Lucian stood in front of Vivienne in her private training hall with a slightly... confused look on his face.
"So... I am here again?"
He tilted his head.
From what Vivienne had told him before, he would now be doing constant missions. He would be, according to Claire’s words, ’showing the Enclave that he was worth the resources spent on him’.
But...
The mont he returned to the Enclave, expecting another mission or maybe a review or a lecture on what he did wrong in the previous one, instead of all that, Claire sent him here.
"You have a problem with it?"
Vivienne narrowed her eyes.
Lucian quickly shook his head.
"Of course not. I just thought I’d be going on another mission."
"No. You won’t."
She answered with her usual cold look on her face.
"Heeh? Did the supernatural world suddenly beco peaceful?"
Lucian grinned.
"No, the Enclave is unsure about you."
Lucian blinked for a mont, then he grinned.
"Only now?"
Vivienne ignored that.
"After what you did during your last mission, they do not wish to assign you to field operations for the ti being."
Lucian stared at her for a second.
Then his grin widened even further.
"So I get to train with you instead?"
Clearly, he was much happier with the decision than he should be.
"That’s your reaction?"
"Of course."
Lucian practically laughed.
"If I knew destroying evidence and annoying a captain would earn private training with Lady Vivienne, I would have done sothing even more reckless."
Vivienne only stared at him and—
"So... you think training with is easier...?"
And all of a sudden, the Training Hall turned colder, for a second, even Lucian froze, then—
"Of course not."
He shook his head.
Easy...?
His fight with Vaelrith was far more bearable than what he had been through while training under this woman.
And he had lost a hand in that fight.
Sure, it was painful but Vivienne’s training?
It was far worse!
Even now, he couldn’t help but tremble when he rembered the ’things she did to him.’
"Your training is painful, exhausting, unfair, humiliating, and honestly, I am fairly certain it violates almost every human right and would be considered the worst kind of torture in most countries."
Vivienne looked at him blabbering his mouth and Lucian—
He smiled again, only this ti, there was sothing... sharper in his eyes.
"But it makes strong.
And it makes strong faster than anything else.
So no matter how hard or unbearable it is—
I will choose it over everything else."
Lucian spoke, his eyes shining strangely as he looked at Vivienne.
If any being who was even remotely familiar with the way Vivienne trained her students had heard those words and looked at him, there would only be one thought in their head.
He had lost his mind.
Heck, Vivienne herself was wondering if she had hit his head a little too hard.
But...
As she stared at the boy standing in front of her, looking at her with hungry eyes, with an unbelievable determination to get stronger—
She smiled.
Well, not outside, she showed no reaction outside, inwardly however, she couldn’t be more satisfied. Lucian’s current eyes were the exact eyes she wanted to see.
That hunger which was far more powerful than hunger for bodies or desire...
The desire to grow, to sharpen himself, to beco sothing that could tear off anyone from the face of the world.
It was... dangerous.
And Vivienne liked danger.
A lot.
"Then let’s begin."
She announced as she started stretching her body and Lucian’s smile faded away.
It was ti.
The training resud, starting from exactly where they left it before.
And after that—
Lucian’s life split into pieces.
During the day, he went to University.
He sat in classrooms, listened to lectures, took notes, and flirted with so of his classmates, living a normal student’s life.
And at night, he returned to the Enclave, where he would be shut inside a private training hall with a monster, who no longer went easy on him.
Yes, the training that made Lucian tremble even now was Vivienne going easy on him, now, she wasn’t. Especially since Lucian had learned how to control his demonic energy and enhanced his self-regeneration and had experienced the pain of having an entire hand pulverised in the middle of a battle.
He was living a double life with almost no chance to rest between them, so he learned to sleep wherever he could, on the ride back ho, in the back of lecture halls.
There were tis when he had the luxury to sleep in his own bed.
Then there were tis he woke up in Enclave recovery rooms with no mory of when he had collapsed.
And just like that, two weeks passed.
Sowhere in those two weeks, Lucian held his parents’ funeral, he didn’t make it grand or overly dramatic, a few of his father’s business contacts ca, so old neighbours,
Naomi ca with Dianne and Martin.
Dianne cried openly, Martin stood quietly near the back, his usual dry humour was gone for once and Naomi just silently stood beside Lucian.
Lucian smiled through most of it, he thanked everyone for coming, he accepted condolences, nodded at every story.
Once everything ended, Naomi, who had seen people talk with him, just asked a simple question.
"Are you alright?"
Lucian looked at the flowers, then at his parents’ grave, before looking back at Naomi and—
"I am doing better."
Naomi remained silent, not knowing what she was supposed to say.
The two remained silent for a while, preparing to return ho together with Martin and Dianne, who still hadn’t stopped crying but then—
Bzzz
Lucian’s phone buzzed again.
He looked at it and the instant she noticed the change in his expression—
"Work again?"
Lucian nodded.
"Right now?"
Naomi raised her eyebrow. Then she looked at the sky, it was still evening, a few hours earlier than they usually called.
"Well...
Work calls."
Lucian shrugged.
"You need to put so boundaries, kid.
These people will suck you dry if you don’t."
Martin spoke with a serious look on his face.
"I will keep that in mind."
Lucian smiled.
Then, he excused himself and left.
Once he was alone, he looked at the phone again and his violet eyes shimred.
He got a new mission.
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