"Grandpa, why'd you say my full name? You know I think it's weird." The little girl pouted and ruined this momentous occasion.
Eva was slackjaw and pale. Was her father really going to make the young Kailey his heir? It would only get harder for their family after this.
"F-Father why?" Eva couldn't believe what he was hearing and she wasn't frustrated about it not being her, in fact she was happy about that. But Kailey wasn't aware of the gravity of her situation was she?
Winslow sighed, "I know what you are thinking but this house will fall with me when the other houses come after us and I need someone to keep the house alive. She is young, but I know she will bring us to new heights."
He said it with such seriousness like he truly believed his granddaughter could bring them back to greatness. Even though they were Dukes, they had little power in this capital and many of the major cities. The other dukes had slowly been ganging up on them and after his outburst a few months ago, it only sped up the process of losing their assets.
"Does this mean I can learn the family sword art?" Kailey looked between the talking adults, still unsure just what was going on.
"Do you really want to learn that now? You have plenty of time to learn it later when you are stronger." Her grandpa had a weird look on his face.
That was because their sword art was meant to be learned when they became an adult. That was mostly because of how difficult it was to learn when their bodies were still young and weak.
"I'm sure, Grandpa. If I want to make my dream come true of making a kingdom where no one has to lose their parents as I did, I won't hesitate to start now." Kailey looked seriously at her grandpa.
Winslow looked to Eva and the two sighed. She technically had the right to learn it now but that was something to work the kinks out for later.
"We can talk about that a bit later Mrs. Heir." He teased his granddaughter. "Why don't we go get some lunch?"
"Yay! Ice cream!" Kailey exclaimed and ran out the door almost hitting the maid who brought her here.
"No ice cream! Real food!" Eva yelled back at the girl.
She then turned to her father with worry, "Are you sure this is okay? She will make even more enemies for us. Is this the kind of pressure you wanted to put on her?"
Winslow sighed and looked out the window at the blustery day outside.
"I took over for my father when I was 12. He was killed in the war against the Beastmen Kingdom of Leones and as a young child, I was forced to grow up too soon. Kailey has the same eyes that I did at that time.
"She will definitely make a lot of enemies, especially since she will grow to become a beautiful woman someday, but it's those enemies and setbacks they create that give birth to a Titan. Someone strong enough to even threaten an Empire..."
He looked out his window toward the luxurious castle in the distance with narrowed eyes. It sat on a hill, above every other part of the capital to symbolize that they were above everything else.
He remembered the reports of the war with the Beastmen, how while their leaders and royalty did have castles that towered over other buildings, they were all on level ground just like the rest of the buildings.
Those were small hints, almost inconsequential, to how the leaders of the Beastmen didn't value themselves above their citizens. They treated everyone as equals, and that made them closer, like family. It is that kind of undying loyalty that a King should be instilling in his people.
Not looking down on them like the kings of the human kingdoms have been doing for millennia.
The two adults spoke a little longer before Winslow helped his daughter into her wheelchair while she kept slapping his hands away, positive she could get herself in just fine. Her stubbornness made him laugh as they made their way to the dining area.
They had a lovely dinner with the three of them. They chatted with each other about some of the more happy things. Apparently one of the maids was getting married soon so Aunt Eva embarrassed the blushing maid and started help planning already.
Winslow wasn't really for all the flowery details of the wedding so he decided to take his Granddaughter to their training field since the little girl kept complaining about wanting to learn the technique.
He wasn't happy about it, but he also couldn't say no to his little girl. She was adorable and played him like a fiddle so he caved easily and they snuck away to train.
In the expensive and hi-tech-looking training room, Winslow was watching Kailey do some of the basic techniques she had learned a while ago.
Thanks to the tutors, she had become much stronger and earned several basic skills already suited for combat. She made the air whistle as she swung her sword and made cute "Hya!" noises as she grunted with her strikes.
Winslow smiled at her progress and when she was done with her routine, she panted and wiped off her sweat and smiled at her Grandpa.
"Did I do good Grandpa?" She continued panting and pushed away a few stray hairs from her face.
"Awesome sweetheart! You have progressed very well considering you have only be training for a few weeks." He was very proud of her.
Mostly because the rate of her progress surprised him!
'She has a lot of talent. It's a shame she didn't start sooner.' Her talent was amazing and she probably had around 320-360 total stats which would translate to her having a high talent of 80-90 stat points as a no-Ring.
Her talent was definitely up there, and if it weren't for the crown prince having a higher number, she may have been the most talented child of their generation.
"Can I learn the family art now?" She made puppy dog eyes at her favorite (and only) Grandpa.
"hmmm..." Winslow thought a bit. He really shouldn't since although she was much stronger than she used to be, she was probably too weak to begin.
He went down on his knee and held her shoulder.
"Sweetheart, unfortunately, I don't think you're ready for the technique yet." His heart tightened as Kailey started tearing up.
"B-But!" He smiled wryly and tried to save the situation, "I can show you how it's done and give you a new training regimen specifically for the technique as long as you promise not to tell Auntie Eva. Deal?"
Kailey immediately brightened up again and giggled when she saw her Grandpa hold out his pinky and held his other finger to his lips with a smile behind it. Kailey quickly brought up her own tiny pinky and met his and giggled while trying to shush herself.
After that, Winslow had her stay back and behind an e-stone-powered barrier that could protect against 7th Ring attacks like his. Kailey fidgeted in her place as her eyes glittered toward the heroic figure of her Grandpa.
Winslow was standing in the middle of the building in his casual wear that he had wore all day. His plain white shirt had the sleeves rolled up to reveal his hairy and muscular forearms while his black pants and shoes looked as neat as they were before.
What was very out of place, was the gigantic sword that sat on his shoulder like it was nothing. The giant sword was a dark silver with rune enchantments along the middle of it. It sat on a leather shoulder pad that was over his white shirt and he took a deep breath.
He was an old man now so his body couldn't move as well as it used to. He may have been a soldier at one point but those days were long gone and it had been a few hundred years since he needed to move like he would be doing now.
Normally it would have been the girl's own father to teach her this someday, but now he was her only family that could show her how to fight other than the essence focused Eva who wasn't physically able to do this for her.
When he was ready, he separated his legs and went into a stance. His knees were slightly bent and his muscles started bulging, causing the air around him to pop and his clothes to stretch. With his giant sword still on his shoulder, he turned his right foot slightly ahead of him and with a large amount of strength, he spun himself around.
Kailey watched with starry eyes as her Grandpa started out slow, but continued to spin himself until he was a blur. The Giant sword didn't leave his shoulder but he laid it out parallel to the floor causing it to make the wind whistle and kick up.
Soon, the wind was moved around so much, that the air became visible and turned into a small tornado around his body. It slowly reached the ceiling and the air made the barrier protecting his granddaughter shake and flicker.
Since it couldn't defend against all 7th Rings that were close to the 8th Ring, its integrity was failing but still managed to hold on fine until the wind disappeared and her Grandpa's figure was revealed. His hair was frizzy and sticking up weirdly that made her giggle.
"That was awesome Grandpa! I wanna do that too!" Kailey jumped around in excitement just imagining herself spinning around like that.
Winslow smiled to hide the pain in his shoulders and back.
'I've got to start working out again.' He made himself a mental note before helping Kailey learn a few new things to train to help her with this technique.
He gave her a giant sword as well that was tailored more to her body. She could barely lift it up so he helped her get it on the shoulder pad she put on and told her she needed to work out her body more so that it could withstand the enormous power this technique had.
What he did was the family's secret art called "Tornado Cleaver" which was created by the Mantrigeld ancestor several hundred thousand years ago. It was able to cleave away anything in its path and when trained to a higher level, could even move on its own without the person having to be in the eye of the storm to move it.
It was a deadly technique for destroying armies but it put a huge strain on the body of the user. Using such a huge weapon at high speeds was bound to harm the user, even if they were a 7th Ring like him.
He only used a minuscule amount of strength for this but even that hurt his aging body. He watched his granddaughter sweat hard and bend her knees as she slowly followed the footwork with shaky legs.
He helped her learn for a bit longer before she was too exhausted and fell asleep. He had to carry her back in his arms and she unconsciously started sucking her thumb again, like she did when the attack first happened.
His gaze softened at how much this young girl had gone through. He had been in a similar situation as hers but he would make sure she at least at someone to help her become a predator in this world.
He was all on his own as a child so he wouldn't let her feel the same.
'Even if I must fight alone against the kingdom, I will protect you until you can protect yourself, and make that dream of yours come true.' He thought as he brought her inside and was scolded by his daughter and the maids for making her so tired.
While he was having fun with his own family, another powerful man was not having such a good time...
"Why is my daughter such a slut? *Sigh*" A rough and scary-looking man with a long black beard and a large scar over his eye held his face in shame at the young woman in dirty and blood-stained clothes who had an e-stone-powered collar around her neck.