Sister Snatching Battle

Thanks to the thickheaded Garen, Lux temporarily forgot her little troubles and finally got a good night's sleep.

The next day, when Sona visited Crown Guard Manor under the pretext of paying a return visit, Karya's illegal little class finally resumed. With Sona as cover, they no longer needed to put out a book on etiquette or history. Instead, they conducted their lessons through musical exchange.

Lux's lessons continued as usual.

Sona's lessons, meanwhile, required combining playing music with spellcasting.

Thus, Karya first had to teach Sona music theory and guide her piano practice like a music teacher, then fill her head with magical knowledge.

Under these circumstances, the two inevitably interfered with each other somewhat. Even if Karya could barely manage to multitask, the effectiveness of his teaching would still suffer.

Fortunately, as an experienced teacher, Karya had plenty of experience in this area. Although the magical knowledge and techniques the two needed to master were not the same, the knowledge they needed to understand other people's magic was identical.

Using this method, Karya divided his lessons into major classes that could be taught to them together and minor classes for each of them individually. The parts of the minor classes that required playing music could be practiced in the garden while Lux exercised.

And so, Karya's "shepherd's life" finally began in earnest.

After spending an excited night and finally becoming Master Karya's student, Sona discovered in bewilderment that things seemed completely different from what she had imagined.

Karya's musical accomplishments were extraordinarily high. Through Aihua, he could easily answer almost every question Sona asked, and he even took the initiative to teach her many special fingering techniques. Everything seemed perfectly normal.

But outside the realm of knowledge, wasn't Master Karya's choice of words and phrasing a little too sharp?

At first, kind and gentle Sona comforted herself by thinking that Master Karya was simply exceptionally gifted, and therefore had higher standards.

But when the major classes began, she realized that Karya spoke in that tone about everything. Sona felt the master's image beginning to collapse in her heart.

"Some people foolishly believe that magic is mysticism, that magic should be unfathomable. That sort of belief and behavior is as dogmatic and ignorant as seeing something yellow and assuming it's gold. People like that might even hold a lump of shit in their arms and refuse to let go."

The terrible analogy left Sona staring blankly.

"Mysticism does have its own merits in certain areas, especially for those rats who like using curses. To achieve a goal beyond their abilities, they often desperately weave curses, but because their own abilities are insufficient, they have no choice but to leave a weak flaw in that special curse magic. In such circumstances, mysticism can make up for those laughable flaws."

The terrible example made the light leave Sona's eyes.

"Still, who among respectable people uses curses? If you see a mysterious, furtive mage in the future, you can treat them all as rats. Yes, that's what I said. And if your own stupidity and carelessness result in you being afflicted by such a curse, then I can only regard it as you being bitten by a rat. Tsk, tsk, tsk. How embarrassing."

For the first time in her life, Sona wanted to roll her eyes.

"Of course, I think anyone who has received a proper mage's education shouldn't get bitten by a rat, right?"

Hearing about rats again, Sona finally sighed helplessly. She suddenly regretted this.

She really had been too naive. Could someone like this truly be called a master?

"..."

"..."

When noon arrived, Sona was invited to Crown Guard Manor's dining room to have lunch with Lux. She then secretly took Lux's hand and asked a question that nearly made Lux laugh aloud on the spot.

"Has Master Karya always been this irritable?"

"No, Karya isn't irritable now." Lux quickly released her grip on her sword hilt and answered, "When you can't answer his questions during evening study, you'll understand what true irritability is."

Hearing this, Sona suddenly felt fortunate that she had to go home that evening and wouldn't be staying for evening study.

In reality, Karya wasn't as irritable as Sona thought.

Back when he was still an Ascended, Karya had actually been very refined and amiable. Although the black-hearted scheming beneath that refined exterior had been enough to overwhelm anyone, at least in his students' eyes, Professor Karya had always been a courteous and graceful man.

But after becoming a Darkin, everything changed.

Once Karya had a body, it was eroded by Void energy, which then affected his mental state. Even without a body, as long as Karya's consciousness awakened, he still had to face immense pressure.

Under such circumstances, speaking like an irritable old brother was also a special form of release. It helped Karya ease the pressure a little and ensured that he could remain calm while thinking.

Fortunately, both Lux and Sona were good-natured girls. Lux's talent made that obvious—she was practically blindingly bright. Sona, meanwhile, was gentle and kind. She silently tolerated Karya's irritable remarks and extracted the useful information from them. Thus, once they adapted to Karya's unusual teaching methods, their progress could only be described as advancing by leaps and bounds.

To outsiders, Lux and Sona were best friends. They read together, practiced music together, and attended banquets together.

In reality, they were both inside the Mage Front Alliance, absorbing Karya's seemingly endless knowledge and developing in multiple fields at an astonishing speed.

Besides spellcasting, Lux had made tremendous progress in swordsmanship. Although Sona did not study swordsmanship, she learned a vast amount of music theory, noble etiquette, and even natural history from Karya.

With Karya as her personal system, Lux's conduct and manners perfectly matched the model of a Demacian noble.

Although Sona did not have Karya to guide her etiquette, she did not need to speak in the first place. Moreover, she had solidly studied Demacian etiquette, so she was likewise an elegant and graceful noble young lady.

And so, these two girls went from being "praised for their friendship" to becoming "the children and friends everyone else wished they had," turning into paragons that made countless people grit their teeth.

However, besides being jealous of their excellence, another person also gritted her teeth over Lux and Sona. What displeased her was not their perfect images, but the intimacy between them.

That person was Sona's younger sister, another daughter of the Buweier family—Kahina.

In truth, when Sona had been adopted by the Buweier family, besides political considerations and Lestara Buweier's fondness for Sona, Kahina had also played a crucial role.

Ever since she could remember, Kahina had desperately wanted an older sister to keep her company. Her father, Barrett, was Jiawen III's close friend and adviser, while her mother was a senior administrator of the Illuminators. Her life had been extremely lonely from an early age.

Although many people were willing to flatter and praise her, that was never what Kahina lacked. What she lacked was sincere companionship and patient listening.

Thus, when the family had decided to adopt Sona, Kahina had been the first to raise her hand and vote. She did not care about her inheritance rights. She simply wanted someone to accompany her.

The facts proved that Sona was exactly the kind of older sister Kahina had wanted. She was gentle and kind. She would prepare hot water after Kahina's training, massage her and offer advice while listening to her ramble about training going badly, cover for her when she got into trouble, and eat with her when their parents were busy with work...

But!

Why was her sister spending most of her time with Lux of the Crown Guard family?!

Kahina had actually admired Lux at first.

Kahina herself could never quite get the hang of etiquette. As the heir to the Buweier family, she needed to train in martial arts and inherit her father's military position in the future. Thus, like most people who served in the army, she was not particularly skilled at etiquette or socializing.

So when Sona first went to exchange music with Lux and study etiquette, Kahina had been completely in favor of it.

She would train in martial arts, her sister would study etiquette, and they would both have bright futures.

However, when Karya began giving surprise tests from time to time and Sona occasionally joined evening study, Kahina finally sensed that something was wrong.

After carefully calculating, how had her sister spent more time with Lux than with her?!

Was that reasonable?

Obviously, it wasn't!

Thus, whenever someone praised the friendship between Lux and Sona and referred to them together, Kahina would grit her teeth.

Damn it, that was her sister!

Didn't Lux have an older brother of her own?!

Sensitive by nature, Sona quickly noticed her younger sister's bad mood. She tried to devote more attention to Kahina and better fulfill her duties as an older sister. Unfortunately, once Kahina began treating Lux as an "enemy," this only ended up provoking the little girl further.

As it turned out, even an eight-year-old girl could get jealous.

Although Kahina was indignant, she was not the sort of brat who would run to Crown Guard Manor and cause a scene. After thinking it over for a long time, she decided to go cause trouble for Garen instead. Your sister stole my sister, so I came to deal with you. That's perfectly reasonable, right?

And so, one day after training, Garen encountered an unexpected challenge on his way home.

"Crown Guard family's Garen!" Carrying a small round shield and short sword and wearing a full suit of armor, Kahina had used picking up her sister as an excuse to arrive outside Crown Guard Manor early. She then successfully blocked Garen as he returned. "I challenge you!"

"Oh?" Garen instantly grew excited. "Who are you? Have you also heard the name of [the future Power of Demacia]?"

"The future Power of Demacia?" Kahina, who had arrived full of aggression, froze slightly at the title. "What's that?"

"I've already decided. I want to become the Power of Demacia acknowledged by everyone!" Garen raised his greatsword high. "But I haven't finished my training yet, so before then, I'm [the future Power of Demacia]. Wait, you haven't heard of me? Then why are you challenging me?"

"I..."

Kahina blinked. Realizing that she had no better reason to challenge him, she simply followed Garen's lead. "Hmph. I refuse to accept it. So what?"

"Ah-ha! Then I'll be taking the first step toward becoming the Power of Demacia!" Garen struck a pose that showed off his biceps. "Come, my first challenger. State your name!"

"The person who's about to defeat you is called Kahina!" The little girl tapped the round shield in her right hand with the short sword in her left. "Remember that!"

"Got it!"

Garen excitedly tossed aside his scabbard and strode forward.

Although Kahina was a full four years younger than Garen, girls developed earlier, so she was only half a head shorter than him. Furthermore, Garen had no idea which members belonged to the Buweier family and failed to notice the subtle difference in pronunciation between Kahina and Kahino. Thus, he had no idea that the challenger standing before him was a girl.

The guards from the Crown Guard and Buweier families nearby had never imagined that Garen would actually attack. By the time they saw him start charging and tried to intervene, it was already too late.

The next moment, accompanied by a roar of "Deceitful villains, justice will prevail!" Garen raised his greatsword high and brought it down with all his strength.

A grating metallic clang struck their eardrums. Kahina, in a sword-and-shield defensive stance, was knocked down by a single blow. Faced with the astonishing difference in strength, she not only failed to hold on to her shield but could barely keep her balance.

Fortunately, twelve-year-old Garen could not truly cleave through armor.

Thus, when Kahina was helped up, she was actually fine. Having trained since the age of six, taking a blow from a slash beyond her ability to withstand had only left her with a slightly bruised arm. That was nothing to her.

However, Kahina had never suffered treatment like this before and had no idea how to take a hit properly. As a result, she looked as miserable as could be after being knocked down. Her shield flew from her hand and struck the ground, while she rolled away like a tumbling gourd.

In the end, she had not only lost her shield and helmet, but had even shaken off one boot while getting up, leaving it stuck in a drainage channel.

Overwhelmed by panic, anger, shame, and fury, Kahina could no longer hold back and burst into tears.

It was only after hearing that cracked sob and noticing the long hair spilling loose that Garen realized the person who had been "dueling" him was actually a little girl.

At this incredibly awkward moment, Lux walked Sona out through the gate and ran into the scene.

"Oh, isn't this my dear brother?" Seeing Sona desperately trying to comfort her crying sister and Kahina sobbing uncontrollably, Lux finally clenched her teeth. "What, blaming your bed-wetting on your little sister no longer satisfies your special hobby of bullying girls? Now you've started dueling a girl four years younger than you, just to soothe that fighting spirit you can't find anywhere else?"

The instant Lux finished speaking, the noisy street outside the Crown Guard family's gate fell completely silent.

The guards lowered their heads one after another. Sona nearly dropped her ancient string instrument, Aihua. Even Kahina, whom Sona had been unable to comfort no matter what she tried, stopped crying. She blinked her tear-filled eyes and sized up Garen from head to toe as if they had just met for the first time.

As for Garen...

Well, Garen was preparing to leave the Demacian Imperial Capital that very night.

No, that wasn't enough—he had better leave Demacia while he was at it!

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Another two chapters today—happy Valentine's Day, dear readers!