“Get these people out of my sight right now!” The sandy haired man wearing full plate armour roared indignantly.
Even the guards were surprised by his outburst and hesitated, unsure of what they should do.
I huffed at him, “What did we do to you?!”
He actually rolled his eyes, “Please. Are you telling me that a pair of no name Mercenaries managed to take down fifteen Wrunches on their own? I would have an easier time believing it if it was a pair of Magridars instead!”
Wow, discrimination much? I thought it was normal in this World not to judge someone’s strength by their looks? Maybe this guy is just special.
I turned to Lisa and I could see that she was visibly upset about the situation but she did not protest against him and instead, merely looked down at her hands in defeat. This was completely different from her usual self.
Something tells me that this was not the first time she had experienced something like this.
The knight then stopped in front of Lisa, “Especially this lying little bitch. Do you think I’ve forgotten you? Especially when I was the one who had to deal with you?”
Lisa shivered but did not answer.
Seeing her like that, I quickly stepped in front of her and glared at the knight, “Leave her out of this. She’s my client. I was the one who defeated the bandits.”
He looked me up and down before taking a step back, “Young lady, do you even know who your… ‘Client’ is?”
“She’s an alchemist who hired me to escort her and that’s all I need to know.”
“Hmph… If only you knew… Forget it, are you seriously telling me that you managed to clear out an entire bandit group by yourself?”
“Would you believe me if I said yes?”
His gaze shifted to my tail before shifting back to me, “So a solo Meslatar took on more than ten Wrunch bandits and you didn’t even get a scratch… Let me see your Guild card.”
Ugh… I’m betting that he’s going to make a fuss about my rank being low and therefore it’s impossible that I actually managed to do it. At least it doesn’t show my family name which I found out a while ago that you could actually have the Guild change how much information to display on it.
I could even hide my age if I wanted to but I decided to just leave it there.
Nevertheless, I fished out my card and handed it over to him.
He inspected it and his brows immediately furrowed when he saw what was on the card.
“Miss Aster… F rank Mercenary and E rank Dungeoneer… You’re twelve years old this year… And here I thought I’d seen it all…”
He handed the card back to me and walked away.
Eh? What? Huh?
Where is he going? He didn’t even question me about it? What’s going on?
The knight then quickly returned and threw me something which I caught out of reflex.
“Oh? Nice reflexes I suppose, I guess there might be some credibility to your story,” He praised, albeit a little condescendingly.
I inspected the object in my hands and I found it to be a wooden training sword. I gave that knight an incredulous look, wondering why he would give me something like this?
The knight nodded at me, “Let us have a quick spar, I will be the judge of your skills and if you did subdue this lot of bandits, then you should at least be able to match up to me.”
I squinted my eyes at him.
<strong>[Name: Victor Farel</strong>
<strong>Title: Knight Lieutenant</strong>
<strong>Race: Mahun</strong>
<strong>Stats:</strong>
<strong>632 Strength</strong>
<strong>520 Dexterity</strong>
<strong>450 Endurance</strong>
<strong>110 Magic</strong>
<strong>Skills:</strong>
<strong>Leadership (Tier 2), Tutor (Tier 2), Martial Skill-(Sword Proficiency (Tier 3), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 2), Greatsword Proficiency (Tier 2))</strong>
<strong>Magic Skills:</strong>
<strong>Lumenmancy (Tier 2), Iatromancy (Tier 2)]</strong>
Duuuuuude… Those are the highest stats on a Mahun I have ever seen!
I guess the attitude he has is also partly due to this where he believes his strength is able to carry him through any predicaments? Or he’s like that all the time?
But that also means I’m in a little bit of a pickle…
His overall stats were already higher than mine and he even challenged me to a sword duel in which he was better in proficiency as well.
No, no… I need to remember the time when Ardi managed to beat me even though my stats were higher than hers because she had… More experience… Than I did…
Yeah… I’m fucked.
Wait! I can use my silent casting to use my Electromancy to strengthen myself! Yeah! No one would even know I’m using it because I wouldn’t be chanting!
Meh, even if they did, he never said the use of magic was not allowed anyway.
I gave the sword a few practice swings, testing its weight and familiarising myself with it before turning back to the knight.
He nodded at me, “I am Victor of house Farel! Lieutenant of Crown Capital City’s knights! I hereby challenge the Mercenary Aster to a formal spar as a test of her abilities to prove her worth!”
That sounds very grandiose… What should I say? Whatever, I’m just gonna wing it.
“I am Mercenary Aster and I accept Victor of house Farel’s challenge!”
I must have said it correctly since Victor nodded in acknowledgement and took a stance with his own wooden sword.
The two of us watched each other closely as we began circling each other, a small crowd forming to watch the spar.
One of my advantages is the fact that he was wearing full plate armour which should weigh him down and the point of this spar was not to try and kill each other but just for him to test my skills.
The other benefit I had was of course, the fact that I could cast my spells without chanting so he wouldn’t even know I was casting something before I casted it. I’m going to limit myself to the body enhancing magic from Electromancy for now and see how it goes.
In the end, I was the one who made the first move as I charged towards him, feinting a stab towards his chest.
He didn’t react to it and only moved when I pulled back to attempt a slash towards his side, his sword parrying my blow with the side of his blade.
He attempted to rotate his wrist in a disarming manoeuvre so I pulled back my weapon before he could.
Victor’s other hand came up in an attempt to punch me but I managed to bend backwards to avoid it before leaping back to make some distance between us.
Both of us took a moment to recover again before Victor closed the distance between us, slashing his sword in a wide arc towards my head.
I recognised it as a feint and tried another stab towards his torso but the knight managed to sidestep it at the last second. He then turned his feint into an actual attack by altering the course of his swing slightly to bring it down towards my neck.
I had to drop onto my back and roll away to avoid it, letting his attack smash against the ground.
The knight tried to pursue me with an overhead slash aimed at my shoulder and I reflexively brought my sword in an attempt to block it.
I immediately regretted my decision as an immense weight pressed down on me, making me wonder what exactly the sword was made out of to not break even with this amount of pressure.
He tried to push down even more of his weight on me and I quickly casted [Lightning Clad] on my arm and forced him back.
He was obviously surprised by my sudden increase in strength and took a step back, only to return with a wide sweep aimed at my side.
With my spell still in effect, I swung my sword to parry it and our two wooden blades met in the centre of the clash.
There was a loud crack as both of our blades shattered into pieces at the hilt, wooden splinters flying away in every direction.
Both of us just stared at each other’s broken blades for a moment before looking at each other.
The people watching us started to clap and I could see coins exchanging hands as well before the crowd gradually dispersed.
He tossed his broken sword away, “You are the second person to ever break my training sword in a spar, young lady, the first being the captain of the Knights. I’m assuming you only just recently joined the Guild?”
I shrugged, “You could say that. I just haven’t been really active since I’m preparing for school soon.”
“Ah yes, you are reaching that age after all. I understand. In the future, if you find yourself in a position where you have no work, you can come to the knights, I will help you get a place here. Please accept my apologies for my earlier misconduct.”
Oh wow, he actually apologised? Also, is he recruiting me? I don’t have an interest in becoming a knight though but I guess turning him down right now would be in bad taste.
I gave him a curt nod, “I will keep your offer in mind.”
He then directed his gaze towards Lisa, “As for that woman… I suppose I shouldn’t tell who others should associate themselves with but do watch your back when you’re with her, that is all that I will say.”
I’m not sure how to feel about that now, especially when even Mother said something about her background being rather complicated too.
Victor then gestured to the bandits, “Give me a minute and I’ll check their status. If they have a bounty on them I’ll prepare the money in a bit. Thank you for your service in handling them.”
He then went off towards the wagon to inspect the bandits, leaving me alone.
Huh… He’s actually quite a decent guy… But why did he have that outburst earlier? Because of Lisa? Were they a couple or something and he got dumped?
“Aster…” A small voice squeaked behind me.
I turned around to see Lisa looking up at me with sparkly eyes.
“Please marry meeeee!”
Not again… Umm… Calm down Lisa…
