In the light of dawn a man dressed in dark browns, dark brown pants, dark brown shirt, a dark brown cloak, sat atop a tree branch. On a piece of parchment, he drew the layout of the Loftus Manor. A pair of guards stood by the right and left entrances, while three guards manned the main gate. The walls were not a viable option to get in, he decided. While the manor was large, the land it was built on was flat and had few obstructions for him to hide from their lines of sight.

Tools were laid out next to him. He had balanced the knives, daggers, needles, and vials of purple liquid on his heavy roll bag. A particularly fine throwing knife danced across his knuckles. It was of steel make with two holes punched in the middle, its handle wrapped with the famous silk of the Mist Mountains. Beautiful blades were not something he could always admire, sometimes losing them during his contracts, but this one, he hoped, would not be lost. Though the idea of staining it with royal blood excited him.

New as it was, he itched to use it.

But there was an issue. An issue he did not find particularly enjoyable. A demon of incomparable strength sat between him and his target.

When will the call come?

There was a rustle in the bushes below him. He cast a casual glance down, expecting to see a scurrying animal. Instead, he saw nothing. Nothing but an endless void. A devouring black maw. It reached for him. The end was brutal and fast.

His knife fell uselessly to the ground.

“Your training is harsher than Lucas's,” Lilith said. She observed their training from under the shade of a half-grown tree, sitting on top of a colorful blanket.

Each attack he blocked sent vibrations through his body that numbed his senses. Alexandra was ruthless and gave him no time to rest. He was on the backfoot as his body screamed for him to rest. Left with no other options, he counterattacked, thrusting at her midsection. His wooden sword went flying through the air.

A stinging pain shot through his arm and he clutched it, dropping to his knees. “Ow! You didn’t need to hit me so hard.”

“Never lose focus. In a real fight, your opponent will not wait for you to pick up your weapon,” Alexandra said as she towered over him. “We have trained for the past hour, yet you still cannot land a single strike.”

Yeah? Well maybe that’s because you’re the goddamned BLOOD DEMON! I don’t know how strong that makes you but I know that I wouldn’t want to fight someone with that nickname.

Teal helped him up and handed him the wooden sword. “How can you expect me to land a blow when you’ve used a sword your whole life and I’m only just starting?”

“I see how it is. Teal, you spar with the Young Master.”

“What? Me?”

Alexandra turned her practice sword around with the butt of it pointed at Teal. “Yes. Do not hold back. The Young Master must learn the distance between where he is and where he will need to be.”

The harsh red-headed caretaker stepped to the side. Teal mirrored Kieran’s stance, with her sword pointed at him. Her feet shifted under her, going from too thin to too wide. The wooden tool trembled in her hands.

Alexandra counted down from three. Three. Two. One. Kieran dashed forward. He struck from above. Surprise flashed in Teal’s big eyes and he knew he had her. The sword fell short and he cut air. What just happened? He followed up with an upward swing and then another. Both missed. Each a few inches short of her. He switched into a one handed thrust, pushing with his whole body. She knocked his sword to the side and hit his shoulder.

He panted, leaning on the sword. “What just happened?”

I thought for sure she never fought before. She looked even worse than I did when I started.

“Again,” Kieran said.

The two retook their stances and Teal continued with her micro adjustments but her eyes changed. He charged at her, leading with feint. She fell for it and moved to block. In the thin opening, he went for the hit.

“How?”

She twisted out of the way at the last second and landed a strike. It didn’t sting nearly as much as Alexandra’s and he knew she held back. So why? Why couldn’t he hit someone who wasn’t putting any force behind their swings? They went for three more rounds and while he managed to last longer, he never landed a blow.

Even if Teal had the power of surviving puberty on her side, he couldn’t fathom the difference. Her swings were slower than his, her footwork was rigid and clumsy, she sometimes flinched when she blocked attacks. Though, he wasn’t over his flinching phase either. Anyone who judged them purely on what they saw would put their money on him nine times out of ten.

The more matches they had, the more confident Teal became. She stopped stumbling over her feet and hesitated less. Kieran’s aggressive strategy and all out attacks got him close but the outcome never changed. As he sat on the ground with sweat dripping from his hair, Alexandra called the session.

“That will be all for today. I am needed for an urgent matter and will take my leave.”

He shot up, “Wait, you’re leaving?”

“Only for a little while. From tomorrow onward, you will practice your forms and swings only. Teal will spar against you, however, you may only have two matches a day. As for my observations,” Alexandra’s cold eyes rested on him. “Young Master, while landing a blow is a victory in a sparring match, it means nothing if you forsake all you learn to achieve it. Watch your opponent and exploit their openings. I expect improvements upon my return.”

He wiped the sweat off his brow, “How come I couldn’t hit, Teal?”

“That is a question for her.”

With a bow that irked him, she left.

She’s really going to order me around, leave me hanging, and then bow? Am I a prince with any authority or not?

“I’m sorry for hitting you,” Teal said. She rushed over as soon as Alexandra left and began wrapping his hands.

He shrugged as if to say it wasn’t a problem. More than a week went by since they arrived. In that time, he’d gotten whopped by Alexandra more times than he could bear. In all honesty, it killed his motivation and his muscles. If he were a few years older, maybe he’d have a chance.

“Are you all right?” Lilith asked. She had left her doll and book on the blanket.

“Just peachy.”

“You certainly look all red. Is there anything I can do?” Lilith said, the sarcasm failing and succeeding at the same time.

He let out a defeated sigh, “I don’t know. You could kiss it better?”

“Wha- Does that really work?”

He let her think about it, “Teal.”

“Don’t feel bad, Young Master. Before I started working as a caretaker, my family had me practice a few things with a heavy stick. It was a stand in for a sword... Um, never mind. I used my flow to sense your attacks,” she said.

“Your flow?”

“It’s a broad term that we haven’t covered in our magic lessons yet but think of it like an identity marker on your Essence that lets you control it. For some skilled people like Alexandra, they can choose what type of Essence they produce when casting a spell. In my case, I’ve developed a sensory type of flow. I sense things moving around me when I use it.”

“Can I learn to sense things too?”

If possible, it’d give him a lot more confidence in fights. Although it wasn’t a real sword, a fast moving hard object still hurt a lot. And, after all the beatings he’d taken, he really wanted to avoid them.

“It’s possible. However, if you’re not compatible or have talent for sensory type flow, it’ll take a long time to train.”

When Teal finished the wrapping of new bandages and collected the wooden sparring swords, her face seemed a bit different. Maybe it was how her skin reflected the midday light, the slight sweat on her brow, or how she styled her hair in a ponytail, but she seemed more adultlike.

“To possess Shadow Essence is something amazing! I possess Water Essence, myself. Hey, hey. How many times can you cast the bolt spell?” Lilith badgered. Her eyes were beaming with a childlike quality he had seen only once before at a certain shrine.

Shadow Bolt?

He craned his neck away from the expectant eyes and his words came out in a trickle, “I can use it three times…”

I’m technically not lying. I could use it three times, I’d probably just faint.

Her jaw dropped and shoulders sagged, betraying the etiquette entrenched by her upbringing as a noble. She puffed out her cheeks for a second before snapping back to normal. “Ah, you really are talented. As expected of a prince.”

Oh? What’s this?

“How many times can you use it?”

Now it was Lilith’s turn to avert her eyes, as he expected. A childish feeling welled up inside him as he waited for her to answer. “I am able to cast it twice…”

“Hoooh. That’s pretty good.”

The words came out more earnestly than he thought they would. Lilith, who had lost her enthusiasm, had her attitude revived with his compliment. No matter how hard adults tried to drill in formalities and the like, a child was still a child after all. The noble girl’s genuine happiness at the praise distracted him from the pain radiating throughout his body.

I guess all those compliments Teal gave me about magic were true too.

The day passed quickly. He spent most of it with Teal and Lilith. Free from Alexandra, the three of them enjoyed the temperate weather and explored much of the property. Kieran and Teal tried to keep pace with Lilith as she bounced from place to place.

“You look quite happy, Miss,” Reihmier said.

“I finally got to play all day,” Lilith replied.

Kieran slowly got up from his crouching position, ignoring the ache in his legs, “It was great…”

Lilith’s escort, the man who accompanied her to the palace, tightened his leather vest. A group of men stood scattered around the entrance. Two had swords and the rest were unarmed. Lucas appeared from behind one of the men. He carried with him a bow and a quiver full of arrows. Attached to his waist was a sword. Its handle, delicately shaped and gilded in gold, stuck out of its leather sheath engraved with the Loftus family crest.

Lucas bowed, “Your Highness, done with training?”

“Yeah. What’s going on here? Why is everyone dressed up?”

“There were reports of a Corrupted near the village down the main road. We are just about to investigate it, Your Highness.”

Hidden among the other soldiers, the Colorless servant reared his head. He looked wholly unprepared to help in any hunting efforts and was the least equipped of the men there. He carried a shoddy bow and a small hunting knife. The armguards Kieran used for training, made of a thin layer of leather, would have offered more protection than what the Colorless servant had on.

“Is that all the gear he’s going to leave with?”

“This is my own equipment, Your Highness,” the Colorless boy said, his head lowered. “Master Lucas offered better but I refused.”

He shrugged. He couldn’t imagine turning down an offer for better gear, especially when it meant better chances at survival, but the Colorless kid must have had his own reasons. Likely, he wanted to prove himself.

“Pardon me, Your Highness, but we must leave now, lest the Corrupted get away,” Lucas said.

An idea popped in his head, “Wait, could I come along?”

“Um, I don’t think that’s safe, Young Master,” Teal said. She was twiddling her thumbs.

“I would be more than happy to take you once this problem is resolved,” He answered with a smile.

I’m pretty sure you know that’s not what I mean. Whatever. Gimme a couple years and I can start throwing my weight around. I’ll just use this time away from Alexandra to enjoy myself and laze around a bit.

Lucas and his men left and Teal retired to her room. There was still a couple of hours of sunlight left and Lilith, still as energetic as ever, invited him to her room over in the left wing. He thought it’d be a bigger deal, considering both their positions, but she didn’t even bat an eye. Her room was similar to his, with the only difference being the position of the windows near the head of the bed rather than off to the side.

Lilith pushed a chair next to her shelf and climbed on top of it. She started searching for something behind the books and dolls.

“Be careful. You could get hurt,” he said, feeling his anxiety shoot up. It reminded him of having to watch his cousins whenever they came over. He held the chair steady as she balanced on her tiptoes.

“Got it!”

Lilith jumped down with a pair of short, wooden swords. They looked the same as the ones given to him for training. Why this twelve year old girl had wooden swords hidden behind her shelf, Kieran didn’t know. Elegant as a sword may be, compared to another weapon, it didn’t fit Lilith’s image.

“Please teach me,” she said. She handed him one of the swords and mimicked his stance from the morning.

“Hold up. Isn’t it better if you had, oh I don’t know, your brother or maybe even Reihmer teach you?”

“They won’t. I asked before but they refused each time. I’d leave the matter alone but my elder sister was trained.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

“Three. My eldest brother, my elder sister, and then Lucas.”

Maybe they want to keep her away from the war because she’s the youngest. It would make some sense.

“Even if I was willing to, it’s not like I’m good enough to teach someone how to swordfight. Besides, fighting is dangerous stuff. You could get hurt.”

She puffed out her cheeks, “I am no child. I know what I’m asking for. I want to at least be strong enough to protect myself and others close to me. Please? Think of it as light sparring.”

He sighed and went into his stance. Lilith broke into a smile. Kieran lightly swung at her side. She blocked and did the same. The back and forth went on for a good couple of minutes. While he had no trouble reacting to her attacks, he even hummed a song from his previous world, Lilith’s blocks and parries were hurried.

To him, the spar was exactly what it looked like. Two kids play fighting with dummy swords. To Lilith, however, it was more like she’d been wounded and was frantically trying to stay alive. If he hadn’t practiced against Alexandra and Teal, some of her attacks might have actually hit him.

“Whoa.”

He ducked. Lilith’s wooden sword cut through the air right where he stood.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I-I was too into it.”

“Let’s stop there before we get hurt. There’s not a lot of room to move in the first place.”

Kieran sat on the ground, as he felt a little awkward sitting on her bed, while Lilith took the swords and stashed them back into her hiding place behind the books. She sat on the chair with her legs dangling off the side. Her eyes were focused on the ground.

It was clear how she felt about the spar they had. It reminded him of his hectic training with Alexandra. Except, now he was the trainer instead of the trainee. There were tons of openings for him to have hit her but what was the point? He didn’t want to hurt her and he didn’t think there was much of a point to the pain either. Just what was it that made that bloodthirsty caretaker of his love giving him bruises?

He shook himself back to the matter at hand. He had to think. There was a young girl who just had her hopes and dreams crushed. What could he say to make her feel better?

“There’s a lot of other ways you can fight. You could use your magic instead. I mean, you can already cast the bolt spell twice. That’s really impressive.”

“Mm.”

“And I think everyone would be happy if you turned out to be a strong magic user.”

“I guess so.”

“Give yourself a few more years and you won’t even need a sword. You’ll have a magic staff in hand and everyone will stare as you walk through.”

“Ohh! That sounds good. Maybe I’ll even be a Scar Bearer.”

He half listened to her emblem ideas, smiling and nodding. He was glad when she showed her childish side. Though, if that childish side involved more of that energy he saw this morning when she dragged them around, he hoped she’d only show it inside the Manor.

“Are you going to the Mending Festival?” Lilith asked suddenly. “If you are, then how about going with me?”

“Wait, there’s one close by?”

She nodded, “The town of Ninoa has a large celebration each year.”

He remembered seeing the lights from the city and standing there from atop the palace built on a hill. Disconnected. Alone. An outsider. No one in the Royal Family, aside from the King and Queen, participated in the festival. Officially, they only offered prayers to the temple. He knew, however, that his older brothers would sneak out, that his mother would have them take their sister. They were all able to go, but never him. Even Alexandra and Teal, who were with him almost every day of the year, would have the day off to go.

It was a special event, celebrated each year by everyone except him. It was as if the world was telling him he didn’t belong.

“Let’s go. I want to go with you.”

“A promise it is!”

Then the house rumbled and screams echoed through the halls.