As the last of the bloodied bandages fell away, Ren's unblemished, bruise-free skin was finally revealed. Opening his eyes, he stared at his own hands, his gaze shining with awe and wonder.
'So… this is real healing magic?' Ren thought, his heart racing with excitement.
Seeing that the boy was fully healed, Fumiko leaned back in her chair and observed him in silence for a long moment.
'Hm. He is indeed very cute,' Fumiko confirmed internally, though her wrinkled face remained an unreadable mask of cold indifference.
Then, without any further ceremony, she waved her hand dismissively at the pair. "Alright, Tsumugi. Take him out."
Ren opened his mouth, eager to ask a dozen rapid-fire questions about the mechanics of the spell. He had logically reckoned that since Fumiko was kind enough to heal him, she probably wouldn't mind teaching him a little bit about how her magic worked. But since she had already so bluntly ordered their departure, he could only swallow his words with a quiet, disappointed sigh.
Bowing deeply to the Head Maid one last time, Ren obediently allowed Tsumugi to tow him out of the luxurious quarters.
**********
As they navigated the winding paths away from the Head Maid's quarters, Tsumugi spoke up quietly. "Today's training is officially over. Go back to your room and rest."
Confused, Ren looked up at her. "Hm? B-but why?"
Ren was clearly eager to keep going. It wasn't because he had suddenly developed a love for pain, but rather because he was absolutely addicted to the tangible, explosive growth he could feel in his body every single day. After years of being stagnant and weak, the feeling of getting stronger was intoxicating.
"True training is not just about mindlessly working hard; it also requires proper rest," Tsumugi answered smoothly.
Beneath her perfectly stoic exterior, Tsumugi actually felt a sharp pang of guilt. She had pushed this six-year-old boy so relentlessly that she hadn't even noticed the severe injuries he had been self-accumulating right under her nose.
"And absolutely no secret training by yourself this afternoon, either," Tsumugi warned sternly, stopping to look down at him. "If you disobey me, there will be no more sword practice in the future."
"Ah... but..." Ren stammered, desperately wanting to argue. But under her unyielding, authoritative gaze, he could only let out a defeated sigh. "...Okay."
Seeing his small shoulders slump so dejectedly, Tsumugi felt her icy heart melt just a fraction. Wanting to encourage her hardworking student a little, she softened her voice. "Rest your body today. Tomorrow... we will begin live sparring."
Hearing this, Ren's head whipped back up, his bright eyes instantly shining with reignited excitement. "Really?!"
"Mm," Tsumugi affirmed with a crisp, single nod.
"Yes!" Ren cheered, pumping his small fist into the air.
In an instant, his gloomy disappointment completely vanished. His mood didn't just bounce back to normal; it rocketed straight past it into pure, unadulterated anticipation for the next morning.
**********
Back in his room, Ren flopped onto his bed with a heavy thump. Staring up at the ceiling, his initial adrenaline had finally calmed down, leaving him to wonder what exactly he was supposed to do with the rest of his day.
After an entire week of relentlessly disciplined training and barely any real rest, sitting still suddenly felt incredibly wrong. For the first time in days, Ren found himself completely and utterly bored.
Searching his sparse room for something, anything, to keep his hyperactive mind busy, his eyes landed on a book sitting on his desk. It had grown slightly dusty from a week of complete neglect: The Theory of Mana.
Seeing the heavy tome gave Ren a brilliant idea. He would go to the estate's library today to return it, and while he was there, he could browse the other texts. He still needed to figure out more application to his Yin spiritual power and his newly awakened Ki. Maybe he could find some fresh inspiration to incorporate into his training!
So, without a second thought, Ren leaped right back off the bed, grabbed the book, and hurried out the door toward the library.
**********
Now standing in front of the library's ornate double doors, Ren hesitated slightly before reaching for the handles.
His apprehension was entirely justified. The library was one of the few places where the arrogant members of the Ritsuzen clan actually loved to gather, as it served as their personal treasure trove of magical knowledge.
While the truly important, high-tier grimoires were restricted to the second and third floors, leaving the expansive first floor feeling comparatively bare, the ground level was still packed with countless miscellaneous texts and reference books that the main family would occasionally come down to peruse. If he walked in there now, the chances of running into one of his tormentors were dangerously high.
But he still steeled himself anyway. Now that he got power to protect himself, if he didn't even dare go to a room where there was just a possibility that someone would humiliate him, then what was the point of all the training?
Pushing the heavy doors open, Ren walked in with his head held high, bracing himself for the worst. But when he finally looked around to observe the massive room, all he saw were towering bookshelves and long reading desks lining the center of the floor. Above him, two elegant verandas circled the second and third floors, connected by a grand spiral staircase.
'Where is everyone?' Ren thought in confusion.
The library was surprisingly empty. Even though it was still early in the morning, obsessive members of the Ritsuzen clan were known to camp out among the shelves for days at a time, making a completely vacant room an incredibly rare occurrence.
Scanning the quiet space one more time, Ren finally noticed a single occupant.
Sitting behind a desk, almost entirely hidden by towering stacks of heavy grimoires, was a young girl with striking silver hair and piercing red eyes. She was perfectly still, quietly observing the boy who had just interrupted her research.
Recognizing her instantly, Ren's breath hitched. All of his carefully constructed bravado vanished in a second.
It was his half-sister, Ritsuzen Kaguya.
"O-oh... um... Kaguya nee-sama. I-I didn't see you there," Ren stuttered in greeting.
He still vividly remembered the terrifying, oppressive aura she had projected a few days ago. Although he had been brave enough to snap back at her at the time, that was just pure adrenaline talking. Now, facing her all alone in the dead quiet of the library, he suddenly remembered exactly how scary his half-sister truly was.
"I-I'll just go now. Haha..." Ren trailed off awkwardly, desperately trying to disengage from this highly dangerous girl by turning on his heel to leave the library altogether.
"Hold."
A soft, melodious, yet absolutely undeniable voice echoed through the silent room, stopping him dead in his tracks.
Ren was already halfway turned toward the exit, but the sheer weight of that single word froze him in place. Slowly, he pivoted back around to face her, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "Ah-haha... Nee-sama. Did you need something from me?"
Kaguya completely ignored his nervous question. Her piercing red eyes remained locked on him as she gave a simple, chilling command: "Come here."
Shuffling his feet as slowly as physically possible, Ren agonizingly closed the distance between them. Despite his painfully slow pace, Kaguya's stoic face showed absolutely no visible impatience.
And there was a very good reason for that.
Behind her blank, terrifying red eyes, her actual internal monologue was currently screaming: 'MMMM! REEEENNNYYYY-CHAAAN IS HERE!!! THIS MUST BE FATE!' Her thoughts were completely, unapologetically obsessive. She had even mentally coined a sickeningly sweet nickname for him. But on the outside? She remained an immovable, flawless ice queen.
Seeing that he was finally standing in front of her, Kaguya felt it wasn't enough. She wanted him closer.
"Come closer," she commanded, her voice perfectly flat.
Ren had no choice but to obey. He leaned forward slightly, pressing his stomach against the edge of the large desk separating them. But to Kaguya, that distance was still completely unacceptable.
"Around the table," Kaguya demanded.
"Ah? O-okay..." Utterly puzzled, Ren nervously skirted around the edge of the heavy desk until he reached the side of her chair.
"Sit."
Helpless to resist, Ren quickly pulled up an empty chair next to hers and sat down stiffly.
"Hand."
Ren blinked. 'Wait... is she treating me like a dog?' Looking at her outstretched palm, he was now absolutely convinced that this terrifying older sister viewed him as nothing more than an obedient pet. But his situation was actually worse than a dog's; at least a dog could bark or run away. Under the oppressive aura of the Ritsuzen clan's greatest prodigy, Ren had no will of his own.
Left with absolutely no other choice, he slowly raised his arm and placed his small hand into hers.
With his small hand securely wrapped in her slightly larger one, Kaguya began to tremble. A faint, utterly uncharacteristic flush of pink crept up her pale cheeks. Her piercing red eyes, which usually looked so terrifyingly hollow and oppressive, seemed to literally morph into the shape of pulsing hearts.
Ren, who had been observing her every micro-expression with hyper-vigilance, blinked hard and shook his head to clear his vision.
'An illusion?!' he panicked internally.
Seeing the sheer, suffocating weight of her obsessive adoration practically taking physical form in the air around them, Ren's super-genius mind immediately jumped to the most logical and paranoid conclusion. He assumed this sickeningly sweet aura was actually a high-tier mind-control spell that Kaguya had just cast on him without a single chant!
'How absolutely horrifying!' Ren thought, swallowing a heavy lump of pure terror. 'Luckily, I just spent an entire week building up a mental resistance through my own self-hypnosis training! If I hadn't done that, Kaguya's terrifying illusion would have completely brainwashed me by now!'
His profound misunderstanding was absolute. And because of his brilliant, wildly incorrect deduction, Ren's fear of his older sister completely skyrocketed.
Completely oblivious to Ren's misunderstanding, Kaguya began to slowly, methodically stroke the back of his small hand, treating it with the utmost reverence of a prized, sacred artifact.
Meanwhile, Ren felt a violent shudder of goosebumps creep all the way up his arm.
"Wh-what are you doing?!" Ren gasped in alarm, his entire body trembling as his survival instincts flared.
"Hm?" Hearing his sudden objection, Kaguya looked up. The pulsing heart shapes in her eyes instantly vanished, replaced by an intense, deadpan stare that locked onto him with absolute seriousness.
Behind that flawless, icy mask, her mind was currently undergoing a catastrophic meltdown. 'Wh-what should I do?! Did I upset him?!?!?!' she screamed internally, her soul practically leaving her body in sheer panic.
But Ren couldn't hear her thoughts. All he saw was the monstrous Ritsuzen prodigy glaring at him like a predator assessing its prey. He immediately started shaking even harder, vibrating like a fragile leaf in a Category 5 typhoon.
"S-sorry! Y-you can keep touching my hand!" he squeaked out, terrified she was about to curse him.
Still staring at him with pinpoint focus, Kaguya seemed to carefully study his pale, terrified facial expression for a long, agonizing moment. Finally, she gave a single, slow nod.
'Ah. It seems nothing is wrong,' her thoughts instantly did a complete, 180-degree flip, completely misinterpreting his pure terror as permission.
Satisfied, she returned her attention to his hand, resuming her gentle stroking, though this time, she deliberately did it just a little bit slower.
After finally having her fill of his hand, Kaguya gently let go, granting the terrified boy a moment of sweet relief. Then, her piercing eyes locked onto him again.
"What did you do today?"
'T-today?! Did I do something wrong today?! Is it because I didn't train?! I knew I needed to train today! Stupid Tsumugi-nee, your forced rest day has caused my demise!' Ren's paranoid mind immediately began to spiral out of control in panic.
"I-I-I went to the Head Maid's quarters," Ren stuttered, bracing himself for whatever punishment was about to come.
"What for?" The question was just as clipped and emotionless as before.
"Tsu-Tsumugi-nee took me to get healing," Ren answered meekly.
"Healing?" Kaguya's voice dropped a fraction of a degree.
"I-it was for my injuries from training," Ren clarified quickly.
"From Tsumugi?" Hearing this, Kaguya's crimson eyes instantly turned chillingly murderous. If that maid had dared to harm her precious little brother, she would erase her from existence.
"Ah! No, no! It was self-inflicted!" Ren quickly denied, frantically waving his hands. Even though he had jokingly blamed Tsumugi in his panicked thoughts just seconds ago, he would never actually let her take the fall for his own crazy training methods.
"Hm?" Hearing it was self-inflicted, Kaguya's tone grew a notch sharper, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Why?"
"Um... I just wanted to get stronger..." Ren explained in a whisper, terrified that this super-genius prodigy would judge his pathetic weakness. "And..."
Ren was about to mention Elder Gensai and the upcoming duel, but he stopped himself. He remembered Tsumugi's helpless reaction. If a terrifying Elder had ordained the match, dragging his older sister into it wouldn't fix anything; it would only cause more trouble.
"...Never mind," Ren finished quietly, looking away.
Snap.
Hearing Ren's abrupt dismissal, Kaguya's eyes suddenly darkened to a terrifying, bottomless crimson. 'He is hiding something from me. Why won't he tell me? Does he... does he not trust ME?!'
Suddenly, a suffocating wave of pure, condensed Mana flared out from her body.
"TELL ME!" she shouted aloud, her voice shattering her icy persona completely. The very air around them grew heavy and thick, crushing the oxygen out of the room under the sheer weight of her devastating magical aura.
"N-Nee-sama!" Ren cried out in sheer terror.
Driven by pure, subconscious survival instinct, his newly awakened Ki violently flared to life, enveloping his small body in a faint white light to protect his organs from her crushing Mana pressure.
Seeing that faint white light and realizing that her little brother had activated his combat energy to protect himself from her, Kaguya froze.
The murderous Mana in the air instantly vanished as she reined in her aura. Without speaking a single word, she stood up from her chair, turned her back, and walked swiftly toward the library exit. Behind her blank, perfectly stoic face, only one devastating, heartbroken thought echoed on a loop:
'He doesn't trust me...'