The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

 After taking a quick read on the books and without trying any of them, Zaos learned that the spells taught to them only worked to alleviate certain effects caused by diseases. Fevers, shivers, stomach pains… They only worked to make those go away for a few hours. None of them actually worked to cure diseases or weak bodies.

"Mmm… Why do the mages here don't try to actually solve the problem?" Zaos frowned.

 Zaos had to research for quite a while before he could understand why he didn't find spells that could cure diseases. It was because most of the time, the doctors and the healers didn't know what the cause of the disease was. Finding out the cause with magic is impossible currently. Still, even if there were a spell like that, it wouldn't work since his mother wasn't actually sick.

"Still, learning how to deal with fevers will work," Zaos said. "I just need to find a way to increase someone's stamina."

 Weirdly enough, Zaos knew that Tyra didn't produce those potions that could increase stamina. That was weird, given that health and mana were way more useful. Or maybe it wasn't considering that… Tyra was still learning a lot from the notes and books left by his grandfather, so she probably couldn't help Zaos in that regard. Still, writing a letter won't hurt, even more so since they have an agreement. Tyra will send the potions, and Zaos will send the money.

 Zaos tried to look for the spell on those books that could increase someone's stamina. Still, he didn't find… as expected, just like Agony was an advanced spell that turned his health into mana. Doing the same with stamina will need some advanced magic books.

 When Zaos finally discovered that, his mother woke up, and he had to stop his research. So, he left to do the garden to do some training, and for the first time since he left the northern base, he wondered: what will happen now regarding his job as a soldier? He had no idea what was going to happen. Most graduated soldiers had the chance to choose what kind of work they would do, and the kids in the north decided to look for work in other areas of the kingdom since they didn't want to see another war for at least ten years. However, the kids from the noble families didn't have to make that choice, at least for the time being.

"Well, I don't need to worry about that now," Zaos thought. "I need to concentrate on this research."

 Usually, Zaos would spend a part of the day training his sword skills with magic and another part without them in his free time. However, he decided to save his mana for later in case he needs to practice some spells of the books.

 As usual, Lyra just watched Zaos training with a smile on her face while enjoying the nice weather of the afternoon. Zaos sure felt nostalgic like that. Still, just like many times before, someone suddenly appeared to bother him, and the number one bothersome person had just arrived: Drannor.

"Hey, Zaos. It seems that you don't intend to relax even for a single week, huh," Drannor said. "Good afternoon, ma'am. I am sorry for bothering you."

"Don't worry," Lyra smiled.

"What do you want?" Zaos asked.

"Did I do something?" Drannor asked. "You seem to be in a bad mood."

"Maybe the fact that you wrote about my activities in the northern base to others is the problem," Zaos said.

"Well… Ameria asked a few times and I just replied," Drannor shrugged. "Speaking of which, when are you going to apologize? She is in a really bad mood."

"Don't change the subject… rather than that, do you have that much free time to visit the castle two days in a row?" Zaos frowned.

"It is just normal to talk with friends after so long," Drannor replied. "If you are having problems in how you can apologize, you can always teach her to use those spells that you use on arrows. I am sure that Ameria will forgive you after that. Also, she became pretty good with a bow in those three years."

"I have better things to do right now," Zaos said. "And I can't teach the princess how to use those spells without His Majesty's permission, they are even more deadly in an arrow than with a sword and spear."

"Zaos… you should apologize to Ameria as soon as possible," Lyra said in a reproachful tone.

"I will do that next week," Zaos said.

"You should do it as soon as possible," Lyra insisted.

"But I just went to the castle this morning…" Zaos also insisted.

 Even without saying another word, Lyra convinced Zaos to go to the castle and apologize… Why did he have to apologize? Just because she is a spoiled princess? Why can women make men apologize for things that they don't have to? Regardless, at least Zaos maintained a little bit of his dignity since he went to the castle without complaining anymore about it.

 When the two boys arrived at the castle, they found Ameria practicing her archery skills in the garden. Since the castle's garden was much bigger than the one on Zaos's house, she had the opportunity to fire from a much larger distance. After fighting in two battles where thousands of people died, Zaos knew that training with a target that couldn't move was useless. Still, Zaos changed his mind when he saw Ameria, picking, nocking five arrows with lightning speed and then hitting the center of the arrow and then the first arrow, the second arrow, and so on… her aim was insane, and the target was pretty much at four hundred feet away from her.

"Not bad," Zaos said.

 Ameria was so focused that she didn't notice the two boys approaching. Still, that didn't bother her in the least. She just snorted and then ignored Zaos and then resumed her training. Although she has grown a little and closely resembled her astonishingly beautiful mother, she still was just a brat.