Mom drops a bombshell

Another several months have passed. Arti and I turned 13 recently. Tia is now 10. While she was told that she didn’t need to have martial training if she didn’t want to, she decided to give it a try nonetheless. In the past couple of months, her body started to become a little bit toned. That is not to say that she grew big muscles. No, her body is still slender, but the muscles on her body are a tiny bit more defined. Her stomach, for example, is now smooth with almost no extra fat in there. She is nowhere near to having a six-pack like I do, and she doesn’t want to. She decided to follow our Mom’s example and get training with daggers.

Arti is making good progress with nature magic. His earth and water magic are also doing great. As for light magic, the progress slowed down somewhat. He just needs to keep at it. He is now a true master with the bow, though. Three years of training didn’t go to waste. The same couldn’t be said about the sword.

As for me, I have reached the adept level in lightning. Elora was truly impressed. I now focus on building up my proficiency in fire and wind magic. At the rate things are going, I am expected to reach expert level in them in a year and a half. This is an incredible speed at which to progress. I reached the adept level in fire and magic in less than two years. Three years after I started studying fire and wind magic with Elora, I am on my way to reaching the expert level. Elora says I will be a **** to be reckoned with in the future. Training in dark magic is going well as well. I am making progress with all three types I am currently focusing on. I can now create human-sized portals, but only for short distances. My physical and weapons training is going great as well. I am getting really good with swords and knife throwing. Bow and polearms training goes steady.

Tia hit a roadblock in her future sight magic training. She had an episode once when she was flooded with visions of possible futures. It was too much for her to handle and she lost consciousness. When she came to it, she told us that she got distracted while meditating and unfocused which resulted in multiple different visions appearing and overloading her psyche. From that incident, she was a lot more careful. It seems she will be reaching an adept level soon, which will expand her ability to see the future a bit further.

We are currently having dinner with our family. Minus our father, of course. For dinner today is roasted lamb in mushroom sauce with baked potatoes. I had a long day full of lessons and training sessions so I feel like I can finally relax. Mom chose this exact moment to drop a bombshell on us.

“Arti, Zen, since you are 13 already, the time arrived for you two to receive your first personal servants,” our mom tells us, “Tomorrow, each of you will interview the candidates. All the candidates are your age and female. You will choose who you want to become your servants yourselves. This is the tradition for nobility in this kingdom. All the candidates will be from commoner families. The aim of this tradition is threefold. First, as boys, it is meant to make you more comfortable with women. Second, it is meant to enforce the belief that commoners are people as well. I know I don’t have to be worried about you two, but there are instances of noble children becoming cruel towards commoners because they believe themselves to be of higher importance. We must remember that more than 95 percent of the nation’s population is comprised of the commoner people. Lastly, it is meant to teach you responsibility, leadership and humility. You will be responsible for your servants. If they do something wrong, you must correct them. If they do right, praise them. You will also be moving into separate bedrooms starting tomorrow. You will move into the bedrooms with servant’s quarters adjacent to them so that your servants could be close to you if you need anything. Do you have any questions?”

Arti looks upset by the revelation that we won’t be sharing a bedroom anymore. Despite that, he speaks up. “Can’t our servant be male? I mean, Zen and I are already comfortable with females. We are surrounded by them. There is you, Mom, Tia, and your servants.”

“No. If you feel comfortable with women, then focus on the second and third points,” Mom answers.

“How many candidates will there be?” I ask.

“There will be a group of 15 girls. They have all been trained in servant work. They all will be from the orphanage as well. I decided that there was no reason to look for candidates somewhere else when we could help some of the orphans. Your father didn’t like the idea but I insisted,” she says.

Follow the tradition and help people in need. That does sound like what our mom would say. She tries helping out whenever she can.

“I understand,” I say.

“Good,” she replies. “You are free to go then. I believe you have homework to finish. I have cleared your day with your teachers tomorrow so that you can concentrate on the interviews.”

Arti and I stand up from the table and start walking towards our room.

“So, what do you think?” I ask him.

“About having personal servants?” Arti replies. “The logic behind this tradition is sound. I just wish I could have a male servant, not a girl.”

“Why? What do you have against girls?” I ask him. Girls are great. I mean, look at Sabrina.

“What? N-nothing,” Arti stammers.

I just shrug it off. We reach our room and proceed with our homework before going to sleep.

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