As the duel commenced, I immediately took the offensive by running towards Blade. I swung my sword in a huge arc downward, which of course was way too telegraphed. He parried my attack and prepared for an assault. My hands started to tremble, but it wasn’t out of fear; moreso, it was a burst of excitement.

I opted to randomly swing the sword at him in hopes of catching him off guard somehow, and to my surprise he actually began to stumble and I had even managed to strike his armor a few times. He couldn’t seem to predict my next move; I was so bad at using a sword that it actually threw him off.

I then decided to go for a finishing blow by thrusting the sword forward. Blade had just barely managed to dodge the attack in time ducking forward toward the edge of my sword, the tip managed to scrape the side of his face.

Blade looked at his own sword in disappointment as he tossed it on the ground.

"This is ridiculous," he sighed.

"Wait…Was that it?" I asked in confusion as I loosened my grip.

"Of course not," he scoffed, "I just need a better weapon." He placed his right hand out, and a bright blue light began to emit from the palm of his hand. Out of the light emerged a small sword.

"Finally showing your abnormality, huh?" I clenched my teeth; who was I kidding, I knew damn well this fight was far from over.

Abnormals can be found all around the galaxy on any of the five major planets, they are a unique group of people born with strange abilities, these abilities tend to manifest alongside one’s elemental gift. While Blade’s abnormality may have been simple, it was clearly enough to get him to the position he was at.

"I just wanted to even the playing field a bit," his sword seemed weightless with the way he swung it around.

Captain Strek then came over, "Things seem to be ramping up a bit." He applauded us.

The other matches had already concluded, and I was worried that this one could end the same as the others, entirely one-sided.

As Blade took a step forward, I jumped back and blasted a small ball of fire towards him which he quickly dodged and continued to inch closer. I felt cornered, and there wasn’t much I could do; he had his guard up and was preparing to end this fight. I clenched my fist in frustration, gripping the sword even harder as I did. I knew it, I didn’t deserve to be in this course. I only got in due to sheer luck and my grandfather’s status.

All of a sudden, it was like I had lost control of my own body. Somehow, my adrenaline had risen, and my vision had become tinted red.

As Blade stepped forward to attack, my body instantly reacted to his movements, and I managed to dodge each of his attacks one after another; it was almost like he was going in slow motion.

Blade halted his assault, and his face formed a faint grin. "Seems all those rumors weren't baseless after all."

He changed stances and positioned his sword behind him; pointed downwards. He placed both hands on the handle of his sword and then used his entire body weight to swing, which forced me to try to block. As our swords collided, it was clear who had the upper hand. I dropped my sword and blacked out for a moment.

My memory of that event is still hazy to this day; my body became almost numb, along with a huge surge of power. It was like I had lost all sense of who I was.

The moment I regained consciousness, I heard a voice shouting towards me.

"I said that’s enough!" Captain Strek had pushed me away from Blade. My first had been planted on his chest, and his armor was cracked. Everyone else had gone silent.

"I-I’m sorry, I guess I got a bit carried away there." I quickly pulled my arm back and exhaled with a nervous laugh.

I had no idea what had happened, and my vision was still quite fuzzy. From what I remembered, I had lost the fight after he disarmed me, and yet...

"And to think you were impressed by my abnormality," Blade whispered to me before getting back in line. "It seems you’re actually taking this seriously for once." he snickered.

"What are you talking about...?" I hopelessly retorted, not realizing he had left.

"From what you’ve all displayed here today, I can be sure that each and every one of you deserves to be in this course, regardless of your win or loss. I was able to get an idea of how you all fight. Even if we need to tone things down a bit," the captain gave a speech. His mouth formed a slight smirk as he turned to stare at me. "Just as a little forewarning, this course will test your abilities to the absolute limit. It will be quite the painstaking journey, but if any of you want to reach an S rank or higher, this is the time to prove yourselves,"

My hands were still shaking, and I couldn’t keep still; time seemed to be fluctuating. I began to hyperventilate and was about to break into a panic.

I quickly raised my hand.

"Prince?" The captain turned to face me.

"W-why am I in this class?" I asked, "Everyone here is A-ranked, but I’m only in C."

Riza scoffed. "Again with this? Is this your way of looking down on us? Last time I checked, you’re the only one with royal blood around here,"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"That’s not…"

“You’re really going to continue making these same excuses after what we’ve just witnessed!” A guy named Marz began to speak up, he was normally quiet and reserved but for something to make him lash out like this…

I couldn’t deny it, as much as I wanted to. There was no doubt that somehow I had managed to defeat Blade, but that wasn’t me…

A hand was placed on my shoulder, "Oh, come now; there’s no need to fret over who ‘deserves’ to be here or not." My grandfather had arrived at the training grounds. "As far as I’m concerned, all of you have one thing or another that puts you a step above the rest; all you need is just a push in the right direction to bring it out." With a loud clap, he ended his speech before dismissing the whole class. "Alright, everybody, that shall be it for today. You may all head home now, thank you for coming."

"Come now, Mistery, we should head back home now; supper will be ready soon," he turned to me as everyone had begun to pack their bags.

I remained with my head facing down, clenching my fist in frustration. "I'll... catch up with you later. There’s something I want to do first," my grandfather simply nodded his head while giving a wave as he walked away.

I ran towards Blade, managing to catch up with him before he had time to pack his bag. "Hey! Hold up!"

"Yeah…? What is it?" He asked me, clearly annoyed and ready to go home.

"I-I just wanted to see if you would like to hang out for a bit, maybe go somewhere? It’ll be my treat. To pay you back for the broken armor, I mean," I had asked him, hoping to get back in his good graces.

"If you’re worried that I’ll go tell everyone about the ability you showed me, then don't. I can handle a loss; I don’t need any of your pity," he remarked.

"How many times do I have to tell you, it’s not like that?" I replied.

Blade sighed as he rubbed his forehead in frustration. "And how long are you going to try to keep this facade going?"

"It’s not a facade! Can’t you just tell me what happened then?" I lashed out

He rubbed the bridge of his nose while he looked away from me. "I can’t believe I’m even having this discussion with you," he threw his bag towards the ground. "It was like you were an entirely different person, okay? Your eyes went blank, and you reacted to every attack I threw at you," he explained to me. "You even managed to cover a huge distance in less than a second."

I was in shock; I couldn’t believe what was being said to me. "W-what are you saying?" I asked him, "I can’t do any of that."

"You see! This is what I mean!" He had finally lost his temper. "I understand that you may want to keep your power hidden, but I truly don’t understand what your end goal in all this is. You know I don’t really like bringing up your family, but it’s kind of hard to ignore when there’s such a huge gap between us. So forgive me for not exactly humoring you, prince.”

I had never seen him riled up like this. He quickly picked his bag back up and walked away, ignoring anything else I had to say.

This wasn’t the first, nor would it be the last time something like this would happen. Talks of this ‘hidden’ power I somehow possessed, one that everyone but me seemed to know about. Things had always been like this. No matter what I said to anyone, my grandfather’s ‘greatness’ always came first, and people just couldn’t seem to see past that. Whenever I would look at myself in the mirror, it was like a reflection of my grandfather was looking back, taunting me.

----------------------------------------

As I began making my way back to the castle for the night, I decided to stop by my favorite smithy. I wanted to check in on an order I had made a few days ago since it was scheduled to arrive soon.

The owner was a man named Sigil; he was a local blacksmith. We had a very good relationship, he was basically a second father figure to me, he and my grandfather really provided the support I needed during my younger days since my parents died a few years after I was born. I don’t remember much about my parents, but the things I do remember just seem like a dream and nothing more.

Hey, old man, you got the order?" I said to him as I entered the shop. That place always reeked of rust, coal, and sweat. It seemed just like home.

“Ah, Mistery, how’s it going? You look like shit," he said to me with his classic cackle.

Sigil was a pretty short yet stout-looking man; he had a receding hairline, a short graying beard, and always wore a brown leather apron whenever he worked.

"Yeah, I just came back from training. Gramps put me in a high-level course."

"Well, it’s about time," he said as he started to laugh.

"Very funny," I brushed the comment aside, "So do you have it or not?" I asked him with an eager expression on my face.

"Nah, the shipment was delayed; there ain't nothing I can do about it," he shrugged. "But, I do have something you might like," he said, whilst opening a cabinet in the corner of his room.

He reached in, pulled out a strange book, and handed it to me. The book was incredibly old, and the cover was scratched off.

"Lesson 3…" I read the spine of the book.

"Yeah that thing’s old as hell, pre-Neptar era," he said to me as he picked his hammer back up

"What!? Don’t these books cost a fortune?" I asked him, "How did you get this?"

"It was your friend, Hope," he commented.

I remained silent.

"She stopped by a few days ago and told me to give it to you as a present. She said something about moving up a rank," he continued to explain as he shifted his focus to the piece of armor in front of him. "You know, now that I think about it... She’s been stopping by quite often recently, always wondering when the next time you’ll show up will be. She’s a really nice girl, I can see why you like…"

I slammed the book down on the table as I clenched my fist.

"Again with this…" I whispered. "Please, just stop,"

The room went silent, and there was a growing tension in the air.

He sighed as he halted his work. "Don't tell me that still bothers you. It was five years ago. She wants to see you again." His tone of voice changed. Normally he would be a very upbeat person, always shouting, but he became serious.

"Still bothers me?" I glared at him. "You don’t know what I saw! I can’t just get over that!" I began to raise my voice.

"There’s a lot more to this than you know," he attempted to approach me.

"Then why don’t you just tell me?" I shoved him backwards "No one will tell me what I saw. You, my grandfather, no one. What are you all hiding from me!"

Sigil raised his voice as well. "There are some things that you just aren’t ready for; I need you to..."

"What the hell really happened that day?" I cut him off.

Sigil looked tense as he lowered his voice "I-I can’t answer that..."

He sat me down and placed his hand on my shoulder, "Get some rest, kid; you’ve had a long day."

I remained silent as I gathered my thoughts and had finally calmed down.

"I want you to take it. She went through the trouble of getting it, the least you could do is acknowledge that," he handed me the book, clearly looking distraught. "I know it’s not easy; it’s tough to be kept in the dark about all of this, but I promise that all will be revealed in time. Take it easy, kid,"

I reluctantly took hold of the book and headed back to the castle.