As she finished her story, the room fell silent. She was starting to sniffle again from dredging up the bad memories; things she’d actively been trying to block out for nearly a decade. She looked over at Jaspar to gauge his reaction. He just looked stunned.

She gulped. I’ve never told anyone this story, she thought. I don’t even think my father knows how I actually got my sword saint powers. Maybe it was too much for him. Or maybe the story itself wasn’t enough. I’m not stupid enough to think that I should have received a sword saint’s ability to protect myself.

“I’m…so sorry,” Jaspar finally said. “That should have never happened to you, and the fact that you got your sword saint’s ability at that moment to protect you…” he sighed and shook his head. “That’s a miracle in and of itself.”

Tears flooded her eyes again from his words. Why is he always so kind? She wondered.

“I understand your pacifism better than I ever have before in the past,” he sighed heavily. “I know it probably doesn’t matter to you, but one on one kills like that, where you know the person, interacted with them, and kill them in such a private way, are not like being on the battlefield. One on one like that is just kind of traumatizing, no matter who it is or how it happens.”

The tears were falling freely again from Maude’s eyes. He patted her gently on the back. “To have that be the first one for you, and at such a young age…” He clicked his tongue. “Combined with your father and Zara, it really is no wonder that you turned into such a pacifist. I’ll never forget my first private kill like that…I had nightmares for months, and I shook every time I held a sword. And that was not the first time I had killed someone.” He breathed heavily.

“That happened to you too?” she asked. “I always just thought I was the weird one.”

“It’s not weird,” Jaspar replied, frowning. “I don’t know where you got that idea in the first place. It’s pretty natural to struggle with something like that. You are killing another human being after all, and that is not something to take lightly.”

His words only made her cry harder. I always thought I was alone in my reaction to death like that, Maude thought. But I am not. I am not.

“My father told me that it was weird to place such high value on human life,” she murmured softly through her tears.

“Of course your father would think that,” he replied. “Your father is severely lacking in humanity.”

She couldn’t help but let out a little giggle, through the tears. “That’s true,” she said.

“Plus, being that young,” Jaspar said, returning back to the original topic. “That’s so young that I don’t know that killing someone like that wouldn’t be severely distressful.” He paused. “Unless you’re Matthias Holloway, of course.”

She laughed again. She never thought that she would be able to laugh at her father’s expense. It had always seemed as though she would never be able to think of him in any other way than the harsh, stern man that he was.

If I had known that this was how Jaspar would respond to this story, she thought, I would have told it to him so much sooner. I love this part of him so much. I hate that our time is nearing its end. I don’t know how I will be able to find a way to live without him.

He patted her gently on the back a few more times. “Do you mind if I ask you a few other questions related to how you got your ability?” he asked.

“Of course,” she nodded. “You’re the first person I’ve ever told the true story behind how I got my ability,” she said.

His eyes widened in surprise. “Well that gives me a few more questions to ask, then,” he replied. “Thank you for allowing me to pry a little.” He cleared his throat.

“Of course,” Maude replied again. She gulped, not entirely sure what he would ask. I can handle it, though, she thought.

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“My first question is how was the body found?”

Maude nodded. “That’s a great question,” she replied, breathing a bit of a sigh of relief. “It was actually found the next day when the maids were cleaning the library, and it caused quite a bit of a commotion. I think two or three maids ended up fainting at the sight of it, and were unconscious for quite some time, which put the cleaning even more behind schedule than the actual body itself had.” She paused, squinting her eyes a bit to remember what all had happened in relation to it. “If I remember correctly, it actually also turned into quite an investigation of the ball’s attendants as well, since it was suspected that one of the ball’s attendees was the culprit.” She pursed her lips. “I don’t really remember how or why they ended up calling the investigation off, but I also didn’t want to pry too much into it because I did not want another reason for my father and Zara to try to get rid of me.”

She looked up from her hands to Jaspar’s face. His eyes were even wider than before. “It’s impressive that they went that far for a mere guard of Holloway.”

Maude shrugged. “I always suspected that they would find some way to pin it on me, or accuse me of it because they left it so open-ended, but they did not.”

He nodded. “My next question is about just that. What did you do with the dress?”

Maude nodded again. “Another great question,” she said. “Honestly, I took advantage of the chaos. I called one of the maids and asked them to start a fire in the fireplace. They were unusually compliant that day, probably because of the incident itself. Anyway, once the fire was going and I was alone, I burned it in the fireplace.”

“Hmm,” he replied. “You were smart with strategy, even back then.” He smiled at her. “My next question is if anyone ever figured out that it had actually been you who had done it.”

Maude shook her head. “The investigation was inconclusive, and no one actually told me anything about how I was suspected. Though, admittedly, later on, my father did tell me that at one point he had suspected it had been me shortly after he found out about my sword saint ability.” She paused, pursing her lips again. “But otherwise, as far as I know, you and I are the only two people in the whole world who know it was me.”

“How did your father and Zara find out about your sword saint ability then?” he asked. “Especially if you were only potentially linked to the killing after your father knew of your ability?”

“Mm,” she replied, tapping her finger on her lips. “How do I explain this?” She paused, still tapping. “When I first got my ability, I had no discipline or control of it because it was not as though I had already been studying the art of the sword, but rather, it was pretty random that I got it in the first place. Augment, as you know, is heavily dependent upon the sword saint themselves. So as a result, the next time I got so angry with Zara that I was ready to fight her, it came out in full force. My father was there when it happened, and he was extremely upset. He actually thought that I might be playing parlor tricks on him and Zara to scare them a little. So he took me to a sword master to get assessed. That sword master confirmed that I was indeed the real deal, and subsequently begged my father to let him tutor me. My father did eventually agree on the condition that the sword master tutor my brother Callum as well.” Maude shook her head. “One time my sword tutor told me that he really only said yes to tutoring Callum because it was such an honor to him to be able to tutor a sword saint.”

Jaspar shook his head. “From the get go, your father took the fact that his daughter was the empire’s sword saint for granted.” He sighed. “Alright. I have one more question,” he continued. “I mainly want to confirm more than anything. You truly had never picked up a sword prior to this moment?” he asked.

Maude nodded, pressing her lips together tightly. “I mean, it’s not impossible that I never had, but I had never been trained in it, or had ever picked one up to fight at the very least,” she confirmed.

He let out a quick breath of air. “It’s so fascinating to me that the first time that you picked up a sword was the time that you became the sword saint,” he said, shaking his head.

She smiled, gazing up towards the ceiling. “I truly believe that the single moment of me grabbing that guard’s sword significantly changed the trajectory of my life,” she said. “Sometimes I wonder if that single moment was what protected me against so many nefarious plots from Zara and my father.”

He nodded. “I’m sure they were cooking things up for you, too. You were supposed to be the emperor’s concubine at one point, if you recall.”

Maude grimaced and nodded. “I forgot about that,” she said. “So that and I suspected that Zara would have long since killed me by now if I wasn’t the sword saint. I would have probably died at some point before making it to the palace.”

He nodded sharply. “You very well might have,” Jaspar agreed. He wrapped his arms around her tightly. “Thank you for answering all of my questions,” he said. “And thank you for sharing something with me that you haven’t shared with anyone else in the world.”

She looked over at him and smiled softly. “Thank you for listening and being so kind in your response,” she said. “I love you, Jaspar.”

“I love you, too, Maude,” he said. “Now, let’s go and get some rest for now. Tomorrow’s going to be a big day after all.”

Maude nodded and smiled sadly. “Indeed it is,” she agreed.