Sers is standing a few meters away, waiting for me. We both finished some warm-up exercises; we can't have a good training session with cold bodies.

  "Ready, Sers?" I ask. He says nothing, keeping his gaze fixed on me without moving a single muscle.

  "Maki, show me the meaning of genius. I won't use any body enhancement abilities or elemental magic. How about a training match using only weapon mastery and movement skills?"

  I nodded and prepared my mind for what was coming next. I'll try to win at all costs.

  I need to take the first move. Without thinking too much, I activate my movement skill. With my mana reserves, it shouldn’t be a problem to keep it active until the end of the match.

  I can see a smile form on Sers’ face. Without any fear of a direct confrontation, he rushes at me.

  Damn, I forgot that Sers is a maniac for close combat.

  His axe swings down vertically—he wants to end this with one blow. I dodge at the last moment using my movement skill. Sers’ attacks don’t stop for a second. He doesn’t manage to land any hits, but he doesn’t let me find my rhythm either.

  A diagonal strike toward my left arm comes at full force. I dodge again at the last second and manage to put some distance between us.His axe strikes with enormous power; sometimes he uses that same force to chain into the next attack.

  He hasn't fully mastered that technique yet. He still has a long way to go—I’ll take advantage of that. I start to move in little by little, needing to measure the reach of his blows properly. After a few seconds, I have a rough estimate in my head, and I begin my plan.

  Sers keeps trying to chain attacks together using the momentum of each strike. That causes him to lose balance often, and I take advantage by landing quick, agile hits each time he misses. Although these strikes don’t have enough force to defeat him outright, the damage accumulates. Once his collar detects enough accumulated damage, it will activate.

  A few minutes pass, and my brother catches on to my plan. He shifts to a more defensive stance, using his large axe to cut off many of my attack angles.

  If this keeps up, I’ll lose—either by running out of mana or simply getting exhausted.

  With no other idea, I decide to trust in my swordsmanship. No risk, no reward.

  I jump straight into his range, getting as close to his body as possible.At this point, he has to step back to swing his axe properly.

  Sers tries to create distance, but I don’t give him the chance.

  I start landing hits on every vulnerable spot I can see—his neck, legs, abdomen, arms—wearing him down little by little. In a desperate attempt, Sers decides to swing his axe for a direct exchange, willing to take a few hits for one massive strike.I fail to block it in time, and he hits my left arm.

  It feels like my arm got sliced clean off. If it weren’t for the collar, my arm would just be a lump of hanging flesh. With my right arm still functional, I gather every ounce of strength I have and land a full-powered blow straight to his face.

  Finally, his collar activates. If his blow had hit my chest, I would have lost, if he had landed even one more attack after that, I would have lost too. That strike was everything I had.

  "It's my victory, Sers," I say, unable to stop myself from smiling from ear to ear.

  My brother’s face, although showing a hint of disappointment, also showed a glimmer of pride.

  "If I had been allowed to use all my abilities, I would have beaten you as soon as we started. Activating your collar with that final strike was lucky too," he said.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  "Don’t try to cheer me up, Maki. I’m not sad about losing. I’m just a little disappointed in myself, that's all" he said with a long sigh, his contagious smile returning right after.

  "You have sword mastery worthy of a prodigy, Maki. Your adaptability and combat awareness are far beyond what someone your age should have. You have the blood of a born fighter" Sers said.

  "Sers is right, Maki," Ritmo said, appearing behind us, clapping. "Your movements show you perfectly gauged Sers’ timing and strike range after just a little observation. It looks like you’ve been fighting for over fifteen years," he added.

  "Thank you, brothers. Honestly, I still feel like there’s a long road ahead of me. It’s nice to hear your opinions" I said, letting my feelings show a little.

  Today is the last day of their vacation—I hope to see them again in the future.

  They both looked at me with question marks above their heads, then smiled at each other. We moved toward the house and waited for the rest of the family to have lunch together. We talked about their future plans, teased Sers, and encouraged Ritmo.

  I’m going to miss these kinds of lunches. I'll engrave this memory into my heart and mind; it will be one of the sparks that keeps my desire to grow stronger alive.

  We sat in the garden, waiting for the carriage. It shouldn't take long to arrive.

  Celes' POV:

  "What are you planning to focus on this year, Sers?, Do you want to improve your magic or your Imra?" I’m curious about my son. He can be a bit relaxed and overconfident, but he never neglects his duties; he always trains diligently.

  "Until this morning, I thought I would work on both. But after losing to Maki, I realized I need to strengthen my strengths before working on my weaknesses," he answered. His words hit me like a bucket of cold water. Lost to Maki? That should be impossible...

  Maki only awakened a week ago, and Sers has so much more experience. Maybe I misheard him. Yes, that must be it.

  "Maki, did you defeat Sers?" My husband must have misheard too, to ask that.

  "Yes, but with some restrictions. We fought using only swordsmanship and movement skills. Although Sers held back even with movement, he only used it at rank 1" Maki answered as if it were completely normal.

  It’s NOT normal, even with those restrictions, Sers is already at the Emerald rank. If we put it into numbers, a rank 1 (Amethyst) shouldn’t be able to beat a rank 2 (Emerald), no matter what rules are in place.

  "That's impressive, son. You've inherited your father's fighting intuition," my husband laughed. What is this fool doing?

  At least Sers doesn’t look upset about losing—that’s good. I’ll let him laugh for now.

  "It’s really impressive to beat someone one rank above you, Maki, now that I think about it, have we explained the ranking system to you?" My mother-in-law, as always, is quick to read the atmosphere and change the subject when necessary.

  "No, I only managed to read a little in a book and supplemented it by listening to your conversations. I know the first rank is Basic Amethyst, the second is Emerald, and the third is Sapphire. After that, I’m not sure," Maki said.

  "The rank remains 'basic' until you upgrade one of your abilities to rank 2. Once you do, you'll become an Advanced Amethyst rank," I explained, letting him absorb the information before continuing.

  "The fourth rank is Ruby, the fifth is Diamond, and the last known is Obsidian. These last three ranks aren't just divided between Basic and Advanced—they also have an Intermediate stage. You need to meet specific skill or law requirements to move between stages within these ranks."

  I felt a little sad explaining this now, this is basic, necessary information.

  We should have told him right after his awakening. It’s unfortunate we didn’t have more time together as a family.

  "I understand, Mother. It’s clear now, thank you" my son said, smiling tenderly while looking me straight in the eyes.

  This child will be a heartbreaker in the future. If he keeps growing this fast, he’ll not only be strong but very attractive too. He inherited the best of my and his father's genes.

  "Looks like the carriage is here," my husband’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I saw the coachman waving at us from a distance.

  Maki's POV:

  The coachman greeted us and sat waiting.We started saying our goodbyes to my brothers.

  My mother softly cried while my father gave each of them a strong hug.

  Grandmother’s voice giving her last pieces of advice also trembled slightly, though she managed to hold back her tears until the very end.

  "Train hard this year. The next time you see me, I’ll be a completely different person," I said.

  My brothers looked at me, then smiled.

  "I'm going back to a prestigious school to train hard. I'll be even stronger by the end of the year, Maki," Sers said, taking my words humorously.

  "I hope that's true. I don't want to come back and still find you stuck at the Amethyst rank, Maki," Ritmo teased, picking up on the playful tone of my words.

  "See you in a year or two, brothers. Take care," I said.

  They both walked away, only raising a hand one last time to wave goodbye. I’m going to miss them so much.

  I made a silent promise: The next time they see me, they’ll be shocked by everything I've achieved.