"Besides telling them the risks involved, I want you to tell Snow that I have a way to help her, Grey, and Emily deal with their scaly, furry, and green issues if they choose to participate, and that I'll personally cover their tuition."

"What's going on? What are you doing all this? What could you hope to gain from forcing them to their deaths, brother? Tell me! Just why are you so hell-bent on this?" Leo questioned. As far as he knew, this wasn't the brother he'd grown to know.

"Don't slander me with that uncouth tongue of yours. I'm not forcing anyone to do anything. The only thing you need to know is that I've taken quite a liking to them. All I want from you is to promise me you'll agree to my terms."

"Fine, but first you'll need to win, won't you?" Leo glanced at some guards.

The guards understood his intentions and threw their swords to him and Lucius simultaneously. Both brothers caught the swords. At the same time, all the guards unanimously made their way away from the center of the training grounds, forming an encirclement for both brothers—not too large in case one needed to intervene, and not too small to avoid limiting their prowess.

"As if that's going to be difficult," Lucius smirked while chuckling lightly. His brother sure was a cheeky one when he needed to be.

Leo's eyes turned stern. Without warning, he pushed off the ground, charging towards his brother with sword in hand, center of gravity lowered as if aiming for a clean upward diagonal slash.

CLANG!

"Tsk." Leo clicked his tongue when his brother deflected the attack with a downward strike. Sparks flew as their blades came across each other.

"Is this how you plan to win, dear brother?" Lucius said with visible sarcasm. "If I didn't know any better—" Leo's eyes widened when his brother did the unexpected.

With quick movements, Lucius grabbed his blade. The unexpected action caused Leo to pause in bewilderment.

Alas, that moment of bewilderment was what Lucius was aiming for. Ignoring the burning pain caused by the gruesome wound in his palm, he twisted his wrist, his blade causing sparks as it scraped against Leo's while moving upwards.

"It appears this little match ended far quicker than I was expecting," Lucius chuckled when the edge of his blade stopped against Leo's own throat.

"That's... you..." Leo was flabbergasted by his brother's suicidal move, but his mind returned to reality when Lucius drew a trickle of blood from his throat.

"I think the words you're looking for are 'I surrender,'" said Lucius.

"That's enough!" Rugbeard was quick to intervene, fearing that Lucius would go too far at this rate. "Young master, please retract your blade; it's clear to even here that you are the ultimate victor," Rugbeard tried persuading him.

Lucius said nothing, yet he did as told, retracting his blade before flinging it away.

"Eeekk!" Some guards quickly leaped away as the blade landed. Fortunately, they were quick enough, and the blade instead stabbed itself into the ground. If they'd paid close attention, they would realize that the point at which it landed was actually one without guards originally.

"Well, I'll be off now and leave you to your training," Lucius waved his hand dismissively and turned around to leave.

The guards naturally made way, practically hurrying so as not to get within his line of sight. Their actions did nothing to stop him.

Leo, on the other hand, glared at his brother as he left. "Dammit! That cheating bastard!" Leo cursed out loud, striking his fist against the earth.

Back then, if he had tried to forcefully pull his blade away, he knew that it would have resulted in Lucius suffering serious injuries. In his eyes, his brother had intentionally done such a risky move so as to gain complete advantage in that moment.

Well, in all honesty, his conjecture was actually right. Lucius had no intention of taking the risk of drawing out the fight, since he felt that it would take Leo's support to get Snow, Emily, Grey, and Amy to join the academy.

Sure, he knew how skilled he himself was with the sword, even if he'd only been training on his own. Even Rugbeard would have to admit that amongst the siblings, he might as well be the strongest with it—or at the very least, equal to Leo in terms of swordsmanship.

Lucius left the training grounds and made his way to his room. Reaching his door, he paused when he was about to open it, staring at his bleeding arm with a frown.

He then glanced down at the floor, then raised his gaze toward the path he'd come from.

"Well, that's a bit of a mess..." Lucius commented on the trail of splattered blood he had left in his wake.

Taking a look around the corridor, he spotted some servants walking together down the path he was on, one male and the other female.

Lucius didn't want to shout, since it would be unbecoming for someone like himself and clearly off, so instead, he glared coldly at the two in the distance.

Quite the spectacle it was, because the next moment both vassals stiffened when feeling his genuine cold gaze—which he'd perfected after so many years. With one simple icy glance and a calling gesture, the both of them hurried on over.

"You requested for us, young master?" the two of them said in unison the moment they arrived, kneeling simultaneously. On a closer look, he saw a pair of fox ears on the head of the woman, while the man had the head of a dog, similar to a Doberman in his first life.

"I need you to clean all that up," Lucius pointed at the fox-eared maid before gesturing towards the trail of blood.

The maid stiffened when she saw the trail; her eyes unconsciously shifted toward him, only then did she see his injured arm.

"Y-Young master, are you alright?"

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