Chapter 3 : Little tournament gone wrong
Courtyard of the Valerius familly. 4 years later.
Two instructors were present looking at six youngsters with grave expressions.
There were 3 girls and 3 boys, each of them coming from an important familly. Of course they felt superior against anybody who hadn't the same status as them. Knowing fully well how these youngsters behaved in their youth and the feeling of superiority they could have, the two instructors told them.
"Today you'll fight against 6 youngster of the same age as you. The only difference is that they are common people, just citizen and nobodies. Regardless of the outcome of this match you have the interdiction of doing anything to them afterwards. It's a form of training. Be carefull and avoid possibles injuries." The instructors said in aloud voice.
Little by little snears and laughs could be seen on the face of the youngsters appart from one. How could they lose against nobodies. They had trained since they knew how to walk and drew confidence from this.
The nobodies came from one of the entrance and just walk in front of them.
All the youngs masters and mistresses were chatting carelessly without putting the 6 nobodies in their eyes. There was only one, one youngster who seeing all this scene became angry, soon this anger became furiosity and then disapear replaced by a cold and harsh face.
One of the young master came before one of the nobodies and said.
"Come, let me show you the differences between you and me, so that you know your place and don't show me your ugly face ever again." Paul said with desdain and contempt written on his face. This young master was from a count familly.
The Church and The Warriors were both linked to the Empire. The Empire was the resultant territory owned by Humanity after years of wars. Of course with a Empire there is a Emperor and from what Hektor knew he was the strongest warrior of the world.
In the first place, there were separations between common people and nobility because of there responsabilities. But of course after decades and decades of complacency and authority they had became tyrants. This young master was the perfect exemple of that.
We were fournished with wood weapons as to prevent any serious injuries in case of.
We made a circle around to let them enough space so that they could fight to their heart content without any discomfort.
"My name is Tyler, Nice to meet you." The nobody told us as his eyes scanned over us. He took out two daggers and took a fighting stance.
"Yeah yeah die for me !" As soon as the words left his mouth Paul jumped as his wood spear pierced quickly towards the head of Tyler. A nasty blow for sure.
Fortunatey for Tyler, he didn't let his guard down from the moment he heard the voice of one of these young masters and mistresses. He dodged by an hair's breath and advanced to close the gap between him and Paul.
Paul surpised that his attacks was dodged easily had difficulties gaining back his bearing and tried his best to keep the distance advantage. He fell back and continued to poke and slash at Tyler. But Tyler didn't let him do as he pleased and after a minute of dodging the slashs and pokes of this seemingly novice spearman, Tyler blocked the spear with his two daggers. He took the opportunity to grab it and prevent it from moving. Tyler, with a big blow coming from both his knee and elbow broke the shaft of Paul's spear. He stepped before the stunned Paul and put one of his dagger on his carotide while the other was a milimeter away from his heart.
Everything seemed slow explained that way but it was done extremely smoothly and quickly. Tyler clearly showed that he had completely analyzed the fighting style of Paul.
"Cheater ! If I had a true spear it would have been completely different !!" Paul shouted as he was feeling extremely humiliated.
"Shut up !" One of the instructors shouted too. An expression of pure anger was on his face. Paul gulped and looked down accepting the order. The instructors looked at the 12 youngsters and made the mini-tournament goes on.
One by one the the youngster challenged one another and the tension grew more and more between the nobles one and the commons one. After all only Hektor and another girl from the Nobles group won. After everybody passed and fought against each other the instructors had a rigid face and told us that.
"You're all young. Understand your weakness and work on it from now on. No arrogance without strenght is permitted in this world. In the future you'll fight against monsters and Beasts, if you aren't strong enough you'll die and nobody will remember you and you'll be forever lost in the river of time. Reflect on your previous behaviour and make progress. Ok, goodbye everyone, good bye young master Valerius." The instructors said with a strict face and nodded at Hector as a last salute.
Hektor responded with Warrior salute and waited for the instructors to get out of his courtyard. Everyone was looking at him and waited for him to say something. Paul took the silence as an advantage.
"Hektor these nobodies are still here, for making the nobilities and the big famillies loses face, we should beat and punish them so that they know their place. If you don't want to dirty your hands I can ask the guards and servants to do it for us." Paul eager to regain his face couldn't help but spout everything he had on his heart.
The serious expression Hektor had all the time was gradually changed into the cold and furious expression he had back when the nobles learned of the commons peoples fighting against them. An eerily calm and frightening aura came and plunged the entire courtyard into silence.
"My dear Paul, tell me why are you fighting ?" Hektor asked.
"What do you mean ?" Paul replied a bit incertain with fear on his face.
"Well you boast about how strong you're but you're weak. You didn't train diligently at all."
"No... It's-" Paul tried to say.
"Stop don't try to make excuses, it's obvious. You're a noble and have access to a lot of things they don't. You can draw insight from the archives of your familly, learn their arts and movements techniques, can draw upon the experiences of your father, parents and grandparents who are respectable Warriors, everything that a Count familly has is ten thousand times better than what they have and all you think about is how to regain your face? Paul I'll be frank, if you want to regain your face, train, train hard and come back to, one day beat them with your own strenght. If you use the power of your familly to kill or injure them, you'll just be the funniest jokes of all.
It's the same for all of you, nobles ones. Don't try to involve your familly as it will just make you more despicable to the eyes of other. Now listen, Why do you think we need warriors ? Because we need them, we need soldiers and commandants who can fight against lot of beasts. WE ARE IN A WAR GUYS !! Why are you so focused on hurting them when they can save your life on the battlefield ? Know that at the start your familly was nothing. they were poor people too, who little by little worked they way up and made it to the count status. Don't make fun of them and don't think of yourslef as someone above them. WITHOUT ANY ACHIEVEMENT YOU'RE NOTHING."Hektor shouted the last part of his phrase as his face was crimson from anger.
He seemed to look back at the man who had framed him just so that he could win the presidential election. Just because he had a bit of power he thought that he could do anything to anybody. That kind of mindset make Hektor so sick that He want to rip these youngsters in two.
The nobles ones were petrified, apart from the other girl and the common people who had at first angry face slowly calmed down to look at Hektor in a new light.
"Thanks to you I could spar and know my current strenght. You're all valiant youngs men and women and it was a pleasure to have you here in my courtyard." Hektor said looking at the youngs common peoples. 4 nodded and departed too, letting only Tyler and a girl in the courtyard with the nobles one.
"You've been a disgrace, now go back to your familly and reflect on yourself." Hektor said looking at the noble children before him. He only smiled and nodded at the girl who had won too. She had been strong and had reflected on herself already. Hektor had already seen her as she at first was filled with desdain but slowly came to understand that there was no birthright in a war. She had changed her attitude before he started his speech. He was happy to know that all young nobles weren't contemptuous.