Chapter 11 - Apples and Mangoes

Talas led Arnest to a private room, away from the fighting ring. The room was small but decorated richly with comfortable chairs, a table with a  basket of fruits and a few brutal pictures of men fighting. Both of the two youths took a seat opposite to each other so they could speak face to face. It was quiet for a while and they stared at each other, Arnest amicably smiling.

Still feeling worried, Talas cleared his throat and asked “You want me to be the Zanako?”

“Yes. I believe you’re well suited for it. At least more so than your older brother.”

“Your words are considered blasphemous here, my brother would probably kill you for speaking them.” threatened Talas.

“And what would he do if he learned that you were speaking with me, planning to take the city lordship from him?” Arnest’s smile became less amicable and more devious.

Talas sighed. “You should know, my brother has the support of a majority of my clan. Which includes my father.”

“I knew that already. But you still have a chance otherwise I wouldn’t be here speaking to you.” Arnest said as he grabbed an apple and mango, juggling it in the air like a circus performer.

“Even if you changed my father’s mind, there’s the still the elders who would still make my brother the Zanako.”

“You’re not thinking of the bigger picture here, Talas.” Arnest threw the mango to Talas and he caught it.

“There is an abundance of fruit here in the city. If your brother has a monopoly on apples, you can just go ahead and sell mangoes.” he said and took a bite out of the apple.

“What does that even mean?” Talas looked quizzically at Arnest.

“Don’t worry about the specifics. I’ll make you the Zanako. I promise you that.” Arnest started to walk out of the room.

At the door, Arnest turned a bit and said “Also, get me an invitation to your brother’s birthday party. I want to pay him my respects.”

Talas continued to sit in the room for a long time, pondering Arnest’s words. Should he trust this random boy? The right answer would be no. It’s impossible to expect someone, especially someone like Talas who has a pretty high status, to expect others to come seeking him with good intentions. Talas was no idiot. He knew people like Ralo just flatter him either due to fear or greed.

But the boy he just spoke to didn’t seem to be motivated by either. Talas had become fairly socially experienced and gained an ‘intuition’. At face value Arnest was mysterious and cunning however his intuition told him that he wasn’t trying to gain favors. It seemed more like he was trying to tactfully align his own interests with Talas’s.

Although this intuition wasn’t a hundred percent accurate and he didn’t know what Arnest’s interests were, he would at least take a wait-and-see approach. If somehow Arnest could really make him a Zanako, he would fully accept it happily. But if Arnest was caught and accused, Talas would easily shift all the blame onto him.

“Gill, investigate him for me. I want to know as much as possible about him.” Talas said.

“Right away, young master.” the butler waiting by the door replied and then disappeared into the darkness.

Arnest headed back to the harbor to go check on the men. The former pirates who wield khopesh, the sickle swords, had been teaching the other human men how to use them over the past few days. Some of them were getting quite proficient, so much so that Arnest had already commissioned a blacksmith to make some iron khopesh weapons for a them to use in the future.

The elven soldiers did not want to interact with the other humans under Arnest’s lead and mostly stayed within the boat. When they did go out to get supplies, they would wear plain cloaks in the city. But even then, they seemed to be adverse to being near humans in general. Even though Arnest wished his forces were more cohesive, it was good that the elves acted conspicuously. If the people saw a small army of elves marching through the streets then they would probably fear that it was a sneak invasion by the elves of the mainland. And once that fear reached the great families of the three cities, they would send a punitive force to eradicate them.

“Put your back into it!” barked a khopesh fighter.

A dozen or so men were practicing sword swings with the sickle blade on the ship’s deck. They were sweating profusely as the suns were slowly setting. With each swing their breath became harsher. Among the men training was a bulky muscular middle aged man.

When Arnest saw the middle aged man, he thought to himself “I wonder how strong I’ve gotten?”

“Old Man Vargus!” Arnest called out to the middle aged man.

Vargus stopped for a second and stabbed the sword into the ground, leaning on it. Out of breath, he looked towards Arnest frowning.

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Since the elves came to Fox Village, Black Fox had ordered most of the able bodied men to accompany Arnest, including himself. Initially he didn’t think much of it but Black Fox had also made sure that the daily beatings he had come to enjoy doling out were to stop. The pent up frustration he felt had accumulated over the journey and it only spiraled more out of control when he was forced to train under these pirates. He used to be a revered warrior on his home island but now he has to listen to pirates. So with nowhere to vent his anger he had taken to beating on the men from Fox Village occasionally, as a replacement for Arnest.

“Let’s spar like we did back on the island, old man.” Arnest said enthusiastically.

“A spar?” Vargus’s eyes lit up and his mouth curved widely into a tooth filled grin.

Arnest activated [Shadow Bow] and conjured it in his left hand. However the appearance of this bow was different from before. It appeared to be more intricately designed. Instead of having a single simple curve, there were three beautiful ones. And at each end of the bow the curve looked like a sharp backwards “C”. They almost looked like two glossy blade tips and they gleamed under the sunset light.

This was the result of Arnest mana training. He realized that sometimes when he controlled the mana, he could make the bow curve more or less with different outputs. So he started experimenting with different variations of mana control and the three-curved [Shadow Bow] was created.

Vargus lifted his khopesh and assumed a stance similar to that of what the pirates had when they first attacked the elf soldiers. It looked slightly lopsided and unbalanced but somehow Vargus maintained it with ease.

“As expected, Vargus is really skilled!” Arnest thought.

While Arnest was admiring Vargus’s stance, Vargus evilly smiled as he thought to himself, “That old fox can’t blame me for this. The little brat is basically asking for a beating!”

The other men all moved to the sides of the deck to make way for the fight. All the men knew the prowess that young Arnest had shown, especially during the battle at sea. But they also knew how strong Vargus was and a number of them had personally felt his brute strength. A few of the men started making side bets on who would win. The one’s shouting the loudest were betting on Arnest, cheering him on. And the one’s who bet on Vargus were whispering bets to make sure they didn’t make the mistake of upsetting the little lord.

“First one to land a strike, wins! Loser gets a hundred lashes!” Vargus yelled.

Vargus made the first move and charged with his sickle sword directly above his head. His plan was to get close to Arnest to prevent him from shooting any shots from a distance. This was a typical strategy close combat fighters used to stop archers and usually worked.

Arnest remained calm and channeled his mana into the [Shadow Bow]. It glowed a dark purple as he raised it up to block the incoming strike. When the sword clashed with the center of the bow, everyone expected it to just phase through the shadow. But surprisingly it held it’s form and even made Vargus be pushed back a few steps.

Vargus didn’t change tactics though and continued to press forward. Arnest took the momentum of the block and raised his bow. But instead of setting up to shoot, he held the bow with both hands like a spear and thrust it towards Vargus. The sudden move caught the large bodied Vargus off guard but he already started his down swing. When the sword came down the second time, Arnest dodged to the side and the bow’s sharp point pierced into Vargus’s right arm.

All Vargus’s strength in his dominant arm disappeared and he could no longer grip the sickle sword. He unintentionally dropped it and it made a small thud when it stuck itself into the ground. His arm started bleeding intensely but his face was still beet red in anger and embarrassment.

“I lost!” Vargus gritted his teeth.

The little boy he used to beat on somehow had beaten him in a spar. Vargus thought he knew the skill level that Arnest possessed. After all, he did train him for a few years. Never had he taught him how to use a bow or respond in close quarters when using one. All he had done was beat the living daylights out of him day in and day out. But  Arnest seemed to know how to perfectly respond and execute a counter attack today. In only a few exchanges, Arnest had beaten him.

“Where did he learn all of these skills?” The more Vargus thought about he, he remembered that everything seemed to have changed when the elves came to the village. “Did the elves teach him?” But he discarded this possibility. Arnest was a extremely slow learner and Vargus was able to use the same simple moves to knock him into the dirt. There was no way he was able to learn this fast.

But before Vargus could continue thinking about why he lost, Arnest said “Thanks for the spar!” and walked towards the beach, picking up a thorny branch that was washed along the shore. He came back with the damp branch and smiled. “A hundred lashes, right?” he said and Vargus’s face stiffened.

A shadowed figure up on the roofs close to the harbor was watching the short exchange.

“He’s a magus. And he modified the [Shadow Bow] as well... Is he an irregular magus?” the figure said to himself in a low voice.

“I must tell the young master about this.” said the shadow as it slowly dissipated.