For a short moment, Mia only stared at me with her beautiful eyes. She remained frozen in place, clearly surprised and thus scared by my sudden request.

“Yes, master,” she replied softly a moment later, moving towards the pillar.

‘She looks like she is walking towards her execution,’ I thought, staring at her unsteady step. ‘It will take a long time to earn her trust, I guess.’

“Reach with your hand for the stone,” I ordered, stepping away as soon as the girl approached the pillar. “Yes, just like that. Now, without letting go of the pillar, walk as far away as you can.”

Bit by bit, I guided Mia through all the steps that I did myself when I first began training. I had no idea whether my position was correct, nor if it was the right way to train. But since it worked for me, then surely it would have some sort of effect for her!

“Now, I need you to focus your entire mind on hitting that pillar,” I said, watching how Mia’s eyes filled with confusion and disbelief.

“Huh?” She finally managed to come out with some kind of reaction. “Master, I’m just a slave, and it’s not the hour of my training yet!” she protested, abiding by the rules of this sect.

Little did she know, I had no intention of doing the same.

Not when it came to slavery, at the very least.

“During your daily hour, you are free to do whatever you want,” I said before leaning my head over my shoulder and smiling lightly. “In the twenty-three other hours of the day, you are to follow my orders. Is that correct?”

“Yes, Master could not be wrong,” Mia replied, averting her eyes.

“Then I want you to accept two things,” I said, stretching out my hand only to realize that due to it being bandaged, I was unable to point two of my fingers up. “First, you are my partner, not my slave. I said it once, and I will say it as many times as you need to hear it to accept it,” I said before turning around and walking towards the stone.

“Excuse me for a second,” I said before throwing a kick at the pillar. Then, as if nothing had happened, I turned back up. “Then, for the second thing, I want you to train.”

For a moment, I allowed those words to permeate through the girl’s well-protected mind.

When I first saw her, I thought she was extremely shy. Yet, as I continued to observe her, I couldn’t help but realize that it was nothing more but a fake front. A result of a massive, impregnable wall she built around her mind in order to protect herself both from reality and from her disastrous past.

I knew it because back on earth, I did the same.

“But…” Mia attempted to protest, yet as she raised her eyes and looked at my face only to be met with a lenient smile, her words ended up stuck in her throat.

“Fine,” I said, coming up with an idea. “How about this. I want you to train while I’m resting so that no one will disturb me. Could we make that work?” I asked, awed by my own ingenuity.

This garden would remain closed for others for as long as the training continued. I took part in no registration process of any sort, prompting me to believe that it didn’t matter who was striking the stone. It was also the reason why I executed a random kick a moment before.

To keep this place safe from the interference of others. A small precaution against the goons of that young master that were bound to sooner or later come after me.

“Yes, master,” Mia said. She then gathered her courage and revealed a small, shy smile. “Thank you, Master,” she added, gracefully bowing her head.

“Now that we have this sorted out let’s…” I turned towards the pillar, attempting to help Mia regain the position when I noticed someone lurking right at the edge of the hedge that kept this place enclosed.

‘How… No, I cannot jump to assumptions,’ I thought, stepping forward so that I would be between the intruder and the girl.

“Who are you?” I asked in a normal voice.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” A young man, roughly the same age as my new body, stepped into the clearing. A moment later, two more disciples followed, with all three of them clad in the same, dully blue robes of the Skyladder disciples. “To think that an up and coming, a fellow disciple of ours would attempt to uproot the social structure of the sect…” the guy at the front leered with a huge smirk plastered all over his face.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” I replied, too amused by their cringy behavior to feel any worry.

“We heard everything. How you are going to let your slave train all she wants, how you don’t consider her your slave… I wonder what will happen once we report it to the elders!” the guy threatened before licking his lips as he moved his eyes to Mia.

Even without looking to the back, I could tell that her trembles started all over.

‘Tsk, after all the hard work to make her feel comfortable…’

“That is, unless…” the guy said as he took another step forward, bringing his arm up in a clear attempt at pointing it at the girl.

“Go and report it, then,” I replied, shaking my shoulders. “It’s your word against mine,” I added and rolled my eyes.

“Are you blind or just plain stupid?” the guy asked, moving his hand to point at the two fellows that came with him. “It’s your word against the word of the three of us,” he said as his smile grew even bigger. In his eyes, sparks of lust appeared.

“Not exactly,” I shook my head.. “It’s my word against the word of people who broke the sect’s law by intruding on the private garden,” I replied despite not knowing if such law existed. Still, since this place was called a private garden, it was pretty obvious that intruding on it wasn’t allowed at all!