"Nathaniel, I'm a knight, not an instructor. If you're looking for someone to teach your kid, I suggest you look somewhere else."

Nathaniel sighed, but he knew he could not give up. Time was short, and Ariana had to learn to fight fast. Though he knew that the school would teach her anyway, it would be much better for her to at least know her strengths and weaknesses before jumping into training. Nathaniel would evaluate her himself, but he did not have the resources he needed, and that was why he was here.

However, he was not having much luck. It was just like Reina to refuse to do anything for someone unless she benefited in return, so perhaps he could do just that.

"I could pay you a fee, if that is what you are looking for."

"I'm not short on money; I'm just not that great at teaching, much less with children. I don't think your kid will learn anything vital from me."

"I'm not asking you to teach her. I came to you because I want you to evaluate her. Please, just let her practice with different types of weapons and see which one suits her."

Reina sighed and looked at the father and daughter pensively.

"So you basically want to give her a head start, don't you?"

"Yes, in essence."

Reina did not appear to budge. She frowned, folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. Ariana noticed these signs of hesitation and stepped forward, hoping that she might be able to convince her.

"Please Madam; my father would really appreciate it if you helped us."

Nathaniel scowled and pushed his daughter back. He had hoped she would keep quiet throughout the ordeal, but she did not. He did not want her naiveté to cause unnecessary problems.

"Ariana, let us adults do the talking."

However, Reina appeared to be pleasantly surprised, and decided to listen to what the child had to say if she was bold enough to speak.

"No, no. It's all right. She's the one who's going to benefit from this, so I'd rather hear it from her own mouth. So, do you want to learn how to fight?"

"Yes, Madam."

"Why?"

"Because-"

"…Because your father told you to?"

"Yes, Madam."

She placed her hands on her hips and gave Ariana a look of dissatisfaction.

"I knew it. I don't want to hear that. I want to hear your own reason."

Nathaniel shook slightly in apprehension and grabbed his daughter's arm, dragging her to the door they came from.

"Please, if you don't want to teach her, that's fine, but don't ask her such complicated questions, she-"

"What? She's just a kid? She doesn't know any better? Nope. I don't believe in that. I think she's capable of coming up with things on her own. Please, let her think."

Nathaniel, sighed, dejected, and braced himself for what was about to come out of his daughter's mouth.

"So, where was I? Ah yes, why do you want to fight, and don't say it's because your father said so."

Ariana stared agape and scrunched her eyebrows in confusion, she began to tilt her head from side to side as she tried to come up with what she thought would be the correct response.

"Because… because I want to be strong and learn to protect myself, plus I want to be a tactician like my father."

"Why do you want to be a tactician so much?"

She began to move her head again, trying to find the correct words to say.

"Because… because tacticians are the reason why armies win battles. If they don't have plans or their plans are bad, then lots of people die. I want to save lots of people-"

"No, no, no. Let me rephrase the question, why do you think being a tactician will be good for you?"

Ariana was caught off guard. She appeared to be out of answers. She clearly wanted to think some more, but instead, she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Uh… I can order people around?"

Reina began to chuckle, covering her mouth to hide the smile on her face. Nathaniel twitched inwardly, wondering if this was a bad sign and if Ariana endangered her chance to learn combat first hand.

"I'm sorry, she has no manners-"

"What's the problem? She wants to take charge rather than meekly obey. I wish I was this ambitious at her age."

Ariana stared in confusion, wondering how she could have made that assumption even though she didn't think it herself.

"With all due respect, Madam, I did not say that-"

"You didn't have to, I can tell. Now follow me…"

"Does this mean that-"

"Yup, I'm going to see what she's capable of."

"Thank you very much, Madam-"

And talk normally for Gods' sake. You're too young to be stiff and rigid."

"Yes- Okay."

Ariana followed the Pegasus knight obediently, and later they came across a room with weapons of all sorts hanging from the walls. Ariana began to survey the weapons intently as she walked around the room.

"This is called the armoury; we keep all sorts of weapons here for soldiers to use. And this," Reina moved a wooden statue from the corner of the room to the centre, "…is called a training dummy. For practice, instead of attacking a person, you are going to attack this, understood?"

"Understood."

"Now, have you done any kind of training before?"

Ariana sighed and stared at the floor.

"…No, not really."

"…Just as I thought. You have no experience. That is fine. Have you at least seen hand to hand combat?"

She looked up, she appeared slightly more optimistic.

"Yes, Father has taken me to watch the soldiers train all the time."

"Okay, so one step in the right direction…" the Pegasus knight walked towards the walls where various weapons hung, "Do you have any idea what kind of weapon will be best for you?"

"I don't know, but to be honest, I'm not very strong…"

"Define 'not very strong.'"

"I tried to lift an axe once and it was too heavy."

Reina nodded, and passed by the axes.

"Are you fast?"

"Yes, I can run."

Reina nodded and returned to the spot where Ariana was. Then she placed a lance, a sword, and a bow and arrow in front of her pupil.

Ariana examined the weapons carefully, she was not sure which one would work best, but she had to try all of them to find out.

"Do you want me to try these?"

"Yea, you see, the trick to selecting the weapon that will suit you is knowing your body type. You're still young and you'll grow soon, so it's hard to tell as of yet. However, as a general rule, guys tend to be heavier and more muscular, but not particularly fast. Girls tend to be lighter and faster, but not as strong. Of course, there are exceptions, but we won't look into that for now."

"So that is why you gave me weapons that are easier to lift."

"Exactly. Now, we'll start with a bow and arrow."

Ariana picked up the bow and arrow, and then she placed her right leg in front and aimed the arrow at her target.

"Did you learn that from watching the other soldiers?"

"…Yes."

"Pretty good for a first try. Now release."

Ariana released the arrow, however because of her weak arms; the arrow flew straight for a brief second and took a curved path downwards, finally landing at the foot of the statue.

Reina sighed, if she was struggling with a bow and arrow, she probably had a weak throwing arm as well, so javelins and short weapons were out.

"…Apparently not."

Ariana sighed and picked up the sword, it was not as heavy as an axe, but she was still clearly making an effort to lift it.

"All right, now charge."

"Haaa!"

Ariana ran towards the statue as fast as she could, and struck at it, but could not even make a dent. She tried again, but nothing happened. She tried to strike at the statue five times before placing the sword on the floor and giving up.

"So the lance it is…"

Ariana ran back to take the lance and ran towards the statue once more. She stabbed the dummy with all her strength, and was able to knock the dummy down, but it survived with only a small chink in its belly.

Reina looked at her pupil in confusion. Nathaniel's swordplay was near unparalleled, and though he was not the burliest member of the army, he was still quite strong. It seemed that she had the best luck with a lance, but she still was not much of a fighter. She wondered for a minute, this was the child of the famous tactician?

"Well, you are fast; I can give you that…"

Ariana could have thrown up her arms in frustration and told herself she would never make it, but she was not the kind of person who would give up easily. She ignored her instructor for a minute and looked around for another weapon she could use. She searched for several minutes and then found a shelf with different coloured books, and she had an idea.

"I've seen these! Mages use these books all the time, do they not?"

Reina felt somewhat stupid for a minute for not considering her magical capabilities, as most of the mages she saw had terrible strength and defensive capabilities. However in retrospect, she knew why she chose to ignore that variable. Any idiot could master a sword or a lance with practice, but only some people were capable of using magic.

"Yes but we call them tomes, not books. Not many people can use them though. Weapons rely on physical strength, but to use tomes, you need to have a strong mind-"

Reina saw Ariana run to the dummy with a thunder tome in hand before she could finish her sentence.

"Hey, hey! Not so fast-"

Ariana opened the tome and recited the incantation inscribed, and almost immediately after, a bolt of lightning came from the tome and shattered the dummy. She stared at the heap of wood before her in awe and was grinning from ear to ear at her accomplishments.

"So you're useless in close combat, but I can't say the same when it comes to magic…"

Ariana turned around to see her father standing at the doorway.

"Nathaniel, how long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough."

Ariana ran towards him and shoved the tome in his face to emphasize the fact that she had accomplished something.

"Father, did you see that? I actually used a tome! I can fight and get stronger and be a tactician like you!"

Nathaniel frowned. Children started out like this, believing that learning how to fight would give them acknowledgement and praises. Then after actually going into war and learning what the real world is like, they change completely. Ariana was not going to remain a cheerful and optimistic little girl forever; in fact, he wanted to put a stop to this childlike behaviour as quickly as possible.

"Just because you fared well against a piece of wood doesn't mean you can hold your own in an actual fight."

"Hey, don't discourage her. She's happy that she knows how to fight, let her at least have that. She's got plenty of time to hone whatever skills she has."

"She's becoming arrogant, that thinking will get her killed."

"She knows that, and she'll learn quickly. She can keep the tome she used, there's plenty more where that came from. Oh yea, there's one thing I forgot to mention."

"What is it?"

"Weapons don't last forever. If you keep using them, they will eventually break, look at your tome now, what do you see?"

Ariana flipped through the tome to see that the page she used earlier was missing.

"The page is gone!"

"That page became the lightning bolt you used to attack that dummy. Remember that each time you use a spell, a page will disappear, and when all the pages are gone, you can't use it anymore. Make sure you take at least two tomes with you to a fight."

"I will."

"Hey, kid, why don't you wait outside for a bit, I need to talk to your father in private."

Ariana nodded and walked outside the room, but she had no intention of leaving. She knew she was still a child and had a lot to learn, but she hated being excluded from the conversation all the same. She waited until the door to the armoury was closed, and then pressed her ears to the door to listen.

"That was pretty harsh on the kid, Nathaniel." Reina sounded disapproving, like she was advising her father.

"I told her what she needed to hear."

"Would it kill you to praise her at least once?"

It was then when Ariana began to realize that she was right. If she did her chores, made a smart move in chess, or answered a question right, her father would ignore it. However when she made a mistake, he would admonish her. Others praised her when she did something right, so why couldn't her father do the same?

"Complementing her will only inflate her ego."

"I know you can't exactly be a doting parent, but can't you lighten up just a little bit?"

"Start while they are young, then they will not be traumatized by the harshness of life when they're older."

He was using words beyond her comprehension, but she thought she understood the gist of it because of all that her father told her in the past. He mentioned often that the real world was a harsh and unwelcoming place. So he was treating her harshly so that the real world would not bother her.

"Well, I have to give you some credit; she's mature for her age. So maybe your 'discipline or nothing' parenting style does help in some ways. I don't exactly like it, but I can't ignore what I see in front of me."

"I don't care if you like it or not. We may be friends and we may have helped each other during the war, but it is not your place to decide how I should raise my daughter. I came to you to help her, not to advise me on how to be a parent. Thank you for your efforts."

Ariana heard her father's footsteps and ran away from the door to ensure that he would not catch her listening to their conversation. She kept running until she was outside the castle, and waited until her father showed up.

As they walked home, she wondered, should she tell her father what she had heard? She was worried he would reprimand her or beat her if she asked him. She kept quiet, but kept watching his expressionless face intently, and when he caught her eye, she looked down at the ground instinctively.

"You were listening, weren't you?"

Ariana stopped walking; she tensed and began to shiver, preparing for yet another tirade or beating.

"I… I just wanted to know what you were talking about…"

"Will you stop shivering like that? Now hurry up, it will be dark soon."

They continued to walk, and were silent for a minute until Nathaniel finally spoke.

"I'm not angry with you. In fact I'm glad you did. Do you understand why I say what I say, and why I do the things I do?"

"Because the real world is a cruel place, and if you start teaching me now, I won't be scared when I grow up."

"Correct."

They both stopped talking and continued to walk home, but Ariana could not help but wonder if her father was one hundred percent correct.