Bryson walked through the halls of the mansion noticing a maid with coffee-coloured hair who was busy dusting the paintings on the other end of the hallway. Bryson could see while she was dusting the portraits that on her wrist was a cheap looking bracelet. Emerging from the corner was Duchess Coldwater walking past her.
“Oh, um, Duchess Coldwater.” The maid said to Bryson’s mother sheepishly.
“What is it?” Duchess Coldwater asked bored.
“Um… I was just wondering, if, uh, I would be allowed the afternoon off.” She asked hesitantly.
“I don’t care, go ahead. Sign yourself out.” She said dismissively.
“Thank you.” She said giving a deep respectful bow.
Bryson then walked past the two and headed down to the dining room. While walking he ran into Sable walking through in a white and blue dress. Sable did her best to avoid eye contact from Bryson.
Bryson gave Sable a glance, “Nice hairpin.” He said.
“Huh?” She said in surprise.
“That hairpin, you bought it at the store, right?” He asked.
“Uh, yes.”
“It looks nice.”
“Hmm.” Was all Sable replied with as she walked down the hall, pace quickening.
With a shrug, Bryson continued down the hall and headed of to breakfast.
***
Bryson found himself walking outside on the snowy streets with Gilles. Somehow or another he had been dragged along with Gilles to roam around random neighborhoods. According to Gilles it was to watch over the common folk. But Bryson was pretty sure he was just trying to show off his things. Bryson honestly would much rather practice his magic back at home, but mother told him to join Gilles.
The two were headed toward one of the city’s main training centres. Pretty unusual since they already have a state of the art of training facility in their home and the one, they were headed of to was rather average. Evidently a lot of more common folk will be there to witness Gilles new sword that was currently on his side.
The two as always were accompanied by a few guards. As they entered the building everyone inside became aware of their presence. They all stared at the two Coldwaters and their entourage of guards in awe.
The receptionist on the front desk quickly greeted them, “Hello my lords. How may I help you?”
“I want the main training room booked.” Gilles ordered.
“Of course, right this way.” The receptionist leads them toward the main training hall, which had been quickly emptied upon witnessing their arrival.
“Please help yourselves.” They said with a boy before leaving them.
As soon as the receptionist left, Gilles began to walk over to the monitor and set up his training program. After being satisfied with what he put down he headed back into the centre of the arena. Bryson in turn quickly moved out of the training area and into safety.
The training bot activated and approached Gilles to attack. Gilles however, moved first, rushing in with his new blade in hand and struck it across the side.
Bryson noted how in comparison Gareth would often move around his opponent while fighting, but Gilles ran straight forward, as if trying to go through them. Gilles was much less elegant and graceful than Gareth’s swordsmanship, and most likely fighting without a plan, but he made up for it with his strength.
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Gareth at fourteen was tall but lean, Gilles while still shorter than his older brother was much more stockier and likely to grow up bigger than his older brother. Gilles continued to smash into the training bot that had been purposefully set at a low level. Those around them did however watch with amazement as Gilles brutalize the training bot.
Bryson stood there watching Gilles smash his opponent and watched as the magical energy flared from each impact. Bryson took notes on how the magic looked as it flew from the blade and the machine. Wondering if he could somehow emulate that amount of power himself.
***
A couple hours later and a couple destroyed training bots later, they left the arena and were headed back home while enjoying some ice cream. As Gilles was busy consuming Bryson noticed two familiar faces.
Oh great. Bryson thought. It was the three child commoners from that time they shopped at the city centre. They were accompanied by… Bryson blinked at surprise at the familiar face. The maid he saw cleaning this morning. No longer wearing her uniform she was in casual wear. Cheap bracelet still attached to her wrist.
He tilted his head in confusion before noticing that the little girl and the maid looked rather similar. He assumed they were related, and it seemed like the little girl had just noticed them. Even worse, Gilles noticed them.
“Hey!” He shouted as he readied to cross the street toward them. The group on the other side hearing his cry spotted him. As Gilles approached along with his guards, Bryson knew it was going to be messy if they reached them.
Bryson looked around trying to figure out what to do, then he noticed Gilles blade hanging of his scabbard. Bryson knew that Gilles sword was fairly important to him, maybe he could use that as a distraction.
But how? He wondered before recalling the scroll. He had finally figured out enough of it to understand what its contents are. It was pretty simple actually, some simple steps that allow a magic user to use their mana more efficiently. Things that Bryson had never been taught before by his tutors, but through practicing he knows it works.
Let’s try something simple. He thought as he pulled his hand out of his pocket and behind his back. Just a simple levitation spell. Bryson made a few discrete hand gestures and suddenly felt a connection to the scabbard.
Quickly focusing on Gilles’ scabbard, he noticed it move ever so slightly. I did it. He thought is disbelief, he then had the leather strap around the sword loosen. Slowly and gently, it unhinged itself and the sword goes clattering onto the floor.
Gilles looked down in confusion before reaching down to grab it. Bryson looked over to the other group, they were still standing there. Bryson panicking realized that this distraction wasn’t enough to stop Gilles from still going after the group, so Bryson sent the sword sliding away just as Gilles reached down to touch it.
Seeing it move away from him, Gilles stared in confusion for a moment before walking over to it. It moved away some more, Gilles followed, once more it moved. Gilles lunged down for it, and it went flying away and down the street and Gilles smashed face first into the tar mat, ice cream splattering onto the ground.
Gilles goes chasing after it and the other group of kids realized that this was their chance to run away, the one that works as a Coldwater maid quickly grabbed the small girl and carried her away. The guards confused chased after Gilles. After a bit, once Bryson saw that the other group was gone, he stopped moving the sword and Gilles finally managed to catch up to it. Stomping back in a huff he marched back toward Bryson and the dumbfounded guards. Bryson did his best to look surprised.
Somehow, it worked. Gilles manically swivelled around trying to find the culprit. Never once did he ever even look at Bryson’s direction.
Gilles was out of breath and his clothes were a mess. “We’re leaving.” Was all he said through clenched teeth. They all nodded and headed back to the mansion. Gilles said nothing for the rest of the day. Nobody dared say anything about it.
I don’t think I was caught. Bryson thought with an inward sigh of relief. He was almost certain that if Gilles knew it was him, he would be dead. Thankfully, no one thought that young Bryson could have done something like that, and Bryson prayed for it to stay like that.
***
A day after the event Gilles and Bryson were walking through the hallway headed to dinner. Gilles seemed to pretend that the events of yesterday never happened, and Bryson was not planning on reminding him of it anytime soon.
The two walked through a hallway where a maid was busy cleaning an old vase. Bryson noticed that it was the same person as yesterday with the three kids. Huh, so she does work here. As they approached her Bryson noticed her stiffen and quickly try and hide her face and fidgeted with her bracelet.
Gilles didn’t even bother to spare the maid another glance. Bryson as he walked past her locked eyes for one brief second. As he witnessed the panic in her eyes, Bryson quickly moved on, pretending not to notice and gave a small shrug. Not my problem… probably.