“Aria, has that person already left?”

  “Yes, Madame Doroteya…” the girl paused for a few seconds to think clearly, “Shouldn’t you have accompanied the man to the gates like you usually do with guests?” asked Aria, she just wanted to make sure that Boris had actually left.

  “Should I have?” asked the eldest, placing the basket full of lotus flowers on a table, “I was busy picking these cute, puffy, perfect white flowers… ah, aren’t they a beauty?”

  “Yes, they are but-“

  At that point, Aria truly believed that Boris had used some power of his to drown the governess’s mind.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she gave up, “someone should be here now, it will be my teacher, the school sent him to me.”

  The girl approached the governess to check her heartbeat and eye color. The woman simply went for a check-up while she was with her head in the clouds thinking about her flowers. Everything was fine, even the color of the veins was normal.

  “Bastard Boris.” she exclaimed in her mind; the vampire had used one of his manipulation powers, one of those low-level ones that only lasted a few minutes. She had studied it in class and the person affected was as if stunned without leaving any visual effects.

  Just then, the doorbell rang.

  Aria was about to go towards the entrance, but Madame Doroteya immediately preceded her and opened the door first. In front of them stood a tall, slim figure with a briefcase in his hand. But those were not the most important details, but his clothes: a long tuna of multicolored wool, all bright and easily recognizable. A pointed blood-colored hat that ended with a star and two mud-colored boots kept as good as new.

  “Good morning to you, my name is Adelphe and I am Aria’s new teacher.” a long bow followed.

  “A clown?” the girl laughed, but only after the housekeeper's glare did she realize it was best to keep her mouth shut.

  “Come in,” Madame Doroteya said, “I'm so happy the school sent a teacher here, now to go out you have to look behind you for the guards. Oh, I say, where has the privacy gone? What a world we're living in…”

  “How sad and melancholic,” said Adelphe, who entered and took the housekeeper's hand to kiss it, “How is it possible that such an event could happen to such an elegant woman?”

  “Oh, come on.” the woman blushed.

  “Doroteya.” Aria said firmly.

  “Yes, my dear, I'm going, I understand, I'll leave you to your studies.” the housekeeper took her leave, but not before winking at Adelphe.

  Aria didn't approach unless she kept a distance of at least three paces. She noticed that she was still holding the tip of the plate, in case Adelphe turned out not to be who he said he was.

  Ironic, she thought, how the second to last person who had crossed the threshold was a very powerful and dangerous vampire, while now she found herself in front of a hunter.

  “So, Sonia sent you?” Aria asked.

  “Not exactly, I was contacted by Liza who explained the situation to me. It’s an emergency, isn’t it?”

  “It is… I can’t go to school anymore because of this latest law.”

  “And you have to continue your studies, that’s what I’ve been told, Aria, but I’m here, don’t worry. Can we start?”

  “Not here!” she exclaimed, “Follow me.”

  Aria took him to her rooms, the safest place to train in case his father returned early. For now it was best to follow Adelphe’s lesson without telling him anything about Boris’s meeting; she still had to think about what had happened.

  “They told me about you.” the girl began, “And how you won the tournament.”

  “Oh! So they still remember me?” the teacher placed the briefcase on a small table, while Aria sat on the bed to watch her every move, “Yes, it was several years ago. Do you want to know anything in particular?”

  “Yes.” she said, but she couldn’t think of any questions.

  “Do you have to face the tournament too?” Adelphe asked to help her find the words.

  “It’s likely.”

  “Well… what can I say, there would be a lot to say. The tournament consists of three tests and the last one is a real fight against vampires.”

  “Vampires?!”

  “Yes, but don’t worry, everything is under control. There were no dangers with me, but I know of colleagues who were about to be overwhelmed by vampires and who were rescued by the jury. Since I was the only one who didn't need help, they rewarded me with the sword.”

  “So it's true what they say… is it that powerful?”

  “I don't know…” Adelphe replied, his cheeks turning red, probably from embarrassment.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Y-you don't know?”

  “I broke it before I could even test it.” he laughed, “But don't tell Sonia, okay?

  From his bag, the teacher took out a modular wooden sword, composed of three pieces. Then, he took out another identical sword and this time gave it to Aria.

  “These special weapons were used centuries ago by aspiring students to train, but now they have become obsolete as they train with real swords. But, since I was unable to carry them with me, here they come in handy again.” Adelphe smiled.

  The girl tried to swing the sword with two slashes in the air. It was light, a hell of a lot lighter than the silver sword she had grown accustomed to using. She would get used to it soon, though, because the feeling of being able to defend herself again made her smile.

  “It’s perfect.” she said.

  “Then we can start.”

  Adelphe took the sword with both hands and got into an attack position.

  “I’ll have to test your preparation first. I don’t know you and I don’t remember Anton’s teachings, so you just focus on defending yourself from my attacks and not counterattacking.”

  “Okay.”

  Adelphe moved slowly and slashed at Aria, who managed to parry with not too much difficulty. Then, the teacher slashed again, this time to the side, but that too was parried without much effort.

  “Ten percent.” the girl said to herself. That was the percentage of speed Adelphe was going compared to Anton.

  The third slash was faster, almost unexpected, but it hit a bedside table which knocked over a vase, breaking it into a thousand pieces.

  “Sorry!” the teacher exclaimed.

  “Damn!” Aria exclaimed, rushing to the door to check that no one had heard that noise. Then, she went to collect the remains of the vase, pebble by pebble, helped by Adelphe.

  “I’m sorry, but this room is too small and it’s not suitable for your training.” Adelphe went near the window and knocked a vase off the cupboard, “See? The way I move, I risk breaking something.”

  “Adelphe! It looks like you’re doing it on purpose!”

  “Me?” he laughed, “It was just demonstrative.”

  “Demonstrative are the pebbles I have to pick up!” Aria raised her voice, then tried to calm down because it was her teacher after all.

  Once she had finished collecting all the pieces, the hunter decided to put them under the bed for the time being so that Madame Doroteya would not notice anything, at least until she had finished her lesson.

  “Follow me.”

  Aria took the teacher to the cellar, where they could find several barrels of wine hanging on the wall and others inside special shelves. Mold and humidity reigned here. The smell was a mixture of wine and bad air that was hard to breathe. Contrary to what one might expect, however, they did not find a single mouse or any animal with too many legs.

  “Here we can train undisturbed.” Aria said, “But be careful with the wine.”

  “Okay, today we can practice a typical light thrust.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Adelphe got into an attack position, holding his sword rigid in front of him.

  “When a hunter strikes, speed is the most important thing, even more than precision, as it is better to hit the opponent badly than to miss well. Therefore, the lighter your body, the faster the blow will be.”

  The teacher took out his briefcase and pulled out a strange instrument. This was a kind of lever that could be closed with a cap, and the cap was connected to a string.

  Adelphe placed the lever in front of him and tied the string to the hilt of his sword.

  “I’ll show you what I mean.”

  She moved away from the lever just enough to keep the cap taut and to see the lever. Several seconds passed before she struck a blow, which was fast enough that she was able to touch the lever before the cap closed, as it was no longer taut because the sword was closer.

  “If you’re too slow, the cap will close before you can hit the lever. Today’s lesson will focus on just that: hitting the lever with your sword just like I did.”

  “Okay, Adelphe, I’ll try.”

  The string was tied, this time, to the hilt of Aria’s sword. After concentrating, she tried a slash, but it was so slow that the cap closed half a second before she could touch the lever.

  “You have to focus on your breathing, your muscles, and your soul. You have to be lighter and faster.”

  There was another slash, then another. And so it went for over two hours. Aria didn’t give up for a second, her happiness at being back training outweighed all the sweat that was pouring out of her forehead.

  There was one last slash.

  The decisive one.

  Now she had concentrated properly and remained breathing delicately almost as if she couldn’t feel her breath anymore, keeping her muscles free and lightening her soul by removing every thought from her head. Her only thought was the lever, there in front of her a few swords away.

  So, she leapt forward and the cap began to close. Aria could see every movement, as if her vision had become slow motion. The sword reached the lever before the cap closed and the whole thing ended with a simple clicking sound.

  “Yes!” Aria exclaimed, jumping with excitement, “Have you seen, Adelphe?” she whirled around, but Adelphe was gone.

  The girl moved until she found him in another section of the cellar, crouched with his back against the wall drinking wine.

  “There are so many barrels in here I thought it was rude not to take a carafe.” he shrugged.

  “I did it!” Aria exclaimed.

  “I know, I could hear you all the way here.”

  “What do I do now?” the girl asked, the fire still burning inside her.

  “Class is over for today, I just want to drink wine and do nothing else.”

  “But I want to practice.”

  “Come here, Aria.”

  The girl walked over to sit next to him. She put the sword back in front of her.

  “Do you drink wine?”

  “A little.”

  Adelphe gave her his carafe, then took another and began to drain it.

  “You know, I used to be a student at the academy, too, until I was kicked out.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Do you believe in magic, girl?”

  The girl was left breathless for a moment. Magic? A few weeks ago she didn’t even think vampires existed and now she was fighting them, but magic? It was too much even for her.

  “I-i think no.”

  “And you’re wrong, because magic exists. But not the kind you read about in fairy tales, no old men with white beards throwing fireballs, but a sort of power that allows you to positively influence the battlefield to turn the tide. I learned it when I had the opportunity, but because of its nature, the academy did not approve of me practicing it like that. So, I had a choice: to continue attending the academy or to be able to protect myself more effectively by accessing a power that few can boast of having.”

  “And so you left.” the girl asserted.

  “Exactly. But in these lessons you will not learn to use this power, also because you would not be capable of it. I promised Liza that I would show you the techniques of the sword and so I will.”

  He took a sip from the carafe.

  “You know, surely they have already explained to you that the nobles fifty years ago issued an edict to kill any hunter who ventured into the city, even though they were the ones who saved the city from the last war. Now that edict has been repealed for a few years, but hunters are not well regarded by society and prefer to hide.”

  “I know.” Aria said, thinking back to her difficult situation.

  “Ten years ago I would have pierced your heart with my sword,” Adelphe said as coldly as if he were reading a fairy tale to a child, “but times have changed. So many things have changed.” he smiled, then stood up.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow for a new lesson.”