Faith slowly opened his eyes as he felt the weight of exhaustion leave his body. The last thing he remembered was collapsing after going a little too far with training. Okay maybe not a little. He tried to get up only for a warm sensation to force him back down.
"Don't think your going anywhere after pulling that stunt, little one" - his mother, who he now realised he was resting on spoke.
Faith was shocked too see his mother's clearly worried face staring down at him as if he had done something wrong. Though the more he thought about the more he realised he really kinda had.
"I'm sorry mom, it was just so fun that I lost track of time" - Faith said trying to cheer Eshir up with his classic naive smile.
"Fun? You found training "Hopes respite" fun? Even I cant do it for more then a hour" - Eshir replied.
Out of all the things and excuses she'd imagined Faith making, this was not one of them. Yet he seemed to be telling the truth and his apology seemed earnest so all she could do was accept it. She'd spent ten days watching her child sleep worried about the consequences of his actions, ignoring her duties, so it came as a huge relief to know that he was okay.
After she confirmed he was okay Eshir didn't let Faith still wide awake out her grasp for 4 hours. Constantly asking him if he felt sad, or if anything was bothering him. Faith loved it but was also extremely worried about it.
'Why is she so worried about my wellbeing. Did something happen while I was asleep'
Was all he could think to himself, before he'd managed to convince her he was fine. Eshir was finally back to her duties promising to have a celebration for his birthday later that day. Apparently sapphire was tending to important family matter, so Faith was left alone.
He knew that in a few hours or so Ervis his now master would come for his second lesson, but for now Faith had nothing to do. Well he wouldn't have had anything do if he hadn't discovered how amazing training felt.
When he'd woken up his body had felt as if weight had always been strapped to him, but now was lifted off. It was intoxicating to the point that Faith knew exactly what to do while waiting for his teacher.
Most of the staff and retainers were used to seeing Faith, but watching the boy rush towards the training hall as if he was being chased by exodus himself was quite a shock.
When he arrived Faith felt the atmosphere was a little different in the training hall then last time he was here. Everyone seemed more motivated and had more visor in their forms and posture. Some even seemed to be practicing "Hopes Respite" themselves trying to uncover anything they'd missed previous.
'Huh… Well I guess training montages got people hype back in my old world, this is probably similar'
He thought to himself as he walked towards the weapon wall, looking for his new favourite tool for destruction. He hadn't had any lessons with it, but just getting a feel for the blade with "Hope's Respite" would greatly help him, at least that what he thought.
However no matter where he looked on the wall or racks, that elusive sabre like bade didn't seem to be there. People couldn't take training weapons out of the room due to the enchantments and rune formations, which Faith had only ever heard about in passing from his father, so where the hell could it be.
Faith turned around surveying the easier 40 metre wide training hall, only for his eyes to find a sight quite strange indeed. In the middle of one of the training matts a about a girl about a year older then himself stood there, swinging the sword left to right. She also seemed to be practicing "Hope's respite" and everyone and then the older gentleman who Faith assumed was her instructor would adjust her form, or show her the mistakes she'd made in the swings and posture.
'He is kinda like the living embodiment of what my shadows do for me, except they are far more vigilant then him'
He thought as his gaze stayed fixed on the pair who seemed to have already gained quite a crowd of admirers themselves. Faith probably would have attracted a much bigger crowd, but with his nature as a shadow mage, he seemed to blend into the crowd quite well when he felt like it. It was one of the applications of shadow magic that Faith hoped to experiment in more but as of now he'd been stuck with simply moving and shaping shadows in their still etheric like state.
One of the things he'd come here to practice by himself was actually the combat applications of shadow magic. Against the golems present he could test how it could be used and what he could achieve with it. This was one of the downsides to not using spells but instead pure will to conjure magic. The caster would have to give it structure purely from said will without having any idea of what was needed to achieve that, wether as spells were given a strict an inflexible construct but you were sure of what the end outcome would be.
It was less of a problem for Faith since he'd never been interested in rushing his magic development, but now he had a purpose for it so things were a little different. Coming back to reality, Faith could see a sneer clearly place on both the girl and elder's face as they continued to gain attention.
The crowd was slowly growing bigger and Faith himself was quite interested in why the girl and elder had chosen to use this weapon.
'it can't be a conscience. Wait what if I'm like her idol or something, I Mean she's from the royal family as well so it cant be a total impossibility.'
He thought staring at the Exodus crest that adorned both of them. The almost silver like hair of the girl clearly showed the thick blood of exodus that ran through her veins, only trounced by Faith's own pure white hair. Even her purple eyes nearly as clear as Faith's mother showed off her pure lineage, while Faith was blessed with his fathers eyes.
'Huh… she kinda looks like mom'
He thought, though in his mind this was only par for the corse. The exodus family was large and spikes in the purer blood of exodus such as Eshir and this girl were common, though generally people this thick blooded would be destined to be the future ruler.
'Well Eshir is the ruler and I read that the only way to become the ruler is a trial by combat, or the ruler giving his throne to another. Apparently mom slaughtered both her parents who and took the throne that way, being a talent that hadn't been seen in almost 1000 years with her hair being as white as the legendary exodus, and her eyes almost matching his purple hue'
Faith thought, he'd read about the fore father of the current demon kingdom quite a lot. Exodus himself was a mighty ruler unchallenged in his time commanding both power and authority unmatched. The story went that when exodus was on the edge of death as a weak demon the spirt of chaos had blessed him turning his eyes purple and hair white as well as giving him power unmatched.
'In my mind though, Exodus is probably just someone who worked really hard to become strong. Then others who couldn't believe in his growth and hard work simply wrote it off as this spirit. Its kinda like how people would write me off for being lucky with my shadow ability and nothing else, weird how hell bent people are on denying hard work in this world'
He thought to himself, as cheers resounded. The girl seemed to have correctly assimilated her pure mana into her blade, which was a branch of enhancement magic. It required the user to be able to keep a hold on their mana even in a foreign object and was similar to trying to stick something on a greased surface, constantly sliding off at the simplest of mistakes.
It was called Mana blade, and it was common among knights and melee combatants who had control over their mana. Unlike dragons control over mana wasn't something natural for the other races, so even simply encasing a sword in it as the silver haired girl had was quite the achievement, especially at her age.
Everyone around was clapping and Faith choose to join in too as even he felt the achievement deserved praise, granted something as simple as enchasing mana was easy for himself. But he was a dragon so comparing himself to his demon kin wasn't fair.
The girl looked around with a somewhat smug expression a child would have when praised beyond belief, although Faith felt the expression was to earned somewhat. However while Faith was clapping the girls attention blade in hand landed on him.
They stood there staring at each other, while Faith was still clapping and smile the girl had frozen on the spot, her eyes containing a little hatred and a little disgust.
'Challenge'
Suddenly his shadows imprinted a word in his mind as he slowly stopped clapping still meeting the girls gaze. Everyone around seemed to also become aware of the girls strange gaze and looked in the same direction only to jump back in surprise.
'Right, crown prince and all that. Though why is this girl death staring me like I ripped her favourite doll in half'
Faith thought now discovered by the others, most bowed, but the other royalty in the room simply stared with the same disgust as the girl. Eshir wasn't here so they could openly ignore the proper manners meant to be taken with the crown prince. Faith hadn't noticed the changes in the room as he simply gazed back at the girl, his glare intensifying.
'HOLY SHIT ITS FUCKEN HAPPENING, SHE TOTALLY LIKE ME, I'VE MET MY FIRST FRIEND THROUGH THE HANDS OF FATE'
He thought while the awkward silence pervaded as the two continued to stare at each other uninterrupted. The girl, Sira Exodus, was infuriated that the damn half Breed was looking at her with his damn carless smile, like he didn't have a care in the world.
Her life had been nothing but training and working to succeed the great Eshir Exodus since the day she was born, but then the snivelling little half breed was born and with hair of purer colour then even Eshir's. It was maddening to her when she'd heard about his amazing talent with combat on top of his already amazing talent with magic.
In a rage her grandfather had personally tutored her on the blade that the damn half breed had decided to wield as well as "hope's respite". Her grandfather was determined to have his granddaughter who was one of the purest blooded members of the family they'd ever had, trump that disgusting lizard.
Sira herself couldn't take being seen as lesser then Faith and now they were standing next to each other she had a chance to prove how much better she truly was. All the nobles around and high class warrior would see just how much of a difference exodus's blood made. Sira was 6 years old while Faith was only four, He'd only practiced combat for ten days while she had practiced for well over a year.
If he didn't use magic, Sira was certain to win.
"Faith Exodus, I, Sira Exodus, challenge you to a duel for right of succession" - she spoke in her rather soft yet mature six year old voice.
Faith and everyone else in the room almost lost thought they lost their hearing at those words. The right of succession was a thing every member of the royal family possessed and it determined who would be the new ruler in case the current one died without having a chance to pass the torch. Faith being the only child of the current ruler had the highest right of succession, while Sira was around 7th in the rating for the right of succession.
The difference may have sounded small but it wasn't at all and everyone in the room including her grandfather realised how stupid it sounded. For it to be an offical duel she would have to offer him something worthy of the right he possessed. The problem was nothing came even remotely close to the benefits the first successor would get, not to mention that Eshir would simply strip Sira of it and give it to Faith if he lost. But if she lost she would owe him a debt that couldn't be paid resulting in her life being put up as forfeit.
Her existence would become a possession of Faith's through a blood seal and she would basically become the equivalent of a slave. Everyone but Her and Faith knew how naive her thinking was but now there was nothing to be done.
She had issued the challenge with Faith's name so only he could decide wether to decline or accept.
Faith had been as dumbstruck as everyone else but since he wasn't pricy yet to the offical duelling rule that all stakes must be met with equal, Faith didn't mind testing out his prowess to much and maybe making a friend in the process.
"I accept" - he replied, shocking everyone as he stepped on to the same training mat as Sira.
Unfortunately for Sira she wasn't aware that duels for the right of succession had no rules to limit things such as magic, but fortunately neither did Faith.