“Showing Weakness is in itself a weakness!”

Kasanova Rojora, the head of the Rojora family. Kasanova has been born as a half-blooded

offspring of the Rojorama-family and was given a secondary treatment for a good chunk of his

early life. The man was dealt hard cards for a relatively noble background and throughout his

life, the aspiring warrior has created this codex of life.

As long as you are a noble, you are judged by your environment during every single moment

of your observable life.

The appearance alone is the easiest way of identifying one’s noble character and can already

make or break one’s image in higher circles.

Never show yourself vulnerable!

Kasanova has always put an emphasis on two things, one of them being clothing.

Even during the times, where his allowance was growing thin, he would drape himself

in luxurious clothing befitting of a pure-blooded Rojorama-member. He would practice the

necessary etiquette on the side; Kasanova would never bent his back to those of the main

branch. For that sake he even indebted himself by his brother multiple times.

The other thing he would delve into extensively is the art of fighting.

Early on, Kasanova would recognize his own talent in the art of beating opponents on the

open field. By having a fighting style centered around short stints of powerful swings in

combination with genetically high mobility, the aspiring soldier would eventually gain a

tremendous reputation.

[Uncrowned Swords-prince] or [Principenôrza](Prin-chii-pe-nôr-sa)

The haughty man, who was always draped in royally decorated clothing and fought with the

might becoming of a ruler, was given such a title from his peers.

Kasanova eventually garnered a fame worthy of being an equal to any Rojora-member of his age

and rose up in the rankings tremendously.

Eventually, he was dispatched as leader of a battalion of 300 men during the great Ayrilian war

and was accoladed with great batches of honor allowing him to establish his own

family-branch of nobility.

Together with his wife and the newborn child as its earliest addition Kasanova gathered

people to serve under him as members of the new Rojora-family.

To the young leader of a newly established family any minor or major achievement of his

dependents inevitably contributes in building and solidifying this family’s legacy and position.

That is the natural flow of things in the circles of Estican nobility.

The more important a place today’s event holds inside Kasanova’s heart, the more scared he

gets at the coming day’s opening ceremony, when he sees this young man lurking in the

crowd:

The scenery is the town square of Medalia, in the middle of it, there is a circular platform with

a dent in its middle, draped in a white blanket.

The blanket was fabricated to have eight separate ends to it and is further stabilized to the ring

by tying the ends down at the sides of the ring. The method is unknown but the middle area

of the indented ring is propelled upwards with a type of orb of rotating wind pressure to

create a type of hill protruding from the ground.

The ring has a radius of about 6 grown adults lying down in a straight line.

To the sides of the sturdy blanket, there had been made a bunch of pre-made holes encased

with a metal border emitting a constant stream of winds.

The surroundings are filled with a high density of people surrounding the ring in layers of

groups resulting in a fascinating view when seen from above.

The mood is festive and competitive as there is loud noises coming from everywhere, while

some of the attendants are already occupying themselves with drinking and playing games

while waiting for the festival to start.

Expanding the view even further outside of this ring, one can see a circle of stands lining up

containing vendors of wares ranging from provision and entertainment over to souvenirs for

tourism and guides for culture and tradition.

All the makeshift stores are decorated in lines of string carrying silk-patterns of different

colors and shapes high into the air. Even the houses surrounding the main square have

decorations of that kind draped all over.

A bit hidden at the outer edges of this construction there is different groups of musicians

preparing drums made out of flexible leather draped over a hollow wooden casket-like barrel.

Once the second tournament of the day starts, they are to march in from all four directions

of the sky and to announce the start of Insigniae Magnae with a proper beat to heat up

the viewer’s excitement.

The late afternoon sun throws a shade of light down onto this spectacle; one that is becoming

increasingly golden in color.

The tournament for the oldest group has quickly concluded and the victors have already been

honored for their show of strength and technique.

Kasanova is currently sitting in a tight line around the ring together with the other participants

of his group. To be more precise, the participants are so many in numbers, that they occupy

about four rows of men and women around the large ring.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

It is at this scene, that the normally stoic and serious Kasanova visibly staggers when making

eye-contact with a face from the audience.

What he is seeing is not a young Uzunku boy with blood-red eyes. No, it is more complicated

than that. Though he is not able to accurately pin down the exact cause of his anxiety,

Kasanova can tell that something is amiss about this boy. If the seasoned veteran had to

describe it in words, he would call Imogyeran’s condition a ‘fluctuating existence’, as cryptic as

it sounds.

His extensive experience of 27 years of hard-fought life has only one rare recollection of a

similar feeling. It was during his visit to the neutral country of Faramaka south-east-east of

Estica 10 years ago.

At that time, the youthful Kasanova tried to flirt with a local woman of status only to find out

that she was a capable spirit-channeler.

To make a long story short, Kasanova broke two of his ribs and has gotten away with a twisted ankle

while being chased by a ‘mutated’ version of her for an entire day.

Even today there exists a lasting numbness in his right foot from that time. This accident was one

of the key moments of his life and the hardened warrior has sworn to himself to keep a distance to people,

who give him the same feeling as that woman.

It was also the day, that the young Kasanova swore to be more respectful and careful when choosing a woman in the future.

But that is besides the point.

The important feeling that the old man takes out of this encounter is one of healthy caution and not one of fear.

The incident has been over for about 10 years now and Kasanova has been able to come to come to terms

with it and even started preparing countermeasures against similar types of enemies. That is why he knows,

that the boy is not a major threat to deal with in his current condition. Kasanova could easily take care of him

depending on the types of spirits he contracted with.

Kasanova’s focus of concern does not lie in the danger this boy poses to him. His main point of attention

is the winning chances of his son Kasim in his bracket of the tournament.

In the worst case, depending on the placement of the two in correlation to each other Kasim might not be

able to fulfill the duty he has been given by his father.

Normally, Kasanova might have already instructed his underlings to prevent the potential

threat from ruining his son’s chance of victory as this is a highly important point in Kasim’s life that must

not be trifled with.

However he changes his mind in an instant:

Right after witnessing the small boy and analyzing his chances and potential against his own

son, Kasanova instinctively turns his head in the direction he has agreed upon with his son and

entourage. There he can see the face of Kasim turned not towards him but toward a different

direction. His son is looking straight at the boy he himself has been observing.

What’s more, what is written on Kasim’s face is not a face of worry or irritation. His son is

making a resolute and determined expression. This is the face of somebody being assured of

their victory! After witnessing this face, Kasanova has decided to let Kasim handle this match by himself.

For the honor of his own flesh and blood the only thing he can do is silently pray for Kasim’s success.

…

Skipping forward a bit, Kasanova comes back out of the ring with a slightly satisfied smile on

his lips. As expected, he won the first round of the tournament and is now preparing for the

main deal tomorrow afternoon. But his expression quickly changes when he reminds himself

of the current hurdle in the Rojora-family’s way.

During the time leading up to the tournament Kasanova is helping his son prepare for his own tournament

and in the process he heavily shifts the focus on the black-haired red-eyed child.

Originally, Kasanova planned to use his henchmen to gather intel about the mysterious boy during the adult

division’s fights but it turns out that information on the small guy seems to be sparse. Furthermore the

bigger shock lies not in the sparsity of information but in the discussion he has with Kasim and his girlfriend during the break-time.

Through their conversation Kasanova is briefly informed about the mysterious boy Imogyeran.

Not only that but he is also shocked to find out that the two of them already did an exhausting and brutal battle against each other.

This information is the final straw in the decision of not interfering in the results of the match using his connections and power.

Had this so called Imogyeran been a lot stronger than his son, then he would have definitely decided to interfere

in some way to influence the result in their favor. But as long as his son and that boy are on an equal playing field,

no matter the result Kasim would be given the proper respect and admiration he deserves.

As long as this baseline is guaranteed, he as a father and a warrior does not have the right to interfere in his son’s fight.

Kasanova and Kasim use the rest of the fight on motivation and image training and the time for the big event is slowly drawing closer.

…

Skipping forward even further, the tournament of Insigniae Minimalis has started for the two

youngest groups of contestants. Since the number of young contestants this year has been

relatively low, 30 contestants are put together in a 5-round tournament bracket to be battling

against each other in rapid succession.

Kasim and Imogyeran are scheduled to fight against each other in the third match of the

second round of this tournament.

Kasim beat his opponent by using a solid evasive technique to evade their blows and

counterattacking with a high-power thrust of his sword on non-vital parts of their body.

The sword used has a blunt edge and the weight of the sword’s core is slightly less than the

adult’s weapons for safety reasons. Insigniae Magnae does not prevent the participants from

dealing lethal blows to each other. That is a part of Medalian culture and will not be debated

upon. Instead however the high influx of tourists has made the organizers a bit more lenient

on minimizing the risks of fighting, especially for the outer brackets, the elderly and the

youngsters.

Imogyeran also beat his opponent with little difficulty. His fighting style was a bit odd, though.

During his battle, the young boy used a bunch of acrobatic moves for evasion purposes and thereby created

a bunch of gaps while fighting his opponent.

At one time for example, Imog dodged his opponent’s vertical swing from above while

spreading his legs apart and making a back-flip, only barely avoiding the blade hitting his lower

half.

Another time he would shuffle around doing something close to dancing while keeping not

even an arm’s length of distance to his opponent, even going as far as to swirl them around

and then throw them to the ground with a throwing combination.

No matter what he did though, the most apparent thing about his style was his laughing face.

The entire time, the boy wore a face of pure joy as he hopped around the ring and held this

spectacle of a show.

As a result Kasanova’s opinion on Imogyeran has dropped drastically.

With the progression of the battle his thoughts were getting more and more extreme until he

had to stop himself on spectating this fiasco of a fight any further. He left the venue for a while

to take in some fresh air and to calm himself down before returning shortly after the start of

Kasim’s and the brat’s match.

As the father of Kasim he made sure to tell his son to win this fight at any cost and he warned

him that

<

can write it down with his own blood!!!>>

Yes, the proud warrior Kasanova Rojora was absolutely livid when he saw the boy make a

street spectacle out of a fight for honor and staining his opponent’s pride in the process.

He completely ignored his son’s surprised expression while watching the fight.

He also ignored the trembling of Kasim’s shoulders and legs.

<>

Kasanova also never heard these words being muttered under Kasim’s breath.

Kasanova has become completely absorbed in his own world.

We go forward once more to the time of the duel. It is already night outside and a circle of

torches has been lit to illuminate the 13 candidates still remaining in the second round of the

youngest group.

Kasim and Imogyeran are standing at the edge of the arena staring each other down.

Their fight is about to begin.