Struggling as a Villain

"Ah!" Lilia let out a strange sound. She was startled when she entered the newly built arena and found several things levitating around.

There was no one in the room except for one person who evidently was the reason why many things were floating.

She silently walked past the objects without touching them and kept her steps; soundless.

Amidst the cluster of objects her young master sat in a lotus potion with his thumbs connected and the rest of his fingers overlapped over each other—creating a gap.

She wordlessly stood a few meters away from him and assessed him.

Closing her eyes she used [Detection] to reveal all the threads her master had spread across the gymnasium to hold the equipment constantly in the air.

'Hmm...' She inwardly hummed in admiration to see that he was wasting his ether less than yesterday. His control over his magic was improving.

Her young master currently had the ether similar to an A-rank but because of the lack of efficiency and control of ether, he wastes a lot of resources.

However, what made her admire him was his gradual improvement. Focusing on telekinesis he was able to turn the thread of ether a lot thinner than the first day. However even though the thread had become thinner, the strength of each string remained the same. And thanks to the modification, he was able to extend more threads now.

'I feel so proud...' She was smiling with her eyes crescent and since she was so detached from her surroundings she completely missed the moment he stopped practising and stood up.

"Can you stop grinning? It's unpleasant." Hearing his words, her body became a sculpture and her eyes parted wide.

The redness on her cheeks was simply adorable in his eyes but he didn't comment on that and told her to stop bowing.

"If you are done with your antics then teach me 'Detection' already."

Lilia's fluster halted as she looked at him in confusion before raising a query, "But young master...you haven't mastered Telekinesis yet..."

"I know but still I want to learn 'Detection' as soon as I can." His voice held an urgency which made Lilia a little anxious. What could be the reason that her master wanted to learn 'Detection' so suddenly?

Until yesterday, he was fine with his training in 'Telekinesis' but suddenly...

"If you can't teach me then forget it..."

"No! I will!" She hurriedly stopped him by raising her voice and assenting immediately.

Because of her panicked state, she completely missed that smirk which lifted the edges of his lips.

**********

After Lilia and Richard re-racked the equipment he was using to train, they returned to the arena and stood while facing each other. There was a small green board and some white chalk with which she could write on it. It seems there are things which she would be teaching theoretically today.

The expression on Lilia's face was nothing like what she had some minutes ago. He noticed that the maid Lilia and the teacher Lilia have two different personalities. Well, he preferred it this way so it was all good.

"Young master, do you know the mechanism through which Coubat catches its prey?"

Without thinking twice he answered, "They send some sound waves, inaudible to other beings, which track anything moving in the direction of the sound waves which allows them to detect the distance and size of the creature they are aiming for."

Richard was able to memorize the information since the mechanism was similar to the bats from his previous life. Although the previous owner wasn't much of a mage or a warrior, he had a good memory of remembering things he had learned during his early age.

Hearing his explanation, Lilia nodded and said, "In that way, they can realise whether they could hunt the beast or not." She picked up the chalk and began to write on the small green board,

[Create a lump+ spread it+ let it spread+ find the interaction = Detection.]

He somehow understood the mechanism but waited for her to speak, "Young Master, I think you have mastered the art of creating threads of Ether?" Seeing him nod, she continued, "That's the basis of ether manipulation."

Dropping the chalk on the slight ledge under the board, she brought her palms closer until they were a few inches apart and said, "You need to create a small orb...of this size. Then you need to spread it everywhere like you are painting the world around you in your ether."

Richard was flabbergasted, "Wait...did you just say the surroundings, not just the ground?"

His question was met by a sadistic smile—which genuinely surprised Richard—as he heard her saying, "That's for common mages young master, who aim to detect only the terrestrial beings. But we are going to detect everything in our surroundings; whether land, air or underground."

Richard, for the first time around her, felt nervous.

She definitely was going to train him to death today.

**********

Regardless of his fright he didn't back off from the training and did as he was told.

The first task was to manipulate Ether in such a way that it becomes a dense lump. Only he was able to see the maroon fluid materializing and becoming dense enough to stick together and take shape.

His face contoured in pain and sweat began to accumulate but he persisted. If he had tried this exercise a few days ago—when he was not proficient in telekinesis—he might have passed out by now.

Lilia had her eyes closed and she could see the flow of his ether through her third eye. She could see the unevenness of the orb and how he wasn't able to keep it balanced.

He forced it from all sides and tried his best to create the perfect orb. His face became pale and his brows were almost touching.

In frustration, he said, "I have done what you asked. Now what's next?"

"Young master....your first task is to create a perfect orb or we won't be proceeding from here on."

He immediately let go of the orb and while glaring at Lilia he spat, "What are spouting? I did as you told me, then why can't I move forward?"

She didn't say anything until he regained his bearing and finished scolding her.

She maintained her calm demeanour and heard him until the end without any intention to reply immediately.

Richard placed his hands on the sides of his waist and heavily breathed.

Lilia extended the water container to him which he took and consumed three mouthfuls before returning it to her with a 'Thank you!'

It took a minute before he was able to regain his composure.

Plopping down on the ground he rested his weight on his palms and stared at the ceiling of the gymnasium with a dazed look.

Amidst the growing silence, a solemn whisper left his throat, "I am such a loser...shouting at you because of my own failure."

Lilia crouched down and knelt beside him before she used a dry towel to wipe his sweat.

He rested there with his eyes closed and heard her soft voice, "You did your best, my lord. No one could achieve the fundamental techniques on the first day. In my opinion, after training in telekinesis for so long, no one would have been able to conjure that orb like you."

He held her hand which was holding the towel before directing his side glance at her and asked, "Are you trying to flatter me to gain favours?"

She pressed her free hand on her bosom before shaking her head and innocently stating, "I wouldn't dare, my lord."

'Quite sly you have become eh...' Richard inwardly chuckled and released her hand.

Lilia continued to remove the sweat off her master and told him, "You are improving a lot, master...but if you keep forcing yourself like this, your body may get affected adversely."

Richard frowned upon hearing that but didn't say anything and kept his eyes closed.

Lilia summed up her courage and finally asked him something which had been bothering her since earlier,

"Master...is there any reason for you to be in such a rush?"

Richard heaved a sigh. Reason? Yes, he had. After he heard from his mother that he had to attend the 'her' birthday ceremony,' he has become restless.

Entering the enemy's territory without proper preparation could become lethal. Since he didn't have any knowledge about the events that happened before the academy, he didn't know that he would be interacting with 'her' so soon.

So as Lilia thought, he indeed had a reason to be worried.

However, he could not share his grief and worries with anyone, including Lilia and even his mother.

Looking at his maid who was looking back at him in concern, he softly ruffled her hair and conveyed, "Don't worry; I know what I am doing."

***********

A/N:- I got one comment in the previous chapter and that was enough to keep me motivated. Thank you.

I will keep posting the chapters and see where this goes. See ya~