The feast ended without too many more incidences. At least none that concerned me. As soon as he could, the good Lord Wilbur fled the scene of his shame, which was immediately after the King had left. The Prince stayed and had been curiously asking questions of the top three Chosen: Soldier Boy, Naziface and Anders. Most of the other High Lords at least faked being interested in their new Lords. Anders seemed to have landed a good one, who was interested in mingling with him. I had quietly asked one of the guards if I were allowed to leave as well. When I received an affirmative, I left without another word.

“Thought you’d find a way to leave earlier than most others,” Hrothgar said when I stepped into the corridor. Looked like he had been waiting for me to leave.

“The stench was getting a little pungent in there, with all the noses turning brown,” I replied with a shrug. He looked mightily confused as if he did not get what I was saying, and I did not feel like explaining. “So, here to show me these troops you said I would be getting?”

“It’s getting kind of late, they’ve all retired to the nearest tavern,” Hrothgar said with a hint of distaste in his voice. “So I’m just here to escort you back to your room. The King has ordered that no one goes unescorted. For your own safety.”

“Right,” I said with a nod, not believing that explanation one little bit. As we were walking back towards my chamber, I asked one of the many questions I had. “Why are all the serving girls well-padded and without slav—serf collars?”

Hrothgar almost missed a step when I asked the question, meaning it probably was not a question to ask in polite company. This was not polite company though, so I did not give a toss. He looked around to see if there was anyone within earshot, before he answered me, “The King thinks it shows wealth having paid servants, instead of using serfs.”

I waited for him to go on, but he did not. “And the other part of the question?”

In a very low whisper, he replied, “The King has a fondness for, what did you call it? Well-padded females of the younger persuasion.”

“Remind him of his wife?”

Hrothgar coughed before answering, “The opposite.”

“Gotcha,” I said with an understanding nod. Little else was said on the journey back to my chambers.

He did inform me of an interesting fact though, right before he left. “Linus is compiling more specific information about the minor holdings in Wilbur’s domain, he will have some information in the morning.”

Next morning started early. All too early. At dawn to be specific. It also brought about a serious deficit about the room, one I had not thought about the day before: No curtains, and a ten meter long wall, filled with windows. Windows that were facing east, or whatever direction the sun rose in.

The brightness of the rising sun made it impossible to sleep, even if the bed was incredibly soft and warm. Most of the warmth provided by the surprise I found in my chamber the night before. Young Milly. After having ascertained that she was in fact old enough to my standards, and not theirs, I found her to be inexperienced but very eager. I wondered for a moment if I could buy her contract or whatever the hell serfs had. However, that might be a bad idea, seeing as I was apparently heading for marriage. Something that had been brought up repeatedly during the feast.

Some of the Chosen had been eager to get married and gain power, whilst others were bemoaning, almost perfunctory only, the fact they were missing their wives back on earth. Yet they had seemed strangely calm and accepting of it, once again making me suspect some form of mind control. Which I was not happy about. Though my current circumstances were a lot better than my previous.

The night’s escapade with Milly had brought about the seriousness of something that had crossed my mind earlier in the day. Hygiene. Not only dental but also general hygiene. Though she had been a delightful receptacle for a lot of pent up desires, the fact that she smelled of stale sweat and her breath was horrible, almost turned me off. Almost.

Slipping out of bed, I walked into the ensuite toilet and took care of business. I got confirmed in another thing I had thought about. There was someone whose job it was to go around the castle and take care of the smell and remove any traces of former meals. Sounded like an unpleasant job.

Stepping back into my chambers I found that Milly was gone. Probably for the better. Though my time with her before the workout in bed had been enlightening. I took the piece of paper that I scribbled on last night to calculate how old Milly was, as well as general notes on how they calculated time.

The most important to note were span, glass, half-moon, moon and cycle. Span was the shortest time reference after beats, which were seconds. A span was 169 seconds, so a little less than 3 minutes. A glass was roughly 73 minutes, and there were 26 of them in a day. Meaning a day was almost 32 hours long. A half-moon was their week, and their week was thirteen days long. 2 weeks to the moon or month and 13 moons in a cycle, what they called a year. Meaning that a cycle was around 445 earth days.

Which meant that in earth years, Young Milly was a tad over twenty years old, putting her firmly in the allowed column. Not that she looked it. That was when I learned the next interesting part: Having magic slowed ageing down when you reached puberty, explaining why she looked so young. Milly had also told me that the higher your power rating was, the more it slowed down. The gossip in the castle had already reached her, and she had heard I had a power rating of twelve. She informed me that I could expect to live for a couple hundred cycles at least.

Which was quite the bombshell. Going from a life expectancy of maybe eighty-four or five to around two hundred and fifty certainly made a need for one to shift your perspective to something a bit longer term. If I had children, would they inherit my powers and live as long a life as me? Or would I end up burying my children, their children and a couple of generations more of my descendants before finally dying of old age?

There were a lot of things going on in my mind, and I was starting to feel overwhelmed, especially because my usual anger at the world was starting to resurface. To clear it and hopefully put things into perspective, I began practising tai chi. I never gave two craps about the whole philosophy and qi flow thing they tried to teach, but the exercises were excellent for several reasons. They relied on total control of one’s own body, and they helped keep me nimble. However, my movements were a bit rusty, since I had not been practising it for the last two years. Prancing around was a sure way to get your ass kicked, and tai chi would definitely be seen as prancing.

I was halfway through my first set when there was a knock on the door. Not giving a flying fuck about who saw me, I shouted for whoever it was to enter. The door opened and I could hear multiple feet shuffling before the door closed.

“Uhm, Milord, could you perhaps put on some clothes?” I heard Hrothgar ask.

“When I’m done,” I said and continued to flow through the movements.

“It’s not proper for a man to be naked with other men unless it’s for bathing,” Ethan started in a preachy voice. “It says so in the Book of—”

“Then get the fuck out, I’m busy,” I said.

“Milord!” Ethan protested.

I heard a suppressed chuckle from someone who had a lighter voice than Hrothgar, so I assumed the third musketeer was there as well. I still had my back turned to them. Did not prevent me from asking a question though. “Linus, what can you tell me about Wilbur and his High Hold, or what his domain is called?”

“High Hold is correct, Milord,” Linus answered, confirming my suspicion. “I’ve only been able to confirm a few details, so it’s highly speculative and might be inaccurate, so please use the information only with the utmost care.”

“Now that you’ve prefaced it with you covering your own ass, what did you find?” I was not in the mood for playing word games. I executed a turn and saw that all three of them were standing with their backs to me. “This is ridiculous, I’m not ashamed of my body, you can stare as much or as little as you will. Sit down, or something. Standing there staring into a wall is stupid.”

“It’s a sin, Milord. We’re not sinners,” Ethan protested, though Linus immediately turned around and walked over to one of the recliners. He did choose the one where he would be unable to see me though. Hrothgar shrugged and took the other, and turned his head a bit extra, to keep me out of peripheral vision probably.

“Do not commit sin,” Ethan pleaded with the others, without taking his eyes off the wall.

“Give it a rest already, Ethan. If you’re going to serve me, I don’t want to hear about sins and so on. I don’t give a rat’s ass about what your Gods think is a sin or not,” I grouched. I was starting to get a bit angry.

“You mock the Words of the Gods that brought you here?” he whispered with disbelief in his voice.

“Kidnapped me you mean. No one asked if I wanted to come here. Would probably have said yes if asked anyway, but that’s not the point.”

“Which was why the Gods did not ask. They knew.”

“Did Jackie want to die? She didn’t seem suicidal to me, she seemed like a young girl who had much to live for,” I spat. Remembering how close I got to being killed, and his pious bullshit, got me so angry that it broke my rhythm. “Fuck.”

“Women would never be fit to receive the Gods’ gift! It was only right to kill those not worthy, women and the tainted,” Ethan harrumphed, still staring into the wall.

“Yeah, I heard shit like this before. You got five beats to get out of here, before I throw you out of a window. If you come back, you leave the preachy bullshit behind. If I ever want to hear about what the Gods think about one thing or another, I will ask. One,” I said in a very low flat tone. A clear sign to people who knew me that I was pissed and violence was close at hand, and maybe a sign that whatever mental meddling that had been going on was starting to wane.

“You can’t talk—”

“Two,” I said and stalked towards him. He had not moved.

“—me like that, I am—”

“Three.” This was not an unbridled anger thing, I was still in control, if just barely. This would serve another purpose. To establish dominance.

“—a High Priest of—”

“Four,” I said standing just a step from the former High Priest, who would just not take a hint.

“—Chostus, the God of Wis—”

“Five,” I whispered into his ear, before grabbing him, and with a full-body twist, I sent him across the room where he landed in a heap at the wall, beneath the windows.

As I crossed the room in a flash, I focused on Hrothgar’s weapons to create links on them, specifically his shortsword which was at the table, and the daggers in their sheath on his belt. I opened the connection to my reservoir of magic energy and flooded the links, making them attract each other, which would hopefully ensure that Hrothgar could not draw his weapons.

Ethan was still just staring straight ahead, clearly unprepared for what had happened, despite me warning him. I grabbed the front of his robe and hoped that it was made of some sturdy shit, or he would have a very unpleasant end to his day.

“Wha—” he started to ask but was interrupted when I hauled him to his feet and slammed his back into the window, breaking it. I just hoped no one was beneath it to get injured by the large pieces of glass falling. I leaned out, with him first, and looked down. Looked to be around a five-story fall, and no one was beneath the window. I leaned back again, still with him hanging halfway out of the window.

“Look at me,” I growled and his eyes snapped to me, wide with fear. “Looks like a long way down. Don’t speak, just listen.”

Behind me, I could hear the two others had gotten to their feet. Hrothgar was predictably trying to draw his weapons. I could both hear his futile attempts and feel tugs in my power reserves, as the links drew more energy to be maintained. What Linus did quickly became apparent, as I could feel the wind starting to pick up. He was trying to push Ethan inside the room again with his magic.

“Hrothgar, stop trying to draw your weapons. Linus, stop using magic. If either of you persists I will drop this pigfucker!” I said loudly while shaking Ethan for good effect. When they did not stop immediately, I added, “I don’t do empty threats.”

The wind died down and the tugs at my power stopped. Satisfied, I pulled Ethan in a bit, however, he was still sitting in the window sill with his upper body hanging out the window. Only my grip on his robe kept him from falling.

“Now, do I have your attention?” I asked slowly. He started to nod immediately, while a strong smell of urine started to spread from him.. “This is your one and only warning. If you want to serve me, you will not be preachy or judgemental. If you think what I’m doing is wrong because the Gods think it’s wrong, put a sock in it. If the action is so bad that it could have consequences, then frame it like so, and I might listen. When, and I mean only when I want to know about the Gods, I will ask. Do you understand these ground rules?”

“Y—yes, Milord,” he stammered. Satisfied with his answer I hauled him back inside and placed him on his feet. Gentle I brushed off his robe and straightened it.

“There you go. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I asked in a sickly sweet voice.

He just stared at me like I was a lunatic, before finally mumbling, “No, Milord.”

“Good, if you want to continue to serve a Chosen, return here tomorrow morning. Let’s say half an hour after dawn,” I said and knew from tests with Milly that the translation spell automatically translated the time to theirs. A half-glass which was between 36 and 37 minutes long, so it was close enough to just think about it as half an hour. Looking him in the eyes I added, “You’re free to leave.”

At first, he did not move, it was not until I casually said that it was an order and not a suggestion that he started to move. He took off like a greyhound after a mechanical rabbit. The door had barely opened before he had pushed his way out, and it was closed with a loud thump.

Turning around to look at the other two, I growled, “And if either of you two tries to draw weapons or use magic against me without my consent, consider it your last action in this life. You work for me now, not the priests, the kings or anyone else. Only me. Savvy?”

They looked uncomfortable before nodding their agreement. Seeing that I lit up in a smile. “Great, now Linus you’ll have to come back later because right now I got a lot of energy I need to burn off. Hrothgar let’s go see your soldiers, and see if I can’t spar with them.”

I had walked over to the door and opened it while talking. When they still just stood there, I looked at them with a cocked head. “What?”

“Milord, you’re still not dressed,” Hrothgar said almost meekly.

I realized he was right, I had totally forgotten about that. There was just something natural about running around in the buff. Shrugging, I left the door open and started getting dressed. It did not take me long, but the time was long enough to make one maid stop in her tracks, just to be knocked down by the maid behind her who had not seen her stop. It made me chuckle.

I had to make a concerted effort to hide how happy I was about what had just transpired, though. The advisors were suitably cowed by my mercurial behaviour, putting them on their back foot and giving me the upper hand. An upper hand I would need if I wanted to establish myself and not just be a puppet, for whatever the fuck these bastards wanted. It was a display that cost me though. Disabling Hrothgar’s weapons had cost me close to twenty percent of my power reserve.

Next, I would need to beat the living shit out of some soldiers to prove that I was in command. Not because of a Prophecy, a decree from the Gods or some shit like that, but because I was the meanest son of a gun around, and I was not to be trifled with.

A few minutes later Hrothgar and I were on the way to meet the soldiers I had been “given”. He had said they would be serving me. Which was bullshit. At the moment their loyalties still lay elsewhere, and definitely not with me. I would need to win their fear, then their respect and ultimately their loyalty.

“How are your armies structured?” I asked.

“The smallest unit is the squad, which is thirteen men, led by a squad leader. A platoon is two squads led by a senior squad leader. Thirteen platoons make up a squadron which is led by a commander. Thirteen squadrons to make a battalion, which is led by a high commander,” Hrothgar prattled off.

“So wait, you’re saying I’m in control of twenty-seven men now?”

He shook his head at that. “No, only twenty-six, I will be acting in place of a senior squad leader. Also, the soldiers assigned to you are all just rankers. With so many commanders being pulled from the Unifiers, the senior squad leaders got moved up, so did the squad leaders and a whole lot of rankers.”

Rankers, I mulled over the word and figured that was what they called privates. If the men in charge had been smart they would have sent some of their greenest recruits to make up for the fact that we would be getting some of their command staff. I asked that very question of Hrothgar.

His reply was not all bad news. “It’s a mix, the High Hierophant demanded it.”

“Okay,” I said and we walked down the stairs and corridors in silence for a few minutes, before I asked my next question. “It must be somewhat of a letdown, to go from commanding around three hundred and fifty men to commanding just twenty-six.”

“It’s an honour to serve the Hierophant’s wishes,” he said automatically. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a flicker of fear on his face. “And it’ll be an even greater one to serve you, Milord.”

“No need to brown-nose. I know your allegiance isn’t fully with me. I hope in time I’ll earn that, but until then we have a saying where I come from. Fake it till you make it. Do that, and don’t screw me over and we’ll be just fine,” I said and slapped his shoulder.

He grunted from the slap. “Yes, Milord.”

I would see if I could get him to stop that at some point, maybe. I think a treatment like I gave Ethan would help, but seemed a bit too unhinged, even for me. Also, if I were to be completely honest, I was starting to like it a bit. Especially the way Milly had screamed it repeatedly during the night.

I must have chuckled a bit when I remembered that, because Hrothgar asked, “What amuses you, Milord?”

“Just thought about an ex-lover,” I said with a shrug, which was the truth. I would not be sampling her delights again, something I had made clear to her.

“I see,” he said.

After almost fifteen minutes of traversing the castle, we were finally on the ground floor and walking out into a courtyard. One that was lowered considerably, and we had to walk down some stairs. The reason it was almost two meters lower than the ground floor became apparent when I saw a group of men preparing targets on the target range.

Because of the high walls, the whole courtyard was still in the deep shadows bordering on darkness, making it necessary for torches to light it up. They even had a large bonfire going. The morning had a brisk quality to it, but I already knew that from when I dangled Ethan out of the window. I just hoped I would be able to put in a good workout.

Looking at the men, they were all dressed in blue and white uniform, which was probably from their old regiment. I would be needing to design a new uniform. The uniform reminded me of what you would expect from the Napoleonic Wars, or something very much akin to it. I was not really interested in fashion. I just knew those guys would stand out like a dressed tourist on a nudist beach if they were trying to hide in the woods.

Another thing I noticed was that they all seemed fairly standard in size and build. Even the hair colour and beard looked uniform. It almost made them look like clones. Sure there were individual differences, like hairstyle. A couple of the older ones had some scars, the height and weight varied a bit, but not by much. It would make a dictator proud to watch his generic soldiers in a parade.

Except for their daggers, none of them wore any other weapons, but I could see piles of muskets and what looked like infantry sabres along the wall. There was also an assortment of different sized axes and some shorter swords.

One of them spotted me, but more importantly Hrothgar, standing at the small platform at the top of the stairs. He immediately came to attention, and placed his right hand in a fist over his heart, while shouting, “Commander present!”

That got the others turning around at once, taking a very short moment to locate us, before mimicking the first soldier’s salute. Hrothgar turned to me and saluted as well. Then they all looked at me, expectantly. Hrothgar mumbled, “Say ‘Honoured’, Milord.”

“Honoured,” I said with confidence, masking how ridiculous I found it. They relaxed their posture.

Hrothgar turned his attention to the men below. “Rankers, I have the distinct honour of introducing your new Liege Lord, he goes by Karth and has been assigned to High Lord Wilbur. Respect, obey, and honour him as befitting of soldiers trained by the Unifiers.”

“Fuck, not the mountains,” someone complained in a hushed, but still audible, whisper. Mostly audible because it echoed in the silence. It was followed by a gasp, as the perpetrator got his feet stomped, from both sides.

I could not help but chuckle. I eyed the short drop and thought to hell with it, and jumped down landing gracefully in front of the men, making them take a step back. With a wide grin, I said, “Let’s get started with some training. Do you have blunted sabres?”

I immediately started taking off my tunic and heard a soldier provide a positive answer, while my head was covered by the tunic. I ordered him to get me one.

“Milord, might I suggest observing first?” Hrothgar commented from the platform and then started walking down.

I considered it for a moment. I had never used weapons like these. All my martial arts training had been unarmed. I nodded, “Let me see what the two of you can do.”

The two I had pointed out were two of the oldest looking in the bunch. I reckoned they might be the best to showcase some of the moves. I turned to look for a place to put my tunic and noticed three people I had not seen before. They were tucked into an alcove beneath the stairs.

One of them was an older white-haired male with a haughty look, flanked by a young man and woman. The woman was wearing a serf collar, which made me frown for a moment. She was a comely black-haired girl, who blushed very prettily as she took in my bare chest and I caught her looking.

“And who might you be?” I asked her with a toothy grin.

“I am Armand, a senior healer in the employ of King Alfred, and this is my grandson and apprentice Armando, Milord,” the old guy said in a haughty tone that matched his face, which made me want to punch it in even more, especially when he neglected introducing the girl. However, I knew it would be a bad idea. I would need to find another way to get rid of my frustration and anger. Not because I was interested in her as such, but I was tired of the way they treated women and serfs. Like they were nothing; a piece of furniture or something.

I did not mind the whole servant thing, it was a good way for people to earn a living. I could perhaps even get behind the idea of serfdom, but the total disregard of them as people did not sit well with me. The hardcore racism and misogyny rubbed me the wrong way, and I was getting ready to snap.

I was about to tell him that I was not talking to him, but Hrothgar preempted the verbal beating the old guy was about to receive, by saying, “It’s an honour to have such a revered healer to tend to our needs. Your apprentices are most welcome as well.”

He looked down guiltily when I shot him a dark look. The healer hummed happily, “It’s of no consequence. We all must help in these trying times. I even had to send a couple of my serfs to the frontline. They won’t be missed, tainted lot that they are, but we must utilize all the magic talent there is, even from inferior beings.”

That did it, he was going on my shitlist. At some point I would love to wipe the smug look on his face away. Maybe arrange for a free nose job. A flattened nose so he would like the pig that he was. A soldier stopped next to me, and offered me a blunted sabre.

“Ah good, let’s show the Lord our swordsmanship, eh?” Hrothgar said loudly to the soldiers. His eyes begging me not to do violence onto the toad in front of me. It was more of a growl than a noise of agreement I let out, but Hrothgar took it as agreement. I grabbed the sabre from the soldier who looked a bit pensive. The sabre had a good heft to it. For them, it was a little light for my taste. For a brief moment, I wondered how much damage it could do to the healer.

The look in Hrothgar’s eyes had been clear. Me hurting this toad would be a bad idea. I would let it slide for now, but maybe someday I could repay the slight he was showing his servants. Shoving him out of my mind, I turned around and looked at the two soldiers I had pointed out earlier. They stood across from each other, with the sabres at the ready.

When Hrothgar saw I was paying attention, he barked out, “Begin.”

The soldiers thrust and parried in what looked like a well-rehearsed pattern. After just a dozen different moves, it seemed like the sequence started over.

Hrothgar looked mightily pleased, and with pride said, “Look at the form, these were taught by some of the finest Blademasters here in Central City.”

The name of the city was something ridiculous sounding, so I just went with a fitting description. I had learned from Milly that it was the only human city that did not belong to the Thirteen Kingdoms. Instead, it was the centre of it, the home of the High Hierophant, and where the kings gathered to discuss matters pertaining to what I would call an empire, without an actual emperor.

“Are they training basic moves?” I asked unimpressed. Sure it looked good if a bit choreographed.

“No Milord, they’re employing the highest form of swordsmanship. The control they have is impressive, yes? It’s a test to see who misses a step first, as all fights are.”

“Are they training for battle?” I asked, still confused as to what was going on.

“Of course, Milord, why else would they train?”

I was getting a nasty suspicion. “When was the last time that the Unifiers participated in a war or battle?”

“Five hundred and seventeen years ago, when the rebellious lord—” Hrothgar started to talk about the past deeds of the Unifiers. It was as I had begun to suspect. These people were parade soldiers. Toy soldiers, and not real troopers.

“Enough of this dancing,” I barked. The soldiers immediately stopped mid swing, and everyone turned to look at me. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re doing, but this is not how you get ready to fight for your life. This is how you train beginners.”

The soldiers started frowning and looking very angry at me. One of those behind me even spat, not at me, but I could hear it. Hrothgar looked like he was a little kid and I had just told him that Santa Claus was not real.

“You there,” I pointed to one of those that had just been showcasing how useless they were. “I order you to try and hurt me, show me what you can do with that sabre. I’ve never held a sabre or another sword in my life. If you beat me, I will give you a hundred marks.”

“Milord!” Hrothgar gasped. I still had no idea what a mark was worth, but from the gasps from all of the soldiers, and the greedy look in the singled out soldier’s eye, I might have underestimated just how much it was worth.

“I can retire and live a life of luxury on that,” the soldier said. “This is going to be easy.”

He settled into the stance he had been using before. Arm and sabre stretched out in front of him, side turned and settled into a springy stance, one that allowed him to make a lunge quite easily. Their standard opening move, it seemed.

I looked at the toad and asked, “Can you heal broken bones?”

“Of course, Milord,” he said offended. “I can even regrow lost limbs. I am a senior healer after all. Though training rarely leaves more than bruises and sprains.”

“Afraid of getting hurt?” the soldier taunted. At least they had the shit-talking part down. His bravado and greed made him forget his place though.

“Milord,” I said.

“Huh?”

“You forgot to add Milord.”

“Sorry. Milord,” he amended with a hint of mockery.

“And to answer your question, no. I just wanted to know how much I could hurt you,” I said as I stepped into position in front of him. Instead of taking the stance he had taken, I passed the sabre to my left hand and turned it around so the back of the blade rested against my forearm.

The soldier looked very confused, and I heard outraged whispers about using my left hand. It seemed like that was a sin too. I could not help but roll my eyes. I smiled at the soldier and said, “Don’t you want to retire to a life of luxury? Then go ahead and attack already, claim your prize.”

The man sneered and lunged forward as I had seen him do earlier. I moved to the right, letting the sabre go past me. He turned the blade and transitioned into a swing, but I was ready for that. I bent my knees and brought up my left hand and the sabre to parry. When I heard the clang of the swords and felt the pressure against my arm, I reached out with my right hand and grabbed his wrist. I then spun beneath his arm, and when my right shoulder was underneath his armpit, I rose up while tucking forward and down on his arm.

He went ass over head as he tumbled across my back only to land with a loud groan on his back as he expelled whatever air was in his lungs. I twisted his arm hard enough to break his wrist with an audible crunch, making him drop the sword. His screams filled the courtyard, but I still heard the gasp from the soldiers, and from someone at the platform above. I leisurely turned the sword around and rested the tip of the sabre at his throat. “You’re dead.”

“You broke my wrist!” he screamed.

“There’s a healer right there,” I said and let go of his wrist. He immediately brought it up to his chest and whimperingly nursed it. I turned to look at the men spectating, most of whom looked at me with a little fear in their eyes. I took a glance at the platform and saw Milly and two other collar wearing serfs spectating, their eyes as big as saucers. Milly said something, which made the two others blush and start giggling.

“Milord, I thought you had never held a blade before,” Hrothgar commented haltingly. “Yet you bested one of the best swordsmen in the platoon. He’s even better than me.”

“I’ve never held anything bigger than a dagger before in my life. But I’ve been in plenty of unarmed fights.”

“You’re unclean,” one of the men in the back shouted. “You used your left hand, a sign of being tainted!”

I wanted to throttle the idiot. “Do you eat with a fork and knife?”

“Sometimes,” came the confused answer.

“Do you eat only using your right hand, or do you use the fork in your left hand.”

“Left hand, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“Then you’re tainted as well, you dimwit,” I growled.

“Take that back! My forefathers are pure humans, none would lay with the Impure!” the man roared.

“Make me take it back,” I challenged him. It would seem I needed to teach multiple lessons simultaneously.

The man that stomped forward was the other exhibition fighter from earlier, and he looked pissed. On the way towards me, he grabbed a blunted dagger as well. I had to give the man props. By having a dagger he would pretty much prevent me from doing what I had just done, unless I wanted a dagger in the back. In the background, I could see the girl healing the broken wrist.

“Just to be perfectly straight, you called me tainted first, but I’ll give you the same deal as limp wrist over there. A hundred marks if you can beat me,” I said and shifted the sabre to my right hand. I pointed the tip at the ground but had turned my wrist so the edge was still facing my opponent.

He took up a position that still led with the sabre, but was more evenly balanced than the standard lunging stance. He held the dagger at the ready, in his left hand. I, on the other hand, slid my left foot backwards and turned my right side to him. With my left hand, I did the classic come hither wave.

He did not take the bait. I then gave him a grin, “You’re using the dagger with your left hand, proving that you’re tainted. What did your mother do? Fuck a—”

That set him off, and with a roar, he swung at my midsection. I dropped down into the tai chi movement called ‘snake creeps through the grass’ and modified it to slash my sword upwards, deflecting his descending sword up into the air. I followed that by pushing off with my left foot, giving me a forward spin. He tried to move backwards, but my spin ended with me hammering my sabre into his knee with a satisfying crunch.

He fell to his left side, dropping both weapons, and screamed in pain for just a moment, before passing out. I looked down at him, then casually said, “Well, he’s dead. You there, heal him. He needs a functioning knee if he’s going to keep up with the rest of us tomorrow morning.”

I had pointed to the healer’s son. He looked for a moment like he was going to complain, but he grudgingly went out and started healing my trooper. I went over to the bench and picked up two blunted axes, the size of a hatchet. They were bearded, which made them perfect for catching and disarming someone. At least that is what I thought. I gave them a couple of test swings, before returning to stand in front of the troops. I carried the left axe upside down, while I wielded the right one normally. “Any takers? Still got a hundred mark bounty for anyone who can defeat me.”

After a minute, no one had volunteered. “Disappointing. I’ve not even worked up a sweat yet. Okay, no prizes if you defeat me, but I’ll let two of you take me on. If you defeat me, you’re the new squad leaders.”

Two of the younger ones looked at each other, before stepping forward. Each of them only armed with a sabre. They started circling in opposite directions. Not a bad idea, if I stayed on the defensive like I had been doing so far. That was not the plan, however.

I let out a mighty bellow and rushed one of them, his eyes widened with panic, but he performed a picture-perfect lunge anyway, almost like it was a rote action. I turned to the side and brought an axe up and one down, catching the sabre behind the beard of both axes, locking it in place. I hit the trooper shoulder first, right in the nose, sending him careening backwards.

Using the distraction I used the lock I had on the sabre to twist around to face the other one and at the same time disarming the first one. The sabre went flying in the general direction of the charging soldier, meaning he had to stop for a split second to dodge. I used the time to swing my right-hand axe backwards. From the high pitched scream, I might have ruined the soldier’s manhood.

The other soldier had stopped in his tracks, looked behind me, then at me. He threw down his sabre, “I yield.”

I harrumphed at that. Addressing the crowd behind me, I said loudly, “Anyone not a coward? Does anyone think they can beat me? Alone, you get one hundred marks, if you fight in pairs, you become squad leaders.”

After a minute of silence, I turned around to look at them. “It’s important to know your limits. What you’ve been taught so far is a good basic understanding of fighting. However, careful training can only get you so far. Tomorrow morning, you will start training my way. The training will be hard and painful. Healers will be available. You will learn that fighting is not about right or wrong, honour or sin, it’s about living or dying, it’s about using whatever means necessary to live. If you’ve to bite to win, then you bite. If you have to use the left-hand or rely on someone who is tainted, you do that. Or you die. By my hand or the enemies, I don’t care.”

I looked around at them, and a few faces had paled when I looked them in the eyes. “I will see you in the morning. Be ready for pain.”

With that I walked away, remembering to return the axes to their rightful place. As I walked away the last soldier was getting his groin area healed. Hrothgar was following right behind me. “Milord, that was really impressive. You’re indeed a mighty warrior.”

“Sure,” I said feeling bushed. Not because of the physical exertion, but because I had been cheating like hell all three fights. I could just not let it show. “Point me towards the baths.”

“Of course, Milord, right this way.”

As I followed him, I checked my power reserves. They were down to a tenth. I had been using my power the entire time. First I had made a repulsing link from their weapons to my clothes, so I could feel where they were aiming. I had no idea how to fight against sabre wielding enemies, so I needed the help to know where their blades were going. I had also made sure to link my weapons to theirs with an attraction based link, meaning it was easier for me to intercept their weapons.

The output had taken a lot of me, and I felt really tired, about to drop on my feet tired, but I could not show any weakness. They had to fear me before I taught them to respect me. I would teach them that fighting was a dirty business and not some form of dancing. I would teach them to ignore pain, and I would have to reward them.

“Here we are, Milord,” Hrothgar said and opened a door. “Let me start the fire.”

I looked around at the miserable bathroom. A wooden tub stood empty. There were several barrels of water, and a bucket to carry the water to the tub. There was also a fireplace with a cauldron for heating water.

‘They got magic, and this is the best they can do?’ I thought sourly. I needed a jacuzzi or something. Something to soothe my tired body. I saw he had managed to get the fire started, so I said, “Thank you. I got it from here.”

“Milord,” he said with a bow and left. As soon as the door closed, I sat down heavily on the floor, with my back against the tub. I just needed to rest for a moment, before I started lugging buckets of water around.