Chapter 8 (9): How NOT to keep a low profile, part 7
Once the rest of the party left us behind, Mae, Ver, and I decided to go to the massive training area to watch the royal guards train, and maybe even join in. Gazef, Mae's father and the captain of the royal guard, was there overseeing the training personally, which was a bit unusual.
"Sir! Pardon me, but may I ask who those three are and why they are here, if you know?" (Guard)
"Who? Hmm? AH! That'd be my daughter and two of her party members. Those three are B and A ranks, and are also in a party with the third princess, from what I've heard" (Gazef)
"Actually, all three of us are A ranks, and might be getting promoted to S soon" (Mae)
We walked closer, and Mae motioned for him to lend her his ear. It was pretty comical to see a man of about 220cm bending down to put his ear next to the mouth of his 130cm daughter, and knowing that she's not going to get much taller as she gets older. I later asked what she'd told him, and it was something like the following:
"To be perfectly accurate, Ryuu is going to be going up to SS rank within a week or two, due to... certain circumstances, ones related to an incident that is currently classified. The rest of us might or might not go up to S at the same time due to our helping out during the aforementioned incident" (Mae)
The shock of hearing that caused him to straighten so fast that he almost fell over backwards, though Mae caught him.
"Well... uh... Congrats, I guess? Mind if I ask why the three of you came to these training grounds? It couldn't be just to see me, right?" (Gazef)
"Well, most of it was due to our wanting to kill time, and we thought we might be able to spar with some of the guardsmen. Even if not, we would still be able to watch them train" (Mae)
"Ah, that makes sense... hmm... Jackson! You've been bemoaning the fact that you don't have anyone to spar with who is roughly evenly matched with you, right? Try one of these three... no, don't fight Ryuu" (Gazef)
"Sir! I will do my best to honor the name of the royal guard!" (Jackson)
A man of about my height came over, wearing a uniform and holding a practice longsword. He chose to fight Ver instead of Mae, so Ver surprised him by grabbing a practice greatsword with one hand.
"Hmm... it's a bit light, but it'll do. Jackson, was it? I'm sorry if I don't meet your expectations, my skill level isn't that high, as I've been practicing for half a year or so at most, but I should be able to hold my own, I think" (Ver)
"Oh, come now, you're evenly matched against Mae, and she was able to beat Mr Sword half the time" (Ryuu)
They walked to one of the sparring rings, Jackson took a well-balanced stance, and Ver stood there casually, the massive sword resting on her shoulder. The signal to begin was given, and Jackson lunged at her, though it was a feint. However, Ver's sword hit his nevertheless, and it hit hard. His stance was broken, and her free hand gripped his sword arm as the (dulled) edge of her sword pressed against his throat.
"Feints are all well and good, but they can still backfire if the target is fast and strong. I even gave you a hint about my being in that category, by holding this with one hand" (Ver)
"Ver, even so, that's not a fair fight in any case. You can choke a wyvern to death barehanded, so I was expecting you to, you know, limit your strength more than just using a greatsword single handedly" (Ryuu)
"The fuck is this girl? Choking a wyvern to death? She can't be much older than 15" (Guard in the audience)
"I'm quite a bit younger than that, actually. I- Oh, right. Not supposed to say what I was going to say. To put it simply, I'm an A rank nearing S rank, as was said already" (Ver)
"And a member of the A ranked party known as The Demon Lord's Harem. Ah-ah-ah! Don't ask. It's a long story, to say the least. Also, Jackson, I know what you're thinking, and to that, I say this: You didn't dishonor the name of the royal guard, if anyone did, it was Ver. She should have known better than to go more or less all out, as she should be working on improving her skills, not showing off her strength and speed" (Ryuu)
After that, we only watched, though Mae and I each fought with Gazef a few times, and that was pretty even, much to everyone's surprise.
"Good lord... Good fucking Demon Lord! Mae beat me. Four times. Out of six bouts. Before she turned 15. I figured her reaching a two to three win/loss ratio against me wouldn't happen until she turned 18 or 20! She was only able to reach a one to three win/loss ratio when she left five months ago. I'm getting old..." (Gazef)
"What about Ryuu? She beat you nine times out of ten. Not going to say anything about that? Nor anyone else gonna comment on the phrase 'good fucking Demon Lord'?" (Jackson)
"I guess that I'm pleased I managed to take a bout off of her? No, that one was probably a fluke. As for the phrase I used, it's because of the party name" (Gazef)
"Oh, father, you're not getting old, it's just that I'm improving a lot with a good teacher and some good old fashioned growth cheats" (Mae)
He, as well as everyone else save for Ver and myself, seemed not to understand, so I told him we'd explain later, as someone came sprinting into the training yard.