1 Finally!
*CLING*
A longsword and a dagger clashed briefly before the wielder of the dagger backed away.
The young man wielding two curved daggers assumed his stance to prepare for his next attack. Opposite to him, the middle aged man was in a defensive posture, holding a longsword in his left arm and a small red-colored circle was drawn around him.
Steadily approaching the opponent, the young man threw out a simple cut aiming at the neck with his right arm as a feint before stabbing with the other arm towards middle aged man's shoulder at extraordinary speed, the latter just simply leaned back his torso to dodge the first attack before flicking his left wrist to block the dagger with his longsword.
But before he could stabilize his stance, the first attack, which he deduced to be a feint, changed angle midway before picking up speed to charge towards his neck from the front. Tilting his neck to dodge the blow, he swept the young man's leg to disrupt his momentum before placing his longsword at the neck of the young man and said,
"You lost."
The young man was dazed, unlike the calm in his eyes, which he had throughout the duel. Snapping out of it, He took a deep breath and simply nodded his head before bowing his head. He then started walking towards the mansion attached to the duel grounds to take a bath.
*****
"Are you sure?"
"Yes"
"No bodyguards? No artifacts? No food?"
"No"
The middle aged man closed his eyes as if to make a decision while the young man continued eating his lunch nervously at a speed which could only be called too slow.
"Come back home by the end of the month"
"Alright," replied the young man as he finished his plate and emptied the juice present in his glass. You could see he was barely restraining his emotions from the way his lips and eyebrows were twitching but he finally couldn't hold it any further and said,
"Thanks a lot dad!"
"I'll be disappointed if you still couldn't push me out of the circle before the entrance ceremony."
The young man nodded as if to assure his dad and started walking towards his bedroom on the third floor of the mansion. He looked past the passing windows in the walls of the mansion while climbing the stairs and his gaze fell on the vast expanse of land covered in flowers of myriad colors, more specifically, on the beautiful lady tending to a flower while simultaneously being surrounded by them.
The beautiful lady, as if sensing someone gazing upon her, looked up. Upon discovering the young man passing by the windows while matching her gaze, she gave a smile which the young man reciprocated while nodding.
Pushing open the door to his bedroom, he stood up in front of the mirror.
You could see a handsome youthful face with a lean and fit body with light tan skin tone wearing a form fitting black shirt coupled with similar colored track pants.
The young man was Clarence Verity, the one and only heir to the Verity family, the royal family of the Demonic empire.
Since he finally got the permission, Clarence decided to venture into the Bluemist mountains to train himself. He had always liked the feeling of growing stronger, no matter when he worked out his body, when he discovered a new way of using a particular skill, or the day when he would finally push his father out of the red circle without handicap.
He tied the belt, which had two sheaths attached to it, to his waist and picked up an ordinary looking bracelet which tightened itself upon its arm as soon as he wore it.
After locking his room, Clarence moved towards the exit of the mansion, where he spotted his parents waiting for him. It turns out the beautiful lady in the flower fields was his mother. After hugging them both, he said,
"I will be back soon. Take care, mom and dad."
Smiling at him, his mother replied,
"Take care of yourself too."
Clarence nodded and smiled, indicating that he agreed. After that, he turned around and began walking.
Now that her son was gone, the lady turned around to face her husband and said,
"Why did you let him go so early?, the guards reported to me he didn't even manage to push you out of the circle, which was clearly the condition if he wanted to train in the wild.
Did you really just let him go so that he can prepare himself for the entrance ceremony?. You know our child doesn't need to take part in the entrance ceremony to be admitted into the academy, right?"
"Woah, woah, calm down lady," the middle aged man said, holding up his hands. He put them on her shoulder, looked her in the eyes and said while smiling,
"He fulfilled the condition earlier when we were sparring. Before I could stabilize my stance, he followed up with a lethal attack. I could only lift the seal for a moment to fortify my legs with mana so that I didn't have to step out of the circle to stabilize myself. He probably deduced that too, which is why he immediately asked for permission while we were eating."
To say that it surprised her would be an understatement. Her son's sensitivity to mana has to be top class to sense the utilization of mana before even stepping into the realms of cultivation.
An even more surprising fact would be that he managed to push back his father, Lysander Verity, the chief commander of the allied demonic army. Also known as the most talented swordsman to have ever graced this world.
Although he sealed himself to only be able to display a mortal body's physical prowess, including the reaction time, vision and flexibility of the body with a one hand handicap, it was still nothing to scoff at. After all, their child was just 18 years old.
Taking a deep breath to calm down her mind, the lady said, "There is only one month until the imperial academy entrance ceremony. I will go there with my son."
Lysander made a shocked face and jokingly replied, "Hoh! Sienna Verity will finally show her face to the public. Our son is certainly going to get a lot of attention."
To which Sienna just ignored and walked towards her laboratory.
The lady was Sienna Verity, formerly from the Winslow family, which was one of the two noble families of the demonic empire. She was the only person alive to have reached the grandmaster rank in all five sub-domains of expertise.
The five sub-domains of expertise were alchemy, craftsmanship, array making, puppetry, and talisman making.
Shaking his head, Lysander smiled before calling out,
"Shadow unit 1, I have some tasks for you."
The shadow of Lysander wiggled a bit, enlarging before a clump of it separated from it. The clump rapidly grew in height and manifested colors, soon turning into a healthy blonde man appearing to be in his thirties. The man knelt on one knee and bowed before saying,
"Greetings, chief commander Lysander, Shadow unit 1 at standby."
"As soon as my son enters the mountains, you just need to guard the perimeters of the Bluemist mountain. Do not let anyone above the low rankers enter.
About the higher ranked beings already in the mountain, leave them be. You are not to touch or even sense the ongoings in the mountains after my son enters them."
"Command received"
The man slowly collapsed with his colors being turned into black. He soon went back to being a shadow, but instead of attaching himself to Lysander's shadow like before. It just disappeared on the spot, the area betraying no evidence of his existence.
*****
Clarence was walking down the main street of Alascor city, the capital city of the demonic empire with a mask on his face made by his mother.
He reached near the gates and saw several carts and carriages lined up along with several people standing near them.
Walking up to a guy leaning with his eyes closed on a cart which he assumed was his, Clarence asked,
"Bluemist mountains?"
Opening up just one of his eyes to scrutinize the young man opposite to him, the guy replied,
"This ride is booked. Scavengers are organizing a trip there, you can go register to join their party."
Thanking the guy, Clarence walked up to the guy who was registering the names of people who wanted to join his group for travel. Of all the carriages behind him, one big carriage had the name 'Scavengers' written on it, indicating its status as the main carriage.
