Chapter 24: 3. the starting line (3)

A knock startled her. Lillian jerked her head from the book and looked at the door in eager anticipation. Did Faier finally bring the food?

Her stomach growled.

“Come in,” Lillian called out. Her gleaming eyes glued to the doorway.

The door opened. Her grin grew before freezing. She stared at the towering figure that stood at the entrance of the room. Her eyes dulled and her mouth dropped open.

Lillian closed her mouth with a sharp snap and jumped up, bowing to the man. With her right leg placed behind her left, she nervously clutched at the space above her heart and dipped her torso down.

She felt ridiculous.

“May the light of day and the dark of night bless you, Your Grace,” Lillian murmured, glad that her emotional turmoil and shame weren’t bleeding into her voice.

“I’m not here as the Duke Leko. I’m here as your father. Stop bowing,” he said. His voice jarred her, the indifferent tone sent shivers down her spine. Lillian’s new life was in danger with this man around.

She stood upright and watched as Kiligar Hosyn sat on the couch. Lillian opened her mouth for a second before forcibly closing it again. She lifted her head and walked to the other edge with stiff shoulders. She focused on the fireplace instead of the ruthless man that felt like he was encompassing the entire room. They sat in deafening silence for a while before the Duke cleared his throat. Her anxious eyes jumped to his face.

“You are feeling better?” He asked.

Lillian started nodding before stopping herself. She couldn’t afford to be rude. Death god was the name ascribed to this man on the battlefield. They described him as intolerant and unforgiving. The cruel man who had brushed Leko off and never visited his wounded son once. Lillian couldn’t risk angering him, not when she didn’t have a thorough grasp on his relationship with his son.

“I am fine… father,” she hesitated.

Lillian couldn’t remember how Leko had responded to his father. There had been no interaction between them at all in The Hero’s Start Line. Was calling the Duke father the right move? Or had Leko responded with another title? He’d always been a brash and inconsiderate character. Did he use any titles for his father? Lillian twitched at the icy stare that bore into the side of her head. Did she make the wrong choice?

“Good.”

A relieved breath slipped from her as Lillian watched a few frightened servants bring in food and place it on the table. Their jittery moves and not-so-secret gazes amused her. Their work complete, they rushed out. Some shot her and the Duke a quick wide-eyed look before scurrying away.

She understood the reaction a bit. Kiligar Hosyn was a scary man. Even Calen had feared and respected the Duke. She was terrified of the Duke. It was rare to see him outside of his office. He had servants that waited on him and no one else. These servants must have been randomly selected if they couldn’t suppress their reactions.

“You’re a hunter now. What are your plans?” The Duke inquired.

Releasing a small hum, she turned to face the Duke, who regarded her. Lillian held back a flinch at the gaze. She subtly shifted her body to face him and relaxed into the corner of the plush couch. Lillian breathed before meeting the frosty eyes head on. Lillian couldn’t be scared; she shouldn’t. She wasn’t willing to live a life in fear.

She needed her nerves back.

Leko may be the second child of the Hosyn family, but he was the oldest son. By the current laws, the intended heir was him. Not that Lillian wanted it. The fact of the matter was that she couldn’t do whatever she wanted until the eldest became the heir. It still bore down on her with all its responsibilities and expectations.

“I need to train,” Lillian said, running her hand through her irritating short hair. She leaned back on the couch, propping her elbow on the armrest, and kept a careful eye on the Duke’s possible reaction. “I’ll use the training ground here to get as far as I can first, but after that, I’ll need to leave. I won’t accept being a mediocre hunter.”

The most efficient way to grow as an excellent hunter was outside. There were heroic quests and savage monsters. The more she fought. The more monsters she killed. The stronger she would become.

Lillian didn’t want incredible power. She wanted to live.

This chaotic world had a future riddled with prolonged war, not to mention that even now, this world was not peaceful. Lillian would die in agony if she didn’t get stronger. Plus, Lillian glanced past the balcony. The lovely scenery with its clear skies and verdant fields temporarily captivated her.

This was a world filled with magic and beautiful locations. It wasn’t polluted and murky. It was a fantasy kingdom. The thought of getting to explore it? The many sights she could experience? How much fun could she have out there? The idea made her shiver with breathless excitement.

Lillian would have to be careful. As beautiful as this place looked, it was poison.

“We can talk about leaving later.” The Duke’s toneless voice pulled her attention back to him. “For now, tell me about what you plan on working on. I’ll have them set up the training grounds as best as they can.”

“My weakest attributes are strength, dexterity, constitution, and perception. For now, I want to work on weight training to improve my strength. I want to do a mix of stretches, yoga, and palates for dexterity. I also thought about taking up dancing. It would help with dexterity and coordination. Running, High Intense Interval training and swimming would be good for constitution. I am not sure about perception. I also want to build parkour tracks.”

Lillian listed the things she’d been thinking of and sighed again. The toughest task would be to maintain self-discipline. She would have to get someone to force her to do the stuff, or she’d give up. Getting up to do work in the morning was a struggle when the bed was just so soft and refused to let Lillian go from its loving clutches.

“High intense interval? Parkour?” The Duke stared at her with his brows furrowed a tiny amount.

“Hmm,” Lillian glanced away from the Duke. Right, old world. HIIT only became discovered in the late 1900s. “High Intense Interval training. Training where I do intense exercises for a short period with small recovery breaks. It’s done until exhaustion.”

“Interesting, and parkour?”

“It’s a style of movement. You use objects around you to move that aren’t meant to be used that way. You climb and jump over things like stairs, walls, carriages, roofs, things like that. It helps with intelligence, perception, constitution, strength, and dexterity.”

The Duke sat forward. His eyes sharpened as they carefully observed Lillian’s face.

“It would be dangerous to do that in the capital when you have no skill in it.”

“I know, which is why I want to ask if you would have a training arena built for me.” Lillian shrugged like she didn’t care, but she really wanted that training area. If the Duke didn’t do it, she’d have to come up with another way.

“Of course, but we wouldn’t know what to put in.” The Duke rubbed at his lip. Lillian watched him curiously.

“I can draw up an idea of what it should look like?” she asked. The Duke dropped his hand and nodded.

Lillian blinked at the sight of the faint smile that spread across the Duke’s face.

“And what choice of weapon would best suit my son?” He asked. His chilly gaze warmed a bit.

“I have a general ability called eagle eye. It’s at its weakest, but my eyesight is rather sharp. I can see things well, and I can look far.” She pointed out the balcony. “I can see the farmers down there and a short distance further, as if I am standing down there with them.”

“Magnificent sight is most effective when combined with a ranged weapon,” The Duke commented.

“Exactly. I was thinking of a crossbow.”

A bow and arrow would also work, but crossbows looked cool.

“And for close range?”

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Silence spread through the room as the Duke groaned and gently shook his head. His lips twitched as he watched her face.

“What if an enemy got too close? A crossbow is useful for ranged attacks. Only it’s limited when your opponents are in close quarters,” He explained patiently. Lillian nibbled her lip and nodded. He had a valid point.

“Our family are knights. Would you take up the sword if I ask?”

The Duke watched her with lidded eyes as she scrutinized his face. Lillian nodded at him slowly, and he seemed to instantly sink a bit more into the seat. A faint smile fell onto his face. He turned to the food that neither had touched since the servants placed it on the table.

“I’ll arrange teachers for you and have a schedule delivered in the next two days. Work on that sketch for the Parkour area and I’ll commission mages to do it. It’s best to get it done quickly. In three days I’ll have lunch set up in my office, I expect you there. We can discuss your plans for traveling then.”

Lillian took some of the food and started nibbling. The man was not as scary as the book had made him out to be. Perhaps Callen was just a wuss.

But he’d been rather cold with Leko. Her brows furrowed as she stared down at the food she held in her hands. Was the book not accurate? Or did the hunter title make his useless son useful, so he paid attention?

She kept her thoughts to herself. They ate the food with Lillian’s piano melody playing peacefully in the background. The Duke touched three pieces of small snacks before excusing himself. Lillian watched him go with mild curiosity. He barely ate. She would venture as far as to say he basically didn’t eat at all. Had he been in a hurry to leave his son behind? Was she a tainted sight?

She shook her head and finished the food. It didn’t matter.

The bed called to her, so Lillian stood from the couch and flopped down. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly. There were plans to keep working on, but a small break wouldn’t kill her.

Lillian had a few precious minutes before a knock echoed in the room. A moaning sigh escaped her lips as she sat up. She called out for the new guest to enter.

The caring faces of her personal maid and butler met her eyes.

Kurio and Faier Hunid.

Lillian watched them move around the room with lidded eyes. A maid and butler duo who couldn’t stand Calen but had worked with him in the war arc. They wanted revenge for Leko’s death. Lillian was sure that they were the only two people that gave any shits about Leko.

She’d found them annoying when she read about them. Who would attach themselves to an ass like that and still be loyal once the guy was dead? Back then, Lillian wrote it off as plot convenience, but this wasn’t ink on pages anymore. Lillian sat here observing them. She could touch them. This was real.

Real people had to have a genuine reason. There was no plot convenience in the real world.

“Kurio,” Lillian murmured. The butler turned to her and tilted his head. When you looked at the siblings. Faier seemed to be the naïve one. Her constant beaming and sunny disposition conveyed that image. That wasn’t the case. Faier was the more logical one. Kurio was innocent compared to his younger sister.

“Why are you and Faier still here?” Lillian asked.

Faier stopped cleaning the table where Lillian and the Duke had eaten to turn towards her.

“I don’t understand, young master.” Kurio walked closer with the bundle of clothes he’d removed from the closet. “Do you want us to leave the room?”

“No, I’m a terrible person. I cause trouble wherever I go. You and your sister don’t have to be here, so why?” Lillian frowned at the wide-eyed man. “Why do you stay?” Kurio’s eyes shook as he frantically started shaking his head.

“Young master! You aren’t like that!” Faier interrupted, her voice holding a soothing tone to it. Lillian glanced at the woman, who flinched and diverted her gaze down at her feet when their eyes met.

“I didn’t ask you, Faier.” Lillian turned back to Kurio, who watched her and his sister. “You can lie with a smile on your face, but your brother is terrible at it.”

Faier jerked and stared at Lillian. Kurio bit his lip, a small rosy tint on his ears. He glanced away before locking eyes with Lillian, who waited patiently for the answer. Kurio walked forward and reached out for her.

“You don’t remember,” he sighed. Kurio heaved her up. Lillian followed without complaint. She hid her surprise at the confidant action that would get any other butler fired on the spot. Faier’s eyes widen and she stepped forward, a reprimanding twist on her lips as she stared her brother down.

“Brother-”

Kurio ignored his sister and started dressing Lillian. She glared out past the balcony and down at the farms to hide the flush that she could feel creeping. Since she was a child, no one dressed her, and she felt embarrassed about dressing herself in a male body. She’d seen naked men before, but now she was the naked man. It wasn’t the same.

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Kurio kept his eye on Leko’s face. He noted the narrowed eyes and the small downward curve of his young master’s lips. That his master thought he was a terrible person angered Kurio. He wished he could tear the people who made him think like that to pieces.

He’d have to tear the whole kingdom to pieces then. Kurio didn’t think his young master would be happy with that.

“They took my sister and I from our home and sold us as slaves when we were young. We escaped and ended up on the streets of Dundia. You and His Grace had been passing through. You were eight years old.”

Kurio tugged at the fabric and secured it together with the Hosyn emblem. He stepped back and looked at Leko, who turned to face him with a softer expression. Leko’s eyes lost the sharp glare, and his lips pursed a bit. Kurio smiled at his master’s curious expression. He continued recounting the history they had.

“Everyone walked past us for days. We had injuries and were starving, but no one cared for street rats, no one except for you. Even the Duke brushed us off. You fought with him. I’d never seen someone pick a fight with an influential man with so little fear. In the end, the Duke caved, and you took us with you. Everything we have is because of you. We lost everything until we met you, young master.”

“For as long as you will have us. We will serve at your side, young master,” Faier said. Leko’s lips twisted in a mocking smile as he considered the two of them. Kurio’s heart pounded in pain at the self-deprecating look his young master bore.

“Impressive words. Are you sure you won’t regret it?”

He turned from them and walked to the balcony. Kurio’s eyes stayed on the firm back that he’d once sworn to follow to the ends of the universe.

“Never.” Kurio’s voice trailed behind his young master. Neither he nor his sister would ever regret following their master. They would never back away from him, not for anyone or anything.

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Lillian stared down at the community that spread across the fields.

Tragedies intertwined with this kingdom’s future, battle after battle, life after life. Frowning, Lillian watched an old couple laugh. A small child ran up to them, laughing as brightly as they were. Lillian had no plans to be a hero. She was selfish. All Lillian wanted was a fun and lazy life. She wouldn’t have that in the middle of a war.

Especially when her new home was destined to be in ruins.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Lillian said as she turned her back to the farms and the laughing family.

Lillian wasn’t a hero, but she would protect her home.

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