In a blink of an eye, three weeks has already elapsed. Alan spent those days dedicating himself to his training. Each of his swing drew a magnificent arc through the air.
His body no longer carried any trace of the rigidness he had before. Instead, he maneuvered his body with impressive flexibility and pliability.
The sky was painted with an orange glow as an indication that the sun was about to set. During that time, Alan stayed inside the courtyard swinging his sword gracefully.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
He swung his sword rigorously for roughly several hours. Eventually, the sky had darkened at some point.
As the sky was filled with thousands of stars that shone with resplendent glow, lighting up the night sky.
Despite the fact that the surroundings were darker than before, Alan kept up his training. The artificial light was active, so the surroundings wasn't really that dark. It was at least possible to see the surroundings up to several meters in his vision.
[Don't you think you've trained enough already?] Akane's melodious voice sounded.
"No, it's not enough." Alan answered as he kept swinging his wooden sword. Akane remained silent after that and only after thirty seconds did, she finally decided to speak once again.
[I can understand why you are so desperate for power considering who our enemies are but... Don't you think you are being a little too much out of character here?] She pointed out with a sigh.
Alan's hand with which he held his wooden sword came to a halt as he gazed at his sword with a complicated expression.
Akane's words were obvious, right now Ellard was supposed to be Alan, his reincarnation. While he was mature mentally, after experiencing hundreds and even thousands of years of life, to those around him he was still just a small child. Alan had not shown any interest in the sword since he was born as he was only nine years old after all.
However, now that Ellard's soul had possessed Alan's body, suddenly taking a deep interest in the art of the sword would make him seen as suspicious to those around him.
Alan furrowed his brow before he sighed deeply. "There's nothing I can do about that, I... I can't just wait until I come of age, you know."
[Of course, you can... You want my advice, try acting a little bit your age for once.]
"Impossible! My only motivation is acquiring strength." Alan replied.
[... Sometimes I really wish you could take it easy and enjoy a little bit more of what life has to offer other than just focusing on getting stronger. You were given another chance to enjoy your childhood and spend time with family, shouldn't you be happy about that?]
".... This isn't my family, it's Alan's family." Alan said indifferently.
Alan wipes his perspiration as he put down his sword. Soon, the sound of his stomach growling resounded. "We should go." He said as he walked back to the exit of the courtyard.
Akane remained silent as he left, and even though he could tell she was quite upset with him, Alan could only shake his head with a troubled smile.
...
Meanwhile, inside the sun clan...
A burly man who seems to be in his mid to late thirties sat down by the window.
The man had a rather handsome look to his face as he stared off into the distant. His gloomy eyes reflected the myriad of stars gleaming in the night sky.
He had short neatly trimmed black hair and eyes as black as the starless night sky.
On his left was a beautiful woman who had long silky black hair and eyes of the same color.
The woman was dressed in what seem to be a kimono as she let out a puff of smoke from her pipe.
"The dragon attacks just keeps getting more and more frequent lately. I wonder what is happening on the mountain range for them to keep coming all the way down here." The black-haired man opened up his mouth and said calmly.
"Hmmm.... It's hard to say, dragons can be quite territorial. I doubt there are that many monsters that would be brave enough to enter a dragon's territory, and even less a monster capable of causing a dragon to flee from their territory." The black-haired woman spoke without much interest.
Her glossy red lips parted softly as she blew smoke from between her lips.
"You are absolutely right, which means there must be something abnormal happening on the mountain."
After the dragon clan lost a lot of their influence the one in charge of repelling the dragon's and monsters were the sun clan. However, with the frequent appearance of dragon's the number of mages only kept increasing along with the increasing number of casualties.
Although he hated to admit it but without the dragon clan, he found it difficult to deal with the dragon's and monsters.
Dragons were a force of nature. Not only do they had wide range magical attacks capable of wiping out armies in one shot, but their draconic skin makes harming them difficult.
The warriors from the dragon clan were capable of facing low ranked dragon's and even high ranked ones without trouble. It was even said those of the dragon clan were blessed by a true dragon long ago. Though no one had been able to confirm whether those words were true or not.
"Tell me, lady Cassidy. Do you think you can deal with a high ranked dragon when the time comes?" The black-haired man inquired.
".... It's not a problem. Though my magic is mainly used for annihilation. I'm not confident in supporting an army on the battlefield without wiping them out along with my opponent." Cassidy said with a sigh.
She was easily one of the most powerful and skilled mages in the sun clan. All of her magic were attack magic and ones capable of dealing devastating damage to the surroundings.
Those born within the sun clan were blessed with exceptional control over the worlds mana and are valued highly by the king.
'Those two heirs of the sun clan were also quite special as they were both born with exceptional talent.' Cassidy narrowed her eyes as she was deep in thought.
'In the near future, those two girls' will easily be the strongest within the sun clan. Although they're not able to fully utilize their exceptional control over mana at their current age, I estimate they will definitely become unrivaled once they start their attendance in the royal academy a few years from now.' She secretly thought.
"... I see. The king is most likely going to request that old man to hold the troops once the next dragon attack happens, which could happen at any time." He explained.
The dragon's attack was completely unpredictable as they attack during inconvenient moments, while sometimes attacking when their guards are lowered. It didn't seem like an organized attack as the dragon act more on their natural instinct.
"In that case... I'll go and investigate the mountain range tomorrow morning." Cassidy said as she stood up. "Mm, are you sure?" The black-haired man asked hesitatingly.
"Of course, I already know as patriarch you must be quite troubled about seeing your own people being harmed at every attack, right?" Cassidy displayed a beautiful smile as she asked.
"Y-Yes you are absolutely right." He replied with a troubled sigh.
...
Inside another room of the sun clan...
Elena sat around a small table as she drank black tea. Her golden eyes shone with complicated emotions as though she was contemplating something.
Suddenly, the door to the room swung opened and a young girl with similar features as Elena walked in with firm and confident steps.
"Good night, dear sister." The young girl said.
She had black hair that was tied up with a pink ribbon and a butterfly shaped pendant elegantly placed on the side of her tied up black hair.
She donned a black gown that reached her knees.
Elena's hand with which she held her tea trembled slightly as she sighed in displeasure. "What do you want, Ella?" Elena asked, not hiding her disdain.
Elena wasn't a fool, she knew that whenever her sister called her 'dear sister' it wasn't in an affectionate way but quite the opposite.
"Fufufufu! Why are you in such a bad mood, my dear little sister? Can't I visit you just to see your adorable face?" Ella asked in a rather exaggerated tone completely ignoring the disdainful look she was receiving from Elena.
"I heard the news; you are marrying the youngest son of the dragon clan. It must be quite a misfortune to marry into that worthless clan. But don't worry... I assure you once I marry into the royal family, I'll make sure you acquire a job where you don't have to sell your body."
"Wh-What are you talking about?! The dragon clan may not be as influential as our sun clan, but they are still a powerful clan of warriors." Elena said in a displeased tone.
She glared at Ella as though she was just insulted. However, Ella scoff at that, Ella then took out a fan and gracefully hid her face as she said.
"Do you really think the dragon clan will continue to exist for long? That clan will eventually disappear, don't you know? If their influence keeps plummeting, they will no longer be able to exist inside this nation." Ella said as though it was common knowledge.
"W-What?!" Elena's eyes widen slightly upon hearing that. Ella then lowered her fan and said a bit regretfully. "I wonder why father would decide to sell you away to such a miserable fate like that... Perhaps this is a clear indication on who the real favorite is?" Ella said with a shrug of her slender shoulders.
"Anyway, it's getting late. You shouldn't stay up too late little sis. It'd be a real shame if that pretty face of yours gets wrinkly from exhaustion. Ufufufu." Ella turned on her heel and left, the door behind her close softly as she left leaving behind a dumbfounded Elena.
Elena sat back down with a downcast gaze as she drank her tea with a troubled expression.
...
Back inside the dragon clan....
After finishing his dinner, Alan laid in his bed while facing the ceiling. His hand had a ball of white spiritual energy hovering soundlessly a few meters above his palm.
Alan stared at the ball of spiritual energy with his eyes shining with pure fascination. He wasn't sure why but, he notices the spiritual energy inside his soul was denser than when he was Ellard in his previous life.
'It's still so easy to manipulate spiritual energy, how strange... Is my control even better?' He wondered somewhat dubiously.
The words of Akane kept repeating inside his head. 'Spending time with family, uh. How long has it been since I last thought about that?' He wondered.
Soon, the blurry image of a beautiful woman with short shoulder length black hair came into his eyes.
However, no matter how much he tried he couldn't remember her which made him sad.
Tears gathered at the corner of his eyes as his green, emerald pupils glisten.
[Ellard are you okay? It's unusual to see you crying like this.] Akane's worried voice resounded.
Alan wiped his face using his sleeves and raised his upper body. He then clenched his fist dispersing the ball of spiritual energy inside his hand.
"N-No I was just thinking of what you said earlier."
[Hmm... What I said earlier?]
"About spending time with family, and you are right. I took away the precious son of this family... I might as well give them all fond memories to remember." Alan responded.
'Right, I can't keep running away, I have to accept that I am both Ellard and Alan. We are one of the same. Denying it now would feel really insincere especially to this family.' He thought.
[Oh, are you finally going to start accepting reality now?] Akane asked eagerly.
"I wasn't denying reality though. But I will no longer run away anymore." Alan answered.
[Umu. That's good, finally you are starting to act more yourself. But...] Akane's voice trailed off and became slightly troubled as she struggled to come up with the right words. Sensing something was off Alan raised an eyebrow.
"Is something wrong?"
[N-No well... There is something I was meaning to tell you some time ago.] Akane mumbled weakly.
"What is it?" He inquired.
Akane hesitated before ultimately sighing.
[It's about your soul.]
"Hm? What about my soul?" Alan frowned as he became more confused as it seems as though she really didn't want to accept whatever was going on with his soul.
[You have another spirit sword aside from me slumbering inside your soul...] Akane explained in a sullen tone.