Life in a new Kingdom

When I came to, I was lying in bed. Unsure how long I had been out, I must have been through the whole night since the sun was bright that day. Remember the things he said, I decided to pursue even further into my training.

"Are you ready?" The teacher asked. His lengthy figure and broad shoulders hid his extreme agility and finesse. His short grey hair was slicked back with a long scar above his right eye. A small black coat with an open vest held a few daggers. He wore light armor, but he didn't need it with how he fought.

"I want to learn as much as I can. Please show me." I drew my sword, holding it tightly; I took a stance.

He never told me his name or what I should call him. It was simply "Instructor" or "Teacher" most of the time, and he would respond only to that. I spent the remainder of those weeks learning from him. I asked everyone around me about him, but they seemed to look at me like I was crazy. I was confused but continued to show up and learn from him. It didn't take long due to my ability to adapt to learn the fundamentals of his teachings, but I was missing something important: actual experience. The one thing I lacked was any challenge to improve, which showed in my results. Frustrated in my stump, I worked extra hard to engrave his lessons deep into my mind and soul. Vividly replicating each movement and acting each movement flawlessly.

If I didn't have the ability to adapt the best, I would have been able to achieve was knowing the basics of each of the strikes and stances of his swordplay. A man of few words most of the time, he spoke only when I needed to listen; he was strict in how I viewed my training. I took it to heart and continued to put my sole ambition into learning his moves. The days went by, each one bringing me closer to mastering a single aspect of his style and honing it to my ideal image.

We reached the final day of my training. Sore from the constant strain, I felt myself exhausted but filled with renewed focus. Knowing that this might be the last day, I would ask him for his help, his guidance, and his time. I took it upon myself to openly challenge him for one last match. To see how far I have gotten. But he just laughed at me.

"I will know the extent of your training when you face Valum. Win or lose, I will see if your efforts were in vain. I look forward to tomorrow."

"But, Instructor, if I don't know what my weak spots are, I won't know what to look out for." I pleaded with uncertainty if I would figure out any of my flaws on my own.

"You must find those answers yourself tomorrow. If you want to overcome your weakness, you must identify and adapt. You seem good at that, at least, so I don't think you will have a problem if you take what you learned these past few weeks and apply it to your thinking. Who knows, maybe you'll find that a weakness is a strength."

"What? Hey! Don't just leave."

"My time here is done. Farewell."

"Instructor..." Watching him leave without another word, I felt an uneasy feeling crawl up my back. I shook my head. "He gave you the tools, Eckhart. It's time to put them to good use if I am going to stand a chance against Valum."

I returned to my room to find Arlo waiting for me. I blinked for a second before speaking.

"Arlo? What are you doing here?"

"Well, I wanted to see how you were doing. Seeing as tomorrow you will be facing against one of the best rising knights in the Order. I couldn't find you, so I figured you would visit your room sometime."

"I've been training the entire time. I thought you had your own self-improvement going on. What's up?"

"You know I was studying for some strategic courses in the Order. Figure I would make use of my intelligence. And to put what I learned so far into a test of sorts."

"A test? How do you mean?"

"I want to help you; I want to devise a plan on how to beat Valum Aris tomorrow."

"Why would you want to do such a thing? Even if I am your friend, I know you well enough that you would sit back and watch."

"Yes, that would be my normal go-to, but I figured if I could devise a plan for you to overcome and at least get some shots in on the guy, I could get some of the credit. Hopefully, a commander or tactician would notice my skills and take me as an apprentice."

"Not a bad plan. If that did occur, it would certainly get you in some very important circles."

"And if you lose, then I get no drawbacks since no one else would know I made a failed plan. So, I really want you to win or do good at least."

"Heh, I guess I see no harm in having you aid me in this."

"Glad we could see eye to eye on this."

"Right, well, here is what I suggest."

"Wait, I am the one who's supposed to make the plan-"

"Yeah, yeah, well, I already got some tactic in place. I have a trump card for him."

"A trump card?"

"Exactly, something I know that I can catch him off guard with. And maybe with you, I can find the right time to unleash it."

"Oh buddy, I think this is going to be fun."

"We have a few hours before we need to sleep. Let's get something going, yeah?"

"Eckhart, let's make something of ourselves."

"I don't really want the fame, but I want to make him regret what he said about my father. I could care less of the notoriety. I just want to show Valum to respect my name!"

"We will, Eckhart."

"Now, what do you have in mind?" Spending the remaining hours, we began to discuss and devise a plan on how to fight Valum. Knowing what little we could gather of eyewitnesses to his previous duels, we did the best we could to work around it. Arlo left after, leaving me alone to my thoughts. For some time, I didn't sleep. Just thinking about the fight. Knowing that I was out of my league, what the instructor had me realize was that I had a lot to learn if I wanted to get to where I wanted to be. I didn't want to debate with myself, so I turned in as soon as I did.

Waking up in the early dawn of the morning. I found myself nervous. Something I didn't expect I would feel, but it crept up my arms like needles going through them. I gripped my hands tightly and set forth to the main grounds where the open sparing event was placed.