By the time we reached the village training grounds, everyone was awake and came outside to watch.
Rye, Sabira, and Sarian were all arguing with Elaine who was trying to flirt with Dante but was blatantly ignored. It was quite funny.
My father sat with a group of veterans and yapped his heart away.
I changed into a simpler outfit. Simple black pants, and a tucked-in white shirt. I tied my hair back into a bit of a messy bun. I had my cheap store-bought sword by my side.
Dante wore a simple tight-fitting silk shirt and black trousers. His hair had been in a high ponytail with a few hairs sticking out at the front. To his side, he held his glistening sword.
I was a tad bit jealous of his beauty.
"Shall we begin?" He asked
"Why not, not like anyone is looking." I sighed looking around
we took a stance in the middle of the training grounds. He took a glance at me and adjusted his stance.
His stance was very elegant and for some reason intimidated me, but I didn't think too hard about it. We begun.
We both rushed in at the same time. We both didn't expect this. Seems we're both offensive types.
He changed positions into a high stance, seemed he wanted to use strength over me.
Sadly for him, I was fast and dodged his heavy slash.
I slid to the right and went into a close slash, he made a quick dodge and pivoted backward.
I turned around and was nearly met with the edge of a sword had I not taken a step forward when I did.
I made a defensive stance and pushed.
I knew I wasn't going to be able to push him back but it was the thought that counted.
I looked down at the dagger that was hidden in my boot and Dante noticed my sudden glance. Seems my plan worked.
He faltered slightly adjusting himself to prepare for a sneak attack, and that's all I needed.
His sword lightened and I dashed back and made a high strike aiming for his neck.
By then everyone was paying attention to us.
He blocked again and went in with a close strike that I barely avoided by scraping my sword along side his, due to this I got close enough to take the dagger out of my boot and use it, but I
only managed to get in a light scrap before it was flung from my hand.
Sadly I didn't think this through and he'd started to release his aura
His aura was an orange-reddish color and almost had an ashy smell.
His aura engulfed his sword.
A skill only masters of the sword could use.
That's when I knew I was going to lose.
I didn't think my plan through and ended up in a situation where I was holding my sword with one hand.
He kicked it out of my hand and rushed me. I dodged for dear life and went to try to pull another hidden dagger that was hidden in my other shoe.
Sadly that was flung too.
This was going nowhere. "I surrender," I said right as his sword was inches from my neck.
"If you learned aura we would have been close to being on par with each other," He said wiping off a small bloodied scratch off his face "And since you surrendered I guess It's all up to your father now."
I nodded and we walked to my father. Most people were a little upset that I lost. Others commended the knight for defeating me.
"Well son, we ran a background check. Must I say, quite odd to see someone of your status this far out.." My father said, "Do respect our rules until we reach Leone." He added.
Dante nodded and bowed to my father. My father scoffed at this and walk away.
I wonder what he meant by 'someone of your status.' Hopefully I'll find out later, but for now I'll assume hes a nobles child.
By the time we started walking away Elaine was already rushing to Dante's side and wrapped herself around his arm. He immediately jerked back causing him to bump into me. He apologized immediately.
"Why did you move away from me.." Elaine whined, giving him her famous puppy dog eyes."I thought you wanted to be my friend."
"With you?" Dante said, raising his eyebrows."I'd prefer not to." His face contorted a bit.
"Damn!" Rye yelled while walking up to me and Dante with Sabira by his side.
I sighed "Elaine we aren't in the mood to hear you attempt to flirt, it's very disturbing." I said irritated. My head started to pound again. "I'm going to head back inside, my head is killing me, My father changed the time for when he wants to go to our actual base around 4pm, It's about 10am right now so that gives me time to sit around..
"I'll come with you," Dante says.
I nodded and started heading towards the inn once. Once we got in I was told I could use room 9. Me and Dante walked up the stairs, My head was still pounding.
Once we'd reached the room I plopped down on the bed and watched Dante pull out a chair from a table and sit.
I sat up, "So, why did you leave your job as an knight?, there's no way an empire knight would quit his job and come to Leone for no reason." I said looking him in the eye
"Well," He sighed "I had to leave a bit early due to a situation with the Crown Princess. She had a crush on me, and I had to reject her– Due to this, she told everyone in the palace I'd assaulted her. Numerous witnesses were watching when I rejected her but she was still the Crown Princess. The Crown Prince knew she was lying but due to rumors I was forced to be removed from my position."
This was surprising. It was a bit funny too.
"Jeez, and I was worried you were a spy." I said leaning on my hand "Turns out you just rejected the Princess."
To be honest, If I was in his position I'd also decline. Accepting would be breaking the oath to only protect, and ensure the safety of said people.
"If I did accept; I'd be betraying the royal family, and the Crown Prince is a trusted friend of mine. I could never betray him." Dante said. "Is there anything else you need?"
I shook my head, "I just wanted to ask why you'd quit such a job, but I get it now." I said yawning. "You should teach me sword aura." I grinned
"And why should I do that?" Dante said raising his eyebrows at me.
"Since you'll be stuck with us for a little bit, and technically I'm your babysitter." I said cringing at myself.
"Is that so," Dante chuckled. "I guess I'll have to do what you say, I wonder what color yours will be." Dante stood up after saying this and sat by me on the bed. "If you don't mind, I could see how close you are to reaching the aura stage?"
"Go ahead, lets see how far I have to go." I chuckled
He'd then place his hands on my back. I felt a sudden hot flow, it was very uncomfortable.
"Green," Dante said suddenly. "Your aura will be green when you start training it. With where your at right now I'm surprised you haven't awoken it yet."
"That's slightly expected," I said calmly. "So how does aura work anyway?"
"As you know just like mana you can only use sword aura for certain durations unless you train profusely, I can oly use mine for 20 minutes max. Just as you train magic, You also train your aura the same way, meditation. " Dante said. "Do you use any type of magic?"
"I can use quite a bit of wind type magic," I said frowning. "Is that going to affect my progress?"
"It won't, it'll more or less help you advance a little faster, but being able to master and use aura by itself is a small skill only a small percentage of people have." He said pointing towards me. "The fact that you are a commoner and you have an aura core is already a great achievement by itself. If you trained it and your mana together you'd be a powerhouse."
"I see.." I said as a simple response to the info dump.
How complicated. I don't want to listen to him talk about this anything, but I know he has it in the best of heart; I hope.
Dante laid back on the bed with his legs hanging off of it. He closed his eyes and stopped moving. He fell asleep, He's taking up all my leg space. I'd accepted it and dozed off not too long after.