"Keeeugh. I found it! I must be a genius. Hahaha! This is great."
Shuraina finally discovered the magic circle she wanted and slammed an excited fist on the desk as she hugged Swanhaden.
Shuraina, face red from excitement and accomplishment, laughed loudly.
Swan loved that smile, the smile that Shuraina had after she focused on something and succeeded at something. Her laughter made his heart beat faster.
"Shushu, don't you need some forbidden texts on white magic and black magic? I found these while I was going through the library. It looks like they might be useful when applied in mind-related products."
"Eugh, Swan I love you so much."
"..."
Swan slapped a hand on his mouth, turned around, and slammed his fist onto the wall. Of course, he was doing this out of happiness, not anger.
The sweet feeling of getting to know the person you love. The joy you feel when you give the person you love what they want.
Swanhaden took a moment before finely grinding the plant that she had requested onto the magic circle. Meanwhile, Shuraina created a magic bowl, shaped like a human, out of clay. Then, she drew a magic circle onto the stomach of the clay human with a thin stick.
It was going to be boring to just sit there and wait for the clay to dry, so Shuraina grabbed Swanhaden's shoulder.
"Swan, I want to duel with you before I enter the knighthood."
"…..let's go."
Shuraina wanted to train with her sword, so Swan nodded and stood from his seat.
The two of them walked across the large Blanche estate and soon reached the training hall. As expected of the duke's residence, it was incredibly large and well-kept.
Swanhaden headed towards the corner storage area of the training hall and took hold of a sword. When she followed him to get a sword for herself, Swanhaden held her wrist to stop her.
"I have a present."
"…..?"
Swanhaden briefly rummaged through the storage and took out a sword wrapped in fabric and then threw it at her.
"What do you mean a present, all of a sudden….?"
Shuraina was recently baffled by how cute Swanhaden's actions were these days. He kept on planning surprises. Last time, he had visited in the middle of the night, right when she had been craving a late night snack, and had gotten her a late night snack.
Shuraina smiled as she held onto the sword that Swanhaden had just given her. Then, she unwrapped the fabric around the sword.
"…..wow."
The sword had been made out of three different types of magic stones. The white magic stones seemed to be Swanhaden's, and the normal magic stones were orange, but she couldn't tell whose it was. It seemed like he had gotten some from a normal magic user. And it looked like the precious black magic stones were from Noirelle.
Shuraina's hands shook in joy as she held the sword. Shuraina always used magic alongside her sword. She had a tendency to rely on her sword more aggressively because she didn't have enough magic to fight well, but if the sword was made of stones then she wouldn't have that weakness.
"When did you have the time to make this?"
"Here and there, all of them have been condensed ten times so it's semi-permanent. And because dragon magic is too strong, I just condensed it about five times and put it in there."
'Just as he says….'
Shuraina's hand began to sweat as she felt the incredible power emanating from the sword.
When she put some strength into her arm and swung the sword once, a large gust of wind blew. Shuraina's hair followed the wind and blew backwards. When Swanhaden's own hair also blew backwards, he frowned before roughly shaking his head to put his hair back to its normal position. He soon took his position.
"If you want to duel with me, you need at least that much power."
"You're extremely arrogant right now."
Shuraina and Swanhaden both held their swords and put some distance between each other and walked in a circle, facing each other. A gust of wind blew once more. A thin layer of dust filled the air of the training hall.
"Don't go easy on me. Swan."
"You too."
Both of their eyes glinted dangerously as they focused on their opponent. Swanhaden didn't want to face her because he was worried that Shuraina would get hurt, but he knew that Shuraina had wanted to duel with him and decided to follow her wishes.
If he didn't want to look down on her skills, he had to go all out, but that meant that there was a chance that she would get hurt.
Instead of going easy on her and make her lose face, he chose to provide her with as much power as possible to ensure that she wouldn't be hurt even if he went all out.
If he had been like he had been before, he would have chosen to go easy on her, but Shuraina disliked that. Swanhaden couldn't do anything but give up on his selfishness.
A tense air permeated the training hall. The two continued to walk around the training hall in a circle as they warily watched the other. Then, Swanhaden took the first step. His lips were curved in a smile.
When he swung his sword toward Shuraina, Shuraina saw him approaching, put some power in her thighs, and boosted her own strength using the magic coming from the sword. Her eyes were wet with tense excitement. She was quickly able to catch up to Swanhaden's movement. Shuraina rushed behind him and swung her sword. He turned around and barely blocked the attack.
When he blocked her attack, a large gust of wind blew again.
Nobody was getting injured during the training duel, but the excitement was there. Shuraina faced Swanhaden with the best of her abilities, and Swanhaden did the same.
Shuraina retreated a few steps to avoid Swanhaden's quick and terrifying attack and held her sword up again.
Swords clanged loudly as they hit each other a few times. Both of them looked exhausted but their lips were quirked up in excitement.
Swanhaden's eyes were completely focused on only one person. They only chased after this one person. He didn't know when an orange-haired girl with her hair tied up in a high ponytail and a sharp gaze. He didn't know which direction she would come from. He needed to focus in the space of her quick speed.
He had thought this before when she had taken care of Eric that one time, but Swanhaden was incredibly impressed by her consistent efforts towards swordsmanship and how she had surpassed her original limits.
Shuraina improved at an incredibly slow pace considering the amount of time she poured into swordsmanship. She was still better than most thanks to her consistent efforts, but if someone talented in swordsmanship practiced as much as Shuraina, they would've been even better.
Swanhaden thought that she would inevitably give up on swordsmanship and only focus on magic, but she had, in the end, achieved both.
Swan knew why Shuraina hadn't given up on the sword until now. It was to join the knights.
Swanhaden wanted her to only focus on the things that she truly wanted to do in this life. In her past life, she had worked harder than Yulinelle and had suffered under the crushing weight of others and of life itself.
He had felt and had become one with her memories and her emotions before, so he knew how exhausted Shuraina was. Shuraina just wanted to be free.
But she was a realist more than an idealist, so she suppressed what she wanted in order to suit the situation in front of her. If he was being honest about her specialty, she would be better suited to join the magicians' research institute. But the institute needed to find a sponsor to stay funded every year, so wages weren't consistent. Nor were they high.
So she decided to join the royal knights, which was a dream job for everyone.
She needed to practice again and again to improve a little in swordsmanship, but her skills improved in leaps and bounds whenever she studied a little bit of magic. Regardless, she poured her time and hard work into swordsmanship.
What good was that knighthood anyway? As soon as Shuraina was reborn, she made it her life's goal to join it. Of course, this was when Shuraina wasn't very rich.
'But there are magic swordsmen within the knights, and magic swordsmen can use magic too.'
Shuraina was still riddled with scars from her difficult past, so she hesitated to follow her own dreams and rejected it. And, in her own way, she found a middle ground between her wants and her needs. Combined skills were even more highly rated and paid for, so this was even better for Shuraina.
In the end, her consistent efforts became her skills, and then shined on like this. And with skills came fun. If Shuraina had just focused on magic, she would've become the best of the best, but Shuraina chose to even out her skills across multiple fields for her mental comfort. And she was pleased and happy with how content she felt about that.
Her sword swung high in the air before slamming down towards the ground. A loud gust of wind blew from the attack. Creak. Slam! Swanhaden twisted his body to avoid the attack, but his sword swung back from the strength of the attack.
Swanhaden looked at the sword stretched out towards his throat and held up both of his hands. He smirked.
"You won. Congratulations."
Shuraina's chest heaved up and down. Her face was drenched in sweat, but her scarlet pupils were still shining brightly.
"Fun, right."
"Uh huh."
Shuraina grinned as she agreed with Swanhaden's words.
Shuraina was really pleased with the middle ground that she had found for herself. Moreover, she found every memory and experience that she had to be precious. Swanhaden wanted to respect that part of her and wanted to keep that feeling alive for her as much as he could.
Both of them wrapped up the duel and laid down on the ground to catch their breath. Swanhaden thought about what he could do for her.
Swanhaden wasn't the kind of person to try and understand someone else's perspective or care about them. On the other hand, he had a born talent in molding others the way he wanted and making a complete mess out of them. He had the excuse of having a horrible past behind his equally horrible personality, but he didn't have a great personality to begin with.
But Swanhaden earnestly yearned for Shuraina, and he had been insanely jealous seeing how she had relied on Cory for emotional support. He felt like Shuraina just might be snatched away from him. So after reading all of her memories and emotions, he had tried to think about situations from her perspective and direction. Unlike how he usually was, that is.
He had wanted Shuraina so much that Swanhaden began to act differently and, after much effort, he was able to find a middle ground for his actions and personality as well. And he was also very pleased with the results of his middle ground.
"You're going to join the knighthood soon, right?"
"Uh huh. I'm going to go as soon as I finish the magic storing bowl."
"How cruel."
"...sorry."
The problem was that they had shared their feelings and he still had to let her go.
"Is it just waiting after more waiting."
"...?"
"When you join the knights, you need to live there for a few years don't you? Even if you're free after that."
"Yes. Then we'll have to part from each other for a bit, right?"
When Shuraina calmly spoke, Swanhaden covered his face with both hands.
"….ah."
Swanhaden sighed deeply and let out a pained sound. Aah.
"Shuraina."
He rubbed his face with his hands. Her name came out muffled.
Shuraina went closer to Swanhaden, still lying down, and hugged him. She was a sweaty mess so she worried that Swanhaden wouldn't like it, but he didn't reject it so she stayed in that position.
She felt a bit guilty. If she knew that Swanhaden had been interested in her, then she would've confessed earlier. The timing was all wrong. For her to leave Swanhaden and date Eric instead...
He was elated that Shuraina had hugged her first, but he soon became depressed at the thought of this happiness ending soon.
"Are you anxious too?"
"What."
"To be honest, that was why I confessed first. I was anxious that someone else would take you away from me. Even if it was a bit selfish of me to confess right before I joined the royal knights."
Swan was confused and unfamiliar with what she was saying. What did she mean, scared that someone would take him away from her. Shuraina was? Scared that I'd go for some other woman?
Swanhaden didn't even have a concept of other women. No, he didn't have a concept of women or men in general. He had two distinctive groups of humans–Shuraina or blobs of flesh. But to hear Shuraina worry about all that–that was novel.
And what? She was selfish for confessing right before she joined the knights? All the selfish people in the world must've perished. Swanhaden thought that he had received all the blessings he could ever receive in the world when she had confessed.
"If you cheat on me, I'm going to cut open a hole through your neck. You can't dump me just because we're living apart from each other too. I'm sick of being dumped."
When Shuraina threatened him with narrowed eyes, Swanhaden was even more shocked.