Katarina was startled by how strong l/n hit the sword out of her hands.

"Aarghh--..!"

He must've hit the sword near the handle altogether with her hand.

'Damnit..! It hurts!!' Katarina hissed, holding her left hand down, the pain was excruciating, who hits that hard even while training!?

She's trained with the sword but the swordsmanship l/n displayed to end it in three moves was dirty.

It was a cheat, it was close to a professional street fight with swords per se.

"Why did you hit so hard..!?" She sputtered at him, falling to one knee in the process.

She can't stand it anymore, she wanted to collapse even on the rough cold dirt under her feet.

"Grab your sword now or else I'll hit you while you're down," l/n frowned and pointed the wooden sword at her, "Your enemies will not be merciful to you if they wish to have you dead!"

...

"Dear me.... He's not going easy on her even if she's a woman." V/n laughed, drinking the tea, it tasted sweet.

Her servant stepped back for her to enjoy such a moment happening.

V/n was having her tea time on a balcony, watching from afar the training happening just outside.

"Master, if I may ask.."

"Speak." v/n didn't bat an eye as her servant answered, "Are you sure the Young Duke will be able to survive such harsh training as that, Master..?"

V/n smirked, 'Would it even matter..?'

"Who knows.. we can't tell until she comes of age when she turns twenty just like how Father had said he had come of true age to take the title and end his father's suffering of being alive for more than twenty decades." She said, "Right now, Father says he might be the luckiest to have found his 'son' this early and can die quicker than the others, and besides, he can't die unless the heir has true intent to kill him."

The servant watched as Katarina was swung at by l/n, causing her to fall back, hitting her side hard, falling to the ground, 'But she's a woman, not a man...'

'Perhaps Father might actually fail this and end up killing Katarina, making him have to fall in love all over again to get a woman to give birth to a son for him and raise again to kill him.' v/n put the empty teacup down the table.

...

"Pick up your sword back again, Seth." L/n pointed the sword at her, some of the edges had been chipped a little, it must be from the heavy blows he's done.

Katarina scuffled back up to her knees to do as she was told.

Stumbling back to her feet, she wiped the dirt from her face and tried to steady her already quickening breath.

The darkness was beginning to slip out of the thinnest of cracks in the ground.

It was going to consume her one way or another if she doesn't get it under control, huh..

"Again." L/n rushed at her and disarmed the sword from her hands when she tried to do her best to attack back.

Facing someone who's been trained head-on wasn't a good idea but she does what she does, perhaps some things remained even when her personality began to dwindle into something else.

She can't even last a mere minute without having the sword fly off of her hand from the strong impacts he creates.