"Now… we shall begin training, Seiji."
Lucien's calm tone carried across the hall steady, authoritative, and firm. The air itself seemed to shift with the weight of those words. The torches flickered as if the flames recognized what was about to begin.
Seiji straightened his back, a quiet smirk forming on his lips. "I was waiting for you to say that."
Lucien took a step forward, his robe dragging faintly along the polished marble. "To be sure… are you athletic? After all, some of the previous heroes before you were quite… not athletic."
Seiji scoffed with an amused tilt of his head. "Well… you're straight damn right I am. Straight 5 GPA, athletic, and fast reaction."
Lucien's brow lifted slightly. "I'll suppose that's a yes."
With a flick of his wrist, Lucien tossed a black blindfold. It landed perfectly in Seiji's hands.
"Use this blindfold, Seiji Daiki."
Seiji turned it over in his palm, feeling the fabric. "I'm ten billion percent sure you're making me use my other senses instead of sight, and using my instinct. That right?"
Lucien smiled faintly. "You are correct."
"Thought so." Seiji tied the blindfold across his eyes. Everything went black. No light, no shape, no distance just air, footsteps, and his heartbeat.
Lucien circled him slowly. "When the mind runs faster than the hand can follow," he said softly, "the instinct leads the mind."
"Then I better make sure my instincts don't trip me over." Seiji cracked his knuckles.
A moment later the sound of steel scraping against the floor echoed. Lucien's blade. Not to kill, but to test.
"Ready yourself."
"Already am."
The first swing came silently. no air disturbance, no whistle, yet Seiji leaned back. The blade sliced through the air just above his nose, missing by inches.
He didn't flinch. He moved because he knew.
Lucien paused, studying him with intrigue. "Impressive."
"Wasn't hard. You breathe slower before you move."
Lucien chuckled. "And you notice fine details, too."
Seiji turned his head toward the sound. "I notice everything when my eyes shut."
The training hall fell into a rhythm. Every motion became a dialogue of instinct. Lucien attacked Seiji countered, ducked, rolled, pivoted. Not perfect, but calculating. The kind of awareness that can't be taught, only sharpened.
Hours passed. Sweat slicked Seiji's forehead beneath the blindfold. His chest rose and fell rapidly, but his stance never faltered.
Lucien finally lowered his sword. "Enough."
"Already?" Seiji said between breaths. "I was just getting warmed up."
"You will have plenty of time to burn through that arrogance," Lucien said calmly. "But tell me, what did you learn?"
Seiji removed the blindfold and blinked into the dim light. "That mana isn't everything. Senses, instinct, and rhythm they're all mana in disguise."
Lucien smirked faintly. "Interesting interpretation. You adapt quickly."
"I don't adapt," Seiji said, wiping his sweat. "I calculate."
Lucien's eyes narrowed with subtle approval. "Then let's calculate your endurance."
The next sequence began. no rest, no hesitation.
Wooden dummies sprung to life, animated by Lucien's magic. They charged four at once.
Seiji clenched his fists. "Alright. Come at me."
He sidestepped the first, pivoted on his heel, slammed an elbow into its wooden jaw, and spun to kick the second. The sound of cracking wood filled the air.
Lucien watched closely. this wasn't raw muscle; this was pattern recognition. Every movement deliberate, every strike anticipating the next. The difference between a fighter and a hero. Seiji read the battlefield.
When one dummy's arm swung, Seiji ducked, caught it, and used the momentum to crush another.
Even without mana, his control over motion felt almost superhuman.
"You fight like you've been doing this your entire life." Lucien remarked.
Seiji grinned. "Close enough. Sports tournaments, track, martial arts clubs. All human stuff but this? This is a different kind of adrenaline."
Lucien folded his arms. "Human training brings you far. But instinct alone won't protect you from mana users."
"Then I'll outthink them."
Lucien's smile deepened slightly. "We'll see."
He lifted his hand, and suddenly, blue sigils flared across the walls.
The gravity in the room doubled. Seiji's knees bent instantly, body forced down.
"Tch- what the?!"
Lucien spoke softly, "Your mind is fast.. let's test your body."
Seiji clenched his teeth, fighting the pressure. His muscles screamed, every motion dragging like lead. Yet his expression didn't waver.
He forced one leg forward. Then another.
Slow. Straining. But moving.
Lucien's voice cut through the weight. "Mana pressure training. This is the foundation. If your body breaks here, you're not worthy of the next phase."
Seiji snarled through gritted teeth. "I don't plan on breaking."
Minutes stretched into eternity. Seiji's vision blurred. His shoulders trembled. But he stayed upright.
Then the pressure dropped. Lucien dispelled it with a gesture.
The weight vanished, replaced by a suffocating silence.
Seiji stood there, panting, drenched in sweat.
Lucien approached him. "You endured longer than most first-day initiates."
"Guess I'm built different."
"Confidence can be a weapon," Lucien replied,"or your downfall."
Seiji smirked faintly. "Then I'll make sure it's a sword, not a shield."
Lucien turned, signaling to the attendants nearby. "Bring the mana conduits."
The attendants placed several crystal rods around Seiji, each glowing faintly blue.
Lucien explained, "These measure the flow of energy around your body. Even without mana, your physical rhythm can resonate with them."
"So basically, it's like syncing your heartbeat with magic?"
"Precisely."
Seiji inhaled slowly, focusing. His heartbeat thudded in his ears. The crystals began to hum, faintly pulsing with each beat.
Lucien watched. "You're syncing faster than expected."
"I just… listen."
"To what?"
"To silence." Seiji said. "It tells me everything."
The crystals glowed brighter, faint ripples forming between them.
Lucien's calm eyes narrowed slightly. "Remarkable."
"Guess I'm more compatible with this world than you thought!" Seiji teased.
Lucien didn't answer immediately. "Perhaps. Or perhaps you've just learned how to hear the world better than most."
The session went on. From balance tests on suspended planks to reflex trials against moving targets.
Every exercise, Seiji treated like a puzzle analyzing, adjusting, perfecting. He wasn't just enduring the training. he was breaking it apart mentally, finding flaws in its rhythm and exploiting them.
By sundown, the hall was filled with broken training dummies, shattered planks, and half-spent crystals.
Seiji sat on the floor, exhaling deeply.
Lucien approached again. "You've done well. But remember, Seiji. intelligence without discipline leads to chaos. Talent without control leads to ruin."
Seiji tilted his head up with a small smile. "I'll take both and make something better."
Lucien chuckled softly. "You remind me of someone."
"Who?"
"Another fool who thought intellect could conquer destiny," Lucien said, turning away. "He failed because he never realized destiny listens only to those who not only use intellect but can also fight."
Seiji's eyes followed him. "I'll make destiny listen."
Lucien paused briefly at the door, glancing back over his shoulder. "Tomorrow, we'll see how far that defiance takes you."
The door closed.
Seiji leaned back against the cold wall, staring up at the flickering lights. Every muscle ached. But he didn't feel pain. He felt alive.
For the first time since his summoning, he understood something. this world didn't need another hero.
It needed someone who thought like a human… and moved like one who refused to break.
He grinned faintly to himself. "Alright, Valdheim… let's see how much hell I can raise before sunrise."
Sunrise arrived shrouded in mist, the training hall's arched windows diffusing a pallid glow that softened the edges of reality. Seiji waited at the center, wrists wrapped in fresh bandages, his soreness a dull hum beneath sharpened focus.
Lucien entered, robes quiet as ever, carrying something that didn't match the grandeur of the room.
A simple wooden staff. No ornaments. No carvings. Just smooth, aged oak.
Seiji tilted his head. "That's it? No glowing blade? No fancy relic?"
Lucien's lips curved in a faint, knowing smile. "Appearances deceive, Seiji. This staff has seen more battles than most swords ever will."
Seiji crossed his arms. "Still looks like something I could buy in a hardware store."
"That," Lucien said calmly, "is what the last fool who mocked it said. He no longer exists."
"Noted." Seiji's grin curved. "So, what's the deal? You're gonna teach me staff techniques now?"
"Not just techniques." Lucien planted the staff into the ground; a low hum pulsed outward, rattling the air. "We'll test your awareness again this time, not against wood and weight… but against intent."
"Intent?"
Lucien's eyes sharpened. "The difference between an opponent's swing and a predator's strike is intent. One aims to hit. The other aims to end."
Seiji smirked. "Sounds fun."
"It isn't."
The staff whipped forward, precise and unrelenting. Seiji twisted away just in time, the tip grazing his shoulder with a bite that stung like truth unveiled.
"Damn, you're not pulling punches!" Seiji gasped, pivoting on his heel.
"I warned you." Lucien replied evenly, his movements fluid, anticipatory, as if he danced with steps of the future.
Seiji dodged again, reading Lucien's steps. He wasn't fighting an instructor. he was fighting a scholar who knew how to read minds through motion.
Every movement Seiji made, Lucien already predicted. The old man wasn't stronger, just terrifyingly precise.
"Too slow." Lucien said as the staff struck the ground beside Seiji's leg.
"Too unfair." Seiji replied, kicking the staff's shaft and pivoting back. "You move like you've already seen me fight in your dreams."
"Experience." Lucien's voice echoed lightly. "And pain."
Seiji frowned slightly but said nothing. He countered again bare fists, measured rhythm but the staff met every strike effortlessly.
Each deflection wasn't random. it was a lesson disguised as defeat.
When the staff finally tapped his ribs, firm but not cruel, Lucien stepped back. "Your progress is swift. Reflexes honed like a blade. Yet your thoughts waver before the unknown, like a flame in wind."
Seiji bent forward, hands on knees, chest heaving. "Human, remember? Not some machine."
Lucien twirled the staff absently, his gaze distant. "That humanity.. is your anchor and your chain."
The words lingered, thick as the mist outside. Seiji straightened, wiping sweat from his brow. "Lucien... about the summoning. I saw them. The chains, the slaves. If this place is so enlightened, why the hell does it chain its own?"
Lucien's composure cracked, just a hairline fracture, his eyes averting as if the question were a mirror he feared.
For the second time, his usually composed face seemed to fracture slightly like a crack forming in porcelain.
He turned his gaze away before answering.
"…Because the world prefers order over kindness."
"That's not an answer, I've mentioned this, since the day I've been summoned." Seiji muttered.
Lucien exhaled, voice low. "No. It isn't."
He rested the staff across his shoulders and leaned against it, the tone of a man who had repeated this story far too many times.
"Men trade what they cannot control even one another." Lucien continued, his words measured, heavy with unspoken histories. "But the vilest secret? It ensnares not just the lowly, but the exalted."
Seiji's jaw tightened. "What are you saying?"
Lucien's gaze met his, steady yet shadowed. "Heroes, Seiji. Summoned souls like yours bartered when they prove unruly, purposeless. Sold to nobles, empires, shadows that lurk in the underbelly."
"..Hero trafficking?" Seiji's voice rose, laced with revulsion. "They peddle us like cattle?"
"And cloak it in fate's robes." Lucien affirmed, his nod weary.
"That's.. twisted." Seiji muttered, stepping closer, his anger a live wire.
"Power's essence." Lucien replied softly. "The brighter the halo, the deeper the darkness it conceals."
He paced slowly, the staff's tap echoing like a heartbeat. "Valdheim preens as righteous. The Iron Fjords boast coldfreedom. Verdant Dominion claims purity. Sunken Isles whisper liberation. Yet all are forged in irons."
Seiji watched him, silent, absorbing the weight.
Lucien pressed on, his voice a river carving stone. "The Giants not mere oversized men, but earth-forged, bones veined with ore, voices that shatter the air like thunder's decree. The Seafolk, bound to waves, half-human hybrids navigating treacherous currents as mercenaries or ghosts of the deep."
He paused, glancing at Seiji. "Heroes, those who spurned their chains, building realms from defiance. Warlords or whispers in the wind."
"And the Beasts." Lucien added, his tone dipping into myth. "Leviathans in the Black Trench, devouring not for sustenance, but to consume forgotten tales, balancing history's scales."
Seiji rubbed his neck, skepticism warring with fascination. "They eat memories?"
"What humanity discards." Lucien said simply, as if reciting an ancient creed.
It bordered on the fantastical, yet Lucien's certainty made it real. Seiji shifted. "And the chained ones? Elves, werewolves, vampires why them?"
"Ancient pacts, wars bitter fruit." Lucien murmured. "Born or bound into servitude, echoes of conflicts long faded."
Seiji's fists clenched. "And nobody fights back?"
Lucien's smile was fragile, a shard of faded light. "Many rise. Few endure."
"Then you.." Seiji challenged, his eyes probing. "You've seen it all, talk like a veteran of hell. Why linger in this mess if it sickens you?"
Lucien traced the staff's grain, his touch reverent. "I once clung to a vision of change."
"Once?" Seiji prompted.
"The Divine Concord?" Lucien said, his voice softening with reminiscence. "Not a faith, but a vow older than thrones, guiding heroes through eras. We instilled restraint amid power's lure, purpose against ownership's grasp. 'Hero' meant guardian, not blade."
Seiji's expression eased, empathy stirring. "What broke it?"
"The world craved conquest over counsel." Lucien replied, his gaze far-off. "The Concord crumbled, then heroes became pawns, and destructive."
He turned to Seiji, a spark of fragile hope in his eyes. "Then came you."
"Me?" Seiji blinked, caught off guard.
"You question the divine, see through veils, doubt where others kneel." Lucien said, his smile tentative. "Humanity's spark.. dangerous, essential."
Seiji scoffed, masking unease. "Just surviving here."
"Survival.." Lucien countered. "is rebellion's dawn."
Silence enveloped them, the mist swirling like unspoken thoughts. Lucien straightened. "Enough rest. Training resumes body and spirit alike."
Seiji nodded, exhaling. "Yeah. I see it now."
He glanced at the staff, then Lucien. "You said don't judge the surface. Applies to people too, huh?"
Lucien's chuckle was soft, genuine. "Lesson learned, then."
Seiji gripped his training sword, twirling it with renewed focus. "Next swing, I duck."
"We.. shall see." Lucien replied, amusement warming his tone.