The following morning, I got out of bed extremely early.
I quickly brushed my teeth, put on my clothes, and rushed towards the dining hall as fast as I could.
Obviously, I didn't want to be late on my first training session with Astress - and face her wrath as a result.
Who knows what she would do to me if I did?
A few terrifying things came to mind, sending chills down my spine.
When I arrived in the dining hall, I sat down and chowed down my breakfast in record time.
Mr. Luzel carried a look of absolute bewilderment as I dashed right past him and headed to the training grounds.
When I met up with Astress, I was already out of breath.
"I must admit, you surprised me. You arrived earlier than I expected."
"Is that an insult or a compliment?"
"Whichever one has you more fired up."
After that, Astress walked over towards the court and ordered me to follow her.
"As a warm-up, I would like you to make fifty laps around this court."
"FIFTY LAPS?!"
Astress shut her ears with her hands, showing I might have been a bit too loud.
Quickly, I bowed and apologized to her.
So much so about making a good first impression.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Fifty laps, come on."
I then began my quest to complete fifty laps.
After the first ten laps, I could already feel myself gasping for air.
Seems that getting here early didn't really help me all that much.
Perhaps I've never mentioned this, but I'm not the type of person you'd label as being fit.
The most exercise I've ever done during my previous life would be carrying my books to school.
Nevertheless, I was prepared to give this training my all.
Even if I had to push past my limits.
I managed to complete twenty laps in total, before I became too exhausted to continue.
Astress walked over towards me and with a displeased look on her face ordered me to look at her.
"You disappoint me, rookie. I expected more from you, after My Lady had such high hopes for you."
"I-I'm…s-sorry."
I expected her to keep digging at me, but instead she told me:
"Perhaps it was wrong of me to expect so much from you so soon. Take a short break and we will continue afterwards."
I walked towards the nearest wall and sat down against it.
In the meantime, Astress had gone to fetch some drinks and handed one of the glasses she was holding to me.
After I'd emptied mine, we picked up where we left off.
Astress walked over towards the box with wooden props and grabbed from it a similar sword I had used yesterday.
She chucked it at me and walked over towards the other corner of the room, where all the dummies were standing.
She grabbed one of them and placed it at the centre of the court.
"First, take on a proper stance. Kia taught you how to do so yesterday, right? Next, aim for this dummy's head and swing."
"Is that all?"
A frustrated sigh left her lips.
"I would refrain from making such rash comments after failing the warm-up, lest you actually would want me to make it harder."
There was a tone of anger hidden inside her voice, making it clear she was having none of my commentary.
I took on the stance Kia had taught me and held my sword in front of me.
Astress then counted down and once she said 'go', I swung my blade at the dummy.
Now, both the sword and dummy are made of a sturdy type of wood called Alwood.
Apparently it's quite hard to come by, which makes it even more understandable why Kia's family is using it.
Of course, they use this to reduce the risk of either object breaking during practice.
However, this can also be a downside - as I found out the hard way.
Because when I struck the dummy clean on its head, my sword immediately stopped moving and the collision's energy got absorbed entirely by my arms.
Honestly, it felt like they both broke into a million pieces at that exact moment.
I instinctively let go of the blade and fell to the ground in agony.
"Ah, yes. This tends to happen to those who are not used to it."
Astress then quickly ordered me to stand up and repeat that painful process for an undisclosed amount of time.
Of course, I was against it at first, but her authority was absolute here.
I struck the dummy again and again, trying to ignore the pain it induced.
Before long, my arms were spasming, and I couldn't feel anything inside my hands.
Even something as simple as picking up the sword became a gruelling task.
And when I'd grabbed it, the spasms would sometimes make me drop it, making me have to try to pick it up again.
Suffice to say, I was overjoyed when Astress called it quits for today.
"I believe this to be a good time for us to end our training for the day. I would not wish for you to overexert yourself – mainly for my sake, of course."
I was catching my breath still, so I couldn't respond to her proposal – and snide remark.
A mere nod was all I could muster out of my exhausted body.
She took the sword from me and put it back inside the box she grabbed it from.
Surprisingly, after she put it back, she said:
"You did well, for your first day of training that is. Keep this up and who knows where you will be after a few weeks."
"T-Thank you!"
The following month, Astress kept beating me in shape with her harsh training exercises.
As I quickly came to realize, our first training session was but the tip of the iceberg of what she had in store for me.
Besides 'training' my swinging technique, she also taught me how to guard and improve my footwork.
You can imagine how all that went at first.
Day in, day out, it felt like my body was at the verge of breaking.
All the running, swinging, guarding, and whatnot I had to do, it was enough to give me nightmares.
Kia would visit us on occasion and ask how it went, to which Astress would always respond: "Splendidly."
Maybe for you, but meanwhile I'm dying over here.
Anyway, I noticed some small improvements in my technique over time.
I was still nowhere near where I needed to be, but at least I got a reasonable understanding of the basics of sword fighting - or so I thought.
It was at that time that Astress told me we would be using real weaponry from now on.
Not surprisingly, I was quite shocked when she did.
"During the last month, I taught you the basics of The Way of the Sword. While your capabilities have improved fairly since we started – thanks to me, of course – it is also important to know how to apply these traits in real combat. Thus, I believe this to be a good time to get you acquainted with more unfamiliar weapons. Wielding a weapon that suits your specific needs is just as important as knowing how to wield it."
"And why can't we do that with wooden weapons?"
With a somewhat devilish smile, she responded:
"I thought it would motivate you, or are you perhaps too scared?"
I swear, once I'm at the same level she is, she's SO going to get it.
Once she was done teasing me, she walked over to one of the walls with weapons on it.
She glanced over the displayed weaponry and picked a silver longsword, which she then handed to me.
"Firstly, let's get you used to the weapon by doing a few practice swings."
I did what I was told and swung the sword around a few times.
Despite it being a proper blade, it weighed less than I anticipated.
It wasn't too difficult to use, but something about it did not sit well with me.
From the corner of my eyes, I could see Astress grab a similar blade from the wall and turn towards me.
"Now that you have gotten somewhat familiar with the blade, we shall have a duel."
"Pardon?! A duel, you say?"
"Have you already forgotten what I said earlier?"
"No, but I was under the impression you would let me fight someone who's…more at my level."
She let out a heavy, exaggerated sigh.
"This is no silly fight to the death. Instead, I merely wish to observe your use of your weapon in a more realistic scenario. Now, come."
We entered the court and moved to our respective side.
There, I waited for Astress to give me the go.
After seeing her fight against Kia, the image of her wielding a sword almost seemed unnatural to me.
She noticed me looking at her and inquired about it.
"May I ask why you are staring so heavily at me?"
"Oh, I was just surprised to see how you wield that sword. I mean, you fought so well against Kia without one."
"Let me repeat myself once again. All workers of the Diablo family are trained to use any weapon, wherever, whenever. Also, that I use my bare hands, does not mean that I cannot wield a sword. I simply find it more practical, that is all. Now, focus."
She counted down and once she reached zero, I immediately dashed towards her.
I swung my blade at her, but she simply evaded it.
Next, I aimed for her legs, but she jumped over my sword with the greatest of ease.
"Seriously. Is this all you got? Even an infant would do better than you."
I knew she was trying to agitate me, hoping that I would lose my composure.
This was probably another reason why she wanted us to duel.
Besides all the physical aspects of combat, the way you carry yourself mentally is just as important.
Getting too cocky or upset is among the more common reasons why somebody loses.
Having said that, there was currently little I could do.
I knew just how big the power gap was between her and myself.
If I wanted to win, I needed to surprise her.
Of course, this is easier said than done.
For three minutes, I tried to apply everything I'd learned this last month into my fighting, yet she evaded all of my attacks with little effort.
Once I launched my final attack, she parried and disarmed me.
She then pointed her sword at me and claimed:
"I have seen enough. You and this sword are not compatible. Let us move to the next weapon."
We repeated this same routine for five hours straight, for three consecutive days.
Swords, knives, spears, axes, basically everything you could imagine, I tried out at least once.
And somehow, I wasn't compatible with any of them.
At least, if I had to believe Astress.
"This is quite worrying. When I decided to make you train with real weaponry, I did not anticipate you being so inept at using them. I would almost suspect you were doing this on purpose."
She followed her short tirade by exhaling a loud, painful sigh.
The silence that followed was almost more painful than the words she'd spoken just before.
I didn't want to say anything, in case it would irritate her even more.
"It pains me to say this, but we will have to switch over to Plan B."
From underneath her skirt, she pulled out a small, leather pouch.
Inside, the jingling of coins could clearly be heard.
Where exactly she was hiding that thing and how, I didn't know and didn't want to ask.
She chucked the pouch at me and said:
"West from this palace, there is a blacksmith called: Dionys. Take this money with you and see if he can supply you with a fitting weapon."
"Are you sure I can have this?"
She narrowed her eyes and straightened her lips.
"Do not for a moment think I am doing this out of goodwill. I am merely putting my faith in the possibility that this will help quicken your training, thus wasting less of my time. Just make sure not to spend it all, will you? Even my generosity has its limits."
Of course, she would say something like that.
Before I headed into town, Astress quickly explained to me where I could find the blacksmith.
Even with her help, it was still a challenge to find.
It was a small building made out of dark-grey bricks, located at a more remote area in town.
It had tiny, dark-stained windows and a tall chimney sticking out of the roof.
Above the entrance hung a wooden sign labelled: "Dionys's Armaments."
Before I even entered the building, I could already feel the immense heat coming from within.
I made my way through the front door, when the heat I'd been feeling intensified even more.
It was as if I walked into a blazing oven.
In the far left corner of the building stood the source of this warmth, a massive furnace spitting out human-sized flames.
In front of the furnace stood an elongated metal anvil, with a wooden bucket sitting right beside it. Right now, the anvil was being used by a tall and muscular man.
Apart from his shorts, he only wore a leather apron and some sandals.
In his right hand, he held a small metal hammer, which he slammed repeatedly on the heated sword resting on the anvil.
Every slam – every swing – was followed by a melodic clang, before it got interrupted by the next impact of the hammer.
To my right stood several tables, displaying a wide variety of weapons.
Swords, axes, and even bows.
Their designs were quite unique compared to all the other weapons I had seen before - even the ones at the castle.
One of them immediately caught my eye.
The weapon in question was placed on top of a wooden box, making it stick out above all the others on the same table.
Although the sword's length was nothing to write home about, it was the material that had been used to create it that interested me the most.
The blade was actually completely see-through, making it look like it was made out of glass.
I found myself getting entranced by it, to the point where I forgot everything that was happening around me.
Suddenly, a deep and gruff voice asked me:
"Say, are ya just gonna stand there, or are you actually gonna buy somethin'?"
When I turned around, I saw that the blacksmith had left his post and was standing right behind me.
I felt like an ant standing in front of a giant.
Besides his ridiculous length, most of his other features became a lot clearer as well.
His arms and legs were triple, maybe quadruple the size of mine and his shoulders were so broad, it almost made his head look tiny in comparison.
Across his left cheek ran a giant scar, crossing his mouth and stopping just barely above his chin.
Part of his right ear was missing, and a few of his naked fingers were wrapped in bandages.
"What are you doin' here, son?"
The trembling of my lips and the shaking of my limbs were almost uncontainable.
It was an easy question to answer, but the words didn't want to come out.
Possessed by fear, I hastily uttered:
"I was sent here to buy a weapon."
"And who sent you here?"
I handed him the envelope that I was carrying, closed with a sigil of the royal family.
Right before I set out to go here, Astress quickly went and wrote a letter addressed to Dionys's.
This was to disrupt any concerns he might have towards me, and make my time here less difficult.
Although, once again, Astress phrased it like it would mainly save her a lot of trouble, instead of me.
He carefully read the letter, and once finished, put it in his pocket.
"So, Astress sent you here?I see. Well, you're at the right place. Dionys's Armaments sells the best-crafted weapons for the best price, across all of Elysium."
He let out an overexaggerated laugh to further support his claims.
"Any idea what weapon you'd want?"
"Well, actually, there is one which caught my eye."
I then pointed to the translucent blade at the back table.
The smith started rubbing his chin and made a questioning hum.
"That blade, it was crafted with a very rare mineral called Ethereal Stone. Took me years to get my hands on an appropriate amount. I'd be happy to sell it, but only for a high price."
"What price are we talking about?"
"One hundred Auri."
I was flabbergasted when I heard that amount.
You might be wondering why, so let me give you a quick explanation.
Fira has three main currencies, called:
Aeri, Argenti, and Auri.
One Argenti is worth one hundred Aeri and one Auri is worth one hundred Argenti.
There is technically a fourth one called Iaspi, which are worth one hundred Auri, but they are so rare to come by that nobody uses them as a currency – which is kind of ironic when you think about it.
Now, prices are almost always shown in Aeri, even if they can be converted to either Argenti or Auri.
And because Aeri are the most common currency to come by, it is often labelled: "The Poor Man's Coin".
One Auri would basically get you anything you wanted in this world.
Hopefully this shows how valuable Argenti and, especially, Auri are.
"Do you mind if I try it out first?"
The smith shook his head and grabbed the blade for me.
I carefully took it from him and made a few practice swings.
The blade itself was very lightweight, and the grip fitted my hands perfectly.
The more I swung it, the more it felt like I was swinging an extension of myself.
Moving it around felt so natural and so effortlessly, almost like it was second-nature.
Also, and this may sound a bit far-fetched, it felt as if this blade was made for me.
I don't really know how to explain it.
Kind of like a gut feeling telling me this was meant to be.
"And?"
"This sword is perfect. It's so well crafted, I almost cannot believe that it's real."
The smith let out a happy grunt.
"You flatter me too much, lad. Tell ya what, you may have it for a discount."
"Are you sure?"
"Well, I still owe the Diablo family for some things, shall we say."
He let out a nervous chuckle right as he said this.
After I paid him, he took the blade from me and put it inside a marvellous wooden box.
The box was a beautiful dark-brown and had gorgeous motives engraved on each of its sides.
The inside was decorated with red velvet, probably to serve as a cushion for the blade.
"May you enjoy your purchase."
When I walked back to the castle, I got the strange sensation that I was being followed.
I turned around to check, when I found a big, muscular man standing right behind me.
Behind him stood a group of six shady-looking men, all dressed in stained and ragged clothing.
The man in front wasn't as tall as Dionys, but he was still about two heads taller than me.
"Nice box you got there. Mind if we take it from ya?"
His mouth curled into a creepy smile, as he looked intimidating at me.
I clenched the box in my hands, not knowing what to do.
Are these guys trying to rob me?
I quickly tried to think of a way out, but my mind did not want to cooperate with me.
All it could think of was screaming for help, but there was no one nearby?
Seeing my initial reaction, the other men started making fun of me.
"Now hand it over, unless you want to get hurt."
Out of instinct, I turned around and ran back towards the castle as fast as I could.
Holding tightly onto the wooden box, I tried to manoeuvre myself through the small streets and alleyways.
I could hear the men closing in on me, but I tried not to focus on them.
I then noticed a small alleyway beside the main road I was running on and went there.
But what I didn't know was that this alleyway led to a dead-end.
And when I turned around, the big man and his gang had already cornered me.
"You've got nowhere left to run, boy. Now, don't lemme repeat myself and hand over that box ya go there."
Shit!
What was I going to do now?
I was completely trapped and there was no sign these guys were going to leave me unharmed.
Which gave me only one option really.
I opened the box and grabbed the Ethereal Sword that was inside it.
"An Ethereal Blade? Surely that'll fetch a high price on the black market. May I ask, how much ya spend to get that pretty fella?"
"That's none of your business!"
I then spread my legs and took on the stance I'd practiced with Astress.
With steady breaths, I focused all my attention on the bandits in front of me.
Their leader looked somewhat dissatisfied at me and ordered one of his lackeys to steal the blade from me.
"Waltz, fetch me that blade, will ya?"
"Yes, boss."
The man didn't need to think twice, or he was already running straight at me.
From behind his back, he revealed a curly dagger. He violently swung the dagger at me, but I was able to parry it just in time.
I could definitely tell that, despite his skinny appearance, he was pretty strong.
For a while, I managed to evade and parry all of his attacks.
The man seemed annoyed that he wasn't able to land a hit on me and so, he did a little jump backwards.
"May you drown me in the light of day and bestow upon me thine graceful warmth, oh Father of the Flame. FLASH FIRE!"
In front of the man, a small orange flame appeared. However, once I looked closer at it, the flame turned into a bright white light.
Blinded by it, I dropped my sword in a panic.
I tried to find my bearings, but was then met with a sharp burning pain coursing through my side. Instinctively, I put my hand to it, when it came in contact with something warm and wet.
Now that I say that, my entire side felt like it was drenched in a sticky substance.
When I opened my eyes and was able to see again, I discovered the horrible truth.
During the time I couldn't see, the man had stabbed me in the side.
Me discovering this was accompanied by a horrible burning pain shooting through my body, as my brain finally caught up with reality.
I started to feel dizzy, and before I knew it, I fell to my knees and onto the ground.
The skinny man picked up my sword and handed it to his boss.
"Good job, Waltz."
The skinny man responded with an annoyed grunt, likely because it had cost him more effort to beat me than he'd expected.
I wanted to stand up, run towards them, and take back my blade, but the pain and blood loss kept me anchored to the ground.
Besides that, I also slowly started to lose consciousness.
The world around me was spinning and became less clear with each passing second.
"Shouldn't we finish him off, boss?"
Their leader then looked questionably at me and answered:
"It'd be a real pain if he snitched on us, so I guess we'd better. Noll, the honour's yours."
"With pleasure."
The man named Noll walked slowly towards me.
From behind his back, he grabbed a short, curved sword, almost like a sickle.
His mouth turned into a broad smile, revealing the rotted, yellow teeth behind it.
"Any last words?"
I closed my eyes and said nothing.
There was no point, after all.
Next, he raised his arm, ready to kill me.
But instead of that, an awful scream pierced through the air, followed by a muffled thud.
When I opened my eyes, Noll had lost his entire right arm, which rested motionless on the ground beside him.
Blood was gushing out of the wound like a waterfall, colouring half his clothes a deep, dark red.
It didn't take long before the man lost consciousness and fell dead towards the ground.
Behind the bandit, another figure appeared, dressed in black and grey clothing.
Although his appearance was quite menacing, it was also familiar.
"Reath?" I mumbled.
In his hands, he was holding onto two curved daggers.
"Just stay there and cover the wound, alright?"
He then turned back around to face the other remaining bandits.
"You'll pay dearly for harming one of my mates!"
"You stole something from a friend of mine, so I came here to get it back. Now, we can either settle this the peaceful way or the difficult way. The choice is yours."
The man stared angrily towards Reath.
The look he gave him showed he was about to unleash in a fit of rage.
All the men behind him had drawn their weapons, awaiting their boss's next order – with visible impatience.
They wanted to avenge their fallen comrade as much as he did, however, it was pretty obvious Reath's power was too big for only one of them to handle.
Gnashing his teeth, to the point even I could hear them scrape against one another, the boss shouted:
"You've got a serious death wish, to think ya can beat all of us at once. Lemme show you how wrong you are. Guys, kill him!"
From under his breath, Reath couldn't leave it to whisper:
"Well, your funeral, I suppose."
Two of the bandits made their way towards him, daggers equipped in both their hands.
They tried to throw him off by quickly switching positions with each other.
Reath didn't move a muscle and instead carefully analysed his opponents' behaviours.
Once they were a mere two meters away from him, the one on the right aimed his weapon at Reath's lower body while the other went for his torso instead.
In a flash, Reath moved past the two and slit their throats wide open.
He then threw a quick glance at me and yelled:
"Whatever you do, keep your mouth shut."
The bandits stared in horror at the man who had killed two more of their friends.
Anger painted their faces, while fear rooted them at their position.
Before the leader could calm himself and his allies down, Reath shouted:
"May my world be drowned in Eternal Night! FOULSMOKE!"
From the palm of his hands, large clouds of black smoke emerged and filled the entire alleyway.
[Flamewielder Skill: Foulsmoke | Description: The user conjures up a flame inside the palm of their hands to veil themselves and their surroundings with smoke. The smoke itself is mildly toxic and can cause paralysis upon inhalation | Tier: Level 3 ]
I couldn't see a thing, yet I could hear the clashing of steel and the screams of people in the distance.
"Cut him down, you dimwits!"
"Where the hell is he?"
"Run away!"
In total, I don't think it lasted even a minute before the smoke dissipated again.
However, what emerged from behind it made my stomach turn upside down.
Countless lifeless bodies, sliced to pieces, covered the road in front of me.
The walls of the alleyway had turned completely red and the stench that filled the air could only be described as revolting.
Between all the carnage stood Reath, who knelt down to grab something off the floor.
Unfortunately, I didn't see what it was, because I lost consciousness before I was able to.