The biggest impediment to my swordsmanship was my footwork according to Gaspar: Janis was teaching me to fight with a wooden sword and shield, so he was directing me to put most of my weight on my left leg which would support the blocks I would be doing with the shield in my left hand. This would serve me very well in absorbing the strikes with my shield, but at the same time it impeded my strength in regards to attack, and being able to switch between stances was something which Gaspar wanted to drill into me to the point I would be so nimble on my feet I would be able to adapt to any situation I could find myself in. The training consisted of me maintaining a stance for a prolonged period of time at which point Gaspar would slash at me with the broomhandle. These strikes were markedly slower than the ones he made during our spar, which meant that even an amateur like me would have time to change my stance and dodge at the same time.
I went back to the compound that evening more exhausted than after the swordsmanship lessons the Jenusians put us through, and Gaspar’s expression as he bid me goodbye didn’t match my feelings on the day’s proceedings whatsoever. Gero assured me that he was just happy to have someone else to train, or torture, depending on who you ask.
That evening was my first opportunity to fulfill Sophie's request, and I mustered up my courage and approached Lucy who was sitting a decent way from where my roommates were, so I wasn’t that worried that they would tease me about approaching a girl, something I’d like to avoid.
At the mention that Sophie asked me to tell her something, any wariness in her eyes disappeared and she earnestly pushed me for details as to how and where I met her. I tried to downplay my visits to the Marbellum’s library as being solely for the love of books, but Lucy evidently inferred more from my words than I would have liked. We both knew Sophie’s character after all, the chances of her initiating a conversation with a stranger were next to nil.
I didn’t linger for too long at Lucy’s table in the dinner hall, and after informing her that Sophie would spend most of her off days at the library, I bid her farewell and retreated all the way to my room. My roommates were still eating so I decided to use this time in solitude to do what I always did before going to bed, and ‘strengthen my mindspace’.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a frame of reference for whether I made any progress in regards to sorcery, but it felt oddly calming to try and ‘catch’ the wisps of different-colored light. I suppose this would be the equivalent of ‘counting sheep’ before bed, and after doing so for a while it was almost as if any of the worries of the day seemed further away, giving me a sense of peace before bed.
Fulfilling Sophie’s request didn’t seem to be a big deal to me, and after accomplishing it I no longer thought about it at all, but it seems that others didn’t take too kindly to me going ‘above my station’.
During swordsmanship lessons a few days after, we were sparring between one another, which was very common. I would usually try and get Max and Louis to spar with me, and I could count the number of times I lost to both of them on one hand. As much as Louis seemed to fit right into this fantasy-like setting, his hand-to-eye coordination sure did suck. His strikes would more often than not entirely miss, or even worse, end with his practice sword parried into the ground.
What was unusual was David approaching me and requesting a duel, with the excuse being that he wanted a different sparring partner for today. This excuse would not hold any water for those who knew him, he had at least two dozen people he could call ‘friends’, so his available set of sparring partners was substantially larger than my own. I couldn’t see his request as anything but him targeting me for one reason or another. His casual smile did not bear any ill-intent however, and Janis, my instructor, didn't think much of it.
I shot a pleading gaze to Max and Louis who I was next to at the time, but they didn’t seem to want to butt-heads with an upperclassman like David over the issue.
Both myself and David had identical sets of practice gear, but David had almost half-a-head of height and the accompanying weight over me. I was nowhere near his level when it came to reach either, his proportions allowed for him to strike me from further than my own reach, and as a result I was on the defensive from the very beginning of the spar.
Every slash I blocked with my shield felt even heavier than Janis’, it seems my instructor was doing me a disservice by holding back thus far. Every time I would try to counter-attack David would use brute force and push me back to medium-range with his weight, which limited my offensive capabilities by a lot. After about the tenth block my left arm was already feeling numb, and it took the whole of my willpower to not drop the wooden shield right then and there, it was then when he decided to change tactics.
His next set of offensive moves came not with the sword in his right hand which was still raised, presenting a threat to my entire left side, but with his shield. To try and retaliate, I ushered in what was left of my stamina to move in closer to David, but it was then that I received an unexpected blow to my face from his shield. I managed to fall onto my back, and not absorb the full force of the fall with my head, but David thought that wasn’t enough and stepped ‘accidentally’ on my right hand which was at my side from cushioning my blow.
He abruptly stepped back, and apologized for injuring me as I moved into a sitting position still on the ground, trying not to make any noise from the pain I was feeling from my hand, and also my now-bloody nose.
He thanked Janis for watching over the spar, and went back to where his friends were watching, and now congratulating him on the win. I stood up, and Janis approached me with a remorseful expression. It seems he was feeling guilty for not training me as hard as he could have, and the visual representation of his restraint was now standing in front of him with a bloody nose.
We spoke briefly, and both decided it would be best to stop my training for the day. That evening Max and Louis informed me that the reason David singled me out today was that they thought I was making a move on Lucy in the dining hall, which they perceived negatively. Max especially spent about twenty minutes cheering me up and encouraging me not to give up as “True love always wins out in the end”. It took a lot of convincing on my part to explain to them that I just met someone from the group that lived at the Magisterium in the library, and that they wanted to meet up with their friend who was living here with us. Drifting off to sleep that day, with my face and hand still not entirely healed, I wasn’t sure that my roommates believed me.
My beatdown at the hands of David bore unexpected results, as Janis offered to let me take some wooden practice swords back with me to the compound so that I could spend some time training with a friend in my free time, and catch up to the level at which some of the other students were at. I immediately hatched a plan to use these in my training with Gaspar, perhaps I could even get two more at some point by claiming that they were ‘broken’.
I decided to not visit the library on my first day off, I had a sneaking suspicion that Lucy would head there straight after dawn, and I didn’t want to feel like a third wheel as the two were catching up after not having seen each other for a long time. My slightly swollen right cheek was met with a laugh from Gero, and a disappointed frown from Gaspar. He said that the only way one of his apprentices would end up like that is if he was the one to do it, which sounded even worse.
Gaspar may be shorter than David, but the man had decades of experience under his belt, while all of the students in the ‘mundane’ group had at most a few months of experience, with a mediocre sword style too. My pride may have been hurt by my loss, but I thought it wasn’t unreasonable for me to be able to surpass everyone at the compound after a while under the tutelage of Gaspar.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The training in the backyard behind Gaspar’s home consisted of footwork, and only footwork, for an entire two weeks. I was determined to finally reach the ‘holy grail’ and put off visiting the library for that time, in an effort to learn something other than where I ought to distribute my weight, or in which exact way my feet were to be planted on the ground.
As I knocked on the swordmasters home, fully expecting today to be nothing more than footwork even though I had brought the two practice swords to the man’s house weeks ago, he surprised me by saying that I should keep my sword belt on for today’s training.
Gaspar came out wearing the two swords that were usually placed above the fireplace, they looked to be slightly different from most swords I had seen up to that point, with the end of the blades not being centered, but rather tilted towards the user. The ends looked like a Japanese sword, but the blade was not curved, completely straight like the swords I used. Today was the day he would begin teaching me the forms, starting off from the most basic.
It seemed that holding the swords in an elevated position was a mainstay in Ironguard swordsmanship, but Gaspar only raised his left hand, while his right was closer to his waist. The way he held the sword was odd too, when I heard that Sylrift was a dual wielding style, I fully expected both swords to be held in the ‘orthodox’ manner, with the sword’s guard above the thumb. But the sword in Gaspar’s left hand was held backwards, was I supposed to hold mine that way too?
I buried my doubts about this matter within my mind, and from sparring with the old man I understood that even if he didn’t use the same grip during our spar, the result was unlikely to change. I diverted all of my attention to him as he was showcasing the steps in the forms, trying to remember exactly how he positioned his legs, how his weight was distributed, and even the angles of the slashes he was making.
This was also something which I thought odd, in the Ironguard style, although stabs weren’t that common, they were still there. It would be a waste not to use them when you have two swords, but Gaspar responded that stabs were only present in the more advanced Sylrift forms, after the swordsman was confident he could direct the stabs with more precision.
Even with my memory, I could not replicate the forms perfectly, which drew the ire of the proud man. The ways he described my attempts ranged from ‘shoddy’ all the way to ‘an embarrassment to all swordsmen’, which may have been overboard. It seems the man was something of a perfectionist.
Gero’s presence helped more than I thought would be possible, as he used only one sword. But he had the basic forms memorized, the only difference being that his left hand stayed close to his torso, unlike mine. Copying someone who was performing the forms with you helped a lot more than trying to recall Gaspar’s from memory, and I ended up going home that day with a smile on my face at having finally broken through the hell of ‘footwork’ training.
I needed a break from Gaspar though, and he would be none the wiser if I just told him I was busy on my next day off, so I decided to finally visit the library. Sophie was neither happy at my appearance, nor sad at the long absence between my visits.
“Oh my god! It’s you Leon, are you alright?” She exclaimed, while standing up from her usual spot at one of the tables, and running up to me.
“Uhh… what?” I asked, confused.
“Lucy said that you had your nose broken! And that’s why you haven’t been coming to the library recently!” She answered, while making her way into my personal space.
“Oh yeah, but that was two weeks ago, it’s been back to normal for almost a week. And it wasn’t broken by the way” I elaborated, while retreating backwards slightly.
“A week? But why haven’t you come earlier then?” She asked, it seems we were not on the same page here.
“Alright it seems you might be misinformed, sit down and I’ll explain everything, also stop shouting in the library” I suggested, while gesturing with my hand to the table.
My comment about the fact that she wasn’t controlling her voice made her embarrassed, and she darted back to her seat even faster than she ran at me when I entered.
“So, during swordsmanship training a few weeks ago, I got hurt and got a bloody nose. But that healed after about a week, and although I thought about coming to the library earlier I wanted to give you some time to catch up with Lucy. I also had some other matters that I wanted to conclude on my off days, which I managed to do recently-” I explained, before she cut me off mid sentence.
“Okay I get the whole part about catching up with Lucy, but why did you wait more than two weeks?” She interrupted, becoming slightly irritated.
“I want to buy a particular sword, and I was doing some commissions at the mercenary guild to earn enough crowns for it” I lied.
I didn’t think Sophie was an untrustworthy person per se, but I thought it best to hide the true purpose of my outings in Krilos from everyone, even my roommates. It wouldn’t do much good for me if they found out, and the way I saw it, it wasn’t information that was too important for others anyway.
“Mercenary guild? So you’re working as a mercenary?” She asked, surprised by my answer.
“Yes and no, it isn’t the same kind of work as you might think though. I spent some days riding out of the city to collect herbs and plants that I get paid for, which finally managed to earn me enough to buy a sword with, adding my allowance” I told a half truth, hoping to explain my absence.
“So you’re not avoiding me because you’re too ashamed to show yourself while injured?” She asked, which surprised me.
“What gave you that idea?” I answered her question, with one of my own.
“Well, Lucy told me that the people at the compound were saying that some guy decided to beat you up because you made a move on her. But she didn’t think that, just so you know. But rumors have a life of their own sometimes, and she said that you had a black eye and a swollen nose a few days after it happened.” She explained, being empathetic.
“Well that’s a relief, I only talked to her because you asked me after all, I don’t even know her” I added, but that caused her to misinterpret my words.
“Do you blame me for what happened?” She asked meekly.
“Nah, I think that they would have found some other excuse as they always do at some point, so don’t worry about it. It’s just that now the opportunity to have fights with swords gives people the option to do more damage than they could do with just fists” I reassured her, it seems I wasn’t the only one feeling guilty over the situation.
“Well that’s good, but after you didn’t appear for almost a week I asked Lucy on one of her visits why that would be the case. And the only explanation she had was that you were too ashamed to appear weak in front of me” She stated, this time her eyes had a more inquisitive gaze.
“She’s wrong, I don’t really think you’re the kind of person that would make me feel bad about having lost a fight. The only shame I feel is that my skills weren’t enough to win during the spar, but this is also motivation for me to get better, which I will '' I responded resolutely, still in a good mood from learning the basic Sylrift forms.
“You’re that sure? That you’ll get better I mean” She asked, surprised by my confidence in the matter.
“I mean I don’t have much else to do apart from that and coming here, so it’s likely” I answered, jokingly.
The rest of my visit was reading in silence, with certain periods of discussion based on the contents of the books we were reading. I wanted to read up a bit more on swordsmanship, while Sophie was reading about the history of Jenusia. From what I could understand, even the contents of our classes were different, and while we both had Rahlian as one of the lessons, they didn’t have a lesson on Jenusian history at the Magisterium.
From Sophie’s words, it seemed the Magi saw themselves as above most normal human conventions, and that it was better to learn how to pronounce the tough words of the Ancient tongue, rather than bother about who did what in the past. The spells which were used in sorcery were almost entirely in this near-extinct language, and some of the sounds that needed to be almost perfect for the spell to fire were difficult for most Euphelians to say properly.
This was the reason that she was so keen on reading up on the history of the Jenusian Empire, and the questions she asked here and there were easy enough for me to answer, while giving some of my own thoughts on the validity or reasons behind one event or another on the matter.
I only managed to leave the library after promising Sophie I wouldn’t disappear for two weeks again, at least not before telling her the reason why. She spent the whole time with mixed feelings regarding my absence, ranging from guilty about the whole event, to sorry for the pain I felt as a result of her request. I didn’t think it was a difficult promise to fulfill so I agreed, but the news that awaited me at the compound meant that I would be breaking it much sooner than I had thought.
All of the people at the compound would be going on a trip to a city called Parnam, for some kind of religious function. The priesthood in that city wanted to hold a celebration for which our presence was required, and the journey there would take even longer than the one we made at the very beginning of our time here. This trip would mean a break from lessons and swordsmanship classes for a while, but it also meant that we would be attending more noble functions, and that we would also be making a few stops on our journey at the towns and castles for less important but still official visits.
While I was eager to see with my own eyes some other parts of Jenusia, I wasn’t entirely certain that this trip would be without its downsides. The nobles that I have had to interact with thus far have been very difficult people, and the slightest breach in etiquette could be viewed as an insult, according to Goer. But even that wasn’t the most glaring problem, if this is a regular celebration, as the messenger from the palace had claimed, then why were we being informed the evening before we set off?
Whole the messenger reassured in his answers to the teacher’s questions that we would be entirely safe on our journey, with palace guards protecting us all throughout, and that we only had to be there and didn’t have to do more than that, my gut was telling me that the foreseeable future was fraught with troubles.