Booom.
A thunderous sound echoed through the night.
The entire Vaeloreth Castle stirred awake.
The lights started turning on one by one, and everyone rushed out of their rooms, trying to find the source of the noise. Many were carrying weapons assuming it was an enemy attack.
Some soldiers immediately activated defensive formations across the castle. Instructor Howard, being the strongest person right now, took command of the scattered guards and began searching the whole estate.
Seeing the lights glow up, Azrael shouted.
"Activate the veil, White!"
Master White instantly changed his appearance and transformed into a figure wearing all black, his face covered not by any mask or scarf, but by darkness itself. He appeared as a shadow with no facial features.
This is one of the insignificant but useful features of the veil, although it doesn't make you invisible, it is still very helpful in hiding during the night.
The party led by Howard is searching throughout the castle for intruders. Using this time, Azrael left the training grounds stealthily and sneaked back to his room.
He then came out of the room, putting up a concerned act, and blended in with the rest of the crowd, which was gathered in the main hall presided over by Duchess Elyndra, as she is the next in command after Duke Ragnar.
The main hall is the very heart of Vaeloreth Castle situated right in the middle of the estate, all the important official matters are discussed here in the presence of the Duke.
It is a very large hall made of limestone, six pillars of hard granite held up the roof, and there are rows of seats on both sides of the hall for entertaining an audience.
At the very top of the hall is a platform made of shining marbel, on which stood a grand and imposing black throne, and to its side is a relatively smaller throne made of the same material.
The Duchess is sitting on the smaller throne, while the bigger one is empty out of respect for the Duke's absence.
Azrael saw his mother on the throne and went to stand on her right side, then he asked—
"Do you know what happened, Mother?"
"No, Azrael. I'm waiting for Howard's report." Elyndra replied.
Hearing that, Azrael remained silent.
After a while—
Howard entered the main hall, bowed toward the Duchess—
"Reporting to the Duchess, there is no sign of any intruders. I have checked the whole castle twice."
He is silent for a moment, then he continued,
"But there is some oddity in the training grounds. Three wooden dummies were damaged, and one was smashed into the wall. I believe that is the source of the sound."
"In the training grounds?" Elyndra asked doubtfully.
"Yes, Lady Elyndra."
The whole hall is silent.
"Was there any soldier training at this time of the night?" Elyndra asked.
"None that I'm aware of, my lady." Howard replied.
"Are you sure there are no signs of any intruders?"
"Yes, Duchess Elyndra. I can assure you there are no intruders and the sound came from the training grounds."
"I will interrogate every soldier about their whereabouts and inform you first thing in the morning."
Elyndra thought about it for a while, then said,
"Very well, all the servants will return to their quarters and the soldiers will be on alert for the night in case of any unfortunate situations."
"Disperse!"
With that everyone left the hall and returned to their posts. Azrael and the Duchess are still in the hall, while little Cesia was in the arms of a maid still sleeping peacefully as if nothing happened.
"Howard, appoint two guards to Azrael's room." says Elyndra and then told the maid behind her that Cesia would stay in her room tonight.
"Yes, Duchess." Howard replied.
Azrael is simply silent hearing all this, because if he voices out any opinion against the appointment of guards it will raise suspicion so he just agrees with his mother's arrangement.
After a while, he leaves the hall with two guards accompanying him. They also informed him that Instructor Howard has postponed their training for one day.
As he would be investigating tonight's events.
The following day goes by, Azrael stayed in his room as he was too tired from yesterday's events. He doesn't know what Howard investigated, but since no one came to trouble him, he didn't care much.
Early morning, the next day—
"We finally are back to training, Master Azrael."
"Yes, a lot happened but we can start today." Azrael said with an amiable smile.
"Before we begin, I want to know how much you understand combat, young master. So come at me with anything you can think of."
Saying that, Howard takes a fighting stance.
Azrael gets ready and launched a punch at his abdomen, which Howard easily caught with his open hands. He applied some strength, making Azrael immobile for a few seconds.
Then he let go of his wrist and moved back, creating distance between them.
Azrael still feeling sore at his wrist, looked up at Howard and appears confused as to why he did that. He could've just dodged but instead he forced his strength on him.
"What are you thinking in the middle of a fight, young master?"
Howard said as he moved forward and kicked Azrael in the stomach.
Azrael fell back, coughing two or three times,
He steadies himself and,
"Sorry for that, Instructor Howard. Now get ready for this."
Azrael moves at a swift pace, he punched, kicked and targeted every possible body part, but Howard dodged all the attacks and simply smiled at him.
After a while, Azrael gets tired—
"We will stop it here Instructor Howard, I can't continue anymore."
Howard stopped moving, came close and offered him water to drink, Azrael took the pouch and gulped it down.
Azrael catches his breath and stood up.
"You have trained your body well, Master Azrael. For someone of your age, I didn't expect you to last this long against me."
"Don't flatter me, instructor Howard. I wasn't able to land a single hit."
"Well, if you were able to, then what's the point of this training?!" Howard said with an amused smile.
"Hmm." Azrael simply nods in agreement.
"I have a rough understanding of your strength now, so we will proceed accordingly to improve the areas in which you lack the most. Are you ready Master Azrael? I won't be going easy on you."
"I am ready." Azrael replied.
Howard was very diligent in training Azrael, he would be at Azrael's door every morning without the slightest change in time.
In the morning, Azrael learned basic movement techniques and practice combat. By afternoon, he would spar with some of the mortal soldiers in the estate.
In the evening, he practiced with weapons. Azrael tried many weapons but he found none of them to be compatible with him.
So after discussing with Howard, he chose to fight barehanded and began training in that direction.
This became Azrael's routine for the next two years.
*******
Time passed, and it was the week before Awakening.
Azrael is surrounded when he is going back to his room from the training grounds, his long golden hair fluttering in the wind and his deep emerald eyes are focused on the opponents in front of him.
A punch came from the right, and a kick aimed at his abdomen.
He dodged the punch, blocked the kick, and moved back to steady himself. But suddenly, a spear was thrust toward him from behind, which he dodged by bending his body sideways in an awkward manner.
Despite all this, he didn't lose his balance as this wasn't the first time he has done such a thing.
The spear was still extended and the wielder has not pulled it back yet, seeing the opportunity he grabbed the spear and pulled it forward, causing the attacker to lose balance, stumble and fall to the ground.
With the spear in hand, he swept it across the floor to make his remaining opponents lose their footing. Then he threw the spear at one of them and, in the next moment, jumped at the other one,
releasing a barrage of punches making him lose consciousness.
The one who caught the spear thrown at him is scared seeing the condition of his two accomplices and starts to run.
Azrael caught up to him, kicked him from behind, and starts punching untill he also loses consciousness.
"You can come out now, Instructor Howard."
"Haha.. I didn't think you would call me out Master Azrael."
"How did you find out?!"
"You tell me, I should believe that three mortals, wielding weapons sneak into Vaeloreth Castle and threaten the second son of Duke Ragnar? That seems very unlikely."
"And you emphasizing "being alert" many times for the past week gives away pretty much everything when you look at it as a whole."
"Hahah... I am yet again surprised by your intellect young master." said Howard.
"This was the final test of your training and you passed with flying colours."
"Following week there will be no training as we have completed all the scheduled things."
"I would advise you to get rest and be in your best condition for the Awakening."
Azrael finally felt relieved, knowing that he could now do things on his own accord and make plans that were optimal for his growth speed.
But even now, he still didn't have complete freedom.
Azrael suddenly asked Howard,
"When will father return?"
"The war has come to a stalemate and temporary peace has been established by both the kingdoms. So, Duke Ragnar will return in four days, you can be rest assured he will be present for the awakening."
Azrael puts on a happy expression, but only he knew what he was actually thinking.