Chapter 3

We stood apart in a small forest clearing where we thought we wouldn't be a disturbance to anyone.

I stared at him from across the field, mentally preparing myself and, my mind running through the training I underwent. "You better not go easy on me!" I yelled.

Kairen lifted his arms up into a shrug. "Why would I go easy on my baby sister." He glared at me with dangerous eyes. "Sometimes I just want to squeeze those cheeks of yours with all my strength."

"Like I'd ever let you do that." I scoffed.

He was at least two hundred years older than I, he had had more time to train, along with more experience. I knew I was at a disadvantage, especially since he had also been trained by father. But I wouldn't let that get me down. Training Kairen was the priority for the Skyel family since he was to succeed as family leader, and because of that, I had not received any direct training from my parents thus far. Both Kairen and I were extremely competitive which got us caught up in many problems when we were younger.

We continued to stare at each other from across the field, with no warning I felt him release his power. Within seconds he was in front of me. I swiftly brought my arms up to block just barely in time. I felt his palm contact my forearms with immense strength and was pushed back several meters.

"Oh ho, you've gotten much faster with your reaction times." He raised his head and looked at me with a smug expression..

I bit my tongue to hold back the barrage of retorts I wanted to spew at him. I closed my eyes breathed in deeply. I pulled on the throwing knives hidden on each side of my thighs, dual wielding them. Kairen had approached me once again with insane speed, this time his short sword drawn. I responded to all his swipes and attacks in perfect succession. Unlike Kairen, my preferred tools of use in close combat were either daggers or throwing knives, a contradiction for their supposed use, that's not to say I wasn't skilled with the short sword.

"Not going to reply? Hmm, that's different."

I attempted to swipe at his legs when the timing was right so as to slow down his movements.

"Ah ah, you can't do that." He had flipped into the air with ease, easily reading my attacks, landing gracefully in front of me. The expression that plagued his face just calling me to punch him.

Kairen cocked his head to the side, his hair falling over his right eye. His lips turned up into a smirk, "I know that's not all you have." He lowered his sword as if taunting me. "Why don't you come at me with all your strength?" He shrugged as if he was already done with this battle.

My anger was on the edge of my control, I barely kept it in check. I had not sparred with Kairen in years, this time I'd show him what had been going on those past fifty years, now was not the time to let my rage take control. I lowered my body and dashed towards him, I closely circled him before jumping into the air. My movements would have been too quick for the human eye to see. I landed and began to continuously assault Kairen with various swipes, slowly increasing my speed, inching him backwards. He blocked my attacks. A normal person would not have been able to tell my movements were a tad bit faster than his reflexes due to the nature of dual wielding.

"Hmm, not bad." His eyes widened in surprise and he jumped back abruptly. "When did you throw those?" He questioned.

In the spot he was just previously standing in were several needle-like stakes and smaller throwing knives wedged into the ground.

"I didn't see her throw those." He muttered to himself. Kairen stayed on guard and watched my every movement, raising his sword slightly.

I had just blinked and he was already before me, sword poised to slash. He knocked my throwing knives out of my hands. I barely had time on grab the short sword on my back to hold him back. Slowly he was overwhelming me with his speed. Kairen was much more skilled with a sword compared to myself. Between his assaults I grabbed a throwing knife that was hidden on my lower back and used it to slash at him when he lowered his guard. Kairen barely had time to react, moving away quickly enough so it was just a scratch on his cheek.

He touched his cheek in surprise, blood staining his fingers. "Not bad, you've improved a great deal."

I positioned myself and smiled in return. "Thanks." Now I knew he wouldn't go easy on me.

Kairen began to move swiftly enough in circles, so it was difficult for even me to see his movements. His presence had all of a sudden disappeared and in my surprise, I felt a sharp pain run down my back. I always had trouble masking my presence while continuously moving. I flipped into the air behind him, feeling his intent to attempt to swipe at my legs. With zero hesitation, I charged towards his back, though it was a feint. He turned towards me and prepared to block from the front. I quickly changed directions and slashed at his left thigh from the side. I jumped several meters away from him and threw throwing knives towards him. From then, it was a flurry of limbs, knives and swords.

He had used brute strength to surprise me during our fight, leaving a significant crater in the ground. I had jumped out of the way in time and looked down from my position in the air. I was taken in by surprise with the amount of strength he had attained. Skyel's were not known for possessing great strength. This had caused several nobles and passerbyers to take notice of our fight.

"Now's not the time to be impressed."

I heard his whispered voice from behind as he kicked my back. I was sent flying straight down to the ground. By this point, we had several spectators.

I face planted into the dirt, wincing in pain as I slowly gathered my bearings and stood up.

"Ooo, wasn't that a bit harsh Kairen?" Karias shouted from the sidelines. "You're going to ruin her cute face!".

As always, Kairen landed gracefully in front of me, clutching his sword, ready to receive a surprise attack. "Ready to give up yet?"

"Give up? To a creep like you?" I readied my throwing knives and sword. "I think not." I easily blocked the projectiles he had thrown at me, but did not expect him to close the gap and strike with his sword.

"Aww stop calling me a creep. You know it hurts your older brother when you say that." He joked while applying more strength to his sword.

I glared at him with disgust. "When you act like that." I feigned gagging expressions.

Little by little, he was overpowering me with his strength. I fell back to the side and angled my sword so his would slide to the right. I used this time to jump away to the left while throwing knives at him. He didn't bother to block them, he just weaved through them and dodged, aiming to close the gap between us. He had already caught up to me, and shoved me onto the ground. The pressure he used on his sword had increased. I was beginning to struggle in blocking his sword. I knew I'd lose if he kept at this. I brought my knee up to his stomach. Kairen shifted in response, weakening the strength he had on his sword giving me time to slide his sword away and make a getaway. I leaped backwards several times and looked over to the sidelines. I could see Karias, Seira, Regis my father and the people I had seen in the audience hall earlier, the blonde and the black-haired men.

"Hmm I didn't expect that." He was still kneeling, looking down on the ground, his sword wedged into the dirt. He slowly lifted his face to look at me and his gaze softened. "You've really improved, during that time I was away from you."

I stood poised, and turned back towards Kairen, trying to keep my composure, so as to not let emotions affect my fighting. My breath had hitched when I met his gaze. It was difficult for me to fall back into those feelings and remember that I felt so alone, spending all my time training by myself. No one else would be able to understand how alone I felt during that time. I lowered my arms and closed my eyes. I sensed that Kairen had approached me.

He held his sword up to my throat. "You're going to lose at this rate." I heard playfulness in his voice once again.

I opened my eyes and knocked his sword away from my throat, remembering what had just happened recently, meeting my father, and speaking to Kairen like how we always used to in the past. Hopefully things would be different from now on. We continued to spar, occasionally hearing shouts from Karias in the background and Regis' surprised expressions. The fight had eventually come to a close when I was on the ground, exhausted and weaponless, with Kairen kneeling down on top of me over my legs, sword pointed at my neck. We were both covered in cuts and bruises, more so myself than him.

"Give up?" He smirked at me knowingly.

I pushed his sword away with my hand and struggled to sit up. "I lose." I sighed in resignation. I knew I would have lost from the start, but that wasn't any sort of consolation.

I heard the clank of his sword hitting the ground beside me, wondering what he was doing. I felt his arms around my shoulders all of a sudden. He had pulled me closer, my chin resting on his shoulder.

"H-Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" I brought my arms hands up and tried push at his chest to distance ourselves. "Y-You're acting creepier than normal! Plus there are people here!"

He laughed in response, "It's not like we're dating. I'd hate to date you if we weren't related anyway." He muttered the last sentence to himself. "And anyway we're siblings, isn't this normal?"

I gagged. "Even if I wasn't your sister I would never date a blockhead like you, and you also stink." I raised my hands to return his embrace reluctantly. "I don't think this type of action is normal for nobles though."

"That's true. I don't think I've ever seen nobles hug before."

"I heard humans do it all the time. I wonder what the big deal is." But in my mind, it was somehow comforting, this kind of embrace.

"You don't have to hold it all in you know. The sadness you felt for the past years." The sound of his voice was solemn and apologetic.

I gripped at his shirt making my hands into fists. "That's not for you to say." My voice trembled slightly, my words faltering. I buried my face into his shoulder, trying to hold my emotions in. I missed him. As creepy, blockheaded and weird as he was, in my opinion anyway, I missed having someone to talk to, who understood me.

Those who were watching on the sidelines watched us in wonder. Regis looking the most confused out of all who were standing there. I could hear their conversation as they weren't out of earshot.

"What are those two doing." Regis said confusedly.

Seira watched wistfully. "They're hugging."

"Well I know that, but why?"

Karias ran his hand through his hair and smiled to himself. "That girl, Aerei. She'd been harbouring a lot of sadness and frustration for a long time."

My father bowed his head and stared at the ground. "That's correct."

Everyone had glanced at my father, awaiting his next words. "As you know, those two are most likely as strange as Karias-"
"Hey!" Karias protested.

My father looked over to Karias and said, "I don't mean that negatively." He turned his head to watch the two of us embracing. "In terms of displaying emotion and controlling it is where those two do not seem like nobles at all, or Skyels even. Aerei always thrived around contact with others, with that happy personality of hers that knows no bounds. These past few years, as you have noticed we have been training Kairen in order for his future position. Kairen was the one person that Aerei was closest to. Eventually Kairen had less and less time to spend with her, as did we, her parents. For years she spent most of her time alone, training to mask her sadness it seemed."

Everyone including the blonde and black haired man were facing our direction, watching us silently in the dusk-lit field that was littered with throwing knives and craters.

I let my tears silently soak into the fabric of his shoulder. The sadness that had engulfed me for all the years that had passed, I could finally let go of. I let go of his shirt, and the two of us pulled away. I could feel my cheeks turning red and I refused to look at him in the face. He got off of me and glanced down at me with a small smile on his face as he reached for both of our swords.

"Let's go," he said. "They're waiting for us." Kairen stalked off towards those waiting near the sidelines.

I rubbed my eyes and sighed out loud. I stood and sprinted to catch up with Kairen, so I could walk with him.

"Crybaby."

I saw the smirk on his face through the corners of my eyes, so I extended my left leg in front of him, attempting to trip him. I didn't expect it to work but it did. His right foot had got caught in front of my leg, and he stumbled forward, almost falling.

"What do you think you're doing! I'm holding these swords and you're trying to trip me?!"

I just pointed laughed at him in response. "What a loser, it actually worked."

Those who were standing on the sidelines sighed out loud in unison.

"What are those two doing." Regis shook his head and brought his hand to his forehead.

"Are you asking for another fight?" He challenged jokingly. "You're gonna lose again." Kairen pointed both swords at me.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." I brought my hands up in surrender and continued walking towards our spectators.

We finally approached them and I bowed in greeting to my father and to the two unnamed guests I still did not know the names of. Kairen followed suit.

"Hello father." We said in unison.

I glanced over at Karias, Regis and Seira and just waved at them. Karias had waived back with a smile.

"I can see how greatly you've improved Aerei." My father glanced at me in acknowledgement. "And Kairen."

The both of us bowed, accepting his compliment.

"Wow you two actually seem like nobles for once." Karius laughed.

We raised our heads and, I glared at Karias making a mental note to punch him later.

"Ah these two," my Father turned towards the blonde and black haired men. "This is the human you've been so interested in meeting, and of course the noblesse as well."

I turned to face the two of them and bowed. "Aerei Skyel." I looked up back at them and examined their features more closely.

Kairen bowed as well and introduced himself.

The blonde replied with a small smile, "Frankenstein."

"Cadis Etrama di Raizel." The noblesse looked expressionless as he gazed down at the two of us.

No wonder I felt immense power from him earlier, I thought to myself. For a human Frankenstein was handsome, I could tell that much. I would have thought that Frankenstein would look like some kind of frightening human. As far as I could see, he looked every bit as normal as any human.

Frankenstein had sensed something from Raizel, and so he said, "I hope you'll come visit us sometime."

"Yes, of course." Kairen replied with a smile.

All I did was nod in response, too stunned to say anything at the least from the human's request.

"Come visit at any time. Well then, we'll see you later." And so Frankenstein turned away leading the noblesse back to his mansion.

The both of us bowed as they sauntered towards the forest. The breath I didn't know I had been holding in was exhaled with just one sigh.

My father turned to face the two of us. "I expect to see you, Kairen, beginning training again early tomorrow, and Aerei."

"Yes father?"

He stared hard into my eyes, causing me to slightly flinch. "Keep up your training."

"Yes. I will"

He began to walk away towards the general direction of our domain. I watched his figure grow smaller and smaller until his form faded into the forest. I hadn't heard Karias calling my name for quite a while until Kairen shook my shoulder.

"You alright?" he asked worriedly.

I shrugged his hand off nonchalantly. "Of course I'm fine." I waved my hand as if to brush off the subject.

"Pfft." Karius was chuckling to himself.

The minute I heard Karius laugh, I turned towards him and punched him in the gut without warning.

"Ouch." He whined. "What was that for." Karias rubbed his stomach and looked at me expecting a good answer for what I had just done.

"You two actually seemed like nobles for once." I mimicked. "He may not seem like a noble," I pointed directly at Kairen. "But I know that I am."

Karias just laughed at my response. Regis put in a few chuckles as well. Seira just stood, looking away with a small smile on her face.

"What do you mean? You're the one who doesn't seem like a noble at all." Kairen retaliated as he dropped the two swords and crossed his arms over his chest and snickered.

I puffed my cheeks in response. "Stop laughing!" I was the youngest of them all, so of course I always got the short end of the stick and got picked on by everyone else.

"You two never stop arguing do you." Regis huffed, placing both hands on his hips. "Both of you lack class. What I don't understand is that you two have argued countless times, and yet you still manage to stay so close."

I tilted my head to look up at Kairen thoughtfully. "Hmm, I only argue with him a lot because he's a blockhead and he sti-"

Kairen pulled at my cheeks, stopping me mid-sentence. "There you go again, with that mouth of yours. You never say anything nice about your dear older brother do you."

"That's actually true." Karias said, placing his hand on his chin, speculating. "I've never heard Aerei say anything nice about Kairen."

Seira nodded in agreement.

"Okay, okay let go. I'm sorry." I whined in pain, trying to pry his hands off my cheeks.

"Then again, Aerei hugged him back there-" Regis said.

"Okay! We all saw that, so we don't have to talk about it!" I shouted in embarrassment as I finally pulled his fingers off my cheeks. My face had turned entirely red so I lowered my head, facing the ground in an attempt to hide my embarrassment.

"Hmm your father said you two didn't have a problem displaying emotions, but it looks like this one does," Karias gestured towards me. "When speaking about affection."

"Well in terms of nobles, displaying emotions, especially those of affection is very rare." Regis stated.

Seira nodded in agreement again.

"It doesn't look like Kairen really has a problem with it." Karias shrugged while smiling. "Aerei, you should know you're lucky to have a brother like Kairen."

Kairen looked over towards me, my head still bowed in embarrassment. "She's always been that way." Kairen laughed chimed in air surrounding us, fitting in perfectly with the setting sun. "I don't really mind showing my sister that I care for her. Even if it is strange for nobles to display such emotions." He placed a hand on my head and ruffled my hair, a small smile gracing his lips. "Too many nobles are uptight about emotions anyway, isn't it refreshing to have people like us within the nobles anyways?" Kairen chuckled to himself.

Karias nodding vigorously in agreement.

I looked up at Kairen from where my head was bowed. My hair mostly obscured my view, and I began twiddling my thumbs. "I know I'm lucky." I whispered quietly to myself. "I appreciate Kairen a lot more than people think." I took this moment to pull most of my hair in front of my face, so they couldn't see how flustered I was.

"What was that? You need to speak up so I can hear you." Kairen teased. Though he was pleasantly surprised by my words, since he'd never thought I'd outwardly express it with words.

"Jeez! This is why I say you're such a blockhead, and don't lie to me, I know you heard me loud and clear." I looked up at Kairen defiantly, my hands on my hips. "I'm not going to say it again!"

Regis sighed in confusion, Seira smiling quietly and Karias laughing at our display.

"I guess that's just how she displays her love for you Kairen." Karias said.

"Looks like it." Kairen laughed, grabbing my arm and pulling me closer, resting his arm around my shoulders.

Seira gazed at the two of us with wistful eyes once again. Regis noticed this and bumped his shoulder into hers as a form of consolation. She smiled lightly at Regis so as to let him know not to worry, then turned her eyes towards the sky to watch the dark sky and moon slowly taking over the once bright sky.

I noticed the change in the Seira's eyes as she looked up towards the sky. I moved away from Kairen and hooped my arm around hers and smiled at her. "Want to come over today? We can have tea and stuff? I also need to change." I looked around at everyone else as an invitation while I began to walk in the direction towards our home, leading Seira along.

Seira was shocked by my actions, but deep down, she was grateful. "Sure."

"I'll come too." Regis replied.

"Regis always goes where Seira goes." Karias teased as he followed after us.

"I-I do not!" Regis retorted, a faint blush tinting his usually pale cheeks.

Kairen stayed back for a few moments, quietly watching the four of us walk along with our banter filling the quiet air. Kairen smiled at the sight, picked up the swords and took off after us. "Last one there is a pig." He yelled, dashing ahead of us.

"W-What!" Regis immediately took off at the sound of Kairen's insult. Karias soon followed suit.

"Come on." I smiled at Seira, coaxing her to follow after us.

Seira nodded with a small smile in response, and we both swiftly caught up to the three of them.