Getting Stronger By Marrying And Investing In Abandoned Villainesses

Theo got home at half past eight, and the first thing he did was cook, because the second thing he had to do required a clear head and nobody in that house thought clearly on an empty stomach.

Then he sat at the kitchen table with the Uncommon Quill and a sheet of paper and wrote out everything he knew. The last pot sat cooling on the stove behind him and the plates stood draining in the rack, and the only sound in the kitchen was the nib going across the page.

He had learned this from his father. When a thing became too large to hold in the head, you put it on paper and the paper held it for you.

What I know:

Ranks are potential, not strength. Mine is SSS. There have been eleven ever recorded and none of them got half way.The reason is not clearly stated. Aide Lance would not say the reason.The card says C. There is also an S card in my bag which I am not to show anybody unless I have to.Circulation cannot be advanced outside the Tower. Not slowly. Not at all.

He stopped at the fourth one and read it again, and then he read it a third time with his thumb pressed flat under the line while the ink went dull.

’That’s the one that matters. Everything else is politics. That one is a wall.’

He had been training with Uthed since he moved into this house, and even though they just sparred most of the time, that had given him an amazing amount of experience and he had been quietly proud of himself for it.

But that would mean that throughout the entire time his Limitless Flow had been sitting at zero point zero percent and had not moved by a hair. So his mastery of the circulation art had not increased, not because he was doing anything wrong, but because he was not in the Tower.

’Doesn’t that mean, it’ll be difficult to heal them outside the Tower?’

Theo thought about it, because most of their ailments had to do with their circulation. He could be wrong, but if he was not, then he needed to get stronger than he thought he did, because how else would he protect them from all the danger that might seek them out the moment they entered the Tower.

He sighed and wrote the fifth line.

The Realms: Mundane, then Enhanced, Elite, Master, Grandmaster, Saint, Sovereign, Divine. Aide Lance is second stage Master and he is the strongest man I have ever stood next to. The President is Grandmaster. Chainsmoke is a Saint.Aide Lance reached floor 14 and never went back.Odette’s core ruptured on floor 14.There’s definitely something about floor 14.

Theo put the quill down and looked at those three lines sitting under one another. Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen, in his own handwriting, getting worse each time.

He had wanted to write the ninth line, but honestly there was not much to write. Aide Lance had given him information that was useful and useless at the same time. Which was sort of annoying.

He had said the Tower was very personal.

This meant that he might not get what other people got in the Tower trials. It is said that no two Tower Trials are ever the same, but the difficulty is always somewhat the same thing.

But he had learned that there was a leaderboard on every floor, and your name is broadcast across it for everybody to read. It was just a pity that the Aide said all the important things after sharing a load of his experiences.

’He should have said the important things first. I feel played, did he need an audience that bad?’

Afterwards, Theo stood up and packed.

The Coffer of the Unhurried Hour turned out to be the single most useful thing he owned, and he had been treating it as a curiosity since he got it.

’One hour inside for every thirty days outside.’

So he cooked for two days straight.

He made stew and he made rice and he portioned it into containers, and he made the flatbread that kept, and he boiled eggs until the pot went cloudy and he had to change the water. All of it went into a squat grey chest that was heavier empty than it looked, packed in rows with the lids facing up so he could read them, and the moment the lid came down the inside frosted over and time in there got lazy.

Odette watched him load the last of it, standing in the doorway with her sleeves pushed to the elbow.

"You are taking a month of hot dinners up a tower."

"Yes."

"I find your thoughtfulness interesting. Most men take swords and rich gear."

Theo chuckled.

"I’m also taking a sword, but nothing is more important than food."

She looked at the Coffer, and then at him, and shook her head slowly.

"You are a very strange young man."

***

The sword was the part he was worst at.

It was a Common Longsword, the plainest thing in his inventory, and Uthed had spent a few days trying to teach him things he already somehow knew and had given up along the way and switched to teaching him things his body did not know, which turned out to be a much shorter list than either of them expected.

They went down to the lakeside one last time. The water had gone the colour of the sky and there was no wind on it at all.

"Mr Theo. Your body may know the sword but your mind does not."

"I’ve noticed."

"That is not a compliment. It is the most dangerous condition I have ever seen in a swordsman." Uthed stood at the edge of the water with his hands folded, blindfold damp at the temples. "You have a sword skill that copies your own style back to you. Do you understand what that means?"

Theo did not, and said so.

"It means it will make your bad habits a sword style too. It mirrors you. If you fight like a frightened man, it will make you a frightened man who moves ahead of perception."

’That is a genuinely atrocious thing to tell somebody the night before.’

"How do I not fight frightened?"

"You decide before, not during." The old man tapped his own chest twice, in the same place both times. "In the trees, on that road, with a hole in the sky in front of you, did you feel fear?"

Theo thought about it honestly.

"No. I felt busy. But I did feel fear when Sesan collapsed."

Uthed smiled. "Then this will be easier. At all times, make sure you’re busy. This is the whole lesson and it took me thirty years, and I am giving it to you for nothing because you feed me."

Theo tilted his head, unsure.

’You could have just said you have no goodbye gift to give me.’

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