Chapter 34 – The Mission That Should Have Been Impossible

【Valerius POV】

Jin announced the mission three days after my training began, and I thought he was joking.

“Defeat Clara.”

Those two words hung in the air of the dining hall where Jin, Mei, and I sat for breakfast. Clara stood by the doorway, arms crossed and looking amused.

“You can’t be serious.”

Jin sipped his tea without looking up.

“Completely serious, you and Mei will work together to land one clean hit on Clara, no weapons and no magic allowed for Clara, she’ll only use one hand, you two can use magic freely.”

Mei’s eyes went wide beside me, her chopsticks frozen halfway to her mouth.

“That’s still impossible, she’s Clara.”

“Exactly.”

Jin set down his cup and finally looked at us, his expression unreadable.

“This is a test of strategy and creativity, not raw power, you have three days to plan and one attempt to execute, if you fail, training doubles for both of you.”

My body still ached from yesterday’s session, doubling the training might actually kill me.

Clara pushed off from the doorway and walked closer, her movements fluid and predatory like a cat sizing up mice.

“I look forward to this.”

Her smile was sharp and dangerous, the kind that promised pain.

◆

Mei and I spent the first day in the library, surrounded by books about combat tactics and magical theory.

“We can’t beat her with strength.”

I stated the obvious while flipping through a book on defensive formations that meant nothing to me.

“Obviously.”

Mei drummed her fingers on the table, a habit I’d noticed she had when thinking hard.

“She’s faster, stronger, more experienced, even with one hand she could probably take down a squad of trained soldiers.”

“So we need to cheat.”

“That’s not cheating, that’s strategy.”

She leaned forward with a spark of excitement in her eyes.

“What if we use the environment? Jin said we could use magic, so we could set traps, create diversions, manipulate the battlefield before the fight even starts.”

I thought about it, turning the idea over in my mind like examining a puzzle piece.

“Clara knows we’ll try something like that though, she’ll expect traps and she’ll avoid them, we need something she won’t see coming.”

“What won’t she see coming?”

“Us actually working together.”

The words came out before I fully thought them through, but as soon as I said them I knew it was right.

“Everyone sees us as weak and incompetent, Clara included, what if we use that?”

Mei’s eyes lit up with understanding.

“We make her think we’re even more pathetic than she already believes, then hit her when her guard is down.”

“Exactly.”

We spent the next hour sketching out a plan that was equal parts clever and absolutely ridiculous, the kind of plan that would either work perfectly or fail spectacularly with no middle ground.

◆

Day two was practice, and it went terribly.

The courtyard behind the manor became our testing ground, and we ran through our plan seventeen times with me playing the role of Clara.

Mei’s magic was wild and uncontrolled, her ice spells either too weak or too strong with nothing in between.

“Again.”

She created another ice patch on the ground, but it was the size of a dinner plate when we needed it to cover ten feet.

“I can’t do this.”

Her voice cracked with frustration.

“You can, you just need to focus on sustaining it rather than creating it all at once, think of it like spreading butter instead of dropping a chunk.”

“That’s the worst analogy I’ve ever heard.”

“But did it help?”

She tried again, and this time the ice spread wider and thinner across the ground like I’d described.

“It helped.”

My part was simpler but not easier, I needed to time everything perfectly while also selling the act of being completely incompetent.

Too convincing and Clara wouldn’t engage at all, not convincing enough and she’d see through the trap.

By sunset we’d managed three successful practice runs in a row, which felt like a miracle considering where we’d started.

Mei collapsed on the ground, breathing hard.

“Do you think we can actually do this?”

“Honestly?”

I sat down beside her, my own muscles screaming in protest.

“I have no idea, but it’s the best chance we’ve got.”

She laughed, a tired but genuine sound.

“That’s not very reassuring.”

“Would you prefer I lie?”

“Yes, absolutely.”

“Then I’m completely confident and we’re definitely going to win.”

“Much better.”

◆

Day three arrived with gray clouds and the promise of rain, which actually worked in our favor since wet ground would make Clara’s footing less certain.

Jin, Clara, and what felt like half the manor staff gathered in the main courtyard to watch, because apparently our humiliation needed an audience.

Clara stood in the center with her right hand tucked behind her back, wearing her usual maid uniform and looking completely relaxed.

“Ready when you are.”

Her voice carried across the courtyard with easy confidence.

Mei and I exchanged one last glance, a silent confirmation that we were committed to this insane plan.

I stepped forward first, trying to channel every bit of noble arrogance I’d ever seen.

“This will be over quickly.”

“I’m sure it will.”

Clara’s smile said she knew exactly how it would end, with us on the ground and her standing victorious.

I raised my hand and launched a basic fire spell, the kind of weak attack a child could produce.

It flew toward Clara in a slow, wobbling arc that she sidestepped without even looking concerned.

“Is that really your best?”

“I’m just warming up.”

I launched three more spells in quick succession, each one as pathetically weak as the first, each one missing by a wider margin.

Clara yawned, actually yawned, and I had to suppress a smile because it was working.

She thought this was going to be boring.

That’s when Mei made her move from the opposite side, creating a ice wall that erupted from the ground behind Clara.

Clara spun and shattered it with a casual kick, ice shards exploding outward.

“Predictable.”

But while she was focused on Mei, I’d been moving closer and laying down the real trap.

Thin layers of oil spread across the courtyard stones using a variant of water magic Jin had taught me, invisible unless you knew to look for it.

“Together.”

I shouted to Mei, and we both launched our strongest attacks simultaneously, forcing Clara to dodge toward the center of the courtyard.

Right onto the oil slick.

Her foot slipped, just barely, just enough to throw off her perfect balance for half a second.

That’s when Mei hit the oil with a spark of fire magic, and the entire center of the courtyard erupted into flames.

Not enough to actually hurt Clara since she could shield herself easily, but enough to create a massive smoke screen that filled the air with thick, choking darkness.

Clara would expect us to attack through the smoke, so she’d be defending, focused outward on threats coming from the edges.

She wouldn’t expect us to already be inside the smoke with her.

I’d covered both Mei and myself in water magic before the smoke went up, creating a thin layer that let us breathe and see through the haze using a technique from one of those dusty library books.

We found Clara exactly where I’d calculated she’d be, in the center with her back to a wall of her own creation, defending against attacks that weren’t coming.

Mei went low while I went high, both of us moving in perfect sync like we’d practiced a hundred times.

Clara’s eye went wide when she saw us emerging from the smoke at the last possible second, so close she couldn’t dodge without using her restricted hand.

My palm connected with her shoulder at the exact same moment Mei’s fist tapped her knee, two clean hits that technically counted as defeating her according to Jin’s rules.

The smoke cleared, revealing the three of us standing in the scorched courtyard.

Clara looked at us with an expression I’d never seen before, genuine surprise mixed with something that might have been respect.

“Well.”

She brushed ash off her uniform with her free hand.

“That was unexpected.”

Jin’s slow clap echoed across the courtyard.

“Pass.”

That single word made my knees almost buckle with relief, we’d actually done it.

◆

Later that evening, Clara brought tea to the room where Mei and I were celebrating our victory, which mainly consisted of lying on the floor too exhausted to move.

“That was clever.”

She set down the tray and poured three cups.

“Using my expectations against me, making me think you were more incompetent than you actually are, and executing a plan that required precise timing and trust in each other.”

“So you’re not mad?”

Mei asked from her spot on the floor.

“Mad? I’m impressed.”

Clara handed us each a cup.

“You two worked together despite barely knowing each other, created a strategy that played to your limited strengths, and adapted when things didn’t go perfectly, those are the marks of real fighters, not just strong ones.”

She looked directly at me then.

“Maybe you’re not as useless as I thought, Lord Ashford.”

Coming from Clara, that was practically a declaration of undying loyalty.

“Just Valerius is fine.”

“We’ll see.”

But she was smiling when she said it, a real smile without the sharp edges.

Jin appeared in the doorway, his expression neutral as always.

“Rest up, tomorrow we start real combat training.”

Then he left without elaborating, leaving Mei and me to exchange worried glances.

If defeating Clara was just the preliminary test, what exactly counted as real training?

I was too tired to worry about it properly, so I just drank my tea and enjoyed the moment of victory while it lasted.

Tomorrow would bring new challenges and probably new pain, but tonight we’d proven that weakness didn’t have to mean defeat.

Sometimes clever beats strong, and sometimes two pathetic fighters together can accomplish what neither could alone.

I’d take that lesson into whatever came next.