If you asked him, Selim would say he knew two things in this world best: the perfect disguise and his master Erhan.
Ever since Erhan turned five, Selim was assigned to serve him by the Housemaster. At first the job seemed quite demanding due to the young master's frailty and somewhat bombastic personality, but Selim came to view Erhan as a younger brother.
Alas. These past few days, his master has been behaving strangely.
He no longer woke up or slept late, nor did he actively seek his father. He also did not yell to him about sword techniques used by heroes long gone, or attempt unusual remedies to cure his frail body.
Most puzzlingly, and alarmingly was that one morning where everything went wrong. He noticed that the servant brought meat pastries, which the young master hated, but he ate them.
Erhan Liethardis ate two whole meat pastries with a rosy expression, as if he did not just chastise the servant yesterday for bringing him meat instead of fruit pastries!
And as of today, he had requested specifically meat-based dishes for two weeks in a row, eating them until he couldn't take them anymore.
For the first time in nine years, Selim felt lost.
---
Two weeks had past since then, but Hirofumi's plans already had holes in them.
Firstly, this body's weakness is simply unbelievable. After doing school P.E. exercises everyday for hours on end, it still hadn't improved. At least his sleep cycle was on track.
This made accomplishing the second goal difficult: fulfilling the original Erhan's dreams. Since he had already called off enrolling in Arzine Academy, Hirofumi planned to fulfill the boy's biggest wish – that is, becoming a swordsman, or at least proficient in swordfighting.
With this body, Hirofumi wasn't at all surprised that he never even got to wield a sword.
Hirofumi had confidence in this aspect in regards to knowledge. In fact, he had been a kendo champion throughout middle and high school, before quitting temporarily to focus on academics.
He sighed. 'If only I could get my hands on a sword…'
While Hirofumi heavily doubted that he could wield a normal, metal sword, he felt that at least a wooden practice sword was doable.
"Selim!"
Selim hurriedly entered the room. "Yes, Young Master?"
"Can you get me a sword?"
"I am sorry, Young Master, but I must deny your request."
Hirofumi's eyes dropped. "Why?"
Selim looked towards Erhan with perplexed eyes. "The Duke has prohibited you from any kind of weapons after that incident last year…"
Hirofumi creased his eyes. 'Incident?'
'Ah!'
A foggy sliver of memory emerged in Hirofumi's head – of Erhan attempting to wield a sword and nearly killing himself in the process.
'Seriously, this stupid boy…!'
"Not even a wooden sword?" Hirofumi asked, eyes expectant.
"I'm afraid not."
Unexpectedly, Hirofumi found his plans attacked from all sides.
---
That night, Hirofumi couldn't sleep, his whole mind focused on devising a new plan.
Eventually, he gave up. He couldn't touch even a knife without the Duke's permission, let alone a sword. Hirofumi had to think of other ways to practice, at least until he could get his hands on a proper sword.
Hirofumi tilted his body right, facing the window where the full moon shone brightly through. It was dark, but he could see silhouettes of trees and torches placed on the walls.
Trees?
'Maybe I could use fallen branches…?'
'But how do I get them?'
He looked towards the window again.
'Eh, it's probably reckless to do it… but who cares.'
Hirofumi sat up on the bed, and for a while locked his eyes on the door, detecting any sounds or movement. Determining the situation to be safe, he carefully climbed out of the bed and walked in the dark room towards the window.
His legs wobbled a little, slowing his speed.
Fortunately, there was a bit of space before the windowsill which he could climb on, albeit exhaustingly.
Slowly, he opened the window and looked down. Fortunately, the gap to the floor wasn't too wide, but his weak legs might find it troublesome.
Luckily, they made it, and Hirofumi closed the windows to make it seem fully closed, but with a way to open it from outside.
The cool night breeze swept over his body, while the bright full moon cast a silver light over the green grass. It felt unexpectedly refreshing, compared to being cooped up in a room all the time.
'I should do this more often.'
He smiled, while stealthily walking over to the tree. It was quite dark when walking under the tree's shade, since the leaves blocked the moonlight.
In the darkness, Hirofumi's eyes successfully located a suitable piece of branch. It was relatively straight, and had a suitable length. Excited, he picked it up and swung it around.
Only, his lacking arm strength hampered his ability to properly swing it. His shoulders drooped. Looking around, he spotted a path covered by leaves leading out of this little forest.
Curious, Hirofumi followed the path, with the branch in his hands.
The leaves made loud creaking sounds as he walked, so he made lighter steps. Eventually, he reached an irregularly-shaped hole in the wall. He hesitated a bit, looking out, but couldn't see anything.
'Should I really go…?'
In the end, he crossed over anyways. Walking further while making sure to not lose his path, a small hut came into view, right at the entrance of the forest.
It looked abandoned, but not yet dilapidated. It just needed a bit of cleaning up.
The area behind the hut was spacious and quite well-lit, since the trees seemed to avoid that specific spot.
He smiled. "Wow. How convenient."
He looked back at the hut and a mischevious idea emerged in his mind.
"Let's turn this into a training ground!"
Leaving the branch near the hut hoping it wouldn't get lost, Hirofumi returned to his room covertly with a clear mind and body.
He slept well that night.
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