"This one is special. My favorite."
The castle was bigger than Adam initially thought. They had been walking for a while now, with Clentine endlessly talking about the history of their family. Her voice echoed off the ancient stone walls as they moved through corridor after corridor, past curtains and portraits that looked older than so countries.
Right now, she was standing in front of a large painting of the ocean and a massive ship with billowing white sails.
"La Fiducia," Clentine said, gesturing grandly at the canvas. "The ship our family used when we expanded in the late 13th century to France from Italy. It carried our ancestor, who at the ti owned several trade ports. Of course, they also traded gold, salt, spice, and later sugar. The legality of so of our business back then was... dubious. But it was the 13th century. Exciting, right?"
"Hm."
"We also owned several banks, but right now, I don’t even know who handles them—the money just sort of... cos in? I don’t know if that makes sense to you. It sotis doesn’t to ," Clentine shrugged. "I handle so of the business, but Alfred usually takes care of all that boring stuff. Right now, I’m just busy being my sister’s agent since she’s dense. Anyway, you can see this ship in a museum..."
Adam was now numb to the show of wealth. It was as if Clentine truly wanted Adam to know how rich they were.
But... why? Adam thought. He had no idea, however, that his question would be answered right this very mont. Clentine slowly glanced at him, once again with that cheeky smirk.
"You need to understand all of this..." She gestured around them. "...and at least add sothing to it if you want to marry my sister."
"Marry your..." Adam looked at Clentine with wide eyes. He was going to stay silent, but he knew that being quiet was the worse option when it ca to her.
"I’m not really interested," he said flatly. "I don’t know Sylvie that well—if anything, if there was a sister I would be interested in, it would be you."
"What—"
"Since we’ve literally spent an entire day together now." Adam shrugged. "I know you more than her."
"W—" Clentine finally shut her mouth at this, stuttering and clearly flustered at his words. Her confident deanor cracked completely.
"I—what—that’s not—" She clicked her tongue, shaking her head as her cheeks reddened. "Let’s just move on. I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that."
She turned abruptly and marched ahead. Adam just followed behind her, but it would seem that their destination was just right around the corner, literally.
It was a large courtyard, but unlike what Adam had expected, there were no plants at all. The vast floor was completely marble and flat, polished to such a shine that it reflected the blue sky above. The space was surrounded by elegant columns that supported a covered walkway.
But it wasn’t the space that caught Adam’s attention—it was the weapons that were displayed right beside the columns.
Most were rapiers, but they looked like different kinds—so with elaborate basket hilts, others with simple crossguards, and a few with ornate gold filigree decorating their handguards. Adam had expected to see those kinds of weapons since that was the choice of weapon of the Duelist of Rose... but there were other weapons there too.
Swords, katanas, and even axes were mounted on the racks. There was even a sword as large as him—a massive slab of tal that looked more like a tal beam than a blade.
And as Adam was admiring these weapons, he suddenly felt a prick on his thigh. He looked down only to see a rapier poking at it. His eyes widened, and he slowly raised his gaze, only to see Clentine holding the weapon.
"Wow..." Clentine sighed, shaking her head as she pulled away. "Survival instincts of a dodo."
"I... didn’t know we started," Adam replied, patting the area where Clentine had stabbed him... but there was no blood at all. He looked at the rapier again, only to see it was blunt.
Clentine scoffed at him as she lowered her stance, slightly pointing her rapier upwards.
"Fights do not start, Monsieur," she said. "They just happen."
She pointed the blunted rapier at the rack. "Pick any weapon."
Adam glared at her in suspicion for a mont before he focused on the armory lined up in front of him. He walked around, glancing at Clentine from ti to ti since she might attack him again. But other than following him with her eyes, she wasn’t moving.
And so, he looked at the weapons again, and then slowly reached... for a shield.
"Kh!" Before he could even touch it, however, Clentine suddenly swung her rapier at his hand.
"I told you to pick a weapon, not a shield!" Clentine raised her voice, eyes flashing with irritation.
"I don’t want to hurt anyone," Adam shook his head. "I’ve done enough of that already."
Clentine’s eyes darkened at his words. "You’re a player, a Creep," she said, her voice turning deeper.
"How many have you already killed participating in the last Ga?"
"I didn’t participate, I was summoned. It—"
"How many?" she demanded again, stepping closer. "How many did you kill?"
Adam turned quiet, his eyes dropping to the floor.
"A lot," he finally whispered.
"A lot?" Clentine scoffed at this. "I will tell you how many you’ve killed—zero. You killed no one."
She paced around him, her rapier never lowering. "The Ga is part of our lives, nature, calamity. Every death there is tragic, yes—but they are all casualty of the Ga, and no one else."
Adam only stared at her in response, and then sighed after a while. He shook his head.
"I understand all of that. And it is exactly because of my advantage that I don’t want to kill. The Ga is nature, as you said. But those I killed didn’t have to die. My team lost."
He t her eyes directly now. "And since we lost, the people I’d killed would still possibly be alive now if not for what I did. Those deaths are on , and no one else’s. To say that we’re not responsible for those deaths... I think that’s the hypocrisy."
"You—"
"I’ve accepted that it’s impossible to be a good person in a world like this, and I’m not going to pretend that I’m a good person after what I’ve done... but still, I want to try."
Clentine could only stare at him after those words, blinking several tis as she looked at his unblemished face, which was being veiled by rays of sunlight streaming through the courtyard’s open ceiling.
"You..."She didn’t even realize it, but she was holding her breath, and... her heart also fluttered... and she didn’t like that at all.
And so, she stabbed Adam right in the stomach.
Adam took several steps back. The weapon was blunt, yes, but it still hurt him. He looked at Clentine, only to see her smirking again.
"Nice speech," she said. "Now, watch this."
And with those words, Clentine started attacking Adam.
Her movents were too fast to track. One mont she was standing still, the next her rapier was coming at him from three different angles almost simultaneously. Adam tried dodging, but he could only tank Clentine’s hits since he couldn’t even see where they were coming from.
He was going to grab the shield again, but his hand was slapped away by the blade. Again—straight toward the large slab of sword he’d seen earlier.
With no choice, he grabbed the handle and pulled it out—it was heavy, but with his increased Strength from leveling up in the Ga, he could handle it. He swung it toward Clentine, but Clentine didn’t even dodge at all.
The large slab of sword just grazed past her nose, and she glared at Adam in disappointnt.
"Why didn’t you swing with the intent to hit ?" she asked, shaking her head.
Adam lowered the massive blade, its tip resting on the marble floor.
Clentine then sighed. She didn’t say anything after that and just returned her weapon back to the rack... and then retrieved another one—this ti, a small katana... but straighter.
"A ninjato," Clentine said as she held the blade in front of her face. "It was my weapon of choice during the Ga, as well as, of course, my wits."
"..."
Clentine stared at Adam. "You said you can’t die...
...why don’t we test that?"
"?!" Before Adam could even react, Clentine suddenly threw a patch of sand in his face she got from nowhere.
And not even a second later, it was followed by a pain in his thigh which brought him to his knees.
"I’m going to try my best to kill you, Adam." Adam heard her whisper in his left ear, "So, you better fight back."
"Why do you even want to train ...?" Adam asked while he felt Clentine holding him by the neck.
"It’s an investnt for the future. Ideology is nothing without the strength to back it up." She touched the blade on Adam’s neck, and then told him,
"That was your first death."
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