I was peacefully sleeping when suddenly somebody pulled my blanket away. A voice coldly shouted at me to wake up. Opening my bleary eyes, I looked around. It was completely dark. Still trying to get my bearings, I got gripped by the shoulder and thrown out of my bed.
Landing with a thud, I lay on the ground and tried to make sense of what was happening. Thanks to the pain, my cloudy senses started to work properly. I realized what was going on. Sephiroth stood next to my bed, smiling at me provocatively.
The part that once belonged to my predecessor became enraged at that. How could she dare to be so disrespectful to me! Luckily, I got my emotions under control before I could act impulsively. Using all my willpower, I pushed the emotions down and became calm again.
I observed Sephiroth, who tried to get a rise out of me. I was sure that if I had made a scene, she would have stepped back from her responsibility to teach me right then and there . Seeing me not getting angry, she raised her left eyebrow in surprise.
“Stand up, eat something and clothe yourself. Otherwise we will be late for training.”
I stood up and noted the big difference between the Sephiroth from yesterday, quiet with no emotions, following my orders to the letter and the Sephiroth from today, full of energy and zeal, looking at me provocatively.
Quickly clothing myself, I proceeded to the kitchen where I grabbed a piece of bread and meat. I had the feeling I wouldn’t like it if I lingered for too long. Five minutes later I had finished, all under the watchful eyes of my guardian slash evil taskmaster.
It was time for training. I lead her to my private courtyard behind the house. Nobody would disturb us there and it was still big enough to train. Shortly after we had arrived. I began, “So with what will we train first? Sword, bow or throwing kni-”
Before I could end my question she had arrived in front of me and rammed her knee into my gut. Toppling over, I lay on the ground, trying to get my bearing.
“Shut up! You will only speak if I ask you something! Otherwise you will do as I command, is that clear?!” Looking down she glared coldly at me, daring me to object.
I suppressed my boiling emotions and lay on the ground, staring at her. Ssh Andrew, remember your time in the program. Turn off the emotions, there is only training.
She saw that I was still in control of myself and spoke further, “You want to train with a weapon?! What a joke! Look at you! You have no muscles, no endurance, nothing! You are like a five-year-old toddler. Weak and with no willpower! Trying to teach you the art of anything would be meaningless. We will first begin with strengthening your body. Stand up and start running! 50 laps around the courtyard, go!”
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POV Sephiroth
Aron didn’t even flinch and simply stood up and started running. Sephiroth watched him, surprised. She had tried to enrage him from the beginning and had even started a bit too early, but he didn’t retaliate. He followed every instruction she gave.
Maybe she had thought wrongly about him. But first, she would see how he reacted to extreme conditions. Even if he had control over his emotions, if he didn’t have enough willpower, he wouldn’t last long in her training. She didn’t realize it, but a slight smile had spread on her face.
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POV Aron Brightcloud
I had reached the end of the fifty laps. My legs and lung were burning like hell. This body needed a lot of training. I propped myself up on my knees, wheezing. Before I could catch my breath, Sephiroth pushed me from behind. Unable to stop, I fell to the ground. “Fifty push-ups, now!” Groaning inwardly, I cursed Sephiroth in my mind before proceeding with her task.
After the push-ups came squats, sit-ups and so on. At some point I had lost all orientation, working like a robot. My entire body was burning.I lost control over it and fell down again. Everything hurt like hell. I thought back to my years in the military before the Darkons had arrived. I was back in training. Home sweet home. Pain was my friend. My Body only wanted to rest, but my Drill Sargent arrived at my side again. Don’t fight against it, go with the flow, follow the orders. Pain is your friend. It is like a color, it simply varies in its tonality, blue is not worse than white or red, don’t mind it. Go on.
“Stand up!” Pushing my body I tried to stand up, but I was too slow. In the middle of the motion, she struck from the side. The sudden impact disrupted my balance. I toppled over onto the grass once more.
“I said stand up you little shit!” Feeling the corners of my sight beginning to move and turn inward I still pushed myself further and stood up. This time I succeeded. Standing in front of her, my body was swaying. I had problems breathing.
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POV Sephiroth
Sephiroth observed Aron standing up again and was amazed. She knew how battered his body was. It spoke for his willpower that he could still stand. She couldn’t believe that a sixteen-year-old noble had such an iron will and could take her unrefined behavior. Intrigued, she observed her former lord who was now her torture subject. He was swaying, and his eyes were rolling around, not able to focus.
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She wanted to find out how far he could go. With that she spoke, “Run! Same length as last time!” He turned and slowly jogged down the previous trail.
For the first time she felt respect for her charge. She knew how lazy nobles usually were and looked forward to forming this one into something much stronger and better.
On his twenty-seventh lap, Aron couldn’t hold his body up any longer. He missed a step and crashed into the ground. Sephiroth arrived quickly beside him. “Stand up!” He tried to raise himself, his whole body was shaking, but he fought on.
Sephiroth stood beside him and took in every detail. Little by little he pushed himself up. The nearer he came to finishing the movement, the harder it got. Then after much hardship he stood, but even though his eyes were open, they looked empty.
Seeing Aron’s empty eyes, his Taskmaster moved closer. Slowly She waved her hand in front of his face. But they didn’t focus on the moving object in front of them. After a brief moment of contemplation, she touched his shoulder. He showed no reaction, falling over, he laid motionless on the ground.
She looked down on the motionless body and realized that he had pushed himself until he had lost consciousness. Luckily it was still too early in the morning and the backyard was hidden from most of the inhabitants of the manor. It would have been quite a problem to explain to his mother why her son was unconscious during her first day as his new guardian.
Picking him up, she carried him back to his room. She laid him on his bed and quickly closed the door. Breathing out, she scolded herself. She had lost control and had been enjoying drilling him too much. She had forgotten that it was his first lesson.
She scanned his broken form. She was sure that he would be in severe pain after he woke up. Suddenly feeling guilty, she thought she shouldn’t have pushed him that hard. Assessing her options, she was unsure what to do. Theoretically there was a solution to her problem, but it was highly unconventional and most of the humans would rather die than to undergo the procedure.
Screw it, she thought. Besides healing his body, it would also be an indicator to find out how his subconsciousness thought about demons. As quick as the last part of the thoughts had arrived in her brain she scolded herself for her wishful thinking. No human would ever accept her for what she was.
Steeling herself, she sat on the side of his bed. She took out one of her knives and cut her wrist with it before moving the bleeding wrist over Aron’s mouth while she held it open with her other hand.
She looked at her life blood that poured out. It was the sole reason she had gotten hunted so much in the past. If she had been a normal demon nobody would have cared about her when she still lived in the demonic lands. But she was not normal. In her veins slept the ancestral bloodline of the royal devils. Sadly, it hadn’t awakened due to the presence of her mother's genes. Because of that, her life had changed dramatically. Had it awakened, she would have become one of the highest noble devils; instead she had become a walking “elixir” who couldn’t tap into the power of her bloodline. Her blood could be used for all sorts of magical spells or as a potent healing tonic.
She didn’t want to dwell on an impossible future anymore. She turned her attention back to the youth that was about to drink her blood.
Sephiroth observed as the first drops fell into his mouth. Now came the moment of truth. She observed the emotions on his face. It changed from neutral to something akin to having bitten into a lemon. As she saw his scrunched face, she felt a hole in her heart. She turned her body away from him and felt awful.
She had known from the beginning that there was no future for her in the human empire. Even so, the notion had wormed itself into her subconsciousness and somewhere deep down she still had hoped that there was a possibility. But now she was certain that there never was. As she felt her hope being crushed, she wanted to run away but before she could move someone gripped her arm and dragged it down.
Feeling a mouth against her wound, she turned herself in Aron’s direction. She was completely shocked, Aron had gripped her arm and was drinking by himself from her wound before letting her go. He relaxed himself back into his initial position with a content smile on his face.
She watched him sleep and felt suddenly a protective streak flash through her body. He had accepted her for what she was. He still didn’t know her real nature but if she played it correctly, she could lead him towards the right direction. If she accomplished that, she would have found a safe haven for herself.
It would be so much better than to flee from the empire. Even though the people would not actively kill her outside the human territory, they would still look down on her. A half blood had no real home. In addition, she had still people hunting for her. That was the reason in the first place why she had to use the teleport spell to escape. If she fled from the human empire, they would have it much easier to find her again.
She felt happiness blooming in her body. With a wave of her hand, the blood that she had spilled on the floor and bed-sheets floated up. Closing her hand into a fist, the blood gathered together into a ball before it burned when she snipped with her fingers, leaving nothing behind.
Sephiroth grabbed a chair that was not far away and seated herself next to Aron’s bed, preparing herself for a long wait.