David S.R

Chapter 33

The temperature in the room dropped instantly.

Elaine’s chair creaked as she leaned forward, her green eyes narrowing into slits sharper than any blade. A shadowy presence seemed to bloom behind her, dark and suffocating, filling every corner of the room. Even though she wasn’t a fighte...

Chapter 32

After a month, Ludger’s plan was in full swing. Every morning and afternoon, he sat at the tavern or outside his home, his hands glowing with green light as adventurers lined up to be healed. Twisted ankles, cuts from blades, bruises from botched training—he fixed them all, one cast at a time...

Chapter 31

Selene exhaled slowly, her sharp eyes narrowing as she rolled her shoulders. For the first time in all their sessions, she wasn’t entirely composed. A sheen of sweat ran down her forehead, and there was a faint twitch of discomfort in her jaw from blocking too many of Ludger’s direct strikes....

Chapter 30

The duel had ended, but Viola’s pride had not.

She sat on the edge of the courtyard, arms crossed tightly, her broken sword tossed aside like trash. Her lips were pressed into a scowl so deep it looked carved into her face, and every time Ludger so much as glanced her way, she turned her ...

Chapter 29

The next morning, the courtyard was alive with noise again. Harold leaned against his axe, Aleia sat on the fence twirling an arrow, and Selene stretched her arms after another round of drills. Cor stood apart, as usual, his staff balanced across his shoulders.

Arslan, however, couldn’t s...

Chapter 28

Over the next few days, Ludger paid close attention to the pulse of his new [Spiritual Core]. It didn’t behave like other skills. Unlike [Mana Bolt] or [Mana Wall], it didn’t require focus or activation. As long as his mana wasn’t full, the core quietly worked in the background, drawing ene...

Chapter 27

Lord Torvares’s gaze lingered on Viola for a heartbeat longer, then shifted to the rest of the group. His expression didn’t soften, but the faintest tension left his shoulders.

“You’ve returned without injury. That much is acceptable,” he said, his gravelly voice carrying the weig...

Chapter 26

After the brute collapsed in a pool of its own blood, the party didn’t linger. They collected a few more scraps from the goblin corpses—rings, bone trinkets, a handful of copper coins—before retracing their steps. The air seemed lighter the closer they came to the entrance, as though the la...

Chapter 25

Once the last echo of combat faded, the group didn’t linger long on the corpses. Harold crouched down, rolling one of the goblins over with the flat of his axe. “Ugly little things,” he muttered, rifling through its filthy rags. He came away with a bent copper ring, tossing it into a pouch ...

Chapter 24

Arslan gave the yawning stone arch a long look, then swung his leg off his horse with the ease of someone who had done this a thousand times before. He dusted off his hands and grinned at the others.

“We’ll camp here,” he announced. “Better to enter fresh in the morning than stumble...

Chapter 23

The morning sun was still low when they set out, horses snorting clouds of steam in the cool air. Ludger shifted in the saddle, adjusting the weight of the oversized pack Elaine had insisted he bring. It dug into his shoulders, but he said nothing. Complaining would only have earned him another r...

Chapter 21

The next day, Ludger found himself in the yard again, a wooden sword in hand. His swings cut clean arcs through the air as Arslan barked corrections from the sidelines. When the drill ended and the others drifted off, Ludger rested the blade on his shoulder and glanced at Arslan, who was leaning ...

Chapter 22

The weeks slipped into a new routine—Cor sharpening Ludger’s mana control, Elaine watching every move with hawk-like eyes, and Arslan vanishing now and then to train Viola. But one evening, something shifted.

Arslan sat at the edge of the courtyard, sharpening his sword in silence. The ...

Chapter 20

Several weeks slipped by, but the argument never found a proper resolution. Elaine’s word was law within her home, and she had made it clear—Ludger would not be dragged into the Torvares family’s games. Yet Arslan still made the trip to teach Viola swordsmanship.

Every few days, he wo...

Chapter 19

At dawn the following day, Arslan left. He saddled his horse in silence, gave no excuses, and rode off toward the Torvares estate with the red mark still faintly visible on his cheek.

The rest of his party remained behind. The courtyard once again filled with the rhythm of Ludger’s traini...

Chapter 18

One afternoon, the courtyard rang with the thud of small feet striking packed earth. Ludger twisted and rolled through the air, his movements sharper and more fluid than any five-year-old had the right to manage. To the untrained eye it looked like play—careless somersaults and leaps—but Sele...