After-effects

The fresh morning light had greeted the land. Rays of sunlight danced all over the place, bathing the Winford's mansion and the surrounding area with its dazzling golden color. It was spectacular how darkness still reigned just a moment ago, only to be pushed away swiftly by the giant red disk's might.

On the vast practice field, two people could be seen exchanging blows. It was still quite early in the morning, yet all the knights presented all looked energized. Their cheeks were even slightly red from the earlier morning exercises.

All of their attention was focused on the two people – one of them was a middle-aged man and the other was a little girl. The man's hair was slightly gray due to his age. Combined with his everlasting stiff expression, it wasn't hard for one to conclude that he was quite a harsh person.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

The two's swords kept on colliding. While their 'audiences' were fascinated by the young girl's serious expression and swift actions, the old knight did not look satisfied.

Nor did the blond knight standing in front of the crowd. Both were frowning, but for different reasons.

Clang.

The two swords collided again as the young girl aimed towards the man's rib cage. Not only him, but the knights around them also flinched. If the old knight did not stop the strike, his right liver could have been heavily injured, even to the point of incapacitating the man.

'Perhaps the lady was unaware of it?' was their thoughts. There was no way their sweet young lady, someone who had always treated them well and brought them her handmade honey lemonade, would aim specifically for something so cruel.

She must have aimed at the chest, like how duels should be. However, she was still too small, so it ended up reaching that vital point. Their lady was new to swordsmanship, after all.

However, it was clear that the old knight did not possess such a forgiving mind as the young ones. For a second, he was mad at what he considered a 'dirty act'.

To him, her strike was too decisive and accurate to be coincidental. The old knight was someone that upheld swordsmanship dignity by heart.

He was mad, angry, and furious.

Swoosh.

As if forgotten that the duel was supposed to be a practice session between a teacher and his pupil, the old man's actions sped up. With swift actions, he twisted his blade lightly counter-clockwise. The two blades intertwined before the girl's sword was pulled out of her hand.

Clang.

The sword fell onto the ground not too far from them with a swing and was nailed to the ground, but the old knight did not stop there.

His blade's tip pointed towards the lady's throat, as always, with the intention to declare her defeat. The old knight could sense that the young lady was not her usual self today, so he needed to stop the duel before his short-tempered attribute got ahold of him.

The man was not suitable to be a noble's swordsmanship teacher. All he wanted was to serve the duke. He tried denying the position, but the duchess did not let him.

Swish.

However, both the surrounding knights and the old knight himself were given another surprise.

Instead of sighing and regaining her usual smile, the young girl quickly avoided the sword by, you know it, squatting down on her feet.

The crowd gasped silently while the frown on the blonde's face deepened.

With one foot keeping herself balanced, the girl swung the other one and aimed it at the knight's legs. They could even hear the sound of the winds along with her swing.

The knight instructor was furious. He could not tolerate such inelegant and dirty acts any longer. In his short moment of irrationality, his blade headed towards the still squatting lady.

Swish.

He regretted it right after that. However, the swing carried too much pressure and it could not be stopped midway. There were only two ways – either reduce the impact by changing its direction slightly, which meant the lady would get hurt, or have someone stop his strike with brute force.

But he was the veteran here. How many amongst the audience would have enough capability to not only react in time, but also stop him?

"Watch out!" a servant who was carrying the newly-washed bedsheets and just happened to pass by could not help but shout.

"Sir Wallace!" the surrounding knights and squires also shouted.

Sir Wallace gritted his teeth and changed the direction of the sword from aiming at the lady's neck to her right shoulder. This would at least reduce the impact, but that did not mean their lady would remain unharmed.

..

Clang!

Just as he was switching the blades, another one came in immediately from behind the young girl and stopped the knight's blade's advance. The old knight's eyes lit up as he continued to pull the sword back with the other's help.

The two shook violently due to the impact. Fortunately, both knights succeeded in keeping the swords still due to the old's experience and young's talent.

The previously loud and tense atmosphere turned silent all of a sudden. They knew this young blonde man had talent, but they did not know his reaction was also top-notched.

On top of that, seeing is believing.

"Are you unharmed, my lady?" the young knight, Samuel, casually broke the silence as if he did not care about how people were sending him gazes full of admiration. "Please refrain yourself, Sir Wallace."

"…I'm good." After a brief silence, Adelaide stood up slowly and answered.

She had a bad habit.

She would not act like how she should be if she was too exhausted. It took her plenty of time and effort to fix this habit back on Earth, but Adelaide had no room of subconsciousness in her past life, nor did she kill anyone.

In short, her six-year-old body was not only mentally and physically tired from all the excessive work that the stepmother put on her in the name of 'fostering talents', but also sleep-deprived and after-shock from committing murder for the first time.

'Fuck, I need a rest so bad.'

Turned out, killing people with bare hands did left a bad effect on her. Adelaide thought she would sleep immediately like a pig after teleporting back home all tired and weary, but what greeted her was a night without a wink.

Brains really worked wonders. She felt like the small pieces of the three bastards' organs and blood was still in her fingernails and crawled beneath her skin like worms despite her washing them multiple times to the point of her hands turning red.

'Bad habits are like addictives. You can relapse pretty easy.'

"My apologies, Sir Wallace." Adelaide raised her head and tried to be as sincere as possible after taking a deep breath. "I'm not feeling myself today."

She did not want to be lectured by the old knight any longer. Not only the short-tempered instructor was briefly consumed by irrationality, but Adelaide was also no different. Once she was annoyed and felt under the weather, her real blunt self tend to get out.

"…I understand, my lady."

Sir Wallace was a veteran knight originated from a fallen noble family. To him, Adelaide's acts would anger the nobles if she did that in a duel. It was not 'fair, elegant, or dignified' like how noble duels should be.

However, the young lady did not look well, so Sir Wallace decided to shut his mouth even though he was still very displeased. Another reason was that her personal guard and newly-appointed knight, Samuel, was glaring at him.

"You should take a day off, my lady." Samuel squatted down and put one of his hands on Adelaide's forehead. She was not burning hot with a fever, but her complexion did not look good.

"I really should." Adelaide sighed.

If she were to continue her day like this, who knows when she would act up all grumpy again? Adelaide could not risk losing what she had built. It had always been easier to destroy human relationships than to build them.

Fortunately, Adelaide did not care much about the previous incident with Wallace. He was an old knight who swore loyalty to the duke and was a devout follower. Therefore, his point of view regarding her was not that different from how the duke perceived her.

'Of course he must think like that when his object of devotion blabbers bullshit about me all day.'

Her thoughts were confirmed after seeing Sir Wallace's expression. He was frowning while looking at the two of them.

"Then I'll excuse myself, young lady." With a quick bow, the old knight turned away and walked towards the main mansion's office. As someone in charge of Duke Charles' security, he needed to be there on time.

He would definitely tell the duke about how she was slacking off when Independence Day was drawing closer, but Adelaide could not care less.

She would get rid of the thin veil of fake harmony soon enough.

"Tell Mila to report to mother. I'm taking a day off." Adelaide's eyes turned weary after sending the old instructor off.

"Yes. Let me escort you to your room…"

"My lady!"

Just then, a brunette could be seen running towards them.

It was Mila, Adelaide's personal maid. Her face spelled worry, and Adelaide did not like that look.

Fortunately, it did not seem like anything extremely bad had happened. Unfortunately, Adelaide was so tired and annoyed that it was hard for her to keep the six-year-old façade for her long-term plan.

She felt a headache coming again.

'Fuck. What now?'