Kallad looked around the sparring grounds, “Well, it's a bit barren. I like how spacious it is though.”

He noticed that there was a stage that seemed able to change size based on the settings that were available to change in a booth off to the side. There was also a place for spectators to watch the fights. As opposed to the training area, there were both indoor and outdoor sparring grounds.

Jin recalled that the guild didn’t want just anyone to be able to watch fights between warriors. The indoor sparring grounds were typically reserved for VIPs or booked out in advance. They charged a premium for people unrelated to the fights to come and watch.

Kallad turned and kneeled beside his daughter. Since she came up with the idea to spar with Rai in the first place, it was up to her to decide how to proceed, “How do you want to do this Sin?”

She looked at Rai and asked him, “Can you use magic to fight?”

“No. I can't.”

“Fine, we’ll fight without magic.” Though she was a little disappointed. Sin wanted to see this lightning magic that the farmboy was supposedly capable of.

Sindyl went to the stands to find weapons she would be familiar with. Jin and Kallad sat in the spectators’ seating area.

Kallad nodded towards Rai, “Who taught the boy to fight?”

Jin stared blankly back at Kallad, “Who do you think? His mother has nary a violent bone in her body, and his aunt is a pure mage.”

“Ah. Well, then I'd better prepare for the eventual tears that Sin’ll shed after she loses. She’s been trained to fight well, but she relies on magic far too much. In a fair fight without any magic, she won't fare too well. If the boy fights anything like you, then the fight is already over.”

“Relax, he’s only been learning for a couple months. Rai’s a creative fighter. But... he thinks too much. The fight might be closer than you think. In fact, I think he’ll lose.”

“You think he’ll lose? Why would you think that way as his teacher?”

“Because I know his weaknesses. I can help him fix those weaknesses, but it would be better for him if he learned to fix them himself. It doesn't mean he'll lose for sure though. I'm pretty sure that if Rai takes my advice, he'll win.”

“... I’ll never truly understand how you think, Sword Dancer." He turned to look at Rai, who still didn't have a weapon in his hand, "Is he going to pick a weapon?”

"He already has it with him.”

Kallad was curious now. There's no way that he already has a spatial storage rune. At that age? Sin can't even use one yet.

As if on cue, Sin returned to the stage with two wooden daggers, each with a slight curve to them. She frowned as she looked at Rai, who stood weaponless, “Are you going to fight me with your fists?” She mockingly giggled as she asked the question.

Rai looked at her for a moment, then reached inside his seals. He thought back to when both him and Jin were leaving the farm to come to Acies. Jin had told Rai to store his wooden training katana in his seals, in case he needed to use it while they were here.

How did he know I would need it? Rai’s wooden sparring katana manifested alongside white lightning sprouting from the space it appeared in. Rai grabbed it from where it was held in the air, suspended by the white lightning that it was engulfed by.

Kallad let out a low whistle, “Now that’s flashy. He really has a spatial storage rune.”

Jin simply smiled as he watched Rai.

Sin was stunned, “What kind of storage magic is that? It’s so... loud.”

Rai didn’t know how to answer the question, so he got into fighting stance instead. The same one that Jin told him to start off with. It was a defensive stance that would allow Rai to gauge his opponents’ strengths or weaknesses based on how they attack him.

Putting aside the matter of Rai’s electrifying storage, Sin followed suit. She got into a stance.

Slowly, she approached Rai. She tried to find weaknesses in his defence, just like her battle tutor had taught her. She couldn’t use magic, so she couldn’t just open with a long range spell to throw her opponent off guard as she launched a follow-up attack.

Rai stood, firm on the ground. He held his sword with both of his hands. For some reason, he was shaking. I’m really not used to fighting people that aren't Jin. Why am I so scared? Anyone who's not Jin should be easier to fight! This is way more nerve wracking than I thought it would be. He was distracted by his thoughts.

Sin noticed. He’s distracted. She attacked, opening the bout with a dash towards Rai’s left side, which was typically the weakside for an average fighter according to her tutor. Sin aimed to stab under his lower left rib.

Rai snapped back to reality. It hit him that this was a real fight. He had to focus.

Jin taught him to defend against low strikes like this one. Swivelling on his right foot just as Sin was about to land the hit, Rai turned to dodge her stabbing thrust. As Sin dashed past him, Rai had an opportunity.

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Swish!

Rai’s sword came down in a vertical arc, grazing Sin’s side. She'd managed to dash sideways, away from the strike.

She dashed backwards, to reset and look for another opportunity. Checking the left side of her abdomen, Sin felt pain but no broken bones. Nothing too bad. She let out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, Rai was right in front of her. His eyes felt different from before.

His focus was now entirely on the fight, and he limited his thoughts to simple words or phrases to avoid thinking too much like when he was tested by Jin. Rai attacked Sin's defensive position by dashing towards her while unleashing a flurry of strikes.

Sin raised her daggers in defence, she knew that her weapons were smaller and weaker than the unfamiliar sword that Rai was using. That meant that she had to use a slightly different defensive tactic. Sin followed her tutor’s teachings and parried the strikes instead of outright blocking them.

But they came at her too fast. How... He’s faster than me? Sin was frustrated.

Rai continued the pressure, taking steps forward with forward slashes and stabs. They would often miss, but the pressure that they afforded Rai was more useful than the damage he could inflict. He would intermittently dash to and from either side with horizontal slashes to throw Sin off balance.

The onslaught lasted for a minute before Rai switched up his strategy. He felt like Sin was worn down from having to parry that many strikes, so he started to fight more creatively. He now held the sword with one hand. Still, he forced her to parry his sword strikes. But now she had to deal with Rai's kicks and punches.

Sin was starting to panic. He switched his tactic. I can’t keep up with him. She felt something that she hadn’t felt in a long time.

Fear.

The fear of losing was all too foreign to Sin. It caused cracks in her mental armour. What happens if I lose? Will dad get mad?

Rai took advantage. His stamina and endurance was abnormally high for a boy his age, probably because of all the farm work and physically demanding chores he had to do. This meant that whenever Rai could take advantage of an opening, he'd make good use of it.

He spotted an opening. She's distracted by something... maybe I can use the same move that I tried on Jin before!

Rai's blade came flying directly at her face while she was off balance. Sin was forced to block it outright with both of her daggers.

Rai twisted his blade, bringing Sin’s hands together.

Instantly after doing so, Rai kicked her daggers out of her hands as he did a backflip.

Upon landing, Rai dashed forward and spun on the ground.

He swept Sin off her feet by kicking her ankles with his spinning leg.

Rai landed in a crouched position underneath her. He held out his left hand. Sin fell backwards and landed on Rai's hand. He held her body up with his left hand and kept his katana’s point digging into her back.

The spar was over.

Rai won.

Sin's daggers which were knocked out of her hands landed shortly afterwards on either side of the two with a clack as they bounced on the ground.

Sin's eyes were wide in disbelief. What just happened. I couldn’t even see half of his movements. He didn’t use any magic? He doesn’t have tutors like me, or mana formation circles or supplements, like we have in the palace. So... how is he this strong? For the first time in her life, Sin was defeated. Her eyes started to feel heavy.

Rai breathed heavily. I did it? Did I do it? I think I did it. Holy shit I did it! Wait mum doesn’t like that word, I shouldn’t think it. Did Jin see that? I hope he saw that! Rai looked over at the old man. Jin returned Rai’s gaze with a wide smile. Rai'd never seen the Jin smile like that before. Is he proud of me? I wanna tell mum all about this. A childish joy filled Rai's chest.

Kallad sighed softly, “I thought you said he’d lose.” Kallad sounded frustrated about his daughter’s loss, but he knew from Jin’s words that this would be better for her in the long term.

Jin smirked like a proud father, “Well, he took my advice, so he won.” He was often a humble man, but Jin was proud of Rai for overcoming one of his weaknesses in this fight. Jin wasn’t going to try to downplay that accomplishment for the sake of his own modesty.

Kallad seemed frustrated for a moment, but he looked calmer as he leaned back in his chair, “He looked like you, you know. Those movements are unique to the Sword Dancer. Even if he’s only using one sword, any veteran warrior who fought back in the Elder Wars would recognise that fighting style.” Kallad seemed to be warning Jin. “Your execution order was sudden, and unjust... but there are still some in the council who would have your head Jin.”

“... I’m aware.”

Jin had previously pondered about teaching Rai to fight, but he made the decision to teach him and chose to stick with it.

“For as many people that want my head, there are ten times as many who saw the injustice behind the decision. Besides, Rai will be fine. Just because he uses my fighting style it doesn't mean he'd be in danger if someone recognised it. My subordinates all took something from the Dance and made their own Dances. As long as Rai only uses one sword, it won't be recognised as my technique.” He whispered under his breath, "Though, that's just one of many reasons why he can't use two swords yet."

“You’re right, I’ll do my best to keep it all quiet.”

Rai stood up. He helped Sin gain her balance back.

She turned to him with eyes that were redder than normal. Streaks of tears flowed down her face, “It.. was a... good fight. Thank you.. for du-hic-duelling me.” She choked out her words through her tears. Sin then bowed deeply, as was the custom for any loser of a spar, which she was something else that she was taught by her tutor.

Rai saw tears falling from her face onto the ground.

He returned the bow for a few moments, then grabbed her shoulder and raised her back into a standing position. Rai’d never felt someone shiver this much.

He wondered about what to do. In all fairness, it didn't take him very long to make this decision. Rai declared it with a goofily large grin, “Let’s be friends then!”

Sin was thrown off guard. Friends? My only friends are the maids and servants, and my tutors. After a moment of thinking, Sin returned his goofy grin with a goofy grin of her own.

Her tears weren’t flowing as harshly now.

Kallad looked surprised as he whispered to Jin, “She’s not throwing a tantrum? Right about now is when I’d expect her to throw a tantrum since things didn’t go the way she wanted.”

"Sometimes we need a plum in our lives. But, of course, we don't know that we need a plum. Everyone around us is eating apples, so we feel left out. In order to stop feeling left out, we go searching for an apple. Eventually, after only finding plums, we decide to just eat a plum. The sweetness of the plum far outweighs what we would have gotten from the apple. In the end, we got what we needed, even if it's not what we wanted. It takes great humility to recognise this, and that's what your daughter has achieved in defeat. Be proud, Deceiver."

“... Have you always been this wise? Are you really just a Sword Dancer?”

“I’m just a farmer, and a father.”

Kallad looked at him for a moment. Then he burst out in laughter.

Jin didn't get what was so funny.

Rai and Sin looked over at the commotion between their guardians. They then looked at each other.

They also started laughing.