Disclaimer - I don't own Stardew Valley or My Time in Portia. This is the third bingo fill for the Froday monthly special for May.

Way of the Blade Yesterday and Today

To join the adventures guild, one needed to pass the initiation test, which in turn wasn't meant to be a walk in the park for someone just starting, something entirely intended with the purpose of discouraging would-be adventurers for whom adventuring down into the mine and other places simply was too much for them.

Yet—

In front of him was a boy who passed the test as if it were nothing, who even looked rather bored with the test.

Marlon raised an eyebrow. "Where did you learn to use a sword, boy?"

The boy gave him a look as if Marlon had asked something forbidden.

Marlon let out a sigh. "You sure your parents will be okay with you adventuring into the caves?

Then, to his surprise, the boy responded, "No, and you'd better not tell her."

"Excuse me?" Marlon took a harsh tone, yet the way the boy held the blade—he wasn't someone who shirked away, but the way he moved with the sword. There was no getting around how the boy in front of him had been trained by a knight, which surely wouldn't have happened if the boy's mother took issue with him adventuring, as no knight would put up with a student who didn't respect their parents.

"It's not that I don't respect her," the boy said, almost as if he'd picked up on what Marlon was thinking. "It's just," the boy frowned. "Can we leave where I learned to use a sword at me learning out on the frontier?"

Marlon took a deep breath. "You came from the frontier?"

"I was born there," the boy he would later learn to be named Sebastian said. "And that's not a place to take things lightly."

"Yes, but what does," Marlon took a deep breath. "You moved from there to here?"

"Yes. Well, I stayed with a family there," the boy glanced away. "Sometimes she forgets I'm quite capable of taking care of myself."

"I see," Marlon said. He did, noting the boy said nothing about his father, almost as if he were out of the picture, possibly because—

Well, some questions were best not asked, and he learned that family was one of Sebastian's many off-limits topics. So was whoever his sword instructor was.

…

"She's driving me insane?"

"Who?" Marlon asked from behind the counter.

"Abigail," Sebastian muttered. "She can't pass the most basic of tests, and yes—the initiation test is the most basic of tests," the boy who grew up on the frontier said. However, in Marlon's mind, it wasn't such the case for someone born near a hub like Zuzu city that was free of what plagued what was deemed the final frontier.

"Is she still trying to get you to teach her the way of the blade?" Marlon asked.

"As if she's up to," Sebastian said, then paused.

"Is it that she's not up to becoming a knight," Marlon said. "Or is it that you don't think yourself capable of passing on your teacher's lessons." Sebastian's eyes went wide, staring at him. "You didn't think I hadn't figured out? I've known from day one a knight had trained you in the way of the sword, of how to fight properly, and not just with a blade. Am I ever going to find out which one it was?"

"Which one?" Sebastian asked, a confused look on his face.

"Because no one simply taught you. It has to be one of the titled ones," Marlon said, then chuckling. "I'm surprised you've not tried to earn a title for yourself, tried to become the first in your generation to do so."

"That's kind of hard to do here," Sebastian said, meaning that gaining the title of knight was difficult if one wasn't out on the frontier."

"Oh, I don't know," the man said. "Knights gain their title because they've developed a special attribute to their style as they fight," he said, "And if I'm not mistaken, there is certainly an icy feel to your blade. It was there when we first met, but it's grown."

"Ah," Sebastian said, leaning his chin on the back of the chair he was sitting backward in. "I doubt anybody here in Stardew Valley would actually know what you're talking about. Well, except for Vincent and his friend Jas. They're far more keen on learning what I have to teach than Abigail is. She's just," Sebastian frowned. "Abigail has ulterior motives to becoming an adventurer, a very wrong motive, to be honest."

"You mean the fact she's not actually interested in adventuring?"

"You knew?" Sebastian asked.

"That she's romantically attracted to you?"

"Sexually attracted. There is a difference," Sebastian said. "And she doesn't get personal boundaries. She does not make for a good student, nor do I have the patience to teach her while she…."

"While she flirts with you?" Marlon laughed. "I agree with you. She does not make for a good student. If she were truly interested in adventuring, she would have taken up my offer of lessons a long time ago."

Sebastian sighed. "Well, that's that, I guess."

"I guess it is."

"Django."

Marlon's eyes blinked.

"My sword instructor is, was Django. He taught me and my older brother Arlo when we were younger," Sebastian said, taking a deep breath. "Arlo is now the head of the Civil Corps in Portia, where we were born, but he and mother are not on speaking terms."

"Robin isn't on speaking terms with one of her children?" Django said.

"Arlo literally followed in my father's footsteps," Sebastian said.

"I'm guessing your father died doing his duty?" Marlon asked.

"No. My father went missing in the Peripheries, and by the time he returned, enough time had passed that my mother had remarried." Sebastian let out a laugh. "Actually, the only reason I knew anything about my dad was because of my stepdad, Demetrius. They were friends, so he stepped in when my dad went missing."

"Yet things aren't so great between you now?"

"It's complicated," Sebastian said. "Very complicated, so I just don't talk about it. Maru doesn't even know about Arlo."

"So don't mention any of this to Robin, as usual?"

"That would be best. She still freaks out when I go into the cave, even knowing I'm a guild member," Sebastian said, sighing. "It's kind of ridiculous, to be honest."

"I can imagine."

"Anyways, see you later. I've got to get home before she and Demetrius wake up, as per usual."

"Got it, but be safe as per usual," Marlon said.

"As always."