The old man looked at his young student on the other side of his dark office. The old man stood tall, especially compared to his young charge, his heavy muscles rippling under his dark skin. The child was impressive too, for one so young. With a tight build that showed much strength yet to come. They both stood in seemingly relaxed stances but the old man had his every muscle coiled, ready to act in an instant. Finally, the man spoke with a powerful booming voice that seemed to have been calculated to intimidate as much as possible, and probably was:

"Well child, you seem to be finally old enough to begin walking the path of the eternal battle. All those years where you trained your body and mind under tutors are over. Now, you learn the subtle art of death that we must all learn. Listen well, for every lesson will be taught only once.

"As you already know, we, of the most powerful of all Aristo houses, have achieved our power by weeding weakness out, giving power only to the strongest and smartest of us all. You remember the crooked tile everyone steps around in the northern wing? This stupidly clumsy trap has been set so long ago, we cannot even read the sign on it anymore and yet, we leave it there to weed out the hopelessly weak. You remember the day your brother stepped on it right? Such foolishness, if he hadn't died from the poison, I would've killed him myself.

"Aside from traps, I will teach you to make and avoid poisons, and also how to recognise them so that you know who tried to kill you. If someone is foolish enough to get caught when trying to kill someone else, it is only fitting that be the one to die. I will also teach you the art of dissimulating weapons on yourself, but I expect you to quickly become good enough at unarmed combat to not require such base trickery to succeed.

"Since you are my trainee, you are expected to attempt to kill me once a week and this is how I will evaluate you progress. Once I evaluate you as good enough, I will begin to reciprocate and finally, on the day I die, you shall be a true Aristo of House Raina.

"Of course, I will also teach you the arts of the common Aristo so that you can hide the ways of House Raina from the fools of the other houses. I will teach you about decorum and etiquette, along with poetry and music so that you may act in the proper way for your breeding. Become good to those, because any Raina that gives the slightest hint of our true ways shall be an enemy of all his peers."

-Written by Hunterminator