Alan lay in bed, absentmindedly bouncing a shining object in his palm while thinking of the previous day's conversation. Since Niall had been forthcoming, he thought it would be easy to get answers, and questioned him about the compound his body produced and the origin behind his weird constitution. Turned out, he underestimated the difficulty of getting anything out of an adult. While his uncle gave a brief explanation about his ailment, it wasn't an open invitation for clearing all of his doubts. Niall promised to answer the first query when he gained 'enough' understanding about the Holy and Shadow elements but adamantly refused to answer the second one.

Sighing, he wondered how much he had to learn for it to be enough. His uncle failed to specify a metric.

Afterward, he had visited the library and tried to find clues about the shadow constitution. The search lasted long after the sun set and into the following day. He knew finding information would be an uphill task, especially without any clues, but the sting of disappointment left him disheartened. If it were up to him, he would have continued combing through the books, but Alaya dragged him to his room and put him to bed.

The door opened, interrupting his thoughts, and brought in Arlo's wizened visage. "It looks like you're up Lord Alan."

Technically speaking, he hadn't slept. Alan’s thoughts kept him company through the night, keeping him wide awake. "Don't tell me I have to go somewhere this early in the morning."

"It's almost afternoon, and I'm here to fetch you because you weren't present at the training. Also" —Arlo’s eyes followed the shining object he was playing with— "can you please stop destroying the sun lamps. They're not so easy to replace."

"Mother told me they aren't too costly. Was she lying?" The object he held was the spark, the sun lamp's core. Unlike the first time he destroyed one, the system didn't absorb the spark, allowing him to hold it in his hand. He held a weird fascination for the strange object. According to what he read, it was entirely comprised of condensed sunlight, if such a thing was possible. He could never wrap his head around the fact that he held light in his palm. Disregarding the strange property, another intriguing quality was how the energy dissipated. Even without the sun lamp containing the spark, the energy didn't burst out, turning into a huge explosion but rather dispersed at a constant rate. It was such a unique object, he never tired of observing with it.

Whenever he felt down, he used it to make himself feel better. Niall spoke the truth when he said humans were creatures geared towards the light. It provided warmth and had the strange quality of uplifting the spirit. Holding the spark gave him the same feeling. From his past interactions, he noticed how unstable his emotions were. The mounting frustrations, pressures, and the lack of an outlet turned him into a ticking timebomb, liable to explode whenever he got emotional. To avoid it, he developed the habit of holding a spark in such situations, and it made him feel better.

"It's not costly but takes time to create one," Arlo explained.

"It should be fine then," Alan apathetically said. "I'm sure the castle's stockpiled them."

Arlo stared at him for a few seconds before coughing. "Are you ready young master? The others are waiting for you."

Alan yawned. "I'm too tired. I'll skip training for the day."

"I don't think that's appropriate. Her Grace would be displeased, and Lady Lilliana will be disappointed."

He sat up in surprise. "Why's Lily going to be disappointed?"

Considering her personality, she would be the first person to skip training if she got the chance. Someone had to constantly keep an eye on her to make sure she practiced without slacking off. The only thing she would be disappointed about was him skipping the classes alone.

"She's been waiting all day to tell you something," Arlo said.

Alan groaned. The lack of sleep and the revelation from the previous day exhausted him, but he couldn't miss training after hearing the butler's words. While Lily got excited over trivial things, he didn't think the butler would mention it unless it was something important.

After cleaning up, he walked into the open grounds where he saw Lily, Kora, and Adrianna. His sister wasn't waiting so much as bursting with excitement. She paced around in circles and jumped when she saw him. "Alan, why are you so late? You should learn to be punctual. Now, come quickly."

He rolled his eyes. She was one to talk. Sending her to classes was an everyday battle for her maids. He had seen some of them on the verge of exhaustion and tears by the time they got her ready. She never came willingly without throwing a tantrum. He wondered how she got the energy to do it every single day. Shouldn't it be easier to go along with the flow?

"What's she so excited about?" he asked Adrianna.

She shrugged. "No idea. She's been like that since the morning. When you didn't come, I thought she was going to rush in and drag you out."

Lily grabbed his hand and kept jumping around. "Do you want to know? Do you want to know?"

He laughed at her actions and felt his mood lift. Spending time with his overexcited sister was his other stress reliever which never failed to work. "What is it?"

"I've had my breakthrough last night! I'm a squire!"

His mouth fell open in shock. "Really?"

"Yes!"

Seeing the smile that nearly split her face into two, he shook his head. Complete variants really were ridiculous. Being a variant, his training speed was also fast, but it couldn’t hold a candle to his sister. Reaching the next stage would take him another three or four months, and she would’ve made progress in the squire path by then. It looked like his winning streak was going to end.

"Congrats!" He felt genuinely happy for her. For some reason, Lily held a strong determination for wanting to defeat their older sister, Iris. He could never figure out the reason behind that, and the one time he asked her, she became upset. Either she expected him to figure it out, or the previous Alan didn’t pay attention to her words and forgot the reason. Whatever it was, he decided to decipher it on his own.

Kora and Adrianna also rushed to congratulate her.

He was about to check Lily's stats when Arlo appeared between them. It was so sudden, he yelped and jumped back. "Arlo! You nearly gave me a heart attack."

The butler uncharacteristically ignored him and glared at Kora. While she had a cold and detached personality, withstanding Arlo's gaze wasn't easy. She shrunk under the weight of his stare. "Did I do something wrong?"

Arlo pointed at the sword sheathed at her waist. "Where did you get that?"

"This?" She watched the butler in confusion. "I got it from the castle."

It was Arlo's turn to be confused. "What?"

"This is a personal weapon gifted by His Grace. Adrianna also got one."

The other girl nodded and pointed towards the weapon she had. "We've been instructed to bring it to training from today."

"Did Duke Kayden personally hand the weapons to you?"

Knowing something was wrong, Adrianna explained the situation. "No. They were sent to our houses along with a letter bearing his insignia. The castle guards verified the information before allowing us to bring them in."

"What's wrong?" Alan asked. It was strange to see Arlo being suspicious over a weapon. Sure, it was different from the previous ones, but there was no need to be so cautious.

"Those swords are .... strange." Arlo had a frown on his face. "They're different from the kind of weapons you find in the Amaris Duchy. In fact, you'll be hard-pressed to find weapons like these in Bodwen or Shizar."

"So these weapons are powerful?" Lily had a glint in her eyes. She appeared to have her eye on them and was sure to pester Kayden for one.

"Not powerful, just different. I'll take these and return after someone inspects them."

Kora and Adrianna readily agreed and reached for their weapons.

Out of nowhere, Alan’s senses went haywire and [Danger Sense] exploded. Similar to last time, reality slowed down while phantoms appeared out of people, depicting the events that would unfold.

He watched Kora and Adrianna unsheathing the swords. The moment they were free of the scabbard, both weapons exploded and released smoke. A blade rushed out of it, straight towards his forehead. It was so fast, he didn't notice anything and only saw a phantom blade pause an inch from his head when the images froze and started dissipating.

With bulging eyes, he gazed at the disappearing phantoms and shuddered. The attack was too fast for him to dodge.

When he noticed Kora and Adrianna almost free their weapons, he panicked.

"WAIT!" The shout was a tad too late. The freed weapons exploded, enveloping the surroundings in darkness before he felt his consciousness slipping away.