Chapter 3 - Training
The birds outside of the half-opened window sang a morning tune as the sun rose from far away on the horizon. The view of the townspeople wandering around like little ants carrying food to its colony could be seen from the window.
“What a fascinating view.”
I rarely went sightseeing in my past life, I spent most of my free time shut in my room reading the latest doujinshi and watching the latest anime whilst gaming with my brethren. The radiating sunlight upon the town almost like a holy light left me baffled, it was like a dream.
I shed a melancholic tear as I reminisce about my gaming brethren… We all went through hell and back, consulting each other during harsh times, we were escaping from reality. We created massive clans and chatted with each other for 9 long years. Several tear-drops rolled down my cheeks, I also missed my family, the relationship I had with my family wasn’t the best but they were still my family and I sort of missed them. I wonder how they will react when I'm offline for so long, DemonKiller666, Faqq001, 希望の光...
{Knock Knock Knock}
“It’s me, Goldenloss.”
I almost jumped off my bed from the sudden knock on my door. I attempted to regain my composure and wiped off my tears using the sleeve of my rough sleepwear, I loosen my mind by thinking of the bright future and answered with a slightly trembling voice.
“Come in.”
I slowly unwrapped my blanket and sat up, the cold morning air tickled the lower half of my body as I exited my bed to greet Prince Goldenloss.
“Good morning, Your Highness.”
“Good morning. You can call me Goldenloss, you don’t need to speak so formally. Your eyes are red, did you perhaps not sleep well?”
“No, I’m fine. Where will we be going?”
Goldenloss looked concerned but guided me out of my room anyways. I had memories of practising swordplay so this isn’t completely new but I had some butterfly in my stomach. Goldenloss guided me towards what looked like a typical training ground, the ground was covered with sand and several training dummies stood in the corner.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Good morning, Your Highness and Sir Perle?”
A man, about 190cm with dark brown hair and bulging muscles dressed in chain mail greeted us. Despite the intimidating aura, I felt no discomfort when talking with him; his name was Jack, he will be instructing me in assassination and self-defence techniques.
“First of all, have a little spar with me, catch!”
I instinctively caught the wooden sword thrown by Jack who began counting down from 15. I had no idea what to do, I looked blankly at Jack whilst holding my sword.
“What kind of stance is that?! It’s full of openings!”
Jack shouted whilst counting down, I was still panicking confused on what to do. Jack who finished his countdown, flew 2 meters off the ground towards me with a wooden sword in hand. I decided to imitate a sword stance from a manga I read, I had a decade worth of experience in reading fantasy sword fighting mangas and playing MMORPGs, I can do this!
{Clang}
I was too busy focusing on my stance, Jack almost landed a strike on me but luckily, my body managed to instinctively deflect the wooden blade.
Jack had a surprised expression for a split second before returning to it to a serious one and tried to strike from my side, my body once again moved on its own deflecting the blade, I slowly treaded back receiving every blow coming at me with my sword. My arm began to feel numb and I tripped on a small pebble on the ground, falling onto my butt. Jack utilised this opportunity to point his sword towards my neck at an amazing speed, it even caused a ripple of wind upon stopping.
“You’re good but inexperienced.”
Jack muttered coldly before retrieving his sword, Goldenloss who was watching from the side applauded. I got up on my feet and stared coldly at Goldenloss who seemed to be having fun, it made me annoyed but at least my mind is cleared now.
“That was a good fight, I’m quite entertained.”
“What are you doing? Get up, we’re going for another round.”
Jack made me repeat the gruesome sparring which continued until sunset, the score was 0-108 according to Goldenloss.
I could barely move a muscle after the sparring ended, Jack and Goldenloss helped me to a large bath. The bath was the size of a school swimming pool filled with hot water, when I took off my clothes, I saw several bruises on my body which reminded me of the hell I experienced a moment ago.
After the bath, I borrowed some clothes from Goldenloss and returned to my room. Goldenloss sent a maid to deliver some food to my room, the maid left the food on a table near the bed and left. The food delivered was some bread, a bowl of vegetable soup and some steak with LOTS of salt.
POV ???
Inside a dark room within the inner palace was a young boy, he had a handsome appearance despite his young age and many women yearned for him. Sitting opposite of the boy was a handsome man in his 50s, he barely looked old and some even mistaken him for being in his 30s.
Silence filled the room for several minutes, neither of them uttered a word nor move, they only stared at each other. The man slowly opens his mouth, starting a conversation.
“How was it?”
“It's a good piece, its help will be crucial in the future.”
“I see... How would you rate its potential?”
“I would say a pawn. It has many potential when it reaches the end, but it’s vulnerable at its current state.”
The young boy slowly makes the first move on the chessboard, a white pawn to E4. The man stayed silent for several more minutes, deep in thought before opening his mouth again.
“So it’s starting, huh? The ancient prophecy.”
“Yes, we have 9 years left to prepare.”
A cold wind entered through the opened window, the sunset was the only source of illumination in the room and within the shadow where no light resides was a butler.
“Cecil, prepare me the stuff for it.”
“Understood.”
The man gave a command to the butler that was residing within the shadows, the butler's presence disappeared within an instance after hearing the command.