Episode-790
Chapter : 1579
The morning sun beat down on the private training grounds of the Ferrum Estate, baking the stone tiles until they radiated heat like a flat iron skillet. It was the kind of day where normal people sought shade, drank lemonade, and complained about the humidity. Lloyd Ferrum, however, was not a normal person. He was a man who believed that sweating was just the body's way of crying about hard work, and he was currently making sure his handmaiden did a lot of crying.
"Again," Lloyd barked, crossing his arms. He was wearing his usual black training gear, which absorbed the sun and made him look like a very intense shadow. "And this time, try not to sparkle so much. You're a warrior, Jasmin, not a chandelier."
Jasmin, standing ten feet away, wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. Her usual maid uniform had been replaced by practical leather training armor, though she still wore the white apron because old habits died hard. She took a deep breath, centered herself, and activated her spirit.
In an instant, her skin transformed. It shifted from soft flesh to a translucent, multifaceted crystalline substance. She was the Diamond Queen. The sunlight hit her arm and scattered into a thousand tiny rainbows, blinding anyone foolish enough to look directly at her.
"I can't help the sparkle, Master Lloyd," Jasmin said, her voice sounding strange and resonant through her diamond throat. "It's... physics. Light hits a prism, it refracts. You taught me that."
"I taught you to use physics, not be a victim of it," Lloyd retorted, walking around her in a circle, inspecting her form like a mechanic inspecting a car engine. "Being hard is good. Diamond is the hardest substance known to man. That's great. It means you don't break when a goblin hits you with a club. But if you just stand there being a shiny rock, you're not a fighter. You're just expensive landscaping."
He stopped in front of her and tapped her diamond shoulder with his knuckle. It made a sharp clink sound.
"Defense is passive," Lloyd lectured, falling into his professor mode. "You are treating your power like a shield. 'Oh no, something is coming, better turn into a rock.' That's fine for surviving, but it doesn't win fights. You need to think of your hardness as a weapon. Kinetic energy, Jasmin. If a rock falls on your foot, it hurts because the rock is hard, yes, but mostly because the rock is moving. Be the moving rock."
Jasmin frowned, or at least, the diamond facets of her face shifted in a way that suggested a frown. "So... I should run into things?"
"Ideally, yes," Lloyd said. "But with technique. Dispel the arm."
Jasmin concentrated, and the diamond receded, leaving her normal, human arm. She shook it out, grimacing slightly. The transformation always left her feeling a bit stiff, like she had slept in a crate.
"Rest for a minute," Lloyd said, handing her a canteen of water. "You're doing better. A month ago, you couldn't hold the transformation for more than thirty seconds without getting a headache. Now you can hold it for five minutes. That's a six hundred percent increase in efficiency. Not bad."
Jasmin took the water gratefully. "Thank you, Master. But... I still feel like I'm just copying what you tell me. I don't have the instinct for it. Ken moves like water. You move like... well, like a scary calculator. I just feel like a clumsy statue."
Lloyd sat down on a stone bench and gestured for her to sit beside him. "Instinct is just muscle memory doing the thinking for you. You haven't been a warrior for twenty years, Jasmin. You've been a maid. Your instinct is to clean up messes, not make them. We are rewriting your software. It takes time."
He looked at her, his expression softening from the harsh drill sergeant to something more thoughtful. Over the last few months, their dynamic had shifted. She wasn't just the girl who brought him tea anymore. She was his student. His project. And in many ways, his only real friend in a house full of political landmines and terrifyingly powerful relatives.
"Listen," Lloyd said, picking up a pebble. "Do you remember when we faced the Croft brothers? When you had to help me with the fake Sunstone plans?"
Jasmin nodded. "I was terrified."
Chapter : 1580
"You were," Lloyd agreed. "But you did it. You walked into a den of wolves and you played your part perfectly. You have a core of steel, Jasmin. Or, I guess, diamond. You just need to stop thinking of yourself as 'Little Jasmin the Maid' and start thinking of yourself as 'Jasmin the Tank.' When you turn into diamond, nothing in this world can hurt you. Not a sword, not a spell, not a verbal insult from Princess Isabella. You are invulnerable. Act like it."
Jasmin looked at her hands. She summoned a small patch of diamond on her fingertip, watching it glint in the sun. "Invulnerable," she whispered. "It's a strange word. I've spent my whole life feeling vulnerable. Afraid of losing my job, afraid of my mother getting sick, afraid of... everything."
"Fear is useful," Lloyd said. "Fear keeps you alive. But panic gets you killed. Your power gives you the luxury of not panicking. If a monster swings an axe at you, you don't have to dodge. You can just catch it. Do you know how terrifying that is for the enemy? To swing with all their might and have their weapon stop dead against your hand? It breaks their brain. It's psychological warfare."
He stood up and dusted off his pants. "Break time is over. We're going to try the refraction technique again. And this time, try to aim the light at my eyes before I try to hit you, not after. Blinding me after I've already punched you is just petty revenge."
Jasmin giggled, setting the canteen down. "Yes, Master Lloyd."
"And stop calling me Master when we're training," Lloyd grumbled, walking back to the center of the ring. "It makes me feel like an old kung-fu wizard. Just call me 'Coach' or 'Boss' or 'Oh Great and Powerful One.' I'm flexible."
"Ready, Boss," Jasmin said, her voice firmer this time.
She took her stance. She didn't look like a fragile maid anymore. She looked like a fighter in training. Lloyd grinned. This was the part of his life he actually enjoyed. No politics, no marriage contracts, no ancient conspiracies. just simple, honest improvement.
"Alright," Lloyd said, raising his hand. "Come at me. And don't worry about hurting me. I'm very durable."
Jasmin took a breath, and her skin hardened into brilliant, unbreakable diamond. She didn't hesitate this time. She charged.
The training session ended as the sun began to dip below the horizon, painting the sky in shades of bruised purple and orange. The heat of the day had broken, replaced by a cool breeze that rustled the leaves of the ancient trees surrounding the Ferrum estate. Lloyd and Jasmin walked slowly through the garden, the silence between them comfortable and easy.
They were both exhausted. Lloyd was mentally drained from trying to calculate angles of refraction and impact velocity for a diamond-based lifeform, and Jasmin was physically spent from turning her body into a mineral repeatedly. They found a quiet bench near a pond filled with koi fish that were probably older than both of them combined.
"You did good today," Lloyd said, leaning back and closing his eyes. "That last block? The one where you angled your forearm to deflect my chain instead of just tanking it? That was smart. That was tactical."
Jasmin smiled, a tired but proud expression. "I just thought... if I let it hit me flat, it pushes me back. But if I angle it, it slides off."
"Physics," Lloyd murmured, keeping his eyes closed. "Vector deflection. See? You're learning. Soon you'll be calculating trajectories in your sleep and dreaming about momentum."
"I hope not," Jasmin laughed softly. "I prefer dreaming about cake."
They sat in silence for a while, listening to the water trickle into the pond. It was a rare moment of peace in Lloyd's life. Usually, his brain was running at a thousand miles an hour, planning contingencies for contingencies, worrying about the Devils, the Altamirans, or his three very complicated romantic entanglements. But here, with Jasmin, he didn't have to be the genius strategist or the cold lord. He could just be Lloyd.
"Master Lloyd?" Jasmin asked quietly.
"Yeah?"
"Can I ask you something? Something personal?"
Lloyd opened one eye. "Did I forget to pay you this week? Because I'm pretty sure Günther handles that now."