"Today, we the Lee family welcome everybody to my son, Victor Lee's birthday ceremony. The event will start with the performance of Victor and Aurora's duet swordplay."Said Kevin. He felt proud of the two kids. They practiced together only once, but the nobility and elegance displayed by the two was just….. awe inspiring. Normally Kevin and Jane would perform the swordplay but today they had to stick with the dance as to not embarrass themselves.
The two stood at the centre of the crowd. Victor with a dark purple suit and aurora with a snow white dress. One hand holding the sword and one hand holding each others' arms. They slowly turned their bodies in the opposite direction and had their backs to each other. Then they started off with their extraordinary performance of complete symmetry. The girl with innocent and playful look paired to a guy with elegance and seriousness. The combo blew the minds of the audience.
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Victor was sitting in his room with Aurora and his birthday presents were brought in by the maids. It took him about thirty minutes to get out of the crowd and that was the longest time of his entire life. It was a blessing to have Aurora with him as she sent away all the girls who wanted to dance with him and were probably asked to do so by their respective parents.
"Hey Aurora. Thanks for saving me out there." Victor said with complete seriousness.
"??????? What are you talking about? Did someone try to kill you?"
"....Nevermind."
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[after a few minutes ]
"Hey Vicky, lets spar."
"My name isn't Vicky. Call me Victor."
"But aunty Jane said that I could call u pet names when we are alone…" She said looking down with a sad face towards the floor as the name she picked for Victor was rejected in a second.
"....Fine. But tell me before u call me new names and make sure to keep the number of names low. I'm not good at remembering names."
"Yaaaay. I'll call u Vicky from today. Let's spar. I want to know how strong I am. Uncle Kevin said that your mastery with swords is one of the best in the Maximilion empire and he would be ranked second."
"Alright. Let's go to the training grounds. "
[Training Grounds]
Two kids were standing still as they faced each other with wooden swords in their hands. They were Victor and Aurora obviously. Aurora suddenly lunged forward and thrust the sword at Vector's calf. He moved a bit to the left side and hit her head with the sword handle.
"Sloppy. You're vulnerable to counter attacks. Again"
The spar turned into a training session.
"Too slow. Again."
"Look at the opponents movements not the face. Again."
"You're using a sword not a rapier. You aren't limited to stabbing so, start slashing."
"Again."
"Again."
"Again."
"Urk. The heck was that?" Aurora gave him a really accurate headbutt right on the face.
"You are a meanie . I hate you."She runs off towards the mansion .
'She is just a kid after all. I guess I was too rough.' He was panting. Although he wasn't as tired as Aurora. One hour of constant dodging got him pretty exhausted. Victor had the skills but his body was weak. He went back to his room and lay on his bed. Just as he was about to fall asleep, there was a knock on the door.
"Master Victor, Lord Kevin wants you in the main hall for the final event."
"On my way , uncle Whisker."
Victor stood and greeted everyone telling them how much he "liked" the gifts they game. His foot hurt due to constantly standing for hours and he was already tired from all that sparring. He got different types of birthday presents. Most of them were clothes and books. He was even given two wooden swords so that his swordplay could look more beautiful. It was most probably last moment thing. He would have appreciated getting money instead but the nobles had their own "rules". Gifting money was something commoners would do not the nobles. So they always gifted useless things such as clothes, books, accessories, non-usable wooden weapons or blunt swords that couldn't cut. They were purely for decoration and to show off. Victor hated being in the center of attention but as a noble's son, he had to do what he was expected to do.
It was time to end the gathering. Now was the time for the "actual " final event. Victor's father had to give him his birthday present. Victor smiled as he had been waiting for this. Why did he stand for hours doing some boring thing as receiving useless gifts? It was for the damn storage ring. He always did things he didn't like only if he got satisfying benefits from it.
"Lord Kevin will be giving Young master Victor his ninth birthday gift. We humbly request everyone to stay silent." Mr.Whisker said in his low and serious voice.
Kevin took long strides towards Victor and said "Victor. You have grown up to a be a good kid. I will be giving you this . I hope you make use of it well and make me proud." He took out a flashy looking sword. It's handle looked like a coiled dragon with the blade in its open mouth.
Kevin was smiling wide. He never imagined his son to be so good with swords so he got him the most expensive and good looking sword from the capital of Maximilion empire.
While Kevin was happily giving the sword to Victor, his son was sulking heavily as he took the sword.
'what am I going to do with this flashy piece of shit?'
He was brought back to his room by the maids and after about 30 minutes all of his family members were in the room. Only the family head had to give the present in public. The others could give it anywhere and anytime. He looked expectantly at them, waiting for someone to take out a ring from their pockets and give it to him.
Aurora first came forward and timidly gave him a sling shot. Made of metal. Heavy but sturdy.Victor liked it. Although it is cheaper than his sword, it was highly practical. If used properly, it could wound, incapacitate or even kill a person.
"Thank you , Aurora."
"Well, Take a look at what your mom got for you. It's way more expensive than that the sword that your father gave you."
His eyes brightened up listening to those words. A storage ring more expensive than the sword meant it must be good storage ring.
She gave him a ring with a smile and said "Check what's inside will you."
"Yes mother."
He found a small glass bottle with a cork to prevent the liquid from flowing out. It had a cream colored liquid inside it.
"What is this mother?"
"It's an awakening potion. It increases the chances of getting a purer mana body."
"What's a mana body?"
"Those who have mana bodies are called mages. But the purity of the mana body determines how fast and longer you can use magic. We are only carriers of mana so we can't have a purity over forty percent. Our bodies
can't hold mana more than that ."
"Alright, got it. Thank you mom."
She smiled, patted his head, took out the potion, kept it on the table and left the room with others leaving Victor standing alone in despair. Yes she left the potion and took away the ring.
While he was brooding, there was another knock on the door and a kid of about Victor's height showed himself . He looked at Victor for a few seconds and left a small pouch on table, right beside the potion.
"Hey Koby. Why do you work so hard to beat me in everything?" Victor said as he looked at his step brother. It wasn't that he hated his brother, It's just that Koby always avoided him if he got the chance but he always tried to compete with Victor in silence."
"I just want to find out what I'm good at and prove myself to father."
"Alright. Thanks for the money Koby. Ask me if u need anything."
"Okay brother. I'll take my leave."
Koby left and Frazer came in gave Victor a small pouch and left. He didn't like talking to Victor as he was always expecting to get a dangerous job.
"Hey Stop. Master Frazer, can you tell me what this is?"
"Storage bag." He left the room just as he said that.
A storage bag was a cheap version of the ring. Although it had the same about of space inside it, It didn't negate the weight completely. A storage ring's weight doesn't change no matter what was kept in it, but a storage bag only reduced the weight. It didn't negate it completely. Nonetheless Victor was beyond happy with the storage bag he received.
He looked at the moon as he smiled. 'Now I don't have to worry about carrying the mana crystals. Although the weight might be a problem, it's still manageable.' He noticed some movement from the corner of his eye and turned towards that direction and squinted his eyes.
He saw a silhouette lurking near Frazer's house.