[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Cintra, northern kingdoms.
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Madara sighed upon hearing the princess and Eist. He walked over to the man, stood in front of the weapons counter, and picked up a classic short sword before returning to the man who was twirling his axe as a form of stretching, who looked at the boy with a smile.
"Come on, kid, show me all your skills with that sword," he said, as the crowd began to fill the place again, curious to see how this fight would unfold.
Madara went to the circle and prepared for the fight. He waited for the man to approach and this time, since it was against another opponent, he saw Eist preparing, and he quickly stamped his foot against the ground and struck his sword against the opponent's.
The sound of metal echoed through the area, and Eist felt the strength of the boy and began to laugh. "This is very good, keep it up," he said, starting to spin the axe and trying to hit Madara from the side. He didn't hold back, even though it was against a child, it was evident that the boy had enough skill to handle more serious combat, while Mandara parried with his sword and began to fight again in an intense combat, even more fierce than he had fought against the Lord Commander.
"Go Madara!" Ciri started to shout, as Madara continued his intense fight, battling in a high-speed exchange of blows, while he was surprised at the speed this man could move, despite using an axe. Madara quickly matched his blows while striking against the opponent's axe.
The fight continued while the crowd watched, growing until Queen Calanthe was at the scene, looking from a window with a small smile. After all, she knew that her current husband really wanted this battle.
The fight went on for about 10 more minutes until Eist, finally sweaty, looked at the boy satisfied. "Kid, that was very invigorating," he commented, maintaining a broad smile. "I've decided," he went on to say, "We'll fight every day. I'll be here waiting for you, kid." as Mandara raised an eyebrow at that declaration.
"Can I join?" Cirilla shouted, more loudly, as he smiled and looked at one of the windows where Calanthe was. "Did you hear that, Calanthe? The girl wants to learn to fight too. You should let her do that."
Calanthe heard this and her eyes flickered a bit, but she sighed. She would talk about it later, while Cirilla started insisting by looking at her from that side of the courtyard. "Let me join, grandma. I want to be like you!" the girl shouted.
Calanthe wouldn't shout at her granddaughter as she saw her being reprimanded by her servant for conduct and lack of decorum, she would see to that later.
While Cirilla insisted on this and Madara put away his weapon again, a person entered the courtyard calmly. "I see you're having fun this morning," Mousesack approached, speaking with patience and a smile.
"Well, it looks like you're going to train the kids, is that it?" Eist commented, fixing his axe.
"Yes, I promised a class for Mandara, and I'm sure the young Cirilla will also want to participate. After all, she has a lot of studies about her education as a princess," he commented, while Cirilla nodded as a rare condition of wanting to study, since she would be with Madara.
"Alright, you can take them, and you, I would like you to be here at the same time," Eist commented looking at Madara, while the latter nodded.
"Let's go Madara!" Cirilla called him, accompanied by her servant and guard, as Madara started walking out of the place, not too sweaty.
Then Marada and Cirilla headed to the upper floors of the castle, while a guard stayed at the door, they entered Mousesack's laboratory. "I'm conducting some experiments today, so we'll have class here, but I'll provide all the support I can for you," he spoke while preparing his experiments with herbs.
He continued to speak as soon as he saw the children sitting at two tables with books he had prepared. "Well, resuming our studies, Cirilla will continue studying her political subjects, and Madara will learn some new words in the northern language with me," he said. And as they continued to learn for the rest of the day, it was only after a while that they finally finished.
Cirilla continued at the same pace as the last lesson, asking Madara incessant questions about fights and his adventures. Although she was still insistent on this, she really began to study.
After the lesson ended, she was taken away by her servant, and Madara was about to leave. He had the documents picked up the night before but would wait to act on them until he had all the information he needed to initiate the attack against the western gangs.
However, this did not prevent Mousesack from giving him a curious look before he left. "So, you're going to investigate the West again?" he asked, seeing Madara withdrawing.
"Yes. I believe there are just a few more hideouts left before I head north. Today I will finish my investigation in the region and pass on all the information I collected tomorrow morning," he said, and the man nodded.
"That's good. Just be careful," he said, and Madara just nodded before leaving the room.
He returned to the kitchen, ate something alone, with some commenting that he had hit a guard in the corridors that day and how he had left with the princess. There were many guards, comrades of that guard who tried to catch Madara, looking at him nastily, but he did not care. As soon as he finished his simple meal, which was much better than the one he had with the princess at noon, he returned to his room, prepared his things, and left for the city at dusk.
He continued searching for places in the West he had not yet seen, until, in the middle of the night, he realized he had completely finished his investigation. Then, he returned to the castle after picking up some more documents.
'Finally, I'll be able to sleep a bit better.' He thought as he leapt over the houses and buildings of the city, after all, he hadn't slept properly for a few days and wanted to take advantage of this night to prepare to investigate the northern area.
As Madara returned to the castle, his presence there did not take long to circulate among everyone and even outside the castle, with many wondering why there was an unknown child with high sword skills in the castle, after all, everyone was talking about it at this moment among the common people.
As many servants left the castle with their guards, the gossip about the mysterious boy soon began to spread through the city.
In a tavern that night in the East area, people were discussing it. "Did you know that child fought against a royal guard?" A drunk man said.
"That's a lie. How would a royal guard fight with a child?" Another replied, not believing it.
"It's true! My wife knows a servant who works in the castle and heard it from her, and she said the battle was intense," he said, reaffirming his gossip.
"That's a lie. Who would believe that a child would do something like that?" Another replied.
"Then how can you explain why the queen keeps him close to the princess!" The same man exclaimed.
"I agree with him, I believe the queen found a prodigy and plans to place him as her granddaughter's guard," said the innkeeper, since he heard many pieces of information every day, Madara's presence in the castle was not a surprise to him.
"Makes sense, but where did this boy come from, he seems to be the monster that destroyed two gangs in the city," another said thoughtfully.
"Do you think the boy is that monster with red eyes and bat wings that spits fire from its mouth?" Another laughed.
"It doesn't matter, but yes, the monster attacked those two damn gangs that even bribe the guards to rule the city," another said.
"Be quiet! If someone from the militia hears that we're talking about them taking bribes, we're screwed," another advised cautiously.
"You know it's true," the man said carelessly.
This kind of conversation continued throughout, talking about the mysterious boy who was among the aristocratic elite of Cintra, thinking he would be a new royal guard for the princess.
Far from the city, far away from Cintra and its kingdom, Geralt continued heading north, in search of his former lover.
"Geralt! Save me!!" Dandelion shouted while being tied up by a group of cannibals in a mountainous region.
"Gugugugu!" The cannibals made strange sounds while Dandelion was screaming for help, approaching a huge bonfire.
He got separated from Geralt as they circled the mountain and was captured a while later, now finding himself in this predicament, seeing that he would soon be burned and eaten by this band of savages.
"Geralt!!! Help me!" he pleaded.
"GUGU!" a cannibal got angry at him and hit him on the head with a staff, making him dizzy.
"No need to be so aggressive!" Dandelion complained, but took another blow to the head becoming dizzy, as he returned to normal vision when he felt the fire close to him and saw that he was about to enter the bonfire.
"Damn..." he muttered, "I'm going to die..." He sang as he approached the fire.
But suddenly, he felt a force throw him to the side as he flew with the Cannibals who were taking him to the fire, Geralt had appeared while casting the Aard sign.
The cannibals were surprised by the white-haired man emerging from the mountain forest and drawing his iron sword from his back as he prepared to fight against the group of cannibals.
"Geralt! You came!" Dandelion exclaimed excitedly while lying on the ground.
"Tsk." Geralt clicked his tongue as he attacked the first Cannibal charging at him with bone weapons, he cut down the first and continued on as the others began to attack him as well.
He cut down the second, third, fourth, and fifth with ease, while a group of angry cannibals began to launch arrows and stones at him, which he used Aard again to throw them away and stop all projectiles, scaring them all as they began to run from there, trying to escape from Geralt seeing that he was someone they could not fight.
"Why do I always find you in unusual situations?" Geralt complained, keeping his voice neutral.
"Haha. I ended up taking a shortcut and got lost," he said, smiling while Geralt did not respond, just cut the ropes binding him and lifted him up.
"That was quite invigorating..." Dandelion sighed.
"Let's go," Geralt said, not wanting to wait for the cannibals to come back to attack them.
"Wait, my lute... where is it..." Dandelion searched among the things the cannibals had until he found it, or at least part of it. "No!! My lute is broken!" He immediately cried.
"Forget it, let's go!" Geralt told him.
"Alright..." He said a bit disheartened, "Now I can't cheer up our journey north... But I can still whistle!" He said starting to sound a melody, as Geralt rolled his eyes, having to listen to this for the rest of the journey as they entered the forest to reach the horses and continue north, after all, Geralt's journey to find Yennefer had just begun, and he didn't know which king she was serving or where she might be.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, a man looking like a beggar approached a room, which was a wizard's laboratory, there was a man and a woman, while the beggar handed a letter to the wizard in front of him.
He calmly took the letter and unrolled it to read. "Madara Uchiha?" He said curiously, seeing the content of the letter.