“Hey, Fuyuki, do you have time?” I said. Fuyuki and William was training outside the house, under a clear, breezy morning.

“Yeah, it’s my break,” she said as she panted. I saw her intense training with William when I came to ask her. William wasn’t kidding about her training.

“Are you okay?” I worryingly asked.

“Yeah,” she coughed shortly, prompting me to worry more about her. “William is strict when it comes to training but it’s nothing I can handle. What does my leader in need of me?” She broadly smiled, brighter than the sun above. Man, having a Fuyuki in your life sure gave a big boost in motivation.

“Of course, I know you can handle this! You’re Fuyuki, after all.” I tried my best to smile but somehow managed to screw it up. “I was wondering if this emblem looks familiar to you.” I discreetly showed her the emblem.

“Hmmm…” she stared fiercely at it. After a few seconds, she remembered and said, “Ah! That’s the Sangaa emblem!”

“The Sangaa emblem?”

“Yup,” she nodded a couple of times. “Just like in many kingdoms, there are prominent families in the kingdom of Ergaos. One of them is William’s family, the Borins. The other two are the Cristas and, the emblem you’re holding, the Sangaas.”

Huh…didn’t know there were things like that here. It should be obvious, though, that there were other elites and nobles in the same level as William.

Fuyuki then went closer to me. Specifically, her head move near to my left ear. I hoped she didn’t hear my heart because it beat so loud. Who in their right mind would do that? “Between you and me, there’s some bad blood between the Borins and Sangaas. I don’t know what happened but whenever their names come up in a conversation with William, he tends to change the topic a lot.”

I didn’t know if Fuyuki knew about our plans or not but what she just said was what I exactly needed. Did she read my mind?

“Well, I’ll keep that in —“Speak of the devil, William appeared.

Huh?

“Is there any problem?” William asked smilingly. For a second, his smile looked a bit...unfriendly. Weird.

“No problem here! Terrin was just asking what we we’re doing.” Fuyuki’s smiled wryly. Lying must be intensely difficult for her to be smiling like that.

William nodded. “Still, I didn’t know you were so close with each other. I apologize for disturbing.”

“You’re not disturbing anything! Terrin and I are just good friends!” Fuyuki quickly denied the accusations. I also quickly nodded to show him she was right.

“Is that so? Well, breaks over. Let’s continue training.” William turned around and started walking away.

“Is it just me, or did William looked different just now?” I asked Fuyuki.

She tilted her head and said, “What do you mean? He’s still the same as usual.”

Must be my imagination.

“Never mind. Good luck with your training! I’ll see you later.”

“You bet! See you later!”

*

I was on my way upstairs to the library to tell Risa about what Fuyuki had told me when I heard someone call me.

“Hey, Terrin! Look at what I found!” the voice came from Takana. With a heavy sigh, I grudgingly turned around to look. Along with Kihana, I saw two familiar faces.

“Hello, Terrin.”

“Terrin!”

I did a double take as Fiss and Elird called me. “Elird and Fiss?”

“Yeah, we found these two kids when we visited the Guild.” Takana said.

“What do you mean kids? We’re almost the same age!” Elird rebutted. Looking at Elird looked as if I was looking at Takana. Though, Elird acted more civilized than Takana. Must be because of his noble birth.

“I consider anyone younger than me a kid.”

“Please don’t fight, we already had enough of that at the Guild…”

“Same goes to you, Elird.”

The women chided the men. What was this? Some kind of couples gathering? And I wasn’t surprised by the fact that Takana created trouble at the Guild.

I started asking proper questions. “What are you guys doing here? I thought your families still have business elsewhere.”

“Some business deals went wrong, some went surprisingly fast and now we're here.” Fiss replied.

“Never mind that!” Elird butted in. “I didn’t know you know someone from the Borin!”

“Believe me, I had the same reaction when we got here.” I scoffed, thinking about what had happened when I came here.

“Yeah, the place is nice but the owner’s dumb.” Takana scorned. If Feim was here, he’d probably be crying right now.

“You mean the Archduke? You know if he heard that, you can get the death sentence, right?”

“He can try. I’m not scared of him,” Takana puffed out his chest with a smug look on his face.

I ignored Takana and asked Fiss. “Well, good to hear you guys are safe.”

“Thank you very much for your concern,” Fiss slightly lowered her head. She was such a polite and kind girl. “Aren’t you going to ask them about something, Elird?”

As if on cue, Elird’s eyes broadened. “Oh yeah!” he looked at me first then looked at Takana and repeatedly did it. Afterwards, his face displayed troubled.

“Dude, what’s wrong with you? Your neck’s broken or something?” Takana irritatingly said.

“He’s most likely shy,” Fiss added.

“I’m not shy! Just confused,”

“What are you confused about?” I asked.

“Well,” Elird started. “I wanted to join the Wanderers Guild but I’m wondering if I should take the High Warrior or the Swordsman class.”

Elird said before he wanted to leave the merchant life and start anew. Guess he wanted to become a Wanderer, which, to be honest, might be a wrong move but if that was what he wanted, I wouldn’t stop him.

Takana slowly walked over to Elird with his head low. He raised his head, put both his hands on Elird’s shoulders and shouted, “Take my class! What are heck you thinking!? Swordsman is useless! A true man defends and fights on the front! They fight the enemy head-on, with courage in their hearts and strength in their hands!”

What the heck happened? Takana just became one of those people who spouted nonsense.

“Uh…” Clearly, Elird looked distress. “But aren’t they the same?”

Takana breathed deeply, his nostrils flared and aggressively said, “They are not! A High Warrior is much, much stronger than a Swordsman. The only thing they’re good at is they’re fast!”

Takana became too much invested in this, so I pulled him back and calmed him down. Did he really love his class that much?

“Ignore him. But most of what he said, while annoying, is true. If you want to know more about Swordsman, you can ask Merry.”

“Oh yeah,” Elird and Fiss looked around. “Where are Merry and the others?”

“Merry is still training at her Association while I think Fuyuki is training with William,” Kihana replied.

“Risa’s upstairs at the library,” I nonchalantly added. “You can stay in the living room for now. Merry should be coming home soon.”

“Is it okay for us to do that? We have met the head butler but it seems he was troubled for us being here.”

“Don’t mind about that,” Takana surprisingly assured them. “You got my permission. I won’t bring troublemakers in this house even if I hate the owner. Also, Fuyuki’s really spoiled by William, so I’m sure he would allow you both here. Though I think you have to at least meet him, you know, to greet him.”

I took a glanced at Kihana and saw her surprised face as well but she smiled immediately after. I guess even Takana showed his maturity at times.

“We’ll gladly meet him,” Fiss answered.

We walked to where Fuyuki and William were. Elird and Fiss looked amazed about the place. They’d said before that even though they were merchants, in the eyes of a noble, they weren’t different from a commoner.

When we reached our destination, Fiss and Elird were a bit baffled by what Fuyuki and WIilliam were doing.

Fuyuki and William sat on the mellow field. Immersed in a state of stillness, magic bloomed in their hands. Harim on William and Sal on Fuyuki, though the contrast of powers between the two were as palpable as the clear sky above them.

“What are they —“The moment Elird spoke, William’s Harim grew brighter and fiercer on his hand. His eyes opened with a threatening glare on his face. I involuntary gulped as I watched William turn into a monster in front of me. Did Risa face him like this? No, she must have seen something more sinister. A whole new deadly William.

Simultaneously, Fuyuki’s Sal shattered into pieces and disappeared as she slowly opened her eyes. Fatigue could be seen in her face as she panted but that all changed when she saw us.

“Whoa—“Just as she said her first word, she immediately blocked her mouth with her hands. She then took a glance at William, whose face was still the same. William took a deep breath to calm down and proceeded to greet us.

“Is there something you need me of?” Though he sounded polite, we knew he was peeved.

I cleared my throat and said, “We’re just here to let you know about the visitors today. This is our friends, Elird and Fiss.”

“It’s our greatest pleasure to meet you, Lord William.” Both of them respectfully bowed. “We apologized for the sudden intrusion and for not preparing gifts for we did not expect to be brought here.”

William nodded and acknowledged their greetings. “I must apologize for my earlier demeanor. I take our training session seriously and looked down upon those who disturb us.”

“It’s our fault. We shouldn’t have disturbed you.” I said.

“It’s not like we caused any damage.” Takana quietly added. Did William scared him? That was a bit too quiet for Takana.

“So,” Fuyuki started. “What are you guys doing here!?” she hugged Fiss and smiled towards Elird.

“We’re here to join the Wilden Tournament, remember?” Elird answered.

“Oh, it’s that time of the year again?” William seemed to remember something. “Lindwal.”

Out of nowhere, Lindwal appeared besides William. How did he do that?

“Yes, Young Master?”

“Do we have any representative to the Wilden Tournament?”

“I’m afraid not, Young Master. Would you like to appoint one?”

“Hmmm…” William’s stood there looking troubled. “Have the Sangaas appointed one?”

“I believe so. It’s the coming of age Galbero.”

William sighed heavily and said “With how lively the house became, I forgot about this event. Well, do you have anyone in mind?”

“Galbero is the same age as Takana. In terms of fighting capabilities, I would say they are both standing on common grounds.”

“Hey!” Takana suddenly shouted. “What are you talking about?”

They explained what the Wilden Tournament was all about.

The Wilden Tournament was part of the Moorn festival. The Moorn festival was one of the three festivals Ergaos celebrated. This festival was the most prominent out of the three for it celebrated the birth of the Kingdom.

Though the King wasn’t present, the Queen would be the one to overseer the festival. There would be many events at the festival but one of the most attracted was the Wilden Tournament.

The Wilden Tournament started as a gift from the first king of Ergaos by his loyal companions, namely, the three most prominent families in Ergaos. The Tournament would be often watched by both the aristocracy and commoners, one of the activities where social hierarchy wasn’t implemented. Occasionally, the aristocracy would select one from the contestants to be trained under them and to be used for other purposes. This was one of the reasons why the Wilden Tournament was popular. Not only that, there were no age restriction both to the viewers and participant. Truly, an activity everyone could indulge.

There were three brackets: Rookie, Fighter, and Champion. Rookie bracket was those beginners who wanted a chance to be in the spotlight.

Fighter bracket was amongst the strongest within those who were not affiliated with the elites. Often, the recruiting were watched and analyzed in this bracket.

Champion bracket was where the “real” entertainment begins. Only the aristocracy could participate here. The price in this bracket was insignificant compared to the fact that the winner would have their family or representative’s name be glorified for winning the tournament.

Fuyuki looked at Takana for a good minute and then looked at William. “Are you really going to place your household’s name on Takana!?”

“Hey!” Takana shouted. “I can handle anyone they throw at me!”

“The only person you have to defeat is the Sangaa’s representative,” William said in a serious tone.

“Wow, you must really hate them, huh?” Takana poked.

“Hate is an understatement,” William corrected as he smiled. Wow. He didn’t even hide his hatred for them. Good, I needed a first-hand proof. “Anyway, if it’s not to your liking Takana, we can find another person. Just when I’m enjoying myself…”

“Yeah, I don’t want to join. I like seeing you struggle, you know? And I’m pretty sure whoever you’re going to pick is going to lose.” Takana mockingly laughed his heart out. It was really a good thing William had a lot of patience in him. Though, it seemed like Lindwal, as a loyal servant, didn’t like his master being insulted.

“If it wouldn’t be too much, I can volunteer.” Behind of me, I heard Merry’s voice. I turned around and see her in her casual clothes with her hair tied up.

“Oh, Merry?” William mused. “I’m afraid that wouldn’t do. The tournament has strict rules about the tournament being pure humans only… if that was the case, I would have already sent Feim to deal with them.”

“Is that so…” Merry lowered her head down. Damn, this half-breed bullshit getting in the way again.

“Well, I think you can take Terrin.” Fuyuki suddenly suggested.

“Me?” I said as if there was another person named Terrin here.

“Yeah!” Fuyuki faced William. “Terrin is really good at fighting. He even beat a Mother Slane by himself! I vouch for him even if it cost me my life!”

Wow, that was some heavy commitment coming from Fuyuki. I didn’t even trust myself with my own life.

“You must be quite the fighter to defeat a Mother Slane by yourself,” William judged me with his azure eyes. “Would you consider representing my house?”

Everyone looked at me, waiting for my answer. I stood there motionless yet my mind raced around looking for an answer. Reason flooded my mind but only one of them came out of the top.

Man, I did not expect this at all today.