Emerald Castle, Kingdom of Alan | 508 A.F
"ROOOLANDDD, GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!!!" In this serene castle a peculiar scene was taking place. An old man approaching 70 was currently chasing after a small boy who held a large painting in his hand.
"Hahahha, you'll never catch me grandpa!" The small boy mischievously said back to his grandfather as he continued to sprint down the wide corridors as fast as his little legs could take him. "You're too slow grandpa!"
The old man couldn't help but smile when he heard his cute grandson speak to him like that, it was one of his only weaknesses - he was too doting on his grandchildren. "Roland, if you give grandpa back the painting I'll let you train with soldiers in the barracks!"
"Really grandpa?!? Dad said I had to wait until my 12th birthday before I could start playing with swords... Will you really grandpa? You'd better not be trying to trick me!" The little boy replied as he slowed down his pace and eventually came to a full stop waiting for his tired grandpa to catch up.
The old man suddenly snatched the painting in one hand and the little boy's shoulder in the other. "Roland, this is an extremely expensive painting, do you understand? It was a portrait of our family done by the genius artist Bartolomeo! BARTOLOMEO! We paid 100 gold coins for him to come and paint this! He had to come all the way from the Republic of Lucca just to paint our family! This was a great honour for our family, so please don't play around with it any more." The old man then stared at the young boy, waiting for a response.
"Sorry grandpa... I didn't know it was the important to you. But-" The boy sad face instantly changed into a menacing grin, "Can I really play swords at the barracks!?"
"No Roland. I lied, you are 4 years too young. Wait 'till your older before you start talking about playing swords with the soldiers. You have a wooden sword in your room, go swing that." The old man's tone seemed harsh but Roland knew his grandpa too well and he saw weakness in his grandfather's willpower.
Roland starting to softly cry, then it slowly transformed into a loud weep, "But, but grandpa, I always swing the wooden sword. I want a real sword! Grandpa you promised! Pleeeease grandpa, I love you forever if you let me grandpa." Roland knew his grandfather was always soft with his grandkids and knew that with enough crying and guilt tripping he could get what he wanted.
The crying continued for a few minutes, drawing the attention of the servants and guards although they were quickly dismissed by the old man. "Alright Roland, alright. You can play swords in the barracks. Just. Don't. Tell. Your. Mother. You have to promise me that."
"Thank you so much grandpa, I love you the most!"
Faced with his grandson's bright sky blue eyes, wide smile and adorable face the old man couldn't help but smile, despite knowing all too well he was just blackmailed by the adorable devil.
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The adorable devil walked into the barracks and called out to one of the few Knights overseeing the training, "Good morning Sir Arnold! One sword please!"
"Roland? What are you doing here? Does Lord Greenspear know you're here?" The burly man responded with a sincere smile that showed his broken and crooked teeth. Roland always thought Sir Albert had all the chivalry of a knight, but none of the looks.
The boy innocently responded, "Lord Greenspear? Oh, grandpa! Yeah, he let me play with you guys since I'm his favourite grandchild."
The homely knight laughed, "Hahaha, I don't know if your siblings or cousins would agree with you on that little man." He moved over towards the weapon rack and signalled from Roland to follow. "So, what kind of weapon does our mighty hero require?"
Brimming with eagerness and joy Roland squeaked back, "The BIGGEST, the STRONGEST. The one the heroes use to slay dragons and rescue princesses!"
Arnold replied with a hearty laugh, "Rescuing princesses? I think you're a bit too young for that little man, hahaha." The soldiers and knights within earshot of the two starting laughing like mad, some couldn't even stay standing after seeing Roland's sweet and innocent face turn to confusion at the laughter, "What do you mean Albert?"
"Don't worry, you'll find out yourself in a few years. Anyway, this is the largest and strongest sword we have. Think you can handle it?" Albert spoke as he lifted a gigantic claymore from the racks and put it on the ground in front of Roland.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Of course!" said Roland as he went to pick up the sword. "Uggghh, this sword is really heavy! Uuughghh I CAN DO IT! UUGGGHH JUST A BIT MORE! THERE! See, I lifted it!"
"Yes you did, however you only lifted it one inch. How could you possible fight when you can only lift your sword one inch?"
Roland turned red with embarrassment as he replied, "I guess I could try a... smaller sword..."
Albert smiled at Roland's response and grabbed out a miniature longsword, the perfect size for the eight-year-old Roland.
Roland spent the rest of the day swinging the sword around and sparring with the other soldiers and knights, surprising them all, even his grandfather who came to watch, with his skill.
After hours of swordplay dusk was slowing approaching and with it came a loud, horrific scream from within the castle - scaring all those who could hear it shitless. Roland recognised this scream as he had heard all too many times before, usually when he did something wrong.
"ALBERT GREENSPEAR, YOU STUPID OLD MAN. WHY DID YOU LET MY SON PRACTICE SWORDPLAY?!!??!"
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In a large but bleak room sat four people, an old man, a middle aged woman, a middle aged man and young boy. The odd thing about these four was that the old man had a black eye and the young boy has a red hand mark glowing across his face and his eyes were red from crying.
"To think my once cute little daughter would grow up and even hit her own father." The old man with the black eye sobbed to himself.
"I'm sorry father, I overreacted. But why in the world would you let Roland, an eight-year-old play with real swords?" The beautiful black haired woman replied to her fathers sobs with regret written over her face.
"Mummy, daddy, I asked grandpa to play swords and he tried to stop me but I just kept crying and had a tantrum, I'm sorry." The little boy with the red face replied with teary, puppy dog eyes.
"Oh my baby, I'm so sorry for hitting you. You know mummy has a bad temper and I didn't mean to hit you." The woman hugged her son and kissed the red whelp on his face.
The middle aged man spoke up, "It's ok Albert, I know you would never do anything to hurt or harm Roland. But... I heard something interesting from Sir Arnold when Elizabeth was chewing into him. He said Roland has quite some talent with the sword, is this true?"
"Yes, it is true m'lord-"
"Oh, Albert, we're family. We are no longer a Duke and his vassal. We are father and son, just call me William."
The elderly man smiled and the tension in the room dispersed, "Thank you William. And yes, it's true what Sir Arnold said about Roland's swordsmanship. It was quite impressive, it didn't look like that of an eight-year-old amateur, it was like he was dancing with the sword. It was as if the sword was an extension of himself. Of course, he is still a poor fighter but that can be attributed to his age, but there was definitely something special there, with proper training he could become one of the greatest fighters of our Kingdom, of this I have no doubt."
Listening to Albert speak of his son in such high praise William's golden eyes widened. He always had high aspirations for his children and hearing this about his son was absolute ecstasy for him.
He looked towards his wife and said hesitantly, "My dear, you heard what your father said. I think we should let him train, if he has half as much skill as Albert said he will be able to handle it. Please my dear?"
Elizabeth looked at William and then towards her son and saw his beaming sky blue eyes and a face with so much happiness it could suffocate a clown. Seeing her son's face like that she had to give in and replied, "Fine William, but if I see a single scratch on his body you're sleeping in the kennel."
"Thank you mummy! I love you so much!"
"Alright Roland, you've got your wish, now we need to head back home to Seabreeze Island, thank you for looking after Roland for these past few weeks, Father."
Albert replied with a smile, "It was my pleasure Belle. Roland, you're welcome anytime you want, grandpa is allows happy to have you."
And with that the Welf family left the Emerald Isle and travelled home back to Seabreeze Isle where Roland would start on the path of swordsmanship.