The match and location was designated within seconds.
Noah was to arrive at Everbright's first sparring arena located in the Knight's training field a ways away from the apprentice fields.
There wasn't even a moment's time to rest.
If Juda could bring Noah to the capital immediately, then he would. It wasn't' as if Duke Everbright was the only one inflicted with Blight. Moreover, due to Noah's treatment, the Duke was no longer in immediate danger of succumbing to the Dark Star.
Verification in the Kingdom's capital would also be safer to secure Noah.
As was expected of a Knight, Juda was quick to action and word of Noah's wager quickly disseminated through Everbright within the hour.
There was no way Noah was going to be able to claim ignorance in the case of a loss, and this was precisely what he had intended…because the opposite was also true.
If Juda had to stay in order to view Noah's treatment process of Duke Everbright, then the wager he'd proposed was something of an insurance measure.
The only real problem now was John and Leah who had heard the whispers about Noah being brought to the capital at his loss.
Unlike the few who had seen Noah duel against the Little Sword Saint, most of Everbright's Knights, servants, and guests saw no chance of victory for Noah, including his own siblings.
The two sought him out immediately, no manner of desert or bickering able to throw off their concentration.
"N-Noah!" Leah wrapped her arms around Noah's legs and dropped herself down to sit her butt on his feet. Her legs then raised and sat criss-cross around his calves, completing the lock.
She, Leah, was an anchor!
Unfortunately, Noah lifted a foot out of her grip.
Wobbling, she desperately threw all her weight and strength to wrap herself around just one leg, but she weighed too little to stop Noah from proceeding onward to his destination. Eyes misting over, she bawled as water vapor in the air condensed and wrapped around Noah before trying to freeze his foot on the ground.
The ice shattered with a pulse of Noah's accumulated mana.
Leah wailed, wildly shaking her head from side to side. "N-NO! Leah, no agreement! John! John help stop Noah!"
John blocked the hall Noah had to cross in order to reach the designated sparring field. Still suffering from the mental shock after his healing, John spurred himself to action for the sake of his family.
With a stubborn look in his eyes, and his arms outstretched to his side, John blocked Noah's path.
Noah stopped in front of John, Leah's expression brightening at the success just as much as John appeared relieved.
Tension abating, John opened his mouth and tried to guide Noah in the opposite direction, but it didn't work.
Noah placed a hand on John's shoulder, and John looked up to him with trepidation.
"Brother-"
"Trust me." Noah said. "Remember what happened when you didn't listen last time?"
John opened and closed his mouth, but no words could pull him out of the metaphorical hole.
"N-No John! Trick! He tricking you!" Leah panicked, eyes darting between her brothers. "You don't move! No move! You Leah's last hope!"
"John…" Noah stared into his younger brother's eyes.
There was a deeper meaning in the eyes that John slowly clued into.
John knew his brother. He and Noah were the ones who took care of Leah, and the look in Noah's eyes was the same ones Noah wore when he was moving for their sake.
John just didn't know why yet, but he knew the determination was real.
"J-John, NO! Bad! Baaaad!"
Wincing, John took a step to the side and pulled a squirming Leah away from Noah and into his arms.
Noah walked past his siblings, but paused as John finally called out to him.
"Just don't get hurt."
Right. It was a promise.
/-/
Warming up in a private sparring ground Sophia had provided, Noah lifted a spear and began a set of rapid thrusts and sweeps that generated several currents of air.
Contrary to Sophia, Henri, and Annette's surprise, Noah chose not to wield a sword, but another weapon altogether.
A spear offered greater reach, piercing stabs, numerous hand holds, and staggering weight at the bladed tip in motion.
In the background, a spectating Raelyn was staring wide-eyed at the display and clutched eagerly onto her own spear. Before the muscles of her arms began to atrophy, she'd been hailed as a prodigy in spearmanship, and could tell the basic spear forms Noah was going through at a glance.
She learned the very same fundamentals, and was lost for words at the fact that Noah may be a fellow spear wielder. An inexplicable feeling of excitement at the thought of spear buddies caused the edges of her lips to curl, but beside her, John didn't like that.
"Are you laughing at my brother?" John narrowed his eyes, hands balled into fists.
"Huh?" Raelyn glared immediately.
She and John had gotten off on the wrong start, and Raelyn was also a member of the headstrong Kelart family. She too was just as hot blooded before her physical condition whittled away at her self esteem.
At half of John and Raelyn's height, Leah clasped her hands and sneakily tried to wet the area of Noah's opponent so that their feet would coincidentally sink into mud.
A sharp stare from Juda acting as the judge caused Leah's breath to hitch as she nervously stopped what she was doing and played dumb. Hehehe.
Even young, there were some things you just learn after living in the slums, and Leah was no exception.
Of course, Juda took note of Leah, another Gemstone.
However, the priority was Noah.
"Caren," Juda called out to his group of Capital Knights.
A young woman Noah's age walked out with an indifferent poise and demeanor. Her chest was held high, and her pale blue hair was cut into a neat bob-cut with her bangs naturally covering one side of her face.
She wore fitted plate armor and was obviously flat chested considering she wore an armor set without the modified female breastplates. As if conscious of this fact, she had a mean resting bitch face.
Caren was young, and insisted to any who argued with her that there was still room for development.
In any case, her armor was emblazoned with the crest of a blue Cornflower, hailing her allegiance to one of the Floral Orders composed of elite female Knights under the Queen, first, second, or third Princess.
The symbol of the blue cornflower representing purity, grace, and nature belonged to the Floral Order of the Third Princess.
Naturally, Juda chose Caren, a Seventh Tier Knight to spar because she was a prodigy that had yet to fully bloom. She was brought along on the request of the Third Princess to gain worldly experience.
Sophia would have been the first to raise an issue if Juda had sent a High Tier Knight that Noah would have no chance of beating, but Caren was just a level or too above Martin, and Noah had floored Martin.
Sophia had a vested interest in keeping Noah in Everbright, so she readily chose to withhold information from Juda.
This match was already won.
Rolling her eyes at Noah, Caren drew her preferred weapon of choice, a rapier. Her inauguration into the Third Princess's Floral Knight Order gave credence to her ability, and it showed in the sharpness of her posture.
"No hard feelings." Caren said, brushing back the bangs covering one side of her face behind her ear.
Pausing in his warm up, Noah looked at Caren's disinterested expression and moved to the sparring arena where Caren was already standing.
"Yeah…no hard feelings." Noah said languidly.
Noah had made a promise, and he could feel the weight of John and Leah's stares on his back. He'd never shown them this side of himself; only the Noah that panicked and labored to provide for them while forced to keep in hiding. Raised as a Noble, the originalNoah had been in over his head trying to eke a living for his family in the slums.
Caren narrowed her eyes at Noah's nonchalance and glanced at Juda for instruction.
"Let the combatants take their stances," Juda said as the duel's proctor. He raised an arm. "We begin when the hand falls down."
Nodding, Caren held her rapier in her right hand, her dominant foot forward, and her feet in an L-shape.
"Victory to my blade," Caren chambered her rapier and placed it parallel to her chest in salute. "Glory to the Third Princess…"
Across from Caren, Noah sucked in a deep breath and firmly placed himself into a low stance.
"Spear and body." Spear pointed towards the ground, the forward hand gripped near the spear's blade, while the other held fast near the base of the spear. "…A will harder than iron."
Raelyn sat up, instantly recognizing the unique stance of her own older brother. Juda and Sophia were no different as First-Tier Knights with their level of connections to other nobles and the Capital of Aletera.
Even Caren was no exception as she widened her eyes.
"Adam Kelart?" Caren muttered, feeling like she was in a fever dream before she shook her head.
Maybe it was just a coincidence?
Noah's stance was a form of half-spearing using a full spear that only Adam Kelart of the Kelart family employed. With a robust body, the spear became his strongest limb, brute strength used to charge at the enemy regardless of the spear's limitations at close range. Yes, Adam Kelart, as a spearman, specialized in close range.
Was this a joke?
But then, those words before battle?
Caren hardened her expression, lips thinning, but she had no choice but to change her expression when Juda dropped his arm.
The duel began, and like it had been when Caren had sparred with Adam Kelart in the capital, Noah immediately entered close range.
…It was like dejavu.
The foot work, the steps, it was the same yet different. Better, as if modified.
Lost in her surprise for a fraction of a second, Caren made the mistake of giving the first strike to Noah.
Mana coating her rapier, Caren set a course of action.
Parry, then end the fight with a thrust.
With dilated pupils, Caren's eyes tracked Noah's spear.
Double the damage by using the enemy's momentum.
There!
Caren flicked her wrist and moved her blade to intercept Noah's but something unexpected happened at the point of contact.
For a fraction of a second, all the mana coating her sword abruptly vanished, losing all its protections and enhancements at once. It became no more than a piece of metal while Noah's mana coated spear gained in power.
A memory flashed in Caren's mind, recalling the duel she'd lost to the monster of the Kelart Family.
'I'm not the real monster…'
Adam Kelart's lost eyes, now reflected Caren's own.
'You just haven't met him yet.'
With a dull clinking sound, Caren stared at the broken tip of her sword on the ground, and then at the edge of a blade suddenly against her neck.
"Yield."
A hushed silence echoed through the sparring ground, Juda's face crumpling in real time.
It was too quick.