'It was almost a year, and I never saw a seasons change, but now there is snow.'
It was always perfect temperature outside. Trees and plants were always in full bloom.
About six days ago, snow started falling, painting everything white.
His mother forced him to train on the frozen lake, about kilometer away from mansion.
Goal is for him to adapt to a different terrains.
Anyway, he was currently training with one of the family's main fighters, Maria.
A beautiful woman with long white hair and amber eyes.
She was about 500 years old.
Her muscles were well defined, but she still looked very girlish.
Being at the beginning of Grandmaster rank, also makes her one of the most talented swordswomen in the world.
She was wearing a white-blue dress, not created for fighting.
'She underestimates me, huh?'
Rei was wearing nothing but shorts.
His body already adapted to cold, but he still decided to train his endurance.
"Young Master, Miss Rose ordered to train you today." She said, emotionlessly.
"I understood so much, how is Mei?" His tone was the same.
"Miss Rose took her outside, not to spoil the party."
"Mhm, anyway, let's fight."
It was his first time sparing against someone other then his mother, so he was understandably pretty exited.
He stood in a very flexible position, legs shoulder-width apart, sword straight in front of his face, angled toward his opponent.
From that he can maneuver as much as he wanted.
"Should I go all out?" Rose clearly didn't give her enough instructions.
"At the Master rank is fine."
"Yes." And she disappeared.
Speed of Master swordsman is such, that average human will not be able to perceive their movement with naked eyes.
If we talk about Virtuoso, only people with level equal to Competent will able to make out some of their moves.
Power growth of ranks is exponential and jump between each stage is even bigger.
Thankfully, Rei was not an average human.
Maria was behind him, ready to cut his head off, but was blocked by Rei, who put his sword behind his back.
The force of impact send him sliding, and he used momentum to spin around and face Maria.
And then, he rushed at her head on.
Rei muscles were much stronger then that of even trained adults.
His fast-fiber muscles propelled him with almost unreal speed.
Their wooden swords clashed, but didn't broke.
The force of the impact was redirected to their bodies and ice.
The top layer of frozen lake under their feet broke.
Their swords clashed over and over again.
Wind was created by the impacts, ice broke.
Suddenly Rei did a low deep and trying to strike her leg, but Maria quickly moved backwards.
Rei reacted just as quickly, closing the distance between them in a moment, striking right into her abdomen.
Despite being a genius, Rei still stack at an Expert rank, just below Master.
And so, his hit was parried, and Maria used the force to stabilize herself.
She used the opening to strike his chest, but Rei, still being on the ground, barely parried.
His movement minimal, only enough to evade the sword.
Their fight was more like a dance, no flashy moves, just pure precision.
They took a few steps backward and stared at each other.
No hatred, no annoyance, just calculation and excitement was in their eyes.
"You are absurd, young master." Her voice was filled with disbelief and he even saw happiness in her beautiful eyes.
He was not even a year old, and is already able to fight those at Master level.
"I will count that as a compliment. It is really fun to fight with you, so you know." The crazed grin on his face said it all.
In just that small clash, they were able to understand each other.
'There was a saying, `Only through the clash of steel can true understanding be forged between warriors,` who thought it would be true.'
The weren't fighting with steel, but the meaning is the same.
Rei was always skeptical about that quote, but oh well, everyone makes mistakes.
"I appreciate that, master Rei. Shall we continue?"
She readied her sword for the fight, but Rei has a bit different plans.
"Before that, I always wanted to try something."
At the edge of the lake, cabinet with wooden swords stood.
Currently Rei was using a Jian sword, about 70 centimeters in length.
It was pretty fitting to him, mostly due to his age and height.
But he wanted to try something unusual, he took a short-sword in his other hand.
Dual wielding was something extremely uncommon on Earth.
Humans were not created for multitasking, and could only have one thought at a time.
But Rei's brain was different, he can easily think in parallel.
His body coordination was absurd, and his reaction time was less then a time, needed for humans to blink.
So, dual wielding was a natural step for him.
It may hinder the strength of individual swords, but that were the trade-offs he was willing to take.
"Now, let's begin." He smiled and they both disappeared from their places.
Now that they were serious, the sounds of swords clashing was heard in a few kilometers radius, scaring any animal that was close.
-------------------
Today was Mei's third birthday.
The whole mansion was being decorated, and many nobles started coming to visit.
It was one of the few days when men were allowed to be in Kuroda's family territory.
And it weren't just any nobles.
Earls were pretty common to see, and the dukes themself came to pay respect.
It was just how influential Kuroda family, or to be more precise, Rose, was.
And despite their wish to build connections to the family as soon as possible, the party will only happened tomorrow.
High status nobles were given a place to stay, but unfortunate ones will be sleeping in their carriages.
It was a tradition for a nobles not to use cars on the important events.
Today was the day only for Kuroda family to enjoy.
The mansion was full of balloons and `Happy Birthday` signs.
The room with dining table was especially decorated.
"Kyaa!"
"Uhh, sorry!"
A few incidents happened, but it was inevitable.
Every servant in the household had their hands full.
Be it cooking, decorating, cleaning or working with nobles, everyone was doing something.
Except Rei, who was lazy in bath after training.
"I still lost... But I can feel like I will become a Master soon." He looked at his hands that had dry blood on them.
"Master Rei, you shouldn't push yourself too much!" Saya, who was in a towel right beside him, said worryingly.
"I'm fiiine, don't worry, dear." He was pretty careless with his close ones.
She blushed at his remarks, but her face stayed adamant.
"Y-you even broke your leg today..."
Saya was very passionate about Rei and his wellbeing, he can see her eyes moistening because of his injury.
But he was quick to react and put her head on his chest, patting her hair gently.
"It's fine now, see?"
His injury was pretty bad.
His fibula bone was broke in three places, but after straitening it, his body quicky healed.
"B-but still... Sniff..." She hugged him back.
'My heart! So cute!' "Relax, I won't die when my mother is constantly watching over me."
"...Mhm." She nodded and snugged even closer to him.
Besides his mother, Saya was the one who spent the most time with him.
-------------------
"""HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"""
More than a hundred people shouted at once.
Confetti flying around, balloons getting popped.
Mei, who just walked in the mansion with Rose, was overwhelmed.
"Happy birthday, dear!" Her mother congratulated her as well, picking her up and kissing all over the face.
"Happy birthday, sis!" Rei hugged her tightly.
"W-what? T-thanks?!" One can almost see gears turning and smoke coming from her head.
Rei took out a bracelet, made from expensive, red stones and soft metals, weaved together.
He took Mei's hand and put the bracelet on.
"There, I made it myself!" He smiled, looking at his sisters red face.
"T-thanks brother! It's so pretty!" She speeded right into his hug, lovingly moving her head over his chest, as he stroke her hair.
Rose stood near them, enjoying her children's closeness.
After some time, Mei reluctantly get out of the hug, and Rose gave her a protective necklace as a gift.
"Hehe, thank you mom!"
"C'mon, there is a giant cake waiting for you! It's even bigger than mom!"
He took her hand and started running towards dining room.
"O-okay."
"...What? I'm not big!" Rose protested, but still followed behind with a smile.
It was a day, everyone enjoyed.
Servants got to eat and drink as much as they wanted.
Everyone partied till midnight, some even fallen asleep in the halls of the mansion.
Rei hugged Mei, who had happy smile on her face, and they too started having sweet dreams.
And the cake was indeed massive.