9 Contender (1/2)

The morning started early for the king and the knight Bhalrom, they where in a balcony on a higher story of the castle, while Riou kept on dreaming, enjoying his so anticipated sleep of the just, no march early in the morning, or long discussions of magic in the night... it was the first time he could indeed rest.

The king was looking into the horizon, it was another beautiful summer day with a few clouds in the sky.

The last night he had met a strange boy, who was strangely praised by his old friend, who kept intentionally diverting or giving half answers... they remained there for a bit more but the rest of the night didn't bring him much information, so he decided to try another source... the boy had intrigued him that much...

- ”Say Bhalrom, you also had some time with the boy didn't you? I heard the details of how you found him last night. And now that Max and the boy are not around, I wanted you to tell me your personal impression of him...” - Said the king very curious on the knights opinion

- ”Well my lord... I did spent some time with the boy... I must admit, he grew on me the more I got to know him... I dare say he shown me so far nothing but courage and honor...” The knight was smiling proudly, as if a proud father praising his son qualities - ”Do you believe my lord he wanted to learn the sword? And the whole group of the First Army there taught the boy? Every single day at noon... he struggled a lot at first, he was a boy against veteran soldiers, but eventually he could pull off a win in the duel... of course the men probably were easy on him, but still...”

- ”Wait...” interrupted the king - ”Are you saying the boy trained with the First army for a month and was able to duel with the veterans? Not only dueling but winning as well?” asked an skeptic king...

- ”Yes, quite unbelievable story, he started not so well, but quickly shown a natural talent the men said... after a while he was very good, I can safely say today he could easily join the First in a year or two, just so he meet the minimum age... I can assure he is far better than the average soldier”

The king didn't know how to react to that... he asked seeking answers but the mysteries only grew bigger...

----------------- couple hours later

Riou woke up well rested... He slowly got up and looked at his clothes, he decided to put on his old clothes as the one for the night seemed expensive, so he didn't want to get them dirty or sweaty.

He put on his old outfit, it was a bit smelly but so was he... that dirt and old sweat was bothering him a lot, it was days since his last bath... and it was not a great one either, it was on a small river that the army camped by during the march... ”Ahh... I really could you a warm shower....” he thought remembering the simple pleasures of warm watter, he missed the comfort of a warm bath the most at that moment...where all he could do, was to use the water in the bowl to was wash his face and parts of his body...

He walked out of the room and started to explore the castle... he was only summoned for the evening, and seemed too early for lunch, so he intended to pass the time by getting to know the castle a bit more...

It didn't take long to find the garden...

It was massively big... he could see the walls surrounding the garden, it had green all over, it was leveled to be flat, but every now and then there was a step down, the castle was constructed on a plateau and was very irregular, the very end of the garden, at the start of the plateau it was much lower than where the castle was localized at the other side so it was leveled this way to have some flat surface, and each of the steps of this big stair could easily fit a very big house in...

He also noted some commotion, lots of noises going on not too far from where he was, very near to the castle... and curious he approached... and by turning a corner he could see what seemed to be an arena with stone bleachers, filled with people, people all over the place around the arena.

Some of them were soldiers, he recognize a few from the First Army, but there were a lot of different people, they seemed to be in the majority men and between 15 and 30, some of them were blond, some had dark and brown hair, but all of them seemed to be using a similar kind of vestment to the one he was given. They were all cheering and shouting...

The arena was a few steps higher than the ground, and was made of a flat round stone, there were no holds or cords, just a plain round flat rock above ground. Riou subtended that the one who felled would loose.

On top of the arena there was a man, around 30 years old, he was using a full armor very similar to the one the knight was using, holding a real two edged sword... he seemed very tired already...

On the other side of the arena, there was a woman, had a blond that almost seemed white, it seemed long but it was well tied up, eyes were of a crystal blue... her face was extremely beautiful despite the dead serious look towards her opponent... she was wearing a leather armor that protected her arms and chest, underneath it she was using what seemed to be a training outfit, very fit to her body and seemed made of a stronger cloth, similar to Riou pants. Her body was very nimble and proportional, Riou found her attributes very, very appealing... and compared her to be at the same level of many gorgeous models of his world.

She was holding a sword a bit thinner than the opponent with a much sharper point...

Even so she was able to deflect and redirect the opponent attacks with ease...

”I see, she opted for movement and agility, while he opted for defense... too bad her weapon can easily kill him... that armor is too flawed in the joints... with a bit of accuracy her sword can easily puncture them” he thought to himself..

Three men of the First that were near recognized Riou and approached him... - ”Hey Riou, came to see the duel?” asked the soldier of the First

- ”I didn't even know there was a duel... whats this about?” he asked curiously

- ”Well, every now and then a crazy noble challenges her, and we never miss a chance to see her wiping the floor with them!” Said proudly

- ”Many of us came in even on our off duty day, just to see this” complemented the other one admiring the fight...

- ”Ho, so this happens with frequency?” Asked Riou watching the duel as well...

- ”It's getting more frequent now, seems like the nobles are getting impatient lately... but say Riou, what do you think of her?” Said the soldier pointing to the woman fighter in the arena...

- ”She is smart and agile, she got the edge over the armored man, he is already tired for moving inside that armor and swinging against her... I bet she didn't even break a sweat yet... and she seems to be taking her time to finish in a single blow...” Analyzed Riou, the soldier was impressed by the spot on description of her way of fighting even more that the boy was seeing it for the first time.

- ”Say Riou, do you think you can win against her?” Asked the same soldier...

- ”Maybe...” Promptly answered Riou without thinking much... the soldier knew right then, Riou was confident enough that he could win... and said those words just to not boast himself... ”truly a humble boy...” the soldier thought..

The fight was quickly over, with the man in armor kneeling on the arena floor, heads down and sword to the face... she forced him on an overextend and then precisely wounding him on the shoulder of the arm that was holding the sword... the pain forced him to release it and so he fell exhausted and defeated... the wound was bleeding, but not so much that would indicate that the man suffered a vital strike, seemed liked the girl was very precise on her trusts indeed.

Some young men came to the rescue and removed the armored man from the arena, probably taken him inside for treatment... the girl remained in the arena... and another blond figure appeared... it was Kasius the prince... and he quickly claimed everyones attention...

- ”And another contender had fallen... seems like this young lady does not want to concede to anybody” - Laughter came out from the nobles, he continued - ”A shame that the duel was so quick... or perhaps we have another contender? Just for fun of course since it would not be fair with the lady if we forced another real match...” said the smiling and humorous prince... but suddenly the facade went down when he complemented coldly - ”don't you agree, Eileen?”

Her eyes were cold as ice, her face didn't even flinch, she stood there elegantly, but Riou could feel the animosity between them...

The blond woman calmly and very gracefully brought the sword up posing with it as a ready stance, signaling she would take on any kind of challenge...as if unable to refuse...

- ”Very well then, she agrees! Is there any new contender?” Said the prince looking around...