The Third Party

Ken’s POV (12 yrs. Old)

AAAAHHhhhhhhhh, I’m bit! Nothing like a good training in the morning. Although my mana has run out, and my body is close to being sore but aching, yeah, it’s still good, now I just gotta lie down and gather as much energy as I can to get through with my day,

-preferably this for afternoon- turns out no matter how tired I become half the day, if only I just gather energy from the surroundings, my mana gets replenished, and my body regenerated.

It’s like one of those martial books or novels I’ve read that mentions, what’s that word again? Ah, ‘Qi’, it seems like this world has similar concepts when it comes to such energies,

I discovered this 4 years ago when I was all alone -again- at one of the trial missions given by our teachers, got lost from the group, ran out of magic, and nowhere to go.

‘That’s because you were too caught up experimenting on your foe that you didn’t notice your mana depleting.” Now there’s my trusty ‘second the motion’ person.

‘What would’ve happened back there when you didn’t have me with you.’ -White-

“Haha, right.” Huh? Who’s come over to see me?

*Light footsteps*

“Hey Ken, what you doing out here?” I opened my eyes to see Celine gazing down at me, still in her training uniform -or attire if you guys prefer-, holding a basket by her right hand.

“Just getting a feel of the wind, and relaxing, but mostly relaxing.” I moved at the side so that I could let her sit at my left under this tree, near a cliff.

“Have you had your lunch?” she asked.

“Nope, but I will after I’m done relaxing.” -Ken-

“I have some extra lunch here in my basket, would you like some?” she said, which made my eyes sparkle at the mention of food.

‘Such a glutton’ -White-

‘Shut up’ -Ken-

She offered me two sandwiches, and took fairly large bites out of it, and ate silently beside each other, good thing about her sandwiches thought is that it has four layers of bread, packed with meat and vegetables,

They don’t have ketchup here or mayonnaise though, but they have this kind of sap that surprisingly tasted like ketchup and mayonnaise, it has a purple color, with a shade of white, -I’m not good at describing things based on color, so you can just imagine whatever you want to imagine, just remember that the taste is similar to mayo and ketchup-.

Guess who’s the culprit of Celine’s sandwich having four layers, hehe, Wilbert! And also me, this was when she had brought sandwiches on the tenth day of our training, each giving us a piece,

Wilbert gobbled the whole thing in one fell swoop, while Celine gave me a piece and when she looked back at Wilbert, got confused where the sandwich go, I knew that Wilbert was embarrassed, since I’m a good friend, I mentioned that ‘Wilbert bulldozed your sandwich’,

Which made him embarrassed even more, and the two of them got confused at the terminologies I mentioned, hehe, this isn’t the modern era, hehe.

“What are you smiling on about?” mentioned Celine, I turned to her and offered her a smile.

“I’m just thinking about the time you first brought us sandwiches.” She giggled lightly at my reply.

“Yeah, I remember, it was such an unexpected day.” Huh? There’s no more? Ooohhhhh, I’m still hungry.

“Do you have any more?” I asked.

“Yes, but these are for the others.” Aaawwwww, I should’ve known (continues to ramble to himself)

“*giggles* But I do have some spare bread here, sadly I had limited ingredients to go with the bread, but hey, this would be the perfect time for us to try out that sandwich you made last time.” said Celine.

“Huh? You mean, the honey sandwich?” That would be good.

“Is that how you call it? You really have weird names for things *chuckles*.” -Celine-

“Ah, hehe, right.” I scratched the back of my head, right, they do not know the names I’m using, funny thing about this world I’m at, is that some things don’t have the same terminologies as they did in my past world, good thing sandwich is still named sandwich, do you get what I mean?

“Okay, give the bread to me.” I exclaimed in a childish tone, to which she laughed and waved me off saying…

“Oh I’ll keep the bread for the mean time, we wouldn’t want to repeat what happened in the past now would we?” she said.

“AAaawwww, such a tease.” I whined.

“Well I learned from the best.” She replied, still has a teasing tone in her voice, I laughed at that and stood up, dusting the stray leaves on my pants and said.

“Well I’ll go get the ingredients now, wait for me at the table!!!.” And I disappeared from Celine’s sight using teleportation and arriving at where bee hives are located in the forest, funny thing how this all started was when Celine had brought us sandwiches -again-, which I think was around 2 years ago.

I was late to arrive at the table set up below a tree beside the main training ground of the northern forest’s village, we created this ground just a few days after we were accepted to train under the leaders,

They said that it was such a hassle to travel back and forth from our original training ground, and by I mean ‘we’ I helped out too, now it’s similar to that of a challenge valley from modern era, contraptions here and there, obstacles and such, which I pushed them to make, later on got interrogated how I had such ideas.

I think it was days after they had left me off the hook, saying that I do be careful with my ideas in case they will all be leaked to other people, apparently, they think my ideas were dangerous. Which I agree too, hehe.

Anyway, back to the topic, when I arrived, all the sandwiches were gone, and I regretted the part where I didn’t think of bringing a spare lunch for myself -but now I bring some for myself-, wonder what I did?

I went to each of their houses -teleported-, stole some bread and ingredients -leaving a few-, created sandwiches at my home, went back to our training ground, sat at my usual seat, and ate, I made fourteen pieces of sandwich by the way.

Of course, it made them hungry for more, but what made them very curious was the different sandwich that was present, the honey sandwich, hehe, when they asked to have some, I refused, but when they gave me each puppy dog eyes,

Let’s just say I gave in, and each gave them a piece, both the regular sandwich, and the honey sandwich, and they haven’t stopped bothering me to make more, but I shot down their idea of such a change in routine, I mean, what will Celine feel if her role of giving sandwiches is stolen, if it were me, I would feel very, very sad.

After collecting honey juice from ten bee hives, -don’t ask, I just need a lot of honey for this-, I created a portal to the training ground and brought the honey with me using my raw mana as a container, it’s quite curious to wonder of the things here, when it comes to things that are created by mana and assume physical form.

I am not able to bring it with me using teleportation, only by portals or simply by carrying them, but what’s up with my scythe though? I’m able to carry it with me using teleportation, -and right now I just place it within a sub-space I created, hehe, good for carrying stuffs-,

Wait why didn’t I think of that when bringing this honey? O right, I’m supposed to use my mana in manipulating the essence of the honey’s juice to turn into jam, for the first time I spread honey on a bread, it soaked down, and slipped out of the bread, but by turning it into a jam, it doesn’t soak nor slip. Nya.

“Uh, Ken? What are you doing? Getting lost in thought again” I snapped out of my thoughts and surveyed who spoke…

“Hehe, I guess I did.” Wilbert offered me a smile and scooted over the long bench to let me sit with them, still the six orbs of mana, containing honey, it seems that they have already finished eating their lunch, and why of all days that I just had to forget to bring my lunch box, but Celine saved me though, but still. Good thing it’s Friday.

“Do you guys want some snacks to go with lunch?” I asked looking at the six people before me, already knowing of Celine’s opinion. Then a series of yes and nods of agreement were passed, I took one mana orb that is similar to the size of a crystal ball -these ones are here too-,

By manipulating the essence, and thickening the substance of the honey, turning the content from half of the container filled, to almost one fourth of the container filled, then turned the raw mana into ice before setting it down on the table.

I did the same thing to the rest of the orbs, once they were all finished, I cracked opened the ice orb in half horizontally before deforming the cut upper half into some type of platform that holds the lower half of the orb.

“Umm, Ken? Why did you make so many?” Lila asked. I looked at her and smiled.

“So that we could have spares to eat later, hehe.” I said, I then looked at the others and said.

“Dig in.” and dig in they did, it was funny seeing them compete who gets first especially Glen and Wilbert who shoved and bickered playfully, as we watch them do their antics, but sometimes, it’s not so pleasurable for me since I sit beside Wil, and when the both of them start getting physical,

I get caught in their brawl, but I’m fine, most of the time, worst part they both sit beside one another, Allen sits at Glen’s left, my sparring and co-apprentice, across him is Saber who always sit besides his sister Lila, and then Celine who sits across Wilbert, and me?

Yeah no one sits across me, naah I’m just kidding, sometimes one of our parents or masters sits along and eats lunch with us, which makes me wonder, where is Master Klein anyway? He’s supposed to eat with us today since he said so, and just like Saber read my mind, he suddenly said…

“Teacher Klein went back to the village for some important matter, don’t know what, but don’t care, he’ll be back though.” sometimes Saber’s intuitions are so on point that it scares me, or is it mind reading, yeah definitely mind reading.

I stared hard at Saber while eating his honey butter sandwich -yeah, I named it just now, don’t worry why I called it honey butter, the honey is just like the substance of butter, without peanut butter, you get what I mean, where to find peanuts though-.

“Don’t look at me like that Ken, I know what you’re thinking, we all know I don’t have the power to read minds.” I whined and said.

“But your assumptions are so on point!” with as much enthusiastic whining as I could muster.

“Still no.” with that our conversation is sealed, haha, get it, sealed.

“Don’t worry Ken, father had already eaten with us before you arrived.” said Allen, I looked at him grateful for the information, and returned back to eating my sandwich, I thought they would layer it into 3 or 4 maybe, surprisingly they didn’t and had stick to having two breads each.

Uwaah the atmosphere here is always so nice, the gentle breeze, the light chatter and soft caress of the sunlight makes this the best of every the best lunch I have ever had. Tehee.

I gotta say, everyone of us had improved and matured throughout the years we’ve been together, although baby faces are still visible here and there, -especially me, kidding!- but throughout the training we’ve endured, tempered by the hardships and trials we’ve faced all those years,

I can only say that, we are more than capable of looking after ourselves, for isn’t that what we were training for, but what could twelve year olds do at this time? I think nothing, hehe.

Speaking of baby faces, my companions are starting to look more attractive as days go by, not like in the past where you could say that they look handsome and beautiful as children because they are children -blame my author for his poor explanation skills-,

But you can’t change the fact that they looked very cute, but now, it’s like their starting to shed their baby skin and had taken a new found beauty within.

‘Isn’t that supposed to be what you call puberty?’ -White-

‘YEAH! You’re right! I can’t believe I forgot about that.’ I replied.

Puberty, they are undergoing puberty! I think watching them grow up made me subconsciously think that I don’t want them to grow up, they were so CUTE!!!!!!!!!! In the past. (Forgot that he’s also the same age as them, but has a mentality age of more than 30 yrs. Old)

I gotta find a growth stopping spell!

‘You can’t do that! That would hinder the protagonists development, remember you’re here for a mission.’ said White.

‘Okay.’ I can’t help but sulk away my worries.

‘Geez, such a baby, I can’t help but think who’s even more childish, you or Wilbert.’

(Ken gasps internally)

‘I am deeply offended!’ HMPH! White cackles before stopping slowly.

Allen had always been the tallest out of all of us, followed by Wilbert, Saber, and Glen, who were one inch shorter than Allen, followed by me, who was a half inch shorter than the three -you can guess how many inches I am faring against Allen-.

And then come our two girls whom are one inch shorter than me, at first it made me irritated that the boys are taller than me since in the past I was the tallest out of all the people I know of -including boys-,

But with the height of the girls, at least my height was justified, we’re still children, I cannot give an accurate measurement on how tall we all are since we’re still growing, hehe, don’t ask me about their physique, I’ll just tell you guys in the future (winks internally).

Wilbert became more outgoing and cheerful, doing all sorts of mischief with me and Glen, Allen got stuck on being the responsible one out of all of us -mostly due to my antics, hehe-, Lila and Celine got along well now, since in the past both were reluctant to talk with each other,

And Saber, is more like master Ulysses, a serious snob kind of guy, he really admires master Ulysses so much, but I can still tell that he has a soft spot for us.

I wonder what they would be like when we become teenagers, or even adults, I think many people would become very envious of them, oh wait, I forgot to mention, I have long hair, hehe.

‘Seriously, long hair?’ -White-

‘Oh White, can’t even handle a joke?’ -Ken-

‘Haha, just saying’ he replied. Thinking about my friends makes me think so much about how I would very want, like, and love to live life alongside them, but does it really have to be this way? Sometimes I question my life choices.

Wait where are they?

“Guys?” I hear a distant cackle. I turned around and saw that they are already at the field doing stretching and warming up for this afternoon, guess I didn’t notice again how they left the table , good they closed the other untouched orbs -with an ice plate-.

Celine was still standing under the shade of the tree not far from the table and looking at our friends preparing. I stood up and approached her.

“Were you waiting for me?” I asked. She turned my away and smiled before saying.

“Yes.” She casted down her gaze and looked very reluctant, as if there’s something more she wants to say, I waited since these are one of those moments where Celine has something to say or ask, and with a little patience, she’ll be able to muster up her courage and asked, ah here she goes now…

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, since I’ve noticed it every day, when we wake up, or you wake us up, when we’re training, and when you’re… nevermind… what I wanted to ask is that, why do you always want to train Ken?” I was shocked by her question and left dumbfounded, it took me a couple of seconds before I shook my head lightly, then offered her a small smile.

“Someday, I’ll tell you guys, just not now, when you’re ready, when you’re all ready.” I said to which she received sadly, shoulders slouched and head casted down, I approached her and touched her shoulder.

“We can’t have ourselves being down now can we? Come on let’s go join the others warm up.” I said. She looked up at me and nodded…

“Okay.” She turned around and started walking towards the others before stopping and looking my way…

“Are you coming?” There’s the Celine I know, with that smile and look of determination.

“YEAH! Just a second!” I replied before she continued walking towards Lila.

“Thank you for keeping it a secret master.” I said.

“You’re welcome. Promise me that you’ll tell them someday?” Master replied.

“Yes, I promise.” I turned to the side where teacher is leaning by a tree, this afternoon we’ll be training our magic. *GRINS* I turned back at everyone and shouted.

“HEY GUYS! MASTER KLEIN IS HERE!” gaining sounds of approval from my friend, before sauntering over to where they have lined themselves up.

-Later in the middle of afternoon-

“Hey, hey guys, master Ulysses is here.” Glen said, and when I looked up, confirmed that master Ulysses was really here conversing with master Klein, we all scrambled to form a line, and bowed before him, we lift our heads from his sound of approval.

“Your Master Ulysses here has brought some news.” said Master Klein.

“The other civilizations of magical beasts have sent a message, that they will be bringing their off-springs here at our village to learn, train and cultivate their magic, seems like they were intrigued from your past behavior when they had visited us.” Master Ulysses explained looking at us, is he looking at me?

“May we ask master which clan had decided upon this?” Lila asked respectfully, bowing her head and lifting her head after asking her question.

“The Dragon Clan, The Guardian Avians, and The Descendants of the Nine-Tailed Fox, four new students that we have taken under our wing to teach and to guide, and do not worry, all of them are of your age,

So you won’t have any trouble adjusting to them, our guests will be arriving tomorrow, and I want all of you to be present when they arrive and be in your best behavior.” said Master Ulysses.

“If you don’t mind me asking Master, why are there four? You only mentioned 3 civilizations.” I asked, and did exactly as what Lila did.

“The Guardian Avians, has sent two of their off-springs, that’s why we’re having four guests.” Master Ulysses explained.

“Understood Master.” I bowed again, to which Master nodded.

“That would be all.” said Master Ulysses before looking at Master Klein and disappearing in a black smoke, I think he went back to the village. We immediately went back to our training, minding our own business, I can say that everyone is excited, since their actions seems a bit more lively and full of vigor, I wonder what kind of magical beasts we’ll be able to encounter?

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