Chapter 5: Authority Awakening

"Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!"

"Again."

"Hyah!"

I swung my dagger at the training dummy, as Prylla instructed, which missed the intended target again.

"Hah- hah- This hah- isn't fair! I can't hit the neck at all!" I panted

"That's because you keep closing your eyes every time you swing!"

I've been practicing for about a month now. It took me a while, but I'd gotten the hang of magic quickly. After the first lesson it got much easier to control my mana output and I stopped falling asleep after casting after the fifth day of training. Prylla also made sure to keep up with my literacy every single night. I was finally able to read simple fairy tales, but not much else. We started combat training a week ago and Prylla was having me do practice swings on the training dummies.

"You need to keep your eyes open when you swing or else you'll never hit what you're aiming for!"

"It's hard though! I see double of everything! I can't focus!"

It began recently during one of my practice sessions while I was training against the dummy, I started to have double vision. At first it was rather mild and there was only a bit of motion blur, but it's progressed to the point that I sometimes stumble when I walk and would get headaches as well as feel extremely nauseous. There was no discernible reason for the sudden change and the doctor at the Cathedral couldn't find anything wrong with my eyes either.

"Just focus on the point you wish to strike. Don't take your eyes off it." Prylla instructed.

I turned back towards the dummy and looked at its neck. Clutching the dagger in my hand I started my swing. My vision continued to split further and further, as my hand approached its target. I could see the illusory hand move in the same direction as my actual hand. My hand following its motions made contact with the dummy's neck.

"I did it!" I jumped up and down.

"Well done, I knew you could do it. Let's take a break for now."

"Alright."

I went back to my room to go back to reading some of the fairy tails Prylla had brought to me. There wasn't much to do in terms of entertainment in the Cathedral. It was mostly just training, reading, sleeping, and messing with Sergei. Petelgeuse had left sometime in the middle of the week with pretty much everyone except Prylla and Sergei. Something about a trial, but I wasn't paying much attention at the time. Apparently they're going to a place called Gusteko and were going to be gone for at least two months. Not that I minded much. I only ever spoke with Faust, Sado, Fogg, Sergei, and Prylla anyway.

It's been getting pretty boring here lately which isn't necessarily a bad thing. At least I don't have to listen to Petelgeuse's long winded rants about love and hear Sirius apologize for existing. It gets quite tiresome after the first five times. I shut the book I was reading and set it back down at my desk. I glanced over to where I left my Gospel.

If you feel a little tingle in the back of your head, I'd implore you to check your Gospel. I remember Pandora mentioning that to me on my first day here. Does a head splitting headache and extreme nausea count as a tingle though? I guess it wouldn't hurt to look after all. Reaching over and picking up the black book. The leather of the cover was very smooth. Why hadn't I noticed before? I ran my finger across the spine of the book before gripping the edge and opening the book.

Suddenly with the book spread open my surroundings swiftly faded away and were replaced by a busy street. There were all manner of people ranging from normal humans to walking dogs and lizards cluttering the street. Most of them were blurred and hard to make out. There were what appeared to be market stalls lining either side of the street as well as carriages travelling back and forth, pulled by large lizard creatures of various sizes. The headache I had started to become far more intense. My head was beginning to pound, but I needed to see more.

I turned my head to the side towards the sound of a bell ringing in the distance. There was a large tower in view which housed a large crystal which glowed a bright yellow. I looked back towards the street and noticed a merchant adorned with a green cloak and green hat of some kind. He seemed to be meeting with someone else. The green man handed the shadowy figure a large bag and the figure handed the man something in return.

I tried to walk forward to get a better look, but my legs wouldn't budge. The headache was getting worse and nausea was beginning to set in. I looked down on my Gospel which had writing in it: Picoutatte Metia Three Months from Today. I promptly slammed the book shut. The familiar walls of my room returned as swiftly as they left. The headache I had died down and I hadn't moved an inch from where I was. Just what happened? I set my Gospel back on my desk when I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in."

"How's your vision?" Prylla entered the room.

"It's the same but… um… I- I'm not sure how to explain this, exactly but-" I did my best to explain what I had just seen to her. After I finished explaining her expression went from mildly confused to outright shock.

"So, you opened your Gospel and were shown something?"

"Yeah..."

"Keep your eyes on my finger, alright." Prylla raised her index finger which I promptly looked at. "Now, tell me what direction I'm moving it in." I continued to stare at her finger and I saw a transparent version split off and begin to move left.

"Left."

"How'd you know? I didn't even move." Her eyes went wide.

"Your hand split and the transparent one moved first."

"I understand now. You can glimpse into the future a limited amount. It seems to become much stronger with the aid of the Gospel."

"So, Future Sight?"

"If that's what you wish to call it. I believe the problem you've been having is you're trying to look too far ahead and that's why you're having a hard time focusing."

"So if I change my Focus Point to a point closer to right now I should stop having headaches?"

"Precisely." Prylla winked at me.

"Hmm, just how am I supposed to do that though..." I tried staring at Prylla's face which caused her to look away with a slight blush.

"W- W- W- Why are you looking at me l- l- like that..." She sounded flustered.

"Hmph. I thought I could use you for it, but it's not working." I pouted. There must be something I can think of to use. I could try checking my Gospel again, but I don't know if I can withstand that headache again. I can see forward in time… time… time… I tried to rack my young brain for anything that could be a good mental image. A time stone perhaps? Now that I'm thinking about it there was that giant time stone in my vision. So, maybe if I imagine a color which represents a certain time then I can use that to focus my vision? That's it! If I base it off the colors of the time stones then I should have an easier time dealing with it right?

I ultimately decided on four categories: Yellow, Red, Blue, and Green. Yellow was zero seconds into the future, Red was ten, Blue was thirty, and Green was a minute. I found that any further than that became far too painful to deal with. I further categorized them into normal use and emergency use. Yellow and Red were for normal use, and Blue and Green for emergency use because the latter two caused pain while the former two didn't.

The next week passed by and I continued with my training unhindered. I began to make much better progress now that I could control my eyesight. Sergei ended up teaching me two new spells over the week. Vita which is a spell that slows down your target's movements and Murak which is a spell that reduces the effect of gravity on your target. They were pretty easy to get the hang of, but sadly that was the last of what he'd be able to teach me, so I'd just have to practice those three spells until I can cast them as many times as I want. Currently I could cast about one spell without feeling fatigued.

I began to focus more on combat training, and moved on to a live combatant. This is where I began practicing with my Focus Point set to Yellow. At first my movements were wobbly and I had trouble with the predicted actions. Over the weeks, however, I got the hang of it and Prylla became unable to strike me with the practice weapons at all. It helps a lot when you already know what they're going to do after all.

"Huh! Hyah!" Prylla rushed me; she was going to strike from above.

"Hn." I moved to the side dodging the strike; she's open now. I used my left foot to push me forward and went to strike her stomach. Seeing this Prylla was going to respond by jumping back. "Vita!" As Prylla tried to jump instead of moving back as far as she intended she only moved roughly a step backwards. I continued forward feeling the air swish past me. Prylla's eyes went wide for a second and I struck her stomach with the training sword.

"Hnk!" She doubled over and fell to her knees. "Perfect. You've come a long way since we began."

"Hah! Ever since I figured out Future Sight this has become a piece of cake." I puffed my chest with pride.

"Now, don't get ahead of yourself. While using everything you have to your advantage is a good idea, you should still be able to hold your own without it." Prylla lectured which I responded with a pout. "Aw, don't give me that look!" Prylla walked over to me pinching and squeezing my cheeks. She continued to do that for a few seconds before letting go. "Anyway, Petelgeuse should be returning from the Ordeal soon which means you'll have your duel with Faust."

"Do I really need to fight him? I mean training is one thing, but isn't dueling dangerous?" People should be nice to each other after all. If everyone was nice to each other then nobody would ever have to fight.

"You'll be using practice swords, so don't worry about it. Think of it like your training with me if that helps at all." Prylla patted my head. Her hand felt soft as it caressed my brown hair.

"Well I guess I'll have to do my best then." I tried to pump myself up. I turned my head to the time stone in the room and it was glowing a dim blue. It was getting late and it was almost time for more reading and writing practice. Prylla is going to start teaching me Ro glyphs today. I'm definitely excited to be able to start reading more books. I've already reread all the fairy tales in the Cathedral several times over. You can only read about how the Witch of Envy destroyed the world so many times before it feels redundant.

Literacy lessons came and went; as interesting as that could possibly be, and I went to sleep for the night after Prylla prepared dinner for me. I wonder who prepares food for Sergei? I hope Prylla doesn't let him starve, however, I suspect he'd be fine either way. He was remarkably calm and gentle natured compared to Faust, Sado, and Fogg. Those three always seemed to be up to no good. Maybe I should… scold… them… later… My eyes drifted shut once again as I fell back into the abyss of night.