The sun dawned the next morning, and the children once more gathered in the courtyard for another day of rigorous training.
The sun rose over the peaks of the faraway mountains as birds and all sorts of creatures came to life, slowly illuminating the beautiful scenery of nature with its warm rays.
Meanwhile, in the great palace of the Rici Archonate, a tall, well-built man wearing blue robes sat in his office with a troubled frown.
"My liege, the skirmishes along the border with Whitecastle have intensified greatly. In the northwest, 10,000 men were spotted amassing near their typical staging points, while in the southwest along the coast, it seems like defensive emplacements have been set up."
"At this time, 700 of our own troops and 3 mages were either injured or killed, compared to 2,000 of the enemies', with over 8 confirmed mage eliminations. However, the appearance of Legate Leon, who is a tier six mage, near the border is extremely worrisome."
"All pointers indicate to the King of Whitecastle wanting to end the peace that has endured for nearly five decades."
The person who spoke wore half-plate armour on his chest and back, with a tabard on it representing his allegiance to the Archon of Rici. A majestic red cape flowed down his back, with an ornate scabbard dangling by his side.
The robed man got up and paced around the room.
"That's what we have instructed the nobles to gear up for- the time has truly come."
"Legate Valery, you have been in charge of the Archonate's western forces for over a decade and are one of our most experienced general officers. I will transfer control over the entire western region into your military command for the time being; as well as send out a force of twenty mages of tier four and above to bolster your defenses."
"I expect a defensive line set up along the border to repel any attacks that may come from enemy magicians and armies alike; not one man is to cross the Ancliow Forest! Are we clear?"
The esteemed Legate bowed deeply, his eyes closed and face filled with respect for his liege, who wore a stern expression as he gazed off into the north, to the direction of Whitecastle.
"Yes, my liege. It shall be done. The Whitecastle men will bite- but they will break their teeth!"
At this, the robed man slunk back down his seat, sighing deeply. It seemed that the peace had finally come to an end- their country was, once more, going to be plunged into war.
He fully understood the danger that Whitecastle posed to the Rici Archonate- as a large kingdom which had been independent of the Marlonian Empire for far longer than the Archonate, it had had much more time to stabilise and increase its capabilities to project its power than the Archonate.
However, he couldn't just shrivel up and cry, could he?
Beyond the western border with Whitecastle lay the Ancliow Forest, and behind that still lay key farmlands that were used to feed the entire Archonate.
If the Royal Army was ever to advance that deep, it could be said that the Archonate was, essentially, doomed.
Therefore, the only answer was war.
...
"Horse-riding is over, now you can start practicing with the wooden swords." The instructor's bored voice sounded.
"Haah!"
"Hup!"
The sound of the children swinging their swords once more echoed throughout Knight Rictor's courtyard.
In particular, two young boys were once more going at it, dodging and trying to strike each others' blind spots whilst remaining barely at arm's reach.
"Pant... will you.. give up now? pant..."
"You're... pant... crazy!" Came the reply.
Arkadios felt strangely curious about this new boy, almost forgetting about the events on the day prior.
After all, as a young swordsman who dreamed of one day becoming a great Knight, he could put aside personal grudges in order to improve, which was incredibly mature for an eight-year-old who wasn't a reincarnated forty year old.
He noticed Alexius' technique was getting sharper at an alarming pace; it seemed like, with some pointers from the instructor and the constant practice, he was improving at a visible rate.
This made Arkadios feel like a guinea pig, being used by someone else as a training dummy.
'Like hell I'm one!' He once more screamed in his mind, disregarding his exhausted body's cry of pain. What round were they on now? The tenth round? The twentieth? He had lost count long ago.
Needless, he put in his all to attempt a downward slash with all his might, in order to overwhelm Alexius, who was also in a similar pitiful condition.
Alexius tried to employ the trick Arkadios had used the previous day to slide his sword and absorb the impact gradually, locking their swords, but Arkadios swiftly withdrew his sword, and sidestepping, he started a flurry of attacks aimed towards Alexius, aiming to overwhelm his defence.
*Bam!*
"Arkadios has won!"
A familiar shout rang through the courtyard once more. This time, the rest of the children were bored of watching the two fight, so they were off practicing on their own.
"Are you up for another round?" Alexius asked innocently, seemingly disregarding the state he was in.
Not willing to be outdone, Arkadios managed to throw up a challenge in between breaths. "I'm... pant.. ready when you are!" Just then, his head suddenly felt lightheaded, and the world spun around for a few seconds before he fell to the dusty, dry, ground.
...
Alexius was stunned. Did the guy just faint from exhaustion? Hell, if not for the rigorous physical training he had gone through in his past life, he would've given up long ago too.
The instructor immediately ran over to check up on him, immediately shaking his head. "Don't worry, kids. Continue your practice; I'll be back soon to supervise."
Saying that, he slung Arkadios over his shoulder and took off into the manor. Although Alexius did not have much faith in the medical skill of Instructor Sanktios, he couldn't do much aside from continue his training.
He wasn't afraid that he would get blamed for what happened, since he did give Arkadios an option to not continue their sparring. He felt slightly remorseful since Arkadios had been an exceptional training dummy, but he suppressed his feelings.
Shrugging his shoulders, he went on with his day.
'The current problem I have with the sword is that I have many clumsy transitory movements when switching attacks or switching to defence.'
'This is a problem that can only be fixed by rigorous practice, burning the movements into my muscle memory.'
It was hard, but thinking of the payoff in the future, he could only grit his teeth and persevere. After all, getting stuck defenseless was the worst fate one could receive in this world.
'I really need to try my hand at making a proper firearm.'
He complained in his mind.
Looking up to the sky, he wondered about what happened after his death back on Earth. Perhaps his parents were still alive, somewhere out there in the universe?
'I'm sorry for leaving you, ma and pa. I couldn't help it, but I will try to live my best life here. I'm sure you would love to hear that.'
Alexius was suddenly hit with a wave of melancholy as he felt a tinge of regret.
He had never been a particularly filial son, but he felt that he was good enough. Now that he was here, perhaps never able to see his parents again, he regretted placing so little importance on spending time with them.
Tears welled up in his eyes. 'I'll make sure to never again be a disappointment. I won't be so naive, so stupid, like the past.' He hardened his heart. 'I'll survive this world, and I'll make sure to thrive!'
He raised his sword towards the wooden dummy in front of him and slashed with all his might.
...
Alexius was sitting on his bed once again, reviewing the fights he had with Arkadios. 'I need to remember not to go too close with my sword since he's a formidable opponent to me. If I am not careful, he will be able to counter my attacks at close range and turn the tide against me.'
'Therefore, I need to be more defensive while wielding my sword; this is something unavoidable until I become better with it. Right now, if I go into a fight without tiring Arkadios, I will be defeated in a matter of several exchanges. I am sure that sparring with the other kids will bring similar results too.'
As he frowned, contemplating this problem, a knock suddenly sounded on the door. "Come in!" He said with a hint of frustration on his tongue at being disturbed.
The door opened slowly with a creak, and a small, timid face appeared at the edge of the door. Alexius raised his eyebrows at this. Was this guy... named Anthony? He wasn't too sure as he didn't try to socialize much.
He had pale silver hair, with emerald-green eyes and was rather petite, but didn't slack off. Whenever Alexius glance dover at him during training, he was always hard at work, going through the motions of some form or the other.
"Umm... Alexius?"
The kid's timid voice sounded through the room, seemingly louder it actually was in the quiet of the night.
The boy seemed surprised, so Alexius let him have a moment to collect himself, which he did. "Could we... uh... please practice with the sword together?"
Practice together? Were we that close? Alexius knit his brows, unsure of the young boy's reasons. He narrowed his eyes, closely examining the silver-haired boy, but found no irregularities.
"I'd love to, but why me and not someone better, like Arkadios? I've only just started to learn how to wield a sword." Upon hearing this, the boy's face flushed. "Well, it's... it's because... uh... I was told that I was holding the others back. So... I went to find you because... you didn't seem too bad."
Oho? An interesting story! Alexius' eyebrows rose, this time in delight. 'Finally, some good news! Having a friend or an acquaintance will be extraordinarily helpful; there is strength in numbers, after all!' He chuckled to himself, quoting a proverb from Earth.
Maybe he could even mold this unsuspecting young lad into being one of his loyal lackeys? He was swimming in the possibilities!
Anthony must have noticed the weird look on Alexius' face, as he quickly asked, "Are you okay?"
"Ahem!" Gaining control of himself, Alexius put on a noble front. "Of course, that would be super great!" The boy's face lit up instantly as he showed a neat row of teeth. "Wow, really?" The boy asked, uncertain. Alexius nodded. "Yes, really." 'That would be great- for me', he thought.
The two then chatted away about their lives, fancies, and anything that came to mind. It wasn't until late in the night that Anthony finally said his goodbyes with an upbeat tone, feeling like he had just made a lifelong friend.
On the other hand, Alexius felt as if he had just made a lifelong minion. 'Ah, the life of luxury... I wonder how my servant, Jacob, is doing? I haven't seen him since yesterday...'
'I am finally on my way to become a noble- I have already drawn up plans to open fast food restaurants in Cassidy Town to provide cheap food to the people when I get my own income and capital to invest.'
His expression soon turned serious, though. 'However, I need a better weapon than the sword if I am to properly contend and defend myself from other nobles. I could make an arquebus, which is incredibly simple, but that would still require metals like iron, steel, and compounds like saltpeter to use.'
'Once again, the problem is that I have no autonomy to produce these in secret. Neither do I have the ability to create or design advanced weapons; although I was in the military, I was no engineer.'
Not to mention having the steel manufacturing capabilities necessary for producing these weapons en masse, producing saltpeter on his own with nitraries would be hard without having a suitable population to contribute faeces.
It seemed that establishing industrial foundations on the Ophym continent would be a harder task than he had originally believed.