Michael

After the story had concluded Michael thought about what he had heard. He was glad to hear that his uncle wasn't a bad man at least, just dragging away people. The barbarians had it coming after raiding the kingdom. His uncle couldn't tell him if the girl was part of the raids but either way her capture was not unjustified.

"What happened to her voice," Michael asked his uncle. He frowned at him and then answered, "Did you try to talk to her? My men said she bit her tongue off, to kill herself." That sounded reasonable to him, so he let it be and left his uncle at the table.

He returned to his seat and pondered at what he had learned and how he could make use of it. She is a strong warrior who now belongs to Father, slavery is only allowed for people who don't follow the church so if she converts, she might be able to be freed. Alternatively, I can ask Father to free her, as he doesn't seem to like the whole thing himself.

He spent the rest of the feast going over his arguments only occasionally interrupted by his siblings or Tara.

The feast ended shortly after, and Michael returned to his room and went to bed. Since Solon had taught him some basics on mining and smithing on his request, the dreams had vanished, and Michael was glad about that. He was also somewhat concerned about being influenced by the dreams this way but learning about something this mundane shouldn't be a problem.

The following day was filled with friendly contests among the knights, riding, duels, and archery and Michael was there most of the time to watch. His teachers had agreed that it would be better for him to watch those and show himself attending than to sit in a room learning. Most of the contests were held in a prepared field with tents and audience ranks that had been built in the last weeks. Many had come to witness the event.

Currently, two knights were fighting in the ring, one of House Rowan and the other of House Grim. They were both young and the knight from House Grim seemed to have the upper hand. Pummeling the other knight relentlessly he pushed him further and further toward the arena boundary. The Rowan knight tried to regain a steady footing and raised his shield, but his enemy used this opportunity to throw his whole-body weight into the shield and pushed the knight out of bounds.

"Out of bounds, Sir Gellard wins," knight commander Godfrey announced loudly, and the spectators applauded. With the next round of combatants preparing to enter the ring Tara leaned over toward him. "You want to bet who wins the next one?" Michael looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Do you know who is fighting?" She punched his arm and said with a high voice, "Michael, pay attention."

She shook her head as he grinned and pointed at a knight getting ready on the right-hand wall, "That is Sir Thoben Slorn, one of Dad's best young knights and he is fighting that one over there I think Sir Geron was his name." Michael snapped to attention in an instant and he blurted, "I bet on sir Geron." She looked at him surprised, "You know that knight? Very well I wanted to bet on sir Thoben anyway. What are we gambling for?"

"You want us to bet something?"

"Why bet if there is nothing in for me," she smirked at him.

"Don't be so sure of your victory. How about a favor?"

"A favor?" She blinked at him, "That is boring, how about a toy or a piece of jewelry."

"Alright, if you win you can pick a toy from me and if I win you owe me one?" She nodded confidently, seemingly very confident but Michael had a stacked deck as he didn't care about his toys anyway.

A couple of minutes later Sir Geron and Sir Thoben were facing each other in the ring, both in chain mail and armed with swords and shields. They had already traded a couple of blows, probing the other, when Geron threw down his shield and looked at the other knight, the challenge to fight as their lords would was more than apparent. Thoben accepted the challenge, to be honest, there wasn't much he could do with all the audience and even his liege watching.

They circled each other like fighting wolves. Thoben made the first move dashing forward, he tried to land a blow right down the center. Geron blocked it with ease and countered with a downward slash, but Thoben had already moved back.

Geron refused to give him time though and followed him, placing well-trained slashes while Thoben parried them with accuracy. All this played out at inhuman speed with both of them enhancing every part of their body with mana.

After blocking another blow, Thoben surged forward, sensing an opening, his blade scraped over Geron's mail without much effect, but it was a hit, nonetheless. They separated again and Thoben smiled at the other knight his helmet allowing for the face to be seen. Geron didn't look impressed, and his facial expression was one of pure concentration.

"Looks bad for your guy," Tara said with an amused smirk. Michael didn't answer but he wasn't too concerned, he had seen Geron fight before, and he knew he could be faster.

Geron changed his stance, his feet sturdily planted into the ground, the sword being level with his shoulders and pointed at his enemy. Thoben dashed forward boosted by his earlier success. The moment he got close, Geron's sword seemingly vanished and reappeared close to Thoben's shoulder. He had managed to block the strike, but it vanished again and again, Thoben managed to block it multiple times, but Michael could see the strain it had on the knight.

Michael let his mana flow into his head and eyes, enhancing his perception and sight. Of course, the sword wasn't truly vanishing but rather so fast that a normal eye couldn't follow. The next strike aimed at the leg of Sir Thoben, he scrambled to get his sword down fast enough, but he noticed too late that the strike was only a feint and arched up to hit his arm. The moment before the strike hit, the blade suddenly stopped.

Geron and Thoben stood there frozen in time until Geron was satisfied that everyone should have seen what would have happened next and took a step back. Thoben didn't move an inch and just stared at his enemy.

Commander Godfrey entered the court and proclaimed, "Sir Thoben, your enemy has spared your arm, do you wish to continue the fight?"

The knight took off his helmet, frustration painted onto his face as he bared his teeth and growled, "I yield." Godfrey nodded and proclaimed Geron the winner.

Michael looked over to Tara, who looked like she was about to cry. "Well seems like I won." She looked at him annoyed, "What do you want?"

"Forget it, I wanted to bet for the fun of it not to get anything out of it," he laughed but she didn't seem amused. "You want me to break my promise?"

Michael sighed and thought about it, there wasn't anything he wanted from her anyway, that's exactly why he didn't feel like betting something. "You know what, we never specified when I had to call in the favor so I'm just gonna keep it."

Tara scratched her head and shrugged.

A metallic sound drew Michael's attention back to the front, Geron had kneeled down in front of the podium where the families of house Rowan and Grim were seated. "I request a duel with Lord Duncan Grim!"

A ripple went through the stands and Michael could hear many nobles whisper about the nerve of this knight, but he couldn't help but grin. His uncle inspected the young knight with a relaxed expression as he said, "You are indeed a strong young knight but fighting me is far beyond you, I will spare you this embarrassment." Laughter rose from the ranks close enough to hear but Lord Rowan was not so amused. "You spare him one and inflict another, my dear brother? He requested a fair duel, and you deny him like this, I do take offense at that."

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Now it was for Michael to chuckle as he saw the nobles that had laughed before sinking into their seats.

"You expect me to fight him?" Lord Grim looked surprised at his brother. Lord Rowan rose from his chair and looked down at his brother with an animalistic grin. "No. Now I expect you to fight me!"

Duncan laughed loudly. "I apologize, Sir Geron, it seems I have been rude, if I am still able to stand after this duel, it would be my honor to fight you as well."

Commander Godfrey announced, his voice amplified with mana, "Next duel, Count Cedric Rowan against Count Duncan Grim." The audience erupted in applause, this was what they were waiting for, a clash between the mighty brothers, who had gained nobility through their martial prowess. Every fight that had come before was just child's play, with mostly the young knights showing their skills, now the veterans were coming out and it started straight at the very top.

Michael turned to Tara, "You wanna bet?" She shook her head smirking, "Father would be annoyed."

"You think my father is stronger?" Michael was surprised by her words and turned back to see his father and uncle get out of most of their clothes except a shirt and pants and grab their swords.

"Dad, always says his one goal is to be better than your father someday. I think he is jealous sometimes."

Now they were in the ring stretching their muscles and preparing. "Are they not gonna wear any armor," Michael asked surprised at no one in particular. It was Matthias who answered from behind him, "Armor wouldn't stop them if they aren't careful so being more agile is better."

Michael turned around to his older brother. "They are so strong that armor doesn't work?" Matthias nodded and said, "Everything that is not an artifact won't stop them, the only use armor would have is in the case of a glancing hit and a glancing hit is not going to hurt them too much. That's also why they fight with their own swords, they are artifacts, and no normal sword could withstand the strain of them going all out." Michael turned back around; he was nervous and gave Idas a short prayer that nothing bad would happen.

The fight was about to start, and Michael preemptively let his mana flow through his body.

His father made the first move, traversing the distance between them in a moment, when their swords clashed the air vibrated with power. They looked like they were dancing as they attacked, parried, and dodged each other, Michael was hardly able to follow their strikes even with enhanced sight and perception. Pretty much on equal footing, they separated. Michael noticed something odd about his uncle's sword and concentrated on sensing mana and he was right, the sword was filling with mana. A moment later he swung it and the mana separated from the blade forming its own slash, flying towards Lord Rowan, who redirected the mana blade upwards where it vanished into nothingness.

Lord Grim was right behind the slash and struck low, the attack being dodged and returned as Lord Rowan used his raised sword to attack his brother from above. The fight continued and Michael was fascinated by the martial skill and the amount of mana both of them were burning. Suddenly a swath of mana erupted from his uncle's entire body and was met by a similar push from his father.

"What is that," Michael asked and leaned forward. From behind him, he could hear Matthias's voice, "Aura. The third rank an augmenter can reach is to be able to forcefully push mana out of one's body and use it to send a shock wave at the enemy or make an aura that serves as kind of a shield. It is immensely difficult and as far as I know, Father and knight commander Godfrey are the only aura-level augmenters in the county."

Michael stared at the display, it looked like magic, but it wasn't.

They continued pressuring each other with their mana, for normal people it probably looked like they were just standing still but Michael could see the forces push against each other. This is not sustainable; he thought and was promptly proven right as his uncle dashed to the side while dropping his attack. The shock wave went past him with a bang. He attacked his brother again, but Michael could see that he was noticeably slower now, his mana reserves probably dropping fast.

Lord Rowan mercilessly used his advantage of not having slowed down too much and pressured his brother, pummeling him with strikes until he finally got his sword through onto his brother's chest. He stopped a little in front of it, Michael assumed to not hurt him. They were both breathing heavily and were covered in sweat. The fight hadn't been even five minutes, but they looked exhausted, his uncle more so than his father.

"Winner is Lord Rowan," Sir Godfrey announced and Lord Rowan helped his brother up.

The fight was short and to the untrained eye it might have looked basic, but everyone could feel the pressure of them clashing.

"If I had a mana well as strong as yours this would be much easier," Michael heard his uncle say as they returned to the podium. Lord Rowan laughed and slapped him on the shoulder, "I am just better than you."

"Shut up or I am going to beat you up," Duncan smirked but Michael thought he had seen a slight hint of annoyance or frustration on his face. "Wasn't there a knight that wanted to fight too?" His uncle turned around suddenly to the field where Geron was waiting, he bowed and said loudly, "It would be my honor, milord."

The count turned around and walked back down and proceeded to unceremoniously beat up Geron in a minute even though he was slower than when fighting his brother. Lord Grim then took Geron to the side after the fight and seemed to give him his opinion and some fields of improvement. Michael suspected that this was the real goal his knight had in mind. Even though his reputation probably took a hit for it.

The event continued until late that day, but no fight could garner as much attention as the fight of the two counts.

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Barbarian Girl

She was cold. The winter was ending but she was too scantly clothed, with only pants and a shirt. It didn't help that her arms were bound over her head, and her fingers were freezing. She just wanted to die with her people but that wasn't going to happen, she knew that. This was all Sev's fault, that fucking asshole. We can raid the kingdom; they are weak and rich. They would never attack us in winter and when the spring comes, we will just move further away. That is what he said and now her family was dead or enslaved and she was a prisoner.

She hated them, what they did to her clan, and what they did to her. She wanted to scream but only incomprehensible sounds would leave her lips and so she didn't bother. She just sat there trying to curl together as much as possible to keep herself warm.

She began to drift off when she was suddenly kicked. Her eyes sprung open, and she hissed at the guard that had kicked her. He grinned at her, and she could feel the urge to strangle him if he would just take a step closer.

She could hear voices in front of her and turned to see who it was. A group of people was approaching her, led by the same kid that had tried to talk to her yesterday, followed by the dwarf and a knight that she hadn't seen before. The boy was carrying a bundle of something and talking to the others. After reaching her, he looked at her and said something that she couldn't understand. She frowned and thought, is this kid dumb? The dwarf began translating, his pronunciation weird but she could understand him.

"I will be translating from here on. My name is Michael Rowan, son of Count Cedric Rowan. I apologize for your treatment here, but I don't have the authority to change much. I have brought you warmer clothes, a blanket, and a hat if you swear to not strangulate anyone with them. I tried to get you inside but that was denied, I am sorry."

She stared at the boy, what is his angle, was he some kind of weirdo? No, he is way too young for something like this. She wanted to refuse, just to be stubborn but she knew there was no point in making herself suffer without a reason, she would need all her strength if she were to escape.

"I need an answer. Do you swear to not attack anyone with what you are given and also not make any problems while you put on the extra clothes," the dwarf asked again.

She sighed and nodded, her attempt to make the signs of the oath with her hands failed as she couldn't get them down to her chest. The boy watched her interested and said something, the dwarf didn't translate so she guessed it wasn't meant for her. The guards protested, at least that was how it sounded but, in the end, her shackles were opened, and the boy came closer and put the bundle of clothes in front of her.

Rubbing her wrists, she thought about jumping the boy right now, he was the son of a count so maybe with him as hostage she could gain her freedom and she hadn't managed to make the oath so it wouldn't raise the wrath of the gods. She sighed again, she wanted to make the oath and agreed so she wouldn't break it even if technically she wasn't bound. Also, the knight was watching her every move and he looked like he would cut her down the moment she tried to reach the child.

She put on the cloak and hat, burying her hands under it to warm them up when the boy handed her some gloves and the dwarf said, "Take the gloves, you need to keep your hands over the blanket where the guards can see them at all times, or it will all be taken from you." She chuckled in response and pointed up at the shackles to say that she would have no way to put them under the blanket anyway.

The boy looked up at the shackles and said something, again her guards protested but after some stern words from the knight, they lowered the shackles.

After she had been cuffed again the boy left and she was sitting confused in her much more comfortable situation.