Side Chapter 1 - Ramon’s Story ‘The path to getting stronger’

Marking the 2nd day after the Assassination incident, the usual lively House of Veria was engulfed in absolute silence. Masters and servants dispiritedly carried out their daily routine. No one dared to make any sound; except for the occasional solid sound of wooden swords striking each other coming from outside.

Which in turn made Levis and Moniqua be on a lookout outside, concerned for their son Ramon, who asked not to take a break and resume with his sword training and studies as-per-normal.

The two had wanted to visit Louis at the Royal Palace later today to check his condition after his shoulder surgery, and also Aernest who was still in a deep sleep, even after two days. But seeing Ramon’s unusual behavior made them rescind their decision and choose to stay back.

“Haa…”

Moniqua sharply exhaled, turning towards Levis with a complicated look. Helplessly continuing,

“Dear, I truly think Ramon should rest.”

Gently placing her hands on his shoulders, she started applying pressure, massaging her husband who was working on important documents in relation to the kidnapping which they soon found out to be an unsuccessfully attempted assassination on the Crown Prince.

Hearing her distressed and concerned voice, his pen that had been writing stopped. Putting down his pen, he smoothly engulfed his arm around the waist of Moniqua and led her atop his lap.

Gently placing a lock of hair that was out of place, back behind her ears, he tried to reassure her,

“He himself said he was fine, dear”

“But, he hasn’t visited the twins ever since that day! Which is very unlike him!”

Using not seeing the twins as a reason, she continued, her forehead wrinkling in certainty,” I believe he must be incredibly traumatized or stressed!”

“Physical training is how boys vent out their stress dear…. Let him work it out, and once he snaps out of it, he will be back to normal again..”

Rubbing her wrinkled forehead, he gently started massaging around Moniqua’s forehead. She had not applied cosmetics today, hence the rare opportunity to rub her face.

Turning her face to the side habitually to avoid her cosmetic smearing, she continued to insist,

“But you saw him when he ran to us for help…”

Her voice dying down, recalling the scene of Ramon frantically screaming for help like a mad man.

“Everything will be fine dear, don’t worry too much, I will talk to him later tonight alright?”

Reassuring his worried wife, he gently brought her closer to him, wanting to give her a hug. Yet a millimeter before he could fully hug her, Moniqua suddenly stood up, leaving his arms hanging.

Rejected...

“I'll go see the twins”

Not realizing she had rejected Levis’ advances, she quickly rushed to the twins’ room without even so much as a small glance back.

“......” 0.0

Meanwhile… Outside of the mansion...

“Young Master Ramon, watch your step”

Ramon’s training instruction pointed towards Ramon’s feet with his wooden sword.

How your feet move is very important in Veria’s style of swordsmanship. The faster your feet are, the faster you are at being able to evade your opponent's attack; getting close and backing out fast, in order to strike a fatal move.

Therefore distributing your weight evenly and completely understanding your body was incredibly important. This is what men from the Veria family practice as soon as they are able to hold a sword, which is normally at the age of three.

Maintaining the perfect distance between your left leg and your right leg to precisely distribute your weight throughout your body was an essential basic. It can not be off by a single millimeter, or it will completely destroy the most perfect form that has been taught by the Veria family for a few hundreds of years.

Not only was that incredibly important, the trick to being able to carry out the Veria swordsmanship style, is to become a perfectionist without any exception. Everyone born to the Veria family, you can say, has the mindset to strive for flawlessness, which in modern days would be called OCD. It was the little things that people tend to skip over, that the Veria family stresses the most about.

And that was how the perfect style of sword created by the Veria family came to be. Yet, it was not just a style of swordsmanship that anyone can just practice and succeed.

In fact, back in the past, the Veria family swordsmanship was taught to all Imperial knights, yet, it would still look like a completely different style because the biggest difference between the Veria men and the Imperial knights, was the difference between their mentalities and basics, which completely affects your form.

These days, for more efficient training, the Imperial knights train with the Akler swordsmanship; The Veria swordsmanship only trained to those born to the Veria family. And instead of the Veria family being the commander for the Imperial knights, they became the strategist for the Imperial family and knights instead; The House of Akler being the commander of the Imperial Knights, instead of their hundreds of years of being Xenperia’s strategists.