I'm The Only One With Cancer-Chapter 154: Final Spar I

Thud—!

Only when the sound of the door shutting did Zen come to his senses.

Seeing his teacher entering the dilapidated building, his mouth remained ajar.

"Hehe..."

Adara’s giggle sounded beside him, his face heating up slightly due to embarrassment.

Then, with a confused depression, he turned to Adara and asked, "Aunt Ada, what does he mean by final spar? Would he torture me as he does during training sessions?"

"No, silly!"

Adara seemed to remember something as her smile became wider, "I’ll tell you a story, but in exchange, help me fix this place."

"Oh..."

Looking at the training grounds that had now become a mess due to his earlier talent awakening, Zen could not help but nod apologetically, "I’m sorry..."

"Don’t worry too much about it~"

"But why is Teacher not helping?"

"Oh, don’t worry about him. He must be preparing something special for you~"

Hearing her tone, Zen could not help but feel goosebumps all over his body, "O-Oh..."

Without delaying further, he started cleaning the place up.

Adara had a teasing look on her face before getting to work as well.

As the two got busy, Zen asked, "By the way, Aunt Ada, about the story you said you were going to tell me..."

"Oh, about that, hmmm..." Adara fell into deep thought as she sat on a nearby wooden chair.

Zen patiently waited as he continued picking up the scattered daggers, swords, shields, and other weapons that were littered all over the ground.

Furthermore, he also fixed the wooden chairs, tables, weapon racks, and other equipment that had fallen due to the earlier commotion.

’Fortunately, nothing broke...’

Zen could not help but sigh in relief, thinking about what possible punishment his teacher would give him if ever something broke.

Of course, he did not forget to sweep the surroundings due to the branches, sand, stone, and other things that had covered the once clean training grounds.

’Maybe I can use magic to do this, but...’

Zen decided it would be better not to do so due to three main reasons.

The first one was that he might unintentionally cause much more of a mess in the surroundings as a result of his not being familiar with ’cleaning’ magic.

Secondly, he liked doing things slowly as well, which added to the fact that this was his way of expressing sincerity.

And lastly, he was really curious about what Adara meant by telling him a story.

’I wonder what kind of story it was...? But... why does something feel off...?’

It had already been more than ten minutes since he started cleaning.

Thanks to his inhumane and monstrous stats, he was able to work swiftly.

Nevertheless, Zen still felt something was off.

His gaze wandered all over the place and finally landed on Adara, who seemed to be in deep thought since earlier.

’She asked me to help her, yet I ended up doing everything....’

Zen could not help but chuckle lightly while shaking his head, ’Well, it’s fine since I’m the one who caused this mess...’

"Hmmm..."

Fortunately, Adara seemed to have broken out of her trance at the exact moment Zen finished cleaning everything up.

"Come here, my dear nephew. Let me tell you something about the final spar Arthur mentioned earlier."

Zen could not help but look at her suspiciously, ’What if she just made up a story to make me clean everything?’

Despite his thoughts, he still dragged a wooden chair and sat beside Adara.

"Are you ready?"

"...Yes, Aunt Ada."

"Let’s start with the final spar he mentioned to you earlier."

Adara cleared her throat with a cough before speaking, "The final spar he mentioned to you is unlike the spar in your training sessions. It’s actually a tradition of our Temple of Fire."

"Tradition?" Zen thought for a moment and seemed to remember something that could be related to it.

"Yes. In the past, when the Temple of Fire was still thriving, we had a ceremony called the Rite of Firepower.

Our temple is known for raising fighters, battle mages, and the like through master and apprentice relationships. This is one of the main ways we grew our force, aside from charities, healing services and other activities.

I won’t go into detail as to what the Rite of Firepower is, as I believe that Arthur will explain it to you tomorrow."

Zen nodded, thinking that everything so far had been consistent with the records he had read in the past, aside from the lacking details of the Rite of Firepower.

Adara seemed to remember something and smiled, "Actually, the Rite of Firepower is an old tradition that’s something that only a few members practice. But its origins go way back in the past— back when Arthur, and Brother Ignatius were still travelling carefreely."

’She seems excited...’ Zen judged based on her expression and gestures, which made him decide to promptly remain silent and just listen.

"Arthur and I grew up in an orphanage in a small town in the past. We originally lived in the slums, but were taken in by a kindhearted elderly couple who happened to have no child to spend their money on. That’s why they chose to open up an orphanage in their late years."

’So such things happen in this world as well...’ Zen listened with interest, excited to know more about this seemingly medieval world of fantasy.

Oblivious to his thoughts, Adara continued, "We lived there peacefully for a few years until we became teenagers. But just as we were getting used to our peaceful lives, a calamity struck the small town we were in.

A crazed dragon wreaked havoc in the town and razed everything to ashes. Arthur and I only survived through pure luck because we were hunting in the forest outside of town.

However, everyone else in the orphanage wasn’t as lucky as we were."

’I didn’t expect them to have this kind of backstory...’ Zen could not help but comment inwardly.

Adara’s eyes seemed to flicker with a light of melancholy as her lips parted, "But even then, our luck didn’t last. The crazed dragon seemed to have sensed us from the sky and dove straight down towards us. We were just around level 7 back then. We’re helpless against ogres— much less a whole dragon.

It was then that a warrior holding a huge great sword shielded us from the dragon’s attack. He fought bravely and was able to kill the crazed dragon after a long, arduous fight.

Arthur and I were so shocked back then— we were practically trembling in fear!"

Seemingly remembering Arthur’s expression, Adara giggled softly before she continued speaking.

"Anyways, that was when we met Brother Ignatius. He adopted us, gave us clothes, food, and shelter. We served as his attendants to make up for at least a fraction of the good things he had done for us.

He even gave us his family name. I remember seeing Arthur cry because of it, hehe. Still, for us children who grew up without a family, a family name holds quite the importance...."

Adara continued narrating their lives to Zen under the moonlit night sky.

The soft illumination cast over them by the moon made the atmosphere feel tranquil— as if everything else in the world had nothing to do with them.

As they lived with Ignatius, he taught them how to fight, survive, and become stronger.

Time passed by, and both Arthur and she were able to hold their own against monsters of even higher level than themselves.

Then there was a time when both Adara and Arthur wanted to go their separate ways, as they did not want to burden Ignatius any longer.

It turned out that the Rite of Firepower had originated from Ignatius, who wanted to test them before they left.

Adara giggled as she narrated their past, "It was then that Brother Ignatius called it the Rite of Firepower, which was a cringey name at the time. But still, it was just a test whether Arthur and I were already capable of surviving by ourselves."

’Chaotic...’ Zen could not help but chuckle inwardly as Adara finally finished telling her ’story’, which was really just her reminiscing and ranting about the past.

Though he did not have the heart to tell her, he sighed in his heart, ’Aunt Ada... is not a good storyteller!’

"Anyways, there you go! The story behind the Rite of Firepower!"

Unaware of what was going through his mind, Adara offered a small smile, a quiet sense of relief easing the heaviness in her heart.

"Umm, Aunt Ada."

"Hmm?"

"Can I just ask one question?"

"Sure, sure, go on ahead~" Adara was still clearly in a good mood.

Zen involuntarily scratched the back of his head with a wry smile, "Um, who’s Ignatius? From what I remember, there doesn’t seem to be a record of him..."

"Oh, he’s the God of Fire."

Hearing Adara’s nonchalant reply, Zen’s eyes widened like saucers.

"What!?"