I woke up before all of them again.
It was already becoming routine. It wasn't noise. It wasn't a nightmare. It was as if my body was already rested, but my mind refused to keep sleeping.
I stared at the ceiling for a few seconds.
The morning light slowly came through the window and calmly illuminated the room. Around me, they were still asleep, scattered across the large bed. Rai'kanna was clinging to my arm as if it were a pillow. Elara was curled up near my legs. Vespera was turned to the other side, breathing peacefully. Liriel was near the edge, as always.
Everything was at peace.
But inside, I wasn't.
I closed my eyes for a moment and the memory returned.
The fight against the Fifth General.
The smell of blood.
The weight of the sword.
The exhaustion that made my arms tremble.
The clear feeling, in several moments, that I wasn't winning because of skill. I was just surviving.
By very little.
I slowly opened my eyes.
I didn't feel pride when I remembered that battle.
I felt discomfort.
A discomfort that didn't want to go away.
"I almost died."
The thought came simply.
And another came right after, even worse.
I didn't win because I was strong enough.
I won because I had the sword.
I won because I was lucky at decisive moments.
I won because he underestimated me at certain points.
I won by details.
And that bothered me more than any wound that still ached in my body.
Carefully, I pulled my arm out from under Rai'kanna and got out of bed without waking anyone. I still felt my body heavy. The recovery was happening, but slowly. I walked to the window and stood there, looking at the landscape outside the mansion.
That view still felt strange to me.
Not long ago, I worried about whether I would have enough food for the next day. I lived counting coins, dealing with debts, accepting any mission that appeared just to survive. I slept in cramped places, afraid of not waking up the next day because of some monster or some problem I had created myself.
Now I was in a mansion.
No debts.
With titles.
With recognition.
With people by my side I never imagined I would have.
Everything changed too fast.
And even so, one thing hadn't changed.
I still wasn't strong enough.
The truth was simple and uncomfortable.
If another General appeared now, I wasn't sure I would survive again.
And this time, maybe it wouldn't be by a small margin.
Maybe it would be the end.
I took a deep breath.
I didn't want to depend on luck ever again.
I didn't want to depend only on the sword.
I didn't want to feel that sensation of being alive by chance again.
I wanted certainty.
Certainty that if someone came, I would be ready.
Certainty that I would win because I am strong, not because circumstances favored me.
And only one person came to mind at that moment.
Scarlet.
Her image appeared clearly in my head.
The calm posture.
The experienced gaze.
The way she analyzed everything around her without seeming to make an effort.
She had already faced things far worse than I had. She had survived situations I can't even imagine. Her strength didn't come only from power. It came from real experience.
From real combat.
From years of living this.
I needed that.
I needed to learn how to truly fight.
Not like an adventurer who completes missions.
But like someone who knows exactly what they are doing in a battle against an enemy who wants to kill them.
I needed her to train me.
I stood there for a few minutes looking at the landscape, organizing my thoughts.
It wasn't pride.
It wasn't ambition.
It was necessity.
I returned to the bed in silence and lay down again, but I couldn't sleep. I just stared at the ceiling until I heard the first signs that they were waking up.
Rai'kanna was the first to move.
"You woke up early again," she murmured, still sleepy.
"I couldn't sleep much."
She slowly opened one eye and looked at me.
"You're thinking about that fight, aren't you?"
I didn't answer right away. I just took a deep breath.
"I am."
She stayed silent for a few seconds.
"You won."
"By too small a margin."
She moved closer to me.
"Even so, you won."
"That's what's bothering me."
She looked at me without understanding.
"If it depended only on me, I don't know if I would have won."
Rai'kanna didn't reply. She just kept looking at me.
"I need to become stronger," I said.
This time, I said it with conviction.
Without doubt.
Without hesitation.
She noticed.
"You're already strong, Takumi."
"Not strong enough."
The room gradually became noisier as the others woke up, but my decision had already been made before I even got out of bed.
I couldn't continue like that.
I couldn't trust that next time would be like the last.
After breakfast, I went outside the mansion alone. The morning air was fresh. I walked a little around the grounds while organizing what I was going to do.
It wasn't something I could postpone.
It wasn't something I could leave for later.
I needed to talk to Scarlet today.
I stopped in the middle of the path and looked at the horizon.
"I won by a small margin," I thought.
"Next time, I want to win because I am strong enough."
And for the first time since the fight ended, that thought didn't bring me discomfort.
It brought me clarity.
I knew exactly what I needed to do now.
And I was going to do it.