He watches Marcus stand up from the ground. Injured and exhausted, but with a fire in his eyes that speaks of his unwillingness to let things end here. Arthur points the tip of his short sword at him.

“Last chance, Marcus! What will you do!?” He yells at him.

The super enhanced state Arthur is in right now will end in only 5 seconds. His heart is beating wildly. The fight will end in the next move.

Marcus lunges at him from a lowered stance, his claw-shaped hand aiming to rip his throat. The wild, violent prana threatens to paralyze him simply out of fear, but Arthur moves. He swings his sword down, striking Marcus’ right shoulder cleanly with the blade and all his power behind it.

The strike brings Marcus down to the ground with a loud thud.

He’s won.

Arthur’s eyes snap open and he sits up hastily on the bed. His breathing is fast, his heart is pounding and he’s covered in sweat. He looks at his bed, which is a mess. The sheets are all over the place, a testament to a night of rolling around.

“Third night in a row…” He mutters to himself. He takes a deep breath, throws the sheets to the side and sits at the edge of the bed.

This is the third time he has the same dream. It’s always reliving the fight he had with Marcus in the Knight Selection Tournament finals. It’s so… vivid. His heart is still beating quickly.

And it’s not a nightmare.

Arthur is not sure if he’s comfortable with the implications, but… there may be no point in denying it much longer.

He stands up and starts getting ready for the day. This room is the one assigned to him by General Kain. It really is as small as he said, being only slightly bigger than the one he rented at the inn. It has a single bed, a big closet, a weapon rack, a small bookcase, a desk and a chair. All of them, of course, made of wood and designed with function in mind rather than aesthetics. The room is also located in the castle’s first floor basement, as are all the rooms assigned to lower ranking knights.

Arthur puts on his shoes, pants and a linen shirt for now. He exits his room and walks through the empty halls of the basement to his first destination: the training room. He’s been doing this since the day he moved into the castle three days ago. Mostly because it’s his daily routine to train in the mornings, but also because the dream leaves him with a need to move his body.

Just like the other days, the room is empty. The difference is that now Arthur knows why. This is the common training room, but there are others in the castle which are assigned to particular brigades for them to go through their own training in private. After all, the castle is, first and foremost, the home of knights. All those training rooms are located in the second floor basement, he was told. The brigade he’s in, The Sanctus Brigade, supposedly has one there too, but since he has yet to meet any of the other members, he prefers to still train here.

Arthur takes one of the training swords in the rack and stands looking at a dummy made of sacks of sand, roughly five meters away. He lets the prana flow through him as he takes his stance, gathers the energy deep in his chest and releases it in a single instant.

He kicks off the ground automatically, traveling the five meter distance in less than a second and thrusting the sword into the neck of the dummy. Since the blade has no pointed tip, the sack of sand simply absorbed the impact.

Arthur relaxes his stance and takes a deep breath. Then, he hears metallic clapping behind him.

“I see you’ve already mastered [Stinger]. There’s barely any lag between your stance and the Art’s release.”

Sir Samuel is standing by the door with a satisfied smile on his face. As always, he’s in his full-plate armor and yellow cape behind him.

“Sir!” Arthur straightens up and bows politely as he was instructed by the castle’s steward a few days ago. Because now Sir Samuel is his superior. Yet having to bow at all leaves him with a bit of a bitter feeling.

“Rise, Arthur.” Sir Samuel chuckles. “I’m only here to check up on you. How are you feeling?”

“Much better now, thank you.” Now that he can relax and talk to Sir Samuel like he became used to, the bitter feeling disappears. “I can control my prana without issues and the numb sensation in my soul is gone. I’m at full strength again.”

“That’s good. Your new teammates should be arriving tomorrow and you’ll be given a mission soon. I’ll leave the details out. Just know that you should be ready to leave the city in three days.”

“Y-Yes sir!” Arthur stands up straight again, his body stiff.

Sir Samuel chuckles. “It may have been a blessing of the gods that you ended up in the Sanctus Brigade. Considering how stiff you are in front of your superiors.”

“I… I’m sorry.” Arthur sighs.

“Don’t worry. Most commoners who make it are like you. After all, very few of them have had actual military training, so no one truly expects you to know all the formalities immediately.”

“But what do you mean it’s good that I’m in the Sanctus Brigade?”

“You’ll see when you meet them.” Sir Samuel says. “But more importantly, I wanted to ask you about the last thing you did during your fight with Mr. Marcus.”

“Oh.” That. “I know it was reckless, but I felt I could pull it off.”

“Trusting your instincts is usually a good bet.” He nods. “I’m not here to criticize you. I want to know how reliable you think that technique is.”

Arthur takes a deep breath and thinks. “It’s hard for me not to think of it as a trump card. It allows me to go beyond my limits, even if for a short time.” He holds a clenched fist in front of his face. “I was able to surpass someone as skilled as Marcus with it.”

“It won’t be of much use if you fall into a fit each time after.” Sir Samuel points out.

“Actually, I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” He says confidently. “I’m still not completely sure, but I think I’m starting to understand why those fits happen.”

“Oh?”

“I think they’re like… growing pains for my soul.” Arthur says. “When I think about it, they’ve happened every time I’ve pushed my soul beyond its limits. The time before, it happened when I used an [Arcane Art] for the first time.” He sighs and his shoulders slump. “Though this is just speculation.”

“Interesting.” Sir Samuel holds his chin. “To force your soul to grow… A normal human would die if they tried. No, normal humans HAVE died for pushing their soul too much. Yet you’ve gone through it several times and come out stronger. Perhaps this is one of your traits as a demigod.”

“…” Could it be? It’s true that his condition is unheard of. Could it really be a side effect of having a fragment of the power of a god inside him? “This never happened to you?”

“No. Nor to any other demigod I know. From my experience and from what I’ve gathered from speaking to the others, we were simply born strong and our training is focused on learning to control the power. It seems to me that you’re a different kind. You’re not learning to control overwhelming power. It’s more like you’re… unlocking it.”

“…” Arthur swallows.

“Well, it’s something to keep in mind. However, speculation alone will lead us nowhere. I actually came here to tell you something else.” Sir Samuel says.

“Oh? What is it?”

“I’ve arranged for you to learn magic under one of the mages of Clock Tower.”

“W-What? Me? A mage?”

“Regardless of whether or not you become able to use magic, you should still learn about it. You will encounter it in your travels with certainty, and being ignorant of it could be fatal. What’s more, the mage that will be your teacher is a specialist in souls. She’ll help us determine your true nature. In fact, she only agreed to teach you in return for the right of studying your soul.”

That’s… one of the reasons Arthur came to the city in the first place. To have a specialist mage examine his soul and find out what’s wrong with him. Besides, Sir Samuel is right. Learning about magic would also be helpful.

“So, what do you say? Will you do it?”

“Yes! Of course!” Arthur nods firmly.

“Good.” The vice-general smiles. “I’ll send someone to tell you when she’s available. I’d like you to meet with her at least once before you leave on your first mission. Try to keep your schedule open.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, and one last thing.” Sir Samuel smiles. “I ran into the steward on my way here. He was looking for you to tell you the castle’s blacksmith finished repairing your sword.”

“Oh!” Arthur exclaims excitedly.

“It took some time, but after testing and interrogation, we confirmed the suspicions of some knights who saw the fight. The mercenary you fought, Jiv, used a magic chemical to weaken your weapon and break it.”

“…Is that so?” Arthur winces. “It must’ve been before the fight.”

“Most likely.”

“I should’ve paid more attention.” The knight trainee sighs and stays quiet for a moment before asking. “How’s the guy doing?”

“He had the classic symptoms of drug usage for a couple of days. He’s stable now, but his soul suffered damage.” Sir Samuel sighs. “Clock Tower sees it as an opportunity to test ways to treat souls.”

“I see.”

A damaged soul, huh? The cause is a drug made from that ulzer fruit they found smuggled in Mr. Donald’s caravan.

“You think the organization is involved?” Arthur asks.

“So you know some of it already, huh?”

“A mercenary, Ms. Marina, told me about them. Dead Souls, right?”

“Yes. We hope to use this opportunity to try and track them, but honestly, I don’t have many hopes. They’re good at covering their tracks.” Sir Samuel says. “But you say Ms. Marina told you? She’s the same mercenary that came to see you right after the tournament, right? Ah, of course, she was working with the prince.” He nods to himself, connecting the dots.

“…Wait. What did you say?” Arthur asks, blinking. “Ms. Marina came to see me?”

“Mm? Yes, she did. It was thanks to her we were able to speed up your recovery. She told us about your way of easing the pain.”

“I-I see.” Arthur swallows.

“Hmm?” Sir Samuel gives him a confused expression, but quickly dismisses it. “Very well, I won’t bother you anymore. Continue with your training. You’re technically free until your brigade captain returns, but remember your actions now reflect on the Radiant Knights.”

“Yes, sir.” Arthur nods and watches the vice-general leave the training room.

With that, he turns back to the training dummy and takes a deep breath. Maybe… he should go out of the castle after training? Perhaps he could run into…

Could she be busy? Probably.

…

Oh, screw it. He’s going out after training and that’s it!