“In order to become trained soldiers, young children started their training early in their childhood; boys would be sent to large castles to train under knights and military instructors. Although single combat was practiced the most, team fighting and team building trainings were held regularly. Boys would finish their training when they became sixteen years of age, after which they would be mostly sent to squire knights, guard the nobility, or enter the army. A number of those would later also become what would be known as Seekers, men and women who search the continents and seas for challenge, glory and powerful artifacts lost from the civilizations before us.”
̶ A brief history of our World, Cerolus Kreshorok, 600 AS
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My sleep was interrupted by someone removing my sheets from above me, exposing me to the morning air. I opened my eyes, noticing that the Sun is barely up, the room lit by its earliest rays, still mostly dark. The towering figure above me turned out to be none other than my husband.
“Wake up, princess. Today’s the day your combat training begins, and it starts…” Cerolus looks out of the window briefly; “…right now.”
Still groggy from sleep, I try to squirm back into the bed, trying to somehow overpower his grip on my sheets to cover myself. He snickers.
“If you don’t get up soon, I’m going to make you get up, and you won’t like that.”
“Fine, fine, I’m getting up already.” I slowly rise out of my bed, wearing my white night gown. He goes to a corner of the room and picks something up; then comes back towards me. In his hands lies a suit of armor as if tailored for my size.
“Now, I’m going to send Tiana in to help you put this on, alongside some better looking shirts, and I’ll see you in front of the castle in a few minutes.”
I nod sleepily, not understanding half of what he is saying. Soon, he is out of the room and Tiana is strapping the suit of armor on my body. It’s made of metal, but it’s not particularly heavy. I can remember using some armor at the Palace when I started to train with it.
The armor looks similar to the one I remember, and as I suspected it fits perfectly to my body. When did he have it made? Or did he just take one that just happened to be my size?
Tiana leads me to the gardens, where Cerolus waits for me. On his side is another Demon, this one almost fully armored, only his head lacking the protection. He has two white horns on his head that curve backwards in an arch, following the shape of his head. His skin colour is red, but his eyes are blue. And I mean completely blue. It’s even creepier than Cerolus’, as his eyes at least match the skin tone and the horns.
“Sophia, this is Sephor, he is in charge of training the local guards and keeping them in shape. Since I don’t actually have much in the way of combat training, and I use very different tactics anyway, he’s going to be the one in charge of you from now on regarding your training.”
Sephor bows before me, his suit of armor clunking as he does so. “It’s an honor Mistress.” I notice that he doesn’t have hooves, which is probably a good thing, since I suspect a person with hooves would move differently in combat.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Well then, let us begin. We’ll start with some basic sword fighting today.” I assumed he would get me started fighting immediately, getting in shape again could be useful; I haven’t been training for a long time.
Sephor leads both Cerolus and me across the castle gardens, where the guards are stationed presumably. I never really got the exact outline of the castle, but I presume most of the guards live and train here. Sephor then leads us into a large training area, outfitted with various weapon racks and training equipment. More than a few people are already in here, some currently having mock battles.
He then walks over to one of the racks, removing two wooden swords, handing me one to use. “I don’t know how you Humans train, but I assume you know the basic of using a sword. We’ll see what you can do now.”
Cerolus stands near us, trying to find something to do apparently. “Well I guess I’ll watch, it’s not like I have much to do.” He sits atop a crate, the wooden box letting a small creak under the sudden increase of weight on its top.
Sephor and I move to the center of the training area, several guards that were here now gathering around us. I assume it is because it’s odd to see a woman in armor, let alone a Human one.
Sephor takes a stance, readying for the training. I take a stance as well, my armor embracing me from all sides. He then utters a single word which starts the training “Begin.”
We start moving towards one another, wooden swords clashing. He is somewhat taller than I am, but he is most likely a lot stronger, and it starts showing. My movements with the sword aren’t nearly as fast as his, me being out of practice. I am glad I didn’t eat yet, since I would lose my meal by now.
The sparring continues for several minutes without rest, my instructor obviously toning down the strength of his blows, but still managing to overpower and movement I try to make against him. If I attack from the left, he dodges and surges with the sword forward, prompting me to back off. If I attack from the right, he parries the blow easily with his sword and tries to perform a blow to my sides.
I am tired out by the time we finish our spar, Cerolus intently watching us the whole time, or at least pretending to.
Sephor then lowers his sword, commenting our training. “You have some training Mistress, and I’ll be looking forward to improving it further. Take some time to recover, and we’ll do this again shortly.”
Cerolus then feel the need to add to the conversation. “Don’t forget you will still have to study with Tiana and then learn magic from me in the afternoons. Make use of this time, you’ll start hating it soon enough, I know I did.”
After several minutes of rest, the spar starts again, my body aching in response to my movements. The results don’t change as expected.
Sephor and I take a few spars and a couple of breaks, the Sun now already risen in the sky. He then lets go of his sword, putting it back in its rack. “That will be all for today Mistress, we’ll see each other tomorrow.”
Cerolus leads me back to the castle, where I wash myself quickly and dress appropriately, going to finally have breakfast, feeling starved. I could probably get used to this. Maybe.