Once again, Nero jumped at his opponent, aiming at the opening in the defenses, but his opponent once again made several movements and a sword hit him on the back.

Gasping for air, Nero raised his angry gaze at his opponent, Primus, who was now looking at him with a smile on his lips. There was no armor on his body, but a black Claus official’s uniform.

“Do you get it now?” asked Primus as gave his arm and helped Nero to stand up. “That’s why you shouldn’t underestimate the first set of movements of the imperial sword style. I know it’s hard to keep certain postures for too long, but you should already realize why it’s famous.”

“Defending sword. My sword couldn’t touch you, regardless of all my efforts and attempts. Now, I see why mastering this set of movements is important,” said Nero as he made a slight bow to the Primus.

“Good. The imperial sword style comprises three sets. You should master this one to the ideal degree because especially this one will save your life and help you escape death much more than others,” said Primus as he raised his sword and once again showed a familiar stance to Nero.

“Repeat,” said Primus as he started changing his posture, moving his legs and arms and even body, but slowly so that Nero could memorize it.

Such a scene continued several times, but soon, Nero was the only one who made such movements while Primus just kept watching.

“Relax your back. Your movements should be natural.”

“Left leg should be closer.”

“Keep your sword under a slight degree. You never know if you will need to block something.”

“Don’t lower your head, enemies won’t wait till you adjust your stance.”

Sometimes Primus approached Nero and changed his position with his own hands, showing him the difference.

He kept correcting and watching after each movement in the set until a few hours passed.

Big buds of sweat covered Nero’s forehead. The sun already approached the zenith, his arms and legs pained from fatigue while his instructor kept showing his mistakes.

“Fine, a bit more training and you will fall unconscious. That’s enough for today,” said Primus as he nodded and watched how fast Nero fell on the earth, gasping for air.

Such a scene made Primus only smile before he put away his wooden sword.

“It looks like Young Lady was faster than you to learn,” said Primus with the same smile as he sat near to Nero who focused his attention on his words. “Even though she was a real needle in the ass, it took her only one year to learn all three sets, consisting in the imperial sword style.”

“How hard is it to learn other sets compared to this one?” asked Nero after he recovered his breathing a bit.

“Much harder. Other sets demand physical power, a strong body, instincts, ideal mastery over the first set, and huge inner energy reserves. Your mother was a prodigy, but even she struggled with the Attack and Move sets,” said Primus as he patted Nero on his shoulder and stood up. “But you also have something she never had.”

“What?” asked Nero.

“Raging persistence and focus. Unlike she who could leave from training when her mood changed or when she felt strong exhaustion, you persist with the help of rage. Pain and agony don’t stop you. That’s good. If you keep this trait during your life, it will help you reach many highs in your martial path because the higher you climb, the more pain and agony will appear,” said Primus as he moved to leave. “Tomorrow is the day of the intense physical training. So, visit the herbal pool. Our alchemists will take care of your exhausted body.”

Following those words, Primus left the training ground, leaving Nero alone with his thoughts.

...

..

.

“Overall, you passed. Your knowledge meets the standard. Especially I liked that you have deep knowledge of herbalism and hunting craft, connected to the real experience. This shows that you are not a bookworm, and that’s good,” said Stein as soon as Nero’s silent gaze landed on him when he entered the class. “If other people with a limited experience in teaching were here, they would have called you genius, but I won’t do that. Even though you have good knowledge of your age, be it politics, history, or other spheres, but there is one common problem, especially if we talk about tactics, strategy, or scheming craft.”

Stein started unfolding a big map while he continued speaking.

“That’s a lack of experience, boy. You took your knowledge from old books. But, sometimes, reality changes too fast and information can become outdated. That’s why I will check your knowledge and provide a new one during our lessons. The first three subjects I chose are all inter-connected, both between each other and your survival. Certain mindsets for politics, history, and scheming craft are necessities. I won’t just make you learn new or old material, but make you look at it from a different angle. What do you think about that?” asked Stein as he raised his head and looked at Nero.

“I don’t mind,” said Nero.

“Good. Then, we will start with the material which a candidate must know. Neighbors, local hierarchy, kingdom hierarchy, and power balance,” said Stein with a slight smile while he took a big map and tied it to the board in front of the Nero.

A moment and a big, colorful map of the Griffon kingdom appeared in front of him.

The griffon kingdom on the map was enormous. There were mountains, plains, forests, rivers, lakes, and even deserts drown on the paper. Cities, harbors, and other structures were also there. But there were different colors in the different parts of the kingdom. Two were on the north, two in the center, one on the east, west, and south. Only one, colored as black, had a symbol of the crown while others didn’t. Just that alone could tell many things about the current situation.

This was the first time Nero saw such a detailed map of the kingdom and just couldn’t take his glance off the board, amazed by the number of cities, harbors forts, castles, and other objects there. This was the first time he realized how big this kingdom was.

Stein only widened his smile as he watched after Nero’s eyes.

“This is not the biggest map, boy. It’s only a central part of the former Empire, which stretched from the distant north to the distant south. That map was big, but this one is small and shallow compared to it,” said Stein as he threw a mocking glance at the board. “This map has seven different colors, showing zones of influence and interests while the imperial one had only one, the blue color.”

Stein’s words made Nero recover from his thoughts and once again focus on his instructor.

“Anyway, let’s talk about it later. It’s too early for you yet,” said Stein as he took a long wooden stick and pointed to the east part of the map.

“This is Wingville, the main city of Claus barony,” said Stein, pointing at the small dot close to the mountain range connected to the north. “There are many baronies, counties in the east. They all are de facto under the control of the Duke Gatsby of Avalon family.”

While Stein explained that, Nero compared his previous knowledge with the new one, looking for changes.

“The closest noble families to our barony are Melor family, county on the north, Atreides family, barony on the south, Tirel family, barony on the east, Hellman family, county on the west and Groan family, barony and the closest neighbor,” said Stein as he pointed at different areas and dots, showing their territories. “These are the all noble families who live here in the northern part of the east and control few passes towards northern and central parts of the kingdom.”

As soon as Stein finished, he took a seat and looked at Nero.

“I won’t waste my time telling you about their mottos, history, and glorious moments of the past. You must know that. I would better tell you about our current relations with them. I will start with the Atreides family - eagles of the swamps. This is a martial family. Each member gets unique battle education, including tactics and strategy. Many famous knights and heroes came from them. Though they are few in numbers and occupy swamp territories to the south from us, people following them also pass through the harsh training and martial education to support them. They are the true elite, one of the best in the east. Each warrior serving them is like one scout, three knights, and one archer serving other families, including ours. They have only one problem, the number of mages serving them. Our families are in friendly relations and we have an active trade. Many warriors in our families are battle comrades just like our Lords,” said Stein, watching after Nero, who long ago took a pen and paper and started writing his words.

His instructor approved of such behavior and continued further.

Thanks to his lecture, Nero learned that Groan, a newly founded merchant family with a mercenary force and an immense amount of money, was neutral towards them. Tirel family - a family of craftsmen and mountain terrain battle specialists were also neutral. While the biggest forces here, the Melor and Hellman family, both in terms of the military and resources, would have long ago captured Claus barony, in the center if not for the sky lizards and the secret conflict, happening among these two forces. The Hellman family formed a pact of loyalty with the Avalon family and got sudden support, which diminished Melor’s influence here. Overall, the helpful terrain with rivers at the boundaries and sky lizards, which had no opponents in the skies, allowed the Claus family to survive, surrounded by two strong neighbors.

“So, what do you think about our current condition?” asked Stein as he narrowed his eyes and focused on the pondered Nero.

“Unstable,” said Nero.

“Why?” asked Stein.

“Two hungry wolves surrounded the Claus family and look at us as their prey. On the battlefield, we could have chances thanks to the sky lizards, but the problem lays in the different area, in politics,” said Nero, watching how Stein widened his smile. “Those two families know about the lack of the heir in the Claus family. It a nice chance to find distant relatives of our current Lord and try to push him up, dealing with a stubborn baron for territories and resources.”

“You have a point, boy. But you forgot about a few other players on the board and their interests in the fall of the Claus family. Groan family wouldn’t mind getting unique rights for trade on our territory through which a merchant route to the north lays. The Atreides family needs more lands for farming and our south territories meet the standard. Duke’s force urgently needs more sky forces, substantial for the throne battle. Even Tirels have interest in the start of the local conflict to sell their weapon supplies and make gold on it,” said Stein as a weird smirk appeared on his lips. “You get it now? Our condition is not just unstable, but deadly.”

...

..

.

Bubbles kept coming from the bottom, keeping his face above the green liquid in which his body was right now. Laying there, inside the small pool, Nero felt it. All his bruises and huge fatigue slowly disappeared. His body healed, while energy and strength appeared in his muscles. Besides, it felt as if that liquid reached each part of his body, strengthening it. Nero never felt such huge delight before when constant muscle pain in his body, he got used to feeling, slowly disappeared.

When Nero finally left the pool, a wide, unconscious smile was on his lips because it was the first time in years when he felt no pain or fatigue in his fit body.

“We took two thousand merit points for the alchemic procedure,” said servant with an emotionless expression and gave him a note with a signature.

Nero already wanted to ask him about which merit points he was talking about when Clara appeared in front of him and took his arm and hurried to the exit.

“Clara, what are you doing?” asked Nero with clear confusion on his face while his maid just continued moving.

“Clara...”

“Young Master, you haven’t reaped all the good effects of that procedure. That’s why we are in a rush right now,” said Clara.

“Where?” asked Nero.

“To your meditation room, Young Master. Besides, the good, healing impact on your body, it is also possible to increase inner energy reserves if the person meditates right after the procedure at least for ten hours,” explained Clara.

“I see,” said Nero, increasing his pace. Thanks to his maid, he solved the puzzle and now wanted to use that chance to make at least one step towards his breakthrough.