Arthur jolted awake. A bead of cold sweat ran down his forehead, as his gaze bounced between the door to the room, and Jacob. They exchanged glances for a few moments in silence, until one of them broke the quiet, following a swallow.

  “Three knocks. You reckon that means anything, lad?”

  He shook his head. Arthur kept his eyes trained on the door, while slowly grabbing the sheathed dagger from the nightstand.

  For the last week, from the morning after the first day as part of the Moirai, Sol had been training them in a peculiar way. The objective of this training was to raise their awareness, and allow them to enter combat immediately after waking up.

  And while it was working, it also had side effects. Arthur's eye twitched, tightening his grip on the Tyrfingr. He could see Jacob's Ley Lines flickering around the door, as if debating whether to blow up the man behind it or not.

  For the last week, Sol had been waking them up with ambushes and surprise attacks, ordering them to fight back as soon as they woke up. Sometimes it happened early into the morning, sometimes late at night.

  They could barely sleep properly, out of anxiety.

  Arthur's body hit the floor, rolling off of his bed out of instinct, seeing the doorknob starting to turn. Jacob did the same, circuits circling his side of the room, to try and blow up anyone that entered his range.

  “Uh… Did I forget ta tell ya…?”

  Sol scratched the back of his head, seeing the awkward situation. Both of them were battle ready, their eyes trained on him.

  The man stepped into the room slowly, placing down some items he had been carrying, draped in cloth. The two boys looked at each other, before staring at Sol. Arthur was the first to lower his dagger, peeking out from behind the bed.

  “We ain't doin' the mornin' trainin' today.”

  He pulled a chair closer to himself, sitting down in the middle of the room. The elf let himself fall onto his back, closing his eyes and letting out a deep breath in relief. Even if their awakening had already been ruined, at least they could relax.

  “Why did you come, then? Could have let us get some more shut eye, innit?”

  Jacob commented, climbing back onto his bed after seeing Arthur do the same. The latter tilted his head, only now noticing Sol was carrying something, although the cloth covering the items hid their appearance.

  He crossed his legs. Seeing him staring at the items, the man smirked, placing them on Arthur's bed. After gesturing to him to keep his hands off of them, he nodded towards the door on the other side of the room.

  “I got y'all somethin'. Call Irene for me, will ya-?”

  ‘Perfect timing.’

  Arthur thought to himself, seeing a figure fly out of the door and landing in front of Sol. He hopped off of his bed, helping her up and turning his head towards the door.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah… Didn't hit me directly…”

  She answered meekly, groaning in pain and rubbing her temples. She pushed herself up while holding onto Arthur's shoulder, who helped her sit on one of the beds.

  A tall young man entered the room, cleaning the dust from his gloves. He was wearing a cap similar to the one Jacob usually wore, his gaze trained onto Irene.

  The training for the two boys and for Irene, that past week, had been different, for a few reasons. First and foremost, since the rooms were connected, Irene would wake up from any noise the other three made.

  This meant that she would have more time to prepare, giving her an unfair advantage during the training, and at the same time removing the actual purpose of it.

  Second, Sol alone couldn't wake up the three of them at the same time, and deal with all three, for the same reason.

  Which was why the one handling Irene's training was his right hand man, a man with a peculiar skillset, that could mould most terrains with ease.

  Wilhelm Grimm placed a hand on the floor. His Ley Lines glowed, forming a pattern which Arthur had got familiar with by now, and the pavement under his feet shifted.

  He sat down cross legged on a throne carved out from the floor, still crackling with Ark. Arthur couldn't help but stare in awe, any time he saw those spells.

  ‘Water-Type magic.’

  He noted to himself.

  “Good morning, Mr Wilhelm.”

  “Good day, Arthur.”

  He offered the young man a smile, and Wilhelm nodded in return. Wilhelm wasn't one for many words, but Arthur had managed to chat with him a few times, and found out he wasn't as bad to be around as Sol.

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  He preferred calm and quiet, acted and behaved like an intellectual, and didn't wake him up every morning by blasting the door open with flames and fire.

  Arthur glanced around the room, noticing the quiet that spread every time he shut his mouth. Out of the people in there, Arthur and Sol were the only ones that could start conversations properly. He let out a sigh, and turned towards the man.

  “So… What are those?”

  He nodded at the items that Sol was holding, and spoke the question all three of them were secretly repeating in their minds.

  Sol grinned, picking up the cloth covered objects.

  “Hm? What? Oh, these? Ah, ya see, it's nothin' incredible… It's jus' a little gift I got for y'all, out of my own charitable, kind, ‘n lovable self… All outta my pockets, too…”

  “The tailoring workshop paid for this, sir. Not you.”

  Wilhelm corrected him.

  ‘Tailoring? Are we getting some new clothes?’

  Arthur tilted his head, and looked down at his body. Now that he thought about it, although they could wash them daily, they were all still wearing the prison clothing.

  He turned towards Irene, who was clearly thinking the same thing. She looked down at her clothes, and let out a lengthy, exasperated sigh.

  “I wouldn't mind something new to wear…”

  “Would be nice, innit.”

  “Just show us already.”

  It was rare, but for once they all agreed on something. Sol let out a laugh seeing them act in unison, and placed the items on the beds.

  One in front of Jacob, one in front of Irene and one in front of Arthur. His lips curved upwards, he felt like a kid opening Christmas presents.

  “Go on, ya can open them.”

  Arthur removed the cloth covering the clothing. As expected, underneath were a few folded garments, wrapped by ropes to hold them together.

  He undid the knots, and laid out the clothes onto his bed, to check them out properly. He expected to see, maybe, a pair of shirts and pants, and stared at the items with slight confusion.

  He didn't know how to properly describe it as a whole, if not ‘gentleman’s clothings’. A long sleeved white shirt, a black waist coat and pants, and a decorative brooch with a small Gemstone.

  He ran a finger on the shirt, and shuddered slightly at the rough texture rubbing against his skin.

  ‘Is this linen? The pants seem to be wool…’

  All in all, he didn't dislike the clothes too much, but didn't expect Sol to give them that sort of clothing. Considering the time period, though, he nodded to himself and realized it made complete sense.

  ‘Not a big fan of the waist coat, though.’

  He clicked his tongue, and neatly folded the clothing once again. He froze for a moment, his eyes set on something.

  Throughout that week, he hadn't only been going through Sol's morning drills. Arthur had been training himself in various areas, during any free time period he had.

  Specifically, he wanted to improve the still unknown ability that allowed to clearly see Ark and Ley Lines. He figured out that squinting worked as a trigger to turn it on, although the duration changed with each activation.

  There were other factors he investigated, too, other than the activation trigger. The clearness of this sight, how far he could see with it, and the duration.

  And although he wasn't very successful in understanding what those factors depended on, he at least was able to turn it on and off at will.

  He squinted, his sight focused on the brooch. As he thought, it wasn't just a gemstone, it was a Gemstone. Ley Lines swirled inside, circuits circling a symbol which vaguely resembled the number nine.

  This was something he had noticed, thanks to that ‘Ark Sight’. Although it was common knowledge, he realized that all spells, even those ‘imbued’ into Tyrfingrs and Gemstones, had a specific pattern.

  A main, larger symbol was usually in the middle, surrounded by smaller symbols in a spiral like pattern. He hadn't figured out what those symbols meant yet, but he knew that they defined the type of spell that would be produced.

  He thought it depended on the magic Type, or on the effect, but both of his theories were proven wrong just by observing Jacob. Two uses of his magic had different ‘main’ symbols, despite the spells being the exact same.

  The only difference being, one was a larger explosion, while the other was a barrage of small ones.

  He looked up at Sol, curious about the effects of that Gemstone.

  “Are these protective clothes, or something along those lines?”

  He didn't know what the symbol inside that Gemstone meant, but he thought his guess couldn't be too off. He doubted that man would give them Gemstones solely for aesthetic purposes, or for some minor effect.

  “Yer too bright, Arthur. Those brooches, they can turn anythin' into an armor as strong as steel.”

  “Interesting…”

  He held the Gemstone between his index and thumb, rubbing its surface.

  ‘Interesting, but useless.’

  For him, at least. He lowered his hand to the pockets of his pants, clutching the tin container. He finished all of the medicine, and while the damage to his Ley Lines seemed to have got better, the syndrome didn't simply disappear.

  The fault was his, too. In order to try and figure out more about Ark Downpour, he intentionally triggered it multiple times, while observing in the Dipping State.

  With his wounds closed, the bleeding was considerably less, but he still could only use his Ark once or twice in a row. Not to mention, he still couldn't get a hang on how to properly manipulate it, nor how to form Ley Lines.

  He was entirely dependent on outside tools, if he wanted to utilize magic. He couldn't rely on Tyrfingrs forever, and especially not on one borrowed from another. Obtaining a Remembrance Stone of his own was vital, but he had no idea where to find the required ingredients just yet.

  “Oi, if these are protective clothes, then…”

  Arthur looked up at Jacob, snapping back to reality. He tilted his head, trying to figure out what he meant before getting cut off by Sol.

  He took another glance at the brooch, and at the swirling circuits inside, before blinking a few times to deactivate his Ark Sight.

  “Yer a smart one too, kiddo!”

  Sol suddenly stood up and pushed back the chair. He crossed his arms, smiling at the three Moirai members. Arthur swallowed, suddenly remembering what day it was.

  “We're startin' yer combat trainin' today!”

  It had been a week since they transferred to the underground part of the complex. The first week was to be spent learning the layout of the facility, and now, they were supposed to start actually training their combat abilities.

  Arthur glanced at the other two, and then at the sheathed dagger in his hands. He didn't know whether he was ready to test it out in actual combat.

  As well as training his sight, Arthur had done one more thing that week. He had been charging the Remembrance Stone embedded into the Tyrfingr, and visited Gunnhildr almost every day to learn how to properly use that weapon.

  Still, a smile creeped onto his face. He didn't know whether he was ready, but he wanted to find out. He wanted to try his hand at actual combat, and learn of his own weaknesses and strengths.

  Sol smirked, seeing similar expressions appear on all three of them. He clasped his hands together to grab their attention, and nodded at the door behind him.

  “Well then! Get changed, ‘n let's go to the trainin' grounds.”