I stood in a long line of men, who were All giving me weird looks. Seriously, even though there was some prejudice about women fighting, they didn’t have to look at me like I was the first woman they’ve seen with a blade….Firesong didn’t seem to like the stares either, she (I had visited an expert in the field of bird to verify her gender) was perched on my shoulder, her wing still wrapped in a cast, and she leaned as close to my head as possible, trying to hide her brilliant red head in my short hair. I stroked her feathered head, trying to soothe her. She gave a soft trill of appreciation at my touch….and leaned her full weight against my head.

The line in front of me slowly moved forward as more and more men finished their registration for the tournament. Finally it was my turn at the table, I walked up to the man sitting at the table. He grunted without bother to look up.

“Name and age?”

I cleared my throat with a slight cough and the man looked up, irritated, then froze with a surprised look running across his face. I smiled sweetly, then tapped my throat and shook my head, indicating I couldn’t speak. He just stared at me.

“Y-you’re a Woman.”

Oh dear, surely this guy had seen a girl before…..he certainly isn’t acting like it...I raised an eyebrow at him and he blushed slightly.

“I-I mean woman shouldn’t be signing up for this, especially one as lovely as you Miss. There are a lot of strong people gathering here, y-you could get hurt!”

I rolled my eyes and held a hand out for the paper, he handed it over while continuing to protest.

“You really shouldn’t, I know there isn’t anything against it in the rules listed, but there hasn’t ever been a female royal guard in the entire history of Serac, you might not even be excepted If you end up winning.”

Ignoring the man, I scrawled my name and the age twenty five down, no one would believe me if I wrote my Real age...I firmly slid the paper back to the man and walked away to the waiting area.

Sitting down on one of the prepared benches, I stared down each and every man other man in the area staring at me until they were forced to look away. There were however, a few that actually ignored me, those were the ones I paid special attention to, their focus spoke of skill and proper training, they would be the real challenges in this fight. More and more men filed into the area, all of them giving me a long stare. Then, the meaty idiot strolled in. He was bulky and tall, with bulging muscles and a huge broadsword strapped on his back. He took a long look around the waiting area with an arrogant smirk on his face until his small eyes fell on me, and a flash of surprise froze his gaze on me. Then a disgusting leer filled his eyes and he strolled towards me in an overbearing manner.

“Why hello little lady, what is a delicate thing like you doing in here?”

He flexed his big muscles as he addressed me and I rolled my eyes and turned away from him in a dismissive manner, at the same time giving him a good view of my blades in hope that he would take the hint.

“Oh now, no need to act like that, you’re looking at the next royal guard, it would serve you better to be more…...friendly.”

I gave him a stony glare at that rude comment, then once again turned my head away dismissively. He moved even closer.

“Awwww, playing hard to get? Come on, the only reason a pretty girl like you would be here is to attract a strong man, there isn’t any reason to act like this...”

He moved to grab my arm, and in a lighting motion I drew one of my blades and pressed the tip against his neck, just hard enough to draw a few drops of blood. Everyone else in the group was now watching us, including the men I had determined to be the true competition. The big man froze, his eyes slightly bulging. I stared straight into his face, a murderous expression on my face. He slowly raised his hands.

“N-no need to be so touchy, I was just being friendly.”

I snorted, friendly, right, more like overbearing and annoying. The man slowly began to move away, I let him go, but kept my blade out and ready. After getting out of the range of my blade, the man moved quickly away from me, his face bright red.

“Crazy woman...”

I returned my blade to it’s sheath and gazed around at the group of men. I gave a soft sigh, the men I had noticed were now paying attention to me with sharp eyes, I had hoped to keep a low profile in strategic move to make them underestimate me, but the stupid ox man had ruined that….

Another hour passed, but not a lot more men came in, the majority of them already signed up. I continued to get strange looks, but no one did a repeat of the muscle-brained idiot, so I was left to warm up in peace, stretching my muscles in preparation for the fight. Firesong perched on my chair, watching me, and getting comfortable as I would be leaving her there for the remainder of the fight.

The first section of the tournament was a battle royale, where the mass of competitors was split into four massive groups. Each group of fighters would have to keep fighting, knocking people out of the sand arena to the water moat below or incapacitating them Without killing them, until four fighters were left standing in each group. They said it was to test to make sure the prospective guard could handle battle situations, but it was obvious to me that they were just using this to weed out the weaklings quickly. To my disappointment, none of the men that actually seemed to be good fighters ended up in my group, what a boring beginning to the tournament…….No! Wait, my bad habit is coming out, I should be happy that there is not an obstacle preventing me from taking another step towards regaining my voice, not bemoaning the fact that I wouldn’t have a good fight…..

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

My group was the first to fight, we all filed over a bridge to the sand arena it the Serac coliseum, and a huge crowd of people seated in the stands cheered, while merchants happily hawked their wares, moving through the long rows, happy people meant looser purse strings.

I stared at the group of men and they stared back at me, their bodies tense. Why were they so tense all of the sudden?......I placed a hand on my face and felt my mouth. Whoops, my grumpy expression had come out…….I pulled my mouth back into a smile, and the killing intent I had been unconsciously emitting vanished. But the damage had already been done, as soon as the signal was given to begin, the men all charged me, determined to get rid off what they had determined to be the greatest threat….Eh, whatever, all at once might be fun….the bloodthirsty smile that was strangely my usual grumpy expression returned to my face and I drew my blades.

………….

King of Serac’s Point of View:

I slumped slightly in my throne, staring bored at the empty sand arena of the coliseum and waiting for the first round of fighters to file out. I sighed and turned to the captain of my guard, and my best friend, Theron.

“......Do I really have to attend this part? All the group battles are about is weeding out the weaklings…..”

Theron glanced at me with an amused expression.

“You’re the King now, Edric, you have to attend All of the competition that is deciding your next royal guard is going to be.”

I rolled my eyes.

“That old windbag just Had to kick the bucket right before a royal guard retired….”

Theron frowned at me.

“I know you and your father were never on the best of terms, but now that the man is dead, surely you can muster up a little bit of control and speak respectfully about the former king.”

I simply stared at him, and he nodded, a wry smile on his face.

“Right, that’s too much to ask….Oh, look, they’re starting to come out!”

I turned my head to stare out at the crowd with my head propped up against my fist. Men flooded out into the field and I gave another sigh….I liked a good fight more than anyone else, but on the flip side of that, I Hated watching people who didn’t have a clue in what they were doing. The men in the arena suddenly turned towards the entrance as one, and I perked up curiously, could there be someone interesting coming. A slim figure, with short, strangely colored blue hair walked out,the handles of twin blades sticking out over the slim shoulders. I leaned forward as I realised the figure was a Woman. I tell much about her from here, but that figure was definitely that of a woman.

“.......Theron…..has there ever even been a female candidate for the guard?”

My friend had also leaned forward at the sight of the woman.

“......No, I don’t think so……..but there isn’t any rules against it?”

His voice raised up at the end in a questioning manner. I shrugged.

“I don’t recall the law saying anything about it, they probably thought a woman wouldn’t try to enter…..do you think she’ll be any good?”

It was Theron’s turn to shrug.

“I don’t know, she could have just done it to catch some attention…...but I keep catching whiffs of killing intent, we’re too far away to tell who it’s from, but by the way them men all turned to look at her, she’s the source of it.”

A grin crossed my face.

“I hope She becomes my new royal guard!”

Theron turned and stared at me.

“....You had me go through a lot of trouble to secretly invited some of the tops swordsmen on the country to come, so we actually have a good royal guard come out of this farce, and now you want a completely unknown person to win, simply because I suspect you think she will be interesting?”

I frowned at him.

“....I just said I wished she would, it’s not like I believe she’ll actually win, even if she is a good fighter, this tournament has back to back fights to test stamina, and women’s stamina tend to be lower than men's…...but I still think we should invite her to the castle, even if she doesn’t win! ”

I squirmed for a moment as Theron stared down at me for a moment, then turned in relief as the horn sounded the start of the fight. The men all charged the woman, a rather cowardly move in my opinion, but then the woman charged forward as well, much more quickly and gracefully than the men. She flowed through the ranks of men, any she passed falling down unconscious. I could barely see the flash of her blades as she slammed the sword hilts into the back of the necks of the men she passed. My mouth dropped open slightly, I had never seen such a fast, yet smooth sword style, she moved as smoothly as running water. I turned back to Theron, already knowing what the outcome of the battle would be.

“.......maybe she’ll become my guard after all!? Also, what should we do when she knocks everyone out, there won’t be three other people to pass on to the next round….”

Delta:

I wiped a few drops of sweat off my brow and looked around at the dozens of unconscious bodies piled around me, I was the only person left standing. Hmmmm, if I remember right, the four people left standing would pass on to the next round…...should I have left three people alone? Eh, whatever, I’ll let someone else worry about it~