I dashed straight forward, I couldn''t let him fight so passively. Every single time he''d just wait for me to attack.


    I needed to get to him before he could think of a million different ways to humiliate me in front of our teacher.


    I jabbed straight at his chest, even if he tried to redirect my sword I''d be close enough to catch his kick.


    He forced my sword to his left, and I saw his left leg tense up, he was going to extend his leg toward me instead of around to hit me on the side.


    His leg extended, and I got my blade out from under his. I brought the pommel all the way over to where his leg was before I ran straight into it.


    Before I could swing right into his stomach, his blade somehow made it back in front of mine, and the full force of my hit was stopped. He flew across the faux arena but landed perfectly fine on his feet.


    He always loved to gloat about how I could never beat him. Even if he didn''t say a word I could tell that he looked at me like I was an ant. That damn smile every time I would almost get him only to barely fail.


    He was looking down on me. He loved to act like he was the teacher, and meanwhile, he was sucking up to the real one every single chance he got. "Where are you going? When will you come back? I wanted to ask you about-" I want to hit him in the jaw so hard he bites his own tongue off. His voice was so annoying to hear too, it was like all the horrible things came together in the world just to make him, and of course, they put him in the same house I had to stay in.


    "Are you gonna keep standing there?"


    He pointed his sword at me, he wasn''t smiling anymore but I could tell he was about to make fun of me in some other way.


    "I''m going to rip you apart."


    "I don''t know why you get so angry over these matches, he said that if you wanted to get better you needed to actually practice fighting."


    "I don''t need to practice with you, you''re just a coward who can''t attack so you lie back and wait for something to happen. That''s not fighting, you''re basically running away."


    "Well, you keep losing. If you ever did fight someone outside of practice I think you would lose."


    "What do you know?"


    "I know that you think there are rules for how a fight should go, and those rules always support your way of fighting."


    "Yeah, so I''m fighting the correct way and everyone else isn''t."


    "Complaining isn''t going to do anything when you get stabbed by surprise."


    Even his name was horrible. "Koyo." I felt like a snob just thinking about it. I don''t know how he got here, maybe he ran away from his noble family because they didn''t feed him enough grapes.


    I can already imagine how they sound talking to him. "Oh, Koyo, you are most wonderful with the sword! Truly a prodigy!" Every single thing about him was noble. The way he moved his sword. I heard the teacher talk about how he came from Elknid, but I know that only the royals get specific katanas.


    Maybe he just used them so he could get that special little sword. Now he just walks around knowing that he''s better than everyone because he abandoned his royal family.


    They always like to dress up like us, those nobles. They want to pretend that they''re strong and can take on whatever comes, and of course, they copy us to make people believe them. Our speech, our clothes, some of them even took sword styles and completely copied them, then renamed them and acted like they created the sword style.


    I''m still standing here glaring at him and he obviously has to speak again. I''m sure he loves to hear his own voice.


    "Listen, we can stop if you''re just not going to do anything."


    "Really? I didn''t know I could call quits when you just sit there like a cripple."


    "You really want me to attack you? Don''t you remember what happened the first time I did that?"Stolen novel; please report.


    "That was almost two years ago, and you caught me by surprise."


    "You don''t think I''m going to do the same thing?"


    "You can''t catch me by surprise."


    He dashed right at me, I knew he would. He needed to prove that he was better than me in every way.


    He prepared his sword to hit me from the left, which meant that he was feinting there and was actually going to hit me from the right. He got closer, and closer, time was slowing down for me as he was just about to hit me. When was he going to bring his blade around to the other side?


    Closer. His sword was right next to mine. I was still holding it in the middle ready to quickly parry his blow, he still hadn''t brought the sword around.


    Closer. The tip of his blade was at my elbows. Was he aiming for my arms? No, his sword was still aimed at my left. He was waiting too long. Was this a trick?


    Closer. He still didn''t change, the tip of his blade was just about to touch me but it was too late for him to change. I brought my sword over to the left to knock his away from me and counter quicker than he could respond.


    I knocked the sword out of his hands, but it was too easy. It was like he let go of it. I looked back at him and his head was at the same level as my stomach, I saw what he was actually aiming for too late.


    His fist went straight into my stomach and I was knocked back straight into the piles of stones that outlined the faux arena.


    I must have been knocked unconscious, when I woke up I was on one of the couches in the main room of the cottage.


    How did he sneak up on me like that? Why would he just throw away his sword? If it wasn''t me, the hit would''ve done nothing, and he would''ve been killed straight after.


    "Well, he told me that he hit you hard but I didn''t think most of your stomach would turn purple."


    It was the teacher. He was smiling at me, as he always did whenever I lost.


    "Why are you smiling? Shouldn''t you be angry at me for losing again?


    "You always ask questions like that. Do you want me to be a bad person or something? Are you hoping that I smack you so you can say you survived this period of your life?"


    He was speaking way too quickly.


    "Huh?"


    "Nevermind. Walk with me."


    "I can''t move, your star student slammed me into a pile of rocks."


    He stared with a blank face at me for a few seconds.


    "Right, uhhhh, I guess I''ll sit down."


    He pulled up a chair in front of where my head was facing so I could see him. He always tried to comfort me after I lost like I was some wounded puppy.


    It was weird. It didn''t feel like he was talking down to me, and I didn''t hate him for it, but I never got it. I never understood what he thought would happen. Was I supposed to break down and cry so he could hug me?


    I don''t know. I don''t know why I didn''t hate him, it just didn''t feel the same as that noble bastard. I clenched my stomach when I spoke, it felt like I was being crushed by an entire mountain.


    "Well, what do you want to talk about this time?"


    "I don''t know. It''ll come to me eventually."


    "What?"


    "Well, I can''t be expected to know everything. Other than "I hope you get better!" there isn''t much to say to a student who has an extremely large bruise in the middle of his stomach."


    "Fine then, let''s talk about how that bruise got there."


    "Are you going to complain about Koyo again?"


    "Yeah, why wouldn''t I?"


    "Then you know what I''m going to say."


    "Why do you talk like this anyway? Shouldn''t you be some sort of teacher? Why don''t you act like it?"


    "What do you mean by "act like a teacher"? I teach you things don''t I?"


    "You talk like me."


    "Well, I think that makes me a good teacher. Do you want me to talk like I''m some pretentious professor who thinks you''re not worth his time?"


    "No, but-"


    "I do inquire, young lad, what could ever inspire you to chase such a foolish path as to challenge a pupil you have suffered defeat at the hands of time and time-"


    "Alright, I get it."


    "Well then, what do you want to talk about that isn''t complaining about Koyo."


    "Nothing."


    "Erik, you''re not going to get anything out of me. Do you want me to agree with you? Do you think I''m going to talk poorly about him?"


    "A good teacher sees the faults in his students."


    "A good teacher doesn''t talk to students about other students. Also what''s with that-"


    "So you just want me to talk about myself."


    "Yes."


    "Well, I don''t want to do that."


    He stood up and waved his arms around.


    "Why not? Every time you get beaten by him you''re not willing to do what it takes to improve."


    "How is talking about myself going to make me better with my sword?"


    "I told you that on the first day."


    "No, on the first day, you told me that I would never be able to beat him."


    "That''s right I did say that. But on the second day-"


    "You said I should give up hope with the sword."


    "Alright listen you were a pretty rough kid, and I was trying to see what sort of method would get you to change. I know now that you''re too stubborn to believe anyone when they tell you what you''re doing is wrong."


    "So what was this thing that you said to me explaining why I should talk about myself?"


    "I thought I told you that talking about yourself is the first step of actually improving."


    "I don''t remember that."


    "Well, I said it. Listen, every expert swordsman would kill to know exactly what they are doing wrong, but the problem is there are very few people who can actually tell. Even if they were told what their mistakes were, their egos would prevent them from actually listening."


    He sat back down in the chair.


    "If you find that answer yourself, even if it''s by, I don''t know, talking about how the food you had for breakfast was bad, it''s more likely that you''re actually going to learn. You clearly don''t want to listen to me, so take a guess at why I want you to talk about yourself."


    I didn''t talk at all, I just sat there and stared at him.


    "I''m going to go out to where he set up the dummy and see what he''s doing. I''ll be waiting for you when you''re ready to actually talk."


    He opened the door to the yard and walked out without saying another word.