"Friends are you there?" He had been repeating this line for too damn long yet nothing happened for a moment just a quick one he thought he had found a ticket to being good at swordsmanship.
It's not that Viola was really careful about minor steps so as to still be teaching him stances after four years of teaching him, he utterly had no talent for it as if his bones despised the sword.
Yesterday he was actually good enough to fight Viola on equal terms for a while, maybe that was why he wished for another fight. He knew his friend's help was only temporary.
He had not slept the whole night so many things came crashing down on his psyche at the same time his mind could not process all of it at once.
His hair turned disheveled from frustration eyes made ugly by the bloated veins in his usually pristine white sea holding his now dim emerald pupils.
It was now hours past his scheduled training Viola had not dragged him there, was it awkward for her too?
He could not imagine, his awakening ceremony was in a few days time and he was now thoroughly afraid of it in every sense of the word. What if what was so eager to meet him was his own failure.
Though it did not make much sense to him Hopley's words wee too ambiguous to exclude things like his own failure, kings had wanted to talk to her and he was a future king.
'If my mother ever abdicates the throne... who am I kidding she would rather give it to a street urchin than me... the thing must be something else.' he thought.
As he was curiously lain on his bed unable to sleep another person was on her way out of the castle she went by herself, she believed that was safer.
Running through the rooftops a hood covering her face, her fame would be too much for her to handle, she was soon out of the royal city and into a forest outside it.
She ran for what might have been hours, no monster dared coming close to her she was the apex predator at that time. Being one of the strongest people in the country why wouldn't she be.
She eventually found herself at the doorstep of a wooden cabin in the woods locked but with smoke coming from it's chimney, a faint smile came along her lips before knocking.
Soon after that a woman about to step out of her middle ages opened the door her previous smile fading away seeing the rapier strapped swordswoman.
"Ralph your old boss wants to see you.!" she screamed at the top of her lungs before ushering Viola into the house.
"It's nice seeing you too Maribel." Viola said before giving her a small box.
"What is this tacky stuff?" Maribel took out a small necklace from the boss
A man thoroughly in his bitter fifties came running as fast as he could considering he only had one good leg, him and Viola looked at each other before hugging.
"Commander it's been so long." He said strangely this time Viola did not react not a twitch in expression not a grip too hard on her rapier nothing.
"I told you you can call me Viola."
"We were never truly equal not then not now so allow me to keep my dusty walls."
"Whatever you say I came here for my blade the prince is about to undergo Awakening and I need to be at my best."
"Since when do you care about how you look?" Maribel interjected.
"You know it's always been an obsession of hers to carry that rapier around she can't leave it alone for a year without coming up with an excuse." Ralph replied before walking away into the kitchen.
"Has he been doing well?" Viola asked Maribel.
"No but better than where you left him at."
Viola's smile faltered gripping her rapier tight before exhaling and letting go of it.
"I'm thankful to the gods that he ended up this way some were better left dead." Viola said in a melancholic tone.
"Stop being so gloom this is the second time I've ever seen you smile what has you so giddy is it a man?"
"Why would it be a man there are other things girls get excited about you know."
"But you are a grown woman who has had everything aside from a relationship that's the only things that could make you smile." Maribel said
"How are you a grump and a tease at the same time?" Viola chided but stopped when Ralph came in with a blade withered and cracked in ways no forgeman could fix. Compared to her current rapier it was a piece of trash yet that made her beam even more.
Soon she left the house it was near midday when she came back to the palace
'I can still call that brat to practice but....' she thought before shaking her head against it.
"I need some time to think before I do anything stupid last time I did that it did not end well." she unconsciously felt her way through a scar on her forearm very small too small to mean anything.
Elsewhere in the same training yard a young lady who had pink flowing hair was carefully drawing strange patterns in her notebook, she found herself drawing human like shapes doing war like movements.
"Strange how mana behaves here it's like there was someone made purely of mana fighting here... but against what it seems to have lost too many times what on Laurentia is that strong?"
She finished drawing her sketches before heading out unbeknown to her Auther was silently watching from his bedroom window.
"Is this what is eagerly waiting for me?" He said before finally finding the peace to fall asleep.