Lucian woke to the soft rays of dawn filtering through his window. Despite his blindness, he could sense the change in temperature and hear the early morning birdsong. Aurora was already awake, her presence a familiar comfort at his side.
"Good morning," she said, her voice carrying a hint of amusement. "Did you sleep well after your... adventures?"
Memories of the previous night flooded back, and without any expression on his face, he sat up slowly, running his hands through his hair.
"How did I get back here?" he asked, his voice low. "The last thing I remember..."
Aurora made a disapproving sound. "Tsk. At least show an expression on your face. Any normal person would have felt guilty for what they did, you know. You played the victim throughout that whole ordeal of last night's passion with your mom."
He simply directed his gaze in her direction before saying, "Then you should know I'm not normal. Things like getting attached or feeling guilty for my deeds aren't in me."
She simply stared at him before replying to his earlier question.
"I brought you back," Aurora replied simply. "It seemed prudent not to leave you there. Your mother might have had some difficult explanations to make to the servants this morning."
Lucian nodded, processing this information. "And my mother? Is she...?"
"Still asleep in her chambers. I've ensured she won't be disturbed until she's ready." Aurora paused, then added, "She'll be quite confused when she wakes. The intensity of her... desires... was not entirely natural."
He nodded before saying, "That's giving, but that won't stop or lessen her guilt for forcing herself on me last night. So the best course will be her looking for something to justify her actions, even if she doesn't know what happened or how things ended up like that. Yes, she will be too guilty to present that kind of excuse to me, though I will still ask what you did, even if I was expecting it. It went far better than I expected."
Lucian turned his blindfolded gaze toward Aurora, suspicion dawning. "What did you do?"
Aurora's voice remained light, unbothered. "I merely amplified what was already there—guilt, loneliness, a need for connection. The form it took was her choice entirely." She moved closer, her breath warm against his ear. "Don't pretend you didn't enjoy it."
He nodded with no expression on his face before replying, "Well, I did enjoy it. I never knew sex could be quite addictive, but it doesn't matter. I already got the result I wanted. Now I just have to extend those feelings and engrave myself to her so when she sees me, she will feel she can't live without me and always requires my assistance for anything."
Aurora stared at him for a while before saying, "You know, you're quite calm for someone who just lost his virginity. Not like I wasn't expecting that kind of reply from you, but still... oh well. So what do you plan to do now?"
He just stared ahead in silence, as if deep in thought, before saying, "I think this is the time to strike at my sister. My mother won't come out from her room, probably hide away, and I will also avoid her in a way she will know and have no other option but to approach me to clear things up. As for my sister, let's say I will ask for a little sparring session. I don't need your help with this, and things are going to get really bloody, but it's still worth a shot."
She nodded and didn't say anything else.
After dressing, Lucian and Aurora made their way down to breakfast. The manor seemed unusually quiet, the servants moving about with hushed efficiency. When they entered the dining room, Lucian immediately sensed his sister's presence, but not his mother's.
"Where is Lady Seraphina she's supposed to join us for breakfast morning?" Aurora asked innocently as a servant pulled out chairs for them.
"My lady is indisposed," the servant replied. "She requested a tray be sent to her chambers."
Celeste, Lucian's sister, made a small sound of annoyance. "Mother has been acting strangely for days now. Ever since you returned," she added, her tone making it clear who she blamed.
Lucian, seeing this, used the opportunity, saying, "Well, it was to be expected. I already told her I wanted to get stronger. She allowed it, and I already told one of the butlers to train with me. They agreed. I could have asked you, but I didn't want to hurt you, so I didn't bother asking."
He could feel the anger boiling in her. She stood up and shouted, "Hurt me? Do you think you can hurt me?"
Lucian wanted to spark a sense of inferiority in her. He wanted to make it seem like he was much better than her. He wanted to kindle the resentment in her and control the anger within her. So he continued acting innocent, as if he couldn't see her due to his blindness.
"Well, yeah, I don't want to hurt you. I might be blind, but I am quite sharp. I might accidentally hurt you."
She looked at him and smirked in anger before saying, "Why don't we put that theory to the test?"
Lucian looked in her direction before saying, "Are you sure? You might get hurt. But if you really want to do it, then it's fine. Let's do it. Just make sure you call a healer, or you might get a few broken bones here and there."
She smiled while saying, "Yes, yes, that's fine by me. Let's head to the training arena now. I want to see how you want to hurt me." Then she turned around.
Lucian stood up and followed her. People tend to forget the difference in standards due to inferiority, so she would feel like this was a chance to prove herself. On their way, he told one of the servants to get a healer who would stand outside the training arena. Celeste made sure no one would interfere with their fight.
Lucian turned to Aurora, who was following them from behind, and nodded before saying, "Stop her when she tries to deal the finishing blow, okay?" She replied with, "Okay, sure."
They kept walking all the way to the back of the manor, which was where the training arena was located. Lucian had been there before when his dad trained, but this time he was just following his sister's scent. As soon as they got to the front of the arena door, it opened. It was imbued with magic, and strong magic at that. According to his father, his aunt was the one who had built it because she was a skilled blacksmith, though she never showed that side of herself to him, only her loving side.
After keeping this thought at the back of his mind, they entered the arena with Aurora following them in. Once inside, Lucian could feel the thick air carrying the scent of rusty sand and past battles—most of the guards probably trained here. It was empty, which was good. He stopped when Celeste stopped, presumably already in position on the training ground. He walked about 20 steps in the opposite direction, then turned to face her.
"Like I said, I don't want to hurt you and will go easy on you," he said. "We are not allowed to use magic, just our fists and legs, so be careful. We'll only decide the winner when one of us is down."
He could hear Celeste muttering, "Hurt me? He thinks he can hurt me? I will show him. I will show him."
Then he shouted, "Start!"
Immediately, he felt a gust of wind coming his way. His head was ringing like crazy—way too much. He knew his life was in danger if whatever was coming his way were to touch him. His sister didn't hold back. He was just a mortal; even if he had received a punch from a Spellweaver of higher stage than her before, that didn't mean he was immortal. If she were to punch him in the head, he would die, that was for sure, and he already felt the pain.
So the best course was to follow the ringing sound and move his body in a way that he could avoid the danger. Even if he wasn't fast enough to dodge whatever was coming his way completely, at least he could still hold himself from falling. He still needed rage to cloud her mind first.
As soon as whatever was coming toward his chest got close, he knew she was throwing a punch his way. He had to sidestep a bit just for it to miss and graze his shoulder. He could hear his bone cracking; she probably heard it too. That snapped her out of her anger, so she stepped back a bit. Even if it was just a graze, it felt like his shoulder bone had been hammered with a steel rod. That punch moved him back a bit, putting quite a distance between them.