The Dreamer's POV

The work was done.

Apparently she had been illusioned while she waited her death, holding onto a sliver of hope, and that a savior of some kind would come by to save her, she was a silly woman after all, or perhaps death made all silly and stupid in hopes to survive, or rather to cope.

"Now that that's over, onto the next plan. Who has she been contacting?" I said as I watched my wyverns chew the bones of the corpses, getting rid of every trace of them ever physically existing. I was quite meticulous in making sure nothing of hers, her daughters, grandchildren and flimsy excuses for guards remained.

"Hmmm… I do wonder how the other nobles are, chances are we will be seeing them soon, what do you think Black?" The moving thing of shadows raised a jutting structure that was like a long finger, pondering.

"Well… chances are they are just as pompous as she was, always trying to use people to ascend to their goals." Black commented, and I smirked, realizing that I was almost like them, pompous and exploitative, I definitely fit that bill.

***

Back at the Lyma region, Theo felt lost, over these few days, he had felt like he had sped his life up considerably, he couldn't be a child any longer, and though he wanted some of that child's irresponsibility, too many people were counting on him, he had been forced to forfeit the life since the death of his parents.

He let out a sigh, watching as the sun set with workers still working on a few almost finished projects, all these was nothing short of a miracle, all these were by the grace of sir Luke, and Theo thought to pray to Seraphina,

"Thank you sister for meeting Luke, I feel like I can do anything with him around." He mumbled.

"What did you say my lord?" Drius bent over thinking Theo had spoken to him.

"Nothing Drius, just a prayer and gratitude." He let out a sigh of relief, smiling as the sun sunk below the horizon.

"Let's go home."

"Yes my lord."

It was morning, and little Theo opened his eyes to meet Luke staring at him.

He almost screamed, but he muffled the sound before he could let it out.

"What are you doing here?"

"Waking you up for your much needed training."

"Training? Why this early, and Drius can do that, you shouldn't have to bother yourself with me Luke."

"No, with news of the Lyma capital being so quickly rebuilt, interests and suspicion will be thrown your way, we can't afford to be lax, not this time."

'I might not be here with you when that comes, but before I leave, I'll be sure to have you be as capable as any other nobles, no, the best of the very best. You're my little experiment.'

And with that, the two began sword training, Drius included and two other men who were trusted enough to impart knowledge into the young one.

They had survived the destruction through their great skill and highly defensive martial arts, Theo would need as much defense as he can get this time.

"We are proud to train the young lord."

"We sure won't fail you."

The two were too humble, but it was fine, as long as they did their jobs.

Before that however, I had one of the fallen imperial knights I added to my group of minions spar with little Theo.

Nobles had an elegant art to their sword fight that I think too pretentious to learn, but he's the noble, he would need it.

I told the imperial knight to go a little light on the boy, but to push him hard significantly, and then increase the level of difficulty posed with each spar.

The first spar commenced, a masked scary looking man held a wooden double-edged great sword, and Theo wielded the same.

Though it was slightly taller than him, and heavy, he held it over his shoulder with fair ease, confident and ready.

The demonified imperial knight struck the wooden sword down on the little boy, Theo quickly drew up his sword horizontally and blocked the blow, his arms bending slightly, and gritting his teeth.

"Yaa!" He swung his sword horizontally, turning himself in the process.

His spin built momentum for the strike, and hit his opponent strongly, the knight didn't expect the force behind the blow, and he was pushed back when he parried.

Then the knight followed with a diagonal slash down, and Theo jumped back avoiding the attack just slightly. He huffed and puffed as the situation wore him.

A ten year old body just wasn't built enough to parry blows as hard as the knight dished out, he had begun attacking in earnest since the surprise swing strike.

Left, right, up and below, swings of wooden blades flew.

Theo apparently was doing quite well, that was until he backstepped and slipped and then the knight had his sword atop his little chest.

Drius watched with apprehension, wanting Theo to have a win so badly, even if it was just one.

The little boy jumped this time, and struck down, pinning his weight on his sword, the knight didn't backstepped, he stood and brought up his blade and blocked the little boy's special attack, and then turned the force against him with a swing, sending him flying.

Theo hit the ground strongly, his ears ringing, and voices becoming muffled.

Then he saw the knight right above him with a sword pointed down at him.

"Ughh!" He whined, and remained on the ground, part of him wanted to yell and give up, but unfortunately he didn't have that levity any longer.

And so he stood, continuing his training.

I watched him with a smile, he had tenacity and ambition, he would go far, and I began picturing what great asset he would be.

'Perhaps I should gift him an item before I leave.'n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Hmmm… The Gloria nobles however, quite the powerful allies Sarah had, but unfortunately, they are just no match to me."