The next day, Isolde and Aiden were getting ready as Melinda's maid had told them to meet her on the training grounds as soon as possible, or rather at 4 in the morning, barely giving the two of them enough time to sleep.
However, it wasn't the worst thing in the world for the two of them since they were awakened, meaning that their overall strength and endurance were much better than those of humans.
"Slept well?" asked Aiden to Isolde who was currently getting dressed in a tight black uniform.
Aiden this time had no choice but to look at her as she was literally right in front of him, and the weird thing about Isolde is that she wasn't shy at all about her body as she had literally removed all of her clothes right in front of Aiden's face.
'Maybe elves do that often?' thought Aiden as he didn't remember Emma doing such a thing.
Or maybe it was something that only Isolde did.
"Um, yeah, thanks," replied Isolde as she now had her black training uniform on.
***
Isolde and Aiden were now headed toward the training grounds for their very first training session.
Aiden was happy to go there for one simple reason, he didn't have two people stuck to him like literal insects.
It seemed that both Emma and Olivia were still in their rooms as they had absolutely no knowledge regarding Aiden's training.
Imagine their faces or even better their reactions if they were to see that Aiden would be training with not one, but two girls.
They would be panicking that's for sure.
But then, as Aiden thought of that and let out a small laugh, he had no choice but to come back to reality since they were now walking on the training grounds.
However, as they were about to walk in, Aiden noticed a sign on which was written in big red letters, [The training grounds is unavailable.].
"Do you think that's because of Melinda," asked Isolde as she slowly started understanding the character of the person that she had chosen for her training.
And for what she had seen at the moment, she seemed quite the maniac when it came to training and colours.
Aiden hearing Isolde's question had literally no doubt in his mind that it was because of her, however, he simply replied, "We'll see.".
Then, after replying to that, he started walking right into the training grounds as he spotted the figure of someone not too far away from them.
However, that person had no resemblance to Melinda at all, in fact, Aiden was wondering if they were in the right place.
Then, that person which was currently meditating in the middle of the training grounds surrounded by all sorts of weapons, slowly opened its eyes looking at both Isolde and Aiden.
"Um, do you think he's here for us," whispered Isolde not sure why Melinda wasn't there and instead it was an old man.
Then, the old man slowly started getting up and advancing toward them.
"Are you the ones that Melinda sent me?" asked the old man with a long grey beard which practically reached his chest.
Aiden who was seeing this happening was extremely confused. Wasn't he simply supposed to learn Melinda's technique to change appearance?
Just who the hell was this man in front of him then?
'And why does this old man seem mad?' thought Aiden as he noticed that this man didn't seem to be in the best of moods, well in Aiden's quick observation.
Isolde had noticed the same thing, however, the two of them still decided that the best course of action was to simply close their mouths and listen to whatever he was about to say.
However, before doing that, they needed to actually respond to him.
"We are, I guess, and you are?" questioned Aiden who wasn't in the best of moods anymore as he had just realized that Melinda had lied to him once again.
It started to be quite a lot, especially considering Aiden's past. However, it's not like Aiden could revolt against her as he was simply too weak to do so.
What he needed right now was to listen to that old man.
"Me? My identity isn't important, you guys only need to know that I'm stronger than the two of you combined," answered the old man with a mysterious look on his face.
"Well, enough about that. The two of you are probably wondering what this training will be about and how it will work. Well I will explain it to the two of you," continued the old man.
Aiden and Isolde nodded waiting for him to continue his explanation as the two of them were in the dark about what was about to happen.
"Basically, your training duration will be of one month since Isolde will leave in a month. However, that's not the most important, what's important is what we will be training and how you will be training."
Aiden hearing this started to get a little worried as he absolutely didn't care about any sort of training, he simply wanted to learn the technique that Melinda had told him about.
"So, how will this training period work? That's probably what the two of you are wondering, right?"
"Well, it's quite simple. This training is divided into many steps or challenges if you prefer. There will be a total of five challenges and to reach the next one, you will need to have completed the last one and so on."
Aiden found it quite interesting, however, he was still one bit of information which was about Melinda's technique.
Having five challenges and all that stuff was fine, but that wasn't why he was here at all.
The old man seeing the frustrated look on Aiden's face seemed to finally remember something that he had forgotten to mention.
"Oh, and are you the one who's supposed to be the Reaper?" asked the old man, unsure if that was actually the case since he had been told that he would be wearing a mask.
Aiden hearing this was a little panicked as he finally realized that he hadn't put on his mask.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck,' he thought as quickly put it back on his face.
'What if someone saw me in the hallways to get here?' thought Aiden, as he realized how big the blunder he had just made was.
Without losing any more time, he quickly put his [Everchanging Item] which was in the form of the Reaper mask back on his face as he didn't want that old man to see his face.
"What are you doing?" asked the man, unsure why Aiden would be putting back his mask on his face.
He had already seen his face, but that was it, so why was that reaction?
However, Aiden didn't even bother replying as he put it, acting as if nothing had happened.
"Well, whatever you're the Reaper, right?" asked the man once again.
"Yes, I am," replied Aiden.
Aiden had to admit that he was quite happy that Melinda hadn't revealed his real name to that person since it would have made it even riskier for Aiden in the future.
It was better this way, where everyone knew him as the Reaper. In fact, it was better if everyone knew of the Reaper, but ignored everything about Aiden's true identity.
This was the real goal behind putting on a mask, after all.
"Then, you'll be happy," started off the man, interrupting Aiden's thought and bringing him back to the situation at hand.
"Melinda told me that if you were able to complete the fifth trial then she would teach you her Metamorphosis Technique," said the old man, with a smile.
"But that's only if you complete all five challenges," he said once again.
Aiden didn't know why but that man's smile wasn't giving Aiden any confidence, it seemed as if this was all but a big whole trick.
However, Aiden had no way of verifying that which is why he simply went with it as he would be trying his hardest in the next couple of days as spending time training couldn't be a waste at the end of the day.
"Um, whatever, I'll complete them," replied Aiden with arrogance.
He didn't think that he would fail as he was sure that he had already done much worse in the past.
The training that he would be suffering wouldn't even phase him a little, it was going to be way too easy.
"Oh, you will, huh? Well, I like your confidence, but you probably won't be thinking that soon enough," responded the old man.
The old man knew what the challenges were, and it seemed like he didn't believe very much in that Reaper, even if he had just won the Inter Family Tournament.
He knew that Melinda, the head of the Emberbane Family, wasn't someone who took training lightly, especially with talented people and for those reasons he couldn't help but laugh at that arrogance.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l