It had been well over a month since the entire fiasco with Earl Blizwarn. As the last month of summer began Bryson hadn’t heard much news regarding the man. His father seemed not to be directly involved with any of this and his mother refused to reveal any information regarding her dealings with Blizwarn.

Though to be perfectly honest, Bryson probably didn’t want to know the details of what path of strife his mother was leading the man through. Last time he saw the earl was during a casual party that his parents hosted.

Blizwarn looked sleep-deprived with bags under his bloodshot eyes. He remembered the Marquess Snowfield approaching the Earl to talk, only for Blizwarn to quickly leave the party. Aside from having to do the family’s dirty work now it seemed that Earl Blizwarn did indeed have to part ways with some of his valuables.

The Coldwater gardens and greenhouses suddenly had a few more magical plants, much to Florence’s delight. Or as much joy as her usually expressionless face could muster. Bryson remembered how much more talkative she was regarding the new plants.

Nevertheless the thoughts of Blizwarn were now in the back of his mind as he watched the training session that was being held before him. In an empty outdoor arena, Kristel was currently crossing blades with Lottie Frost, in impressive fashion too.

Her skills with her longsword had drastically improved over this period of time. It seemed that after the whole Blizwarn event, her confidence seemed to have grown and with it her ability to learn.

She now held her sword with confidence and moved like a fighter. Striking, defending and moving adeptly to try and defeat her opponent. Her form was good, her breathing was steady and she looked aware of her surroundings as she fought. Even when put in a disadvantageous situation she didn’t back down from any of the pressure that Lottie gave with her attacks.

Which was what actually surprised Bryson the most. Not Kristel’s improvements, no Bryson had seen plenty of Kristel’s training with Nico, he knew what level she was at currently. The person that surprised him was Lottie.

He knew that the head butler Phillip had been training her for a couple of years now. He also knew that Phillip was good at combat… for some reason. Bryson still didn’t know anything of Phillip’s past, just that he would make references. Nevertheless, Phillip imparted many of these skill to Lottie and by all accounts she was taking to it all well.

Still, Bryson through this entire time had only witnessed her stealth abilities, never her combat abilities. Here was the first time he saw her abilities on full display. Bryson hated to admit it, but it was an impressive sight.

This was a bit more than a causal sparing match as both were not only in attire that was suited for extraneous activity but also in full combat gear. And it was quite the clash of styles between the two.

Kristel had herself sturdy plate armour. It wasn’t a full set of armour that some fighters wore as to give her more range of motion. But it still covered the main areas of her body, chest, arms, and legs with a tough black fabric material underneath. On her head, she wore an open-faced helmet allowing her full view of her surroundings.

Lottie on the other hand was equipped differently. In contrast to the pieces of sturdy plate armour, she wore far lighter armour with only a few pieces of brigandine on her. She had no helmet so as to not restrict movement and cause noise and in comparison to the heavy metal boots of her opponent her were made of simple sturdy leather.

Their weaponry was also different. Kristel held a classic longsword that any knight would be accustomed to using while Lottie armed herself with a short sword in her right and a dagger in her left. The two clashed back and forth, each going on both the offensive and the defensive during the fight.

Of course both were fighting with blunted training weapons so as to not hurt one another too much. Even still with the speed and furiosity they fought with it still seemed that blunted edges likely wouldn’t do much in stopping the lethality of these attacks.

Kristel seemed to have found her way of fighting. Taking the middle of the ring to display dominance and challenging her opponent to move towards her to fight. Lottie not only with the shorter length weapons but also her naturally shorter stature would be forced to be in her opponent's striking range while she couldn’t hit back.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Though it seemed that Lottie was more than accustomed to being the smaller fighter as she expertly circled around Kristel. Forcing her to chase her about the ring. Lottie would jump in and out of Kristel’s sword length. Jabbing and poking looking for a flaw with her defence, trying to get her frustrated.

Lottie moved like a blur going from one spot to another before landing a lightning fast strike at Kristel who adeptly brought her sword up to defend the strike before offering one back to the retreating Frost.

This dance continued for a few minutes before a loud buzzer was sounded and immediately the two of them pulled away from each other. It seemed as though the time was up.

“That’s the round!” Nico said as he got up onto the training ring and stood before the two fighters now trying to catch their breaths.

Nico was holding a tablet and read off the notes he made, “Lottie you need to chain your attacks more. I understand that Kristel’s strikes are quick and powerful but you can mitigate that by throwing more volume.”

“But it’s hard.” Lottie complained.

“It’s training this is the perfect time to make mistakes, as long as you learn from a spar you win.” Nico said sternly.

“Okay.” Lottie pouted.

“Kristel, you let her control the pace too much. You’ve been chasing her the whole time and you haven’t been able to close the distance. You need to cut off her movement.” Nico said turning his attention to Kristel.

“Yes sir.” She said bowing her head down.

Nico looked at the two for a moment before turning to Bryson, “What do you think of their capabilities Lord Bryson?”

“Huh?” Bryson grunted in surprise, “Uh, my honest opinion?”

“If you are willing to.” Nico said with a polite bow.

“Well.” Bryson said as he pondered what to say, not wanting to be too nice with his compliments, “This is the first time I saw Lottie do any real fighting.”

“What do you think?” Lottie asked excitedly.

“You weren’t useless.” Bryson grunted.

“Thank you.” She said with a smile and got Bryson’s eye roll in response.

“And… uh, how about me.” Kristel said with a quiet voice.

“You are a far cry from what you were originally. I believe as long as you continue this progress you should be more than capable of winning the fight against whoever Gilles picks.”

“Oh thank you.” Kristel said looking straight down at the ground and began to fiddle with her black dahlia flower pin given to her by Bryson after the whole Earl Blizwarn situation.

“You still seem to get really quiet and lose your confidence sometimes. You need to fix that.” Bryson said looking confused as to why she always seemed to have trouble keeping eye contact with him.

Kristel only nodded in response as Lila Frost, Lottie Frost’s older sister and Bryson personal maid walked over to Bryson.

“It’s your mother.” She said as she handed Bryson a Communicator.

“Hello, mother.” Her mother’s voice cheerfully rang out from the device, “Have you finished today’s training?”

“Yes mother.”

“Very good. I need you to take those two girls over to the main training area. Let the knight take a break.”

“For what?”

“Sable is still training the recruits, since you so greedily poached Sir Reese from her, I thought it would only be right to make up for it by helping her out a little bit.”

“I didn’t poach him.” Bryson mumbled.

“Bryson you know that’s not the point of this conversation.” Duchess Coldwater lectured.

“Yes mother, I will help Sable.” Bryson said appeasing her mother.

“Very good, hmm. Its near lunchtime go get something to eat first dear.” She ordered, “Oh, yes you should know. Cute little Florence will be there too.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because they’re doing medical training. Though it is a bit different from what you will be expecting, so keep that in mind.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’ll know it when you see it. Now hurry along now, don’t keep your sister waiting too long now.” Duchess Coldwater said cheerfully before hanging up the phone.

“Yes mother.” Bryson sighed to the now inactive Communicator.

“What do you want to eat.” Bryson said turning to the others.

“Ooooh! I want tacos!” Lottie said jumping up and down excitedly.

“Alright, sure. Frost we’re going back to the car, take us to whatever place sells tacos. Reese you’ve been dismissed, feel free to enjoy the rest of the afternoon. You two are joining me in the main training area back home.” Bryson ordered.

“What about me? Could I…” Lila trailed off looking hopeful at Bryson letting him fill in the blanks.

“Huh? What?” Bryson asked glancing over to Nico and then back at Lila, “Oh, right. Sure. You have the afternoon off after you get us back.”

“Thank you.” She said with a smile.

As Bryson walked down the path back to the car he looked over to the grass next to it. Interesting. An Ashen Ginseng. A simple magical flower that helps with recovery. We don’t grow that plant in our garden. Why do I know this? Bryson lambasted himself. Damn it Florence. Stop influencing me.

Bryson got strangely annoyed over the fact that he knew this. Still she might want this. He thought and with a wave of his hand he pulled the root from the ground and stuffed the root with dirt still covering it into his pocket before continuing to walk.

“What’s that?” Lottie asked.

“Nothing.”