A New Star Chapter 23

The thrust was supposed to tap the young smartass in the chest to demonstrate she still had a way to go, but I found myself rather surprised as she deflected and dodged the old walking stick. The stick was no ordinary cane, as it was made of a special kind of ironwood with a lacquer that strengthened it. It also, much to several unsuspecting enemies' chagrin, contained a sword, a swift twist and click enough to unsheathe the steel blade.  

I didn't use the blade, of course; I was already fighting a child while being a near-legendary Y-ranker, and I certainly didn't need to overdo it. She parried another series of probing thrusts I performed before lashing out at me with a heavy hand, her attacks possessing a force that traveled up my arms and shook my shoulders. This little hell cat was far more than I bargained for; as her training blades whistled for my throat yet again, I realized just how easy she had taken it on her earlier opponents, the sergeant included. I deflected a series of attacks that would have made a seasoned veteran proud before riposting with three quick jabs, all of which the abnormally tall child shunted to the side with ease and, dare I say, grace? Forget six-year-olds, I knew sixteen-year-olds who had trained with the blade since the day they could hold it who couldn't match what she was doing.  

She came in again, a series of low sweeping attacks that transformed into a high, brutal smash with both blades. She reinforced the blades with energy, both growing a thin coat of ice that billowed frost into the surroundings while they seemed to suddenly fall so much faster. I returned a solid block, smashing my cane against the blades and frowning as the wood of the cane cracked and the blades shattered. I blew away the fragments with my wind affinity, but at the same time the little scamp had pulled back and thrust forward with the broken hilts. I had no inkling what she was planning as I moved for a block and was almost taken unaware as the missing sections of blade were filled in with a white-hot fire halfway through her thrust. I only just managed to knock the blow away, having to take a single step back in the exchange, though I could hear many watching gasp.  

As her blades were knocked away, she let them go, moving with them for a moment before disappearing, simply vanishing with a wash of dark magic. She reappeared a fraction of a second later by one of the lieutenants, snaking the spear he was holding right out of his hands before vanishing again. I whirled, striking out to intercept the series of fierce thrusts from behind me before lashing out, first to my right and then to my left, the girl teleporting twice with that strange dark affinity. I had to whirl again as she appeared behind me yet again and thrust for my back, my eyes going wide as I watched her roll the spear around her torso and up onto her shoulders, from which position she then thrust half a dozen times in extremely rapid succession. Each of the thrusts targeted one of my vitals, and all were both fast and terribly precise; the things she was doing with the spear were things I had only ever seen Peak Experts do, even Masters. It appeared it wasn't just swords that were her forte. 

Strange. She had practiced with swords her whole short life; I had reports from the guards, the staff, and her parents. Reading through what she had done so far, including a very bizarre and strange stunt with a mana concentration array, was what really piqued my interest in the youngster. I was slowly approaching Z-rank, which would give me another few decades of life, and I figured it was time to take a bit of a rest and teach. Besides, tutoring often helped hone the mind and body in ways one didn't expect, and helping a great-great-granddaughter of an old friend would be nice.  

This new interest in the spear was far more than passing, however, as she was even pressing me, which was a thing absolutely ridiculous on the face of it. I had been schooling Grandmasters for a century; to be pressed on the back foot by a six-year-old little snot-nosed brat was more than shocking, it was bordering on the unfathomable. She once again switched her stance, changing her attack pattern as she was attacking, lashing out with a dozen strikes, targeting vitals and joints in a confusing mishmash of feints, snaking blows, and slicing slashes. Her control with the weapon was impeccable, a true veteran, lending far more credence to the duke's assertion she was an Old Soul.  

Deflecting every strike, I awaited her next move, raising an eyebrow as she stood and examined me critically. I did not feel like I was being examined by some B-rank or such child, but much more one of my peers, another Y-ranker or Z-ranker. Satisfied with what she saw or not, she was the one to resume the attack, striking fiercely a score of times in just a few seconds, empowering her borrowed weapon with lightning as she lashed out. Each strike was a feint hidden within a true blow, the lightning extending her already long reach beyond what it should be, the girl skilled enough as well that she was able to mime targeting one vital but switch to another during the thrust. I parried every single blow with aplomb, if I do say so myself, but she was relentless. 

I switched to a more offensive tact, not holding back quite as much. If I truly fought at even a portion of my full strength, the entire estate would be gone, but I was willing to push a little more to see just what she could do. I lashed out, striking high, low, and from both sides, watching her shed and parry every blow with a skill that truly defied reason. I pressed further, pushing on her with wind, but that yielded nothing, as she adjusted for the added force without even using any of her affinities to compensate. I empowered my blade with wind, reinforcing it with my steel affinity, lashing out ten times in three seconds. She kept up with every strike, but on the tenth, her borrowed weapon shattered, shards flying everywhere. I again made to clear them with wind, and that second of distraction was a massive gap that she took instantaneous advantage of. 

She appeared beside me in a fraction of a second, using some affinity I wasn't particularly familiar with to move far faster than anything she had demonstrated so far, and she had already been moving plenty fast. She hadn't been surprised for even a millisecond at her weapon breaking but had used the opening to attack; her left fist was already moving and charged with an enormous amount of mana, lightning billowing from it in long, seething arcs. The flagstones under her feet shattered as she swung, aiming for the center of my chest, and I moved my blade as fast as I could, likely escaping the notice of all but the duke and duchess…them, and this young terror. She didn't pull her swing, and I watched as her hair shimmered a faint gold and her eyes glowed an endless silver, just barely getting my blade in front of her fist.  

It felt like I was a young man on my father’s ranch again, wrestling against auroch and raging bulls and slipping up for a moment; an impact in my chest like a battering ram, even with my blade taking the blow, and a shock that numbed my body. I staggered back four steps, the pavers under my feet shattering at every step, my breathing a bit strained as I recovered from the strike. I wasn't in any danger, certainly not of death, and likely not of any injury at all, but the strain of blocking this young child's attack was telling. I noted her hair was again black and her eyes a brownish red; whatever had overtaken her during that singular strike was now gone. It was as if I was looking upon two different people, separate but the same.  

"Satisfied?" the child asked in a cold tone. 

"For now," I replied, stroking my beard. I looked about at the environs, seeing the training stage was basically destroyed. Small loss; the duke and duchess wouldn't even notice the cost of rebuilding such a triviality. I also noticed the wide-eyed, open-mouthed gawping of almost every person present, minus the duke and duchess themselves. My old friend's grandson was also here, the duchess's father hiding in a shady nook on the roof and watching us with interest. I doubt any but I sensed his presence, though I rethought that immediately on seeing the young girl slide her eyes up and to the side, pointing them for a fraction of a second at where the duchess's father hid.  

"I suppose you are to be my tutor?" she asked in a resigned, almost bored tone. 

"Do not throw yourself into histrionics over it," I chided sarcastically. 

"You see me," she replied simply before straightening up and shaking out her limbs. She then started cleaning the battlefield of debris as if it was the most normal thing in the world. A grand duke's daughter doing manual labor; now I really had seen everything. 

"Alexandra," her father said in his rich, mellow voice, causing the girl to straighten up with several large pieces of the spear she was just using in her hands. 

"Yes?" she asked calmly, quirking a single brow slightly. 

"What, pray tell, was that?" he asked, giving her a serious eye. His wife was a step behind him, while the commander of their guard had shooed everyone else from the yard. 

"I would like to lodge a formal Complaint of Rebuke," she replied in a cold tone. "I was attacked without challenge within our grounds. I ask for censure." 

By the time she was done speaking, all four of us, the commander having returned after clearing the yard, had our eyebrows in our hairlines. I didn't even know that anybody below the age of a hundred even knew about that old law, let alone would dare invoke it on a high ranker. Not only that, she did it with all the emotion and verve of a county clerk order a fresh stack of paper upon which to write reports.  

"I don't know how you know about that, but enough," her mother said, shaking her head. I looked over at Isabella, seeing the frustration on her face, but also more than a touch of pride as she looked at her youngest. 

The young lady looked to her mother before looking back to me, our eyes meeting. I felt a slight shiver up my spine, the look not that of a child but a cold, calculating predator, a warrior from a bygone era that had seen far more than even I had. I shook it off, giving a little twist of the body before rubbing at my back while leaning on my cane, frowning as it pierced through the stone under my feet. I would need to get someone to redo the shell, likely Tanya with her nature magic; another pain in my ass.  

"I suppose it is time for a proper introduction," I said with a slight sigh, ignoring a most boisterous cough from the duke at my antics. "I am Count Emmanuel du Or’leon, Y-ranker of wind, steel, and space, knight chevalier of the Holy Order of the Rose, Sage of the Sword, and former tutor to the great emperor Tremaine de Garcois, knight of the east." 

"You do have some credentials, then," the child said, her eyes glimmering a dull red as she gave me a rather apathetic look. 

"Alexandra," her mother said in a warning tone, one which I watched fly right by the child without causing even a single muscle to twitch. 

"Well, what's on the agenda for today?" the girl asked me, ignoring her parents and the commander.  

"I believe I will see where you are at in various subjects," I said, stroking my beard. "It's rather clear you are, ahem, quite advanced in terms of your martial prowess. What rank are you, by the way." 

"More than A," she replied coldly, though she failed to elaborate beyond that. 

"Indeed," I said, frowning. "And what was that display with the spear?" 

"A true warrior masters all martial weapons," she replied to my question instantly, almost as if by rote.  

"Let me ask you but one thing," I said, narrowing my eyes as I leaned on my cane and stroked my beard. "How many years did you train, before you found yourself the duke's daughter?" 

"You are trying, none too subtly, to ask me what exactly I remember of my life or lives before this one," she said acidly. Before anyone could interject, she continued with a very cold look on her face, "I will tell you this and ask you to leave it alone; I led one of the greatest hosts to ever sail the black ocean for a little over a millennium. I hope that suffices?" 

"I'm not sure what that means, precisely, but you have answered my question," I said, narrowing my eyes to give her my best tutor's glare. It would always work on that young upstart Tremaine, but I had found a tougher fish, as the girl returned my stare with another cold, unblinking look. 

"I did not know you knew the spear," the commander cut in then, her mouth curled in a broad, slightly mocking smile. "I have only ever seen you with the sword." 

"It does not matter what you put in my hand; my body is the weapon," she replied, giving the commander a brief glance before returning her full attention to me.  

"Come then," I said, waving a hand. "Let us retire hence to the library and see where exactly your intellectual pursuits have led you." 

I turned, leading the way out of the barracks and back into the main estate, dismissing the duke and duchess with a wave, much to their disgruntlement. The commander hadn't left the barracks, likely tasking one of her subordinates with the cleanup; the woman was powerful, but lazy. If she had applied herself a little more, she would be near my rank of power, not lavishing around R-rank, though she might have hit S-rank recently. I dismissed my wandering thoughts as we entered the library, finding it painfully empty. 

"Youth these days," I sighed as we approached a table with several books scattered on it and sat. "Far too concerned with swordplay and casting flashy spells. Nobody takes the time they need on the more intellectual pursuits." 

"If them devoting all their time to the blade results in the current state of our warriors, then the world really is hopeless," the child returned coldly. "That sergeant has been with our guard for years; he was laughably easy to defeat. Not to mention the state of martial readiness I've observed in my siblings. I have not been impressed." 

"Harsh," I said, leaning back and stroking my beard, leaving my sword resting against the table edge. 

"Only if one's pride is entirely wrapped in a single skill," she replied coldly. "A skill that one is not particularly accomplished at. Basing one's entire personality around the ability to use a single weapon seems like a bad choice to me, but what do I know? I'm six." 

"You are rather…advanced for your age," I said while casting a heavy glance her way. "Though, of course, a few of us know the reason for that." 

"And I would thank you to keep it that way, though the saying about 'when one person knows it, it's a secret, but when two people know it, it's no longer a secret' comes to mind," she said calmly. 

"Yes, well, be that as it may, let's get to covering your course work," I said. 

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