In a mansion somewhere in the core area of Solia City, a young golden-headed girl with hazel eyes was sitting with an older more developed woman in a room
"Matilda, how is it going with the person I told you about?" The older woman spoke to the girl sitting opposite her.
"I'm approaching carefully, being too forward at the start will make things go array, I have sent about five letters over the three years to him, and although I have gotten no reply, he should be aware of me" Matilda replied confidently
"The tournament is around the corner, I had recent news he is a flag-bearer, if you can get close to him, our family will surely soar higher, since you are unable to get Xavier due to Elise, get the next best thing, he's even Elder Asis's Direct Disciple, the elder that's only ever had one direct disciple before," The women said
"I know already, the tournament is the event I'm going to use to make my move," Matilda said with a slight smirk.
"Good, it shouldn't be hard anyway, your twin sister managed to get very close to him when they were younger, just the fact that you look a like would give you an edge."
Matilda simply nodded in affirmation, Matilda stood up and said "well, I need to get ready for the tournament, so I'll take my leave now"
The older women looked at Matilda and simply nodded before Matilda finally took her leave
When Matilda left, a sigh left her mouth before proceeding to walk to her room
A large open room, around 300 sq feet, with a King size bed circle bed at the center top of the room with curtains around it and some closets and drawers, however even though with this much furniture, the room still had enough space
The first thing Matilda did was jump on the bed face down and show a slightly depressing face
"Lara, why did you have to die in such a place" Matilda sighed
After a couple of minutes went by, Matilda seemed to snap out of the depression and got out of bed, and she decided she wanted to go out, so she got dressed and called her aid Ruth
"Ruth!"
A second later, Ruth came into the bedroom and asked "Yes, My lady"
"We're going out shopping, I'm going to see if some types of equipment or potions may catch my eye."
'there's talk around the city that there's been some quality potions and equipment circulating, I even managed to see some magnificent equipment the other day
"Understood, I'll get the carriage ready" Ruth replied before leaving the room
Around 10 minutes passed before Ruth notified them that the carriage was ready, and they both set off toward the city center
The City Centre was a place where the major businesses resided, if one wanted to get equipment or any resources, the place where it would most likely be the city center
Once Matilda and Ruth arrived at the bustling city Centre, she got off the carriage with Ruth and went straight to the destination in mind
Since she was raised in the city from a young and was the daughter of the ruler, she knew all the places she needed to know
First, she wanted to see if they had any quality runic weapons she could use for the tournament
Mages are naturally weak in close-range battles, due to all their efforts and training being used on spells and cultivating to increase mana
However, Matilda always thought embracing such a weakness was stupid and an ineffective way of cultivating
If you truly want to be strong, you must eliminate all your weaknesses, if you can't eliminate all of them narrow it down so much that it seems trivial
This ideology naturally came from her upbringing, as all the heirs of the Hyuser family were brought up to have at least a good amount of close combat experience
The target runic weapon Matilda was looking for was a rapier, the rapier is one of the most difficult weapons to use especially in an actual battle because if you don't know how to use it, you are going to be a parading fool with a butter knife for a weapon
A rapier is mainly used for cutting and thrusting, the damage it does is very limited, however if you are able to be incredibly precise and use it to aim at vital areas and weak points
it's one of the most dangerous weapons to be faced with due to its slimness of the weapon; blocking against this weapon becomes challenging
Matilda is looking for a quality rapier, since all the ones she has gotten break very easily, if she can find a quality sharp and sturdy rapier, she would be able to utilize the sword skills with utmost efficiency
She stopped at a familiar weaponry shop that specializes in selling runic weapons, she walked through the rows of swords and daggers, admiring the craftsmanship of the weapons
But as she searched through the store, she realized that there were no quality rapiers in stock and all there was the usually crappy rapier that would break after a couple of battles
Crappy in her eyes, but other people, would need to save up for a year to buy this type of quality weapon
Disappointed, Matilda approached the store clerk and asked if there were any rapiers available, the clerk apologized and said that they hadn't gotten their hands on any runic rapiers
She sighed as she thought about approaching her father to find her a runic rapier
"Are all these weapons made by one person or are you importing them from different sources?" She asked wondering if she could find a good artificer to help her make a rapier
She has had multiple runic rapiers however, the blacksmith and the artificer were different, which makes a huge difference when compared to when a blacksmith is artificing his work
The difference in quality is vastly superior, however, such a person is as rare as a Magus
So, unless an artificer of an amazing amount can close this gap, the rapier that Matilda keeps using will never satisfy her
"Sorry, I'm not allowed to disclose such things" the clerk replied
Hearing this Ruth looked into the Clerk's eyes however did it say anything, she didn't need to say anything the pressure that came from her gaze made the clerk start trembling
"Miss, I really can't tell you, if I do I will be in trouble, however, you can ask the owner of the shop, should I call him?" The clerk said sheepishly whilst lowering his head still trembling
"No need, I'll go to him, where is he?" Matilda questioned him
"He's in his office in the back, I'll go inform him" until he was stopped by Matilda and she began to head to his office
She knocked on his door office and waited for a reply
A couple of seconds passed before a voice sounded out "Come in" followed by a hardly noticeable sigh
Once Matilda heard this, she opened the door and entered seeing a slightly tanned man with a scar on his right eyebrow sitting and looking at some files
The man looked up and looked surprised "Oh, lady Matilda, long time no see, haven't seen you for nearly 3 years" The old man stood up and greeted her
"No need for the formalities, it has been quite a long time, John" Matilda replied with a slight smile
"What brought you all the way here, for the past three years, you usually sent someone to buy the rapier" John replied
"Huh? Why assume it was me sending someone to buy it?" She was puzzled
"Well, you're one of the few people in this territory that uses a rapier, but from my employee, the person usually mumbles conflicted about what type of rapier to get for you"
"So that how it is" Matilda lightly scoffed
"Anyway, I don't want to intrude too much on your time, I want to know where I can find a better-quality rapier" She cut straight to the point
"Better quality? The weapons sold here are of as high of quality you could get in this territory, made by both the best blacksmith and artificer in the territory" John raised his scarred brow
"Naturally I know the quality is good, but my elder brother got his hands on a sword and the artificing on the weapon was far superior to any rapier I ever had, do you know anything about this?"
John fell into a short moment of contemplation until he had an expression of sudden realization