Ch 100: Spar

"Tell me, Mark, is Lucien really running beside Melissa? And he is actually talking with her?" Judy asked, half-dazed, to Mark, who followed her gaze and seemed just as shocked as she was. She had to believe that she was seeing correctly.

Slowly and surely, the events of the day were becoming weirdly indigestible to her.

"Yes, he seems to be matching her pace and talking with her." Mark's words hit her like a lightning bolt from the heavens themselves.

She had attended multiple banquets and had encountered Lucien on several occasions, though it had never amounted to nothing more than passing by him at a distance with occasional small two or three word talk.

She had seen with her own eyes how distant and untouchable Lucien was, how even people of great power treaded carefully around him. In her mind, she had long since decided he was a silent and solitary man rather than a talkative one, shaped by how he always drifted alone at banquets, how he would slip into the sidelines and drink by himself, offering only sparse words when someone came to him. He never sought out others on his own, and he always carried a face that said plainly: do not bother me.

She had grown quite accustomed to that version of him. Yet coming to the academy had presented a new version entirely. In the academy, he was still the same person at his core, still carrying the same presence and expressions, but he talked more. Mostly to teach, and here and there he would offer pointed remarks to students.

She had not forgotten how sharply Lucien had lashed out at Patrick, the princess, and Eleena for being late. Even so, that had been something she could digest easily, because it felt aligned with the personality she already knew: do not touch me, and do not anger me. What had truly surprised her, however, was how he had gone out of his way to increase the difficulty for the princess and Eleena. And on the following day, he had done the same for Patrick as well.

Though Patrick had behaved like trash and arguably deserved it, increasing the bracelet's mana restriction for the princess and Eleena was something Lucien should not have done, or at least that was how it felt to her, because she could not shake the sense that he was doing it intentionally, targeting them and mocking them by calling their talent great in a tone that was anything but sincere. That had been the surprising part, learning that Lucien could be petty enough to go after students for being late, yet he had not gone after Patrick on that very day, even though Patrick had been far later than the princess and Eleena. It was puzzling her for a while but at the end she had decided to discard thinking about any longer because she could not come to the conclusion no matter how much anguishly she thought over it.

So seeing Lucien running amiably beside Melissa now, and talking with her as though they were old friends, was something that did not sit right with her. He should have been training by himself or occupied with his duties. Instead, he was here at the training ground this early in the morning. Though it could hardly be called early anymore, but nonetheless it was still relatively so.

"Look, he is sparring with her."

"Why!" Judy felt incredulous as she watched Lucien and Melissa stop running and spar off against each other. Lucien held a black sword so dark that its blade and hilt were nearly indistinguishable from each other at this distance, while Melissa held a wooden wand laced with runes that flared brilliantly as she channeled her mana through it, a golden crystal globe sitting atop it and pulsing with light. Judy could only make out the intricate engravings on the wand because they burned golden each time Melissa pushed her mana through it, sending spheres hurling toward Lucien.

The wand was clearly expensive and of a fairly high rank.

***

"Is that all your power?" Lucien asked, studying Melissa with a measured look. He had initially intended to increase the difficulty of her training gradually, but since he had arrived late today and needed to conclude things sooner rather than later, he had decided that sparring would serve the purpose well enough. And so here they were.

However, the problem was that Melissa was not properly channeling her mana through the new wand he had gifted her. He had placed the order for it some time ago and received it only yesterday. He could have given it to her then, but because of his killing urges he had chosen to limit his interactions as much as possible and resolved to give it to her the next day instead, which was now, today, and so it had gone according to his plan.

Melissa tightened her grip on the new wooden wand. Its surface was covered in intricate runes that coiled around the wood like a dragon, and the golden globe at its tip flared brightly as she poured her mana through it. A pointed, cone-shaped burst of mana shot toward him.

Lucien sidestepped it with ease. Her true strength lay in healing, but she needed to become far better at combat as well, and he was going to make sure that she did, because he could not always be there to protect her. There would be many fights in the future where a single mistake could cost a life, and that was precisely why it mattered that she learned to hold her own.

Lucien moved swiftly, appearing at Melissa’s side before she could react, and knocked her clean off her feet. She hit the ground head first with a dull thud, then turned her face toward him with barely contained irritation. "You could be a little nicer to me, couldn't you?" she muttered with a trace of genuine anger in her voice. Her face had gotten dirty with grass and mud, and the golden hair she had gathered into a bun had come completely undone, loosened to the point that she looked as though she had wandered out of one of those horror movies he had watched in his previous life. Well, not entirely like something out of a horror picture, because even disheveled and flecked with dirt, her golden hair managed to look strangely divine.

Rather than replying to her words, Lucien extended his hand toward her. She shifted her eyes slowly up to him, clearly weighing whether this was some kind of trick, but she seemed to give up on that line of thinking rather quickly, likely deciding he had no need to resort to tricks in order to win. Or perhaps she had never thought that deeply about it at all and he was just thinking too much. She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. She was light, and she rose easily, settling onto her feet and looking up at him.

Lucien stared at her face and saw that she seemed to be holding something back. Like she wanted to say something but could not quite bring herself to say it.

Whatever internal struggle she was working through, she appeared to get the better of it, because she finally spoke. "Thank you for the wand." Her cheeks flushed faintly at the end of the sentence and she turned her face to the side.

What is the need to blush over that? Lucien narrowed his eyes to confirm what he had seen, but by then her cheeks had already returned to their usual color. Is she shy about thanking me, or is she embarrassed that she waited so long to say it?

He sensed a presence at his back and turned around sharply.

"Can you please train me as well?"

***

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