alongside the knights who guarded the castle.
Katashi had often played knight with his parents as a little boy and he envied everyone who wore armor. He had practiced a lot and now he had the opportunity to test the skills he had learned.

Osamu had watched the action from a safe distance. He nodded and said to himself "you have taken the first step, now take the second" Osamu turned his back to the window. He walked slowly but steadily towards a book held by a wooden stand. He read the last paragraph and then turned the page.
Every now and then I could hear a sigh, a cough or an "hm". His eyes followed the words word for word, sentence by sentence, line by line, until he finally turned another page."Come in, the door is open," Osamu said before the maid could knock on the door. The door opened slowly and the maid, who might have just turned sixteen, stepped into the room that was the attic of the castle. "Katashi Kazuki has decided against it and is fighting with the knights to defend the castle" the girl had lowered her gaze on the ground. "I know, I know" The girl had closed the door behind her back. "Ai, take care of Katashi Kazuki a bit," the girl nodded her head as a sign that she had understood the order. Then she left the attic and closed the door behind her back. Osamu, however, went back to the window. He watched the boy cross the sword with his opponent.

It was now half an eternity and the fight did not want to end.But finally the guards managed to put a curse on the strangers.

Ai accompanied Katashi Kazuki back to his room. A guard dragged him there on his back. He was badly wounded in the fight.
In the room the guard laid the wounded man on his bed. "That could burn a bit," she pressed a cloth soaked with schnapps onto one of the many open wounds. The blue-haired screwed up his eyes and looked in the opposite direction.
The security guard had gone to fetch the doctor. This should sew the wounds together. Ai cleaned and disinfected the wounds for so long. "You fought bravely," she smiled slightly. "Leave me alone" Katashi stared at the ceiling. "You can say what you want, I saw through you long ago" Ai was still smiling. "Sure," Katashi had a slightly arrogant tone in his words. He wanted to be left alone with all that stuff.And yet he was confronted with it over and over again. His grandpa always said that one day they would come and get you. When his mother noticed what nonsense the old man was talking about, she persuaded the boy that Grandpa was making up the stories. She needed her boy, who else would bring the food home?

The doctor entered the room. "Where is the wounded man?" He put his small suitcase on the floor next to the bed. "Oh, that's one of the chosen ones" Ai nodded and stepped aside so that the doctor could get closer to Katashi. He took a thread from his suitcase that had been stored in a bowl of schnapps. He pulled it through the opening of a needle that had been like thread in an alcohol bowl. With the tool he sewed up a wound on Katashi Kazuki's arm. It stretched from the neck to the elbow. Katashi gritted her teeth.Despite the pain he was in, he didn't shed a single tear.

When the doctor finished and left the room again, Ai was the only one who was still with Katashi. She took the water jug ​​that was on the floor and poured some water into the mug that was on the small bedside table. She finally gave this to Katashi so that he could drink, since he had lost a lot of blood.
He took it, drank it and gave it back to Ai. "Why are you here? I mean, you are still quite young ”Katashi looked at Ai. “You know, I've been here all my life. My parents died when I was very young. Osamu took me in and put me in his service ”Katashi listened to the story that told of Ai's life.
When she was born, her father drowned in a lake a few days before the birth. He wanted to take the boat out again and pull out the nets. "It is a lot of work to mend the nets," he said at the time.Then he was already out the door. He had been found dead on the shore after the storm. He died by drowning. Ai's mother died during childbirth. The woman who stood by Ai's mother during the birth brought the child to Osamu, who had taken it and given it to a mother who had also had a child so that she could raise it. At the age of six, Ai was brought to the castle so that she could continue her life as a maid there.

Katashi swallowed when he heard the story.
Ai had left the room so Katashi could rest. He would need a lot of strength because the next day would definitely not be easy.

The next morning the rooster crowed. Katashi was woken up by Osamu. This rudely shook the blue-haired boy out of his dreams. "Wake up you slacker" he had yelled at him.
Katashi rubbed her eyes sleepily. "What is?! “He straightened up in his bed and scratched his head.His hair was disheveled from the night and scratching his head didn't make it any better. “I want to see you standing in the courtyard below. So you have time to get dressed and to eat ”with these words Osamu disappeared as quickly as he came.

Fifteen minutes passed and Katashi was standing in the courtyard below. He was still not fully awake. He tried to hide a yawn with the palm of his hand when the Guardian walked up to him. “And have you rested well? “He had swords in both hands. "Here" he threw a sword to Katashi. "I want to see how good you really are," he kept the other sword and walked with quick steps towards Katashi. This was just able to evade. His wounds weren't quite healed. But that didn't seem to interest the guardian. “You can do that even better. And don't worry about your wounds, they will heal again, and besides, a little exercise won't harm anyone.Oh and before I forget, I'll be your sword art master until you have finished your training, do you understand that ?! “The Guardian didn't seem to care if he was still wounded and worn out from the fight that had taken place the day before. "Yes" Katashi was still not fully awake. "I can't hear you" came from the headmaster forcefully. "Jaha" Katashi was really awake now. He raised the sword and started a fight with the guard, who wanted to know how good Katashi was already at swordsmanship.

Ai just came by with a couple of eggs in the basket that she had fetched from the hen house. // The poorest, his wounds have not yet healed properly and he has to start with the exercises Osamu has in store for him // She continued with slow steps because she wanted to look closely at Katashi's movements. You could see that he wasn't doing so well yet.

Katashi just landed face down in the dirt.The Guardian had given him a kick that made him fall to the ground. “Come on, you did better yesterday! “Katashi got up willingly again. He could have just stayed where he was, but he didn't want to be offended. The watchman would have only been waiting to be able to call him stinking crap or something like that.

Osamu watched the boy in all his activities that he had to do during the days.
The boy had to study from morning to evening. It has been tested and verified. Got rehearsals and exercises, all of which he passed to his satisfaction.

A year had passed by now.
He got to know Naomi Yoshi and Michiko really well. The two were already twenty years old. Naomi Yoshi and Michiko were twins and had been there much longer than Katashi Kazuki. The blue-haired boy learned how to behave in a team. That he could always rely on the others.
From then on, the three were inseparable.They roamed the country together.
The book Osamu Katashi had given back then was always with him on his travels. Even when he was visiting his real family, he would read it in the evenings.