Chapter 25: Training?
———
Following instructions blindly, can that really be considered training?
—————
[Liu's Pov]
After what could be considered a new morning routine for Liu, the training was finally about to begin.
'I wonder how far we've gone...'
Following Lumian, Liu put on her shoes and stepped out of the carriage with a hesitant step.
'... did the Form really manage to keep up with the carriage?...'
A slight apprehension was visible in her movements, but she had already been ready for a while to face the Form during a day of Obscurity.
"Whoa.. what are all these glowing trees?!"
As for Milo, who got out after her, he immediately started marveling at what he was seeing. A quantity and density of trees he had visibly never seen before.
"Those are lumarbres, don't you know the tree categories or what?"
'... seriously how old is he? He looks like a kid...'
Lumian had disappeared the moment Liu had set foot outside, he had also already put up a barrier around the carriage.
"Of course I know them, I've just never seen so many for real, I've never had the chance to go into the outer forest..."
Milo moved forward and stood next to Liu, still looking at the trees around them.
"... unlike you, I don't live at the border, and seeing so many lumarbres for real is way cooler than in a photo."
'... I can't get used to that photo thing, there were tons of them in the guide...'
Without paying much attention to Milo, she looked around for Lumian, who was supposed to be their teacher and teach them things.
"Where'd Lumian go?"
"I'm here."
Arriving from behind them, Lumian's voice resonated along with the sound of quite a few footsteps, somewhat muffled by the grass.
"Looks like going out during Obscurity with the Form not far off doesn't bother you too much, that's good."
"That's true, weren't you afraid of the dark?" Milo added.
Lumian was followed by the chevarbre, which he had surely just untied.
"No, I'm not afraid of the dark, and yeah, it's fine..."
'... it's not too dark and I'm not alone so it's fine.'
Seeing the chevarbre behind Lumian, Liu turned her curiosity toward it.
"Why did you untie the chevarbre? Can I pet it now?"
Walking past Liu, Lumian went to lean against a tree a few meters away, with Patrick the chevarbre still following him.
"We're gonna let it wander around inside the barrier all day, you can pet it whenever you want later..."
After leaning against the tree to face Liu and Milo, he finally noticed that Patrick was following him and taking up all the space between him and his students.
"... and why are you following me? Go run around or something. I've got nothing to eat for you."
'... is he talking to the chevarbre?...'
And Patrick blew air through his nose in response, causing a gust of wind that lifted Lumian's hair, then he went off further away to graze on grass.
'... and that works?... If I talk to it, will it understand me?'
"I just thought of it, but why do we call it a chevarbre? Isn't that kind of a ridiculous name? Like what does chev even mean, and just adding arbre after is weird, no?"
Milo, as always, was in his own world, asking questions out of nowhere.
'What's going on in his head?'
"Well, first try naming something that doesn't have a name yet before questioning the name of something else. And besides, it's pretty logical, no? Like, chevarbres like eating grass, and grass, you could say, is the hair of the earth, and they also have a habit of eating people's hair, especially Patrick's. You'll have to be careful, Liu, last time he came and snatched some of mine super sneakily."
(Chevarbre is a French wordplay combining: cheval ("horse"), cheveux ("hair"), and arbre ("tree"). Its English equivalent could be "horsetree", but this would lose the wordplay with "hair".)
Liu had found Milo's questions ridiculous, but Lumian answered them super seriously. It was the first time he'd given such a complete answer on such a random topic...
'Is he in teacher mode or what?...'
... and on top of that he kept going, almost as if this subject was close to his heart:
"So in my opinion, using chev is pretty logical. And then, arbre, well that's the most logical part, no? I don't see the problem, the chevarbre is a species of the Arbority that has a lot of different breeds corresponding to types of trees, and it's not like all these breeds have the word arbre in them, in fact none of them have the word arbre in them. It's like lumarbre, it's just a category of trees that make light, each type of lumarbre has another name to tell them apart, so I don't see the issue. You're nitpicking for nothing, and you shouldn't criticize words that already exist, it could offend their creator. Instead, try to understand why it's written that way."
It was the first time he'd rambled so much in such a short time, surprising even Milo, who stood open-mouthed at this response.
'... it's almost like he invented that word himself... is he really in teacher mode?'
"Uh... yeah okay, I... won't do it again."
Milo looked terrified by Lumian's answer, for a reason unknown to Liu.
"Alright, shall we start?"
Lumian finally proposed. To which Liu and Milo nodded.
"....."
Then...
"....."
... silence, aside from the sound of Patrick grazing further away, the soft wind, and a few other sounds from insects, the silence was complete.
'... what's happening right now?...'
"Uhm... shall we start?..."
Lumian seemed a bit lost, until Liu spoke.
"Hm-hm... I don't remember how it's done anymore, it's been too long since I taught, what do you want to start with?"
'... seriously...'
Next to Liu, Milo let out a sigh of relief. Seeing Lumian so unserious had undoubtedly reassured him.
'... this is so not pro...'
Shaking her head in disdain, Liu tried to suggest something so the training would actually start:
"Can you just explain to us how you actually plan to make us stronger? And why are we outside? Couldn't we train in the gym?"
Liu's questions visibly woke something up in Lumian. He shifted position, straightening up a bit against the glowing tree he'd chosen and looked at Liu.
"Mmh... yeah. We can't really train inside, the energy there is different, the gym will be for physical training without energy. And I don't think you've forgotten, but we also need to start training with the Form."
Crossing his arms, he began explaining how the training would go, or something along those lines according to what Liu believed.
"So, we agree that you're here to gain the strength to solve your problems yourselves. What would you do if I told you I could directly solve your problems quickly and give you the life you want on top of that?"
But instead he asked this question, a question Liu already more or less had the answer to, but which made her doubt anyway.
'... would he really be capable of that?...'
"Even so, I want to do it myself no matter how long it takes, otherwise I don't see the point of doing it. If you do everything in my place, I think I'd be ashamed to even look at my sister."
Unlike Liu, Milo didn't doubt, he was there for a good reason and he knew what he wanted to do. He must have already been in this situation for a while.
'... will I also be ashamed to look at my grandparents?... I'm not sure...'
Seeing that Liu didn't have an answer yet, Lumian this time addressed her directly.
"I have without a doubt the ability to solve all your problems by myself, but that doesn't mean they'll be solved the way you want them to be, the result won't be in any way the one you're expecting and it surely won't be the one you're looking for."
Turning this time toward Milo, he continued.
"You both have quite a number of problems you want to solve, some go back a few years and others are recent. It's normal to doubt, especially since this is the second time I'm offering you something like this."
He asked the question once again.
"Do you want me to solve your problems in your place, or do you want to do it yourselves?"
And Liu, still hesitant, answered in a voice not so certain of the truth of her own words...
"... I want... to solve things by myself, that way even if the result isn't maybe the one I wanted, I... won't have regrets... I think."
... which she finished in a small voice.
Milo, for his part, had remained silent as if to affirm that he wouldn't change his mind.
"Ok, in any case, it's better to doubt than to not think about it at all. That's why asking the same question several times more or less allows you to confirm the other person's intentions, well, it depends on the situation."
'... that's what that was for?...'
The tone in Lumian's voice had changed, it was less serious, and he continued on without changing it back.
"Anyway, even if I had the ability, I wouldn't have done it, it honestly wouldn't bring me anything, so that settles the problem. Next, today since it's the first day, I'm going to explain to you the broad outline of what you're going to learn and all that... but the following days it'll be you asking the questions and me answering them, that's it."
This not-so-serious tone came with an unpleasant explanation and a drastic change of subject, catching Liu off guard.
'Huh... damn it, he got me, I bet Milo knew he was going to say that...'
"I might teach you things on the fly without you asking me anything, if the mood is right for it. Otherwise I'll only answer your questions, it's the best way for you to really learn what you want and need to, and along the way it'll train your way of thinking, which is the most important part."
He paused, thinking about how to continue his explanations, which gave Liu time to think about everything she had just heard.
'... it sounds so half-assed but at the same time his explanations are logical... I don't understand anything.'
"I think that on the practical training days I'll give you a mission to accomplish during the day, because the training still needs to take a logical direction, and if you do everything by yourselves I don't think you'll progress the right way even if I answer all your questions. Mm... and you'll also get paid if you complete the mission, that way you'll have your own money to spend, it'll give you a bit of experience when it comes to independence in society and other things like that."
He stopped talking once again and looked at Liu and Milo.
'He's actually really in teacher mode... he talks nonstop and super fast...'
"You can sit down you know, unless you don't want to sit in the grass? Normally there aren't many insects in the citizen zone, especially during Obscurities."
This remark finally got a reaction out of Liu and Milo. They had been standing in front of the carriage without really moving for a while already. And in response they slowly sat down in the grass.
"Yeah that's better, it feels more hierarchical this way, call me professor for the rest of the day or else I won't answer your questions. Is that clear?"
'... what is he playing at? This is ridiculous...'
Lumian was visibly waiting for an answer, but Liu and Milo both found the situation so ridiculous that they didn't answer.
And so Lumian repeated:
"Is that clear?!"
"Ye.."
"Yes professor!"
Milo spoke faster than Liu, he seemed rather used to this kind of atmosphere after all, or maybe to Lumian's strange temperament.
"Yes... professor."
And finally Liu answered in a low and unusual voice, completely embarrassed by the actions of the two lunatics around her.
'I hope it won't always be like this...'
———
Yes it is, a mind-numbing training... is it really useful?
———