Knights’s Barracks, Courtyard

  ‘Why did we come to this?’ Veronique wondered as she found herself starring at Kain and Noah, both without their armor and armed with a simple sword as they faced each other in the Knight’s barracks courtyard.

  Everyone had circled around them forming an arena with the Aurelia getting front row access…and technically the Dead, not that Veronique was going to tell the Duke that Clashing eyes was standing right next to him and mimicking his stance.

  ‘Don’t laugh, don’t laugh’ she decided to stop looking in that direction, Mos and Bos were each at her sides staying close to her legs even if she wasn’t the one holding the leash anymore.

  Lucia was right behind her and holding it so no accidents could occur should the fighting get intense.

  ‘I doubt it would be appreciated if my puppies jumped in the fight’ Veronique thought, not being at all comfortable at the thought of them getting involved in a sword fight.

  Their possible future of dying to one still looming in the back of her head.

  “What are they doing? Why are they arguing?” Rhea had asked out of confusion

  “You see dear, that Knight doesn’t think the other one is strong enough to be a Knight so to defy his superior’s decision he put his own title on the line to prove it” Duchess Lucretia had patiently explained the situation

  “His own title?” Veronique repeated slowly wondering if it meant what she thought it did

  “Yes Veronique, should he lose this duel then he would lose the right to be called a Knight” the Duke had confirmed it

  ‘Noah you are a moron’ she had to stop herself from outright sighing out of frustration “Isn’t that a bit harsh?”

  “No it isn’t, not trusting your Commander’s judgment and effectively going against him is a great offense” the Duke was firm on this, but still gave the reasoning behind his words “not giving such punishment would weaken Commander Regulus’s position and bring more question to his orders causing a ripple effect that would in the long term make all the Knights inefficient in executing orders” he paused “This method instead assures that nobody would dare to pose an objection to his orders without a strong claim”

  “But wouldn’t it also discourage anyone from speaking up?” Veronique pointed out, knowing the desire of keeping their job would metaphorically blind them and let stuff pass by them

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  “Yes I suppose it does, but Knights aren’t for speaking they are for acting and acting fast, how could they do such thing if they spent all the time questioning orders?” the Duke had agreed with her then proceeded to argue on why it was a good thing anyway “This is why Knights are just as strong as the Commander that guides them”

  ‘Does that mean they are all sitting chickens without a set of orders to follow?’ Veronique had thought even if she didn’t want to admit that the Duke was kind of right and all she had to do was to think on how the government used to run in her former world.

  Basically a bunch of idiots that kept talking themselves in circles from top to bottom and got nothing done right

  ‘Maybe that was on purpose’ she had thought before something else creeped up on her

  “What happens if Kain loses?” the redhead questioned

  “He would have to leave the Aurelia’s grounds in complete disgrace and lose all claims of being a knight” Alexander responded to that question

  “Wait what? He wouldn’t even get a redo? but Kain didn’t even start this it’s Noah the one that’s being unreasonable” the last thing Veronique wanted was for the Undead to leave over something so silly and, as much as she pitied Noah for his loss, she would pick Kain over him without a single doubt.

  “it doesn’t matter, losing would prove that he had tried to cheat his way to be a Knight and such thing is a disgrace only second to treason” Alexander had elaborated then added with disapproval “you shouldn’t call the Knights by name they are beneath even you”

  “I wouldn’t go around calling those that got our lives in their hands beneath us” Veronique said back arms crossed and bristling with anger over this whole situation.

  The boy did seem to want to start arguing over the matter but he kept his mouth shut, not to let Veronique have the last word for the sake of peace but because the duel had officially began.

  “First to disarm the opponent wins, begin” Commander Regulus had declared and the two ran at each other at his order, their swords clashed in whirlwind of parries and counterattacks locking the two of them on the spot as neither wanted to give an inch of ground to the other.

  Kain was far more used to fighting with his halberd then a sword, he felt naked and powerless without his armor but those were the rules of such combat, even if some sore loser would say that Noah had an unfair advantage due to having only studied the sword all of his life.

  Like any other Knight Kain did train with a sword, so it didn’t take long for the clunkiness of his movements to disappear and for him to find his rhythm with this weapon as he adapted.

  It had helped that Noah hadn’t been taking him seriously and was being arrogant, it wasn’t like him and if Kain believed in such things he would say that Daryl’s spirit had possessed Noah to make him act this way.

  However the smug smile on his Noah’s face was wiped off as Kain slowly but surely started to overtake him, his face turned to rage as he was forced a few steps back

  “WHIRLWIND!” he shouted out forcing Kain to still his movements as strong current rooted him on the spot allowing for Noah to attack without resistance, but when he did his sword was coated with wind currents so instead of cutting Kain his slash it had merely made him fly across the arena.

  Yet Kain was still tightly gripping his sword.

  “What just happened?” Veronique was confused, she had thought she had seen Noah only use one skill

  “Oh it’s quite easy that young knight has split his mana so that his skill could both reinforce his weapon and create an opening” Ivan had been quick to explain from right behind her, which made her slightly jump out of surprise.

  ‘…where did he even come from?!’ her eye twitched, but she was more worried about the situation unfolding before her to pose the question out aloud ‘come on Kain I know you can beat him’

  I started my new writing regimen this week (aka I did the math on how much I would need to write to make sure I was free as a bird during the deadly hot Summer months)

  Clashing eyes - the Dead with the eyes dangling from its orbits.