Training Swords

"Like Brother said, your perception has only gotten sharper over the years, so don't make such jokes."

"Here's for our father living a thousand more years!" One princess said, raising her glass.

"Cheers!" Everyone said collectively, taking turns clinking glasses, though their behavior didn't satisfy Loyfin, and instead turned the smile on his face back into a slight frown.

Letting out a sigh, Loyfin sat back down into his throne, looking around at his disappointing family, only smiling when his eyes crossed Minos.

With the mood settling back down, the dinner finally came to an end, everyone giving Minos one more congratulations as they slowly filtered out of the room.

Despite wanting to run off and meet his dad as soon as possible, little Minos still took the time to accept everyone's congrats with a smile, letting out a sigh of relief as everyone finally left.

"Little Minos, come here." Lofyin suddenly said from across the room.

"What is it, Grandfather?" Little Minos asked as he stood in front of the imposing figure.

"Take this, I wasn't originally planning to give it to you so early, but this has proven to me that you're far more mature than even I had first expected." Loyfin smiled, handing a small medallion to little Minos.

"What is it?" Little Minos asked curiously.

"It belonged to my brother, he used to carry it around everywhere before he disappeared."

"Great Uncle Nased? Really!" Little Minos said with excitement, his Great Uncle having been his biggest idol since he had grown up hearing about his stories.

"The same one." Loyfin smiled as little Minos slowly inspected the medallion in full.

"Yulda? Who's Yulda?" Little Minos asked, having noticed the name engraved on the back of the medallion.

"That was your Great Uncle's first love, he never quite got over her, maybe she's the reason he disappeared." Loyfin said with a sigh as he looked off in the distance, though his true thoughts were unknown.

"What happened to her?"

"She died of sickness, and I don't think your Great Uncle ever forgave himself for the way he treated her, it was a scar that never left him, so in a way, this medallion became a replacement for her, his most prized possession."

"But what about the Heaven-Sundering Sword? I thought that was his greatest possession?"

"Hahaha, you think the same way I do, in fact I even asked him back in the day what he valued more, but this is exactly what he told me. 'The sword is just a weapon, but this medallion, it is my heart that doesn't beat.'"

"He valued it that much?" Little Minos said with amazement, holding it even tighter as he learned its history.

"I didn't quite understand his obsession either, but love is a confusing thing, try to avoid it if you can." Loyfin replied with a smile, though whether he was joking this time or being serious was a mystery.

"Thank you for the gift, Grandfather." Little Minos said in a deep bow.

"No need for thanks, to be honest, the medallion has no value other than sentimental, it's only as valuable as you feel it is. Anyways, run off back to work, I'm sure you've still got plenty to do today."

"You're right, then take care Grandfather, I'll see you later." Little Minos said before scurrying off, looking down at the medallion as he did so.

As little Minos disappeared and the room completely emptied, Loyfin's smile turned into stillness, his eyes empty as he sat around in the silence, as if consumed by it.

…

"Mom, I'm heading back out to the Rovo store, the owner still has to teach me the intricacies of the business so I can properly operate in my role." Little Minos said.

"Is that necessary? The deal has already been made, just send one of our men out to deal with the rest." Lilia said, feeling like it was a waste of time for little Minos to learn all that extra info.

"Mom, this business isn't small, I still think it's best if I personally take the reins, just to make sure everything goes well."

"Hmm, I suppose you're right. Then go ahead, but just try to be back before the sun sets."

"Okay." Little Minos said happily, before running off to his carriage.

…

Like that, months quickly passed, little Minos coming up with excuse after excuse to meet with Minos, which fortunately, his mother didn't question much.

As the months passed by, the connection between little Minos and Minos deepened, the slight awkwardness at the start having completely dissipated, as if the two had always had never been separated in the start.

Minos had taken to teaching little Minos everything he knew, from talisman's and alchemy, to even his sword-skills, which embarrassingly, were even worse then little Minos's.

After all, Minos had never really trained his sword seriously nor had any teachers, meanwhile little Minos has been trained comprehensively by the finest sword masters in the empire, and given his talent, it was no question his competency.

Minos had gone from teacher to student, little Minos teaching him all the realms that existed within the sword.

"The first realm is called the Rolling Realm, which you call the 'Flowing Realm,' and based on what I've seen, you've already mastered this realm completely."

"After the Rolling Realm comes the Striking Realm, which is where one compresses all the power in their body into a single point, allowing them to explode with extreme strength, multiple times higher then what is normally possible."

"For now, let's focus on the Striking Realm, and once you master it, I'll teach you what comes next." Little Minos said, taking a stance as he slowly explained to Minos how exactly to pull it off.

"This realm requires immaculate control of one's body, which in turn allows one to 'connect' all their muscles into one, like a single spring being compressed to the limit before release."

Standing in front of a tree, little Minos took a deep breath as he held his sword in front of him, before suddenly shooting forward like a star, stabbing his sword right through the tree to the otherside.

While such an attack may not seem that impressive given little Minos's realm, he was only using the strength of a mortal when he made the blow, so one could imagine how terrifying such a strike would be at his full strength.

As he slowly pulled out his sword, the tree stood still for a moment before the the stabbed area ruptured in a loud bang, sending wood chips flying everywhere as the tree collapsed.

"What was that?" Minos asked with some surprise, knowing that the Striking Realm alone wasn't capable of such power.

"You're right, I also used the Infusion Realm, which like the name implies, is where one infuses their energy into the target, allowing it to cause serious internal damage, but I'll teach you that later, for now just focus on the Striking Realm." Little Minos said, passing his sword to his dad before stepping aside.

Finding another tree that was about the same size as the previous one, Minos concentrated for a moment as he gathered his muscles, his breaths deep as he tried to connect them together in a way he had never done before.

For a normal person, such a task would be hard if not impossible, but Minos wasn't normal, not to mention his control of his body had long since reached near perfection.

With the added bonus of his Omniscient Eyes that allowed him to easily mimic anything he's seen while also giving him perfect understanding of his own body, Minos only stood still for a second before releasing, his sword cutting through the core of the tree like a knife through butter.

Seeing his father mastering the Striking Realm in a single attempt, little Minos's mouth couldn't help but slightly gap, but before his surprise could completely set in, something even more shocking happened.

After a second or so of waiting, just like with little Minos's tree, the place where Minos stabbed exploded, causing the large tree to collapse under its own weight.

"H-How!" Little Minos said with shock as he looked at the collapsed tree, his heart not accepting the fact that Minos learned two realms almost instantly.

For as talented as he was, it took him about a month to master these two realms, which was already a new record, even destroying his Grand Uncle's original time.

Yet Minos did it in a single look, not a single lesson, not a single day, not a single week, a single look!

"Where I lack in talent, I make up for in enlightenment." Minos smiled, tossing the sword back to little Minos.

Grabbing the handle instinctively, little Minos was still frozen, finding it hard to accept the fact that his father was so much more intelligent than him.

He already knew his dad was a genius, but in his heart he assumed they were about tied, but now he realized how wrong he was, and just how far he was from comparing to his dad.

"You really are amazing, Dad. Mom always bragged about you, but I thought it was just love speaking, but who knew she only ever underestimated you, never over." Little Minos said with admiration he looked at his father's tall stature, his figure slowly replacing his Grand Uncle as his idol.

"Don't compliment me too much, I'll get arrogant." Minos laughed.

"You should be arrogant! You've earned it!" Little Minos said, not liking his father's humble attitude.

However instead of a light-hearted response, Minos's face went serious for a moment as he slowly walked up to his son, causing little Minos's heart to drop as he realized he may have said something wrong.