'Why do I feel like this?'
Lirienne thought to herself. She was not able to concentrate on her training for today.
SWOOSH
Then a blade passed beside her silver hair, aimed at her face.
CLANK
However, her daggers were raised immediately, reflexive to the intent behind the sword.????????????????????????????????.????????????
"What are you spacing for?" The boy before she asked, with his sword, swung once more.
SWOOSH
"Can you afford to distract yourself like that?" He spoke with his word spilling from his vicious mouth.
However, his sword did never stop.
CLANK!
Another attack aimed to take her life.
CLANK
Then another. Even though they were in the training room, there were cuts formed on her arms, her legs, and her chest.
DRIP
Blood was dripping from her wounds, but she had been accustomed to this feeling for a lot of time ago.
SWIRL
"What are you doing?"
It was because of the boy whose hand was filled with fire.
Because of him, who had never shown any mercy while training.
SWOOSH
As the fire in his hands swirled towards her, she closed her eyes and envisioned herself disappearing.
SWOOSH
Which she did, as the mana of the moon was imbued on her body. She felt like she was becoming one with the world, as if she had never existed as a separate individual.
It was her newly acquired magic, and Callius was now guiding her on how to make use of it.
"You are never meant to be a person who fights with pride. You are not a knight, not a warrior. This is not your strength."
His words echoed inside her head as she slowly and steadily approached the boy who was now standing in the midst of the arena with all of his senses spread.
Since Lirienne used her magic, she vanished from his eyes, as he was unable to see her. Even while using his [All Seeing Eye], he was able to see her very hard, but right now he wanted to give her a chance as well as train himself while dealing with the unknown.
"You have seen that already, haven't you? The difference between you and the one that you want to take your vengeance."
His words echoed once again in her mind.
'The difference between me and Selanne.' She thought as she steadied her breath.
However, even in the midst of her thinking, her body moved on its own.
SWISH
With a smooth movement, she appeared on the behind-right side of Callius, thinking that she had seen an opening.
CLANK
But, it was faint. His sword immediately intercepted with her dagger, and he attacked her with a strong momentum.
"What are you doing?" He asked once more.
THUD
As he kicked her from her chest.
"Kurghk-"
The force behind his attack was strong. She bolted backward as she spurted saliva from her mouth.
"This is not like you." Callius continued his words. "You are not decisive as usual." He said.
'As expected, he is the one that understands me more.' Lirienne thought, for some reason feeling relieved.
She raised her head as she locked her eyes with the boy glaring at him. His crimson eyes contained no emotion.
No, the right thing to say was that they actually contained emotion, but she was unable to read it.
Those eyes looked complex. As if he knew everything about Lirienne, but he refused to speak aloud.
"What is in your mind?" Callius asked. Normally while he was dealing with Lirienne, he would mostly train her combat skills, but they will still talk in the midst of their training. That was one of the biggest reasons why Lirienne was able to talk with others and develop her communication skills.
However, for some reason, Lirienne excluded a different aura than before, and that made Callius curious. He wanted to learn what was in this girl's mind.
However, Lirienne was unable to answer. She wanted to, but she herself didn't know why she was like this, so she didn't say anything.
"Is that so? Then, let's keep going." Seeing her not answering, Callius decided it was not the time yet.
With those words, Callius raised his sword once again. A sharp intent of a murderous aura started oozing from him.
A sharp swordsman who polished himself in countless battles against monsters and opponents that wanted to kill him was now standing before Lirienne.
CRACKLE CRACKLE
Lightning started oozing from his sword as he amplified his lighting mana on Nihil. However, then he took control of his lightning and erased it, probably thinking that it would be too much right now.
"Huff…." As he slowly released his breath, Lirienne knew the attack that was about to come was serious.
She, too, amplified her aura on her daggers, as well as used her magic to disappear from his sight.I think you should take a look at
"Lirienne. Why are you still refusing to accept that feeling?" At that moment, Callius asked.
FLINCH
Making Lirienne flinch.
"You have that feeling inside your head all time, don't you? Why are you refusing it?"
As Callius asked this question, Lirienne felt his muscles getting tense. His eyes were closed.
At that moment, Callius was not using his eyes or his skills.
It was only his sword and himself.
SWOOSH
Following that, Callius immediately disappeared from his place, leaving a strong gust of wind.
SWOOSH
And then, Lirienne's senses screamed in danger as she felt death was coming at her. However, there was one other feeling inside her heart that was now pushing itself more.
It was a feeling that pushed her to fight. No, rather than pushing her to fight, rather it was a feeling that pushed her to kill.
To eliminate the enemy.
It was a crazed feeling that she felt whenever she was sent to complete missions given by Callius.
CLANK
And unknown to her, her daggers were raised as well as the aura of the moon started shining upon her daggers.
Her eyes shone bright grey as if the moon itself was inside them.
A sword that she wouldn't have been able to block was blocked by her daggers. However, she didn't stop just by blocking.
CLANK CLANK CLANK
She immediately started attacking the boy who was defending himself.
In the heat of the fight, she slowly lost herself. Once again, that crazed smile appeared on her face just as usual, and she kept attacking and attacking.
Seeing her smile, Callius knew she was able to poke at the monster underneath, but he, too, didn't back down.
Why would he? As a swordsman, it was something he loved.
However, the more they fought, the more Callius was able to see. Normally, Callius would dismiss this thought, thinking that Lirienne was still developing, but after today a thought appeared in his head.
'She lost her way.' Callius was able to infer this.
The blade she was carrying and she was attacking him with didn't contain any purpose different from before.
Normally, she would attack him relentlessly, like she didn't know who the person before her was. She would attack him like a monster, a killer that was born under the moonlight.
She would unknowingly use her mana; even though it was not an efficient use, she would do it instinctually.
But now, she was not using her mana just as before.
He didn't know what caused this change, but Lirienne was not attacking with the intent and aim to kill as she used to do right now.
It was like, for some reason, inside, she didn't want to kill him, but that was something Callius could not comprehend.
'Just because she had seen the Elven Princess fight, she became this dull?' He asked this question to himself as he continued to battle with Lirienne.
CLANK
Their blades clashed, but Callius could see something was amiss with Lirienne.
'Why is this girl like this? I can't understand.' He kept thinking about the events of the past month, but he couldn't understand the reason why she was behaving like this.
CLANK CLANK
However, that meant he needed to spend more time with this girl. Until he could understand the reason, he was not planning to let her go.
"Lirienne."
Between his relentless attacks, Callius spoke.
"…." Even though no answer came, Callius knew Lirienne was listening.
"What are you here for?"
He asked the question at the deluded girl.
"…."
However, again no answer came. But Lirienne was thinking. Her mind was filled with questions.
A girl who had yet to learn how to think and find her own path….
She was a girl that was always forced to follow the steps of her parents and was compared to her sister on the path that was determined for her beforehand.
So, she never knew how to forge her own path at all.
And all of the frustration that she had accumulated was showing itself right here right now.
SWOOSH CLANK
And at the end, with her not performing well at the training grounds, her daggers flew through the air as Callius finished the session with his blade pointing at her neck.
"Lirienne."
He needed to talk to this girl.
-------------------------------A/N------------------------
Hope you liked the chapter.
