Chương 56: Chapter 55: FROM ANOTHER'S EYES.

VILLAGE BOY A few weeks after the blizzard. A little village in southern Osberg"Stand back!!" I pulled my sister away from the door and pushed the drawer, obstructing the way. Many hungry dire wolves claw at the entrance. I bring up my father's old blunted sword and prepare to die. I heard yelps. Cries of scared wolves were snuffed with heavy thuds.

"Anybody in there!?" A man shouted.

"Here… HERE! TWO WOMEN!" I rushed to pull the things out of the door's way.

"They came!" My sister screamed with happiness.

"The guard came!" I opened to see men in dark blue uniforms escorting villagers.

"Quick! Follow the line!" I nod, nearly tripping over a large wolf's head separate from his giant body. A soldier nodded to me. Despite my fear, I asked the intimidating soldier.

"What's all this about? There has never been more than a single guard for a decade. Year after year…" I clutched my late father's sword.

"Why now!?"

"Duke has returned from his isolation. He seeks to make changes, and this is one of them."

"Well, the bastard's too late…" Cold metal touched my neck.

"No disrespect to the duke shall exit your mouth again, understood?" Full of fear, I just nod my head. The man who I would later learn was Sergeant Tinworth regarded my sword.

"Fancy yourself a warrior, huh?" I looked at a dry sword.

"No, but to protect my family, I will be anything I need to be." The soldier threw a shield to me.

"Good man," with his steel sword, he points a hand to the approaching pack of snarling wolves.

"Defend the rear." My ears stung as a blast of blue light exploded from the soldier's sword. Two beasts turn to ash from his attack.

"Onwards, lads, kill the vermin!" Dozens of guards lunge with blue light trailing them. If only I could. I hear screams in the distance. With no guard in reach, my body moved before my mind. A beast trapped a family in a corner.

"Damn it… HERE!" I bashed sword and shield together and got the wolf's attention. Baring his large yellow teeth, my shield knocked it aside; I stabbed through its furry thick neck, and a heavy beast dropped.

"SIR, BEHIND YOU!" I jumped forward and spun so my shield received the slash from the hidden wolf. Biting at me, I cut its nose. It welped, seeking an easy target, but a blue blade seared through the beast. Carving it like a roast piece of meat.

"Need help, lad!?" the sergeant asked while looking at the aftermath.

"Hm. Stupid question." Months later Tinworth broke through our door holding a parchment.

"LIAM!!" He grabbed me by the shoulders.

"You can join!" I pushed his mitts off me.

"It's too early for jokes."

"Look, you sad sap! LOOK!" He pushed a parchment in my face. Luckily, I could read.

"Okay fine, I'll read—" I stood up in astonishment.

"Circleless allowed to apply…!" I looked at the sergeant whose cheeks reddened with joy.

"Boy, go be a guard!" TWO DAYS OF RIDING. OSBERG CITY I nearly fell off the wagon trying to catch a sight of the rebuilt Black Shade in the distance. Sandwiched in a wagon with several other men, we finally pass through the large wine arch gates of Obserg city. I suddenly feel dirty. I had heard Obseg city streets were full of rubbish and manure, with homeless people sleeping about without a care. Yet the streets were cleaner than my old bedroom.

Regularly, I would see workers in green uniforms sweep the road and scoop up the random horse poo. What surprised me was the cheery mood. Man greeted man with smiles; the street was filled with random music from bards singing in filled pubs. Men sing merrily together. This strange feeling filled me already as the street was lit. Dusk came upon the city as I was the last one in the wagon.

"Last stop," the driver said, and I took my one bag I had. I jumped down into the gravel, looking up at the sheer size of the Guard's Barrack walls. The place where my dreams will come true. I remember my father, whose sword I left back home.

"I'll make you proud, Pa."

"New recruit?" I turned backward. A man with a long ponytail sat proudly on his steed. A long, stunning silver spear rested on his shoulder. From his patches, he was a lieutenant colonel using the renewed rank system. Even without a circle, I felt the overwhelming presence of the smiling man. I just answer with a yes.

"Well then. Hop along, lad. Any later, you won't get a bed to sleep on." 2 weeks later Guard Barracks TEN MORE MAGGOTS! In the mud, hundreds of recruits join me in the rain. Ten sets of ten push-ups wrecked my arms. Many lay almost unconscious as we were called to run 2 more laps. To push us to the limit is the goal. We must break through the limits of a human. If your body tells you it can't do one more lap, you do two. If a sword became as heavy as a boulder, you would carry two.

As I drag myself down the training ground. Barely running, the rain made my clothes wear atone. I shiver uselessly in the cold. I no longer hear anyone behind me. Fuck 'em. Circle or not, I am stronger and faster. I am better.

"Recruit." I wake up to a stern, noble-accented voice. I looked around, and I am still on the track. Full of disappointment, I bit my lip.

"Recruit! Stand at attention!" I stood erect, saluting stiffly, and I finally noticed the man I foolishly ignored. The scarlet can only be on one person.

"Y-y-y YOUR GRACE!" A wooden sword whacked me differently.

"WRONG ANSWER, RECRUIT! PUSH UP UNTIL YOU CAN FUCKING FIGURE IT OUT!" After 20 pushups, I remember stories of a certain spoilt brother of the great duke. The prince who grew to be a man, "Lord Joshua Greystone".

"Stand up, recruit!" Before I could dust, a red-haired man with little whiskers growing on his mouth and chin handed me a bag.

"You last the longest… But it doesn't mean you are fit to be a warrior. This is a world of circles. Understand."

"I do, Milord!" I reply earnestly.

"You've got two choices. Leave. You will get a few coins for wasted time—" I throw my bag to the floor.

"What must I do?" In the dead of night, my training clothes were still soaked. I face a first circle with one spectator.

"Are you sure, milord?" the first circle grinned, assured of his total victory.

"On my family's honour, you will get a place in Alpha. After all, you would have earned it."

"Haha! My name's Hanile Gost." The first circle took an unskilled stance, and I take none.

"Name's Liam."

"No surname… A flipping commoner! Lord! Must I torture this poor soul?" In his guard uniform, arms folded, the greystone spoke with a matter-of-fact tone.

"To me, you are both feeble recruits; fight!" Hanile groaned as a soft blue glowed off the warrior, and he burst forward. Slow… My wooden sword intercepted his coming from above. But his power was great enough to push me across the muddy ground. Three slashes of the practice sword were blocked. I leaped back from a low slice to a knee. I should feel this light. I shouldn't feel this strong. I just ran several miles in the rain. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent.

Report it. Wooden swords hit, and with fine timing I parried down Hanile's weapon. Tinworth's training made my cut clean and swift, catching the young noble on the chest.

"Liam's win."

"NO! I must fight again! This dishonour—" A hue of five circles dropped Hanile and me to our knees. Furious eyes burn blue fire.

"You mouth a bit too loud, recruit. Return to your bed."

"Yes, Milord." Hanile bowed but left me a dangerous stare before running away.

"You too, circleless." Glad I could still stay; I was still buzzing from the spar.

"Sire, may I stay behind? To practise." This water steamed off my arms, my heart pumping intensely despite my fatigue. The greystone lord walked away with only a wave to me.

"Not too loud. I have to sleep here tonight." 4 weeks later. Not a single spar since many of so call comrades ignored me. I took advantage of my solitude to train. Every day I feel like I am harnessing this strange energy better. I ran longer, faster. Jumped higher. The 50 kg weighted sword felt like a wooden stick in my hands. I should have been the failure. The useless one, yet I watch my fellow recruit stumble in their stances that I worked on day in and day out with Tinworth. Their weak strikes made me recoil.

Hanile found me at last, smirking like he stole something again.

"Liam, my boy. Come join us!" And the sycophant of the young noble, Phil, circled around me.

"Yeah, yeah! It will be fun!" I put my practice sword in the rack.

"To where?" I asked regretfully.

"Where else! MOUVE! The town of hooker and whore! Drink and booze. We need a break, don't we?" Having never taken part in any of that stuff, I was stupidly intrigued.

"When…?" The two nobles smile at each other.

"Tonight!" Ten cups of ale, and the world was swish and swashed like inside of a cup. My mind turns like a boat in a storm. I hear Hanile say he will take me to a safe place. Or a great place. My memory lapsed, and I was already in a room I didn't recognise. A large, dark alleyway with a large wall. Little light, no people around abandoned houses. Shiiiit"In here we can kill you, and no soul shall hear a single scream." I heard a sword whip in the dark, and I stepped back on instinct.

I touched my stinging chest and tasted blood. Hanile, now a second-circle bronze, illuminated a blade. That was enough to sober me somewhat. I bent to dodge the blue sword. I lean right to save my drunk life.

"I'll kill you here; they'll blame it on the gang!" I looked around the street and heard the knock of wood drop on the ground. I leapt without thinking at a conspicuous wooden sword on the ground, inadvertently evading a mana slash that crashed into a wall. Sword in my hand, I looked around the environment. But the chimney shield fell, and I caught it quickly; steel bashed against my shield, taking my attention back to the fight. Feet slide on cobblestone from the attack.

"Hanile! You still haven't gotten over it!? It was just a spar!"

"SHUT UP!" A mana slash flew to me. Shield in front, I endured the mana. The force carried me back several inches with each attack. With the Mouve city wall behind me, I will have nowhere to escape. I dug my feet in. I remember the rain and the soaked clothes. I remembered how heavy my tired body felt. I succeeded; I beat him! I can do it again. Filled with emotion, green energy overfilled me, marking my pale skin, and emerald mana enveloped my shield. One final yell, and I pushed forward.

One after another, mana beat my shield, each attack getting slower. GO! I sped forward, cracking the stone. A shield held with left struck away a blade; Hanile's sword almost flew away. But an opening for my wooden sword appeared. I lunged deep into the noble's sternum, making him cough.

"Stand down!"

"Never, Commoner!!" Hanile's sword dropped heavily with mana, but Tinworth's training allowed me to parry it to my left. I struck the noble in the month. A shield bunt to a Hanile gut stopped him from counterattacking, and a wooden sword cracked his left collarbone.

"Stand down!" With a bloody mouth, Hanile took a stance. And I sighed. I looked at the roofs.

"How long must it go on before I make a mistake I will regret? A bandit I can kill and not feel a thing. A noble? Not just my life but my family's life will be over!" I dropped my weapons.

"Please… whatever test this is… is it enough?" A deep voice echoed above the alley.

"It is enough!" A figure with long flowing hair dropped from the roof and landed lighter than a leaf in a breeze. Red, almost lizard-like eyes remind me of Captain Greystone, but such an unmistakable stature could only be him, Duke Tarion Greystone. Wearing only a simple dark black doublet, he approached me with his hands behind his back. I thought I was a strong man for my size, but the duke's muscle rippled like a dark forest beast. Without a hint of mana hue, I still felt like bowing to this man.

"I am sorry." Huh!? The duke apologised!? To me?!

"This was not a test but an experiment. I needed to see how certain… energies manifest in those worthy of it. I have been watching and learning from you. Search within yourself. How do you feel right now?"

"I feel amazing. I feel strong." The Duke of Osberg: Tyrant and Saviour. The awakened hero stepped closer.

"I see. Do you want to become stronger? Be known across the duchy as one of the duke's men?" I knelt like I had done it a million times.

"YES, YOUR GRACE!" I saluted so hard my chest stung for a week after. The duke grew a wicked smile.

"Good! Welcome to hell." He hit my chest lightly with his fist.

"Ten a. m. at my manor."

"W-what about graduation?" I asked. The duke laughed like the favourite drunk at a pub.

"There are greater heights to achieve."

"DUKE!!!! PLEASE LET ME JOIN—" From a single finger, a bright blue blast removed Hanile's head from existence; his body flopped to the ground, burning.

"Ten. Remember." In between blinks, I am alone in an alley with a burning. Several more panicked blinks, and the body disappeared. I fell to the ground beside my shield. My mind had turned to mush.

"Fuuukiiiinnng Heeeeellll." 2 months later The Duke is a silly man. You would understand if you spent as much time as I did. I was his experiment, his student, his disciple, his guard. His bloody butler. Higher heights, he said. Now I am stuck bringing him his meals daily. Under the tutelage of Charles. I learned the way of the butler, making sure the Duke never had to think of anything other than training, teaching, and planning. Make no mistake, this is the greatest position I will ever have.

No free time, exhausted and on my toes every second, but to be next to such a great man, I will never throw away such a chance. And surprisingly, with his boisterous attitude, he always took his tasks seriously, never leaving them half done. At three PM on the dot, he's in the Umbra training facility for training and meditation for hours longer. Almost every day, no matter our different jobs or duties, we see the same people working tirelessly.

Whether it was my drill master Lord Joshua practising qi projection, Kurt slowly practising his forms, or the multitude of Umbra members under Master Zhi's teachings, the room was always busy. In the middle of the training room, I felt a cold edge on the back of my neck.

"Sneak attack, hahaha!" I sliced the air behind me, but a shield blocked a greatsword coming from the left. I growled, pulsing off the blade with green qi and stabbing at my sparring partner. However, the greatsword's wielder was quick with his large sword and parried my lunging sword. Quicker than I could react, steel touched my right ribs.

"20 - 0." Tarion giggled.

"Is that all you've got!" A fan hit the great duke, and I flinched.

"Yes, that is all he's got! Stop teasing him! He just began body tempering." Hence, the reason I was chosen. Qi. It's rare, I heard. Unless you take medicine for it. It's hard to find people like me who were born with the ability to convert mana into qi unless you wring out your recruits with gruelling training. Many born like me would have already formed the circle, meaning that making them into pure cultivators would be difficult. However, I am more unusual, as I am circleless.

Unable to form a circle without disastrous effects. What I thought was a curse was the great luck of my life. My family is safe in a large house within the large compound of the Greystones. I have enough marks to need a bank. I can train with the strongest, and I can become one of them. Maybe. I pinched myself every day. I pulled my sleeve and saw that it was time. Suddenly, the Umbra facility is full of every worker and guard on the premises. The duke rested his arms on his side.

"Come on, villager, whatcha waiting… for…" The Duke family noticed Charles and the great duchess bringing a large cake down the stairs. With a warm smile, I saw a tear from the duke's scarlet eyes that no one noticed.

"I… Forgot…"

"We didn't." I salute.

"Happy 23rd birthday, Your Grace. LONG LIVE THE DUKE!"

"LONG LIVE THE DUKE!"

"LONG LIVE THE DUKE!"

"LONG LIVE THE DUKE!" The tear vanished as he raised his chin to the sky with his eyes closed. The duke absorbed the moment.

"Made my wish. I ain't telling none of ya." He blew out the candles.

"Fucking hungry. Anyone want a slice?" A week later. Charles and Tarion give each other a long and loving hug before Charles steps into this specially made caravan.

"Want to say bye, Joshua." Joshua stayed silent, wistfully watching the beloved butler be driven away. The duke shrugged with a smug smile. The gate closed, and everyone went back to their duties.

"Your Grace, where did you send him?"

"Somewhere he is needed. He will be my eyes where I cannot reach. Why, village boy Liam? Looking forward to taking over his work?" The duke grinned as I remembered the huge book Charles gave me.

"You're a right bully, aren't you, Mister Greystone?" I whispered.

"A bully am I?" He heard my whisper loud and clear. Next day Nighttime fell; it was a rest day for all who attended Zhi's training with a cup and saucer. I still went down and noticed how empty the facility was when everyone was sent to their next 'jobs'. The mysterious Drac was the only Umbra around, as he was still tinkering with a certain magical artefact. I don't discriminate. I have southern friends, but this bastard scares the fuck out of me.

Beatrice would always be around to assure me that his prickly attitude was part of his charm, but I had not heard of her since she left for Vioden.

"Tea for the Duchess?" He asked the obvious.

"Of course. After a long day, she needs her tea."

"Make sure you don't drop it again."

"It was one time."

"Three times. Word goes around of your clumsiness." Drac slithered back into the shadow where he belonged. I flipped him the middle finger in my mind but rushed to my favourite person in the manor. Vanessa Greystone took her tea with such grace; I am awestruck each time she displays her elegance.

"Oh, this is good stuff." She smiled at me.

"Charles would be proud. If only Holly can learn from you."

"If she wants to, which is never." I smiled fondly. Only one cup of tea is all she asked for every time. Reading a book in the corner of the hall, she exhibited classiness and dignity, as if I were in the presence of royalty. I had heard rumours of her, but knowing her in person, any rumours are poppycock. She is the real mastermind, the brain, and the heart. The reason the city had, in turn, Osberg had been reinvigorated. She saved my family by bringing guards to my village. She forever has my sword and shield.

If I can use it. I found my bed, without Holly reading inside, and sighed with some relief. Having reached a golden-tempered body, I reckon I can be around the best and fight the best. But yet again, it was a day of cleaning, arranging, sorting, and waiting. I dropped myself on a bed bigger than I need. I need to fight. I tell them so. But all they say is that my time will come, and when it does, you would wish it didn't. I did not understand their warnings. I had killed beasts more times than I could count.

Can killing a person be that different? I sighed, making myself comfortable in a bed I would miss sorely, not knowing that when I wake, I will not have a good sleep for months.