Good morning darling

Laying in his bed, Ashur was mentally and physically exhausted.

He had returned to his room from practicing and the sun was starting to rise outside.

But Ashur was pretty satisfied from his gains, as he had finally finished what he set out to do.

He had now recovered to his previous "Sharpness".

The reason he had to recover his "Sharpness" was that after spending an eternity in an endless void with nothing but stars to count, it would be hard for his mind not to have at least dulled a bit, and his skills rusty.

But most importantly, his mind had dulled quite a bit due to the long time.

He noticed his mind and reflexes were slow. Much slower than what it had been at previously.

This was why he had to resharpen his mind, as the most important trait for a swordsman is not strength or skills, but a strong and sharp mind.

A sharp mind allows you to think and react quickly in a fight, and is an essential part of what makes up a swordsman.

This is why he had to practice in order to recover that mind. To ingrain his swordsmanship back into himself, but also his instincts concerning fights. And also adjust his swordsmanship to fit his new size.

Although he may have displayed swordsmanship at the C rank before, in actuality, his performance was not at the level of what a C rank swordsman would usually perform at, due to those factors.

But after practicing almost the whole night, he had fully adjusted to his body and recovered most of his instincts also.

Looking over towards the raising sun outside the window, Ashur sighed as he knew he probably won't have much rest before he has to get back up for whatever test the elf king had planned, which was probably only a few hours away.

"I'm gonna take a power nap, wake me up in about 2-3 hours, preferably saying "Good morning darling~.'" said a yawning Ashur.

"There's no way in hell I'm going to say something like that!" shouted Ene in protest.

"But just I really wanted to hear your voice when I wake up...." said Ashur with a dejected look.

"If you wanted to hear my voice, I can always wake you up normally! why do I have to say something like that!" Ene shouted.

"Well if the words are the problem, we can always change it." "How about 'Good morning my love~'?"

"That's not much different than the first one!"

"Then how about 'Good morning Master, would you like to have breakfast, a bath, or may....be...me?'"

Ene just looked at Ashur with disgust and said "Perverted Master."

"Hey! what's wrong with it!" Ashur burst out.

All he wanted was a special good morning greeting, was that so hard?

"Absolutely Everything!!!!"

"Really?" Ashur asked with a look of innocence.

"Don't play dumb!"

"Tsk"

"Then it's decided! we're using the original darling then!" he said as he pulled the blanket up to cover himself.

"Hold up, you can't just decide something like tha-" Ene wanted to interject. but her words suddenly came to a halt as she suddenly noticed that he was already sound asleep!

"Damned perverted Master! How the hell can he just fall asleep like that!" she grumbled.

--------

A few hours later in a very large and luxurious bedroom, a handsome elven man with long jade-colored hair was getting dressed by a maid, but a knock suddenly resounded from the door.

"Come in," Larfal said. Not minding and letting the maid continue to dress him.

Entering inside, a plain-looking elven maid with long black hair appeared.

"You summoned me Your Majesty?" she asked with tiredness as she knelt down.

"You seem tired Cel" Larfal said. Noticing her tiredness and dark circles under her eyes.

"It's nothing Your Majesty, I was just doing what you asked me, and observing the target," she said.

"And what's the status of that?" asked Larfal.

"He currently showing no suspicious signs at the moment Your Majesty. But there are some points that I found strange" she replied.

"Explain," said Larfal.

"Your Majesty, as far as I have observed, he is quite skilled in swordsmanship, but I can't tell how skilled he is exactly" she reported.

'But I feel that the swordsmanship he displayed might be better than our royal swordsmanship...' she secretly thought.

Although she couldn't hear them due to the distance she was watching from in fear of being detected by Ashur, she managed to secretly observe the both of them from a distance. Ever since they left their room, and up until they returned, she had been watching them.

And during that time, she managed to witness Ashur's swordsmanship. It was like the wind. Soft and slow like a gentle breeze, yet merciless and violent like a tornado. It changed her entire perception of swordsmanship.

She had witnessed the royal swordsmanship many times before, but when she watched him practice, she started to feel like she was being pricked by needles across her body.

but it couldn't top the illusion of her getting suddenly cut in half by a sword on Ashur's very last slash at the end.

She had broken out in cold sweat from it and checked where she thought she got slashed, but when she checked, everything was perfectly fine.

This made her think that Ashur was not simple!

She couldn't outright say she felt that it was stronger than the royal swordsmanship, as that would be an insult to the royal family. Which, for just saying those words alone, could lead to severe punishment, even her head. So that is why she could only say he was quite skilled. She could only let His Majesty witness it for himself for him to understand.

"Quite skilled with swordsmanship..." Larfal mumbled to himself. "I've been hearing that a lot lately"

Looking back up, Larfal turned his head and asked "Is there anything else?"

"Nothing else Your Majesty" she replied.

She was going to send a report anyways, so she thought that it would be better to not talk about the things in detail, and just put it in the report.

there was also one other thing that she decided not to mention.

she wasn't sure if it was her eyes playing tricks on her or not, but she saw a towel suddenly fly into Ashur's hand, was it a skill? or a trick of the mind? or something else?

"Alright, dismissed"

---------

"Master! Master! Time to wake up"

"Nghh"

"Wake up Master, wake up!!!!"

"Nghh" slowly turning his head, Ashur opened his eyes.

"I thought you were going to wake me up, and call me darling?" he asked. looking over at Ene.

"I don't recall agreeing to such a thing!" shouted Ene.

"Aw, I was really hoping that would work" pouted Ashur.

Looking at pouting Ashur, she couldn't help but think 'Cute' as she looked at him.

It was like a child who got denied a toy, or a child whose prank failed.

"I have a sudden feeling that you are thinking of something offensive" Ashur Suddenly spoke.

"No! That's just your imagination!"

This caused Ashur to cast a suspicious gaze at her.

"Anyways, a maid came and said that you should get ready," said Ene as she changed the subject.

"Right"