Ch 2 - Altercation

It’s been four months since his entrance to the University and Irhamel is doing his usual training at the Military Arts training hall, moving without pause his twin practice swords at a speed that seems to be unnatural.

The other students around him are befuddled by the fact that a kid so young is training with the advanced course students.

Moving his right swing back to front from overhead at 2 millimeters per second and his left swing raising diagonally left to right from the below at the same speed.

Many of the other students can’t help but look at him with both disdain and amazement. Irhamel took about an hour to complete a set of swings, only to start all over again from a different angle and direction.

One of the students showing sincere curiosity asked the Sword Saint about Irhamel’s training.

“Teacher, what’s the training Irhamel is doing?”

“That’s a special highly advanced training from our sword style, is meant to have your muscles get used to the path of a swing perfectly; the goal is to have your body remember the position of the blade and carry the motion of the swing from wherever position it may be when you start it”

With clear confusion in their faces, the students attempted to imitate the movement to only give up a couple of seconds later, complaints of how Irhamel was either boasting or showing off were heard in three specific groups of students.

The prince of Vaesta was in one of these groups, not only unable to let go of the grudge from when they first met, the kid had already thwarted his plans of becoming the Sword Saint apprentice without even appearing in front of him, which drove him to hate Irhamel even more.

Another group was formed by a small number of high nobles of the Averenth Dynasty, they held neither a grudge nor hate towards Irhamel, but didn’t like the kid and decided to show it clearly since the first day.

Today Alleyn Marple, a somewhat good looking but cocky Military Artist from the Averenth Dynasty had decided to pick a fight with Irhamel; as the friends planned beforehand, he would wait until the kid was about to finish the third of those slow swings of his and cause trouble.

Mighel Blythe and Liam Tennesley, both also high nobles from the same place as Alleyn were in on it, the three of them have been together since their entrance ceremony five years ago and now being one year away from graduation, they didn’t want a kid showing off in their place, they believed that was their right.

Since Irhamel joined the training grounds, the classes were host to many outside visitors, many girls from all courses would take the time to come and stare at him, they would either skip class or use their free time to sit in the practices.

This didn’t help much to alleviate the animosity the male members in the training grounds felt towards Irhamel, but he cared not for it, in fact, he rather enjoyed it. Every now and then he would remove his shirt and expose his upper body for them to watch.

“But I must say, has anyone asked him about all those scars? How can someone so young, be so marked by combat? I’ve seen a lot of older Military Artists not as scarred as Irhamel”

“I doubt anyone has dared, but yeah I know what you mean, I’d love to ask him myself as I run my fingers over the scars”

After giggling some girls continued speaking as they kept watching him practice when one of them started teasing Lunet.

“Even Lunet comes every now and then to ogle at Sweet-hamel? Ehehe”

“Don’t tease her much or she’ll leave again Eloisa, most of us are here for that simple reason so let’s not fall prey to the teasing ourselves”

“You got that right sister, he is indeed a boy, but by the gods, how can a man be that hot and beautiful I do not know”

Lunet Rafferty, the girl that knows who he is visited every now and then when he trained and timidly stole glances at him, to leave fully embarrassed not long after when her face was just too red. Her friends tease her a lot yet she still comes again after some days have passed by.

‘So she came today again, it’s odd that she hasn't yet approached me. Let’s let her enjoy to her heart’s content than’ – Irhamel thought as he kept working on the final part of the third swing, which was then interrupted by a student who intentionally tripped him into falling down.

“Haha sorry kid, you were so slow that I thought you had fallen asleep”

“Hehehe yeah yeah, kids should behave like kids go to the basic training hall and work hard”

“We need the space to spar kid, either spar with us or leave, we haven’t seen you in action even once since you joined the class. Or is it that you are taking advantage of your father’s position to place yourself in a class you can’t handle eh?”

The mood was turning sour in the training hall, the girls were showing signs of worry and most of the male students were either amused or indifferent.

Clearly, the older boys wanted to fight him, so he turned towards his father, the Sword Saint and shot an odd question and hand gesture.

“Master I think it’s better if I just do it, so what’s the cap today?”

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From an upper room’s window in the training hall reserved for teachers and VIP’s a pair of red eyes were looking down on the training arena, the three boys had purposefully picked a fight with the son of the Sword Saint and he seemed to have taken the bait.

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head all the Sword Saint did was extend his right hand showing his 5 fingers.

“Irhamel, no magic today ok?”

‘Oh, fifty percent without magic. That’s quite the confidence you got there my old friend, telling your son to fight 3 guys limiting his strength by half’ – King Gervase who was in the VIP room thought while looking the scene unfold below.

At least half of the other Military Arts teachers were there too, looking at the same scene as the king, making different faces depending on whatever moods they were feeling.

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Nodding to his father’s words Irhamel slowly placed the two swords he had against the wall and went to get a set of training swords meant for sparring. The other three guys were getting ready and a fourth ran out in a hurry with a wicked grin on their face.

At another corner of the training arena, a new group of students was being formed, those who were leaving the area started talking among themselves.

“So it’s at last time for that kid to be humiliated, it seems my revenge will be carried out by a third party”

“So my Prince you will just let it go like that? Let the people from the Averenth Dynasty claim the first strike?”

“If they win why not, it isn’t like I got dibs on the first beating that prick would get, I’ll get my turn in time you will see.”

The gallery around the training area was beginning to be filled with students, be it the ones that were already there or new arrivals, Irhamel sat down in the arena waiting for his opponents to get ready.

Streams of people walked in to watch the fight. After about twenty minutes the three opponents were almost ready and started walking towards the center of the arena, indiscernible chitchat was happening everywhere, alongside the students some teachers made their way into the gallery as well.

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In front of where Lunet and many other girls were sitting stood the 2 Lathai Mages speaking to the Sword Saint.

“Is Irhamel going to be all right Sahiel? those 3 are fairly older than him”

Lathai Roesia asked Sahiel with a worried tone conveying what the timid girl behind them wanted to know, to which the Sword Saint only smiled and Sahiel replied.

“Don’t worry Ro, believe me when I tell you, my kid is strong, my only doubt is the limit Enatel put for his ‘Mana’, I think five percent is really going to make it really challenging for him”

Roesia body stiffened a bit and her brows twitched as she looked at Sahiel in surprise.

“Wait a minute; it wasn’t fifty but five percent? Is he really able to control his ‘Mana’ into the unit percentage range already? How harshly have you been teaching that kid?”

At hearing the explanation the shy girl stood up grasping her hands to her chest, looking at Irhamel with clear worry shown on her face. But the adults were not really paying attention to the happenings behind them as they talked.

“Harsh enough to be worthy of his position, remember he is ‘OUR’ apprentice, so his training has to reflect that, not just anybody can be my apprentice and at the same time my husband’s”

Roesia’s hair stood on end after hearing Sahiel’s explanation, she knew the boy was the apprentice of them both but to be trained this harshly to the extent where his body got so scarred?

Lunet couldn’t help but worry and wonder about Irhamel, her own cowardly personality hasn’t allowed her to talk to him. Since joining the University a little late from the normal entrance ceremony, he has been the focus of many rumors and stares, the main reason why Lunet found it hard to approach him openly and say hello.

Her group of friends knew how she felt and what she thought of the boy, and after meeting the fabled savior they could only agree with her and feel attracted to him.

Not only was Irhamel supposed to be strong but he was also the embodiment of handsomeness. He had a towering height of almost two meters, a slender full-toned, well-defined body.

His face was defined by fine lines making it look angelic; Inherited from his mother, those golden eyes were as if the sun itself was giving him some of its light.

Add to that his free, long straight silver hair like his father, the boy had caught the eyes of many if not all of the beauties of the University.

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Standing in front of a training dummy, he clenched the wooden sword with his right hand and channeled the ‘Mana’ into the weapon. Following what seemed to be a single swift and deft swing downwards, he nodded in satisfaction and started to turn around.

The sound of wood shattering and crashing caught the attention of everyone present. The training equipment lay in pieces on the ground, yet nobody could explain how a training sword would have the strength to silently slash through wood.

“When do we start this? Are you guys done with whatever preparations you were making?”

With a serious expression on his face, Irhamel questioned his opponents, who all wore incredulous expressions after they witnessed what just happened in front of them.

With a little stagger the three of them walked towards the center of the training arena, and nervously Alleyn asked Irhamel something.

“Yo...you, are you, aware kid, that we can’t use real swords here right?”

“But of course my senior, all I carry are normal training swords, yet I can still call upon my ‘Mana’ am I right?”

After showing a blunt training sword in each hand, Irhamel spoke as he looked at everyone around and stopped his gaze on his father; raising his brow confirming the question.

The Sword Saint simply nodded while closing his eyes in response, and with a single clap quieted everyone in the arena and ordered the training match to start.

“Now then boys show me what you are made of, fight fairly and have fun...if you can that is”