It was a small village, and everyone knew Guy, as he'd been recently named, was courting Celene. Too bad Celene would never give him the time of day, or night. The other girls and women pretended they didn't notice if he made a pass at them, supposedly to not betray Celene.

“And how long have you been courting the girl?” Jonathan asked during their morning spar.

“Since I came to this village, so about eight months now. Though she hasn't been here all the time, she goes off for days or even weeks at a time on missions.”

“I could almost asure you the girl doesn't hate you or anything like that. It's just romances in such a tight knit community as our little village, they tend to be quite public affairs.”

“Oh. I see.”

“Yes,” Jonathan nodded. “Anyway, I think I might have just the perfect solution for you, kid.”

“Yeah?”

“Me and the family, in fact most of the village will be heading over to the capital. We've been hired by a couple of the neighbouring villages as escorts for them as they take their produce to market. I figured it'd be a great opportunity to get you registered with the adventurer’s guild.”

“Huh? You sure I should come?”

“Yes. Although I'm a master, sparring with only me can only get you so far. Don't think I didn't notice you broke through the intermediate rank in your second style already. That's as far as I got in the demon god style. There is talent in you kid. You should be able to find more opportunities to train once we are in the capital.”

“Really? You think I'm talented?”

“I suppose you wouldn't have a frame of reference, seeing as how you have no memories and all. Reaching the intermediate tier in any weapon or style, let alone two styles like you… I just can't compare it to anything worth while now. Look at this, Noid isn't yet a master of anything yet, but he is among the ten strongest swordsmen in the kingdom, if not the world. The kingdom has about sixty or so sword masters, but only nine people above that tier.”

“You are ranking Noid above the masters?”

“He can exchange blows with any master. Well he can do that, and win at least seven out of ten times. And that was well before the war. After his involvement in that war, I feel like his inability to step into the master realm shouldn't be ridiculed, it should be feared.”

“Why is that?”

“Because there can only be one reason for that: he is trying to consolidate his power, strengthen his foundation, perhaps even invent a whole new style of his own before he ascends. Only, how much more solid can his foundations be?”

Even Guy was lost when he thought about it. Noid was truly a scary person, who somehow still looked like a kid.

“Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, having such a high aptitude for so many sword styles is not a small thing. And we haven't even tasted the extent of your talent. You are not the fastest learner, but you are not the slowest by a long margin. People take years just advancing from the beginning to the intermediate rank while only pursuing one style no less.”

Guy started to rub his chin, lost somewhere in his mind, thinking about all the losses he'd accrued over the last more than half year of sparring with the other trainees. He'd started to win some in recent weeks, but he was still no where near strong enough to beat Celene, even if he made her work for her wins.

“And besides,” Jonathan was saying to him, “why are you acting like you need to be convinced to come to the city with us? It's a bigger pond, therefore it's the perfect place to deal with your lady problem.”

Guy’s eyes widened, and Jonathan thumped him on the back and laughed like a maniac.

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“Is that right?” an ice cold voice said from behind Jonathan. “Is that why you want to go to the city then?”

Jonathan's face froze, his lip twitched, perhaps in some kind of prayer. She was there though, his wife was.

Maria Wilde had been a maid at count Ellan’s house when Jonathan had been a contracted guard. Now the two had a home and had built a village and a successful business around it, and they had fostered one of their old employer's sons. Noid Ellan stood behind the fuming woman, holding their two now scared looking daughters.

Guy put his arms up in a non threatening gesture and walked as slowly as possible away from the lady's line of sight. He walked past her, but the cute little girls were just too much for him to ignore. He tried to play as quietly and as fast as possible before he was out of there like the wind.

Guy walked next to Celene on most of the journey. He noticed the expectant looks the others, and even Celene kept sending him, but it was his first mission, he was fully focused on performing better than expected.

It wasn't because he was sure the girl would reject him, or because he was kind of nervous because Noid was right there. He'd seen more than one of the girls he'd eyed up staring at him admiringly. It was for sure even Celene had the hots for him. She probably wouldn't mind if he pursued her and every other girl in their village. Heck, even Guy…

He did not complete that thought, instead scanning his side of the road for the fiftieth time. His rest was called for not a few minutes later, and for some reason, Celene sat next to him. There was something wrong with the way she was acting this whole journey.

He decided to confront her about it, so he lifted his head and turned to her. Their eyes met. She'd already been facing him, waiting for him to look at her.

“You-” they both spoke at the same time.

His eyes opened wide, and her cheeks burned. None of them looked away though. Guy felt there was some kind of trial here and whoever looked away first would be the loser.

He inclined his head, intending to let her speak first. She nodded in acknowledgement, sighed, and started.

“Look, about your advances these past few months. Were…we …were you serious? I couldn't tell if you were joking or not, but then everyone was taking you seriously, and the girls were ribbing me about it, and you just kept on coming. I…”

He sighed when she didn't continue. “I'm sorry it was hard on you, Celene.” He looked away first, his stomach dropped for some reason he didn't know. “I was serious.”

“Y-you, you were? You are not anymore?” she said with a small sigh.

“I'd like to keep being serious, but really, I think I should have gotten the message a lot earlier.” He smiled self deprecatingly.

“You…” her voice broke, and Guy turned to look at her in surprise. There were tears flowing down her face. “You just took me by surprise, okay?! I have never had a guy running after me. I was always too violent, or much stronger it bruised their egos, but you didn't give up even after I'd defeated you a thousand times. I just thought…”

But once again, she couldn't find the right words to continue. She stormed off crying, and for a few moments he froze. But then he stood up, stretched his hand out and started to shout for her to wait for him.

His trailing hand was grabbed by a calloused hand. He turned around in surprise, and looked into intense brown eyes set on a body shorter than his own.

“We need to have a bit of a word,” Noid said.

Guy hesitated. He wanted to go after Celene, but he couldn't remember the last time he'd spoken to Noid. It was strange, when he thought about it. Noid was supposed to be training him, but he'd passed him on to Jonathan. When Jonathan had nothing more to teach him, shouldn't Noid have stepped up to help him learn new styles or whatever. Why had no one ever questioned anything? Why hadn't he?

Yeah, fuck this shit. This whole shit could wait. Celene was in tears, that strong woman.

“It's about the girl,” Noid said, probably having noticed Guy was going to leave him either way.

Guy froze in indecision, but finally he followed the child wonder.

“So, what's it you have to tell me?” he asked testily.

Noid winced. “I'm sorry you think my teaching style is a bit lacking. I don't really think I'm planning to change it though. It's working for you.”

“Then what is it you want?!”

“A person like you, a person obviously destined for greatness, your relationships need to be a little better chosen.”

“Destined for greatness?”

“Your whole coming back from the dead trick. You think I don't know something so important about my own apprentice?”

“What are you-?”

“Such an ability is not a simple thing, boy,” the boy said. “It's an impossible power, one that probably has a big cost. Why would the world give you such a boon? It's like this whole world is a trial, built just to turn you into a hero. And you think you have the time to pursue such meaningless relationships?”

“The world…? A trial?”

“Look, I'm not trying to make a clone of myself. Obviously you're free to do whatever you want, but at least consider my words.”

The boy left, and Guy was lost. He stared toward Celene's path at last, knowing that possibility was now in the past.

A week later, the whole company knew something had happened. Celene and Guy were kept as far away from each other as possible. All the females looked at him angrily, but he wasn't going to chase any of them anymore. He didn't hear about or from Celene at all.

When they reached Hossford city, Guy went with Jonathan for his adventurer's guild registration.

Somehow, Guy knew he didn't get the standard treatment. Jonathan hadn't bragged about it, but being one of only sixty seven sword masters was probably a big deal. The receptionist had started asking Guy to fill some form when she spotted Jonathan. Her whole demeanor shifted.

“Mr Wilde, the guild master can see you and your apprentice anytime.”

Jonathan smiled at her, “thanks, miss. I'll take you up on that.”

There was some kind of trial to join the guild, and from the battered swordsman holding a broken blade and a single hilt, it had a combat potion.

Guy frowned at the glaring swordsman, then he shrugged and followed behind Jonathan. It's not like he was ever going to meet that minor character ever again.

Of course he met said minor character again just a few hours later, and the youth remembered him well.