As I followed behind Corolio, I kept thinking back to my dream, something is wrong with everything around me.

People calling me a murderer shouldn’t be something I care about, I’m usually such a patient person but my emotions take over when I hear this word… And why do I keep running into weak and incapable people. Even my dream just now revolved around this topic.

Snoopsi once said when me and Ostel were arguing about who’s stronger - ‘when you have a problem with a concept or an idea, try to get an outside perspective on the words you’re using. Outside meaning outside of your own head… Just ask each other what you mean by this word.’

It turns out Ostel just thought strength was how much a person wants to do something, and I thought it was how physically strong they are…

Of course we couldn’t really understand it to this level at the time and Snoopsi had to translate us to each other haha. Might as well try I guess.

“Hey old m- sir Corolio, may I ask you a question?”

He stopped and turned to me with his eyes open wide before opening his mouth “Why of course young man, it would appear you do understand politeness, how pleasant.”

“How would you define the word ‘weak’?” Isn’t he just going to laugh at that? I mean weak is just weak…

“Quite an interesting question indeed, well it would seem to me that my answer depends on the context of the usage.” The old man closed his eyes and for a quick, quiet moment touched his white mustache with his right hand.

“A weak person could be someone who’s physically frail, a weak person could also be someone to whom an insult cuts deep into the heart.

Then again, a person who’s cut deeply by an insult could have bulging muscles and a person with no physical prowess could be quite mentally resilient. My answer is that the weaker person is the one who’s mental resilience is not quite up to par with the requirements of the task at hand, does that satisfy your curiosity?” I nodded in response. His answer was about the same as mine I guess, though I was surprised he answered at all.

“Why the sudden interest in my opinion on the word, pray tell.”

“Just trying to figure something out.

Another question if you don’t mind then, do you think I’m a weak person?”

He quietly looked at me for a few seconds before answering “I believe this question to be something you need to figure out on your own.”

“Tch… What a useless response, whatever.”

He just giggled slightly and continued leading me towards whatever it was that he wanted to get to.

“Then do you think I’m a murd-” I felt a small sting in my heart and decided against asking “never mind, forget it.”

I was completely lost in thought as we walked through a hallway in the palace when suddenly my body hit something, I stumbled a bit and the girl I ran into fell to the ground. It was the noble girl from earlier and next to her was a VERY angry Dawn.

He was about to start shouting at me when I said “Hey Dawn I need to ask you something, can we talk?”

Before he could answer I sensed an immense pressure coming from behind them, it was suffocating, I jumped backwards and got into full alert mode, it was a do or die fight, I’m probably going to die.

From behind the flustered, angry Dawn who was now helping his mistress stand up, appeared the large frame of a strong man. It almost seemed like the walls around him turned into curved lines, his presence shrunk the room entirely and made me feel as if I was being crushed.

I coated my hands and calf muscles in Sy and instinctively jumped with full strength, probably tearing my own muscles apart in the process, towards the man before he said “Lily, you dummy why are you on the floor?” Does he know this girl? I couldn’t stop the momentum anymore and the man seemed entirely unfazed by me charging at him.

Luckily for me, the same boot from earlier appeared in my vision and kicked me into the wall.

I dropped to the floor and lifted my head as blood was flooding out of my probably broken nose to see Dawn bending a knee to the formidable man while apologizing profusely.

The man walked up to me and smiled before holding his hand out to me. I took his hand and got up to my feet.

He opened his mouth and a very low, unsettling voice came out “Feisty boy, not many people would try to attack me when we first meet, I like you for that!” He started squeezing my hand tightly before adding “However, not many people survive after hurting my little sister either!”

I panicked and activated my Seal to teleport behind him before trying to jump away, only to find out my legs gave up and I fell to the ground, my head spinning from the Seal’s all too frequent side effects.

I really needed some time to relax a bit at this point…

“Zick! Wait, it was my fault as well, I wasn’t looking and we bumped into each other, please forgive this servant!” This girl… My face was feeling a bit hot as I looked up to her from the ground.

“If Lily says so, I guess it’s fine… Dawn, you better not let my sister get hurt, or it’s your head that will roll on the ground. Is that clear?” Dawn, still bowing down, responded affirmatively of course.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“Here, Inoshi was it? I’ll help you get up. You wanted to talk to Dawn right? Is it alright if I join you guys?” I took the girl’s hand and got up on my shaking legs again.

“Y-you’re asking for my permission?”

She nodded in response and I said I didn’t mind but, before we started walking away, Corolio reminded me that he needs to have me sign into the staff and give me lodgings.

“You stupid psycho, attacking master Zick, one of the strongest people on the continent like that, go get some sleep so your fucking brain starts working again… Oh wait, I guess that wouldn’t matter, you're retarded either way.” Dawn said before the Brown group walked away. Asshole, though he did probably save my life there so I’ll forgive him this time.

“Pihihihi, there’s no quiet moments around you, isn’t that right young one?” Corolio said, half asking half matter of factly.

On our way to Corolio’s office, I kept thinking about this person and his incredible power, the walls just curved around him, that had to have been a Seal’s power, probably at least at level 6 ‘י’ (yod) too and his Sy energy was also really high, not as high as mine, but still very high, maybe the highest I’ve seen before.

The other thing I couldn’t stop thinking about was my past encounters with other people, the Villfer guy, Kiyoko, the old maid, the guards in the stadium.

Something that kept coming into my head was Kiyoko’s voice calling me a coward.

I couldn’t make sense of anything, it was all a big salad of organized information that I can’t connect.

***

I finally arrived at my room for the next few days. When I opened the door I was greeted by a familiar face again, Dawn…

“I guess we’re in the same room for the next few days huh? Great now I can ask you the ques-”

“You may not. Lily said she wanted to join this little talk, so you will wait until we can all talk together.” And with that he took off his clothes, lay down in his bed and closed his eyes.

“What?! What are you talking about? She doesn’t even know me so why would she need to listen to my question? You’re not seriously going to make me wait until tomorrow right?”

“Aghhh you’re so noisy, fuck! You and Wasu were always like that, can’t you just shut up and go to sleep?”

I rolled my eyes at that.

“Whatever man, you’re still an asshole… By the way, does the lady know you call her Lily? And are you guys like… a couple? I coul-” A pillow hit me in the face.

“GO. TO. FUCKING. SLEEP!”

Come on… this guy’s always so angry. I kind of missed him though.

I finally got a goodnight sleep, this time dreaming about one of my wild hunt missions with Dawn of all people. It was the first time I ever had Bilzzar meat.

After waking up I went straight to meet up with Corolio again, he said he wanted to have a spar with me in the morning to test my abilities.

We arrived at a small training room. Of course prince red-hair, Liliya, Zick, Dawn and 3 other men I’ve never seen before sat there to watch the show.

I heard their talks behind me as we prepared to fight.

“Dawn, you actually know the kid, who do you think is going to win?” it was Zick’s voice.

“Oh yeah only Slayer assassins can perceive Sy levels so you guys can’t tell. Noshi’s Sy is even higher than master Zick’s. If the goal was to kill the other person, Noshi would’ve won against anybody… But he’s not allowed to kill his opponent here, this old man seems quite practiced in single combat, I’d wager he was a Dualist of Clorze before coming here. So probably the old man.”

What? I turned my attention to Corolio, his stance was really similar to a dualist from the Clorze company, he’s right. This is going to be difficult.

The old man had one hand behind his back and his body tilted in a way that made it look as if he was hiding behind his arm that was stretched forward.

“You may begin as soon as you’re ready, youngster.” He said while teasing me with an inviting gesture.

“You better not regret it, old man!” We’re not allowed to use weapons, but other than that, the only restriction is no fatal injuries.

I looked at the ceiling above the grandpa, the Light Stone was very stable and lit the entire room from just that single source. I took off my shirt and rolled it very loosely around my fist.

I extended my calf muscles just a little bit with Sy and started running as fast as possible towards the man. When the distance was short enough to deploy my plan I threw a fake punch with my shirt covered fist and used another special Slayer Sy technique to make the shirt launch out of my hand and into the air. I kept my running speed steady and approached Corolio which I now realized had closed his eyes.

My shirt casted a large shadow over the battlefield and I dove into it while maintaining my speed.

My instincts screamed to stop and reconsider but I couldn’t stop here, he only closed his eyes, that’s just a deception!

I popped out of the same shadow behind the man and went for a kick behind his kneecap to throw him off balance. To my surprise, Corolio was already facing me, his body shot forward in a swift motion that maintained his stance.

it was as if he was a wall with a sword sticking out of it. His left side of the body invaded my space.

His left knee forced me into an unstable stance and with his left hand he stabbed forward towards my chest with his fingers completely straight and coated in Sy.

I managed to react in time and caught his wrist. I was about to pull him towards me in order to grab his neck but he was one step ahead, both figuratively and literally. His left leg got behind my left knee and forced me to the ground.

His fingers were inches from my forehead now but I managed to hold him back with one hand. I used my free hand to throw a strike at his kneecap, it was supposed to be a bait for him to try and break my hand. It worked.

Corolio lifted his knee upwards to meet my fingers and break them, but I stopped before impact, I grabbed his kneecap and pressed hard on the sides, below the joint.

The old man collapsed to the ground immediately while grunting.

“Pshh, you may stop young man, it is your victory. Very well done if I do say so myself!”

Corolio sat down on the hard wooden floor and slowly caught his breath.

“I may not be as young and strong as I used to be, but anyone capable of defeating me in a duel, is capable of protecting the young prince. Your technique is quite crude and unfit for face to face combat, but you make up for it with impressive reactions and creative strategies. Very well fought!” For some reason seeing him smile and hearing his compliments made me feel really happy.

“Yo ho ho ho, very entertaining indeed! I heard from Dawn over there that you are not well versed in actual combat but it seemed to me like you’re very much a capable fighter. How about we go for a proper round as well?”

I turned my head to find out the obvious, this voice belonged to Zick…