Chapter 3: The Tournament Draws Near
THE clang of swords clashing echoed throughout the combat training grounds.
The training grounds, located in a corner of the Royal Palace, were mostly used by royal guards to practice their swordsmanship. It was enclosed by a circular wall, floored by hardened dirt, and under its partial roof stood a tiered platform.
As the sun began its descent, four shadowy figures practiced their sword skills on the training grounds.
Several others stood waiting on the outskirts, their gazes fixed on the two pairs of clashing opponents. Although they were some distance away, the onlookers gasped when they heard the woosh of one of the long swords being swung downward.
There was a tall, muscular, graying man in one of the dueling pairs. The man was a talented swordsman—he had capitalized on his stature to bring down his sword in a brilliant flash. He gave off the air of a soldier and was barking detailed feedback to his opponent even as he continued attacking.
“Deflect the attack to the outside and immediately take a defensive position. Watch the angle of your back leg,” said the man, known as General Riley.
General Riley came from a military family, but in his youth, he had made a name for himself through military battles and had eventually ascended to the title of military commander.
Aside from the occasional skirmish in neighboring countries, Luducia was a country at peace for the most part. Yet, for various reasons, General Riley hadn’t yet retired. He’d instead retained the title of general, stepped away from active service, and concentrated his efforts on training the younger generations.
The young man opposing him wore an ordinary military uniform. He nodded at General Riley’s instructions and held his short sword at a defensive angle. He wasn’t nearly as bulky as the general but almost as tall.
As he faced the experienced general, it seemed the best the young man could do was dodge and deflect his blows. He did, however, seem to have enough stamina to keep from running out of breath. Using a much shorter sword and facing a master opponent that never gave any openings for an attack, the tenacious young man was putting up a great fight.
The young man held firm with his defensive stance, never moving even to wipe the sweat dripping from his brow.
Then he gasped.
There was a metallic crash as the short sword was knocked from the young man’s hands.
Without a moment’s hesitation, the general swung his sword back around for the finishing blow, but the young man leaped to the side and fell to a knee, narrowly avoiding it. When the general swung again, the young man swiftly raised his scabbard above his head and caught the blow.
“Oho!” the general laughed. “You’ve improved.”
“Surely…this is enough…” the young man huffed.
The general smiled as he saw the commanding fire behind the young man’s calm gray eyes, but he didn’t let up.
“Fine. You get passing marks for your control over your sword and movements.”
But even so, the general waited until he had made sure the young man hadn’t relaxed his grip or let his guard down before he drew back his sword. The young man took a step back and sighed with relief.
The tension vanished from the air surrounding them. Even the onlookers, who’d been watching and gulping nervously, felt a wave of relief.
“If you can hang in there that long, I think you’ll do just fine,” said General Riley, offering out a hand.
The young man returned the scabbard to his waist and accepted the hand up, but that very moment, without any advanced warning, the general swung his short sword toward his neck.
A dull sound echoed throughout the grounds, and a full, satisfied grin spread across the general’s face.
Just before the sword made contact with the young man’s neck, it collided against an invisible barrier, chipping the tip and sending a large crack running down the blade.
The two men stared at one another, hands still clasped. Then, simultaneously, both men smiled.
“Oho! An instantaneous magical deployment of a concentrated defensive barrier. Very impressive, Prince Edward.”
“I do value my life, General Riley.”
The general and Edward were locked in a stalemate, gripping each other’s hands tightly. Both were slightly out of breath and chuckling fearlessly. Suddenly, the other dueling pair ran up to them in a panic.
“What are you two doing?!”
“G-General!”
Without taking his eyes off the general, Edward answered nonchalantly. “So you’re done too, Alec? Who won today?”
“Hold your horses! Look, could you just practice normally? I’m begging you. Kevin and I were so worried about you guys we could barely duel ourselves!”
Kevin wore a senior officer military uniform and looked rather harried as he separated General Riley and Edward. The color drained from Kevin’s face as he took the short sword from the general’s clenched hand.
“Y-You weren’t even using a blunted blade?! Did you actually want to hurt him?!”
Edward was practicing his defensive strategies against assassins. However, using a real blade during practice was usually forbidden—even more so against a member of the royal family.
“Look, that’s what he’ll be up against in real life.”
“That’s not the problem here!” Kevin objected. “Edward dying during training would totally defeat the purpose of training at all! This is just practice! Praaac-tiiice! Do you understand that word, General?”
General Riley groaned.
“Kevin never lets up on the nagging, despite being my own flesh-and-blood grandson. I do take how he’s fairing into account when I attack, you know,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Be that as it may!” Kevin said, bristling indignantly.
However, the general was known as someone who always—even in the military—taught practical fighting skills based on real-world combat.
Moreover, it’d been Edward who came up to General Riley and told him that, not having fought in a while, he wanted to gauge his current skill level.
Only now that he was physically separated from General Riley did Edward relax his battle-ready posture. The hard barrier of air surrounding him had vanished.
Edward picked up his sword, which had previously been sent flying, and turned to the others with his usual smile.
“I’m sorry for startling you two, but I did learn a lot from that fight.”
“I know, Prince Edward, but still…” said Kevin awkwardly, looking at the broken sword. “And anyway, didn’t Sandona make that blade? My goodness! This one sword is worth my whole salary for the month!”
“It’s sharp, but it’s not strong enough,” the general grunted.
“That’s just because of your brutish strength!” Kevin snapped back. “You’re more than welcome to start acting your age and wither away! And anyway, it broke because Prince Edward’s defensive barrier was as hard as a rock!”
General Riley feigned deafness as Kevin continued to scold him.
The reason Kevin levied complaints against the greatly respected general wasn’t because they were related—it was in large part due to his temperament.
Both General Riley and Kevin had dark, chestnut hair, hazel eyes, and, deep down, very similar personalities.
“Did your defensive barrier really get stronger again, Ed?” asked Alec, unable to hide his surprise.
“Yeah,” Edward replied, brows gently furrowing, “but it seems like it would be better with a little more flexibility.”
“Quite right,” agreed General Riley. “To bring down your enemies, you must entice them to lower their guard by offering some reaction. But for defensive barriers, Sir Dion can help you more than I could… Oh, Finneas has come back from training! He could help you with that, too. Shall I tell him to pay you a visit, Your Highness?”
“Good question…” Edward said, pondering it.
There were many magical techniques that influenced movement. The “defensive barrier” that Edward used was like a shield that could cover his body partially or entirely. There was also a magical technique that could extend the person’s duration in the air while jumping. Harold was particularly good at that technique, and he used it adeptly during mid-air battles.
It took a lot of time to get used to using these techniques. Naturally, you needed substantial magical power and control to use them at all.
“I’ll try working on it on my own for a little bit longer.”
“You’ll have to get a sword that won’t slip out of your hands ready by our next duel, eh?” teased General Riley.
Edward laughed. “I wonder if you’ll finally manage to get my neck next time, General.”
“Well, I certainly look forward to seeing how you improve, Your Highness.”
With a slight muscle spasm, Alexander sighed and slumped his shoulders. “Don’t have such an unsettling discussion with such calm faces!” he said weakly. “But you know…the fact that you can do that much brings peace of mind from a security perspective.”
“My sword and my magic are for self-defense. I have these gentlemen to depend on for offense,” said Edward, turning to face the men waiting in the wings.
Darios, the other guard knight assigned to Edward for the day, and the healer in charge of first aid all jolted into a perfectly upright standing position.
“You are too modest, Your Highness. And, who knows, with ten more years of tireless basic training, you may be able to defeat me one day!”
“A decade, huh? Yeah, I’ll leave that job to Kevin.”
“If you’re being serious, I’d rather put an end to things here, not have to wait ten years…” grumbled Kevin. “But regardless, it’s already late, so we should call it a day.”