When Nina saw her brother calling her, she went to him with a smile on her face, a little tired.
She could barely keep up with her friends’ running because of her mobility problems. She struggled to play with them and was twice as tired as any of them.
Still, she was happy and asked, breathing heavily. “What is it, big brother?”
“This is a friend, Nina. She’s here to give you a present.” Vice made hand signals to his sister, making Nova realize this little girl was deaf.
She immediately felt terrible but tried not to show it to Nina. The worst thing a person with a disability could expect when meeting a new person was a look of pity.
Then Nova smiled and leaned down until her face was at the same level as Nina’s.
“Nina, you are a lovely girl. Please accept my gift.” She said, not knowing sign language.
But Nina understood her and immediately took the gift from Nova’s hands.
As a child, she loved presents, whether they were from strangers or acquaintances!
“Thank you, big sister!” She jumped for joy, receiving her present, and soon hugged Nova and went to see what it was.
“I didn’t know your sister was deaf…” Nova commented, feeling sorry for Nina. “Would you mind telling me how that happened?”
Nina could talk, so she couldn’t have been born that way!
“Hmm, we were involved in a battle of Sovereigns when we were younger. We barely survived.” Vicente said, hiding the worst thing that had happened that day, the worst in his life.
Nova opened her mouth in shock, imagining how terrible it must have been to go through that at such a young age.
Even adults and magicians of her level would be frightened to see such experts demonstrating their skills… But Vicente and Nina had actually survived a battle between 4th-stage magicians!
“I’m sorry.” She said, feeling bad.
Unfortunately, there was nothing she or even the more powerful ones in the kingdom could do about it. Experts did as they pleased in this world, and no one could control this kind of situation.
The cases of people like Vicente and Nina were not uncommon. The number of casualties due to clashes between high or even low-level magicians was not small!
Nova knew this was the case for 4th-stage experts, but it was also true for 1st-stage magicians.
‘This is the cruel face of our world, Vice… I’m sorry that a sweet child like Nina had to see it so early.’ Nova looked to where the young girl had run. ‘Cases like yours are rare, but everyday groups like Cesar’s harm people of all kinds.
As a member of the royal army and protector of order, I can’t do anything for you, but I will try my best to change groups like the Defiant Tyranny, the Scarlet Syndicate, and Cesar’s party!’ She clenched her fists as she thought about it.
“Don’t worry.” Vicente smiled at her as he took one of Nova’s hands. “Why don’t I show you our house? It will be good for you not to get lost in the future.”
Hearing Vicente’s tone, Nova looked into his eyes and did not refuse his touch. Vice seemed to be flirting with her, but Nova understood it differently.
To her, he was demonstrating his strength by not letting his tragedies affect him, demonstrating what it took to protect and support Nina.
She unconsciously bit her lower lip and accepted that he was pulling her to show her this house.
She smiled and said. “Me getting lost in the future? You’re too trusting. But let me see where little Nina lives. If you don’t give her the best, I’ll teach you a lesson!”
…
After a few hours, all the visitors to Nina’s birthday party left, and she went to her room next to Eve’s to look at some of the presents she had not yet opened.
Her classes at a local academy would start next week, so she had little time to enjoy some of these gifts in her spare time.
While Rory would continue his evening with someone he had recently visited, Vicente would have no such adventures for the time being.
Things were going well between him and Nova, but he would need more time to gain such a woman’s trust.
Anyway, he felt it was only a matter of time before he had one contact inside the local royal army post, and before his daily meditation, he went to his training area in that residence.
Vicente finished reading the last few books that were missing to complete all the material he had received from Benson, and soon, he was with a wooden hammer in his hand, once again practicing his forging skills.
By channeling his mana into his movements, he accelerated the speed of his movements, the power of his blows, and also the accuracy with which he hit.
By better combining the way he moved the hammer with the appropriate amount of mana and basic knowledge of forging, he struck the hard-to-mold substance and slowly removed it from its square shape.
As he made the training object smaller and smaller, with fewer and fewer edges, Vicente felt as if something was pressing down on him with each blow.
When he made his last attack, completing 13 hours of training with the hammer, he suddenly felt as if something inside him had changed.
The pressure on him disappeared, and his training object stabilized, showing a perfect spherical shape.
A crack came from one of Vicente’s hands. He looked at the wooden hammer and saw several cracks growing on it.
As this happened, a bit of smoke came out from inside the item, and a few words formed in front of him.
“This…”
‘If you made it this far, congratulations, my disciple, you are now a 1st-stage blacksmith!’
Vicente read before he saw the smoke dissipate in front of him.
He looked down at his hands, ignoring the sweat dripping from his face and the natural fatigue after more than an hour of training with the now-broken hammer.
Standing in the middle of his training area, the black-haired, shirtless young man moved what little mana he had left before he was exhausted and activated his first skill.
The red pentagram appeared in front of one of his hands, and several of his surrounding metal objects instantly changed shape to form a revolver.
This time, Vicente made no mistake, and every part of this weapon was similar to the design behind it. 𝑜𝑣𝘭.𝘯𝑡
Taking this gun in his hands, Vicente used one of the bullets he had in the cannon of another gun he always carried with him and fired.
Bang!