The next week had been very awkward. Leona and Faust hadn’t talked much, and everyone knew something was up. Even Schenk noticed it when he saw his daughter sitting at the dinner table quietly.

“Daughter… something is wrong… do you want to talk about it?” He asked with a concerned expression. Nobody else could hear the two.

“I want to talk about it… but I can’t talk to you about it. I… just sometimes being the daughter of a baron is more of a burden than anything else…” she muttered absentmindedly.

That stung.

‘I’m the cause of her pain? Why can’t she talk to me?’ It hurt him. And he dug through his mind in an attempt to figure out what was going on. Then he had an idea.

“Is it because of Faust?” he asked, remembering how Vitus told him they had some sort of argument.

She jolted slightly at the mention of Faust’s name. Then she nodded.

“Did he hurt you?” Schenk immediately followed up.

“No…” “Good. Can I help you deal with it?”

“No.” “Do you want a hug?”

“Yes…” she smiled a little and hugged her father. He held her. He tried to figure out how her standing was connected to her argument with Faust but couldn’t make much of it.

‘I'll discuss this with Mirabella in the evening. Maybe she has an idea…’ he sighed.

A few rooms away

“Flora… nothing is wrong with me. I promise.” Faust explained and Flora rolled her eyes.

“Come on Faust… you don’t need to hide it from me…” she attempted to coerce him into saying what was wrong.

“The thoughts of Poplia have been more prevalent these days…” Faust lied. His head hurt. He had thought so much about women these past few days he felt the urgent need to bury his mind in training.

Flora could feel he wasn’t telling the whole truth. She could only accept it and sigh.

When Faust left the room he looked for Aquila and found him on the archery grounds.

“Aquila!” he greeted from afar. The black-haired youth looked up and smiled when he saw Faust.

“Enough time spent with love?” Aquila asked with a laugh when he saw Faust’s exhausted expression.

“I need to get my mind off women.” He replied drily.

“Fighting is much better than romance anyways.” Aquila shrugs. He meant it. Faust snickered.

“A few days ago you offered to teach me about knife fighting… I’ve come here to pick you up on the offer.”

“Oh? Good! Awesome!” Aquila licked his lips.

“Sparring with you is always a pleasure!”

Faust cracked his neck and Aquila put down his bow.

“Why don’t we meet in the inner castle in 15 minutes?”

“Perfect.” Faust replied.

In Mirabella’s room, Flora was currently venting about her sorrows.

“And… he lies to me. I can see it in his eyes. He looks away when he says it… it's not just the pain from the raid… it’s something else… and I just can’t seem to make sense of it,” She sighed.

“Mirabella… help me…” she begged.

“Flora… he is struggling with something and is worried that you might judge him or stop liking him if he reveals it… or maybe not to hurt you…” The woman explained.

“But what can that be?” Flora asked desperately. Mirabella threw her hands in the air.

“If I knew I would’ve already told you.” She sighed.

“Just make sure to be there for him. If he hides something, then it surely troubles him as well. To overcome that he will need you by his side. He loves you.” The older woman smiled and patted Flora’s shoulder.

‘Leona… it must be her!’ Flora thought and her eyes showed a hateful glint for a second before the worry about Faust returned.

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Down in the courtyard Faust and Aquila both held a 40 centimeters long wooden dagger in their right hand and stood before each other. Faust marveled at how different it felt to a spear.

‘It’s so much more versatile… though it has a shorter range it can be hidden and carried with me almost everywhere… the perfect weapon for a bodyguard…’ he thought.

Aquila traced the wooden dagger with his left hand.

“In a knife fight never expect to leave the fight without a wound. If you survive then that’s a win.”

Faust gulped. But he realized how true those words were. At such short range, a sharp knife of this length had a myriad of ways to kill someone. On the battlefield, the dagger was only a secondary weapon, but on the streets or in groups of people the dagger ruled. One couldn’t wield a spear or long sword in such environments.

“Daggers are hidden weapons. A mantle can hide one of these bad boys easily. Many people carry them for self-defense. Even in civilian environments. Vitus advised me to maybe spend some of my free time teaching y’all a bit about knife fighting. I learned it from a thug who later became a miller in my village.” He grinned.

Faust wasn’t sure if he should buy that story or if there was more to it.

‘Maybe Aquila has another side to him… one he hasn’t told anyone about…’

He quickly disregarded the thought and continued listening to his friend's explanation.

“It can be used for assassination, robberies, ….” Before Aquila could continue blubbering Faust stopped him.

“Aquila. Please just teach me for now, give me your lectures on criminal activity someday when I’m in the mood please.” Faust exhaled deeply.

The other boy didn’t mind.

“Sure. I forgot I was all in my element.” He laughed and then showed Faust how to properly hold a dagger and how to stand.

Regarding stance many different styles of combat share certain elements. One of them was balance. Just like with spears and wrestling a dagger fighting stance required one to move quickly and nimbly. Even more so than other weapon styles.

“Dagger fighting is probably the fastest kind of weapon fighting. So speed is extremely important.” Aquila added and then stood before Faust.

“Now let's make things interesting. Attack me. The one who’s hit first loses.” He offered.

Faust grinned.

“That’s more how I like it.”

They were a meter or two apart. Faust held his dagger firmly while Aquila assumed a stance where he held the dagger in reverse and above his head, ready to fight back.

‘Well… Is this what Vitus talked about in close combat… the fear to engage?’ he asked as he was unable to find a clear weakness in Aquila's defense due to his inexperience.

He was frozen in place. Then he shook his head.

‘I got to do something. Let's try a few things. This is training after all.’

And with that, he took a quick step forward, his footwork was similar to what he used wielding a spear. He tried to thrust the dagger into Aquila’s chest. He exploded forward, yet with a firm hit onto his arm his strike was deflected and he saw Aquila bringing his dagger down onto his collarbone.

“If the dagger had been real I would’ve pierced your lung and heart. Dead.” Aquila commented.

Faust quickly went over what just happened.

‘I attacked and with a slight twist of his body, he used his free arm to put my thrust off track while moving to the side and striking me… I didn’t expect him to use his offhand as much… but I guess it's just as important…’

He sighed and tried again only to receive a strike to his right hand. “Unusable,” Aquila commented.

They continued their sparring and slowly but surely Faust showed small improvements. He realized he couldn’t commit too much into a single strike as in a spear thrust, but that he had to quickly retract the knife and stab again in a fluid motion.

‘Aquila’s movements look very fluid. Maybe that’s a reason for his speed…’ Faust tried to imitate him but failed. He had a few important realizations. The importance of speed and explosiveness as well as using one's whole body to move and fight in close quarters.

‘Damn. I got to work on my mobility and footwork.’ He concluded.

“Knife fighting is much harder than spear fighting…” Faust said, and Aquila nodded.

“And I think it's much more dangerous. But you got to know it. Especially people in our position,” he explained and continued “But I must admit you're doing quite well for the first day. I guess weapon training is complementary and the different arms all share certain similarities… but we should focus on close combat more. It is more taxing on the mind than standing in line with spears out.”

Faust only knew too well how one had to overcome a certain block in their mind to engage in a close combat fight. He had felt it earlier.

“It’s scary. I just imagined the knives to be real and I wouldn’t have dared to attack…” Faust mumbles.

“Yeah, that’s normal. It’s a high-risk endeavor fighting in close quarters. You will need high mental fortitude and toughness to deal with that efficiently. I also have trouble with that. We should box and wrestle to get used to it… maybe that will help.” The archer replies.

‘That would make a lot of sense. I haven’t felt this way when I was wrestling with Leona, but only because we weren’t sparring. If there were actual risks involved that would change the game a lot…’

He pondered about mental strength and how it would affect their combat prowess.

“Let’s mention it to Vitus tomorrow. Maybe he has a solution.” Faust suggests.

“Sounds awesome!” Aquila agreed.

“The man is just an expert at his craft.”

When the day ended Schenk lay in his bed while Mirabella undressed to get ready to sleep. Her milky white body shone beautifully in the moonlight and was the most enticing thing in the world to him. Many would’ve killed for her. But Schenk’s mind was not on her nakedness, but elsewhere.

“Our daughter and Faust have some kind of argument going on. It really gets to her. She said it's because of her standing as my daughter… I don’t know what to make of it. Maybe you should talk to her.” Schenk sighed and leaned back, eyeing his wife.

She stopped and looked at her husband.

“With Faust you say?” She asked and immediately put one and two together. Schenk nodded.

Mirabella delved into thought.

‘That must be what’s bothering Faust so much… but what could their argument be about that he can’t tell Flo…’ she stopped and stared at the window and then facepalmed.

‘I just hope I’m wrong.’

“What’s wrong?” Schenk asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nothing. I just forgot something. I'll do it tomorrow.” She lied and sighed inwardly.

‘My dear daughter. I just hope you make the right choice.’

Then she put on a nightgown and joined her husband under the warm sheets.

“Let’s just wait. I’m sure it's nothing. They’ll resolve it on their own. They’re old enough.” She whispered while caressing Schenk’s chest.

“You’re probably right. What could possibly happen?” He laughed and made himself comfortable before they drifted into sleep.

Little did he know how this problem would have a greater impact than he could’ve ever imagined.