"Well, good morning." An said, narrowing her eyes at me, still in her bed.
"Oh yeah, good morning. How are you on this fine morning?" I replied, smiling back at her.
"Very confused." She responded, moving around in her bed and getting more comfortable.
"Why?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her and her actions.
'Wouldn't have thought Marquis Anabald would wear that sort of PJs.' I thought, looking at her black-lace nightmare.
"Some crazy fox came in this morning, demanding that I spar with her." An explained, glaring at me.
"I am sure she didn't demand it. She asked for it." I said, shrugging at her glare.
"Well, she was very aggressive about it." An said, sighing.
"Was she?" I replied thoughtfully.
"Yes, the sun is barely up, and now she wants to spar." She explained, pointing at the curtains in the same place I came through into her room.
"Well, are you busy today? Or is there something that's making it hard for you to spar with her?" I asked, tilting my head at her.
"No, I don't have any work to do while I am in the capital." Sighing, she shook her head.
"So, you are free, and you two can spar," I said, smiling once again.
"That's true, but I haven't had anything to eat this morning." An said, sighing again.
"You haven't? How late do you eat?" I genuinely asked, a bit confused.
"How early do you eat?" An asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
"When I wake up," I stated, making her expression.
"You force your chefs to make your food the moment you wake up." An said, accusing me of feeling quite bad.
"No, I have prepared food in my storage so that I can eat it at any time. I also prepared these on my own." I explained, making her look at me even weirder.
"Is it raw?" Asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe..." I said, looking away.
"Monster meat?" An added.
"It's good for protein," I said, still not looking at her.
"Well, seeing what you are, that makes sense. You eat your meat like that and all." An said, chuckling.
"That's quite mean," I said, chuckling with her.
"It depends on how you take it." She said with a small smile.
"So, are we going to spar or not?" I asked, getting back to the main reason why I was there.
"Kitsuna, I am not even out of bed. How the hell am I supposed to spar like this?" Marquis Anabald said, still sitting in bed.
"Mom, why are all the servants outside your room? Oh, Kitsuna Draig, why are you here?" Katie asked, glaring at me when she noticed I was also in the room.
"Well, I am here to ask a favour from your mother." I explained, gesturing at her mom in her bed.
"While she is in bed?" Katie asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah."
"Isn't that a bit rude?"
"I guess, but I am on a tight schedule." I simply said, making them both sigh in annoyance.
"What do you mean, by a tight schedule?" An asked.
"Well, the tournament is in 6 days, so yes, it's a tight schedule," I responded, grinning at her.
"What do you want to learn in our spars?" Asked An with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, it's more like testing it out and practicing with something," I said, making a small dagger in my hand before it crumbled to crystals.
"Can your sister and her boyfriend help with something that simple?" An asked, looking at me weirdly.
"No, they can't."
"I know they might be weaker than you, but that doesn't mean you can't practice against them."
"That's the problem. If I mess up, I might kill them because they are weaker than me." I said, narrowing my eyes at An.
"So, what is it that you want to practice?" An asked, wanting a serious answer.
"Uhm..."
"Just say it's not like it can be that big of a secret."
"Well, it's almost on the same level as I am." I explained while scratching my cheek.
"It is?"
"Yes."
"Can you at least give an example?" She asked again.
"I just did that, though?" I said, looking at her.
"Yeah, well, I didn't understand that at all." An said, shaking her head.
"Well, you know I create weapons, right?" I explained slowly and softly so that the servants outside couldn't hear me. Katie could, seeing as she was still glaring at me.
"Yes, with your ice magic."
"Well, I asked a smith king for some lessons, and he taught me a way to make a certain weapon to kill certain beings in this world. very strong beings." I explained, making An's eyes almost pop out of her head.
"You can't be serious." An said, waiting for a pun or something.
"I am."
"I will be ready in 5." Marquis Anabald annouced, disappearing from her bed.
"Awesome, I will wait outside then," I said, even though she wasn't in the room anymore.
"Huh, what were you two talking about?" Katie said, appearing to be very confused.
"Your mother will tell you later, probably," I said, shrugging while walking out of the room with Katie behind.
"Why can't you?" Katie asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because I don't want to, and if you knew about it, you would call the tournament useless," I explained, making her angry at me.
"Why would I do that?" Katie said it a bit aggressively.
"Because I have a cheat, hehe," I said, laughing.
"So? Everyone over the country can join the tournament." Katie stated it as if saying there might be kids stronger than me.
"Yes, but the number of people that can use this cheat can be counted on two hands," I said with a massive grin.
"Seriously."
"Well, I think so. It might be a bit more, but I doubt they will join the tournament as they are too old to be able to." I said it thoughtfully.
"I still don't understand why I can't know the reason why you want to spar with my mother."
"You can know about it, but I am hoping to leave it to your mother to tell you," I said, shutting her down.
"Sigh, fine."
"So, how is it going these days?" I asked, referring to her stress problems.
"After Mom came back, it has gone a lot better." She said this, smiling happily.
"I would think so. You might be a heiress, but you are still a kid and haven't gone to the academy yet." I said, shrugging. I didn't actually know what they taught at the academy, but I knew Grandma Amaris was the principal of the academy.
"The academy isn't there to learn how to run a territory. It's there to make connections with the lower nobility." Katie explained and answered my thoughts halfway for me.
"Really, is that the reason for it?" I said, scoffing at the dumb reason.
"Yes, I can understand how you haven't seen them around because you are you." Katie said, laughing, knowing I didn't care about other people much.
"Hey, what do you mean about that?"
"We need the lower nobility to help run the territories." Katie elaborated, sort of changing the topic.
"Sigh, I won't be the head of the house, so it doesn't really matter to me. It's not like I will be working with them in the black ops." I explained, not wanting to do anything like that.
"On the contrary, where do you think most of the black ops come from?" Katie said, grinning at me.
"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it," I said thoughtfully.
"Nobles that come from the north."
"Hmm, I guess I have to start caring about what is going on." I said, sighing in annoyance.
"Especially if you want to take over the black ops one day." Marquis Anabald said she was coming out of her room dressed and ready for practice.
"Why do you think I want to take over it? Amari is going to be the head of the house, and she will run the black ops. Not me." I said, looking at her and tilting my head in confusion.
"Dean might be the head of the house, but Stacy actually has the real power when it comes to the black ops." An said, grinning.
"Isn't he the leader?" I added, getting more confused.
"Yes, but that's only because he is the head of the house. Don't get me wrong, Dean has a lot of power in the black ops. But if the specialists get orders from him, they will double check with Stacy before following them."
"Huh, I guess that makes sense, but it's still not something I would want to take away from Amari."
"You won't be taking something away, but helping her. Running a territory isn't an easy thing." An said, not letting go of her grin.
"What about Zagan?" I stated, making her smile drop.
"Really, you want to leave the strongest attack force to someone who rushes everything and can't do much thinking for himself." An said, looking at me like I was dumb.
"... sigh, I guess."
"Anyway, that's not important right now. Follow me; let's go to the field."
"The field?"
"Yeah, that's what Stacy and I use when we spar."
"Alright."
"Sorry, my daughter, I will have to ask you to leave us for today. I will tell you everything tonight." She said she was looking at her daughter very carefully.
[5 min]
"Alright, we are here. Now show me your progress." An said he was facing me a few meters away.
"Okay, just one thing: don't panic when it blows up. It's not enough to kill me, anyway."
"What?"
"You will see. Just don't run towards me when it explodes, okay?" I said, making sure she understood.
"Alright, I won't do that."
"I hope so.' I thought about starting to create an ice demi-god weapon.
"Shit," I muttered, making ice appear between my arm and face.
Boom!!
"Kitsuna!" yelled An, I was surprised.
"I am fine; don't worry about it," I said, coughing as the smoke dissipated. Looking down, I saw that my arm and half of my chest were gone. My face and neck were OK, thanks to the ice wall I made in the nick of time.
"Huh, it did less damage than before," I said, pushing my regeneration to work faster.
"Is this really the least one of those explosions can do to you?" An said, looking at me worried.
"Yeah, as you can see, it will explode, and I won't die because of it," I said, shrugging again and flexing my healed hand.
"Sigh, now I understand why Stacy always complained about you." An said, facepalming herself.
"Everyone has their own fighting style," I said, shrugging while grinning at her.
"Yes, but having it be this suicidal isn't good." An said, looking at me strictly.
"Hey, I am not that reckless in a real fight," I said, lying through my teeth.
"Though you take gambles, something I saw in person," An said, narrowing her eyes at me.
"Yes," I said, looking away.
"Sigh, alright, go on, try again. I will see if I can spot any mistakes. However, I doubt I will." An said, sighing in defeat.
"Sorry."