Ryn joined the queue to collect his dinner, the cold outside giving him the desire to fill his stomach with something warm. There looked to be another twelve people in front of him, it shouldn’t take too long so long as they all made up their minds regarding what they wanted. Ryn’s mind naturally teetered towards remembering his conversation with Teacher Ginya, regarding the engravings… Engravings only he could see.

‘Am I just hallucinating or something? I mean, it’s not that big of a deal in the sense it’s just a bunch of engravings. But… The problem is why can only I see them?’

Rather than pushing to discover the truth of the matter, Ryn decided to do something unusual for once, something completely out of character. Taking a deep breath, closing his eyes and slowly exhaling, he pushed the predicament to the back of his mind.

‘Thinking on it won’t help me at all, sure I’ll worry, but with what limited knowledge I have, it’s near impossible for me to do anything. So lets just… chill for a while.’

“That was a rather deep breath, everything alright?”

An energetic and jovial voice rang in Ryn’s ears; turning around he saw the heir of clan Darrivar behind him, a toothy grin plastered across his face. Ryn scoffed and rolled his eyes, thinking of how Tobi could be so damn cheery all the time.

“You wouldn’t hear the end of it, how are your lessons going Sir seventh out of five-hundred and sixty-eight?”

A hint of pride washed over Tobi’s face as he heard Ryn’s acknowledgment of his position, it was no easy feat after all, seen as how he was from a relatively smaller noble clan as well.

“Ah dear Ryn, wouldn’t you like to know? Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Tobi’s voice was laced with a sarcastic mocking tone causing Ryn’s eyes to twitch slightly before responding.

“Seventh? I mean there are six that are better than you. Nobody remembers second place let alone seventh.”

“Tsk, I was just joking around with you.”

Tobi’s annoyance filled Ryn with an indescribable happiness, Ryn himself didn’t realize just how petty he was, one upping someone was a truly blissful thing. His eyes gleamed with contentment as he turned around again to face the front of the queue.

“But genuinely speaking, how are your lessons going Tobi?”

Tobi lightly huffed before responding to Ryn’s question.

“They’re fine, I mean it’s just repeating several movements over and over again, spar someone and the list just goes on and on.”

Ryn nodded as he listened, a question forming in his mind.

“Dahlia of the Eternal Sword, does she use her actual Sword in lessons?”

Tobi’s smile burst into a fit of laughter, the whole cafeteria turning their heads to look at the scion of Darrivar wheezing with laughter. Ryn’s expression became perplexed, was his question really that odd or was Tobi just overreacting?

“Song of Stars? Why would she use that when we all have to use normal training swords. Even if we were given relics of swords they still wouldn’t compare to a manifested sword. Ryn you really don’t know this stuff do you?...”

A few more moments of laughter followed Tobi’s explanation before he slowly calmed down, composing himself, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“If Lady Dahlia were to use Song of Stars in our lessons, forget the Steeled ranking, she’d need a whole other classification of her own. That’s not just because the sword is Song of Stars, it is simply the difference between a relic and an actual manifested sword. Song of Stars is especially so as Lady Dahlia is its wielder.”

Ryn knew the gap between true swords from the Sword Heart were much more powerful but to think that it was to such an extent was a surprise to him.

“Let’s say, hypothetically there was another, another who could manifest their own sword. But, said person didn’t know how to use a sword at all. Where would they rank against you guys?”

Ryn’s question would sound odd to anyone else, a rather nonsensical question and pointless one but Tobi decided to entertain the idea.

“Though such a thing would be impossible as manifesting your sword would mean you could already use a sword, if someone did hypothetically have their own sword but no skills with swords, they’d probably still rank in the upper end of the Steeled, I’m talking top ten solely due to the fact that a manifested sword has its own will, even if the other is incapable it’ll do its all to help.”

“Wait, wait, did you just say that to manifest a sword I need to know how to use one?”

Ryn didn’t know this piece of information, after all how would he have. His school was useless in teaching and he himself didn’t know how to use a sword yet had manifested Lunar Whisper. Something was awry with his Sword Heart, something which Ryn had to find out.

“Yes obviously you’d need to know how to use a sword to manifest your own. You need to be an expert with a blade. Even Fledgling Ceasar of the Eternal Sword when he was just a Steeled hadn’t manifested his at that point. He only managed to during his time in the first forge in anvil.”

“So even Fledging Ceasar…. Wait then Dahlia of the Eternal Sword, who was before her?”

Just how rare was manifesting your sword as a Steeled? Sure Aspirant Claudia had told him that it wasn’t the fastest process and the one this year was more than usual but even still, for Ceasar of the Eternal Sword to not have been able to do it… Just how good was Dahlia… and why had he manifested his?

“Before Lady Dahlia, the last to have manifested their sword before entering Anvil was Arisen Vira of the Eternal Sword and Arisen Kyra of Glory. Now do you see just how special Lady Dahlia is? We can only hope that we’ll awaken our own swords in Anvil.”

Reaching the front of the queue Ryn collected his dinner and made his way to find an empty spot, there was none….

Tobi already had a spot reserved for himself by a group of his friends so Ryn decided to just walk back to his dormitory whilst eating, not wanting to stay in such a crowd for any longer. His mind had gone through enough already, he needed a bit of quiet to try figure what he could out.

The cold bit at his body but every time he took a bite of his food the warmth from it acted as a momentary repellent, causing a never ending cycle of cold and comfort. Walking past the colosseum, he could hear the sounds of blades striking against one another.

‘Probably Dahlia and Aspirant Claudia again, I’d rather not check up on them… I don’t feel like annoying Aspirant Claudia again.’

Ryn could feel Lunar Whisper’s longing to be manifested, just like last time, it only happened when he was around the colosseum. Deciding to indulge his sword, he summoned Lunar Whisper, it’s beautiful black blade covered in its ethereal blue glow…

‘Why’s it glowing?... It doesn’t usually glow at night, I thought it only did when exposed to sunlight. Something to do with its longing to be summoned?’

He knew Lunar Whisper wanted to enter the colosseum, but he was fearful of entering, scared to annoy an Aspirant.

‘Is this a conflict between heart and mind? I though this only happened in those romance novels…’

Resigning himself to Lunar Whisper’s will, he decided to walk on into the Colosseum, through the same entrance as last time. The further Ryn walked into the colosseum the more the thought of turning around appealed to him, step by step he entered into the stands, the same sight as last time, though this time he’d entered much quieter and tried hiding himself.

Aspirant Claudia and Dahlia were entwined in a dance of surreal beauty. The more Ryn looked, the more enamoured he became by their swordsmanship, the way in which both swords flowed from one strike to another made it look more like artists painting on a canvas. A painting of beautiful power, drawn by the brush of steel.

Ryn slowly descended the stands, Aspirant Claudia finally noticing him, speaking up.

“That sneaky habit of yours is no good Ryn, where did you learn to be so secretive?”

Her tone made it clear she was only playfully scolding him but it was laced with suspicion, though Ryn himself was not quite sure why.

“Sneaking? I just walked in like normal, though I did try keep my head low as to not disturb you two.”

Dahlia of the Eternal Sword’s cloudy grey eyes met Ryn’s onyx eyes before falling to Lunar Whisper in his hands, her pupils slightly dilating. Ryn’s eyes did the same, staring at Song of Stars for a while before looking away.

“What’s this we have here? Both your swords are so similar its almost uncanny….”

Aspirant Claudia’s eyes locked with Ryn’s, an accusatory tone leaving her mouth. As to what Ryn had done to deserve that was beyond him.

“Well Lunar Whisper just wanted to be summoned so desperately, though I doubt you’d believe me..”

‘Oh shit… what did I just say?’

Ryn had said that last comment with an aggressive tone, sick of being accused of all manner of things, his tongue couldn’t help but let slip just how he felt.

“Lunar Whisper you say….”

Aspirant Claudia stared at the sword before lightly laughing, before becoming a full blown laugh, her hand on her daughter’s shoulder to support herself, though an Aspirant didn’t need such support.

“Ryn why don’t you take a seat, you do seem rather keen on learning swordsmanship, so perhaps watching may teach you something. Consider this my repayment towards you for giving me a good laugh…”