Kyle's first steps into the Oriana manor feel unreal. Wide halls, polished floors, banners of gold and obsidian fluttering from high ceilings. Servants guide him through unfamiliar corridors: first his room, then the bathhouse, then the training yard lined with enchanted dummies and reinforced stone tiles.
But all introductions end when Zach leads him into a quiet courtyard.
A woman stands waiting.
Short black hair.Arms folded.Eyes sharp enough to cut steel.
Marshal Glauderia.The right-hand blade of the Duke.The woman who trained Zachary into the monster he is.
She barely looks at Kyle.
"So you're the new squire," she mutters.She grabs a wooden sword, tosses it at him like it weighs nothing.
"Attack."
Kyle blinks."Ma'am…? I-"
"I said attack."Her voice doesn't rise, it doesn't need to.
Kyle inhales, nods, raises the wooden sword in the stance he's used his whole life.
Then... he dashes.
A single step and he's already at her neck.
Or he would be.
She tilts her head half an inch.The strike cuts air.
Kyle attacks again. And again. Faster. Sharper. More desperate.
But she doesn't look impressed.She simply dodges with minimal movement.
Then with one finger... Just one, she flicks his blade aside and drives her knuckles into his gut.
Kyle collapses, gasping, eyes wide and lungs burning.
"You move like someone imitating a style that doesn't belong to you," Glauderia says calmly."Like a child repeating steps. No instincts. No rhythm."
She nudges his leg with her boot.
"Get up. Again."
Kyle forces himself up, trembling.He grips the sword.
But something… shifts.
He doesn't stand in his usual form.His feet angle differently.His shoulders lower.His blade flows instead of settles.
A stance he did once, instinctively.
Why does this feel… right?
He doesn't have time to think.
He dashes faster than before.
Zach's eyes widen.He got faster again?! Was he holding back earlier?
Kyle swings. The Marshal blocks without looking.
"You weren't joking…" she mutters."Even Zach couldn't react to that, and he's been training since birth."
Kyle doesn't hear her.He doesn't care.All he sees is the target in front of him. Something in him wants to reach her, to break past her guard, to prove something he can't even name.
He attacks again.And again.
Glauderia keeps parrying effortlessly, but her eyes sharpen.She's no longer amused.
"He's not just talented," she murmurs."He evolves mid-fight…"
Kyle swings harder, faster, breath ragged.His heart pounds like a war drum.
Then...
Something clicks.
The world slows.
Lines... faint, silver paths that trace through the Marshal's figure. Through the air. Through the ground.
He has entered a state where he moves by instinct. Eternal flow.
Kyle's body moves on its own, gliding along the lines, blade whispering through the air.
CLANG.
She parries him again, but this time her smile flickers. Tight, impressed.
"…Monstrous," she breathes.
Kyle doesn't stop.He can't.He's locked in.
Faster.Faster.F A S T E R.
His smile grows... unrestrained, wild, free.The kind of smile only someone born to fight would wear.
"That's enough."
Glauderia steps in, swats his blade aside, sweeps his legs, and drives the wooden sword's tip to his forehead just as he hits the ground.
Kyle blacks out instantly.
She exhales and wipes dust from her glove.
"Zachary," she says, turning away."I have business to attend to. Stay with him. When he wakes up, continue showing him around the manor."
Zach nods, but his eyes never leave Kyle.
As the Marshal disappears into the halls, Zach sinks down onto the edge of the training mat, staring at Kyle's unconscious body like he's looking at a newly discovered beast.
"…So this is the guy," he whispers to himself."The one who'll finally make me stronger."
And for the first time in years, Zachary Oriana feels the thrill of true rivalry spark in his veins.