Episode 75 - First Bridge 'Euria's Crisis'

There’s a problem…..

No… There’s a huge problem!!

Breaking down in cold sweat Eugene stared at a ‘large’ figure resembling a fat fluffy cat. At this moment, this fat cat was pulling off all kinds of facial expressions whilst attempting to do 1 pull up.

Unconsciously, Eugene’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch; other people watching this comedy-act too couldn’t help but leave their mouths hanging watching the youngest of the Veria siblings struggle against gravity.

“Ahhhhh!!!!” To Euria’s scream, Eugene could only blink, staring at the large potbelly of the person in front of her bouncing up and down.

Thinking back to the ‘serious’ conversation she had with Levis about wanting to learn martial arts and relating it to the girl in front of her, Eugene could feel a new emotion bubbling inside her. She could feel a flush of heat rushing up to her whole face and also the need to want to hide in a hole.

Blinking her eyes to calm this slight feverish feeling she was feeling, she thought-- Is this emotion called embarrassment?!?

It was then that a deep sigh from Moniqua sounded out from behind her. “Euria... Oh, Euria… What are we going to do with you?” Turning around, Eugene saw that Moniqua was clutching her head, shaking it in regret.

‘Regret’ Eugene turned around to face Euria’s -now- shaking body. “THIS LITTLE TWIT!” She unconsciously muttered under her breath, not thinking that everyone could hear her.

Levis, Moniqua, Louis, Ramon, and Aernest couldn’t help but jump from Eugene’s words, seeing Eugene sucking in her shaking lips as if she was angry.

‘No wonder you didn’t bother me or weren’t around me for the past week!’ Eugene’s eyebrows twitched. ‘Only to come to bed after I sleep and leave after I wake up! I was thinking that something was fishy!’ Eugene cracked her neck.

‘SO IT’S BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T WAIT TO GET RID OF ME TO EAT HOWEVER MUCH YOU WANT TO HUH?!?’ Eugene stared at Euria with fire in her eyes! -- No! Her whole body was covered with a blazing fire, enough to make everyone take a little step back!

“.. Neia… Eugeneia…” Aernest clutched Louis’ pants. ‘Scary! This was scarier than last time with Grandmother!’ Aernest shook his head, looking up at Louis to do something!

“......” Louis stared at Aernest blankly before walking up to Eugene and hitting her on the head with the hilt of his sword!

BOINK!

Eugene’s head bobbed, coming back to reality.

“......” thanks. She internally rolled her eyes.

When Euria couldn’t handle hanging onto the parallel bar any longer, she let go of the bar, falling onto the soft grass below her. With tears in her eyes, she cried. “It’s because of Grandmother! She said… she said to hide from elder sister and eldest brother and eat as much as I want to!” She flailed her arms around in guilt.

“Huh?” Eugene’s deep voice unconsciously came out. -- That damn old lady! Just when I become neutral with you, you go and create a huge problem!

“She… She said that I should fatten up if I want to become a proper noble lady!” Euria pitifully cried with her arms and legs spread out.

‘That old lady!’ Eugene inwardly shouted!

“What are we going to do about the Paladin training tomorrow dear?” Moniqua worriedly shook the rims of Levis' shirt. Sighing he replied, “What can we do but proceed…”

“Do you want to train Euria?” Ramon hurriedly asked, looking at his sister who’s become wider than him like a fluff ball.-- At this rate, she wouldn’t be able to handle any training!

Euria thought for a minute before replying to his question with a question. “Will… Will it be this hard?” Euria rubbed her teary eyes.

Cawk. Cawk. Cawk. Cawk.

“......”

Everyone went silent to Euria’s words as crows started to cry behind them. Spring was almost over and flowers were starting to sprout back preparing to bloom during summer. However as if it understood this girl’s question, the sprout was so shocked that it immediately started to wilt from a heart attack.

‘..... I give up.’ Eugene admitted defeat, walking towards the parallel bar.

Euria saw Eugene walking to her and thought that Eugene was going to pick her up but before she realized what had happened, she was already rolling 5 meters away.

“Ahhhhh~” She cried, seeing stars rotating around. When she was able to get her vision back, Euria saw her older sister doing 10 pull-ups in a row, completing the task their parents gave them.

“........” Euria's heart broke in half. -- My dearest elder sister?

Ending a rep, Eugene got off and asked. “Is there anything else?”

Levis and Moniqua silently looked at each other and shook their heads.

“Next” Eugene gestured for Aernest to come to which he immediately obeyed.

Although Aernest was 9 months older than the twins, he had yet to begin his training and that was because he had begged his parents to delay it to when the twins turned 3. Seeing no problem with that, Levis and Moniqua allowed Aernest to begin everything together with the twins.

Gulping his saliva, he brought his hands up to the parallel bar and pulled himself up. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. He did this 8 times before falling on his butt. Stretching his hands up, he walked back towards the group.

“Alright, very good! You completed the same amount as Ramon did when he was 3. And you Eugene did 10 pull-ups like your eldest brother. Good job children!” Levis smiled.

Louis shrugged his shoulders before looking towards Euria who was staring at them with wide eyes. “......”

Sighing Louis spoke. “Euria, this is the easiest part of the training.” Louis stared at Euria who was looking at him like he was a monster. Deeply sighing again Louis continued. “Do you want to give your snacks up, or give training up? Choose”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Euria shouted! “Training! I’ll give up on training!” Her words did not disappoint anyone, in fact, they all knew what she would choose.

However, did she know that giving up training would mean not being able to see her dearest sister for 10 hours a day anymore? -- Well the answer is NOPE! She didn’t know!

“Alright…” Levis respected Euria’s choice, gesturing for Euria to come over.

With great difficulty, Euria got up and crashed into her further to give him a big hug.

‘Euria, oh Euria...Look at your father. Isn’t his face sweating?’ Eugene shook her head seeing a green-faced Levis attempting to lift Euria.

Taking in the beautiful sight and smell of pure nature, Eugene closed her eyes.

‘Oh well, whatever happens, happens.’ Eugene shrugged.

-----

And without further ado, the next day finally arrived! It was the day Eugene and Aernest would officially begin their training! This day was also a historic moment where Eugene and Euria would be apart for more than a kilometer.

The 8…No.

The 7 vassals of Xenperia would finally gather together in one training ground!

Introducing a bit of this training ‘program’, before today, only five of the Paladin children would gather together at this training ground to train. Training 7 days a week, they delegated their training days to 3 days of Paladin training and 4 days of their family tradition training. However training 7 days a week did not mean the adults were working the children to death! The adults made sure to communicate daily and made sure the children’s bodies were able to comfortably train according to age!

Before the children were given the title of Paladin, Ron Graeme, Crown Prince Ren, and Louis were already training together at least once per week. This training was personally supervised by Clyde Akler who was the commander of the Xenperian knights.

This was a special privilege only the 3 got because, ‘formally’ only those who had passed the knight’s test could be supervised by Duke Akler; Before being titled a knight, everyone is trained by the other members of the Akler family and only after they pass the knight’s test are they able to be trained by Duke Akler.

However, this all changed. With the newly emerged 8 Paladins, Duke Cylde Akler, Duke Earnest Marleigh, and Duke Amos Rodriguez were officially edict to become instructors of the Paladins; thus naturally creating 2 training systems. One training system to become knights, the other to become soldiers.

Taking charge of the Paladin’s ‘knight’ training was obviously Duke Akler. From a knight’s etiquette to sword handling, and swordsmanship, everything was personally instructed and handled by him.

Duke Earnest Marleigh and Duke Amos Rodriguez naturally took charge of the Paladin’s unpopular ‘military’ training. Unlike Duke Akler, the two did not stress on etiquette and did not teach swordsmanship. Rather than that, they taught martial arts, military strategy, and how to strengthen one's body.

The two Dukes are Generals of the newly formed Military system and although they weren’t the commander, they ‘publicly’ held powers close to the commander of the Military unit. This was because they were tight knitted with the Emperor and the nobles supported the two Dukes rather than the military commander who is a commoner. What the nobles didn’t know was that the generals and the commander were tightly knitted and had a student-teacher relationship; the two Dukes were personally trained by the commander himself.

Nevertheless, this military system was very unpopular with the Paladin children; Aeselak and Aedelak as the only members of the Military training system. Aedelak mainly trained with Duke Rodriguez to strengthen her body, whilst Aeselak trained with Duke Marleigh to specialize in Strategics.

The rest of the Paladin trained with Duke Akler.

-------

Arriving at the training site located behind the Imperial Palace, Eugene was thoroughly body checked. This check was to see if the person was authorized to enter the premise and to check for any unauthorized weapons. Even high ranking aristocrats or any Royals of other countries had to be checked without any exception.

When all her clothes were about to be taken off, she was finally let go off and allowed to enter the training ground. Aedelak and Aeselak had a look of apology to which she shook her head, indicating that it was necessary.

It took about 20 more minutes before they finally arrived at the knight’s base and training ground. Here everyone who desired to become knights, or are knights trained at. Getting off their carriage, Aedelak and Aeselak took Eugene and Aernest to the Paladin’s training ground. They walked past a huge stadium where Aedelak told them that this place was where knights have their monthly fights or duels. This was to determine the strongest knights and motivate knights to become stronger.

Aedelak also explained that the Military base and training ground was located here with about 40 minutes of walking distance. The soldiers entered through the mountain rather than entering through the back of the Imperial Palace because it was closer there.

Nodding to Aedelak’s information, it took about 20 minutes to walk before they finally arrived at the special training ground for the Paladin children. This was located halfway between the Knights base and the Military base.

“.......” Upon entering the training ground, Eugene paused and speechlessly stared at their training ground.

The training ground before Eugene was not very aesthetically pleasing with one half of the training ground completely green and the other half… no 1 quarter bare of any vitality.

Blinking her eyes to keep her OCD in check, she was then greeted by Crown Prince Ren, Ron Graeme, Ramon as well as the three instructors who ran towards her and Aernest as if they were nervous; Louis walked behind everyone and arrived about 30 seconds later.

Taken aback for a second, Eugene was about to greet everyone when she paused. The three instructors, as well as Ron Graeme and the Crown Prince, was looking at her up and down as if...they were confirming something

“.......” Eugene blinked. -- Did they really think that she would indulge like Euria?

Coughing to bring their attention back, Eugene and Aernest then greeted everyone.

“*Ahem*...” Duke Rodriguez coughed. With his right fist clenched to his mouth, he then seriously looked at Eugene and Aernest with sparkles in his eyes. “Well! Do you know which area you’re interested in?”

“.......” Eugene blinked.

Before Eugene could reply she heard. “Shameless.” Looking up to the person who said that she saw Clyde Akler staring at Amos Rodriguez in disgust.

“...... yes.” Eugene blinked, whilst replying to Duke Rodriguez’s question.

From Aedelak, she heard that the military system for the Paladin was very unpopular and deserted.

“Well??? Well!!” Duke Rodriguez pursed his lips waiting for Eugene to reply.

“Wouldn’t Aernest and Eugeneia be more interested in knight training? Look at how delicate they look.” Duke Akler comforted Duke Rodriguez by patting his back. “Not suitable for your training at all!”

“....” Eugene and Aernest blinked.

“Teacher, you are mistaken…” Louis couldn’t help but intervene. Rubbing his stomach that had twisted due to hearing the word delicate and Eugeneia in one sentence.

“Hmmm” Ignoring Louis’ words, Eugene slowly spoke. “Honor…” She trailed, looking at Clyde Akler who was getting excited.

“Honor” She repeated, bringing her hands to her mouth. “Isn’t something I’m personally interested in.” She then looked at Aernest and asked. “You?”

To which Aernest nodded in acknowledgment, repeating her words. “Honor isn’t something I’m personally interested in!”

CRACK- CRACK-

Two hearts could be heard cracking loudly at the same time. One heart belonged to Clyde Akler, the other belonging to Amos Rodriguez.

For a knight in trainee, honor, is to become a knight, and to be a knight, is to become a person of honor. The word honor was something that was deeply embedded into the hearts of every knight that even when doing a training rep, one would yell out ‘Honor’.

This was different for a soldier and that was because, to become a soldier, one must discard the word honor away. Unlike the knights, honor didn’t mean anything to soldiers. During the training they would even chant ‘FU-K HONOR!’ to motivate themselves into training harder.

If Eugene hadn’t said that sentence but had said that she wanted to join the military system, Ramon, Ron Graeme, Crown Prince Ren, and Duke Akler would have persuaded her that this training was only for brutes. That it was not something she should choose. But because Eugene had blatantly rejected a knight’s core, honor, they had no excuse to persuade her otherwise.

Now, Eugene’s choice was something Louis had expected. And that was because 2 and a half years ago when the Paladins first began to train, Aedelak and Aeselak had without a hesitation chose to train with Duke Rodriguez and Duke Marleigh. From their stubborn behavior to remain there even with everyone’s persuasion, he could tell that Eugene had something to do with it.

“So today’s schedule, as well as this week's schedule, is scrapped?” Duke Marleigh suddenly spoke, his lips tugging up.

“........” Clyde Akler stared at him with his mouth twitching. Another thought then crossed his mind and his mood lit up! “Wait wait! Young Aernest is only choosing the military system because Eugeneia had chosen it!”

This, Ramon and Louis, shook their heads.

“Teacher, give up.” Ramon grabbed Clyde Akler’s arms before dragging him to their side of the training ground.

With Eugene and Aernest joining the military system, the extra 1 quarter training ground Duke Clyde took was now given back to Duke Rodriguez.

Shaking her head, Eugene looked at Aedelak and Aeselak. “Why did you let them discriminate against you?” Eugene sighed for the two.