Drei
“GAH.”
“Retrieve your sword and face me again.”
Drei was practicing with the sword with his father, Neil, in a field not far from their home. He had just had his sword knocked out of his hand and he had been knocked to the ground.
He didn’t respond to his father right away. He laid flat on his back staring up at the purple sky. He was heavily bruised and was covered in sweat from today’s sword training. Well, not all of the bruises were from today. Many were from the days prior.
Drei grit his teeth in heavy frustration. Dammit! It feels like no matter how much work I put in, I’m not getting any better. I haven’t even been able to lay a scratch on him.
He was breathing heavily. From both anger and extreme fatigue.
Neil walked over, standing over him and looking down at Drei’s face.
He was one of those people whom you could tell you didn’t want to mess with just by looking at him. In reality, though, he was actually a nice man. However, right now, his demeanor matched his behavior.
“I thought I told you to go retrieve your sword and to come face me again,” Neil said with a chilling tone.
“Y-yes Father.”
“Who do you think you’re calling ‘Father’. You are to call me ‘Sir.’”
“Y-yes Fa—I mean Sir.”
Drei’s voice stuttered a bit. His father was a caring man, but when he was mentoring Drei, Neil was no longer his father, he was his teacher. Drei couldn’t help but stutter, not because he was fearful of his father, but because of the sudden change in personality and the different way in which his father spoke to him and treated him.
Drei went to retrieve his wooden sword. They were not real, of course. An accident could easily happen if they were, as Drei has only just started learning the sword a year ago.
He picked it up and went back towards his father, before adopting a proper stance. One that would allow him to easily defend himself, but also strike at a moment's notice.
“Your vision is too narrow,” Neil said. “You need to be able to see every little movement that your opponent makes.”
Drei couldn’t help but furrow his eyebrows in annoyance. He had heard his father say that a million times over the past year.
Drei took a breath, pushing down his emotions. One of the first things that his father taught him was that he cannot get emotional during a fight; he cannot become rash. He must stay calm and push down any emotions that threaten to take hold.
Drei stepped in close, making an attempt to stab Neils’s heart, but Neil was able to parry
Their swords connected and intertwined. Drei knew he couldn’t beat his father in a battle of brute strength, so he twisted his sword hand downward and struck upward, causing Neil’s arm to fling upward along with his sword.
Drei was pretty proud of that move.
However, before Drei could take advantage of the opening and strike at Neil, Neil recovered and attempted to stab through his forehead.
Drei deflected it in such a way where Neil’s sword would veer right beside Drei’s head.
Drei thought he had his chance when he parried the blow. Drei took the opening and moved in to stab Neil in the chest.
Neil had other plans, however: When Drei was in reach, Neil punched him square in the cheek. Hard.
Drei was knocked back and landed on the ground. He also let go of his sword in the process, causing it to fly in a random direction.
Drei was in a daze for a few seconds. It had all happened so fast, it took him a moment to realize that he was on the ground.
Drei soon came back to reality, and with it came the stinging pain from his cheek as well as the the pain and soreness of the bruises that he had accumulated over the last several days.
Drei stood up in anger. “Hey! That’s not fair.”
“What is not fair?” Neil said with the same expression of seriousness that he had had all day.
“This is a swordfight! You can’t just punch me square in the face!”
“And why is that?”
“W-well that’s—”
“You must understand something,” Neil said sternly, “this is a fight. On the battlefield, its life or death. It does not matter whether you have a sword in your hand or not, you use whatever means to defeat them, because if you don’t, you will die. A fight is a fight. There are no rules in a fight. There are no rules in war either.”
Drei opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He realized that his father was right. He bit his lip and dropped his head.
Neil approached him, put his hand on Drei’s shoulder, smiled, and said, “Let’s go home Drei. The sun is setting. Go retrieve your sword and let’s walk home.”
He was back to being Drei’s father.
They walked home in silence. That was until Neil broke that silence a few minutes into their walk home.
“You did well today son.”
You call that well? I couldn't even land a hit.
Neil continued. “I know you believe your progress as a swordsman has stunted. But trust me son, you are becoming better. Even when you were extremely fatigued, you kept going. For the most part, your movements do not become sluggish anymore when fatigue hits you. That is because it is becoming second nature to you. Your body just naturally knows to move. That is becoming better.”
Drei frowned, not convinced. “I still am unable to land a hit on you, though.”
“Haha,” Neil laughed. “You have only been learning the sword for one year. Plus you have never been in a real fight. You have much much less experience than I.”
He did once say that experience is the most important part of swordplay
As for technique, that isn’t really something that can be taught. Once you learn the fundamentals, you develop your own technique and style of using the sword. Other things like reaction time and having a broader vision so you can detect even the smallest motion that your opponent takes, are all important, but, again, it all goes back to experience.
“I will be taking you to the training grounds tomorrow at dawn,” Neil said.
Drei widened his eyes and looked up at him. “Really?”
That was the place that knights went to train. Almost everyday, knights went there to train. This was of course because they could be deployed for war, amongst other things, at any moment.
“Yes.”
Drei looked away so his father couldn’t see the expression on his face.
As for the expression on Drei’s face: it was a frown.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
…
Soon enough, they made it back home. The place where Drei trained, a small field just outside the town, was only a 15 minute walk.
They live in a small town near the western border of the country, Paelo, which was in the Southeast corner of the world. Paelo shared a border with only two countries, to the North and to the West. They lived near the city that Neil went to report to duty, which was called Schlezel. The city was close. Only a 30 minute walk or so. People always wonder what the point of the town Drei and his family live in, since it is so close to the big city, but it was said that 100 years ago, the city of Schlezel was just as small a town as the town that Drei lives in, which is called Fraej, and were once much further away from one another.
Drei and Neil entered the house and were greeted by Drei’s mother, Sessa.
Sessa was a housewife. She did much of the work around the house and took care of the children.
“Welcome home,” she said, and gave a smile.
She was holding a baby in her hand, named Karine. She had only been born a month ago.
“Hello, Babe” Neil said before kissing her.
“I’ve been keeping your food warm by putting it over a fire. Go on and have a seat in the dining room.”
Drei and Neil did as told, and took their respective seats at the dinner table.
Sessa came over and set their plate in front of them. She then sat in her own seat, still with Karine in her arms. Sessa had likely already eaten, but she sat down to chat.
Both Drei and Neil held their plates up high.
“To the gods,” they both muttered.
It was believed that the steam pleased the gods.
“Well, how did it go?” Sessa inquired. “You were out much later than you usually are. You are often home by the time supper is ready. It’s quite late.”
Terrible. I got my ass kicked…again.
“He did well,” Neil said. He had the opposite opinion. “He has been steadily improving over the last year. I have decided to take him to the training grounds tomorrow.”
Sessa’s eyes widened. “Oh, already? I thought it’d be at least another year before you took him there. I trust your judgment, though. Drei, you better be prepared to wake up early tomorrow.”
I still don’t understand how he thinks that I’ve been doing well and am ahead of schedule in my training. Maybe he has a bad case of parental bias.
No matter how many times Neil told Drei that he was improving much faster than he had thought he would, Drei had convinced himself that his training had been going terribly. In all the time he had been training with his father, he hadn’t yet landed even one strike on him. Drei thought he should’ve been able to land at least one blow, even though his father is a very good swordsman. At least, that’s what Drei believed.
“Are Brother and Father home?” came a squeaky voice from down the hall.
It was Drei’s five year old brother, Alec. His eyes were half closed and he was scratching one of them.
The expressions on Drei’s parents’ faces immediately soured.
“Yes, they have returned,” Sessa said. “We were just talking about how your father is going to take Drei down to the training grounds tomorrow.”
The age gap between the two was abnormally large, being seven years. However, Drei often thought that his maturity was well beyond his years, and sometimes felt that he was the younger brother. Some of the things that Alec said, did, or was able to understand indicated that he was very mature for his age.
“Ah, I see,” was all he said before he went back to his room.
To Drei’s parents, Alec wasn’t really part of the family. He never sat at dinner with them and they treated him poorly overall. This was because Alec was blind. Well, not completely blind, but blind to the point where he was unable to fight with a sword. The doctor described his vision as being very narrow, with even the small part of the vision that he had being very blurry and colorless. So he was also colorblind.
Drei felt bad for Alec, but, secretly, he was also a little envious. Well, not about being treated poorly. The family that Drei and Alec were born into (their family name was Geude) was a knight family. All men born into the family would become knights, whilst women would find a man and become housewives. Alec was blind, however, so he would never be able to handle a sword (Drei wasn’t actually sure what his family had planned for Alec in the future, as he couldn’t be a knight). Drei didn’t want to be a knight. He didn’t want to risk the potential of being deployed and dying and killing. He wanted to live peacefully. He knew that if he voiced this to his parents, he would be beaten. He knew that his parents would disown him and would never talk to him again when he refused to join the army when he was old enough to in three years. He made his decision, though. And had thought long and hard.
The family continued eating their meal in silence. Alec’s appearance seemingly spoiled the mood.
They finished the rest of their meal and retired for the night.
…
Drei was woken up by his father in the early hours of the morning.
“Wake up, Son,” came a familiar voice, followed by someone shaking him. The voice was a whisper
Drei sat up.
“Pft,” Neil laughed. “You look like a zombie. Meet me outside. If you take too long I will leave without you. And clean yourself up a little as well. You can start with the drool hanging from your mouth.” Neil then left.
Drei, still half asleep, wiped the drool off his face and went to the washroom.
A few minutes later, he met his father outside.
Neil was in full iron armor–excluding the helmet, which was tucked under his right arm–and had his sheathed sword on his left hip.
When Neil saw him, he nodded. “Now, let us be off.”
They engaged in idle chatter as they headed towards the training grounds.
It was very early in the morning, which was evident by the pitch-black sky. One of the moons was nearly full, but that moon is very dim. The other, brighter, and bigger moon was only a crescent, so they needed to bring a lantern to see where they were going. Tomorrow, Neil would get the day off, as he always would when one of the moons was full. The nights of full moons were considered a time of ill-oman. People would pray and offer up sacrifices to the gods. And when there were two full moons, all of the hysteria was intensified ten-fold.
Whenever there was a pause in Neil and Drei’s conversation, the night turned deathly quiet. It was like they were the only ones left living in an empty world.
The reason they didn’t take their horses out was because it was only a 30 minute walk to get from their home to the training grounds. That and because the horses were asleep.
As Drei and his father walked, Drei looked up at the night sky. He had always enjoyed looking up at the night sky. Seeing the thousands of stars in the sky always seemed to mesmerize him. It also allowed him to clear his head and think.
He thought back to the training he had been through over the few years of his life. Before his father had ever put a sword, real or fake, into his arms, Neil first put him through training that built his strength and stamina. Neil then put him through training that would heighten Drei’s flexibility, before finally putting a sword into his arms. However, he hadn’t actually started sparring until a year ago, as he first had to do several practice swings and be able to run with his sword.
“--eii–Drei!”
Drei winced in surprise, as his father’s words snapped him out of his thoughts.
“Your hand is bleeding,” Neil said.
“Goddammit,” Drei said.
Drei had a bad habit of scratching his thumb with his index finger whenever he was deep in thought. If he was in deep thought for too long, his thumb would begin bleeding. Drei thought that he ought to break this habit.
Neil frowned. “You know I dislike that type of language.”
“Right, sorry.”
Drei’s father was big on language. He had tried to raise Drei to use more sophisticated language, and never failed to scold him when his language turned crass. He would even hammer Alec on it even though he was just a five year old boy. It was much the same for Drei when he was younger. Alec was much better at it than Drei when he was five, though.
Drei didn’t really understand why his father was so big on language use, but he didn’t care much.
“There it is,” Neil said.
They were coming up on what Drei assumed to be the training grounds. It was a large area, but it was surrounded by walls, so Drei couldn’t see what was on the interior. One thing did perplex Drei, though.
“I thought we would be heading into the city.”
“Well, it is technically on the outskirts of the city.”
“I see.” Drei frowned. He had been hoping to enter and see the city.
They walked up to the gate that Drei assumed led inside.
There were two guards guarding the gate. They were both muscular and you could tell they had a lot of training. They each held swords with gray, chainmail armor, though they weren’t wearing helmets.
The one on the right was very slender. He had short, brown hair with blue eyes. Based on his demeanor, Drei thought that he seemed like a major rule-follower and extremely serious when it came to the rules.
The knight on the left was a bit shorter, albeit not necessarily short. He had a blond buzz cut with a thick beard. He also had blue eyes. Drei thought that he had a lot of pride for being a knight.
“Ah, wassup Neil, you’re late.”
“Sorry, but could you forgive it just this once. This is my first time being late in years. Can you please let it go.” Neil said with a strained smile. He didn’t say that he was actually a bit late because of waiting on his son. Drei took notice of that.
The knight on the left, who hadn’t said anything up until now, noticed Drei. “Who’s the squirt?”
“This is my son,” Neil said, still with that strained smile. Drei got the feeling that his father didn’t like these two.
The knight on the left looked back at Neil. Drei wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw a faint scowl on the knight’s face.
Drei decided to step forward and introduce himself. He raised his left hand and placed three fingers on his chest. It was considered respectful to do so when introducing yourself.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, my na–
“Will you please open the gates for us?” Neil said, cutting him off.
Um…what?
Drei was very confused as to why Neil cut him off.
“He’s kinda like a mini version of you: he looks like you, talks like you. I wonder what else is similar.” Drei was sure he wasn’t imagining the scowl at this point.
“Will you please open the gates for us?” Neil said again. Drei could tell by his left eyebrow twitching that he was beginning to lose his composure.
“You think your little pipsqueak of a son can handle the purge?”
“I trust my judgment,” Nel said firmly
A few seconds of awkward silence passed.
“Tch. Fine, go ahead.”
He opened the gate to allow them inside.
“The purge?” Drei asked.
“It’s slang for the training grounds.”
When the gate finished opening, Drei and his father walked in and Drei froze on the spot, eyes agape, at the sight before him.
A dead man that had been split into two lied on the ground beneath them. He had been severed at the waste. Drei could see the guts that had been spilled from the body. Dark red blood still oozed from this person’s body.
Drei couldn’t even make a noise. He just stood there frozen in horror.
“Ah, wazzup Neil,” a random knight said. “You're late today. That’s quite the rarity. Did something happen? Who’s the kid…um is he okay?
“Nothing happened in particular. This is my son, Drei…er, are you all right, son?” Neil had a confused look on his face.
Drei didn’t answer. He couldn’t even form complete thoughts right now, let alone complete sentences. He just stood there shell-shocked, staring at the dead body.
Neil and the knight looked down at what he was looking at.
“Ah, right,” the knight said. “Sorry about that. I forgot to clean it up. Mah bad.”
He then picked up the body and went off somewhere.
“Drei?” Neillooked down at Drei. “Are you all right?”
Drei felt like he needed to cry or scream or something. But, he just stood there frozen.
After a few more seconds Drei was finally able to muster up words. “H-how,” Drei’s voice was full of fear, “h-how c-can y-y-you act so normal?”
“What do you mean?” Neil looked genuinely confused.