Rivers of the Night

Theron sat on the edge of a bed. Behind him, Malaya kneeled silently in a nightgown, tightening bandages around him. Though he hadn’t asked her to do this, she seemed insistent, so he could only oblige in the end.

After making sure that the bandages weren’t going anywhere for the third time, Malaya found herself looking at the parts of Theron’s back that were still exposed…

If you could call it that.

There didn’t seem to be a single region that could be classified as normal skin at all. Thin lines and scars covered him, some healed, some not quite, and then there was the largest of them all on his chest.

Usually, she would be embarrassed in a situation like this one, but it was hard to be when she couldn’t take her eyes off of them.

What could a 14-year-old have possibly gone through to put his body in such a state? And how was he still going?

But then she thought back to the gaping wound she had just stitched together. Maybe today was just far from the first time he had done such a thing.

Theron hadn’t even made a single sound, his gaze intently focused on something, or on nothing at all. It was hard to tell from her vantage point.

"Okay," Malaya said lightly.

She laid down on the bed and closed her eyes as though waiting for something. But Theron continued to sit on the edge of the bed, still absent-minded.

Malaya’s eyes slowly opened, and she peeked over. Suddenly, she started blushing again. She couldn’t possibly be the one to initiate, right? She had spent so long drilling herself to prepare for this moment, but all of those scenarios involved Theron pouncing.

Though, to be fair, maybe she had twisted his image in her mind a little bit too much.

"You can go to bed," Theron said after a while. "I still have something to think through."

The light voice came with hints of reprieve from Malaya as Theron stood, the lean cuts of his back rippling slightly beneath the dim lights.

His steps hesitated for a moment, and then he looked back.

"You also don’t have to worry about this. I’m sure whether this happens or not is irrelevant to what others would think happened tonight. But the world is large. With how much your father and brother love you, I doubt they would ask you to have a child any time soon."

Malaya blinked, not quite understanding for a while. It wasn’t until Theron was about to vanish to the training room connected to their wedding chambers that it clicked for her.

He was saying that even if the people of the Nightingale Province knew that she was a married woman now, there were plenty of other Provinces in the world. So long as her innocence was intact, if there was an opportunity one day…

She could go wherever she wanted and start a new life without any of this baggage.

"Theron—" Malaya called out before she could even properly think through what she was about to ask.

"Yes?" Theron looked back.

Malaya had turned red before, but right now she might as well have been the sun at dusk. It looked like her blood pressure might start bursting out from her pores.

"Have you… um… done… this? Before?"

Theron met her gaze for a while, and for some reason Malaya found herself calming down.

"I wouldn’t allow myself to have any weaknesses."

After saying this, Theron left the room and entered the training chambers.

Malaya lay on the bed, the silky threads wrapping around her.

She half wanted to laugh at herself, and half felt a deep sense of emptiness.

Maybe it was naive, but she had always hoped that she and her husband would share their first time together. But Theron’s response…

A single tear fell down her cheek.

That night, she wasn’t sure when she fell asleep.

**

Theron stood in probably the best training room he had ever seen in his life, and these were just the accommodations of an Earl Clan. How much better were they elsewhere?

The training facilities of the Imperial Academy, even as a branch, certainly stacked up. But the trouble was that the only time you could use them for free was ironically during Exams. Otherwise, you needed money.

The personal training room Theron had in his dorm was extremely barebones, and that was after proving himself to be a worthy student.

In this world, without noble status, there were truly very few things that you could accomplish.

But he would forge his own path.

Holding up his dagger and short sword, Theron could feel how dull they had become after so many battles. He had experienced this many times with the daggers he carried. But this was the first time he was experiencing something like this with his other blade.

The fire for his father’s sword only burned brighter.

He pressed it down.

Today… he had made a large advancement, and he might have even somewhat touched onto the secrets that might be in the necklace that hung from his neck.

He had said it before, but after learning [Songful Blade], he felt a connection between his Mana of Life and his blade for the first time. But he had felt that the method was crude… because it was far inferior to what he had felt when he controlled the blood of his body.

Mana of Life wasn’t a specific sort of Mana, but rather referred to the Mana rooted in the body. It could come in many forms, but amongst them, Water Mana was one of the most abundant.

At least 60 to even upwards of 75% of the human body was formed of water.

With [Songful Blade] as a catalyst, Theron realized that if he could reach an Imbued Resonance with the Water Mana in his body, he would be able to channel that Resonance into his weapons.

The result was a blade style that embodied water itself.

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