*Clang!*

Talia deflected an incoming attack from Sir Gregory as they went through another exchange, from an observer point of view it was obvious that there was a huge gulf in skill between both Talia and Sir Gregory, but to Talia, this was great news, as the better he was at the sword the more she could learn to further increase her skill level.

Additionally, Sir Gregory was not just good at using the sword, but he was also a great teacher, and this wasn’t even his primary weapon.

As a Knight Sir Gregory had trained with an assortment of weapons including a bow and arrow, longsword, short sword, javelin and lastly his preferred choice, a great sword.

His proficiency with each of the other weapons apart from the long sword and great sword could only be deemed above average, but as he trained heavily with a long sword as a young age, and had grown into using a great sword mainly in battles, his skill with the use of both especially, the great sword was at an advanced level.

‘As one would expect from the strongest man in the Kingdom’ she thought, as she narrowly escaped an attack.

Throughout the past six hours, it was primarily her getting suppressed completely without much of an opportunity to retaliate that much, but Sir Gregory would provide her pointers now and then, directing her into taking advantage of certain opens of the opponent, alongside further advice.

Just through this, she had found her knowledge and understanding of how to use the sword grow at a noticeable rate, in fact through this she found another positive of her increment in intelligence, her ability to retain and memorise information was definitely higher than before, which greatly aided her in picking up the points Sir Gregory was providing her.

And finally, her hard work with Sir Gregory had paid off.

*Ding! Your Basic Swordsmanship has increased to Lvl 2*

Another notification was then shown on an interface to show the skills description.

*Basic Swordsmanship Lvl 2: You have a slight increase of understanding in the sword, you now use a sword more efficiently, being able to better inflict damage, deflect incoming strikes and overall skill level have improved.*

‘Great it looks like I was correct after all! The increment of one level did not do too much to increase her prowess in the sword, but it was a noticeable improvement, she knew that the skill levels would only be more difficult to further increase the level at the later stages, it was a good sign that the skills from the system can be trained. It was also good news that she retained some basic access to the game system, although it wasn’t as extensive as it was within the ‘Game World’, it was still a useful tool to view her skills and attributes.’

After she had achieved a skill upgrade in swordsmanship, Talia was eager to test its effect, and launched a sudden great offensive to Sir Gregory! Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she noticed that her improvement seemed to have taken Sir Gregory surprise, making her confident in being able to take this opportunity to land one hit… and her plan was thwarted as Sir Gregory easily sidestepped her attack, whacking her on the butt heavily causing her to face plant on the ground embarrassingly.

“Don’t get too confident in yourself and overcommit like that, going in for an all-out offensive, will leave you equally open for a counter which will always be a gambling with your life, something I don’t expect you to rely on.” Said Sir Gregory.

Talia pulled herself off the ground, her face beet red, she nodded in acknowledgement at Sir Gregory’s words, as inwardly she thought that she had indeed been a bit too rash in following up that move which could pose a great danger to her life.

What Sir Gregory didn’t mention was that such a move often used only as last support, if the individual themselves was on the brink of death and would only use such a move out of sheer desperation to take the opponent down with them, or to take a risky strategy as their loss was inevitable. But, he didn’t want nor expect the Princess to be in such a scenario, so failed to mention it.

Finding that their training session was acceptable and he was greatly impressed by the talent that the Princess had shown in swordsmanship, he responded, “Princess, we will continue this session tomorrow, not only do you have royal duties to accomplish now that you have seemingly recovered, but I will also be needed, we are already late to the official meeting unless you do not desire to attend, of course.”

Upon hearing Sir Gregory she paused in understanding realising that they had been here for a long period of time, but upon the words ‘official meeting’, she couldn’t help but ask, “Official meeting? What is that?”

Sir Gregory froze a bit, but then he felt instantaneous dawn of realisation and then a hint of sympathy after realising the Princesses plight in the past year, and said, “Oh yes, the official meeting was just introduced only a bit before you were hit heavily with your illness, of course, it was insignificant knowledge compared to your health, so the Princess would have likely not have heard of it.”

Talia nodded in agreement at Sir Gregory’s words, as the guy had already given her an explainable excuse for not having such knowledge, so the situation of explaining her lack of memories was already solved before she needed to do anything, so she continued to let Sir Gregory speak about the so-called ‘official meeting’.

Describing it further, Sir Gregory said, “I’ll explain it quickly for you then, it is a coalition of the people primarily involved in running the Kingdom since the condition of not only your illness, but age have ruled you to unintelligible to run the Kingdom until your come of age ceremony, which was ruled to be your eighteenth birthday as the coalition had moved this date up as they felt that you are not ‘mature’ enough to accept the throne at such a young age. Instead of the regent, Governor Eddard, had been ruling in your stead and his first form of business was to form a suitable council involving nobles who are involved in important management positions in the Kingdom, some have been replaced since his induction as regent, and the official meeting involving these parties have been held frequently, you were invited to attend, but as a result of your illness… you were unable to do, so the regent has been mainly running things in your stead.”

Hearing Talia’s explanation, she instantly knew what was going on, ‘So that is the so-called Governor then, I presume? I don’t know how he wiggled his way into becoming my ‘regent’ anyhow as shown by the lack of sympathy from his son, he clearly didn’t care much about the former Princess very dearly, so how had he wormed himself into such a position in the Kingdom to the point he is actually running it. Could he be responsible for the poisoning of the Princess?”

That very thought sent a shudder down a spine, at the moment the Governor was definitely her primary suspect, not that she had many in the first place, as she didn’t particularly know yet the culprits who would have wanted the Princess dead apart from her current suspect, the Governor himself.

‘I guess I should go and see this so-called official meeting, I won’t reveal too much of my current health, but it would be a good thing to see the people behind the running of the Kingdom in my absence. It would be a great aid in discovering the people who are most likely responsible behind the poisoning of the Princess.’

Therefore, she replied, “Yes, I will like to attend alongside you Sir Gregory, I want to see how the Kingdom has been run in my stead.”

“Yes, Princess, I will take you to the meeting right away, it should have already started a while, ago but I’m sure they won’t mind your attendance.” Replied Sir Gregory before he began escorting her to the place of the official meeting.

They soon arrived at the entrance of presumably the location of the official meeting was being held, she could already hear the constant back and forth of voices from the room, indicating that a lively discussion was going on at the moment.

Taking in a breath, she knew that it was finally the time where she would meet the so-called Governor, just going by the actions of his son Edward, made her already have a bad impression of the man, never mind the fact that his actions definitely screamed suspicious, after all, who would most want the Princess dead, but the man who would definitely have the most to gain after her death?

Thus, steeling her resolve, she gestured to Sir Gregory that she was prepared to enter, and the two heavy-metal doors were immediately opened as she entered the room, now she was about to meet the men currently responsible for running the Kingdom in her stead.