Henrik was in his office, hands clasped behind his back, facing the window that overlooked the training courtyard.
"So, what do you think? I saw that Kylian has been training hard for about…"
"Three months, my Lord."
The count nodded without turning around. "And how do you find him?"
Kylian's weapons master had been tasked with teaching him the basics of fencing, even though the young man had quickly shown a marked preference for the bow.
"How to put it, my Lord… The young master is certainly diligent, but…"
Henrik did not let him finish. "You are right. My son has no lineage. He will never become a Beyond."
"Do not lose hope, my Lord. The young master has shown an ease with archery as if he had practiced it all his life. And according to his tutor, he has also revealed rather exceptional abilities in strategy classes."
"Hmm… I see. Kylian is making efforts, even if he will never become a Beyond. I will see to it that he learns the workings of the family business. You may leave."
The weapons master bowed and left the room.
In the training courtyard, Kylian pivoted to the left, dodging a javelin fired by the machine, nocked an arrow and loosed it back toward the mechanism that had just attacked him. He rolled to the side to avoid a new volley, straightened up, and shot again.
Three months earlier, his torso would barely have withstood this effort. It was now sculpted, every muscle defined under skin that was still just as pale, almost sickly. The maids who passed through the courtyard blushed without exception when they crossed him.
A guard posted in the background sniffed with contempt. "Isn't this just choreography to impress the women? Nothing but useless movements."
Kylian did not spare him a glance, too busy watching the machine to waste time on the guards' murmurs.
"Fuck… this isn't enough."
He dodged a final javelin before nocking an arrow.
'I am barely capable of standing against the weakest of the Beyond.'
He knew the scale by heart now. Among mortals, one climbed from Awakened to Hunter, then Paragon, Lord, Overlord, up to Archon then to Transcendence one became a demigod.
And at the very top, the gods themselves were divided between Divinity, Supreme, Celestial, Immortal and Primordial, each tier subdividing into an initial, medium, advanced and peak stage. An ordinary mortal had almost no chance against the first rank of the Beyond. And Kylian, without a lineage thanks to his training was equivalent to a Medium Awakened…
'Fortunately I already practiced archery in my previous life… I am not completely useless. But without a stigma, this clearly will not be enough.'
For now he had only training.
Bare-chested, Kylian exhaled noisily after stopping the last volley of javelins.
"I have improved quite a bit, though." He allowed himself a short pause, his muscles still tense from the effort. "Training and protein-rich food work wonders."
He smoothed his white hair back. A maid approached quickly, a towel and a glass of water in hand.
"Thank you…"
The young woman blushed at seeing him so close. Kylian had gone from an eight out of ten to a ten out of ten without losing either the pallor of his skin or that dark and gothic aura that seemed to cling to his skin.
"I have prepared a bath for you, young master. Please follow me."
"Fine." He tied the towel around his neck and followed her.
Crossing the corridor, his eyes slid over the richly embroidered carpets. The young gothic master was thinking about how the world he now inhabited was vast and complex.
The human continent belonged to the kingdom of the royal Drakaina family, who worshipped Olympus and whose lineages descended from the Greek pantheon.
Away from this royal influence stretched the Theocratic Domain, directed by the Order of the Templars, which claimed to follow the will of the three Moirai and sent its crusaders to eliminate any threat judged dangerous to the world. Among these justiciars was the Templar Saintess, known for having annihilated the Sect of the demonic god of darkness, Erebus.
The Temple maintained a neutral relationship with the other continents, with the notable exception of the Territory of the Chimeras, with which it remained in incessant war for generations. Farther still stretched Island Mist, where seven races of nymphs lived under the authority of the Pleiades, then the Ancient Ruins populated by the Ashura barbarian tribes, and finally the continent of Jotun, where the Svartálfar clans worshipped the various gods of the Nordic pantheon…
'This world is far too vast to control everything…'
He finally reached the bathroom, where a maid was already waiting to wash his back. He settled into the bathtub, the heat of the water gradually relaxing his sore muscles.
His mind, however, did not relax.
'I can do nothing about it. Changing my wardrobe would raise suspicions.'
Once redressed, clothed in a dark Victorian outfit like the rest of his wardrobe, he resumed the thread of his thoughts.
'After the princess, to whom I will be engaged this year, I should be wary of the leader of the Chimeras. Then there is that woman who founded the sect devoted to the primordial gods… but I do not even know her identity. I only know that she is blind. If I could find her before she falls… And if I canceled my engagement with the princess, would she look on that favorably?'
'If I remember the others correctly, there is also that Valkyrie, and that madwoman carrying Hel's lineage. They remain fairly far from me for the moment.'
Lost in his thoughts someone knocked at the door.
*Knock knock.*
"Enter."
The butler entered the room and bowed. "I have prepared everything you asked of me."
"Good. And did you find any information on this blind person?"
"Your description was a bit vague for the county, young master. There are about thirty-eight blind people aged twelve to eighteen. The figure would become colossal if I extended the searches to the scale of the kingdom."
"Hmm… I think she had black hair."
"More than half the population has black hair, young master."
"Ah…" Kylian scratched his head. It seemed he would not even be able to prevent a single one of these women from tipping over to the side of the villainesses.