-----------------------------------

“Now that we are settled, Bhalrom, let’s continue. Please inform the room what the search party has discovered” Said the king while adjusting himself on his throne.

Bhalrom bowed in reverence to the king’s request and stepped forward to start his report.

“Our search party found their tracks by the plains, the enemy followed a straight line on foot to the hills to the north. We then found fresh horse tracks there, they must have more people waiting. They continued heading north and then northeast, following the mountain range. Our scouts lost their tracks at the Deadwind pass” Spoke Bhalrom without changing tone, the room commotion began as they heard the name Deadwind.

Riou looked around but he couldn’t understand their uneasiness. All he could make of the subject was that the location was somehow important. Curious, he asked Bhalrom.

“What is this Deadwind?”

Bhalrom addressed Riou’s question with the same tone. “The Deadwind passage is a mountain path, long ago there used to be an old mine in the heart of the mountains. That was the only access path to it. The mine was closed about 100 years ago when one of the main tunnels collapsed.” Explained Bhalrom.

“Seems rather normal to me” He said, not understanding the reason for commotion.

“It is, but over the years there were stories of people that went missing in the region, especially those who went investigating the mine. Not only that, there were also reports of sightings of monsters and strange beings near the mine. But to this day we never found evidence of monsters, nor bodies of those who vanished there” Said Bhalrom to the boy.

Riou pondered on the words of the knight “The mine could be a hideout… Well, it’s a good place to start looking”

“When will we depart to investigate the mine?” Asked Riou to the surprise of the court, as he made clear his intentions to accompany them.

Everyone was surprised by the boy’s eagerness to join the action. All but of the king, Bhalrom and the Princess. They were already understanding a bit more about his resolve and especially his impulsiveness was something they’d expected by now.

The king was the first to speak “We don’t know how many enemies might be waiting for us in there, if any. So I’d like to send our best men and mages just in case..” Said the king looking towards Bhalrom and then switching to the court mages.

Bhalrom Stepped forward kneeling towards the king, with respect and reverence he answered “The First Army will be ready my King.”

The court mages followed the knight’s actions and removed their hoods, the first mage was a woman. She seemed to be nearing her 35, but Riou felt she was older than that. She had long black hair in raven lock styles and an unnatural beauty to her face, her eyes were green as emeralds and she ported herself very elegantly, her stance clearly passed a sense of grandiosity and importance.

“I Ursula Eilidh, in the name of the court Magicians affirm that we will be ready as well my lord”

She seemed too young to be the head mage of the court, and that name, Riou felt as he heard that before.

The king nodded and continued “You have 3 days to prepare, I will be expecting good news upon your return.”

---------------------------------------Right after the meeting in the throne room

Kasius entered his father's study room with some bandages up his nose “Did you summon me father?” Said the prince observing the king standing behind his desk looking outside the window.

“Yes, sit down” the king turned and walked in his direction.

“If this is because what happened earlier… it was all that boy’s fault, he…”

“Silence!” shouted the king. “Not a word from you… you will listen, very carefully.” he was really trying to hold back his anger while talking to his son.

“We had already talked about this… I told you to change your ways, but you are just too stubborn, you don’t seem to listen. Have you learned nothing these past years while in the army? Commanding the man? You can’t be the fool in the center of the stage if you ever wish to be a king! A king must first rule himself so that he can rule others!”

Elrik took a deep breath calming down “But you were always like this, even with the other kids, your sister and now that boy. You reduce and ridicule everyone that stands out more than you... I hope you realize that you almost got yourself killed because of that!”

“But father you must understand, that boy…”

“I said, not a word!” Shouted the king once more to silence the prince, Kasius remained silent with a frown looking down.

“Do you even understand that? Or even now you are trying to blame something else than yourself? Take responsibility for your actions once in your life, be a man! Or it was not you who challenged him? If I were him and you said those words to me in front of the king, I’d have washed the floor with your blood!”

Kasius remained silent.

The king paused, taking a deep breath.

“You acted as an ignorant fool, what were your intentions with that? For the elements! You even saw your sister dueling with him. But you didn’t even notice, did you? “ The king nodded a couple times, understanding his son’s thoughts.

“You truly believed that he was weaker than her... and because you think you are superior to your sister, that would mean he’d also be weaker than you. Am I right? That’s why you put him up to that little show of yours so confidently. It had nothing to do with truth or the boy’s words. He was just being the center of attention and you couldn’t stand that” Said the king as the anger turned into disappointment.

“That’s what you wanted, didn’t you?”

The prince remained silent.

“Unbelievable… Kasius, you are too old to be still acting as a spoiled child. It’s past the time for you to grow up” said the king standing up once again.

Kasius leaned forward to speak, but contained himself as he saw the look on his father’s face.

“You will have to become a man before you can become a King” Said Elrik finally calming down “You are clearly far from ready”

“But father! I”

The king raised his hand for Kasius to stop talking “I expect changes from now on. I don’t want to hear any more excuses from you, you will learn to take responsibility for all your actions” Said the king, looking into the prince’s eyes.

“You will start your sword training from the beginning. Bhalrom will be the one choosing your teachers this time… those fancy duelists you wanted clearly didn’t do a good job with you.”

The king stood up and went to his desk “Remember, you brought this to yourself… While you regain everyone’s trust, you will be removed from command of the second until I deem you worthy of such title.”

“But… I’m still the one in line for the throne, right?”

“We will see about that once I see some improvement” Said the prince’s father very seriously.

The prince was completely shocked, he wanted to refute his father, but the king didn’t give him any margin for contestation.

“Now go, you have a lot to think about.”

The prince was taken aback, he was not expecting such harsh words from his father. He quickly stood up and left the room with a frown face and a heavy heart.

The king sighed as he sat down in his chair. He couldn’t help but blame himself. “I should have watched him more closely… been more firm with him… now I can only pray to the elements to guide him, perhaps it's not too late, maybe there is still time to put some sense into that thick head of his”

--------------------

Bhalrom was walking accompanied by Riou as they had just left the throne room. The boy joined the knight for a quick chat.

“So Bhalrom, do you really think their hideout could be in this mine? Isn’t the enemy too smart to lead us to their place like that, I mean, they managed to jump all the way down from that window… they definitely could avoid that, don’t you think?” Asked Riou

“Indeed, but this is the only lead we have at the moment, we will investigate with force and caution, that way even if it’s a trap or a false lead, we won’t be surprised.”

Riou nodded, all he needed was to capture an enemy alive.

“Say Boy, why a bath house?” Asked the knight trying to understand the boy’s motives.

“You don’t like bath houses Bhalrom?” He asked back inquisitively.

“It’s not that I like or dislike… you had a singular opportunity, a once in a lifetime deal. You could have asked for anything from a king. Riches, lands… even marriage into royalty was on the table. But you chose a simple bath house?” Explained Bhalrom trying to make sense of it. “And another thing, you were wise in sparing the prince”

Riou smiled “It’s not wise to kill the son of a king inside his own castle, even less in front of his own mother” said the boy before continuing.

“To be honest with you Bhalrom, anything I’d ask from that situation would only further increase hostilities towards me. Besides, I don’t really plan to stick around for that long to enjoy any of those riches and lands that I could have asked for… and let’s not even mention marriage, that was never on the table.”

Bhalrom smiled “If you say so, but I saw how you two looked to each other, I never saw the princess like that before, you must really made an impression on her”

Riou smiled with an unexpectedly happy surprise “What? Really? You think so?”

But he then shook his head and continued “No, no, in the end of the day nothing but problems would come from anything that I could ask. And besides that, this is not a moment for internal strife, the enemy is too near for the attention to be dispersed because of that” Said the boy in a serious tone.

Riou smiled “Not to mention that it was a good chance to get into the king’s good side. Showing such restraint will undoubtedly make the king feel indebted to me.And in the end, I got what I wanted, participation on this investigation”

Bhalrom pondered for a moment and agreed, it indeed could have caused quite a commotion if the boy had become a lord.

But still, to pass up such an opportunity wasn’t normal. Anyone in his position would have taken the chance to increase his status and wealth by a great margin. The knight could not believe that someone like him, that did not even own the clothes he is wearing, would gladly throw away such a chance.

The Knight’s view on the boy increased once more “This fellow showed a great consideration for the King and the kingdom in a time of need, that bathhouse was just an empty gesture to fulfill the law, it’s truly admirable to see such a strong sense of honor and resolve in someone so young.”

Suddenly Riou asked “Hey Bhalrom, who is the knight who holds the yellow banner?”

“Rodrick? He is the lord in charge of Siscia, the harbor city to the south, near the Magic academy” replied the knight.

“Harbor city you say… does it have many trade routes and connections to the other kingdoms?”

“Certainly, few dare to cross the land with supplies these days… monsters and bandits are everywhere, so it’s the main trade connection to the Beastman and the north.”

Riou began to think about the possibilities “I’m not sure if he is a spy from Argos but those reactions in the corridor and in the throne room just now… he is definitely up to something.”

“Who are the other lords?” inquired further the boy

The red banner is Lord Copperford, he rules the city of Brigantium to the east, the blue banner of Lord Rayne from Lentie to the west. “ Bhalrom pause for a moment, contempt could be seen and felt through the knight’s expression and tone “and the green banner is from Iris, ruled by Lord Rottcher, to the southwest of here”

Riou heard from Max, Iris had a bad reputation of its own and the lawful Bhalrom could not stand it, even mentioning the city was enough to bring down his mood.

Riou needed to think what to do next, so he went to his room to rest and think about all that was going on.

---------------

In the room, he leaned against the wall and was looking through the window at the distance, his window was just above the walls height and allowed him a great view. It was still the middle of the afternoon and the sun was shining brightly.

“Well… it’s been almost a week since we visited the blacksmith… I should stop by tomorrow to see how the weapons are going… it will be a good way to pass the time while I wait. And since I will be in the city, I could stop by Syldis’ tavern. Maybe have some lunch there” Sighed the boy thinking it would be three long days so he could continue the investigations.

“Perhaps I should go on my own? Seemed pretty easy to follow the tracks, and fighting Albert was not as difficult as I anticipated. To be honest, it was unexpectedly easy. The hard part was to find him”

He shook his head “I’m not a tracker, and I only won because the dome trap didn’t work on me. If I didn’t have magic things could have gone differently. If I go alone I might never find the correct entrance if there were more than one… and I’m not in the mood to get lost in the woods again. I had enough of that for a lifetime.” Before Riou could continue he heard some knocks on the door.

*Knock*, *Knock*

“Come in, the door is open” Said Riou from the window.

The door opened and a small figure with red hair entered the room, Lilly dressed in her training gear.

Intrigued, Riou looked towards her and waited for her to speak.

“Do you have a moment?” Asked the mage in a serious tone.

“Sure”

“First I’d like to thank you for helping with the castle defenses… you did a great job against the dark mages” Her tone was clearly forced for the second part. But before he could say anything, she continued.

“Too good to be true… so, I’d like you to join me in a training session today, so we could discuss… and perhaps you could show me how you did it.”

A hint of distrust could be felt in the Mage’s voice, Riou noticed that she doubted the story and was rather suspicious about him.

“No wonder why she is like this, her ego must be hurt after what happened” Riou nodded “If that will make you feel better… sure, I’d gladly join you” Said the boy smiling to the mage.

Lily's eyes twitched, he definitely hit a nerve.

“Get ready and meet me in the training hall” She quickly turned around and began to leave the room. She stopped and in a more calm manner she said without turning to the boy “I also wanted to thank you for sparing the prince’s life today… he is a good person and is just trying to help his father” and she left without waiting for a response.

He was surprised “That was unexpected”

Riou then looked around the room, “She said prepare… but I don’t have much to prepare with… I really should get some gear tomorrow, I will use this spare time to buy some stuff, maybe Syldis can borrow me some money that Max gave her.”

So he put his commoner clothes once again and directed himself towards the training hall.

Arriving at the place, the door was already opened so Riou walked inside.

He saw the red Mage and the princess very close to each other. He sensed a tense atmosphere and unintelligible sounds of conversation “are they arguing?” Thought the boy as they distanced in silence when he entered the hall.

“Am I interrupting something?” He said trying to read the mood.

“It’s nothing… the princess decided to join us in our training sessions, that’s all.” Said the little Mage. “Shall we begin?” Said Lilly moving towards the center of the hall and waiting for the boy to do the same “I’d like you to tell me, how exactly did you win that fight?”

Riou noticed that the princess was in a bad mood.

“Well, it’s not that I don’t know any magic, I know a trick or two… can’t we just agree I was lucky?” he said to the mage.

“No one can win against a high tiered mage with luck alone… so should I assume you learned from Maximilian himself these tricks of yours?” Asked the prying mage, clearly not convinced.

“It’s not wrong to assume it, he was indeed the one who taught me how to use magic in the first place” Said the boy with an enigmatic grin on his face.

“So you want me to believe that in the course of a month you were able to learn from Maximilian how to defend yourself from Lightning magic?” Pouted the little mage in an angry manner.

Riou smiled broadly and chuckled at the sight of the small angry mage. “It does sound bad when you put it like that, doesn’t it? Well, let’s do this then, shoot some lightning and I will show you what I did it” said the boy, meaning his words.

Lilly promptly answered “That’s a real good idea!” with a very happy tone while looking at the princess “See? I didn’t even have to ask… he proposed it himself! You can’t complain now can you?”

Her piercing eyes were looking straight at Lilly “What do you intend to prove by shooting a lightning bolt at him? Do you want to kill him? What if it doesn’t work this time? What if it was indeed some strike of luck? You still would put him through such a risk?” Said the princess with a serious voice to the mage.

“You heard it yourself, he offered it gladly, you can’t blame me for accepting it now” Answered Lilly.

“Have you lost your mind? Don’t you see how dangerous this is?” Refuted the princess.

Riou decided to step in “It’s fine… she is just curious, so if I show her, it’s quicker than to try to explain it” Riou took some distance from the red haired mage and he looked to Eileen “Would you say I was about this distance from that mage?” Asked the boy.

“I believe he was still further away…” Answered the princess, not convinced. She was not fine with that demonstration.

Riou intentionally asked the princess so she could reassure Lilly of the events that she did not witness. He gave a couple steps back, enough distance to still give him the edge on a fight against a mage.

“Don’t forget to chant… and no need to hold back” Said the smiling boy to the mage “She is too young to have been in many fights. The fact she was taken out in one hit proves it as well. I wonder how she will fare under true pressure”

“As you wish, I will not hold back,” said Lilly maliciously.

“Princess… please say when we should start” he took poise for the fight.

The princess looked at both of them, she was not in agreement to that duel, but since Riou seemed confident enough, she decided to go with it.

“Begin!” Shouted the princess.

Lilly smiled and began to chant her lightning magic pointing her palm to the boy, but her smile didn’t last long.

The boy was approaching too fast, she began to doubt that her chant would have time to finish before he could reach her.

Lilly was young and fresh out the Academy. And despite her field of expertise and great skill on destruction magic, she only dueled between friends and teachers so far.

So she made a crucial mistake when she crossed eyes with the boy. Those dark blue eyes were wide open, emotionless and mercilessly gauging her up as he quickly approached, like a beast ready to devour its prey.

There was no doubt in her mind that Riou was going for the kill, with malice and intent to cause harm, she could feel it through his eyes.

It was the first time she felt such bloodlust from an enemy, that strange pressure terrified her very soul triggering her defenses mechanisms, she felt the urge to flee.

That sentiment of impending doom filled her mind that could not focus on the words anymore. Despite her training to cast spells under pressure it was not working now.

Before she could realize it, her voice was stuttering.

It lasted but a few seconds, enough to allow him to reach her. He quickly grabbed her arm and held it up while stopping his right hand right by her stomach.

Everything ceased in an instant and only his smiling face could be seen right in front of the mage.

Lilly was still recovering from the mental shock she suffered, her eyes lost focus and her mind was momentarily blank as the situation changed completely.

As Riou released her arm and her knees gave up, she fell to the ground sitting on her legs gazing into nothingness for a moment.

Eileen watched the duel carefully, but she could only see that Lilly panicked at the sight of him approaching. She couldn’t understand why, it was not like her to do it.

“Lilly! What happened?” She asked the mage and looked at Riou.

“I barely touched her.” Said the boy realizing that he might have exaggerated a bit.

Listening to the princess Lilly began to recover her senses.

“I’m fine… I was just caught off guard, I just need a moment” Said the Mage getting up with Eileen’s help. Both walked towards one of the pillars so she could sit down with her back leaned on it.

Her mind began to process what happened to her “What was that?” Lilly asked, honestly wanting to know what happened, looking into his eyes once again. She couldn’t believe it was the same person who rushed towards her.

Riou sighed and scratched his head “How to put it, some cultures would call it killing intent. When you focus your mind on the kill, some fighters can destabilize ranged attackers with it to gain the time to approach and strike. That’s the theory at least” Explained the boy. He was not lying, but he did not expect it to be so effective at a first try.

“Maybe my mana did something on its own? Damn, I should have tried this before, could this be a spell? Or a Skill? Max didn’t explain that much yet, I don’t know if mana can activate on its own or not” Riou pondered for a moment.

Lilly looked puzzled, she turned to Eileen waiting for her explanation on the topic… clearly the mage has never heard of it before.

Eileen pondered for a bit “Well, I heard about it, but aside from the beastman, I never heard of anyone who could use it” she said looking at the boy.

“Is that so?” Said Riou thinking on all the films, mangas and animes that used the topic quite widely.

Eileen stepped away and grabbed two 2 wooden swords.

She took position and tossed one of them to Riou that grabbed it effortlessly.

“Show me.”

Riou shrugged and stretched his neck and right arm, getting ready for a sword demonstration.

“You know the effects are better on opponents that are not used to close combat, right?” he said, taking position a few steps away from the princess. “Maybe I should tone it down a bit, restrain the mana flow just in case.”

She nodded, her face was dead serious. She intended to measure his abilities to the best she could.

Riou looked down and took a deep breath, preparing his mind to it.

The princess readied herself.

He looked up and their eyes instantly met.

The princess had been in many duels so far, she was no stranger to the heat of battle… but that was something else entirely.

The impression she had was that the boy was someone else. Cold, emotionless eyes of a killer.

She felt like a mouse, being stared down by the snake. Eileen began having difficulty to keep her breath in rhythm and her legs shook as if alerting her they would give up at any moment.

Her vision became cloudy and it was hard to maintain focus, it took but a moment and the boy advanced viciously with a horizontal slash, her reaction was delayed and she feared for her life.

Suddenly everything fell into focus, she knew she had to fight or she’d be dead.

Eileen trained all her life, the moment the wooden sword approached, her muscular memory kicked in. She managed to defend the slash that was aimed at her throat.

When the swords touched she realized that she could easily stop it.

Despite all the ferocious movements, intent and cold eyes behind it, the boy wasn’t even putting any power behind it. Completely holding back the strength of his swing, she was never in any danger.

Riou smiled and pulled back his sword “See, it’s not that effective” before he could continue and stop the duel. A sudden thrust came from the princess that aimed the sword tip at his chest.

It was Riou’s time to use his reflexes to defend himself.

Surprised he looked at the princess.

The Princess was serious, for days she wanted to see the boy fighting for real. The fact that he held back once more against her, triggered her anger. “Don’t hold back this time!” Said the princess in a serious tone.

“She wants to measure her abilities?” he thought and changed his mood to a more serious one. He brought the sword to his front holding it with one hand.

The princess attacked in a similar fashion that she did in their duel, but this time she was going for the kill from the very beginning. Every slash and thrust was deadly.

Riou once again was in the defensive position, but this time he was not having any difficulty to deflect or avoid any of her attacks, he was not being pushed back in the slightest.

He waited for an error on her part, but the Princess was cautious. She knew the boy would use any opportunity to counter as he did before.

Noticing that the princess wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice, he changed his tactics.

Eileen was on a relatively safe distance and swung widely aiming for his torso. The boy prepared to hit her sword in an angle and use the force of her movement to redirect her sword towards the ground, with enough force, she would be completely open to an attack.

Riou prepared his sword by holding it with both hands to intercept the incoming blow. The princess noticing the bad angle that the swords would clash quickly pulled it back without stopping the motion.

Just enough to avoid the boy’s sword. Now with the advantage, she used the continued movement into a thrust opportunity, the boy would have little time to react as she went for the attack above his guard.

Riou was caught off-guard and reacted instinctively, he stepped to the side at an uncanny speed, getting most of his body out of the way which allowed him time to bring his sword back up to help to deflect the following attack.

The swords clashed and Riou put great strength in it, the force of the impact and the pressure of the swords and its angle, put all the power against the top of her fingers. It was so strong that she loosened her grip and the sword flew away from her hand.

Riou pointed the sword to the unarmed princess, as if announcing his victory.

Lilly could not believe her eyes. It was the first time she saw the princess lose a duel.

Riou lowered the wooden sword while looking towards the princess in silence.

Eileen remained quiet.

She looked at her hand who was unable to hold the force of the impact. She then raised her head and nodded before going for the rack of weapons to grab another wooden sword.

She positioned herself once again in front of Riou.

“Again…” she said bluntly “but enough with the defense and counters… I want to see you attacking as well.” She said seriously.

The boy nodded as the atmosphere tensed up.

Riou rushed towards the princess with a diagonal slash from his upper right. The princess stepped back to avoid the attack and prepared a counter of her own. The boy’s attack hit nothing but air, his sword ended up in his left lower side.

And the princess by that time was already preparing a piercing attack in an attempt to get the boy off guard.

But to her surprise, as her attack advanced, the boy turned on his axis and managed to move to her side, spinning anti-clockwise bringing his sword to swing with the motion of the turn, aiming towards the princess neck.

It was an uncanny footwork that she had never seen or heard before.

She instinctively dived to the side to avoid the attack and quickly stepped away from the boy.

“She is good… I thought I got her with that one” he thought.

Riou walked towards the princess who readied herself, “let’s see how you deal with this” Said the boy advancing with intent. His aim was to approach her to give her no space to escape or to swing freely at him. She tried to maintain the distance, but the boy did not allow it, he was much quicker than her.

Swinging against her and forcing her to defend from his attacks, he shortened the distance between them even more until they were pushing each other's swords near their bodies and faces.

Riou entangled his sword with hers and began pushing hers to the side, trying to get his blade to the inside angle of her defense and towards her body.

Noticing his intentions she quickly moved out of the fray before he could act, she desperately tried to get to a safer distance.

Riou smiling having a good time “You sure know what you are doing, your brother fell for far less elaborated techniques”

But the princess was serious, his carefree attitude was a bad sign for her, she squinted her eyes at him “Are you still holding back?” her tone was too serious, almost as if he was insulting her.

Riou was confused “I thought you wanted to try your abilities, isn’t what this is all about?”

“No!” She replied surly. “I already told you, do not hold back at all, I want to see how it is when you are fighting seriously”

Riou had an unsure expression on his face “I don’t see how this could be helpful in any way, maybe we should stop here”

She shook her head “No! I want to fight you for real!” she said, truly wanting to measure the boy’s true skill against hers.

Riou looked at her and kinda understood her feelings, but something back on his mind told him it was a bad idea.

He sighed “I will surely regret this… won’t I?”

“Come! Fight me!” Said Eileen urging him to proceed.

Riou took a deep breath and unwillingly prepared himself.

------------------------ Eileen perspective.

The princess was able to avoid his attacks so far but deep down she felt like he was not fighting for real. He was just putting pressure and playing around which only served to show his superiority in the sword fight.

And she needed to know how big the gap between them really was.

So she enticed the boy to show his true skills, and challenged him to a real fight. That would certainly allow her to measure her skill against his and finally answer the question she was asking herself for so long.

The boy was getting ready as she watched his every movement “I can do this” she assured herself.

Riou advanced the same way he did before, with a diagonal slash from his upper right “Again with this?” She thought, preparing to receive the attack, the motion had begun and her sword was in the trajectory to intercept it, the impact was imminent.

But to her surprise, nothing happened.

Before she could do anything the boy had vanished from her sight.

She tried to bring her sword back to a defensive position while trying to locate him.

But her body was blocked by something that prevented her movement. She slowly came to the realization, he was already behind her and blocking her path.

Took her another moment to notice that his wooden sword was already on her neck.

She didn’t even see it happening.

“I couldn’t even see him moving? If it was a real fight I’d be dead before I even knew what happened” that realization crushed her resolve.

She let her sword drop from her hand.

Deep down she wanted to believe that she would at least be able to endure the fight. Struggle against him for a while. Something that would give her a sense of stalemate, that she could eventually achieve the level he was on.

Also making him notice how good of a fighter she was, impressing him with her skill.

But that crushing defeat was beyond her expectations, no one that she ever saw or fought before, not even her teachers, could do such a thing. Riou was on a level of his own.

The pressure on her neck lessened and the boy stepped back giving her space to move once more.

----------------- Back to Riou

The princess let go of her sword, but didn’t turn to face him… he quickly walked around to see what happened as he was preoccupied.

Her face was showing a strange expression as if holding back tears, there was a sadness deep engraved in her crystal blue eyes.

“Shit, I messed up… I knew I shouldn’t have done this… Fuck, fuck, fuck, what do I do now”

“How can you be so strong?” Said a calm voice from the princess. The crystal blue eyes turned and looked directly into his. She seemed to search in his very soul for an answer.

Her face was calm, her lips slightly apart. At such a sight Riou was stunned by her.

It took a moment for him to recover his senses while she looked so intensely into him.

“It’s… complicated” Said the boy between pauses, trying to think of a good answer that could possibly satisfy her.

She looked around smiling at his answer “I spent all my life training and aiming to become stronger” Said the princess smiling at her own misfortune.

“But why do you want to become so strong?” Asked the boy to her surprise.

She thought on those words for a moment “Because it was the only way for me to choose my own path, otherwise I wouldn’t be here anymore”

He nodded “And did you not succeed in that?”

“What do you mean?” Asked the puzzled princess.

“Were you able to choose your own path? Are you still here?”

Eileen pondered for a moment on that question “Yes…” She finally answered.

“So you are strong and you accomplished your objective, didn’t you?”

The princess blinked a few times trying to get her head around that.

“Don’t you see? You don’t need to be the strongest that ever lived, you just need to beat those who want to stand on your path”

She went silent for a moment thinking about those words.

“Don’t let this training let you down, or do the rites prevent you from training?”

“No…” she finally answered.

“Then why are you so gloomy about it? Cheer up, you are young, lots of room for improvement. Nothing changed, you are still the captain of your own ship” Said the boy trying to turn her mood around.

Eileen looked towards him, finally showing him a smile and a chuckle.

A lonely tear that dropped from her eye “You are right… All I need to do is beat those who stand in my way. But for that I will have to keep training and improving… I need to have the best swordsman master to teach me.”

Riou smiled “That’s right! You see? It’s not so bad to lose once in a while, it gives you a new perspective. I’m certain that this will help you to improve greatly” said the boy going with the flow of the conversation.

Eileen squinted her eyes and nodded with a smile “Yes, I’m sure of it… so, can we train together?”

“Sure, you can count on me. It will be good to have something to pass the time. Maybe I could get some tips from this master of yours as well some day”.

“It’s settled then! I will ask my father for the preparations” Said Eileen with a mischievous smile on her face.

To the side of all that action and conversation was Lilly. Quietly observing the whole thing.

The boy’s movements were quick the entire time, but that last fight, it was too much… almost unnatural. There was no doubt in her mind that he had used mana to move that way.

“I need to watch this boy closely… he can’t possibly be this skillful at this age. He is hiding something, I can feel it” realized the mage, her curiosity was sparkled once again. Her intentions to uncover the boy's secrets would surely continue, but with more caution from now on given his ability.