Chapter 27: The Second Circle [Part-1]

Neo nodded and accepted her offer, stepping back into position as Eiris walked around him, adjusting his grip on the wooden sword with quick, precise movements.

"Your stance is too stiff," she said, tapping the side of his foot lightly with her own. "Loosen your knees. If you lock them like that, one good push will knock you flat on your back."

Neo followed her instructions, shifting his weight the way she showed him. As he swung the sword slowly, following her lead, his mind couldn’t help but drift elsewhere.

’This woman...’

He kept his face calm, focused on the sword in his hands, but inside, his thoughts were racing.

In the anime, Eiris had never been shown as anything more than a background character, barely given a name, let alone a proper introduction. But Neo remembered her clearly, because of what she did much later in the story. She was the one who betrayed his mother to the royal knight. She was the one who backstab his mother, which resulted in the downfall of Draven family. Years of quiet loyalty, and in the end, she was the one who opened the gates and let the empire in.

He had no idea why. The anime never explained her reasons, never even gave her more than a few seconds of screen time before she vanished from the story entirely. All he knew was that she had been trusted completely, and that trust was exactly what got his mother killed.

’She’s not someone I can take lightly. Not now, not ever.’

Still, he kept his expression steady, following her instructions without any hint of suspicion. There was no reason to show his hand yet, not when there was still so much time before any of that could actually happen. If he acted strange around her now, it would only raise questions he didn’t want to answer.

’Besides, she’s not even someone I could fight right now even if I wanted to. Her talent alone puts her above Mother and Father. Maybe even above me, years from now.’

He pushed the thoughts aside for the moment and focused back on his sword.

After a while of practicing the same basic swing over and over, Eiris finally stepped back, studying him carefully.

"You’re an early bloomer," she said, her tone flat, though there was a faint trace of curiosity behind it. "That’s rare for someone your age."

Neo kept swinging, pretending not to react.

"It seems you’re aware of it too, You should stop holding back your breakthrough. If you keep suppressing it for too long, it could end up hurting your body instead."

Neo’s swing faltered for half a second before he caught himself.

’She noticed. Of course she did.’

He straightened up, keeping his face as neutral as he could manage. "Yeah. I was already thinking the same thing."

Eiris studied him for a few more seconds, her expression giving nothing away. Then she turned toward one of the knights standing nearby and gave a small nod. The knight immediately understood, tossing a spare wooden sword toward her. She caught it without even looking, adjusting her grip with practiced ease.

"Attack me however you want."

Neo hesitated only briefly before stepping forward, raising his sword. He swung, aiming for her side, but she deflected it easily, barely moving her feet.

"Now try forcing your mana out through the blade."

Neo focused, pulling on the mana circulating inside his core, trying to push it out through his arm and into the sword. But no matter how hard he concentrated, it felt like something inside him was holding it back, like a locked door refusing to budge.

Nothing happened. The wooden swords clashed again and again, but no mana emitted.

Eiris pressed forward, increasing the strength behind each block, forcing him to stumble backward step by step. A few knights nearby had stopped their own training entirely, watching nervously, clearly confused about why their commander was sparring seriously against a kid.

Neo gritted his teeth, trying again and again to force the mana out, but it simply wouldn’t listen. Frustration started creeping into his chest.

Then, without meaning to, a memory surfaced.

He remembered a time, months ago, when he’d asked his father to show him how to swing a real sword. His mother had shut the idea down instantly, refusing to let him anywhere near a blade at his age. But Cassian, ever the playful one, had shown him the stance anyway, just for fun, using nothing but his empty hands to demonstrate the motion.

Neo had thought it was just a joke at the time. He hadn’t expected to actually remember it this clearly.

He closed his eyes for a brief second, picturing the exact way his father had moved, the angle of his shoulders, the shift of his hips. He let his mana spread evenly through his entire body instead of forcing it toward just one point.

Then he opened his eyes and swung.

The wooden sword moved in the exact same arc his father had shown him that day. A thin, sharp line of mana burst out from the edge of the blade, cutting cleanly through the air.

It sliced straight through Eiris’s wooden sword, splitting it clean in half.

"..."

Silence~

The training ground fell completely silent.

Neo stood frozen, chest heaving, sweat dripping down his face. But before he could even process what had just happened, something shifted deep inside him. A rush of mana flowed violently from the atmosphere through his body, flooding straight into his core.

His eyes widened.

’Wait, hold on. Now?! Right now?! It seems I wouldn’t be able to hold back anymore.’

He barely had time to react before his knees buckled slightly. He quickly closed his eyes, forcing himself to sit down right where he stood, ignoring the stunned knights and Eiris’s narrowed gaze as he sank immediately into his inner sanctum.

The pressure he had felt building for weeks came rushing back all at once, stronger than ever, threatening to burst wide open right then and there.

’No holding back this time. Just let it happen.’

Sweat poured down his small body as he sat perfectly still in the middle of the training ground, his whole body trembling slightly with the effort of guiding the wild surge of energy now crashing through him. He pushed everything he had toward the center, feeling the thin wall separating him from his next breakthrough finally begin to crack.