"Did…… Did Shiro just lose?" Madison asked with disbelief as the thought of Shiro losing seemed impossible for her. Even if it was a spar, it was still shocking.

  "Yeah she did. But think of it this way, now that she’s lost, she’s got more to learn. Meaning, she’ll get even stronger." Lyrica nodded her head while trying to stop herself from blushing at the sight of a red faced Shiro feeling embarrassed on her father’s shoulder.

  "Makes you think about what could happen to us doesn’t it? Her dad did say that we’ll get some training from professionals after all." Aarim chuckled.

  "It’s good news isn’t it? That way we can be more prepared for the new age." Helion smiled.

  "Urg…… my normality is drifting further and further." Madison sighed.

  "I mean…… you’re the future Demon Queen so I’d say normality has always been an illusion for you hahaha." Helion laughed as Madison launched herself towards him and tried to strangle him.

  "Oiiiii!!!"

  ###

  Setting Shiro down, Koji put away his sword.

  "Erm…… How did you do that last move?" Shiro asked with an excited glint in her eye.

  Seeing that his daughter was so excited about swordsmanship, Koji felt like he could cry with joy.

  "That last move is a little like what you did at the start. Where you evaded my notice and closed the gap. Think of it as something similar but while you’re evading their notice, you proceed to strike at their wrist, causing them to drop their sword or any weapon they’re holding. It’s a little harder to disarm two handed weapons but if you’re quick enough, it should be possible." Koji said with a smile while Shiro listened intently.

  "Hmm…… the martial arts that I used mainly focused on evading your notice rather than doing something in that time. I’ll need to practice some more for me to be doing something else in that moment then." Shiro nodded.

  "Speaking of practice, I’ve noticed something with your sword techniques. You like to move around a lot. And I mean A LOT. You over complicate the moves that you want to do such as using your portal move. You can use your portal to bait people into thinking that you’re about to move but you continue. You can even use your martial arts to evade their notice so that they think you’re in the portal when in reality you’re in front of them.

  "Second point I want to bring up is that there is a gap between you using your magic and sword. Rather than everything being fluid and you moving from form to form such as in martial arts, it’s like you take a break, change your gear, then continue. If you really want to use magic and swords together, you need to get rid of this break otherwise people can take advantage of that gap. In terms of opportunities for me to strike at you, there were more when magic was involved." Koji chuckled.

  "So you were holding back in the end dad." Shiro sighed.

  "Of course. What kind of parent goes all out when sparring with their kid." Koji laughed and patted Shiro’s head.

  "Anyways, your mother should be finishing up soon. We have about 5 to 10 minutes give or take so I can probably run through a few more spars with your party members. I want to personally see what their potential is like." Koji glanced towards the party with narrowed eyes as they felt a shiver down their spine.

  It was the same kind of feeling as when Shiro was letting the pope test out the new simulators.

  Completely sadistic!

  "Ah I’m a tank so I’m fine." Madison looked away.

  "I’m a healer, I don’t go on the front lines." Silvia coughed.

  "I’m a mage so I don’t really need to use a sword." Aarim waved her hand with a forced smile.

  "I’m a ……"

  Seeing Shiro’s party make excuses after excuses, Koji shrugged his shoulders.

  "When a monster sneaks around your party or decides to attack from the back, how will you deal with them? You can probably sense their mana signatures but here’s the problem. In the front lines, there are now monsters and demons that avoid all forms of detection, what will you do when they approach you? So even if you’re a healer, you need to learn proper self defence. And as you can see, who better to learn it from than me?" Koji smiled darkly.

  Before the party could say anything, Shiro flickered behind Silvia and placed a hand on her shoulder.

  "Why don’t you be the first?" Shiro smiled in a similar manner as Koji.

  ’Like father like daughter.’ Was Silvia’s last thoughts.

  ###

  "Urgggggg……"

  Looking at the party on the floor groaning from the pain, Shiro couldn’t help but chuckle.

  "I’ll admit. Their potential is pretty good for their age. Especially Lyrica and Madison. Their instincts are spot on." Koji smiled while Shiro nodded her head.

  "Darling~ Food is ready~" Mio called out as she walked into the training hall.

  "Oh man I’m starving." Koji smiled.

  However……

  "I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about my baby girl." Mio huffed before jogging over to Shiro.

  "I’ve made some of your favourite dishes. Come come, let’s eat before it gets cold. Yin’s already starting." Mio smiled.

  Looking back at her dad who seemed to have taken heavy damage, Shiro smiled softly.

  "Mum you can forgive dad now. It’s fine." Shiro whispered over to Mio.

  "But he caused you to leave. I have to teach him a lesson or else the big oaf will never learn. Why do you think Keomi’s living away from us." Mio sighed.

  "It’s fine mum, you can’t bully dad too much in the end." Shiro tried to persuade while massaging her shoulders.

  ’Anymore and I think dad will break.’ She thought to herself.

  *Sigh

  "Fine. I’ll forgive him. But only because you said so ok?" Mio smiled softly.

  "Thank you mum." Shiro smiled and pecked her mum on the cheeks.

  "Dad! Mum’s forgiven you." She called out with a grin.

  Hearing this, Koji looked up with a surprised expression.

  Glancing towards Mio just to make sure, he was overjoyed when he saw her nod.

  "Arggg!!! Finally!!!! The dry spell is over!!!!" He cried out as Mio blushed from the mention of ’dry spell’.

  "OIIIII!!!! Perverted old man! Don’t shout that sh*t out loud!" Shiro widened her eyes and kicked Koji in the chest but he ignored it. She didn’t think that this was going to be the first thing that he shouted.

  "Darling you don’t know how much of a tease your mum is. Do you know how painful it was to have her seduce me while not letting me do anything?" Koji explained as he lifted up Shiro like a kid.

  "I don’t need to know! My friends are just behind you ya know!?" Shiro blushed from being picked up like a kid.

  "It’s fine, they’re all a.d.u.l.ts! You’ve probably learnt some s.e.x ed already!" Koji laughed.

  "Doesn’t mean it’s fine to say it out loud!" Shiro retorted.

  Chuckling softly at the father and daughter, Mio walked over to the party and helped them up.

  Getting Silvia to cast a few healing spells, they started to walk to the dining hall as Shiro was placed on Koji shoulder’s once more.

  Embarrassed about how Koji was treating her, Shiro wanted to jump into the rift to escape but unfortunately for her, Koji managed to stop her from entering the portal, prolonging her embarrassment all the way to the dinner hall.

  Seeing Shiro, Mio and Koji interact with each other, Lyrica couldn’t help but smile seeing how happy Shiro was. After all, in all her times of interacting with her, she hadn’t seen her act this lively.

  Thinking about this, Lyrica couldn’t help but think back to her own parents and sighed.

  "You ok?" Madison asked as she saw her best friend sigh.

  "Yeah, just thinking back to my own family." Lyrica smiled.

  "Tell me about it. I have always thought that Shiro was an anomaly but after seeing her parents, it seems like crazy runs in the family. She could be classed as normal in her family while I’m now a demon queen candidate in my normal human family." Madison said with a twitching smile.

  "But it’s nice isn’t it? I haven’t seen Shiro this happy before." Lyrica chuckled.

  "Yup." Madison grinned. After all, even the strongest people needed to relax once in a while.