Three months later.
Sera watched me move through forms with an unreadable face.
"Stop." She said calmly.
I stopped.
"Take off your shirt."
I blinked. "...What?"
"Your shirt. Take it off."
I hesitated but then I pulled it over my head.
Sera walked around me and studied my arms, my shoulders and my back.
"You've been training extra." She said.
Not a question.
"Yes."
"How much?"
"Every night, until I can't move."
She was quiet for a long moment.
Then she laughed.
It was not a warm laugh. It was a laugh as she'd just confirmed something she suspected.
"You're insane, you know that?"
Yes.
"Good. Insanity is the only thing that separates decent fighters from legends."
She tapped my shoulders really hard.
She picked up a wooden sword. Tossed it to me.
"Show me what the insanity bought you."
Hell yeah.
A few minutes later...
It didn't even take a minute, and I lost.
What kind of monster is she?.
Sera stepped back and then lowered her blades.
"...Well."
She almost smiled.
"You're not a child anymore. You're a weapon."
She sheathed her swords.
"Tomorrow, we start real training."
The next day...
Sera stood me in front of a tree with a thick trunk and old roots.
"Hit it."
I blinked. "What?"
"The tree. Hit it. With everything you have."
I looked at the tree and then looked at my wooden sword.
This is stupid.
But Sera's never stupid.
I swung.
The blade bounced off. The tree Bark chipped. As if the tree didn't care.
"Again."
I swung again. Harder.
Same result.
"Again."
Again.
Again.
Again.
Two hours later, my arms were dead, the tree had a shallow gash, and I wanted to collapse.
"Stop."
Sera approached the tree. Ran her fingers over the gash.
"Two hours. One shallow cut. Pathetic."
I know.
"But look closer."
I looked.
The bark around the cut was... different. Splintered inward. Not just surface damage.
"You hit the same spot. Every time. Two hundred swings. Same spot."
She turned to me.
"That's not strength its precision and control. That's harder to teach than power."
She walked away.
"Keep going. Don't stop until you cut through."
I didn't stop.
Days became weeks. The tree became my enemy, my teacher and my mirror.
Every night, after Sera's lessons, after family dinners, after Luna's worried stares
The tree was my final destination.
Hit. Recover. Hit. Recover.
That was my language now.
My hands blistered. The Blisters popped. Calluses formed the Calluses cracked and Healed and later Formed again.
The gash deepened.
One inch. Two inches. Three.
The tree started leaning.
The Servants whispered. "Lord Kameya's son is strange." "He talks to that tree." "He hits it for hours."
Father heard it and said nothing,g he just watched me with new eyes.
Mother...Well, she was worried. She often brought me salves for my hands. Kissed my forehead. "Don't push too hard, my love." She'll say.
Too hard isn't a concept.
Lilia observed and took notes in that book of hers. As if I were some new set of species to be observed.
Luna sat nearby sometimes. Just watching. Always watching.
One night, she asked: "Why that tree?"
I paused mid-swing. Thought about it.
"Because it's stronger than me. For now."
She stared at the tree. At its massive trunk. At the deep gash I'd carved.
"...You're going to kill it."
Yes.
"Then what?"
I looked at my wooden sword. Splintered. Worn. Almost broken.
"Then I find a bigger one."
I smiled.
Three months later, the tree fell.
Not cleanly nor gracefully. It just... gave up and crashed into the forest.
I stood over it. Breathing hard with the wooden sword hanging at my side.
I did that.
With a wooden sword.
With nothing but time and will.
...
Not enough.
I found a rock. Bigger than my torso with a solid granite.
I started swinging.
The rock didn't care about precision.
Nor about repetition.
The rock just sat there.
Weeks passed.
The rock didn't chip.
My swords broke. I made new ones. They broke. I made more.
Sera watched and said nothing.
Luna watched well; she said less this time.
Lilia wrote in her book.
And I kept swinging.
Six months.
I'd gone through forty-seven wooden swords.
My arms were ropes of muscle. My shouldersare broader. My hands were permanently scarred.
The rock had a single scratch.
Forty-seven swords. Six months. One scratch.
This is impossible.
This is—
No.
Nothing is impossible.
Just... inefficient.
I stopped swinging.
Sat down and stared at the rock.
Force isn't working. Repetition isn't working. What am I missing?
I thought about Sera's lessons. About the tree. About what she'd said.
"That's not strength. That's precision and control."
Precision against a tree. Controlled strikes, same spot.
But a rock is different; it is harder and unforgiving.
So what works against something that won't break?
...
Speed.
Not power. Not precision.
Speed.
If I hit it fast enough, hundreds of times in seconds—
The friction alone, accompanied by heat and thermal expansion, would definitely cause cracks.
I stood up and smiled.
I guess it's speed then.
I raised both swords.
And moved.
I don't know how long I swung.
Minutes? Hours?
My arms blurred as well as my swords blurred. The rock hummed with impact after impact after impact.
Faster. Faster. FASTER.
My vision tunnelled. My body screamed. My heart pounded like it wanted to escape.
Then—
CREAKKK!
Heat.
It was not from me. It was from the rock.
A faint glow.
It's working. It's actually—
The rock cracked.
It was not loud. It wasjustt a whisper of stone giving up.
Then another crack. Another. Another.
The rock finally split in half.
I stopped and stared.
I did that.
I actually—
My vision flickered crimson.
Just for a second.
The same feeling from the bandit fight. That absolute coldness.
Then it was gone.
I collapsed.
But I knew I was smiling before losing consciousness.
I woke up in my bed.
Mother's face was above me.
"Zero. Zero, thank the gods."
What happened?
"You collapsed in the forest. Luna found you and carried you home herself. She wouldn't let anyone else touch you."
Luna carried me? Fuck. She's nine.
I tried to sit up. But the pain exploded through every muscle.
"Don't move. The healers said you pushed too hard. Your body needs rest."
Rest.
I don't have time for rest.
But I couldn't move anyway. So I lay there.
Luna appeared in the doorway.
Her Purple eyes locked onto me. Her Expression unreadable.
Yeah, I am so dead.
Then she walked to my bed and sat beside me. She instantly grabbed my hand.
"You're an idiot."
Yes.
"You scared me."
...Sorry.
"If you die, I'm killing you."
That doesn't—
"Shut up and rest."
She squeezed my hand and held it against her chest.
And for once, I didn't analize it.
I just let it happen.
That doesn't mean I am a siscon or something.
That night, I replayed everything.
The rock. The speed. The heat. The crack.
Then my eyes.
That feeling again.
It came when I pushed past my limits. When I stopped thinking and just... moved.
Is that the trigger?
Not death or survival.
It is Obsession.
Pushing so hard, my body stops being the limit.
...
Interesting.
I looked at my hands.
No magic yet. Still nothing.
But I don't need magic.
I have this.
I have will.
I have an obsession.
I have—
Absoluteness.
I smiled in the dark.
Let Cid play with his misunderstandings and his lucky breaks.
Okay, but Cid also trained, so yeah. He is probably stronger than me.
I'll earn my power.
Brick by brick.
Swing by swing.
Until nothing in this world can touch me.
A week later, I recovered, and I found Sera in the training yard.
She looked at me and looked at the rock I'd split.
"Heard about your little project."
I said nothing.
She walked to the rock. Ran her fingers over the cracked surface.
Forty-seven swords in six months. And you did what grown men with steel axes couldn't."
She turned to me.
"You're not my student anymore."
I blinked. "What?"
"You've surpassed what I can teach. Your technique needs polish, but your foundation? Your drive?" She shook her head. "I can't give you that. Never could."
She picked up her swords. And sheathed them.
"I'm leaving tomorrow. I have Other students and other contracts."
Leaving.
"One last piece of advice, Zero."
She walked to me. And looked down at my crimson eyes.
"That thing inside you?
How does she know?
She almost smiled.
"Figure out what it is. Then decide if you want to keep it."
She walked away.
Well, she is a baddie am just off age.
At the gate, she paused.
"Oh, and your little sister? Luna?"
I tensed.
"She asked me how to track someone who runs away. Permanently. Said it was for a 'project.'"
Sera looked back at me.
"You might want to handle that before she handles it for you."
She left.
I stood alone in the yard.
Luna.
Does she know I plan to leave the estate?
THE END.