Five consecutive clean hits on a moving target. That one was straightforward. Painful, probably, given where his current skill level sat, but straightforward. Shadow Step compatibility to ninety percent was just repetition. More training. More controlled application, less brute force.

Combat Instinct Passive.

That one interested him more than the energy reward. Passive skills in this system had no cooldown and no duration. They just worked. Always. Quietly. The difference between someone who thought about combat and someone who’d internalized it at a level below conscious thought.

He wanted that.

The door knocked.

"Young master," Aria’s voice. "You have a visitor."

He frowned slightly. "Who."

A pause. Like she wasn’t entirely sure how to phrase it. "...Your brother, young master."

Luna’s head came up from where she’d been lying across his bed in cat form. Her ears went flat.

Seth.

Orion leaned back in the chair. Looked at the ceiling for a moment. Considered his options.

"Send him in," he said.

Luna made a sound that was not a purr.

"Behave," Orion said.

She made the sound again, slightly louder.

"Luna."

Silence.

The door opened and Seth Ashbourne walked in with the same blue eyes and black hair and the specific brand of arrogance that came with being the family’s golden son for so long he’d stopped knowing how to exist without it. He was dressed well, as always. His right arm was wrapped at the wrist but not slung, so whatever Luna had done to him was healing.

He stopped just inside the door. His gaze moved around the room, taking in the worn furniture and the minimal decoration and the general smallness of it compared to what he was used to. A muscle in his jaw twitched.

Then he looked at Orion.

Orion looked back.

Neither of them said anything for a moment.

"So," Seth started.

"Close the door," Orion said.

Seth’s jaw tightened. But he closed it.

Luna was watching from the bed with the focused attention of something that had decided it was hunting but hadn’t decided when to start yet. Seth clocked her immediately and gave her a wide berth, which was the smartest thing he’d done in two days.

"I’m going to be direct," Seth said.

"Please."

"What you did yesterday. In front of the Patriarch. That was a move." He said it with the specific disgust of someone who’d spent years as the strategist in the family and had just watched a pawn behave like it had a plan. "You made me look weak."

"You were weak," Orion said. "I didn’t make you anything."

The vein in Seth’s temple made a brief appearance. "Don’t."

"Don’t what."

"Don’t do the thing where you act like you’re above this. You were nothing three days ago. You’re nothing now with one lucky summon." His voice was controlled. Barely. "I came here because I’m giving you an opportunity to step back. Quietly. Before the selection trial."

Orion tilted his head. "Step back how."

"Withdraw your candidacy. Let the natural order proceed. You take whatever resources the Patriarch allocated, live your life, nobody touches you." Seth said it like it was a perfectly reasonable offer. Like he genuinely believed it was.

"And if I don’t."

"Then things get complicated."

Orion was quiet for a second. Not because he was considering it. Just because he was genuinely taking a moment to appreciate the audacity.

He stood up from the chair.

Not aggressively. Just stood. But Seth’s weight shifted back slightly anyway, a reflex, and they both noticed it. Seth’s expression went rigid.

"Let me explain something," Orion said, and his voice came out calm. Pleasant, even. The kind of pleasant that had nothing warm behind it. "You walked into my room. At seven in the morning. With a bandaged wrist that my summon gave you. And your opening line was step back quietly."

He took one step toward him.

Seth didn’t move but his body wanted to.

"You came here because you’re scared," Orion continued. "Not of me specifically. You’re scared of the variable. You’re scared that you can’t predict what I’m going to do next and that makes you nervous because your whole thing has always been controlling the board."

He stopped a few feet away and looked at his older brother with an expression that was almost sympathetic.

"I’m not stepping back," he said. "I’m not withdrawing anything. And the next time you come into my space with an offer, make sure it’s actually one I have a reason to consider."

Seth’s composure cracked just enough. Just a hairline fracture. But it was there.

"You think the Patriarch’s attention protects you," he said quietly. "It doesn’t. Not from everything."

"I know," Orion said. "I’m not counting on it."

"Then you’re an idiot."

"Maybe." He smiled. "Close the door on your way out."

Something moved through Seth’s expression that Orion couldn’t fully categorize. Not just anger. Something older than that. Something that might have started as contempt and had spent years curdling into something more complicated.

Then he turned and left.

The door closed with exactly enough force that it wasn’t technically a slam.

Luna dropped off the bed immediately and landed on her feet without sound, crossing the room to his side with her tail curling around his wrist loosely. "Can I hurt him now."

"Still no."

"Master."

"The answer will keep being no until I say otherwise," Orion said. "Trust the process."

"Hehe..." She didn’t sound fully convinced but she pressed her head against his shoulder anyway. "Master is planning something."

"Master is always planning something."

"Tell me."

"No."

She pouted with her entire face and it was deeply unfair how effective it was on his general mood. He patted her head twice to compensate and she immediately switched back to pleased which honestly said a lot about her as a person. Entity. Summon. Whatever.

He pulled up the system and looked at the side mission.

Five consecutive clean hits on a moving target.

He glanced at Luna.

She tilted her head.

"I need you to move," he said.

"How fast."

"Don’t make it easy. But don’t break me either."

"Hehe..." The pleasant smile was back. The one with too many teeth. "I’ll try to restrain myself."

"Your version of restraint broke a Bronze ranked beast’s everything."

"Hehe."

That wasn’t a denial.

Orion picked up his wooden sword from where it leaned against the wall. Worked his fingers around the grip. Tested the bruised wrist. Manageable.

He looked at Luna standing in the middle of the room in her black outfit with her white hair loose and her ears slightly forward and her silver eyes absolutely locked on him with the focused warmth of something that had designated him as hers in a very permanent way.

He felt something in his chest that he was categorizing as competitive drive and nothing else.

"Ready?" he said.

"Always," she replied.

He moved first this time.

And she moved like water.

Not toward him, sideways, and the sword cut through empty air where she’d been standing and he was already adjusting his weight, reading the angle of her shift, predicting the next position the same way he’d predicted Astra’s feints, not from skill yet but from attention.

She reappeared at his left.

He was already turning.

The sword tip grazed her sleeve.

Luna stopped. Looked at the sleeve. Looked at him.

"Hehe..." And this time the sound was genuinely delighted. "Master is improving."

◈ SIDE MISSION PROGRESS ◈

[Land 5 consecutive clean hits on a moving target]

Clean Hits Registered: 1 / 5

◈ ◈ ◈

One down.

Four to go.

The morning had barely started and Orion’s body already hated him again. His wrist throbbed. His back was reminding him about the stone floor situation from earlier. The encounter with Seth sat somewhere in the back of his head like a splinter he hadn’t fully removed yet.

Three weeks.

He rolled his shoulder.

"Again," he said.