Getting Married to a Yandere Princess

A smirk graced his lips, the hairy moustache of his rising upwards in a gesture that could sparke annoyance in the eyes of the beholder - as he looked down at all the gathered newbloods - his disciples...Master Zamian's new claw.

"What did you say? Training...already done?" Even his voice had that mockery, as if deliberately baiting his disciple into saying something offensive.

But the receipent of the question - Aeris, wasn't dumb enough to not realise it and thus, with a strong presence of mind was able to control his mouth for that moment.

"I said you before and I shall say you again - Don't compare our claw, our members and our progress with any other claws. Is that understood?"

Another boy whose father had been a Sihapi himself, asked in return. "Keeping that aside Master, why the hell are the others and their Masters leaving the training hall already? Most importantly, why are we still here?!"

His words mirrored the other claws filtering out of the dome shaped building, the sun still overhead at it's full strength.

Zamian laughed heartily. "Fools, do you really think you shall be a highly trained soldier without extra hard work? Today was the first day, so most of them got a half day. And no, you all aren't getting any."

His last words were a flat rejection to the blooming hopes in a few of them. All they could do was sigh and accept their fate.

"Now you all shall spar against each other. Taking some consideration for you all, only for today each of you will spar once."

A curious girl asked. "Master, what's the usual number of times each of us need to spar from tomorrow on?"

"That's subjective...in simple terms, it depends on me and my mood."

Claw Zamian must have experienced a rollercoaster of emotions on their first day in this Isikolo, accelerated by the bizzare demands made by their Master.

This time, nobody even argued back. Just resigned themselves to an anticapted painful day - "tomorrow".

As if the meat hadn't already been overcooked, Zamian burned it even more when he lightly slapped his forehead.

"Look at how I am forgetting things so easily. With pleasure, let this serve as a reminder that starting tomorrow, you all shall be running around the field thrice. Today it was less so that you could all get a nice feel of the terrain."

Not giving them any time to fall into more depression, he quickly beckoned over David and the boy with the receding hairline.

"You both ready? Oh, you can all use mana in these sparring sessions. Now, fight!"

Both of the clawmates used sword as their primary weapon and stepped forward in a casual exchange. Each of them testing the waters and their opponent's strength.

As if realising something only he could feel, David's opponent frowned, a sly smile at his lips.

"You really are inexperienced with the sword. It's a miracle you passed the contest."

His tone didn't hold any mockery but was more like he was stating an obvious fact. Something which David couldn't refute.

Suddenly, David felt his feet slip on the wet grasses as he almost lost his balance.

'Wait...it wasn't wet a second back--' His thoughts were interrupted as a knee connected with his chin. This time, he actually lost his balance as he slipped and fell on the ground with a reddened face.

He embedded his sword on the now wet ground as his body flew a little far away, where he noticed the ground to be not at all slippery.

Suddenly, he felt the friction between the soles of his boots and the grasses decrease. His eyes narrowed in realisation.

'Water element.'

His sparring opponent charged at him with his sword dangling downwards. Right at that moment, a strong gale of wind blew against his momentum.

Seizing the opportunity, David stepped on dry ground knowing that without vision, the boy won't be able to use his powers to turn the ground wet beneath him using the droplets from the morning dew.

He dropped the strong winds as a half crouched boy covering his eyes came into view. Feeling confident, David drove his sword at his opponent.

But to everyone's utter surprise, the boy twisted his shoulders, escaping the blow. And before David could get any time to recover, he dragged the sword from the grasses, droplets of water forming a curved line beneath it.

Instead of striking him with the sword tip, he chose to flick it, as the chain of water spread on David's face and encircled his throat. The next instant, they froze, the water droplets around his throat now an ice rope, with thorns pricking at the sensitive skin.

On his face, a layer of frost made it impossible for David to breathe. His survival instincts kicked in as he quickly raised both his hands to break the layer but his opponent drove the sword onto his wrists, instantly disarming him and drawing out a short grunt.

"Enough! The fight is over. Leave him now." Zamian's command stopped the boy short of attacking David again who was suffocating and trying to abate the pain from his hands at the same time.

With a small bow, the boy let the ice melt drawing out a heavy breath from David who sat down on the ground, a look of horror on his face.

Grinning like a fool, the boy with the receding hairline extended his right hand towards him.

"It was an...interesting match." He chose his words carefully as he added. "You slept quite early yesterday, so couldn't introduce myself to you. I am Harith, just the youngest son of a faraway lower baron."

"Da-- uh, A17. Just a regular slave who shall be pleased to even have the lifestyle of the lastborn in a baron family." David clasped his hands with that of Harith's, his breath still quick and his voice raspy.

Harith raised an eyebrow at the sarcasm. "That's like the mistake every commoner thinks of committing. Anyway, see you around."

With a final smirk, he went back to the group of huddled members and sat beside Brynden, Aeris and a few others, all of them seemingly a part of a new group.

"Next, you both! Onto the field! And try not to kill each other... it's just a friendly match." Zamian instructed with a side glance at Harith.

'A friendly match only? Feels like the establishment of a new hierarchy to me.' David observed grimly as the strongest and the weakest among them were slowly being exposed in front of the whole claw.