“Th-that person j-just died. H-how c-can you act so normal?”

“Oh, that just happens sometimes. You don’t have to make a huge deal about it.”

“J-just happens!?”

Drei wasn’t sure what to feel, but his respect for his father outweighed anything else. He couldn’t allow himself to show weakness toward him, he felt he would be disappointed with him.

I really am pathetic. Feeling sick over just one dead body.

“Are you sure you are well? You can head back if you are not.”

“N-no that’s fine. The corpse took me by surprise, but I-I’m okay now.” Drei was still shaking.

“Well, if you are unbothered, then follow me.”

Drei was still a bit shaken, but he had unfroze and could formulate thoughts properly again.

I had no idea that even in the training grounds, there are still deaths. Even if you’re not deployed to fight, it seems that you still can’t escape all the bloodshed and death that war brings.

This made him want to be a knight much less than he had already wanted to.

“What do you do at the training grounds,” Drei asked. He stuttered, as the previous scene was still in his head.

“We train. More specifically, we duel. We duel until midday. That is all. That is what I wanted to show you: a few duels.”

“Why do you only duel from sunrise to midday?”

“Humans need their rest. Training from sunrise to sunset almost every day would be too tough on the human body.

“I see.”

Drei thought that made sense. His father had taught him that overworking yourself was bad for your body and could lead to an early grave.

“Come. Let us head over there.” he pointed to his right. “I am sure there is a good duel over there.”

Drei looked around and saw many duels happening around them. He wasn’t sure why his father wouldn’t just sit him down and watch one of the duels around them.

“You won’t learn anything from watching amateur knights duel. I do want you to witness for yourself what we do in the training grounds but I also want you to learn something from watching two skilled knights duel.”

“I understand.”

Drei thought that was a good idea. He wasn’t too keen on the idea of coming here, but watching two skilled knights have a duel of swords did excite him a bit.

The dead man was still fresh in his mind; there was a heavy feeling in his gut filled with several emotions that he himself didn’t quite understand. He did understand one thing, though: that scene was simply wrong. Not wanting to confront the emotions and doubts he had about it, he forced that scene and all the emotions down. Deep down, the feeling of wrongness (A/N: Wrongness? Is that a word? Well, I don’t care) still lingered, however.

“Oy, Neil. There you are.” A random knight called out to Neil. He was really buff and tall.

One thing Drei has noticed since entering the training grounds is that everyone has short hair. Many have even shaved their hair down to buzzcuts. Drei wasn’t surprised, though. He had told Drei that knights had to keep their hair short.

Drei sensed animosity coming from the knight, and it was directed at his father. This was a lot more obvious than the knight at the entrance.

“Draw your blade. Let’s fight.” The knight unsheathed his sword. Drei noticed a faint smile playing on his lips. He looked over to his father and saw the same smile.

I wish I could enjoy swordplay as much as these two.

At this point, Drei had an inkling as to the duel that his father wanted him to watch.

Neil then drew his sword as told and said nothing.

Neil then looked over at Drei. “Make sure you stay out of our way and pay attention.” Neil was practically beaming at this point.

The duel was on.

The other knight was the first to move. He held his sword to his right, slashing at Neil leftward. Neil countered by directly striking it back.

Neil immediately attempted to stab from that position. The knight ducked under the sword and moved in quickly from a crouched position and made an attempt to stab upward at Neil.

Neil countered by striking downward on the sword, causing the tip of the sword to touch the ground. Neil then slashed along his sword and while the knight was able to jump back just in time, he was still cut horizontally across his chest.

Neil and the knight continued exchanging blows, but it became obvious that Neil was dominating the entire match. They went on exchanging a few more blows but Neil defeated the knight by redirecting a stab while subsequently slashing the knight along the sword.

Neil held his sword to the knight’s neck.

“I…concede.” The knight looked very unhappy and seemed to have a hard time saying that.

Wow, I didn’t know Father was so good.

Drei watched the entire duel from start to finish without looking away. Drei wasn’t even sure if he had blinked the whole time.

Suddenly there was a large round of applause.

Wait, when did this crowd appear?

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Drei was so mesmerized by the duel, that he hadn’t noticed the crows of knights that had built up around him.

Aren’t you all supposed to be training?

“Hell yeah Neil!”

Many knights ran over to Neil to congratulate him.

Drei came to the realization that his father and the knight he was dueling must be a couple of the best knights that train here.

With that realization, Drei dropped his head.

“I wish I had been born with the same amount of skill as my father. I’d be just as good as him at swordplay if I was and...”

Maybe I would’ve loved swordplay and wouldn’t have to disappoint my father.

Realizing how talented his father truly was, he became a little envious. He thought that maybe if he had been born with the same skill, he would’ve loved swinging the sword, and therefore wouldn’t have to disappoint his father, which was the last thing he wanted to do.

“Do not mistake skill for talent, Drei,” came a voice behind him.

The voice was raspy. Drei recognized it, but he couldn’t place his finger on who it was. It was a voice that he hadn’t heard for quite some time, that he knew for sure.

Drei turned around and was greeted by an older man. He might’ve been in his early forties.

Drei recognized him. It had been about a year, but Drei still remembered him.

“Sir Dayne?

It was Sir Dayne, co-leader of the regiment in Schlezel. Drei saw him last year when he first started training with the sword. Sir Dayne had given him a few pointers and advice. Drei didn’t really know him very well, though. He had visited his father a few times before for reasons that Drei didn’t know of.

“Did you hear me? Do not mistake skill for talent,” Dayne repeated.

Drei wasn’t sure what he meant. “What do you mean by that? Aren’t skill and talent the same thing?”

“No,” Dayne shook his head, “they are not. Talent is potential that you were born with. Skill is how good you are at something as a result of hard work. Your father was indeed born talented, but he is as skilled as he is today as a result of his own hard work. It is the fruit of all the sweat and blood that he has put into practicing swordplay. It would do good for you to keep these words in mind.”

Then, he walked off.

As a result of his own hard work…huh.

…

“--rei. Drei!”

“Um, yes?”

Neil and Drei were walking back to their dwelling, as it had turned midday and training was over for the knights.

“Did you hear what I said?”

“Er–no, can you repeat that.”

Neil smiled ear to ear again. “Alright, what were–

Neil asked Drei the question again, but Drei didn’t hear him…again. He was deep in his thoughts, circulating what Dayne said around in his brain. He had been in deep thought ever since Dayne said those words to him. He eventually came to a conclusion.

I think Dayne is right. While potential is decided at birth, it’s mostly hard work that causes you to become skilled at swordplay. I never thought that you came out of the womb extremely skilled, but I didn’t think that hard work was practically everything.

After deep consideration, he decided to follow Dayne’s advice, and take his words to heart.

“--rei. Drei!!!”

Drei winced. “Um, yes?”

Neil sighed and frowned. “Forget what I said. It is clear to me that is matters not what I have to say to you.

Ah, he wants me to say how cool I think he is after seeing him fight like that, doesn’t he? I have no problems with that, he was pretty awesome.

“S-say what you had to say. I’ll listen this time, I promise.”

“...Your thumb is bleeding again.”

“Ah, shit.”

Drei’s thumb was bleeding again, as he had been in deep thought for quite some time again.

Neil frowned and turned serious. “Language,” he said firmly.

“R-right. My apologies.”

They arrived home and had lunch. Drei didn’t eat much, however. His appetite seemingly diminished.

After lunch Drei went to his room.

After sword training, if he wasn’t too fatigued, Drei would often draw in his room. Paper has recently become more accessible, as a new plant called the plapier, which is native to a newly discovered island off the east coast of the continent, essentially grew paper.

Today especially would be a good day to draw, as he wasn’t tired from training and he had a new scenery to draw.

However, something else was on his mind. Since his mind was no longer distracted by sword fights and contemplating what Dayne said, his brain went back to the horrific scene that he had witnessed when he first entered the training grounds. That’s why he didn’t eat much at lunch.

Before his mind could delve too deep into that, however, a strange mumbling coming from the other room drove him out of his thoughts. He recognized it as Alec’s voice.

Drei often heard Alec mumbling words that he couldn’t understand. What was really strange is that his mumbling sounded like an actually structured language, rather than plain gibberish.

He really is a strange child.

Suddenly, Neil burst through his door.

He really ought to knock.

Drei didn’t like how his father would burst into his room without knocking. He’d do it to Alec as well.

“It’s time to train. Grab your wooden stick and let’s go to our training area.”

“What?” Drei said in surprise.

“Language. We are training. You didn’t think this would be a free day off from your training just because I took you to the training grounds did you?”

Neil hit the needle on the head.

“O-of course not.”

Neil grinned, indicating that he knew that Drei was lying.

“Whatever you say,” Neil said, then left the room.

Drei then grabbed his wooden practice sword, and headed out with his father for training.

As usual, he couldn’t land a single hit on Neil. Nothing had changed in that aspect; Neil was way above him, and watching him fight today further instilled that belief in Drei.

In truth, that was really the only thing he learned watching two skilled swordsmen fight. It made Drei feel even more miserable and unmotivated about swordplay than before. Though, whenever Drei thought about how much he didn’t want to disappoint his father always seemed to reinvigorate his motivation, which still held true.

Deep down Drei knew that it was pointless to keep trying to make his father proud when it came to swordplay. He was going to disappoint him anyway when he turned 15, when he would refuse his father to join the army as a knight. But Drei couldn’t disappoint him yet.

That night, Drei laid in his bed and once again thought about the scene at the training grounds. This time, there was nothing to drive him out of his thoughts, and so his brain delved deeper into that scene. He remembered the thick, dark red blood that was spilled, and how it slowly flowed out of the man’s body; the brown tube-like guts that spilled out of his body; the empty and lifeless eyes; the man’s skin that was as pale as flour. And most of all, the sheer look of fear on the man’s face. The man was quite large, one that looked like he had few, if any, fears. And yet, he still feared death.

Drei began to feel sick, and he felt something rising up from his stomach.

Drei got up frantically, opened his window, and spilled his dinner on the ground outside.

Tears rolled down his eyes as he vomited everything that was in his stomach. The look on his face must’ve been pitiful.

What’s wrong with me?