Tiago:
“Just leave me be!”
Tiago demands brashly, pulling away from his captor, Shilah, the maid, who had captured him again. Multiple attempts to escape his newfound family's grasp to conduct reconnaissance had been unsuccessful. He had waited two years for his body to grow just to have none of the skills he had learned in his previous life in the military be of any use. Additionally, after learning the existence of magic, he noted how suspiciously easy it was for the butler Joseph to find him. Foul play, it seems; he thought he would never choose to play hide and seek with such a cheater. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind from such childish instincts.
“Don’t try to break away from me!”
Shilah pulled on his ear harder as she dragged him towards his father's quarters. Sensing his impending doom, he walked willingly until she released a moment of tension and took his opportunity to run, but Shilah twisted his ear slightly, causing him to yelp and submit.
“Well, maybe you’ll learn to listen, young master.”
Shilah sighs quietly as she knocks on the door to his father's study.
“Who is it?”
a man's voice projects through the door.
“Shilah, sir,”
she changes arms yanking Tiago with her other hand to open the door,
“Ah yes, come in.”
Shilah opened the door, and it creaked as it opened slowly. Tiago winces as he's pulled inside the room. He's been caught. They must have questions about mischief. How can he get himself out of this situation? The gears in his head began to turn. His father's room was small and orderly, with a desk in its center and a large pane of glass to its back, sending rays of light across the room. Lighting up the giant silhouette of his father. Shilah pushes Tiago towards him. Now that he is closer, he can make out of his father's bristly-haired chin, and a giant grin plastered across his face.
“Up to no good are you, son?”
Tore Ein Sof’s voice boomed in the small room; he had the face of an old warrior, with two prominent scars that crossed his right eye to the right of his mouth and the other across his nose between his eyes. Given Tiago's history in his previous life, he could tell a veteran just by their attitude and knew that his father had seen the likes of many battles, though not what the context of these battles was.
“Of course not, Dad…”
his comment did little to assure the battle-hardened man, he laughed nervously. He could feel Shilah’s deadly glare on the back of his head. He pondered his choices carefully.
“I was doing reconnaissance of the area to gain information.”
Tiago spoke with confidence, from one veteran to another, he was sure his father would understand, completely, neglecting his status as a child. Shilah sighed deeply, and his father stared at him thoughtfully; Tiago couldn’t read his expression. Suddenly, the large man stood up and let out a hollering laugh,
“Reconnaissance, he says!” He walks around his desk and puts his arm on his young boy's shoulder, kneeling on one knee.
“Tiago, there is no need to go to such extremes; there is no war here.”
his face became more serious, his grin fading,
“I will always assure my family's protection.”
Standing back to his feet, he turned and walked to the large window and stared at the farmlands and small township it overlooked. Raising his arm and hand, he waved us toward the door.
“Now, Shilah, return my son to his play area and stop letting him read those books; he is far too young to speak the way he does.”
Shilah pulled Tiago by the back of his shirt as he stared at his father, leaving him with many questions about his father's past; he asked Shilah as he was being dragged.
“What kind of life has my father lived?”
as he slid across the ground, the maid didn’t answer his question until they entered the hallway and shut the door behind her.
“A long one.”
She smiled kindly at him, which he found highly odd. He had never seen that kind of expression before. Maybe he ought to be more proper to her, he thought to himself as they walked to his bedroom.
Four years later…
A wooden blade swung over his head as Tiago raised his wooden sword above himself, using both arms to block, one hand on the hilt the other on the blade. The blade smashed onto the side of his blade, the sheer impact from the strike, as it landed, pushed Tiago to one knee. He gritted his teeth, his leather boot planted into the ground, cracks forming in the dirt where his boot and knee dug themselves. His father stood before him, one arm outstretched, the wooden sword in hand. His father raised the training blade off of him, and Tiago stood up, wobbling slightly, causing his father to laugh.
“I’m surprised you blocked that strike. I put all my strength out of one arm in that one, I was expecting you to dodge.”
Tiago steadied himself, getting back on his feet. He moved his right foot back and leaped forward off of it, planting his left arm onto the ground and launching himself into the air, spinning his body and kicking his leg down to strike his father's head. But only came into contact with the feeling of a wooden sword blocking his strike. He kicked off of it, flipping back to his feet. Crouching and leaning backward as a sword stroke arcs over him.
Tiago had trained with his Father for two years since he was six. Throughout the years, extensive renovations to the side of the mansion were made. This allowed Tiago and his sister to visit more in the estate. The side of the building had been built into a small practice area so that he could learn his family's trademark Ein Sof Sword Arts style, which came in Four Martial forms that his Father had personally invented.
Tiago flipped backward off his hands, putting distance between him and his dad. He raised the point of his blade towards the center of his father's chest.
“You ought to try that skill I taught you.”
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He spoke to Tiago again, taking a defensive stance against his son, raising his blade to his side. Tiago shifted his left foot back, but this time, he started to spin his blade around his torso, left-right, left-right, switching feet as the sword moved with his body's rotation. A slight glow manifests outside the arcs as the spins pick up speed.
“Just because you can’t use magic now doesn’t mean you will never.”
His father assured him, and Tiago hesitated, remembering his earlier training where Tore tried to teach him beginner fire magic. The boy had figured out the existence of magic when Tia did, but to his misfortune, he showed no ability to wield it. Although his father and everyone else seemed capable of it, he could not. However, sword skills actively use the magic inside one's body naturally within physical movements, allowing him to somewhat access magic. These skills were the Ein Sof Martial styles. Tiago's spinning blade began radiating a white aura,
“Now strike!”
his father yelled.
Tiago spun off his left foot sideways in a twisting motion, sending his body forward upside down to his father. He swiped out as the man blocked his strike, pushing his wooden blade against the radiating sword, the collision making a bone-cracking snap. As the wood tore in half, causing the blade to strike the right side of his father's body, the sword itself broke against the large man. Landing on his feet, Tiago immediately drops to one knee, bowing his head in apology.
“Sorry, Father, I didn’t mean to use excessive force.”
His father, taking a step forward, loomed over him. He winced, fearing being disciplined. Instead, he feels a hand on his head, softly patting his head.
“Raise your head, boy. If anything, you have shown me you are worthy of being the heir to the Ein Sof family.”
Tiago turned away from his father and bit down hard on his lip. He didn’t need these childish feelings…He didn’t deserve them either. Still, a tear fell down his cheek, and a memory flashed in his head.
A woman's voice said,
“If you can’t keep up, we'll leave you behind. You’re worthless.”
His daydream is immediately interrupted when He feels a droplet of water drop on his head from the direction of the house. He looked up to see Tia with her hand out above him and a book in her lap hanging out of the window of the top floor of the house. She then quickly pulled herself back inside and slammed the window shut. This time, Tiago knew he had someone he must protect.
For whatever reason, Tia was often kept separate from Tiago, and he never spent much time with her, which was much to his dismay as he felt compelled to learn more about his new twin. In his previous life, he had very little interaction with his previous sister's youth or heavy backlash if he did get involved as she was their family prodigy, and she showed little interest in him other than scorn. So this time, he wanted to get to know her as much as possible, but apparently, it would interfere with her mother's training. Instead, he focused on his training and a handle on most of the 1st martial stage. Namely, he was swift, which made him incredibly versatile in skill usage. This was thanks to his previous life training in CQC (Close Quarters Combat). Some even called him the most extraordinary tactics officer in the world, but he didn’t care for labels.
Often days, Tiago would walk the surrounding area that his Father had permitted him to travel, which was to the edge of the property line right at the beginning of a small forest and to a small unnamed town under his father's protection. Their Manor was on the outskirts of a large City in the country of Dominion named Colgrad, where his father had told him he would study once he turned twelve to become a knight.
The small town was occupied by four families. The villagers were friendly but reserved. They often didn’t have lengthy conversations with him outside of small talk, keeping most of their lives private. This made Tiago wonder if this was society's expectation in general. Altho, the head farmer of the fields that were the settlement's primary source of income, would often visit their home to discuss business ideals and was the mother of Shilah and would often bring gifts for Tia, who had notably gotten very close with a lot of the villagers, especially a young villager boy who he used to keep an eye, as he was wary of potential trouble.
This was until one night Tiago had escaped a particularly painful lecture from Shilah who was berating him for practising sword arts inside, he had fled into the forest under the guise of a bathroom break and was calmly strolling the forest boundary when he saw Tia and Caelan a young villager boy, talking excitedly with each other over a strange old book from inside of the village inn. Curiosity killing him, Tiago approached the window quietly; he wasn’t sure what prompted him to sneak up on them. Maybe he was embarrassed? He thought to himself; he inched closer to the window until he could hear her voice.
“I know I accidentally dropped it on his head!” she laughed to herself,
“No way. How'd you get away with it?” the other voice, Caelan, spoke up.
“I have no idea. Honestly, he looked my way but just stared confusingly, and then I ran away.”
she giggled. Dropped something? Tiago wondered what she had dropped as the gears clicked in his head. She must have been talking about the water drop, but he saw no water in her hand.
“So, what other magic have you learned?”
Caelen asked curiously,
“I also learned some earth manipulation spells from the book you let me borrow…”
He could faintly hear the noise of pages turning
“...Look here.”
“No way!”
He heard the squeak of a chair as if someone had moved.
“Multi-element usage is really rare!”
Caelan almost shouted,
“Shhhhh,”
followed by quiet whispering that Tiago couldn’t make out. He then heard footsteps approaching the window and slowly backed away from it across the wall before he was suddenly bumped and pushed forward onto his stomach on the ground.
“Tiago! Why are you here!”
Tia yelled angrily. She had opened the front door, which Tiago had overlooked he had walked in front of.
“I was just walking around this area and saw you in the window,”
he responded quickly,
“Was just gonna say hello and wassup, I mean…”
Tia peers at him closely,
“Can you use that phrase again?”
She asks him curiously.
“Hello?”
He asked
“No.”
“Wassup?”
Her eyes widened as if she had just realized something. She then shook her head and turned to Caelen,
“I have to go tonight. I apologise for my brother's rude interruption and spying.”
“I wasn’t spying!”
He tried to claim, but Tia didn’t care.
“Whatever.”
She stormed off past Tiago, who got to his feet and bowed a farewell to the very surprised Caelen, who waved stiffly and shut the door. Tiago then turned and ran after his sister, who had already taken the main road back home.
“What were you even doing over there?”
He asked her; Trailing just behind her.
“None of your business Tiago.”
She didn’t even turn to look at him. He had really blown it this time. They walked silently for a few minutes before she suddenly stopped and turned to him.
“Whatever you heard in there, just forget it, ok? Please.”
She looked pretty upset, and he knew why. Two years ago, when Tiago had begun training in the arts, Tia had asked if she could participate in magic training and showed how she already knew one or two spells. Still, their mother yelled at her and said she did not need such abilities, which was not the life she would lead. She has kept her distance from him per her mother's request. He never really took into consideration how devastating that must have been.
“Yeah, ok,”
He agreed. He didn’t really like this world's perception of gender roles either. In his previous life, his other twin also battled with a misogynistic society, and this one seemed even worse. Maybe there's some way he can help her without getting in her way? When they arrived at the manor, Shilah pulled him aside, and Tia went to her room, slamming her door as she entered. Tiago could hear the door lock. They walked past Tiago's room, where he expected a lecture, but instead, she bowed her head as his father walked in with a leather belt in his hand. Tiago sighed and took off his shirt.
“You're doing this to yourself.”
his father's voice was stern as he spoke. These punishments were barely a slap on the wrist compared to what Tiago had to endure in his previous life, so he thought of them as resistance training and gritted his teeth. He needs to train his hardest.