Kaiser of the New World

Ezekial gazed down blankly at the red substance on his finger. It was definitely blood, just it was a miniscule amount of it, meaning the cut on his cheek had to be tiny.

Meanwhile, Kai just stared at the blue haired swordsman with a wide grin on his face. Still, he wasn't able to stand up as that kick Ezekial had given him hurt like a motherfucker.

But Ezekial was stumped, while he did know that he went incredibly easy on Kai and didn't take him seriously, he also tried just enough to make sure that he wouldn't be able to win.

Yet somehow he still managed to cut his cheek.

And the worst part was that Ezekial didn't even know when it had happened. That final stab was the only moment that he felt that Kai had any real chance of winning, but he easily dodged it, the blade ended up being nowhere near his face and he tracked it with his eyes the whole time, Kai had no chance to actually cut him with it.

Ezekial just could not figure out what the hell had happened.

And the only person who did know was lying on the ground, holding their stomach in pain.

To be honest, Kai hadn't really done anything special, he just performed a few small tricks in an effort to mess with Ezekial's view of him.

But there was also the problem that if Ezekial allowed himself to get tricked by these by the average person then he would have no right to call himself a Sword Saint, the only reason they even semi worked in this scenario was because it was Kai that had used them.

While Kai had managed to snag first place in the tutorial, he was still only a tadpole in a vast ocean filled with countless predators.

Still, the tricks had worked, even though they weren't actually really tricks.

All Kai had done was attempt to shift Ezekial's focus away from him himself, but rather to something external but still important.

Like a wooden blade.

All of the wooden blades were the exact same, none of them had an advantage over the other, yet Kai acted as if he knew he was going to win just by switching which wooden sword he used.

Obviously this was all a bluff, this wasn't some situation where he would have some last minute power up just by choosing a new weapon, no, the wooden sword he picked was no better than the one he had before.

Still, it had performed its job perfectly, and that was just to draw Ezekial's attention away from Kai and to the blade itself.

Of course, him saying that he knew he would be able to land a blow was also a bluff, but he just wanted to act confident to throw him off.

Then, throughout the whole fight, Kai never got close to Ezekial, he would always attack from slightly further than normal with stabs from the wooden blade, that way Ezekial subconsciously focused on the sword rather than Kai.

Then, to top it all off, Kai thrust the blade past Ezekial's face so he would have to move his eyes to see it, and in that moment when Ezekial had changed his focus to the tip of the blade...

Kai moved his pinky and used Partial Transformation to extend his fingernail, using it to create that tiny cut on Ezekial's cheek.

He knew that it was scummy, but all he had said for the bet was that he had to land a blow, and if Ezekial had no idea how he managed to do so then it was even better.

Still, Kai had not expected to get hit so hard at the very end, so he was completetly unprotected and ended up getting sent flying.

That was how Kai managed to win the bet.

Sadly, this would be the one and only time this plan would work on anyone, the only reason it worked was because Kai was Kai and Ezekial was Ezekial.

Ezekial did not see Kai as a threat, in fact, he didn't even believe that Kai stood a chance in the first place, so Kai simply took advantage of that. Ezekial had overwhelming confidence on how the fight would end, that was what lead to his loss.

But from now on, Ezekial would at least be on guard when facing Kai, meaning he wouldn't be able to pull that stunt off again.

... It also meant that Kai would get beat up even more in their training sessions in the future, but that was something he would have to deal with after his time in the library.

"It seems I do. Forgive me, Honoured Guest, I have underestimated you."

Kai smiled softly, still clutching his stomach in pain.

"Ah, don't worry about it, I wouldn't expect much seeing me either."

Ezekial chuckled softly as he made his way over to Kai, softly helping him up. Kai let out a soft hiss as he stood, but quickly began to walk off the pain.

"However, I must admit, I never expected that of you. If you don't mind me asking, just what did you do?"

Kai laughed as he lightly slapped Ezekial's back.

"A magician never reveals his secrets."

Ezekial stared blankly at Kai, wondering was that supposed to be some type of codeword or something. It was only after Kai noticed the swordsmans confused gaze did he sigh.

"Nevermind, it's another Earth thing."

Ezekial nodded.

"I see."

The two walked out of the arena and into the main hall of the always cold castle. While Kai had gotten somewhat used to it, that didn't make the chill any more pleasant, it just made it somewhat bearable.

He was curious about how cold it actually was though, it was a shame that he didn't have a thermostat.

"So where is the library?" Kai asked as he followed behind Ezekial, looking out every window that he passed and catching glimpses of the city at various angles.

Ezekial just continued walking, not looking out a single window, which did make sense. He was raised after all, he must have looked out of every window at least once, or even more considering that Kai had no idea how old the blue haired swordsman was.

"It is upstairs, along with Her and His Majesty's chambers."

Kai shivered slightly at the mention of Her Majesty, he still had no idea what he would do when he saw Anastasia again, or what she would do when she saw him. All he could do was hope for the best and pray that all went well.

"I see."

As it turned out, the walk to the stairs to go upstairs must have been much longer than the ones to go downstairs, meaning Kai and Ezekial had to walk in silence for a while. It wasn't that the silence was a bad thing, it's just that Kai had only known Ezekial about three days, which wasn't that long.

Still, surely there wouldn't be any harm in asking a few simple questions, right?

"What do you think of Her Majesty?"

Ezekial raised an eyebrow slightly as he gazed back at Kai, wondering where he was going with this.

"Her Majesty is one of the most gracious and kind people I know. I also know that His Majesty loves her very much."

Kai held back his urge to sigh, that answer didn't really tell him much. And even if Castillian loved her deeply, it sure didn't seem that the same could be said for the other way around.

Soon after, Ezekial came to a halt, stopping before a large painting that took up the majority of the wall at the end of a dead end. The picture in question made Kai grimace. It was of Castillian, but the artist very clearly had a big imagination as the Castillian in the painting was topless and had a six pack.

And while Kai couldn't really be one to judge, he could tell from a glance that Castillian most certainly did not possess a six pack.

Ezekial stepped through the painting, Kai following close behind as he didn't want to look at a shirtless Castillian for any longer than he had to.

The stairs on the other side of the painting were in much better condition than the stairs that Yelena had shown Kai. These stairs were all carpet and even had a banister running alongside the wall.

Once they went up a couple of stairs, Ezekial walked through another wall, coming out on the upstairs floor. Kai followed and glanced back at the painting that they emerged from.

The painting was off Anastasia, she was sitting in an armchair in a vast library. She was wearing a rather fancy dress and had her hair in her signature braid, only she was also wearing the glasses that she wore to his room last night, making Kai squirm slightly.

After looking away from the painting of Anastasia, Kai turned his head to take in the incredible library that he had been given access to.

Only Kai's eyes widened once he actually turned around.

"Is this it?"

The library... consisted of a single bookshelf.