Chapter 13 : secret friend

The sound of clashing swords echoed across a spacious training room.

Kiba kept swinging his sword at Richard, who effortlessly dodged each strike by simply leaning or stepping back.

"Keep swinging. Don't stop moving. Always stay in motion—even if your opponent tries to catch you off guard, you must never stop," Richard said sternly, leaning to avoid another slash from Kiba.

"Yes, sir," Kiba replied, continuing his relentless attacks.

"Too many openings," Richard muttered as he spun around and tapped Kiba lightly on the side, then shouted,

"If this were a real battle, I would've killed you a hundred times already. Move your feet faster!"

Richard constantly moved around, dodging while occasionally poking at Kiba's vital points.

Kiba gritted his teeth as Richard kept touching sensitive parts of his body—his ribs, hips, neck, even his chest, where the heart is. These were all lethal areas in a real fight. Truly, if this were a serious battle, Richard would've had hundreds of chances to kill him.

"Damn it, you're slowing down. Move!" Richard yelled again when he noticed Kiba's speed decreasing.

"Yes, sir!" Kiba responded, pushing himself to move even faster.

From afar, Asia and Kalawarner were watching the training session—it was also their first time discovering such a large training room underneath their house.

"Richard-sama looks so serious when he's training him," Kalawarner said while trying to memorize how Richard trained Kiba. She wanted to become stronger too.

"A-ano… Kiba-san is a devil, right? Why is Richard-san training him like that?" Asia asked curiously. She didn't think Richard had any connection to the rulers of Kuoh.

"I'm not sure. Richard-sama clearly has no ties to the Gremory family. Maybe he's training that boy for another reason…"

To understand why Richard was training Kiba, we need to go back to the day before, when the two first met.

After hearing Kiba's past, Richard came up with an idea—or more accurately, a future plan.

However, when Kiba spoke of his hatred for Excalibur and his goal to destroy it for revenge…

…

Upon hearing that, Richard couldn't help but laugh, which angered Kiba, who thought Richard was mocking his painful past.

Kiba lost his temper, grabbed Richard by the collar, and raised his fist to punch him—but quickly calmed down, realizing Richard was just an ordinary person.

Yet, a sharp pain and a wave of fear surged within him when he saw Richard's pen pressed against his neck—blood was already dripping.

What confused Kiba the most wasn't the threat—but how a simple pencil could actually injure him.

It frightened him to realize that Richard could've killed him if he wanted to.

"Calm down, buddy. I wasn't laughing at your misfortune~," Richard said cheerfully, catching Kiba's attention.

"I was laughing at how dumb your reason for revenge is."

Kiba frowned and let go of Richard's collar—clearly not wanting his throat stabbed by a pencil.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Excalibur did nothing wrong. It's just a holy sword. Why are you blaming it for your suffering?" Richard asked.

"Because of it, I was treated like a lab rat. Because of it, my friends died," Kiba replied.

"Bro… You really think that makes sense? Sounds ridiculous to me. I'd understand if you wanted revenge on the people behind that project."

"Of course I want to kill those people too," Kiba said with resolve.

"With what strength though? You're weak," Richard said with a scoff and continued,

"You think destroying Excalibur will fix everything? If you want, I'll let you destroy one."

Before Kiba could argue, the pencil in Richard's hand glowed and slowly transformed into a beautifully decorated sword.

"This is…"

Kiba's devil instincts screamed in fear at the holy sword before him.

"Excalibur. Go on, destroy it," Richard said, offering the sword to Kiba, who instinctively stepped back—knowing devils aren't meant to touch holy swords. He glared at Richard.

"Are you from the Church?" Kiba growled in frustration. He knew he couldn't defeat Richard and wanted to return to report to Rias, but a barrier had already surrounded the house.

"Nah, not from the Church," Richard shrugged and continued,

"This isn't the Excalibur you know. This is my Excalibur. Hmm… I'll call it True Excalibur."

"Sacred Gear?" Kiba asked bitterly. He thought Richard had a Sacred Gear like his own—except instead of a demonic sword, it produced Excalibur.

That made him even more bitter—he and his friends had suffered through countless experiments, and now here was a guy who could turn a pencil into Excalibur.

"You can think of it that way. But think back to what I said earlier—these swords did nothing to you. They're innocent. The only ones responsible for those tragedies were the hypocrites from the Church," Richard said.

"Then… what should I do?" Kiba asked, somewhat broken. He had spent his whole life hating Excalibur, and now someone was telling him the swords weren't to blame.

"Use your weakness and thirst for revenge as fuel. Use your past to rebuild your future," Richard said.

"…Use the past to rebuild the future," Kiba mumbled, repeating Richard's words.

"I see potential in you," Richard said, resting his chin on his hand, watching as Kiba clenched his fists in silent resolve.

"Do you want me to help you get stronger? I will help you."

"I do… but what do you want in return?" Kiba asked. He knew no one helped others for free.

"Not much. I'll just need your strength someday."

"But I'm loyal only to Rias-sama," Kiba said, thinking Richard was trying to recruit him or something.

"Relax. I'm not asking you to betray your little mistress. And I won't force you to do anything against your will either," Richard said, his face serious as he studied Kiba's reaction.

"So, what do you say? Wanna be my secret friend ?"

Author's Note:

I think many people might feel like the MC doesn't have a clear plan or goal. I won't spoil anything, but trust me—he does have a plan to overthrow the political system of the devils. Sounds a bit silly, I know, but I've laid out a detailed and reasonable plan for it. Rias will be involved in the plan too, but I don't hate her. She's just going to be slightly used, that's all.As you've seen so far, I've written Rias with a pretty good personality. I don't hate her and I'm not going to change her character or insult her like some other fanfics.She's just a teenage girl—so let's not be too harsh on her.

Also, if you're curious about what the MC did while he was still part of Vali's team, he actually did quite a lot. You'll learn about it through other secrets revealed later, because Kiba isn't the MC's first secret friend.