"Rise and shine~ It's time for training."
Cam's upbeat voice rang out from behind the heavy cabin door, rousing the dazed Aaron out of his rest.
It's only five in the morning, and she has this much energy…
Out of concern for Eleanor, he had slept on the floor in her room with the Hunters' Guild Marshal claiming the turquoise bedchamber for herself.
He had tried to argue; however, the only other alternative was her sleeping in the same room as the comatose girl.
While he trusted her enough to examine and bathe her, an overnight stay pushed the boundaries of their fresh mentor-student relationship.
She said she'd whip me into shape on the way to Corvassa, but how much does she intend to work me in just two months…
Aaron groaned as he stood up, stretching his incredibly sore body, which had only been further impacted by the cold wooden floor.
The woman had fashioned him a feeble splint that somewhat protected his shattered arm, and with the additional healing granted by the Ghostship, feeling had begun to return to his fingers.
"Her training couldn't be that bad, right…?"
His whispers echoed through the chamber as he hobbled towards the bathroom, not knowing how wrong he was.
…
Only ten minutes after waking up, the boy lay sprawled across the floor of the deck with Cam standing on his back with her shoes digging into his shoulders.
"No matter how painful this might be, you will complete it. Do you understand, greenhorn?"
Aaron could barely breathe; however, he uttered a grunt of agreement before refocusing on staying conscious.
The woman herself was light as a feather, but what truly made the boy struggle was the layered force that slowly pushed down upon him.
His knees were digging into the wood as his right hand pushed him up from the ground, leaving his left tightly tied to his chest.
"I hope you do not think of me as heavy, greenhorn. We would have a serious problem that would need to be solved if you were to imply something of the sort…"
She dug her heel deeper into his back, causing a yelp from the boy; however, he stayed firm, thinking quietly to himself.
S-so damn heavy… If she used the same level of force as earlier, I would be crushed to pieces.
The waves crashed against the side of the Ghostship, nearly knocking the boy over, which made Cam look down at him with a frown.
"Unsteady, weak, and whiney… What a combination of traits that I need to fix…"
Once she finished speaking, she jumped off his back onto the deck with a light click as her shoes made contact with the boards.
The pressure that held Aaron in a battle against gravity continued even without her standing on top of him, making him gasp for air.
"While you suffer through this basic conditioning, how about we do some lessons?"
Moving herself into a position in front of him, she summoned a stool from thin air, which she promptly leaned back in.
"Your body isn't suited for wielding magic since you constantly leak mana towards the Ghostship you wield. This isn't an uncommon problem for even the Sea Kings, however, while they only exude what is necessary, you constantly waste it without thinking."
She pointed towards the twitching cannons that reflected the light of the rising sun into the boy's eyes.
"You have no control over the weaponry attached to your vessel, so an endless flow of mana is used to power them meaninglessly. If you cannot suppress or seal this leakage, then whenever you fight a terror, you would be at a disadvantage."
As she spoke, a strong wind blew across the deck, triggering the turquoise barrier that coated the ship at all times.
Cam looked at it with a deadpan expression before sighing and wiping her face, slowly noticing the boy's complexion had gone pale.
"Once again, you show a brilliant example of Brymyn's Law…"
From a small pocket near her hip, she pulled out a vial of black liquid that she held in front of Aaron's face.
"Brymyn's Law is simple. If you use too much mana at once, then you will pay a price. All Sea Kings keep this principle in mind ever since Floyd Brymyn's death, as they are at the greatest risk of overexerting their cores."
With a quick motion, Cam uncapped the bottle of liquid, placing it under the blond-haired boy's nose for him to smell.
Confused and a little curious, he took a whiff of the substance, expecting something sour or possibly bitter.
Unlike his beliefs, what actually graced his nostrils was a smell only compared to a rotten egg mixed with manure.
Aaron immediately recoiled from the putrid scent, toppling over, failing his exercise much to the distaste of the brown-haired woman.
Horrifying creaks and groans echoed out from below him as he hit the floorboards with a thud.
"Get used to this if you can't manage your core properly. It's a basic tool for toddlers who subconsciously waste their mana."
She smirked as she taunted the humiliated boy, who silently cursed whoever had invented such a substance.
For toddlers, my ass… That smells like rotten diapers, not a medicine! Though… What was that name she mentioned before…
Inside his head, the confused voice of Penelope startled him as he tried to balance himself.
『Are you alright? You stopped providing me with mana right as I fell asleep…』
Her grumblings continued to bombard his mind as he stumbled into an upright position, thinking about something carefully.
"When you mentioned Floyd Brymyn, were you referring to Lord Brymyn from the Sea of Curses?"
A rare memory of a historic figure flashed through his mind as he asked the question, awaiting a response.
Cam took a moment to answer; however, as she spoke, a hint of apprehension was evident in her voice.
"Indeed… The first wielder of the Ghostship that Orion Cosmoti might wield today. Part of the first generation of Sea Kings, he played a pivotal role in the discovery and research behind their mechanisms. A majority of his knowledge was stored in the Library of Nautilus, which was burned to the ground about seventy years ago."
She paused, taking a deep breath while watching his reaction to her words carefully as if she was worried about something she had said.
Aaron just stood there dazed while absorbing the information; however, internally, one small detail struck a nerve within him.
The Ghostship that Lord Cosmoti 'might' wield?
With the thought that she must've just misspoke, he didn't show any reaction, allowing the woman to continue her story interruption-free.
"Anyway, after battling an Apex Terror that threatened to destroy the Land of Deities, he suddenly fell extremely ill. His condition continued to worsen, with his core showing signs of mana deficiency. For a normal person, they would follow a procedure similar to mine, but in the case of a wielder…"
Her voice faded, leaving the unspoken answer to his imagination.
Aaron, who listened intently, swallowed hard as the reminder that he was, in fact, someone who could suffer from the same condition created a new fear inside his heart.
The two figures remained quiet for a moment after that, but the tugging of a memory pulled the blond-haired boy into reminiscence.
W-Wait… The backlash that the Ghostship minimized… It couldn't have been…
His body shivered as he finally understood the truth of what had occurred after using the Ocean Rifter.
W-Without the backlash being reduced, I knew it would've been nasty, but for it to be that bad…
From across the deck, Cam could tell that the boy was thinking deeply about something, yet all she could infer was that he was fearful of whatever it was.
"Shrug it off, greenhorn. Fear will get you nowhere in this world, and it certainly won't garner my sympathy. Now, how about you give me five more sets of pressure planks, and we can call it for the morning training."
Her sudden interruption broke Aaron's train of thought as the crushing pressure once again forced him down against the floor.
His right hand held him upright as her words finally registered inside his head.
F-Five more sets? And wait… Is there more training after this!?
The boy looked up with a grimace across his face at the woman; however, one smirk from her left him weeping internally.
I should've just got a fourth job…