You are Noel Tiberius di Hazaran, royalty by blood and half-blooded monster by design, and you’re not someone who can be easily killed by normal means. So in working against the enemy that has invaded the continent where your kingdom lies, and which has been menacing the northern and western borders of Hazaran, you’ve found that you have some latitude in how you handle situations which might ordinarily be tense.

In this situation, an enemy officer is about to slash you with the straight razor he was using to shave when you infiltrated his barracks. Normally, you wouldn’t have any excuse to walk out of the encounter without so much as a scratch. This officer however treated you with a degree of common courtesy that you didn’t expect. In fact, when he suggested that he was only bothering to attack you because it would look bad for an officer to simply surrender when confronted with even an overwhelming challenge by his enemy, you were actually inclined to believe him.

So this time, you let him slash you across the face.

He stares at you in surprise. “You… didn’t even respond?”

“No,” you confirm.

“Like… at all?”

“Not at first,” you reply, swiftly grabbing hold of the blade and snapping it apart right at the axis where it pivots into and out of its wooden handle. “There.”

He stares at you, then glances down at what remains of the knife handle in his hand. Then his eyes flick down again when he hears you drop the blade onto the floor, before looking back up.

“... you’re about to kick my ass, aren’t you?”

“Correct.”
>1/2