“Hmm… what time is it?” As I mumbled to myself while still half-awake, I then realized I or, we actually, aren’t on earth anymore.

Even though my mind was a little bit scattered from waking up, I could still hear and see my surroundings clearly.

Eleanna from the looks of it has recently taken a bath because of the towel that was wrapped around her hair. She was sitting in a chair near the drawer, where all of our possessions are placed and from the looks of it, she’s playing with her phone and I am for sure she’s not browsing the internet, cause the last time I check, this is a medieval world.

Then after observing around our room, I heard a soothing melodious singing voice that came out of the bathroom, and I knew right away it was miss Marie’s voice. I kind of remembered that day when she was walking through the school’s hallway while singing a melodious song, I didn’t know what song it was, but it was soothing and ear-melting.

Lastly, what caught my eyes was the person beside me, Martyn, his face weirdly and thankfully was in a euphoric state, but I caught something funky in my nose, alcohol.

Bruh… miss Marie is going to kill you when she finds out.

Well with no point of being stuck here in the bed, I raised my half-awake legs and stood up as rigid as I could, stretching all of my body with full force so none would tense up on me.

“Mornin Art!” Eleanna greeted me while playing on her phone.

“Morning!” I greeted her back.

After that, I walked to the balcony where it was divided from the room by this giant see-through glass.

When I opened the door, I then felt that cold windy air, my body shrivels up due to that blast of cold wind right to my face and body, I closed back the door and was a little bit saddened because I couldn’t do my daily exercise.

But then I remembered, all my days are going to be my daily exercises.

I stepped back and went to the drawer to pick up my phone.

“Hey El, did you smell alcohol from Martyn?” Worrying that it was going to be a long awkward silent situation, I began the conversation with this.

“Yeah… and I think there was a tiny bit of vomit as well!” she continued. “Well, one thing for sure he’s gonna have a hard time with miss Marie! hehehe”

“Haha, yeah!” I laugh alongside her.

“If you guys are talking about Martyn, he’s not going to be in trouble, it was kind of my fault that I let him be that wasted…” Miss Marie from the bathroom suddenly clarified. “And secondly, can you guys wake him up? Breakfast is about to start!”

We went to the bed where Martyn was sleeping and when we were closer, he was still in that euphoric state, which, I was again, a little bit weirded out. But honestly seeing him like this for me, for us, it’s something that we are really glad of.

“So… how do we wake a drunk person?” Eleanna asked semi sarcastically.

“You could try, do what you did to Jake back then!” I suggested.

“Hmm…” she stopped and was thinking about it. “Yeah, it’ll probably work” She came around.

After that she went close to Martyn’s ear, as her soft pink lips were really close to that drunk fool, Eleanna muttered something to Martyn’s ear. I couldn’t really hear it, but whatever it is, it worked.

Hearing the whisper, Martyn recoiled upwards, where his eyes were that of someone who just seen something so shocking, like a guy who just saw a naked girl in front of him I would say and this is backed up by his face turning tomato red. Martyn then quickly looked at his crotch where the two of us can see it clearly.

“You Jaked me didn’t you!?!?” Martyn with an embarrassed face cried.

“Hehe…” Eleanna could only giggle after seeing Martyn’s embarrassed face and of course that massive wood.

After that, I realized that this was my one and only chance to know what Eleanna whispered to him.

“Hey Mar, I am kind of curious, what did she say to you exactly?” I didn’t beat around the bushes.

“It wa-” Martyn then suddenly stopped as if he was frozen by a glare from someone with a killing intent. “Yeah… if you want to know just ask her…”

I could only stand there and be annoyed at him because I will never know…

After Miss Marie finished her bath and breakfast was about to begin, me and Martyn quickly and hastily went to the bathroom and subsequently took the bath together. It was awkward but what else could we do?

With the four of us bathed and changed to our appropriate attire, a maid knocked at our door to escort the four of us to the dining hall. It was the fourth time this time and I have memorized the route quite well. From our room, we made our way to the stairs across the hall, going down the stairs that led us to the giant door that separated the dining hall and the hallway.

As the door was opened for our arrival, we could see the royal family eating their fine breakfast that was already prepared by their loyal cooks.

Because we four were their esteemed heroes and cause Martyn is the Lord Protector, we were seated near the royal family, the Maîtres too as well was seated near the royals, but us four were directly near them, like sharing a table near them.

We exchanged greetings to one another after the four of us were seated, but there was something odd going on with the princess. She did exchange greetings as majestically for a normal princess would be, but when she exchanged greetings with Martyn, I swear I saw a blush and a pause before she greeted him.

“Dude, what happened last night?” With a curious face and tone, I asked Martyn.

“Last Night?” Martyn said slowly and quietly with an irritated voice as he was still a bit queasy. “Ohh…. shit…” After searching the corners of his mind, he remembered what happened, though his face blushed tomato red, I think it’s not a PG-13 kind of memory, I hope.

“Dude, seriously… what happened?” Curious from his red face, I pushed on the subject, trying to get to the bottom of this.

“I remembered that I threw up near her…” He said with full embarrassment riddled in his face.

“No… that can’t be the reason, if you just threw up near her, she would regard it as awkward but not as an embarrassing moment.” I theorized as Martyn is still digging through his head again.

“Ohh wait…! I found out that her cursed eyes weren't actually cursed at all, it’s just heterochromia!” With a realizing tone he said that to me, but then his tomato red blush appeared again when he added. “And… I kinda…. praised her eyes, plus I made a dumb rant about ‘confronting her dad’ in my drunken tangent…”

I let out a little laugh, thinking it would be funny seeing him drunk in person. “So… you gonna confront the king?”

“Yes, no, yes, maybe?” he paused a bit. “I don’t know man… I already have too much on my plate with being a co-ruler and all, but calling a genetic mutation a curse does push my buttons in the wrong way… yeah, maybe if I have time…”

“Hehe, never knew you were the gallant damsel rescuer!” As I teased him his tomato red blushed turned dark grey, where an annoyed face followed suit.

With us already seated down, and about to dig in on our breakfast. The maids and the butlers brought our food to our table with haste and precision, subsequentially making the room environment more casual, as we were all there now.

Martyn after talking to me drifted back into a no-talking mood, after all his hangover was still strong, but he prevailed when he was engaged in a conversation by the Prince. Eleanna was as quiet as ever when eating, and miss Marie was enjoying her talk with the Queen, where I felt a sort of elegant radiance from every word that their mouth pushes out to the world.

I looked around while simultaneously eating the warm food on my plate, where I could see the Maîtres chatting and enjoying their food and drinks. I then spotted a particular unknown face at that table, a young boy, the same age as the prince from the looks of it, has a nice slick back style brown chestnut hair, slightly wide brown eyes, a good refined nose, and a thin lip.

He was seated near Margrave Ramon, the Maître of War. Both have a nice similar aura, even though the young boy is half Ramon’s size, maybe it’s his son… or maybe a nephew? I don’t really know but if I have a chance, it wouldn’t hurt to be friends with this boy.

As breakfast was over, the three of us went to our respective places. Martyn has some administrative and historical lessons to learn with the king, Eleanna this time was accompanied by miss Marie to the magic lessons, she was going to learn from the princess this time, while I went back to the courtyard with the prince and continued the reshaping of my body, one that fits for a swordsman.

This time it was a little bit hard because my sparing companion was the Commander of the Crown’s Armée, Sir Fionn mac Dùghlas.

I’ve heard a lot of stories about him, there was the story of how he killed a squad size of bandits in Tuath by himself, there was also the story about how he gained the commander’s rank. It’s only a rumor because the title, Commander of the Crown’s Armée, is an appointed one by the king himself.

But the rumor was really interesting as it said that the previous commander, wanted to choose his successor by a sword duel, the king of the time granted it, and when Sir Fionn volunteered, it said that he defeated his predecessor with just one swing. Some say that he was already tired from fighting many potential ‘successors’, some say Sir Fionn cheated, but whatever it is, his predecessor left him with a tear, a smile, and a laugh at the end of the duel.

“Wrong!” The prince yelled. “No, wrong position again Sir Arthur! You're exposing your head to the commander, make his sword clash with your sword as far away as possible from your head!”

As I heard the prince’s instruction, I followed it full-heartedly with every strength that I have. “Hiyaa!!” a grimace from my face was let out every time my sword clashed with the commander’s sword.

“Now you’re getting it!” The prince in a satisfied tone said.

With the sun over our head, we took a little break where while walking towards the nearest bench I took off that white blouse which was suffocating my sweaty body. One of the two maids who brought cold water for us three blushed a little as he saw my exposed top, I do have a muscular body in a sense, then that light red turned to a sort of velvet red all over her face when I doused some of the water in my cup to my body, haha… it’s kind of fun teasing girls.

Clothed back again, I was sitting on the courtyard bench, where I then saw three people coming into the courtyard, it was Martyn, Margrave Ramon, and that young boy again.

From the conversation I could hear, I think they were talking about something administrative and maybe a few military things. They were walking towards us where the commander stood and bowed a little to them when they were in the courtyard.

“Martyn!! I still want my rematch!!” The prince yelled as he realized that Martyn had appeared in the courtyard.

“Not now… I have another person to entertain first…” Martyn, who has subsided his hangover, said that to the prince.

“And who is this person?” With a demanding tone, the very person he asked came.

“That would be me, friend!” that young brown-headed boy appeared from the fray.

“Pere!” The Prince was caught off guard. “Aren’t you tired? It was a long journey to Londini you know!” The prince asked concernedly to his dear friend.

“I am… but I would like to know how our Lord Protector defeated our white prince!” He said with a slight smirk to the prince. His eyes locked to me where he gave a surprised face. “Ahh… sorry, where are my manners, my name is Pere d’Castellon, son of Ramon d’Castellon our Margrave of Sur, and the heir to all of his titles and lands!” he then reaches his hand to mine for a handshake.

“Pleasure to meet you! My name is Arthur Svard, one of the summoned heroes.” With pleasure, I grabbed his hand firmly and shook it gently.

“Ohhh wow! that’s actually one enfer of a grip Sir Arthur, you know what... I would like to spar with you first! I want to know if our prince’s lessons have taken root in you! That’s okay right Lord Protector?” He asked.

“Well… I am fine with it but use a wooden sword, he is a novice in swordsmanship after all!” Martyn said.

“Wait I don’t have a say in this?” I said with a confused face.

“Think of it as one of your training Art! Just with a different partner.” Martyn said.

“But after this, I of course still want to have that duel with you, Lord Protector!”

“Hmm…” He paused and took a breath, though in an annoyed manner. “Fine…”

After that me and Pere took the wooden sword that was laying on the counter, I wasn’t a fencer like Martyn but I’ve learned from the titular best swordsman in Albion for the past four days, well I hope I could at least stand for more than a minute.

We took up a combat-ready stand, two swords right in front of each other, touching and waiting for one of us to make the first move.

I made that first move with setting Pere’s sword aside, making a clear view for me to thrust the tip of my sword towards his chest, he parries it easily where he took the shock with ease while I was half struggling with the shock itself. Pere then swung his sword from the top where after I subside that shock, I raised my sword, not parrying, but blocking it.

Pere then pulled his sword back where he then plays it offensively.

Pere’s strike was devastating, though I still could block every strike he gave, I couldn’t give a counter to his attack because every clash to my sword always shocked my hand. It was stimulating for sure, but I was definitely stuck in a defensive move.

So… I changed it up by trying to dodge, as his sword was swinging downwards towards my head, who was still feeling that shock from the previous blow, mustered up the strength and the focus to dodge for that next attack.

I succeeded, where I could finally go on the offensive, but… this young boy was something else. He dashed towards me, with a quite weird hand placement he has on the sword, his left hand was still at the sword’s handle as usual, but his right hand was now gripping tight at the center of the wooden sword.

Pere then thrust his sword towards my belly, wherewith that one strike it felt more like a steel slamming towards my stomach, rather than a normal wood. I dropped my sword to the ground where I yielded defeat to Pere while holding my stomach, trying to ease it.

“I see that his royal highness has taught you well!” Pere said with a satisfied face.

“Well… he is the best swordsman…” I said semi sarcastically while still holding my stomach in my pain.

After that, I rested myself back on the courtyard bench watching the next duel between Martyn and Pere. It was the same as before, Martyn used his fencing stance and Pere used that previous stance against me.

It was silent like yesterday, where two of them only looked at each other calmly and are waiting for either of them to break the silence

The silence was broken by Pere with him launching himself towards Martyn, from that initial dash I could already see the outcome of the match, but before Martyn could do his elegant dodge he was surprised because, unlike the prince, Pere stopped mid dash.

I assumed that he knew the bait because the prince probably told him, so after that initial surprise Pere swung his sword from the bottom to the top trying to land a hit at Martyn’s chin. Martyn easily parry and counter back with a swift thrust towards Pere’s head where then it was parried by Pere.

Attack, parry, and counter were the only rhythm in this combat, and then I realized something, they were apart as long as the wooden sword.

Huh… no wonder they are in a stalemate, Last time I saw this kind of situation was when Martyn was facing Will, I wonder if he's going to use that move again…

As the attack, parry, and counter goes on, I finally saw Martyn use that move he used to use against Will.

That starts with him firstly keeping the stalemate going on for a while, to gather himself some strength, then he went on the defensive, dodging and parrying, no counter-attacks and no blocking, where finally his opening was laid out.

Pere wasn’t exhausted, but he was wavering, which Martyn took advantage of it as he launched that move. He thrust his sword towards Pere’s face wherein a split-second, he stopped and then made a feint, he then changed his attack with a downwards swing but... that again was a feint, Martyn went on with his attack and feint, where finally, he got what he wants from Pere’s state of mind.

A confused man who can’t read the opponent's moves and mind, with this he ended the duel with a strike to both of his hands, disarming Pere and making him drop the sword.

Well… that’s Martyn for him, no one ever did defeat him in training and even in tournaments, I still wonder… Why did he leave the fencing club?

“Ahh… it’s my loss then…” Defeated, Pere admits it genuinely though his face was more of an annoyed one giving a mixed feeling towards this defeat.

“Right… then I would like to finish my business here!” As Martyn dropped his sword, he then walked right towards me.

“Wait… I still want that rematch!” The prince yelled.

“You’ll get your rematch…” With an annoyed tone, he yelled back at the prince but was suddenly stopped because of how everyone suddenly as well stared at Martyn with shock, Martyn then realized it was probably sort of disrespectful. “…when I’ve finished my job, then maybe we could have that rematch…” A more respectful tone was let out, though I could still feel that annoyed aura Martyn is giving off and the prince must have felt that too because he agreed.

As Martyn stopped right in front of me, he then said that there was something important to discuss between me and Margrave Ramon. Without a thought, I went along with him where he then brought me to Margrave Ramon who was standing alone in the courtyard.

“I see that you have defeated my son with quite an elegant swordsmanship! I have to say, what a clean and wavy movement you have back there, Lord Protector…” With slight awe on his face, The Margrave praised him full-heartedly.

“Yes… thank you, but as I previously asked of you in the council room, will you, do it?” Martyn in a serious tone asked Ramon.

“Hmm…” The Margrave strokes his chin while looking at me while judging from the looks of his eyes. “Perhaps… though, I still need to hear from the horse’s mouth himself if he does have the potential!”

Martyn then gave a nod, where then the Margrave asked me some military questions, like what’s the purpose of an infantry? What’s best to counter heavy infantry? Which is better against cavalry? Spear or sword? And many more. I of course know the answers to all of this, but I was still confused at what all of this meant, then he asked about how I would defeat an army.

“Defeat an army… hmm… if it’s a grand battle where large armies are toe to toe with the same army composition, then the normal thing to do is to destroy the enemies’ cavalry where then I would use the infantry to attack head one against the enemies’ infantry. A full envelopment is what I prefer, so… the flanks should have more men where the infantry would slowly and surely push them forward, then if the cavalry has finished destroying the enemy’s cavalry or if it was a feint, then I would order to go back and attack the enemy’s infantry rear, making a full envelopment!” I answered.

“Hmm… then tell me what you would do if it’s not a large grand battle?” Ramon asked again as he stroked his chin

“Well… three words, defeat in detail. If the enemy’s army split up into many parts, let’s say…. into four, then I would pick them one by one, but the key to defeat in detail is speed. So… light infantry, skirmishers, and light cavalry are the main heroes in a battle like this because what must be inflicted upon the enemy is shock and disarray, which if you have a small army, you should make them route where it will be easy killing them one by one!” I answered again.

“Hmm…” he then stopped stroking his chin and faced Martyn with a satisfied face. “I can see that your friend here has the mind of a good tactician… I’ll see to it then Lord Protector! I will shape him more than just a tactician, he will be a great strategist too under my wing!”

“Great!” Martyn ecstatically replied.

“Wait… under your wing? So… all that military stuff you asked me about is just testing me?” I said in a surprised tone.

“Yes! And thanks to the Lord Protector here I have found another gem in the dirt!” he said cheerfully.

“Ohh… wow… well… I will study hard sir!” As a smile formed in my mouth, I enthusiastically answered.

“But… because the Lord Protector asked this as a favor, I would like for him to return the favor!” Ramon then gazed back towards Martyn.

“Of course, if it’s within the bounds of reason!” Martyn said.

“Well, I would like you to teach my son your way of swordsmanship!” Ramon asked.

“Hmm… it is within the bounds of reason, well… fine then, maybe after the paperwork and the noblelization have finished, then I would make some time to teach your son about fencing!”

After that, Martyn, Margrave Ramon, and Pere went back to the council room where they continued on discussing civil, administrative, and maybe some military matters. Me on the other hand continued training hard with the prince and Sir Fionn. But with a smile of disbelief this time, because… damn, I can’t believe my hobby is going to be used for something!

I should thank Martyn later, and man… I am really glad you’re my best friend.