He Became Better

You understood very well that Sfen would never become better than you. That wasn’t just an assertion, it was a certainty. You were quite literally built differently. Vara’s tended to become wrapped up in studies. Easily repeatable tasks with rewards that create more tasks and perpetuate the interest in that field. You were different. You had an extremely early shift in drive in the form of a goal to return your brother, Fin, to his home and family. You knew that you would need strength to accomplish this, so the obsessive drive that typically did not transfer into physical pursuits with such inconsistent rewards, and constant barriers to progress that barred most Vara opened itself to you.

The outside goal gave you the attention span to break through most physical barriers by focusing and obsessing solely on knowledge that contributed to your own strength and power. You spent long nights studying different styles of combat and strategies for approaching fighting. You applied them to training and made as-of-yet unknown developments in theory that were, incidentally, collected and published by Sam under a pseudonym for profit. You found new applications and ease-of-access solutions to Soma refinement and the general use of Soma. You couldn’t apply yourself to make asinine left-handedness work, because it simply did not play into your reward and result oriented mindset, but that no longer mattered.

It annoyed you to see how inefficiently Sfen trained, and the directions his own whims took his training left you baffled. So, you began pointing things out, teaching him theory and how to put that into practice. Gradually your attention pulled you towards theory of instruction itself and how to apply skills to others effectively. It annoyed you that there were so many ineffective, non-standardised training methods. You found what worked, combined those concepts and developed a treatise, all while testing these concepts to Sfen first. The moment you found that those skills were able to be effectively applied to someone with some experience, you began wondering how it could be applied to those with zero experience.

You added Jeane and Kara to your training regiment kicking and screaming.

“I- I don’t want to!” Jeane complained loudly as you dragged her to the training grounds for the first time and pushed a sword into her hand. You found that Glasian swords were simply the best for your style of training, so you made sure everyone was going to use them whether they liked it or not.

“I can’t even lift this thing!”

“Good. That’s what I like to hear.” You nodded.

“Hah!?” Jeane glared at you.

“Starting from scratch. This’ll test my theories to their limit. Kara isn’t complaining.”

“Kara is a beastfolk, and an idiot!” Jeane shouted.

“That’s no way to speak to your Master!” You cracked the small riding crop you kept on hand at all times.

“Right Kara?”

“Yes Ma’am!” The fox said happily, performing her obligatory thousand swings for the day. Kara took to the training well. Somehow, she was like a blank slate. It was a good test to see how an untrained individual with no background, but enough enthusiasm could take to it. Through Jeane you could test the opposite. She had no training and hated the idea. So you began looking into how you could indoctrinate and whip unenthusiastic trainees into shape.

“Sfen, keep an eye on Kara. I need to pay personal attention to Jeane, and don’t you DARE shirk your own training. It’ll mess with my data.” The blonde chuckled, walking up to wrap an arm around your waist. You blushed, turned your head and tilted it up to accept a small pack on the lips.

“Of course.” He smacked your rear and set to the task. Your relationship had taken a strange turn. As you focused more and more on training, you realised that you could effectively create a **** that would easily rescue Fin so long as you could make them better than yourself, so long as you could command them. Though that part was more or less unwritten. Teor and Teuta were beginning to take an interest in your methods, and you were building support.

“See you after?” He asked.

“Yes…” You nodded.

“Hm?” He lifted a brow.

“Y-yes ‘dear.’” You reluctantly offered. The byproduct of your new obsession was that Sfen had become greater than you in terms of applied skill, but it was absolutely unquestionable that your knowledge, method and experience had moved on to a new level entirely. Meanwhile, behind the scenes the two of you had begun dating.

“Noble circles in Teor are talking about your methods, ‘Master’ Vara.” Sfen chuckled, leading you by the small of your back. The two of you were nobles and the cat that was your identity had to come out of the bag, as it were. Sam and Marrien were fairly supportive. You downgraded your marriage prospect, but increased your family’s influence in a different way, so it wasn’t exactly a loss, even though you had one huffy third Prince on your hands. You and Sfen attended balls and other official gatherings together as a part of your dating.

“The clueless nobles are talking favourably? That must mean enough positive voices are informing them to like this thing they know nothing about, rather than to hate it.” You rolled your eyes.

“So cynical.” The man smirked, waving at someone he recognised as the doors to the ballroom were opened to you both the moment you approached. You were dressed rather tastefully in something you chose. A long, frilly dress that showed plenty of cleavage and pushed up what little you were working with to make it seem like you had more. It was blue and gold. Cheshire colours. Sfen wore a similarly coloured suit to match your dress. It was a very simple white, with blue and gold accenting around the buttons, sash and shoulder tassels. You both waved and greeted people. In between greetings with interested nobles within the full ballroom you exchanged whispered words.

“If only they knew how you acted behind the scenes.”

“Publicly, dear, I’d whip you for that remark…”

“Privately, I should probably spank you for that remark.” Sfen retorted. You blushed deeply.

“That-” You began, cut short by an unfriendly face approaching.

“Goodness! If it isn’t my ‘former’ fiance…” Ashur, the Third Prince of Reonglas was a short individual. You had heard he was quite fat. You never actually cared, but it seemed like he had gotten very fit very fast. He glared at Sfen through angry emerald eyes. Sfen held you closely in response, offering only a cocky nod in return before giving in to cordiality.

“Greetings, Your Highness, Third Prince.” Sfen bowed.

“Oh shove it!”

“Ashur, are you drunk?” You noticed him slurring his words and wobbling. He looked at you awkwardly and defensively shook his head.

“N-no… Of course not.”

“That means he’s like this all the time?” Sfen offered in a lighter tone. Ashur very suddenly reached for his sword. As he did Jeane and Kara moved in from behind the two of you, blocking the Prince from the two of you. You planted your face in your palm and shook your head.

“Oh god…”

Kara and Jeane had been trained into fighting machines. For Kara, you introduced some beastfolk taming principles that could be applied to almost any beastfolk. For Jeane you had to account for her unique physiology and her demeanour to direct her frustration and indignance elsewhere. Kara wore a simple Teoran Knight’s suit. Red and white and Gold suited her. Over the ensemble she would typically wear a cuirass over it with paulders, legplates and armplates, but for a public event she simply had the red skirt with gold lacing, white stockings and red and gold heels with a stiff red and gold jacket over her upper half. Underneath she wore a white blouse and a golden tie. Jeane wore similar garb, but it was instead set in tones of black and white, with her long hair tied back efficiently.

In keeping with their training, the only got between the two parties, since drawing a sword on a Prince would be a scandal. However, if the Prince drew on them, the scandal would be his, so the situation was effectively diffused with Ashur having to back away for the moment.

“Goodness. I was so scared the poor boy would hurt himself.” Sfen mocked.

“You would’ve crushed him. I’m glad Kara and Jeane stepped in.” You remarked, fanning yourself with a light sigh. You acted differently from how you felt, since it was actually quite charming to you when Sfen was aggressive. He knew this as well, tightening his grip around your waist possessively.

“I wish they didn’t. I can’t stand the thought of you being with that idiot.”

You laughed. “Careful what you say in public.”

He brought you close. “Careful what you say… I might have to make adjustments to your ‘training’, Master Vara.”

“Oh!” Your eyes widened as he pulled you towards the dance floor.

“Let’s dance.”

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this story and want to read more of it, more Chapters are currently available to read at https://www.patreon.com/TVWintergreen I upload new chapters every week day with extra content also being released constantly to my discord for Extra Tier Members."