"Hey, Louen, Lohran," greeted Kael, a friendly smile on his face. "I'll be joining you guys today."
"Hey…Kael…yeah, welcome to the training session, I guess…" responded Louen with a rather distant tone.
Lohran, who was starting to recover from the exhaustion, sized the young man up.
Kael had the same red hair as them and was about the same height and body type as his older brother.
The only difference was the length of Kael's hair, which was longer than Lohran's but shorter than Louen's.
'Tch, another brat?' he thought inwardly, merely nodding at his older cousin without offering a greeting.
Kael's smile faltered.
It seemed even Lohran, his younger cousin, was already aware of the unspoken tensions within the family.
There would be no more friendly interactions between them.
While Kael had long accepted this, it still stung.
For a twelve-year-old, the realization that he and his cousins would never be on good terms again was a rather bitter pill to swallow.
Nothing could be done.
They were born to different parents, each fighting for opposing causes.
Who was right, and who was wrong?
As if it even mattered. It was only natural for a child—especially one so young—to stand by their parents, wasn't it?
Soon, the training resumed.
The guards cycled through strength training, flexibility drills, and endurance exercises, pushing themselves for two hours with occasional breaks.
Lohran, unfortunately, couldn't keep up with them just yet, but he joined in as much as he could—resting a bit longer than his older brother and cousin, who seemed to be subtly competing with each other since earlier.
Although his awareness of such matters had sharpened ever since assuming the body of a red runt, this competition was obvious to him—even without heightened sensitivity.
He had seen tens, if not hundreds, of such rivalries back in his gym and had taken part in his fair share of them.
But this one felt different—almost unhealthy.
The two sides didn't just compete; they subtly hated each other or, at the very least, saw the other as an enemy rather than a rival.
This allowed Lohran to piece together a few clues from the dining room scene earlier, when his father had forbidden the maids from informing his uncle about what was going on with him.
As he took a sip from his water bottle, he glanced at his uncle.
'Hoh, so that geeky-looking, four-eyed bastard over there is a slimy rat, huh?' mused Lohran
He had no idea what his uncle was plotting, but there was no way it was anything good.
It was then that he caught himself pondering such things.
Had he ever really been much of a thinker in the past?
The old man certainly didn't think so—calling him dumb, a moron, and other similar insults so often that Lohran had started to believe it himself. Still, he liked to think he had a sharp mind when it came to combat.
'Hmm… is this the original scrawny brat's talent? Yeah…most probably…why else would I be so physically inept?' he mused, rising to join the training once more. 'No matter, I shall train back to my peak in a few years…'
After the strength, endurance, and flexibility sessions, Brodvar, his guards, and the three young masters moved on to agility and footwork training.
This time, Lohran managed to keep up, though he occasionally hit his stamina limit, forcing him to stop and rest multiple times.
The guard captain took note of the second young master's natural talent for footwork but chose to remain silent.
Only Lord Garwin was allowed to hear of his findings.
Half an hour later, the agility and footwork training ended, making way for the next part, which was combat skills training.
Lohran was naturally pumped, thinking it was time for him to maybe earn Brodvar's acknowledgment
Who knows? The guy might give him a chance and spar with him later!
Unfortunately, before the session could even begin, the doors blasted open once more, and a fuming Garwin stormed in.
"Carter!!" the lord bellowed, his voice echoing through the hall.
The man Lohran called his geeky uncle flinched involuntarily, caught off guard.
"Damn it, Garwin…Why are you shouting?!" retorted Carter, who unintentionally got angry after being startled.
"You dare show your face in my manor after everything you've done?!" Garwin roared, his fury intensifying.
This time, the geeky uncle didn't even attempt to respond.
Instead, he simply adjusted his glasses, strode over to Kael, grabbed his wrist, and stormed out of the training hall—making sure to slam the door behind him extra loud.
The bastard had been exposed while Lohran was recovering. There was no more room for hiding or explaining.
Garwin stared coldly at the door for a few seconds.
A fistfight would have already broken out…had either he or Carter been gifted in physical might.
But since neither of them were, it would have been nothing more than a humiliating spectacle in front of their guards and children.
'You think you've already won after selling our aristocratic status to the Slades?' thought Garwin, a subtle smirk forming on his lips. 'Unfortunately for you, I have an ace of my own…'
His gaze then shifted to Lohran, who was watching the door with an amused expression.
"H-Hey, old ma—... f-father, can you explain what's going on?" the red runt asked, barely correcting himself, his excitement over the conflict evident.
He had always inwardly despised his uncle's scheming appearance—it reminded him of one of his former, greedy managers back when he was still fighting in the octagon.
If given the chance, he would've loved to land a slap or two, just for the satisfaction of it.
"Hmph. I'll tell you everything at the right time. For now, focus on your training—make sure you don't lose to that older cousin of yours. Understood?"
"Understood, Father!" Lohran replied, unconsciously snapping into a salute as an enthusiastic smile crept onto his face—one he failed to suppress.
Both Garwin and Brodvar were caught off guard by his response.
In the past few days, the lord and his little troublemaker had been constantly at odds.
Garwin could hardly believe how compliant the runt was this time.
'Hmph…as long as he understands…'
"Everyone, back to training!"
And everyone did. No one dared disobey a fuming lord's orders.
Even Lohran, despite his intense curiosity, knew better than to provoke angry individuals—especially now that he was in a weak body.
Furthermore, it was a matter of respect.
After all, despite their differences in both mindset and approach to growth, Garwin was still his father in this life—the first biological one he ever had in two lifetimes.