“You two follow me to the garden, Olivia you make as many petrifying potions as you can.” After hearing her scream, “YES!” Cain left the room with both Zaleria and Gracie.
“Would mind keeping the place warm?” Cain said and Zaleria looked at him as to how did he know she could do that, “Doesn’t matter after you gave me those three.” Zaleria sighed and her body started to emit heat like a raging flame. The snow melted in the majority of the garden and it got warm as if it was a sunny day.
“How did she do that?” Gracie asked as she looked around.
“Just how like we breath in our hands to warm them up. She is breathing fire inside her mouth to release heat.” Cain replied that was some deep dragon knowledge that Zaleria started to question him being a human.
Cain quickly turned toward Gracie, “The twin fangs training starts with how to swing a single dagger, when you learn that we can try swinging two. For the style, will try the Yuan-ti style.” Cain said taking one of the daggers from Gracie and taking a stance, she immediately mimicked him and asked.
“Yuan-ti?”
“Snake people. They can spit their position so they are the closest to you. They might have sick and rotten personalities toward strangers but once you know them, they have hearts of gold.” Cain looked to the sky remembering his cellmate when he was imprisoned by the dragons, that man was nasty but reliable when needed.
“Enough talk, do it like me.” Cain put one leg ahead and one at the back, “This is the simplest attack, it’s the combination of a slash and a stab.” Holding the dagger in a reverse grip, Cain slashed down and then stabbed ahead with a quick step.
“The first slash is used to force you’re enemy to back away and then you follow them with a stab. The reverse grip is just my style, you can hold the dagger however you feel more comfortable.” Cain batted Gracie on the back, she mimicked Cain’s movements. “Again!” Cain said as she wasn’t good enough to his liking.
“Good, now I need you to do something harder. Try to spit on your blade as it swings down.” Cain took his stance to demonstrate how she should do it.
“You spit will dry quickly so you can’t have weapons coated with it beforehand in a surprise fight. Using a fresh one is the easiest.” Said as he wiggled the blade in the air to get Gracie’s attention.
“Before you start take a deep breath as you will be exhaling when you spit.” Cain took a visible breath and swung the dagger down, he stooped midway. “You have to spit at the start of the strike so it can meet the blade at the middle like now.” Cain continued the strike.
Gracie’s eyes were fixed on him like that of an owl, he could swear she never blinked the whole time which still kinda scared him. “I will demonstrate it now, look carefully.”
Cain immediately demonstrated the strike with the spit, the motion was seeming less and he followed it to the stab. “Even if you missed the blade, you still might hit the enemy with the spit. It will be lucky if you sit on the face and especially the mouth, your raw poison is extremely effective.” Cain said as he gestured for Gracie to take her stance.
It took her quite the tries to manage to hit her blade with the spit, by that time her mouth was already getting dry. “Good, this will take me to the second point. You might not be a snake but you have a limited amount of spit, make sure to use it carefully.” Cain said as he handed her a cup of water. Gracie downed the cub immediately.
“Now after you stab your opponent, I want you to take a quick step back holding your dagger in front of you. You can try to spit in their faces as well. The goal from this is to let them bleed while keeping a safe distance, you then wait until they try to heal to strike again using that opening.” Gracie nodded and Zaleria commented from the background, “That’s nasty, spitting in their face and not letting them heal.” Cain quickly glanced at her “We’re not dragons after all.”
Gracie again mimicked Cain’s movements, with each new strike she could feel her body getting used to the move set. Lisa might not have been wrong when she said she had talent. Even Cain was impressed seeing how quickly she could perform the moves.
“Are you not hindered by the maid uniform? Should I order something new for you?” Cain could see she can move well, but who knows? She might be having trouble.
“No, I prefer the maid outfit. Am I allowed to do something of my own?” Gracie said taking the stance Cain taught her.
“Do it.” Cain wanted to see what she was about, she knew the hidden blade after all.
Gracie performed what Cain taught her, swinging the blade down and spitting on it to apply her aphrodisiac. The second stab was sharp and precise, Cain noted that she was aiming at the heart and it was flawless. After that the change started to appear, Gracie’s footsteps changed noticeably as she switched the stance of her legs. Spitting directly to where the enemy’s face is supposed to be, instead of backing down immediately, she gracefully pulled the dagger and spun with a round kick to the upper neck with a blade poking from her heels.
Seeing that kick Cain cringed at remembering the poor assassin who got his jewel sliced by her. “And without emitting the slightest bloodlust? What a monster.” Zaleria said as she sensed nothing from Gracie whose every move could take a life.
That wasn’t the end of Gracie’s attacks. Before her foot could touch the ground again she used her other leg to jump backward and from her left hand, she threw a small butter knife. toward where the eyes should be, she was aiming to blind her target.
Cain clapped for her, “Mixing the hidden blade with what you just learned was amazing. Where do you even hide all those blades?” Cain was amazed by the demonstration of her hidden blade, even without his twin fang she was stronger than the average untrained human by a mile.
“If you excuse me?” Gracie bowed and Cain naturally nodded without knowing why, She immediately took her shoe and handed it to him. Inside, close to where her toe should rest there was a small button. When pressed a blade would pop out from the heel, and when pressed again it will retract.
“Did you make this? Do you know how it works?” Cain asked as this was quite an intricate tool being it held no magic, it was purely a mechanical device. “No, Lady Lisa gave it to me. I only know how to repair and maintain it.” Gracie replied as she stood on one leg waiting for Cain to hand her shoe back.
“That’s enough for me, If you can, let me watch you repair them. I might be able to recreate or even make them stronger. So what about the knives?” Cain looked at her, and she immediately dropped another butter knife from her wrist.
“I have twenty in each arm, they dropped the moment I twist my wrist in the opposite direction to my elbow.” She handed the butter knife to Cain and looked at her suspiciously.
“Sebas said that he bought four batches of butter knives but they got stolen…” He looked at her, “I did take them.” She said immediately.
Cain sighed, “At least tell me or Sebas the next time, the poor old man was worried sick about security.” Cain didn’t have a problem with her taking things, he just wanted her to report it so they wouldn’t keep looking for missing things.
“I will, sorry for the trouble.” She apologized but as her expression didn’t change, for a moment Cain felt like she was being sarcastic.
“Hold up, why are you using kitchen utensils in the first place?” Cain asked as her using butter knives seemed a bit weird, she wouldn’t pull a frying pan from under her skirt, would she?
“I ran out of ammo, butter knives were the most similar to the knives I used.” She replied as she hopped toward Cain and snatched her shoe back from his hand. “Thank you.” She said wearing her shoe again.
Cain laughed wryly, he had forgotten to hand it back. “I will have some knives ordered regularly for you to use.” He declared trying to change the subject.
“That would help a lot.” She said returning to her training.
Cain smiled as he watched his murder maid train, each of her moves was aimed to put someone six feet under the ground which was a bit scary. Once she has gotten used to her new style that doesn’t rely on sneak attacks he would take her to hunt some monster and level up.
“Cain!” He suddenly heard a familiar voice calling him. Mary was weaving her hand to him at the gate, Cain immediately signaled for her to enter.
“What brought you here? Shouldn’t you be working at the guild?” Cain asked as it was midday.
“What are saying? I’m your private representative, I will be spending most of my time as a part of Cobra’s fang. This morning I was just collecting information about nearby dungeons and monsters as you asked.” Mary smiled at him puffing her arm up.
“I did say B-rank dungeons or lower, I never said monsters!” Cain replied as she seems to have done more work than he asked.
“It’s my job to manage information for the party, fight legally for your cause, and make sure we’re not diving into trouble.” She replied taking the documents from her pouch.
“You know I was wondering, why all the people you deal with are women?” Zaleria asked with a puzzled face. “Is there any strategy for having us all?” For some reason, Cain felt as if she hit a nail on the head. Sofia, Selena, Alice, Gracie, Zaleria, and now Mary. Not counting the nine maids, The alchemist Olivia and the other four unallocated girls. A whopping 20 girls.
“I don’t know, it’s just got like this…” He laughed it off, at least he isn’t in a relationship with them all…That’s right…Isn’t it?