I fell in love with you in my new life

POV - Luahn

A year had passed.

A year since the night I felt everything inside me break... and something new was born.

Since that ritual where energy overflowed inside me, where what should not have been mixed fought to survive, everything changed.

I was seven years old.

And every time I looked at myself in the reflection of the water... I couldn't help but wonder who exactly the person I saw was.

My body was no longer the same.

Mornings began before the sun rose.

Without anyone asking me to, I woke up with a restlessness burning in my bones. As if a part of me couldn't rest until it moved, fought, tested itself.

I used to stumble when I ran.

Now I could spin around and change direction in midair.

I jumped higher.

I ran faster.

My senses had become sharper.

I could hear Grisel yawning from the other side of the priests' house.

I could hear the footsteps of the animals in the forest before I saw them.

And in training... my hands moved on their own.

The sword was no longer just a tool. It was part of me.

I felt... strong.

But also incomplete.

Energy flowed through my body. I felt it every time I took a deep breath or closed my eyes to meditate.

It was a warm, living current, like liquid fire moving under my skin.

But I still couldn't do anything with it.

I tried what I had read, what I had been taught, what Grisel and Emilia told me:

Channel your intention, focus on an element, feel it, summon it...

Nothing.

Not a spark.

Not a drop.

Not a breeze.

Not a speck of dust.

Just a dull hum, a vibration that seemed to... wait for something else.

"Not yet?" Emilia asked me one day as we practiced in the field.

She had summoned a spear made of water, compact, spinning in a spiral between her fingers.

"No. I feel it running inside me... but I can't get it out."

She didn't mock me.

She didn't smile.

She just lowered the spear and offered me a small blue flower she had picked near the stream.

"Then don't force it. Living things bloom when it's their time... not when you say so."

It was her way of saying that it was okay.

But I did feel it.

The difference.

The other children noticed it too.

Although they could no longer defeat me physically as easily as before, they all had some elemental control.

Even the clumsiest among them could summon a small spark, a gust of wind, a stone rising from the ground.

I... couldn't.

And although no one said it out loud, I knew what they were thinking:

"What kind of mixed-race child can control Yin and Yang completely?"

But I wasn't exactly ordinary.

I wasn't a wolf.

Nor was I a human.

I was something that didn't have a name yet.

A bridge?

A mistake?

An experiment?

Or maybe...

An answer that hasn't been formulated yet.

Grisel watched me a lot.

Sometimes she would sit nearby while I trained alone.

She would read a book or pretend to sleep, but I knew she was watching me.

"Are you waiting for something to go wrong?" I asked her once.

"No," she replied without hesitation.

"I'm waiting to see when everything falls into place."

"What thing?"

"You."

Her words made me think.

Maybe it wasn't that I was broken.

Maybe... I just hadn't been put together yet.

And if that was the case... then I had to keep going.

Keep training.

Keep breathing.

Keep enduring.

Because sooner or later, that power that hadn't manifested itself yet, that energy that was dormant... would awaken.

And when it did...

I would be ready.

*

POV - Leyla

The smell of dried leaf tea floated in the air as I slowly stirred the hot water in the kettle with a wooden spoon.

"So? Did you say anything to her again?" I asked bluntly.

Olivia, sitting across from me with her legs crossed on the cushion, looked at me with concern, and I let out a long sigh. One of those that doesn't come from the throat, but from the soul.

"No. He didn't even look at her during dinner."

"Again?"

"Yes."

I leaned on the low table, between slightly cracked ceramic cups. I wasn't surprised. But it hurt.

Emilia was strong, yes. But she was also a child. And silence hurts more than shouting when it comes from someone you love.

"And what did she do?"

"The same as always. She pretended she didn't care. She smiled. She went to train alone."

Olivia and I had known each other for years. We didn't need many words to understand each other. But that day... we talked more than usual.

"Fortz seems like a man of few words," she said.

"I know. But this is different. It's not just harshness... it's fear."

"Fear?"

"Fear of losing her."

She fell silent. I stirred the tea in my cup. The sweet herbal aroma rose to my nose.

And then, slowly, I remembered.

"I saw it... you know? The first time Emilia took up the sword. He didn't say anything, but his face hardened. It was as if he saw a ghost in front of him."

"I know," said Olivia. "And you know why too."

I nodded.

"Her father. Emilia's grandfather."

Fortz was not a warrior like his father.

He never wanted to be one.

He respected him, of course.

He admired his strength, his leadership.

But he also... lived through his death.

When Emilia's grandfather fell in the war against the Demon King's hordes, Fortz was just a child.

He saw him leave.

And never return.

He grew up with a strong, silent mother who smiled without showing her teeth.

And since then, he hated steel.

Not for what it did.

But for what it took away.

"Did you know that Fortz stopped wielding a sword after he turned twelve?" I told Olivia.

"So young?"

"Yes. At eleven, he was one of the best in his class. His father trained him every day. But after the news... he never touched it again. He only kept the basics. Just enough to teach those who needed it.

And now Emilia has the same posture. The same fire in her eyes.

The same clean cut. The same tilt when she moves her hips before turning."

"It's like seeing him... again."

"Exactly."

I took a sip of tea.

"Do you know what hurts me the most?"

"What?"

"That he doesn't know. But she does notice. Emilia realizes it. How he avoids her. How he walks away as soon as he sees her training harder. And yet... she doesn't stop. Because she wants his gaze. His validation. Even if he doesn't say it out loud."

Olivia lowered her head.

"Emilia doesn't need his approval to be who she is..."

"I know. But he's still her father."

We were silent for a few minutes. Only the rustling of the wind through the old leaves of the tree in front of the window filled the room.

"What about you?" Olivia asked me. "Have you ever told him this?"

"Once. I told him that his silence could kill more than a sword. Do you know what he replied?"

"What?"

"I don't want to lose her. I don't want the same thing to happen to me. If I see her continuing down that path... maybe, once again, they'll take her away from me."

"And what did you say to him?"

"Then don't walk away, walk with her.

And if she falls... be the one to pick her up.

Not the one who stands by and watches from afar."

Olivia smiled.

"Sometimes I feel like you should be the wise one of the Tree."

"God forbid. With what the old men on the council talk about, I'd rather clean roots."

We both laughed.

But the echo of our concerns lingered.

"At least Emilia has you. Her friends. Luahn."

"Yes. Although lately they spend less time together. I think... they're starting to change. To grow up. To keep their own secrets."

"Like we did at their age."

"They'll have to... when the real storm comes."

I finished my tea.

Outside, the sun was beginning to set.

The breeze carried the scents of autumn leaves.

Somewhere in the village, Emilia was surely still practicing.

And Fortz... watched her from afar, silently, his fists clenched.

Both hurt by the same thing.

Both looking for a way not to break down.

And me...

I just hoped that when the time came, they would dare to speak.

Even if it was just once.

Because sometimes, one word is enough to keep two hearts from drifting apart forever.

*

POV - Emil

I still remember that feeling.

Not because it hurt.

But because it made me feel for the first time that I could die.

And not at the hands of a wise warrior.

Nor in a final battle.

But at his hands.

A mestizo.

A mistake of lineage.

A child without a true clan.

A child who, by right, should have been nothing.

Luahn.

That name became an annoying echo since he arrived at the academy.

Always quiet. Always watching. Always... out of place.

The others looked at him with pity or contempt.

I... hated him.

Not at first.

Not so much.

He just seemed like an aberration tolerated out of pity.

But the day he knocked me down... the day my back hit the ground in front of everyone...

Everything changed.

Together with my father Garien, we belong to one of the three founding families of the Wolf Clan of Sephros.

Since I was a child, I was taught that family honor is defended with claws.

That honor is not asked for: it is imposed.

Every step I take in the academy is not just my own.

It is the step of my ancestors, my mother, my older brothers, and all those in my family who gave their blood to maintain the order that protects this world.

And that day...

That damn day...

A boy who couldn't even use yang properly like the rest of us defeated me.

Since then, something inside me broke.

Arrogance, perhaps.

The idea that my honorable lineage was enough to put me above others.

But what was born from that confrontation was not respect.

It was hatred.

Silent.

It burned every time I saw him train.

Because I knew it wasn't luck.

I saw it.

I saw how he moved.

The way he breathed between lunges.

The way he turned his wrist when changing angles.

That way of fighting was not human.

Nor wolf.

It was his.

And that... terrified me.

"Is something wrong?" Remin asked me once, a superior who was passing by and an acquaintance of mine, also a member of one of the clan's leading families.

"No. Just... watching Luahn."

"Hmm, that guy?"

For some reason, when he mentioned him, his tone sounded a little bitter, but I didn't think much of it.

"What's wrong with him?"

"That guy could be dangerous."

"What do you mean?"

"What's hidden behind his eyes. He... isn't normal. He's not like us. He has something... dormant. And when it awakens, everyone will see it."

"And what are you going to do?"

"I won't let him leave me behind.

Never."

From then on, I started training differently.

I no longer cared about showing superiority to others.

I didn't waste time teasing.

I didn't need allies.

I needed to defeat him.

Him. Only him.

If anyone asked me why I was training so hard, I would respond with an excuse.

But in my mind... it was clear:

If I didn't surpass him now, when he mastered his elements... there would be no way to catch up to him.

Recently, we faced each other in a duel again.

And for the first time since that day, I felt ready.

The courtyard was silent.

The sand beneath our feet.

The dawn breeze moved the ribbons hanging from the flagpoles.

Our names were called.

"Emil."

"Luahn."

We stood face to face.

His eyes were calm.

My heart was at war.

"Ready?" asked the instructor.

I nodded.

So did Luahn.

And then the drum sounded.

I used wind to cut the distance.

Earth to modify the terrain.

My father always said that those who know how to control the environment control the battle.

But Luahn...

He wouldn't let himself be caught.

It was as if he knew my moves before I made them.

He deflected my attacks by inches.

His cuts were elegant.

No brute force, but relentless.

For five full minutes, neither of us dominated the other.

The master raised his hand.

"Draw!"

And even though I didn't fall...

I didn't win.

"You're not that rusty," I said as we sheathed our wooden swords.

"Neither are you," he replied.

There was a silence.

And for a moment... I almost felt respect.

Almost.

But then I remembered.

He still doesn't know how to use fire.

Or water.

Or lightning.

When he does... when he finally understands the power that runs through his blood...

It will be too late to stop him.

And that...

That is something I cannot allow.

Not against him.

Not against someone like Luahn.