Old Friend

Excuse me, but may I have a little bit of your time?"

A young man came up behind him and asked politely just as Larne was going to return the book he was reading and walk away with his friend and fellow instructor in the academy Pella.

Larne turned to his back and looked; it was one of the students who remained at the plaza. This young noble youth wore an intricately cut shirt under a black leather vest with baggy pants that were decorated with threads of gold. Numerous jewelries that were set on his boots could be seen gleaming in the sunlight while the collar of his shirt boasted two golden buttons. On the outermost layer was a refined white linen coat that was fastened tightly around his body by a black belt. The youth exuded an aura of elegance with a hint of defiance in his eyes.

The guy had a superficial smile that was typical among nobles which caused Larne to feel a sudden impulse to puke at his face. Although that person looked familiar, Lorist felt much disdain towards his condescending, prideful gaze which held no one else in any regard.

"What business do you have here?" asked Pella with a serious tone.

"Greetings, Instructor Pella. I'm only here to ask if Instructor Landon has missed me since we last met," nodded the youth to Pella and subsequently turning his gaze to Larne.

"My dear Instructor and friend Larne, I, your former student and friend, has come to pay my respects to you. I am eternally grateful for the teaching and friendship you have provided during these past few years. I heard that you've been unable to progress in your CoreEnergy training. That's certainly too bad. As of late, I've managed to break through to the Third rank Grandmaster  and I have decided to return to the academy to offer my accepretation for your lessons and advice. To my surprise, I've heard that you will be accepting challenges from Grandmaster level Instructors and mercenaries alike, and that really suprised me. But alas, I got the news a little too late and ended up being placed behind a couple number of your other challengers. My only hope is that you defeat all the others so that I may taste your blade and receive your teachings and care again. Please try hard for this student's and friend's sake."

After saying all that, the young man who walked and behaved like a noble bowed, before retreating a few steps and walking away.

What's going on? He seemed sincere when he said all that, but something still feels off. What's up with that guy, thought Larne. He proceeded to ask Pella, "Who was that guy? He just came up to me with five or six other people and said some weird stuff. Somehow, he looks kind of familiar."

Pella glared at him. "Come on, you really don't recall?"

"Well, I kind of remember seeing him some time ago… But I really can't remember who he is. He did seem like he was some kind of big shot though… He looks pretty loaded too," answered Lanre honestly.

Pella hit the wall in amazement and said, "He lost to you in a spar before. Remember two years ago?"

"Two years back? What happened at that time?" Larne still couldn't remember the incident.

"Sigh… Even if you can't remember it now, that guy couldn't forget it even if he wanted to. When you were first appointed as an official swordsmanship trainer three years ago, that fool brought a group of other students to target you. He was the main culprit of the incident that occurred during the last dual elite course, and was also the one that you punished the hardest. He ended up bruised all over, with several broken ribs and got bandaged up like a large mummified person," recalled Tardy painfully.

Oh, so it was that guy. Larne finally remembered.

Every three years, the  Academy has special training session for the students who excelled in both "Core energy and swordsmanship. It was called the "dual elite course" and was also regarded as one of the most difficult courses offered by the academy. Given that the students that attended the course were the top among their peers in both disciplines, and that most of them were nobles with their own unique coreenergy techniques passed down through their families, the students were extremely arrogant and prideful and would not accept an instructor who lacked the necessary qualifications.

Two years ago Larne was just appointed as an official swordsmanship trainer and had been chanced temporarily with the task of teaching the dual elite class. Naturally, there were students who disdained him, but all of them were utterly defeated by Larne. That youth just now was ranked one of the top three in terms of swordsmanship and was also an assistant trainer of the dual elite course. He was swiftly defeated in a challenge with Larne after a single blow. Unable to suppress his hatred after his loss, he managed to manipulate the other students into attacking Larne en masse while he himself attempted to strike at Larne while he was occupied, desiring to put an end to Larne's life with the cruelest method available to him.

Larne, unable to suppress his rage at that moment , utterly pummeled him to the point where he could not go through daily life without assistance and was bedridden for more than seven months.

"Oh yeah, didn't you say he went away to recover and even decided to quit the academy ? Logically speaking, shouldn't he be brimming with hatred and be desperately trying to kill me? Why did he even come to pay his respects?" asked Larne as he stroked his chin, annoyed.

"Hahaha…" laughed the skinny, "This is a custom of the nobles. Even if they were facing their archenemy and was going to challenge them to a challenge to the death, they would still extend their greetings and salute the enemy. This is called 'being chivalrous'."

"Who is he to come over like that and spout all that insincere gibberish about me not letting him down and fighting my way to him! So what if he's a Three rank Grandmaster! I've defeated tons of people of that level!" said Larne, disgruntled.

"Hehe, you better watch out for that youngster. Do you know his family background?"

"I can't even recall anything about him, not even his name…"

"You… Sigh, forget it. Let me tell you. That kid is called Sanwo Hirwaun and he's the fourth son of the Archduke of the Aurora Kingdom, Sanwo Lambert. You do know about the Aurora Kingdom, right?"

"Of course I do. It's one of the neighboring nations of the Akan Trade Alliance and was located somewhere southeast of the union, I think," answered Larne after contemplating for a while.

"To the west of the Aurora Kingdom is the Mani Empire of the five great empires and to its east lies the Violent Dragon country. Do you know why there has been no conflict between the Aurora Kingdom and the two major powers right next to it?" asked Pella seriously.

"I don't know," replied Larne honestly.

"That's because the Aurora Kingdom has a Sword Saint. Neither the Mani Empire nor the Violent Dragon country wishes to agitate that person. The Aurora Sword Saint is also known as the 'Turbulent Sword Saint'. According to rumors, he revealed his power once when he was still only a SwordLord: when a storm came, he could slash every single raindrop and wind  with his sword and after the storm, an area of seven meters from the spot where he danced with his sword was completely dry, causing his name to instantly soar to fame."

"That Sanwo Hirwaun whom you beat up has already become the disciple of the "Turbulent Sword Saint". Think about it, two years ago he was merely a rank one Grandmaster, Right now, he's already at rank three. He must have trained a lot all this time to settle scores with you. Some rumors say that he challenged those of the same rank as him and defeated them with merely two to three strikes. It seems that he's confident of being able to take that grandmaster swordsmanship trainer badge from you. You better watch out, Larne, he's not your average small guy. Let me check his number..."

Pella took out a few goatskin scrolls and scanned through them for a while. "It's here. He's your 84th challenger. He must have registered just this afternoon."

"Huh?" Larne exclaimed, startled. "Skinny! When did the registration start!?"

"A day ago…" said Pella as he silently smiled. "As of now, there are more than 400 applicants. There were 80 others when I was walking over from the Discipline Department just now. I believe it'll hit 450 by today…"

Larne flicked his middle finger at the skinny. "I'm really gonna give it to that old miser! Does he want me to die of exhaustion!? How is that even reasonable?"

The skinny snickered like a crafty fox who just stole a chicken. "The old miser just scolded me this morning for not being able to it on a bigger scale . He said that we should open the application to the whole of the Academic Section, and after that, Nornak City! Maybe when this gets big, we can even let challengers from all over the Planka Fields come! In time, news of this will spread throughout the continent and there will be more challengers than we can count! By then, the profit we'll make from the registration fee will increase exponentially and our academy's reputation as well as influence will also rise… I'll be sending some students to go post the notices around the city later this afternoon, especially in the taverns and mercenary guilds… I'll need even more notices for those places."

Hearing that, Larne staggered and almost butt first to the ground.

The skinny delivered the ultimate blow, saying, "The old miser already said that he hopes that this year there will be as many as 8400 challengers. This way, he can arrange 84 challenges per day for you. That's actually going rather easy on you."

"Bang!" Larne fell butt first to the floor, struggled to get up, flicked two middle fingers at Pella and ran away rather quickly less Pella gave him another bad news.

Pella was still yelling, "Larne, you better be careful of Hirwaun! Don't be careless around him!"