The interior of the fort seemed nowhere as impressive as the castle, but it stood up to its reputation. It's hallways were cold and mostly plain walls, only some banners hanging here and there. There seemed to be more flower vases and paintings as they reached closer to the destination they were being led to, which from what they could tell was supposed to be the lord. They parted with their horse near the gate, another knight taking it to the stables most likely.

The room they were led to was similar to the one Kurai was summoned to by the king with the nine other recruits. The differences being that this one was built completely out of stone, the only thing not stone being the banners on the walls, the carpet, and the seats along with the throne at the back of the room. The throne seemed to have been made of wood with silver frost designs unlike the golden throne of the king.

"The lord is entering!" A knight announced.

Everyone bowed their head, including Kurai, hoping to not get on the lord's bad side instantly, and be able to somehow persuade him if possible. Kesshō copied Kurai, having clue what was going on.

No one said anything for a while as the lord approached Kurai, the only thing telling him where the lord being the sound of footsteps, which were also muffled by the fur boots the lord wore due to the temperature at this height. They weren't on the top of the mountains, but the temperature wasn't that warm halfway up either, it was freezing cold and even Kurai wished to change into warmer clothes instead of the freezing cold metal armor.

The lord stopped abruptly right in front of Kurai, seemingly taking a good look at him. He was surprised to find out the lord was a girl, the giveaway being the ice-like dress she wore. The dress almost seemed slightly too big for the lord, much like Kessho's, leading him to the conclusion that the 'lord' wasn't very tall.

"Look up," Demanded the lord, a familiar voice.

Kurai's head dropped lower as he recognized the voice and sighed in annoyance. He looked up as Yuki tried to pull him in an embrace, however she was the one being pulled due to her smaller size and less strength. Pulling away Yuki laughed along with all the other knights who were starting to remove their helmets, revealing heads with black or white hair unlike the blonde, brown, or red hair of most of the people of the kingdom of Einsdael.

"That was probably the best one so far." Yuki laughed clutching her stomach laughing, on the verge of rolling on the floor.

"Yeah, yeah, you got me," Kurai acknowledged with a sigh. "A question remains though, how did you even pull this off?" He questioned looking around at the dispersing knights, recognising most of them as people belonging to the same village as him.

"It wasn't much trouble." Yuki gestured the two to follow. "The king planned on attacking several other regions as well so he called upon all the knights from remote locations like this. The fort was abandoned and winter was just about starting so we decided to relocate. The entire village moved into the fort with all the supplies. The knights were in such a hurry to leave that they left a lot supplies as well, which alone would have lasted us for more than four months with ease." She explained, leading them through the hallways further into the fort.

She saw the look on Kesshō's face as they walked past some vegetables growing without any sunlight. "I was able to find some mana crystals with the essence of the sun. They emit light which helps crops grow, and, if enough mana is channeled through them, can even burn most things in a certain radius with ease."

She led them to a room, the interior indicating it was the lord's quarters, but now with the lord gone, Yuki decorated it to her liking. There were many paintings lining the walls, a drawer on either side of a large bed in the center. A door in the wall revealed a large cupboard to the left and a wardrobe to the right. There were ice sculptures on both the drawers, one adorned with about twenty sculptures of dragons, phoenixes, and giant serpents in a battle stance while only two sculptures were placed on the other, easy to recognise one of them as Kurai and the other as Yuki.

"I will add the sculpture of the new family member today," She whispered in Kurai's ear before running out into the hallway. "The bathhouse is right next to your room, freshen up, I will be there to collect you both in an hour." She called out from further down the hallway.

After setting down their stuff and taking a bath the two sat down in the room waiting for Yuki. Kesshō wearing the same dress and Kurai wearing his usual clothes. No one talked for quite a while, having nothing to say.

"Is she your wife?" Kesshō asked, breaking the silence.

"No, absolutely not, she is my sister," Kurai said with a sigh. "You are not the only one with that misunderstanding. She is very close to me since I have been taking care of her since we were little."

Kesshō nodded before lying down. After a few moments Yuki opened the door and signaled the two to follow. She led them to a dining table in a room a few doors down. Yuki and Kesshō sat on either side of Kurai. There wasn't anyone except the three there, although the table was big enough for twenty people to sit, two sides with enough space for one person and the other two enough for nine people each. The three took a corner, Kesshō and Yuki facing each other. The food wasn't quite extravagant, just being some stew and bread, along with venison.

"I would have loved to hold a celebration for your return but there was only so much I could do in such a short time," Yuki sighed sadly. "You turned up out of nowhere and we have been having some problems to deal with too."

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"There was no need for that, this is more than I could ask for." Kurai said dismissively, Kesshō nodding her agreement.

This was certainly not to royal standards, as it would have most likely been in a fort such as this, but this was much better than what Kesshō ever ate before. She ate everything like it was going to be her last meal, liking all of it. Yuki was about to tell her to eat slowly but Kurai shook his head, finding it best not to disturb her feast.

"Where is Akuma?" Kurai inquired, him and Yuki having nearly finished their meals.

"Not here, not anymore," Yuki replied with a grave expression.

"How?!" Kurai exclaimed at the sudden news. "He was the head of the village. He was getting old but not old enough to pass away. He was always in good health as well." Kurai doubted that monsters would have been able to kill a man as experienced and skilled in fighting arts as him.

"The knights came for tax collection about a month ago, in the morning. They announced that the village was going to be destroyed by the king soon so we better hand over everything we own when they return in the evening. Everyone's spirits fell at the news, having known the day would come sooner or later. Many were about to willingly hand the knights everything, knowing very well they won't stand a chance against an entire army.

"Many even started to plan on leaving the village with what they needed and hand over the rest so the knights will spare them. Even the warriors from afar that settled here long ago didn't lift a finger to help the people. Akuma was the only one that fought the knights when they returned in the evening, and the battle left him with fatal wounds, but they were forced to retreat, the two who were alive of the ten that came."

She stopped, starting to sob remembering about the event. She continued as Kurai pulled her into a hug and patted her back lightly to calm her. "He died from his wounds by nighttime, asking the warriors from afar to train the village's people and make sure the king's plans doesn't succeed." She buried her head in his clothes and cried her heart out.

Kurai turned to Kesshō to see that she was still eating, though there were somethings that changed. She was eating slowly, her eyes narrowed into slits, similar to cats and snakes, and her ears standing up straight. Since Kesshō didn't try to alert him he supposed she simply felt mad at the ruthlessness the knights showed, though this was usually her response when she noticed something was off.

After Yuki stopped crying and started to walk down the hallway, leaving Kurai and Kessho still at the table, Kurai asked her. "So who is the village's leader now?"

"You know her very well." She informed, slightly turning her head with a mischievous smile on her face before disappearing into the hallway.

"Seems like things are going to take a turn for the worse," He whispered turning to Kesshō who had calmed down by now.

"Will I be allowed to help?" Kesshō questioned, some strain in her voice indicating she won't be able to talk much for now.

"I hope not," Kurai smiled patting her on the head.

"But I can fight, I clearly have more natural weapons and defenses than anyone else here." She insisted, coughing slightly from the stress on her throat.

He thought for a moment. She was clearly not going to give up easily and neither did he wish to make her put too much strain on her throat, nor take part in a war. After much thinking he came up with an excuse which she might accept, though he believed the chances to be fairly low.

"You have more natural weapons and defenses, but you are not immortal. You will only be able to do so much without any proper training or experience," Kurai said authoritatively.

"Then teach me," Kesshō said feebly before coughing more, seemingly about to cough blood any time now.

Kurai wasn't willing to consider this possibility, but he couldn't help himself. The idea of Kesshō fighting alongside wasn't quite a bad idea, after proper training that is. He was aware of her tails, her sharp senses, and her scales. It was a gamble, if Kesshō wasn't trained, but if she was then she might be able to wipe out that entire army all by herself.

"Fine," He sighed getting up.

She tilted her head at him, before following him.

Having gotten used to understanding what Kesshō wanted to ask or say most of the time he answered the question he knew she possessed, not wanting her to put any more stress on her throat. "We are going to meet the people that will be teaching you, I am actually, you will see them tomorrow."

Kessho's eyes brightened at the first part, before her becoming confused again and tilting her head as he finished.

He opened the door to their room and beckoned her in. "You should sleep, you will need to rest as much as possible if you want to train from them. Trust me, the training the knights of this nation receive is nothing compared to the training the eastern nations do, in effectiveness that is, for the most part." He informed before closing the door and walking away.

Kessho hopped on to the bed and lied down. She was questioning if she asked for more than she could handle just now, but it was already done, no turning back now. Still, it did give her an opportunity to help Kurai. She didn't like killing people, or people dying in general, but the cruelty of the knights was unforgivable, and she recognised it very well and did not wish to sit back and watch them slaughter any more people.

She was now also starting to understand what the black and white patterns meant, they were the good and evil in people. The white was good and the black was evil, or so she assumed for now. The ratio in which black and white were didn't necessarily tell the creature's nature she believed, as there were many which didn't quite add up.

Kurai possessed a perfect balance of both white and black, yet he was much nicer than anyone she knew. It didn't signify their behavior towards her, but in general. This meant even someone seventy percent with black patterns could be very nice to her, and someone with just a little bit of black could treat her poorly. Another thing she noticed was that beyond eighty percent black is when a person starts to treat everyone poorly except a select few, being nice to them only for personal gain. Everyone she saw here possessed mostly good in them, more than sixty percent at that. Yuki's seemed to be the highest with about eighty percent.

The next thing Kessho needed to figure out was what the flowing of these patterns meant. She figured out it meant something but was yet to figure out what exactly. They were constantly moving, like the mind of a person. Her theory was that if she could be able to figure out everything about the patterns she would be able to tell what someone is about to do before their body even starts to do it, which would be greatly useful, mostly in combat which she now needed to focus on.

For now however, her first priority was to learn the fighting arts. She wanted to be able to fight like Kurai, defeat many people with just her bare hands without taking any hits. Thinking of everything she could do, and everything she required to do, she slowly drifted to sleep, an image of a red curtain flashing before her eyes just before everything turned dark.