Nine months had passed since Bayezid came to golden rock---
He was currently in the training grounds , in front of the knights handpicked to defend the palace.
Not all knights were there , but a good amount of them were.
All of them stood at different corners ready to observe the event that was to unfold.
As Erlands was in a zone where energiya produced the weather similar to a tropical zone , the sun was clear and was pouring its heat.
A mortal would find it difficult to stand in the sun and fight , but these knights were all beyond that point.
By simply using energiya to lower their body temperatures or more efficiently using an ability that lets them to , they can withstand the heat anytime they wanted too.
"I bow before the king of Erlands." Said a young man of 18, with green hair and a horn on his head.
He was an incubus, coming from the state of Wei in the greater east region of golden rock.
He was the Illegitimate prince of the state of Wei , whose monarch , his father was deposed by his advisor , who then proceeded to eradicate the bloodline of his father unless there should be any claims to the throne.
But the young man managed to escape the state using his wits and also by using the fact that information about him were mostly scarce.
Even though he was a prince, as a bastard , he wasn't given any riches and almost lived like a complete commoner.
Incubus were known for their physical appearance and their greater aptitude for dark , seduction arcane arts.
But Thomas Wei was one of the few rare exceptions who was talented in the way of the swords. With a very rare talent , he was expected to at least reach the third tier in swordsmanship and be a great asset to the kingdom of Erlands.
As a testament to his talent , he was already in the higher level of the first tier.
Al though there was no guarantee that one would reach a certain level at a specific age , given a talent, averages could still be counted.
Mostly averages from the common and uncommon talent were readily available as they were the most seen talents and others , the information about the third tier and higher were not common.
One with common talent would take thirty years of their life span to reach the higher ends of the first tier in any arts. Peak First tier was believed to be their limit.
One with uncommon ability could do the same thing in 25 years of their lifespan. For reaching second tier , it was believed they reached when over 70 years of age.
As for the later talents , only the information on when they reached the first tier were readily available and studied upon.
With a rare one , it was about 22 years of their lifespan.
With a very rare one, it was about 20 years of their lifespan.
With a diamond one, it was about 15 years of their lifespan.
With a legendary one though , it was not clear when they completed it , with some saying they achieve it the moment they form their storage of energy.
Some even said that , they were born that way , although it was an nonsensical hypothesis.
No matter who , with whatever talent, forming a dantian or a core before ten was absurd.
But nevertheless these stats were only for the first tier. Here , usually the differences between the talents in achieving the higher end were in the single digits.
The second tier and onwards was were , the talents came into play.
"Thomas Wei, right? I have heard great things about you."
Thomas just smiled.
Bayezid just took out his sword from his spacial ring, which was a two star item.
It could carry about three hundred kilograms and about 30 items.
Even though a two star item wasn't remarkable as compared to a three star one , the same concept didn't apply to spatial ring.
Spatial rings could only be made by those who practised the space and time arcane arts.
Finding one was hard enough , finding the complement attribute was harder.
Anyone could practice in any attribute they wanted to, but not everyone had the same level of affinity with that particular attribute.
A person could practice both the fire and the water attribute if they wanted to and learn spells but it couldn't be said that they would learn both at the same speed.
They might have a lesser affinity with fire when compared to water or vice versa.
Among the attributes , space and time were one of the rarest ones as not a lot of people had good affinity with it.
But good affinity also didn't mean prowess in the particular attribute.
The person should be willing to put in the effort to learn the attribute.
Even if they were willing , resources for space and time attributes were tightly guarded and only available to certain institutes.
Especially the Space and time institute at Vesta city situated in the great west.
Aside from that , you should also have a high talent in general preferably a rare one to be strong and be able to produce quality items as the star of the item produced depended on the mage's prowess.
Thus the chances for getting good spatial rings just multiplied themselves.
The incubus's smile never left him.
"Ready when you are , your majesty." Thomas said in a cool tone.
From all he knew , Bayezid was a monster , who supposedly attained the higher levels of the first tier without any prior knowledge.
So what did it have to do with him? He reached the level when he was 16 , almost comparable to a diamond talent.
whatever logic he used , he had more experience in this level than Bayezid. That meant he had an advantage in this battle.
But he forgot an important rule to consider. Never underestimate an opponent , especially the one you have never seen fight.
"Alright then."
Saying that , Bayezid lunged from his position.
In mere seconds , he was near Thomas.
The steels clashed against each other.
---
THOMAS'S POV--
"An opening!" It wasn't even after the first attack , did I found an opening in the king's defence.
But at the last second , I withdrew my sword and took a step back.
Why is he too open?
Even now , he was just standing there without any proper stance.
Yes, the king had no proper stance.
It wasn't that he was slouching or something , but his stance was unconventional.
Before I knew it , he lunged at me again with the sword.
This time, I dodged myself to the left and tried to give him a punch on his face using my left hand.
*Pow*
The punch connected and its sound resounded across the hall.
A punch from a peak first tier movement arts practitioner should not be underestimated.
If it was a mortal , who took the punch, his face would have been crushed thoroughly and his body would have flown at least a 100 meters.
But the king just stood as if nothing happened.
Was my punch weak? No , I Clearly heard its sound resonate throughout the vast grounds.
But the king didn't give me time to probe. As if nothing happened , he again tried to slash at my right hand.
This time I readied my sword to meet his.
But , it was a feint , the sword with unbelievable speed moved to the left as though , it was never meant to hit at the right.
Even though I tried to block it , it hit my left shoulder blade and left a minor gush.
I let out a small groan.
Seeing that his attack only hit my left shoulder , he gave me a kick on the abdomen before I could even react.
I was pushed back and was about to stumble to the ground.
But even before that , he again lunged at me.
As I was stumbling to the ground , his sword originally aimed at my chest missed and by hair breadth's whistled above my head.
But again he was wide open. Using that I managed to slash at his legs at the last moment and rolled on the ground to maintain distance and got up.
He was standing there , introspecting his legs.
This was bad. This guy... he was too aggressive!
His defence was zero. But his attacks were too vile and crude. It was almost as he was fighting a muscle head who didn't know a thing about technique.
But this guy was supposedly trained by Jass, who was very knowledgeable about technique and fought in an orthodox way.
Besides , was this guy the same level as his? His speed, reflexes and strength is almost unbelievable.
He was using a longsword and I was using a rapier.
Maybe , the weight of his sword contributed to the strength behind his attacks , but what about speed? The longsword was at least 3 kgs.
Although not that heavy , still it would be difficult to control with high speed.
I took a defensive stance. It would be a bad idea to attack him.
I would have to use my strength to block his attacks and try to attack at vulnerable points by exploiting his weak defences or maybe even try to exhaust his stamina.
Incubuses are known for their stamina , especially in...nightly activities , so I thought I could make him exhausted and deal the final blow.
As planned, I patiently dodged all his attacks , that came in unorthodox fashion.
It was almost always aimed at the chest, legs, arms and shoulders.
For the next 3 minutes , the sounds of swords resonated.
Bayezid's sword hit like a truck. This guy...
Even though his techniques were poor, his attacks were a sight to behold.
It was not efficient in terms of using energiya, but it seemed primal almost like when a predator fought with its strong prey with almost every strength it had. His accuracy frightening.
Bayezid didn't want to prolong the fight. It was true even from move one.
He just wanted to finish the battle in one move.
Speed, accuracy , strength were his main concerns. Efficiency and techniques were thrown out of the window.
Two more minutes went on.
I think I had overestimated my stamina.
In just five minutes, there I was,
Panting, out of breath and unable to stand.
I stood by having the hilt of my sword as a support.
I was in no condition to fight.
"Do you concede defeat?" Bayezid asked.
But I knew that even he was tired from this combat.
Just not as much as I was.
I wasn't some righteous prick or a warrior or even a villain.
In the first place , I didn't even respect this guy.
He was the king , but so what?
I had no regards for hierarchy and social interactions.
From the start of my life , I was just a rogue noble.
I joined gangs, stole things , even killed some.
Maybe it was my circumstances that I couldn't differentiate between good and bad , bring myself to respect someone of higher positions wholeheartedly.
But even after all this, I somehow managed to survive. How to act in certain situations , how to behave and so on , maybe as these things were not tough to learn, I got around quite well.
But no matter how much I try to hide it,
my real nature... it just keeps coming out again and again.
Just the previous week, when I was in Lawnlow's marketplace,
there was this one old man,
he was just going on and on about some religion popular in the mortal's valley.
The guards didn't do anything to the old man.
Even though, Erlands didn't have a state religion and the nobles had no religion affiliated to them, the same couldn't be said for the commoners.
The common populace practised many religions and they were free to do so.
The most popular one was Deus faith , spread throughout the mortal's valley.
It had a trinity, angels , churches and so on.
But I couldn't stand these religion freaks.
What I did?
I abducted the old man,
removed his genitalia,
forced him to eat excreta,
burned the photos of his god in front of him,
carved out his eyes,
amputated his legs and even arms
no... He didn't die just yet.
Using the two star ability [Sustenance of Life] , which allowed someone to live for some time even if they had heavy blood loss, I kept him alive.
I torutred him more.
It came to a point,
where only his head remained without any eyes, of course.
I applied some intricate medical knowledge using the properties of Energiya to make sure he could live with just his head.
The blood automatically pumping around his head without any need of heart...
His upper limbs and lower limbs , were completely gone.
I kept him in this horrible state so he could still speak and hear things.
Using another one star ability called [The truth's way],
I came to know about his family members.
A low pitiful ability like this worked on him as he was a mortal, ie, someone who was in their lowest point of their desired arts.
What I did next?
I abducted his two sons, a daughter and 5 grandchildren.
The two sons I killed quickly and absorbed their core, the daughter was eaten by the bear I kept.
The grandchildren were the interesting bunch.
The three boys were quickly killed and their cores absorbed.
The two girls, I took my time.
They were killed eventually.
After their bodies were burned and no traces were left in my basement,
I decided what to do with the old man.
I just took him {his head} and threw him in a car scrapyard machine.
The way his head was crushed into pieces, his brain matter splashed.
Ah , the ecstasy.
How did I get away with the abduction and murder of nine people?
First my innate ability.
Second, my status as a knight of the lawnlow palace.
Every species in this world except humans had something called bloodline.
Bloodline basically indicated how pure they were.
They were many types of classification , but only one was accepted universally, at least in the continent of Drake.
The classification consisted of the following classes,
Low, mid, high, arch, superior, king, emperor and ancestor.
Nevertheless as long as a bloodline was present, a being would get an innate ability.
The innate abilities prowess varied, generally increasing as the purity of a being's bloodline increased.
Even though I was a bastard, I had the previous king of Wei, a peak fourth tier bowmen's blood running in my veins.
Logically to reach that level , he must have had ancestors with diamond talent or more so he could receive the same talent.
Those ancestors also refined their bloodline to the point it eventually reached the arch level equivalent to receiving innate abilities of the fourth tier.
The skills they learned throughout lifetime would be ingrained into the bloodline and be available as innate abilities to be received at birth.
The innate ability I received was the four star ability called [The masquerade]
Abilities were something universal.
As long as one followed the steps of learning an ability, they could learn any abilities they wanted... atleast in theory.
But innate abilities didn't need to be learned. From the brith itself, the knowledge of how to use it was imprinted in the child's mind.
[The masquerade] was a simple ability.
It basically allowed me to change my appearance.
Even though a simple ability, due it being a four star ability, which power theoretically aligned with what a fourth tier practitioner could produce,
I was basically untouchable.
Innate abilities were also the reason , why golden rock was not invaded by foreign powers...until recently.
There were rumours that there was a secret power hiding under the shadows of golden rock whose members were said to be tier six practitioners... thats why golden rock couldn't be invaded easily.
Its validity, I was not sure.
But the validity I was sure of was that in the previous week , I killed nine people.
Coming back to the present,
of course I conceded my defeat.
I was wounded all across my body. Cuts and bruises were seen everywhere.
My pale skin was red as though I was boiled alive.
Who wanted to fight this bastard?
Using this opportunity, I could atleast take two days off in the infirmary or atleast one...
The head captain was also a bastard.
---
A very big room could be seen. The luxury of the room couldn't be matched by ordinary rooms.
A comfortable sofa laid in the middle of the room , some distance from the bed.
There was a huge picture of a monarch on the side of the room.
She was queen Elizabeth Athreya.
Two thousand years ago , she was the first one to advocate for women rights , equal pay and many good social things like minimum wages and did away with cruel forms of slavery in Erlands.
It would not be an exaggeration to say she was one of the best monarchs Erlands... the clan of Athreya had ever seen.
Ellis slowly sipped her tea.
Even though on the outside , it looked like she was happy and elegant.
On the inside though... she was completely messed up.
The situation she was in... she couldn't understand it.
All she knew was that now she was two months pregnant.
There was no notable physical changes in her body.
Those could only be seen when the second trimester started for all she knew.
She unconsciously touched her belly.
Even though there were no changes on the outside... she could feel the baby inside.
It was a girl.
Without any diseases.
That was what he said.
She took a biscuit from the tray and dipped it in the tea.
Even though, its taste was good , she couldn't bring herself to drink that tea.
She was lonely.
Yeah, she talked to her mother daily through the telephone, but that was it.
About the baby, she felt conflicted.
It disgusted her to the core whenever she thought of how this baby came to be and of course by thinking of the baby's father.
But using the same logic , could she hate the baby?
Truth to be told, she didn't know.
Even though her thoughts about the baby were neutral, somewhere in her mind , there was a feeling of maternity.
'At the end she is still my baby'
'Was the baby really responsible for her father's despicable thoughts and actions?'
At the back of her head, to the last question , she knew the answer.
---
Jass sat before Bayezid.
Ever since Bayezid ascended the throne , Jass atleast spent one hour before him talking about the daily affairs of the state.
Every two weeks , there was a conference among the ministers and the king about general conduct.
Jass could say with confidence, that besides Lucas , Bayezid spent the most time with him.
Regarding the matter of queen Ellis, he pushed the matter to the back of his head.
"Our native cow breed Yerlez has multiplied quite in numbers during the last years. As our cows produce a2 milk, we have exported a lot of the milk and even cows over the years especially to the count's shore where the citizens are rich and are looking for healthier alternatives."
"But I feel like , the opportunity is not exploited much. Dairy is not famous among our populace, the profits are high when we export these milk products , I suggest it would be wise to invest in the state's dairy company."
Alta was a company that produced dairy products, reared dairy animals, exported things related to dairy and so on.
The most important fact was that, ninety percent of it was controlled by the state of Erlands itself , its chief contributor being none other than Jass.
Jass was a rich man.
"How much are you expecting?" Bayezid asked with a slight annoyance in his tone.
He had given Jass full control of the state's treasury. He gave him all the rights to do whatever he wanted , invest money wherever he wanted to.
Even though Bayezid had learned a lot about ruling , the reason he was still aloof was that he hated it.
It was not like that he hated the authority, power and status came with it but the responsibility that came with it.
Jass recounted about the investments of the fellow shareholders of the company , his own investment which was in the hundreds of gold coins for the new venture of the company.
At the end Bayezid just signed the document , which stated the things about the new venture and signed it.
Tomorrow would be a busy day.
He was going to the border near Herza.
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