A/N: Hey everyone! sorry it took so long for this chp to come out. My PR was really busy and never had time to PR it :( anyways, a couple things i wanted to say.

Second, feel more than free to leave comments or reviews on how I am doing. Whether I'm doing something right or wrong, I'd love to hear from yall. Well without further ado, hope yall enjoy the chp!

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“Ryther! Come greet your sword instructor!”

Once he heard that the long awaited sword instructor had arrived, Ryther rushed out of his room and dashed toward the pavilion area. The estate was built over a span of fifty acres with around five buildings. Each building was wooden and would be one floor. The roofs were built in a triangular shape with tiles placed on top of each other so that rain wouldn’t get into the homes. In between each building, there was a wooden walkway which lead to the next building.

Inside the pavilion area, he noticed his father sitting down with a man that looked as though he was in late thirties or early forties. His body type seemed to lean toward the more slender type, easily dwarfed by his father’s burly body. Once Rosland and the new sword instructor noticed that Ryther had come, they urged him to join them.

“Son, let me introduce you. This is an old pal of mine, Dylan Silveris. By chance he stopped by a couple days ago and let me know to let me know he moved here. Once he told me that, I immediately thought of you and asked him to help you out by becoming your sword instructor which he agreed to for our old time’s sake.

You see, back when we were both in the military, he used to be known as the “Sword Demon”. Back then you could literally count on a single hand how many people were a better swordsman than him in the military. You’re very lucky that we were able to get such an outstanding instructor.”

“Oh please, Rosland, you overrate me. Also, we can’t forget about your nickname as the “Grim Reaper”. When you swung that damn spear of yours, the enemy would fight amongst themselves to get out the way. Anyways your name’s Ryther right? It’s nice to meet you. Like your dad said the name’s Dylan Silveris. As you can see, your pops and I have been good friends for quite a while.”

“Nice to meet you sir.”

As Rosland and Dylan reminisced about the past, Ryther paid close attention to their stories. His father usually never told stories about his time in the military, except for the time when he met Leslie and how they fell in love. He sometimes heard bits and snippets from when the guards spoke but those times were few and rare. As Ryther was immersed in their talk, his mother came to the pavilion with a tray of drinks.

“Oh boys, talking about the military days again huh?”

“Hey Leslie, been a while! Thanks for the drink.”

“Hey honey.”

As the adults greeted each other, everyone grabbed a cup of refreshing water.

“It’s been a while, Dylan. How have you been? Is Maria doing well?”

“I’ve been doing great, finally got to retire from being the Sword instructor from the Knight Academy… They kept on trying to keep me there. Sigh anyways Maria is doing well also, she was talking about bringing Silvia along to come see you.”

“Oh that would be wonderful! It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen Maria I miss her~ Also I have yet to see Silvia. I’m quite excited!”

After the adults talked for a couple more minutes, Rosland and Leslie left, leaving Ryther with Dylan to begin his swords training. Excited, Ryther eagerly awaited his first lesson as the two walked to the training area.

Once they arrived at the training area, Dylan turned around and faced Ryther. After he had studied him for a while, he began.

“Let me tell you this up front. My training methods, are to say the least, not the most friendly. Just because you’re his son, don’t expect any leniency from me, okay? Let me tell you this from the start. My training will not be easy, there will be many moments you want to quit. I can guarantee you this though, if you don’t quit and put all your effort into training, you will become an outstanding swordsman. Knowing all this though, are you still willing to learn from me?”

Even though he was caught off guard by the sudden speech, Ryther earnestly shook his head. He hadn’t expected any preferable treatment from the beginning. Dylan, who saw his resolve, nodded his head his in approval.

“Alright! That’s the spirit. Well then, first thing first let’s start with some warm ups. From now on while we’re training you are to hold that wooden sword at all times. Doesn’t matter if you’re walking, running, eating, or resting, okay? Well then, we’ll start off with a light jog follow me.”

Without looking to see if Ryther was following, Dylan started to jog to the entrance of the estate. Ryther, surprised by the sudden action, frantically chased after Dylan and jogged beside him. The first mile wasn’t too bad as they hadn’t run that fast. When he thought they would stop though, Dylan continued to run. Not only that, his pace increased slowly also.

The one mile slowly turned into two, which then turned into three. By the end of the third mile, Ryther could barely shuffle his legs forward. He was struggling to get oxygen into his body. The light wooden sword that barely weighed anything seemed as though it weighed hundreds of pounds as it raked the ground behind him.

Dylan, who saw that, was satisfied and finally returned back to the estate. Once they were back at the training area, Ryther collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. Dylan gave him a water poach and ten minutes to rest before he spoke again.

“Alright, now that we’re done with our warm ups and you’ve gotten a breather, let’s move on to the next phase!”

In the future whenever Ryther thought back to his first day of sword training, he reflexively shivered. All those pushups, squats, sprints, and sword swings…. Even he’s amazed that he kept on going and finished all those exercises that day. For the first month, every night he had to drag his body into the bath and stayed in there for hours.

For the next six months, the physical conditioning and swinging training continued. When Dylan noticed that Ryther was getting accustomed to the exercise he would increase the difficulty. Once he was finally satisfied that his disciple’s body was in good enough shape, they began to do more swordsmanship training.

Not only would Ryther have to swing the wooden sword a thousand times a day, he would also go through agility training. One of the more difficult training was when Dylan would continuously throw pebbles at him while he either dodged or knocked the stones down with his wooden sword. Even though the strength behind the throws weren’t too strong, they were enough to leave bruises on his body.

Even though every day felt like hell, Ryther noticed the visible changes in his body. His body lost all fat while his muscles became lean yet sturdy. His face and body frame became more chiseled and he grew to five foot six inches. His messy black hair seemed to shine more and his blue eyes were more distinct.

Also, his familiarity with the sword had improved dramatically since he had carried it at all times. If there was anything slightly off, he would notice it instantly just by the weight. Also during that period of time, he had switched from his wooden sword, to a steel sword, and recently to Azuron’s Requiem so that he would be familiar with it.

What drove him mad throughout the whole thing,however, was his parent’s attitude. His father was always stricter toward him so he expected him to be fine with the training. The one he put his hope in the most, his mother, failed him however. Whenever she talked with Dylan in regards to his training, she would tell him he was doing a good job. She even laughed and said don’t go too overboard when he talked about increasing the training level! Who are you and what have you done to my doting and loving mother?!

Even though Ryther hated to admit it, the training really was effective though. Not only was he in great shape and his strikes clean, he was a lot more agile and was able to react much more quickly. He was able to read movements and make quick changes to his body to avoid the pebbles now.

When Ryther heard that they would be going more in depth to swordsmanship, he was very excited. That excitement, however, disappeared rather quickly as the lessons began. Every time he learned a new form, Ryther had to practice it to the point where he be able to execute them at a moment’s notice.

It took Ryther another six months to learn the six forms to Dylan’s satisfaction. Even though at first it was very repetitive and boring, as his form became more refined and sharp, Ryther became more excited and worked harder.

Unfortunately for him, his parents didn’t let him just practice swordsmanship. During that span, his parents also brought in teachers that taught him history, etiquette, science, and, writing. From afternoon until dinner time, he studied one of those subject every day.

During the one year of training, a significant event also occurred within the family. The Regalia family added another member to their family as Leslie gave birth to Rem. Unlike Raia and Ryther, Rem followed their mother and had blonde hair and green eyes. The child really was adorable; he always smiled and laughed when you held him. To Ryther, who had exhaustive training and studies every day, his little time with his younger brother was his own stress relief time.

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A little over a year had now passed since Ryther began his training.

One morning, when Ryther reached the usual training grounds to start the training, he found to his surprise that sixteen dummies had been set up in a box formation. Curious, he began to inspect the formation. The dummies were wooden and had two batons for arms. The average height for each was around six foot. What was most interesting was that all the dummies had a stick for legs that connected to the ground. While Ryther continued to inspect the formation, he heard an all too familiar voice.

“Great, you’re already here. I’m sure you’re curious about what these dummies are here for. Well this is going to be your annual test per say. You see, these sixteen dummies won’t just stand there for you to hit. Once one of them gets hit, the rest will begin to move randomly. The objective is to not get hit and destroy all sixteen dummies. Simple right?”

Once he heard his teacher’s instructions, Ryther looked at him with disbelief. There was no way it was as simple as his teacher was saying! Those dummies more than likely would all be very quick and gang up on him immediately at the very least. While he let out a large sigh, Ryther moved to the center of the formation and once again imagined his partner. As the light disappeared, the majestic Azuron’s Requiem once again appeared in his right hand.

Without another word, a loud bang noise sounded throughout the area and the dummies began to whirl around while their baton arms swung furiously. Even as all the dummies surrounded him, Ryther stayed calm and analyzed his environment and the dummies. The dummies’ movement speed, size, arm length, rotation speed; he analyzed all those factors. Although the dummies rotation speed was terrifying to see at first, once he got used to the speed he was able to trace their movements. After he had confirmed everything in his mind, Ryther let out a short breath before he sprang into action.

Ryther’s body started to tilt to the right until it seemed as though he was going to fall. Just as his upper body fell forward and he was parallel to the ground, he heavily stomped on the ground with his right foot and explosively dashed to his right. As he quickly closed the gap between him and the closest dummy, Azuron’s Requiem thrusted forward and smashed through a couple of dummies.

Constellation Arts Form One, Shooting Star. Using the momentum of falling down, one would explode forward with increased speed and use the force to stab through your target. It was an excellent move to close the distance with the target or as a first strike.

As Ryther crashed through into the middle of a crowd of dummies, he released a slash in a crescent shape from his right side to his left, before he spun one hundred and eight degrees and released the same slash from his left side to his right. This move was the second form in the Constellation Arts, Reflection of the Cold Crescent Moon. Using two crescent slashes to cover all three hundred and sixty degrees, it was made for use in a one against many fight.

Just from those two moves, Ryther destroyed around half of the dummies. With the numbers greatly reduced, he made short work of the remaining eight dummies with simple slashes and thrusts. Dylan, who had watched everything from a distance, nodded his head in approval. Even for soldiers older than Ryther it would have been difficult to calmly assess their environment and handle the situation as well as he had.

Even amongst the thousands of students that he had previously taught at the Knight Academy, Dylan doubted many would match Ryther’s feat. It’s true that they didn’t receive nearly as much personal instruction from him but they were all two to six years older and learned over a four year span. Inside his mind, he decided to up the training level once again and to begin the sparring sessions in order for Ryther to gain real experience.

Thankfully (?), Ryther wasn’t able to read his teacher’s mind because if he did, he could only inwardly cry and bemoan his poor fate of having such a devilish teacher.