Insect Tamer's Ascension

While the Baron might have left, Theo was still on the balcony, smiling like an idiot as if he had achieved a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"Theo," the Baroness called out, and Theo moved his face toward her with a happy expression.

"Your father might have approved for you to focus on two different lives at the same time. But I want to advise you not to do it," she spoke with a serious face. Rhys had already made his way toward the wyvern, who was now getting annoyed at staying in that space.

He closed his eyes once, and the big wyvern became a bright light before entering his forehead.

"Why would you say that?" Theo asked the Baroness in confusion. If he had already gotten his permission, then why still say no?

"…Your journey as a tamer is already tough enough. If you divide your focus into two houses of combat, I don't even want to imagine what will happen," she spoke with a stern expression.

Theo closed the gap between them and smiled, "Mother, I know you are worried about me, but I have already decided to pursue knighthood too. I would like to get your blessings to move forward, not a no. And end so, I need some self-defense to protect myself in situations like this and this could be it."

The Baroness looked at him for a while, it felt like she didn't have anything to say no about; her expression didn't change, but almost instantly, she sighed, and her expression became warmer.

"You really have become quite a talker, young man," she stated and patted his head before continuing, "Okay, you have my yes too, but be careful. If it becomes too complicated or you're feeling burnt out, tell me."

Theo nodded quickly. With this, he was finally able to do everything without anyone saying anything to him.

But after this conversation was over and the Baroness was taking fresh air with deep breathers, Theo remembered that Clara was still a lot more injured.

"Mother, I want to see Clara right now," Theo stated.

"It will be useless meeting her right now. The doctors have sedated her to help her with the pain while they heal her slowly. It will take a few days for her to regain her consciousness."

"Is that so…" Theo said in a dejected tone.

They talked for a while before the Baroness went back for her duties, and he was left alone with Rhys.

"Sir Rhys, I don't know why you did that, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart," Theo stated and bowed a little.

At the given opportunity, the mantis hopped from his hand to the chest pocket and vanished.

The knight looked at Theo for a few seconds before he finally spoke, "Meet me in the morning at the same location you have been practicing at, young master. We will see what you can do until your beast recovers," he stated, making Theo nod in understanding.

Just like that, even the knight left the balcony, and Theo took some fresh air for a while before he went toward his room too.

In a few minutes of briskly moving forward, Theo finally entered his room.

The moment he entered, all the soreness came out of his body, and after changing his clothes and keeping the mantis by his side, Theo fell on the bed and slept as soon as he touched the mattress.

The mantis didn't really care about the comfort, yet it slept too. They were like that for a lot of hours, and when, finally, Theo woke up and looked at the time, he frowned.

'I have really been dependent on Clara all this while, huh,'

Theo's decision of learning how to use a sword was a lot more derived from what happened in the forest this time, rather than his own development.

His father was right—he was not in some candy world. Here, the beasts didn't wait for you to take your beasts out and fight fairly and squarely.

This was the real world. Here, everything worked as long as one side was dead.

It all led Theo to look at things in a bigger light, as usual. He wanted to be half as powerful as Mantis to fend off any being that came to get his life, as it did for Clara.

Without even wanting it, Theo was still guilty about Clara's condition. She might have been his attendant, and she was the one who was supposed to protect him—he knew that.

But she had become so important in his life that Theo just wanted her to come back. But that was not possible anymore either.

So many changes were happening at the same time, so Theo tried calming his mind first and assessed each situation individually.

Clara's condition was not good right now, and he had to go meet her anytime she was awake now.

While Clara was not with him anymore, Theo knew he would be sent another attendant by the evening.

There was also the fact that the mantis had killed seven boars, something he had not realized it was capable of.

But in the process, it became injured too. The injury Theo was most concerned about was the foreleg that was bent to the side.

He needed to do something about it firsthand.

The next important thing was how Rhys had vouched and had become his trainer for a while.

There was also the fact that his father's reaction was a little weird, according to Theo.

He wanted to explore all this with time, but the most important for today was to see how the mantis could be fixed.

Theo stared at it, still sleeping on the bed while he had already gotten up.

'I should let it rest for now. For starters, first comes the library,' Theo thought and went outside his room on his own and made his way toward the library.

When he was finally inside, he saw an old man puffing a pipe in the library.

"Good afternoon, Old man Bernard," Theo said with a light smile.

The old man moved his face toward him, the pipe still in his mouth and puff still going in before it left his mouth, and a smile formed on his face.

"Well well well, if it isn't the young tamer himself," Bernard said and kept the pipe on the table and looked at Theo fully.

"You have developed a lot, young master."

"Hahaha… not as much as I want to be," Theo completed the formalities and went straight to the point. "Old man Bernard, do we have any books on beast injury recovery or something?" Theo asked, and Bernard didn't even need to think before he grabbed the pipe again and pointed at an aisle of books.

"It's right there, but is everything okay with your insect? Quite a difficult thing to keep alive," he stated, yet did not show any ridicule on his face.

Theo only chuckled. From the moment the old man got to know about Theo's beast and how it was an insect, there was only one thing on his mouth now, always.

"Why waste your time with that beast, young master? I will help you choose one that will help you grow a lot in a short period of time, just like you have always wanted."

Theo only looked at him with a smile for a little while before he went and sat in the chair opposite to him.

"I know you didn't like my idea of taming an insect, old man Bernard. But we Merricks here do what our hearts tell us to do," Theo stated, and then continued with a grin, "One day, you will see the beast you have been ridiculing as much as you can, fighting against the outer devils."

The old man was going to puff a smoke again, yet froze at the name of outer devils. His eyes darkened.

Theo knew where to click when it came to the old man, and it had already been due time to make him feel good about him again.

He needed his vast knowledge for the future, and since he had known who he really was, Theo had been trying to get on his good side for a while.

"Well, only time will tell that. So, what happened to your beast?" the man spoke, yet there was less disappointment in his voice now.

Theo told him everything that transpired in the forest in detail. It took some time, yet as the mantis couldn't train right now, he decided to take a small break from training too.

When Theo had told him everything, the old man just looked at Theo with his usual serious face.

"Well, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed that such a person who hungered for knowledge all the time took such a… peculiar path," the old man said, and Theo listened carefully.

"But defeating seven boars in one adventure, at such a small size—I now somewhat know that you're onto something, young master."

"I will tell you everything I know about healing a beast on your own."