One month before Reinh's twelfth birthday.
The sky was sunny and the sunlight was shining on all the walls of the palace.
In the yard behind the palace, the sound of wooden swords hitting each other could be heard, a sound that felt like the sound of a real fight.
"Be careful, young master." August said with a smile as he lowered the wooden sword in his hand.
Reinh didn't answer. He pushed his foot against the ground.
And jumped forward.
Not a direct attack, but a fast feint from the right. August, out of habit, raised his sword
But the real strike came from below.
Tak!
Reinh's sword hit August's wrist from a blind angle. The old man barely managed to turn his sword and diverted the attack with an Inside Parry. His eyebrows rose.
"Your reaction speed… no, this was a calculation."
Reinh immediately moved into a pressure phase. Three consecutive strikes:
Left, high, straight cut.
August stepped back, blocking each strike with millimeter-level precision. He blocked the last strike with a Cross Block, but right at that moment Reinh did not pull back the blade. Instead, he rotated it.
A twist of his wrist and a reverse strike from the back of the sword.
TAK!!!
August's sword passed only a few centimeters away from his face. If it wasn't wood… the match would have ended.
For the first time, the joking expression completely disappeared from August's face.
He stomped his foot on the ground and entered a Heavy Stance. He raised his sword and sent a full-power vertical strike downward; a strike made to break the opponent's defense.
Reinh didn't step back and he didn't dodge. He slid inside the strike with a Sliding Step.
The blades passed right beside each other. The distance became zero.
Reinh bent his knee and pulled the sword upward from below, a Rising Cut, made for cutting the stomach.
August turned his body at the last moment. The wooden blade passed beside his side. But the shock of the strike broke his balance for a fraction of a second.
"Impossible…"
Reinh's face showed no emotion. He fought like a real sword master.
August changed his tactic. Instead of power, he set a trap. He understood that underestimating Reinh was a very stupid thing to do.
He opened his defense on purpose, an invitation to attack.
Reinh attacked.
And at the same moment, the old man's sword curved toward Reinh's neck, a perfect Trap Counter.
But Reinh had already seen this.
At the moment of contact, he released his own sword, hit August's wooden blade with his palm, changed its direction, and grabbed his fallen sword again with his other hand.
A movement even real masters had trouble doing.
TAK!!!
Both swords stopped at each other's neck at the same time.
A deadly silence fell.
August's breathing shook a little. Not from tiredness, but because he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Young master… in your past life, were you a Sword God or something like that?" He couldn't understand how a twelve-year-old kid could be this good at swordsmanship.
Only in sword techniques, this boy was completely equal to him. No… it wasn't wrong to say he might even be higher, and this was the same for experience too.
This was not something a twelve-year-old kid could reach without thousands of real battlefields.
"I just learned properly." Reinh said with indifference.
August laughed. Could pure talent really be this terrifying?
"Young master, you should rest a little. It's enough for today." Then August bowed and left the place.
"Looks like that old man is going to leave the palace again." Arceus said lazily while flying above Reinh.
Reinh watched the old man leave and said nothing. He put the wooden sword back in its place, grabbed the towel nearby, and wiped the sweat from his face.
"Aren't you worried that he will report everything about you?" The dragon's voice echoed in his ears once more.
"No. It's not like I can stop him, and also, it doesn't matter. He reports only to one person, and maybe this will be useful to me in the future." Reinh answered with a cold tone.
August was not like Lia the maid or his assistant. Even in his past life, during the time he was in the Tyrant Palace, August never served him.
The only reason that old man was here was because of a direct order from his father, so he would report every event and everything about Reinh directly to that man.
"Tch, if I were you, I would burn that human for such disrespect." Even so, Arceus clearly was not happy about this.
Reinh stayed silent and didn't answer. He also was not happy about being under observation, but unfortunately there was nothing he could do about it.
The fact that their training match ended in a draw did not mean their strength was equal. August hadn't used any mana. If he used his full power, Reinh right now wouldn't last even one second.
The difference between their powers was extremely huge, and it wasn't something that could be covered with experience or superior techniques or sword skills.
"Only one month until my twelfth birthday, and two more months until I can return to the Garden of Crowns." He whispered to himself while returning to his room.
Two years had passed before he even realized it. During these two years, with the help of the rune pen, he managed to gather enough fuel to activate the Star of Eternal Ruins.
As a result, he tempered all his bones, organs, flesh, and skin using it. His physical power reached a freak and unbelievable levels during and after this process, levels he never thought were possible for a mortal.
Right now he could easily defeat a Knight or Mage with one ring, and resisting someone with two rings and escaping from someone with three rings was not impossible.
After finishing the temper, he realized he needed to do something else. Two ideas came to his mind: gaining the body structure of a dragon, or obtaining the bloodline of the Ancestral Dragon.
For the first one, he needed a huge amount of mana, mana that he could only get after forming at least three rings.
And for the second one, the Ancestral Dragon stopped him and said that such a thing was impossible.
"If you try to evolve your bloodline right now, you will definitely explode."