A New Star Chapter 34

"I know you know I'm in here and that it's me," I called through the shut door of my suite. 

The door opened, revealing a discombobulated count, one who entered rather warily, eying me for a moment before he saw the spear. "By the heavens!" 

"The heavens have nothing to do with it," I replied, rolling my eyes before sitting in the chair next to the spear. I gestured for the count to sit across from me, and he did so gingerly, eyes riveted to the artifact.  

"You didn't undergo another Tribulation, did you?" he asked, sounding almost despondent. 

"No," I replied coldly, lighting the fireplace with my fire affinity. 

"This is…" he started but stopped as a wave of mental force emanated from the spear, clearly targeting the count, who paled slightly and leaned back in the chair. 

"I don't think it particularly cares for your attentions, Emmanuel," I said sarcastically. 

"It's not truly alive," he snapped back. "But yes, you are correct, the magics of the weapon are not particularly happy at someone not bound to the weapon trying to scan it. How in all the heavens did you manage to find such a thing? How did you retrieve it?" 

"I found an interesting place when exploring the Untamed Wilds," I answered with a shrug. "I went down and found the spear there. It was in a container that was easy to open, so I just opened the container and took it." 

"Just like that?" he asked, the skepticism clear in his voice.  

"These things are not difficult," I replied airily.  

"I should suspect such of an Old Soul," he said. 

"What does that mean?" I asked coldly. 

"You're as lucky as you are cantankerous," he said with a shake of his head. 

"I take that as a compliment," I said, throwing another log into the fireplace before leaning back in my chair. My eyes slid to the spear briefly; I couldn't help myself, thinking about the amount of power contained in the weapon. My hands itched to wield it, but I still needed rest. I would take it out to the yard the next morning to work my forms; the exceptional length was going to be a challenge to adapt to. 

"Well, your mind still seems your own, and the estate hasn't exploded. Yet," he said, rising. 

"I'm sure you can see yourself out," I said calmly. 

"I say!" the count exclaimed.  

"You certainly do. Enough for both of us," I replied. 

"Why, I never!" he exclaimed, grumbling under his breath as he strode out of the suite.  

I looked over at the spear again but shook my head and got up, moving into my bathroom and getting cleaned up for the night. I had worked it out with my maids that if the door into the sitting room was locked, they were to leave the suite alone. I had locked the door after the count left, and as soon as I was cleaned up, I was in bed, and as soon as I was in bed, I was asleep. I slept rather soundly that night, though I did have a vague dream of flying through the sky, and not in a troop carrier or starship, but with just my body. I woke from that dream early and got ready for the day myself, getting my training gear on before rolling Gungnir over my shoulders and leaving my suite.  

Luckily the hallways were wide enough, otherwise I'd look pretty stupid getting such a legendary weapon jammed up or bouncing it off the walls as I walked. Still, I shifted it to over just one shoulder, not wanting to get jammed up on the steps down into the kitchen. I did crack a smile as I walked into the bustling room and everything came to a screeching halt for a moment, the weight and subtle power the spear pushed into the surroundings enough to greatly startle the very low-ranked staff working therein. Most of the people employed at the estate, apart from the guard contingent, were anywhere between B-rank and E-rank. Very few ever got to F-rank or beyond, and that was to be expected, as they had no need to. Raising one's rank didn't add much to longevity until much higher ranks, or for very specific affinities, all of which were extremely rare, so few people had much motivation to upgrade their affinity grades.  

Few also, quite frankly, had the talent, as the two main ways to level affinities were combat and deep meditation and research. If the first path, that of battle, was already too much for people, the second was even further out of reach. Education in this world was still slipshod at best, particularly for any who weren't nobles or extremely wealthy, and general levels of knowledge and understanding were very low. Even given that not being the case, which would be a big assumption, leveling an affinity beyond the first couple grades through study, research, and meditation was extremely complex and difficult with many unexpected challenges. It was little surprising that most people, then, would barely raise even their three best affinities more than four or five grades during the course of their lifetime. Couple that with the general disdain for body cultivation, a topic I need not belabor any more here, and the average standard of most people was quite low. Crafting skills gave little direct benefit, not reinforcing the body or mind by much, and weapon skills were similar, though who would be raising a weapon skill if they weren't fighting or training their affinities was beyond me.  

Anyway, the staff present quickly got over their startlement and continued going about their tasks. My presence there was routine enough by this point that, once the pressure Gungnir exerted was adjusted to, most simply ignored me. The cooks knew what I liked to eat and how I liked to eat it, and I need not make a request of them, just enter the place and wait a few moments to have my breakfast of choice. I tried to keep a good balance of nutrients as well as quite a few calories, as my body needed all it could get, but nutrient distribution might as well be an alien language here. People understood such concepts as a food being fatty or greasy, but that was about the extent of it, and trying to explain something like carbohydrates was a losing battle I had given up on a while ago. 

I finished my food rather quickly, dumping my plates in the area for dirty cutlery before rolling the spear across my shoulders and heading out one of the back doors. I made my way to the training ground, finding it mostly empty, though I once again had to smile as everyone's attention snapped to me as soon as I walked in. Well, almost everyone, and I made a note of the couple dullards that hadn't twigged to the presence of a legendary weapon that altered the very fabric of reality around it just by existing. I would have a word with the commander at some later time about making sure those fools were put on some duty like 'chief stable guard' or something equally tedious and made-up. I would assign them wall duty or something, but that was an actually important job that shouldn't be used as a mere punishment detail.  

And speaking of the commander, she showed up after only a handful of seconds, looking around quite fiercely, though she tried to make it seem like she was entirely nonchalant. I wasn't buying it, but she wasn't selling it, and she very soon fixed me with a rather pointed stare, one I ignored entirely as I took up a spot at the far end of the yard and started warming up with a slow series of highly controlled movements. I paused after a minute to see the commander standing nearly on top of me, giving both myself and the spear a very thorough inspection. I rolled the weapon around my body and jabbed at the commander with the blunt end of the haft, a move that clearly surprised her, but one she was easily able to dodge.  

"What was that for?" she asked in a surprised and slightly peeved tone. 

"Stare any harder or longer and I'm charging you an audience fee," I retorted, rolling my shoulders before resetting my stance.  

"That's quite an…impressive weapon," the commander said, having a rather difficult time choosing her words.  

"It's very powerful," I replied simply, not giving her what she wanted. 

Which was clear as she started peppering me with questions. "What is it exactly? Where'd you get it? How'd you get it? Are there any more out there? Is it a bound weapon?" 

"Commander," I said coldly, stopping again and looking at her with quite a derogatory expression. "If you don't stop pestering me, I'll show you exactly where I got this spear." 

"Why does that sound like a threat?" she asked with a deep frown on her exceedingly pretty face.  

"Because there was a dragon guarding that spot," I answered calmly, starting to slash and stab with the weapon again right afterward. I still needed to get used to the thing’s impressive weight and a length that wasn't going to be comfortable for me until I added another half a meter or more to my height. 

"Wait, if that spear was guarded by a dragon, how did you get it?" she asked. 

"I'm just that good," I replied calmly. 

The captain stared at me for a few moments, likely deciding what kind of response to grace that comment with, but she eventually decided that discretion was the better part of valor. She left, allowing me to get back to my training, which took up most of the morning. At the end of said morning, when I was about ready to call it a day, the count appeared once again, giving me a strange look, which I returned with a glower. He didn't say anything, gesturing for me to ready myself, after which he started to attack, slowly at first but then with an increasing frequency. I was quite used to the count's training sessions at this point, and I kept up with him as he attacked me, pushing me back across the dueling field. 

He was rather surprised at how well I was keeping up overall, which was amusing to me since I wasn't showing him everything I was capable of at this point. In fact, I didn't want to go too far too fast, as I still wasn't used to the way all the systems of this world worked, and I didn't want to run before I fully understood how to walk. I had a pretty good grasp of everything at this point, but I wanted to be more meticulous about how I approached using weapons, especially considering I understood just how difficult it was to exemplify transcendence. I didn't want to have to push that right now, especially in these next few weeks, as that was something that a person really needed to be at a hundred percent to realize.  

That wasn't happening now, nor any time in the immediate future, and I slowed the count's assault before holding him to a standstill. I knew the man was quite skilled, and that was speaking strictly about his skill with weapons, of course, as adding his skill and level with his affinities would be a whole other matter. I suspected that the count was a Grandmaster swordsman, as I didn't really detect anything that would be present if he were anything beyond that, but that would be a matter for another day. I didn't try to push him back or test his skills, either, as that would get a bit too far into things I wanted to leave alone for now.  

It was good practice in letting me adjust to the weapon, and I found that despite its great power and seeming minimum level of awareness or cognition, it didn't attempt to fight me at all. If anything, it blended seamlessly with my fighting techniques and skill, all my knowledge from my previous life able to seep to the fore with such an amazing implement in my hand, though, again, I did hold back in not pushing too far. I didn't want to destabilize my foundation, nor push too much and get used to some of the more advanced forms while my body still wasn't fully matured. I would have to be patient for another few years, but even the process of me being patient saw me leaps and bounds ahead of many others. I don't think anybody but the captains had any of their weapon skills at Expert, though maybe one or two of the handful of lieutenants did, but that would be the extent of it. To already be a Late Expert at the age of nine meant I was so far ahead of even grown and trained warriors that it wasn't funny, just sad.  

The count got everything he wanted out of me, or he just bored with the training, realizing I wasn't giving him my all. He eventually stopped us, though I would have done so by that point anyway, considering it was time for lunch, and doubly so at that, as I had certainly worked through everything I had had for breakfast at that point. I was certainly ready for a massive spread, and I was able to make a plate, or two…or even three, in the kitchen whenever and however I liked. I ate what I, ahem, procured rather quickly before looking for the count in the library. He wasn't present today, whether that was because he had been summoned to more important matters, or whether it was because he was in a fit of pique, I couldn't really tell. Still, that left me at loose ends, which just meant time that I could devote to more productive pursuits than my rather stultifying conversations with Emmanuel in the library.  

Well, I had hoped I would have the afternoon to my own devices, but I had barely had time to brew a single set of potions before my lab was invaded. Well, invaded was a strong word, but the count barging in without so much as a 'by-your-leave' wasn't really conducive to me getting any real work done. He was in a bit of a bother, though it wasn't anger or upset, and it did take me a few moments to realize that he was a bit in awe. Not of me, of course, I think I just gave him a series of increasingly long and painful headaches, but he was clearly hopped up because of some visitor that had just arrived at the estate. He insisted that I come with him, literally tapping his foot in impatience as I cleaned the lab up; I would have gone slow quite deliberately if I hadn't thought he was on the verge of grabbing me with one of his affinities and whisking me away. The cleanup didn't take that long, anyway, and I then followed the impatient scoundrel up through the massive building and to my parents' office, which was becoming a rather common meeting room.  

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