“Ha ha”

I moved the sword once more in the air with a flip. My hands were getting more and more comfortable with its movements.

“I wish i could have a sparring partner here!!” I mumbled as I turned and practiced wielding again. My hair had long turned messy and my dress was covered with mud. But the heat was just motivating me to do a bit more.

“So, It’s you who was practicing here.” I nearly jumped out on hearing this voice.

So my doubt was correct. He was keeping an eye on me.

“Daddy”

“Come here, Abigail. We need to talk about a lot of things”

I gulped as I walked towards him holding my dress tightly, my fingers were formed into fists. He sat on the chair in the gazebo as his eyes looked intently at my every action.

“Will you tell me the truth now, Abigail?” he asked in his deep and intimidating voice.

“I am just trying to do some extra practice, daddy” though it was not complete truth, it was still truth.

“Why are you training here while hiding from everyone?”

“Because everyone thinks that I am weak and I am not worth their efforts. Moreover i am the eldest daughter of a duke, so this might me my new venture but i would get bored to it soon and leave it”

“And this is not the case?”

“No, daddy. I am serious about joining the knight course.” I said in the sincere voice as my eyes filled with determination.

“But why? What has changed that you are behaving so differently?”

What shall i say, 30 years had been passed so that changes were deemed to happen. I passed two lifetimes when we had last met. I was speechless like always in front of his questions.

“Abigail” his voice was filled with hesitation that forced me to look at his face.

“Did you remember anything about your mother?” he asked and i furrowed my brows. Mother! I did remember her face but nothing much except that. It’s been so many years since she was gone and I was so young that I don’t have much collection about the time I had spent with her. Not to forget that my memories were still hazy. But why did it feel that the question was very significant?

“I mean do you want to be like her?” he added when i stayed silent for a long while.

Oh! So that was what he meant by that, yes she was a knight too, mother and father both were in the same course and both served as knights together. That was where father had proposed to the mother, and she accepted. It was a famous love story as mother was the first female knight of the empire.

“I do wish to become like my mother, father.” I replied and I could see a sad smile blooming on his face as his eyes were looking at distance. I could see he had spaced out and he was not there anymore. But he was looking so lonesome that I felt bad for him.

He had three children, a wife and a prosperous family. Yet the way he was looking as if he was left alone in the vast world.

Was my life not dark just like that yesterday and he was the one who took me out of that darkness that had shrouded me.

I gently moved and wrapped my tiny on his vast frame. The contrast was clear as I was not even able to cover his shoulders. Yet my genuine efforts and warmth had started melting his frozen body.

I felt the movements of his body and his hand patted my head. Although I was too old for that, I still felt good that he responded.

“You don’t need to hide. if you want to change your instructor then choose one you are comfortable with or i can ask Nickolas to train you again.”

“Daddy, I was thinking if Sir Carl could train me.”

“How do you know Carl? Abigail”

“I met him on the tracks, father”

“No, I mean how do you know his name?”

Was that such a big deal to know his name! I knew it because he was the one who trained me in my last life too, and if he could make me a strong knight once, i was sure he would be able to do that again too.

We had spent days hunting together, sharing a tent and even killed many together. I have a strange bond with him that had turned hazy but yet there like a strong chain that could not be broken even with the passage of time.

“You have started to hide many things, Abigail”

“Ah, no father. I have heard his name while training.” I replied and he shook his head.

“He had lied about his name, Abigail. Only three people know about his real identity, that is me, his assistant and now you.” he said and my brows furrowed again, did he have an identity that he needed to hide?

And even my father was supporting a lie.

“What is his real identity daddy?”

“That he is a wonderful knight, ” he said, pinching my cheeks, as if I was a kid, i suddenly felt embarrassed at the way we had started behaving.

“I can not ask him to do that, since he is not an instructor here. He is a knight who is learning too”

“Oh, then brother Nickolas would be fine”

He laughed listening to my words and I was surprised once again.

“I have not denied you to choose Carl. but if you want him as your instructor you have to convince him to be so. But let me warn you, he is a very short tempered man”

“Thank you, daddy. I will try my best to convince him” ‘or i will just beat him until he agrees’

[please do vote for the book to make it in rankings. thank you.]