Miss Emily’s words worried me, perhaps more than I would care to admit. I had known I was in a politically difficult position. But I had not expected that to apply here. I should have.


    “At least you do not have the bloodline.” Miss Emily sighed. “Having the Eldanvier bloodline will make you a bit of an outsider, but having the royal -”


    “I have it.” I interrupted her.


    Miss Emily looked at me with shock. “What? But your element -”


    “I awakened Darkness mana separately, with emotion magic. I told you that.”


    Miss Emily just stared at me. “I thought you meant you learned magic using emotions.”


    “I did. And I awakened the Darkness element using that too.”


    “How could you—is that even possible?” she exclaimed. “I have not heard of such a thing. An element is either awakened through spells or by bloodline. I have not heard of emotion based shaping actually awakening an element. How did you—no, that is not important.”


    “Are you speaking the truth? Do you know how activated your bloodline is?” she asked.


    “I have only awakened one bloodline ability.” I informed her.


    Miss Emily closed her eyes, letting her head fall into her arms as she stared at the ground.


    “This is a problem.” she declared after a few seconds. I knew that already. Of course, it was a problem.


    “I’ll deal with it.” she continued.


    I opened my mouth, only to be interrupted by her once again. Miss Emily was refusing to let me get a word in. I kept my mouth shut. The woman was trying to solve my problems for me. That was nice. And I should probably hear her out before I declare my own opinions.


    “I shall have to speak to my cousin to see how the royal knights will react. Well, they’ll probably wait for their head. But if the Guilds -” she began speaking to herself under her breath, making up plans.


    What she was thinking of was something I agreed with. The royal knights were the main threat. The Guilds would not dare act before the royal knights made their opinion clear. Not here.


    “Oh, um, I was just wondering if that made any difference.” I interrupted her. “Finding a spell for the Blade element should be much easier than the Darkness element.”


    Miss Emily froze for a second, and then nodded. “Yes. Try Connor—that’s the giant of a man out there. The man runs a training ground, trying to get people to learn Blade spells and awaken. That works sometimes with Blade.”


    “The 6 major elements are much easier to get and use, so you might actually succeed. The Adventurer’s Guild also has a spellbook on Blade you can pay to use, but I wouldn’t count on it. That thing is just there for them to show it off.”


    I grinned. A spell. The first actual lead to a spell.


    “There should be a training session this evening if you wanna join.” she said, getting up again. I followed her.


    Connor and Alice were still out there. So were the rest of their people.


    “Do your lot not have anything better to do? This is a busy place, people, there ain’t time to deal with you wandering around. I got patients.” Miss Emily remarked sourly. “Get out.”


    I grinned. So I wasn’t the only one that got kicked out like this. Then she turned to me. I did not speak a word, I just headed towards the door. I had to speak to Connor anyway.


    The giant was already leaving when I caught up to him.


    “Miss Emily says that you have run a training ground for Blade magic?” I asked.


    Connor looked at me with confusion. “Yes. For the blade. Blade magic just result.”


    “That’s basically the same thing.” Alice clarified from beside him. “Connor is just strange about sharp things.”


    “There blade and there Blade magic. The two things different. Fire using woman does not understand.” Connor protested.


    I did agree with him. The Trashy Novel had mentioned how Blade magic was so very different from other elements. So was Life magic. Or Fire magic. There were some things to each element that were just theirs.


    “Can you teach me?” I asked.


    Connor looked at me. “Noble man already have-”


    “Yes, he would be glad.” Alice interrupted him.


    “No.” Connor said after she had finished. “Training for blade, not darkness. Not useful for darkness.”


    “I have blade magic too.” I told him. “Just haven’t had the chance to use it. I wanted to see if I could learn a couple of spells from you.”


    Connor looked at me with narrowed eyes. “One. Know only one spell. Not very good. Don’t use it in battle. But can awaken. Still want to learn?”


    I shrugged. “I will take it.”


    “Then come.” he replied and began walking. “Am late.”


    Alice just looked at him go. “I hope you will forgive him, my lord, he is -”


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    “Oh, you do not need to apologize Miss Alice.” I told her. “I quite like his way of doing things.”


    The girl still looked worried, but she did not express her concerns. I really didn’t care myself. As long as he could teach me a spell, I didn’t care how he spoke. Heck, I didn’t even see a problem. The guy hadn’t even been rude.


    But Alice still looked worried when I ran behind Connor. The man walked fast. So fast that I actually had to run to catch up to him. That was saying something since I could run faster than most carriages now.


    The training ground was in sight by the time I caught up. A flat area where a bunch of people were waiting with swords. Not just waiting, they were already training. I could see several of them paired up and fighting. A few were going through motions I presumed were forms. Or perhaps they just felt like swinging their swords around.


    That reminded me.


    “I don’t have a sword.” I said, frowning.


    Connor looked at me. “That fine. I give today. But bring yours tomorrow.”


    “The training is daily, then?”


    “Yes. The blade need practice. Not like other elements.”


    “Yes, you said that before.”


    The two of us reached the training ground. The students numbered about twenty. As soon as we entered they turned to look at Connor waiting for him to speak. And when he didn’t, they turned to look at me.


    That seemed to be happening a lot. I was getting a lot of attention.


    Connor walked to a shelf. I followed him.


    “Choose blade.”


    I looked at the blades. I couldn’t really tell which was good, and there were only five to begin with. But one I recognized to be very similar to what my dear ancestor had used to cast the Bloodline Cutting Blade.


    So I took that one.


    Connor looked at it, and then he looked at me. “Hmm.”


    Then he turned to the students. “Have new students. Show forms.”


    The students arrayed themselves in neat lines and then started performing what looked like a rather strange dance. I tried my best to remember it.


    Connor walked between them, straightening someone’s back or raising their elbow. There were even times when he whispered something in their ear.


    The dance ended, but the students remained in their lines.


    “Practice against each other.” he said, and then looked at me. “The new student watches.”


    I nodded. Connor came to stand beside me.


    “What your name?” he asked.


    I looked up at him. “Aphra.”


    Connor raised an eyebrow in surprise. “That mean dust.” he exclaimed.


    I shrugged. That was news to me. I also didn’t care.


    “Well, my father gave it to me.”


    “Hmm, Aphra.” he said. “Watch how they fight. See what move counters the other. That how Blade magic work. The form is the spell. There limitations and variations. Have to know what form to use. Magic or blade. Block or attack. Fighting how you learn.”


    I did turn my attention to the battles. To be honest, there was little to see. There was barely any mana in the place. If the forms were spells, then they weren’t working.


    A few minutes later, he sighed. “Now you do.”


    “What does the spell do? I already have Blade magic. If I use a spell, it will activate it.”


    Connor shook his head. “This not spell. This form to get body to move. Darkness move with mind. Blade move with body. But you not think with body. Have to teach body to move with mind before you can cast a spell.”


    I just nodded, barely understanding what he meant. Darkness moved with mind? Did he mean that I could control Darkness mana with my mind, but not Blade? That wasn’t exactly true, though it wasn’t wholly false either. Blade magic just tended to be cast through physical actions. The mind often didn’t have time to keep up.


    After all, this magic was used in close quarters, often without even a shield. Blade magic didn’t even make shields. The blade was to be the shield when needed.


    I did follow his advice. The forms were easy enough to memorize, especially with my Rank 3 brain. I followed them. The movements weren’t even particularly hard, and my body flowed easily.


    In moments, I had finished them. Connor came to stand beside me.


    “Don’t put arm so low.” he said, pushing my elbow higher. Then he nearly punched my spine trying to straighten it.


    “The bone too flexible.” he complained. “Doesn’t give resistance.”


    “Isn’t having a flexible body a good thing.”


    “Yes. For some forms, good. Not this one. Don’t know form to teach you.”


    I frowned. I suppose it made sense that different type of ‘forms’ were better for different bodies. Like Elena liked suffering as an emotion while I tended to use fear and determination to kill. Even darkness mana had things like that.


    “The royal knight have form like that.” Connor continued. “The Rose Princess have body like this.”


    So I knew where I had inherited this body from.


    “Well I can’t get a form from the royal knights now can I? I doubt they will just hand it over if I ask.” I joked.


    Connor looked at me with a decidedly neutral expression. The man did not have many expressions and rarely showed emotion. But when he did, he showed it clearly. That was why this expression was so difficult for him to pull off. The guy was trying too hard to hold it in, but his eyes were still slightly narrowed and his lips pouting.


    Connor was suspicious. “No, suppose not. Practicing will help.”


    The giant walked away, leaving me to practice some more. I kept on doing that till the sun went down and the light under this lake dimmed even further. Connor came up to me from time to time, correcting my forms, but he did not mention the royal knights or the royal family again.


    But I was sure he had figured it out. If he knew about what kind of body the Rose Princess had, he knew what her face looked like. But he was keeping silent about it. I guess I looked like a fool to him. The royal knights would teach me their forms if I asked with this face. But then I would be under the control of their leader.


    That was the same for all the factions of the Empire. There was too much competition, too many people wanting more power for it to be otherwise. Rowan had faced it, and I would face it a thousand-fold.


    Miss Emily was right when she said this was a problem. I wasn’t just a random bastard with the royal bloodline. I was the Emperor’s only direct descendant. The heir right now had not even been able to activate ten percent of his bloodline. I already had a bloodline ability.


    If I had not been born of the Rose Princess’ rape, I would be Crown Prince. As it was, I still had a strong claim to it. But I did not have the power to back up that claim. The Emperor would not name me heir just because I walked up to the palace and asked for it.


    I would not even make it to his room. The Old Lady would see me killed long before that. Or Lord Adrien, the head of the royal knights, would drag me off. There were too many factions in that court that would see a new royal heir as either a threat or someone they could use. And just about none of them actually cared about what happened to me or what I wanted.