cato agree, as Celestine asked.

(So now we have a couple of days before that girl is freed from the tree, but what's next? Continue training? Training is always good.) Celestine's comment makes me smile, as she had been in better spirits after what I did to Artemis and her huntresses.

In regards to Zoe's fate, she is currently enjoying being hunted by the beasts of the Lands of Shadow forever. Since it was a small pocket dimension, she can never escape and will die over and over again for eternity. Let her be hunted down by beasts forevermore and be forgotten.

I should check on the Titan Atlas in San Francisco next and maybe get some apples from the Garden Of Hesperides. But for now, I want to read these books from Circe's library, which causes Celestine to yawn as Cato asks if mental copies can be made for the others, which I agree to.

It does make me happy that the spirits within my Longinus are so agreeable, which I attribute to the fact that, unlike the celestial dragons, they aren't affected by their more Primal emotions like the users of those sacred gears are and are much more logical.

So I sat on my throne, reading all the books I got from Circe while hearing Scylla and Scathach have their fun on another island.

Life is good.

(Azazel POV)

"So, have you found anything, Penemue?" I ask as she hands me a report, which makes my eyes widen. According to this, after killing Ares, he had killed Artemis with her huntresses being slain or sent elsewhere, and as thousands of thoughts entered my mind trying to understand why he sought her out, Penemue gave her two cents.

"Azazel, he may have been threatened by her or was fulfilling an old grudge. We know that Spirits dwell in the Longinuses so that he may have been fulfilling old revenge. "If that was why I respect the kid's loyalty as he went against an entire pantheon to fulfill someone else's revenge.

Have you found out who specifically he was getting revenge for?" I was then handed another paper, which was much older, and it was a report on another spear user, Celestine; as I read it, all made sense as, based on what was found there, Artemis's huntresses killed her and her family for refusing them. 

Honestly, I'm happy that the virgin goddess is gone as now I don't need to worry about her arrows appearing whenever I try to peek at women, as she was somehow able to curse me with that when I found her bathing one time.

'Well done, Penemue. Have we managed to get any eyes on him?" Penemue nods as she says, "Our spies say that he hides in the land of shadows, which make Shim hard to find, and his concealment is a work of art as no one, not even our best sensors, can find him, so we have made little progress on that front."

Sighing in disappointment, I nod to her, and she leaves, but an idea comes to mind as she leaves. If this kid is so willing to hide, why not send him a message? 

I then call an old friend from the Grauzauberer to see if a certain man has that blonde apprentice of his with that Longinus.