Walking into the Tipsy Dragon, Daniel and I sat down at one of the tables closest to the back. We watched as the third year Lucle Fou Dean gave a short speech welcoming us first years to the school. As he wrapped up his speech, the boys broke off into smaller groups, drinking and getting to know each other. The boys from our allied families, or Ironblood families as they had started calling themselves, came to our table to greet me.
"Hey commander, didn't expect to see you here." Said George Fou Weyland, a muscular blonde-haired boy whose family was one of the first to join us. His comment made a few of the other boys in the room stop what they were doing, and start to listen in on us.
I smiled back at him. "Due to my rank I shouldn't have been invited, but Daniel asked our senior, Ralph, if a friend could come. He agreed, and now here I am."
Jason Fou Lamar, a smaller boy with brown hair started to lightly chuckle. "I bet senior Ralph just about had a panic attack when he realized that Daniel's friend was THE Ironblood Commander."
For a moment, the room went silent save for the sound of Jason laughter before exploding into excitement! Boys from all around the room came rushing to our table like a tidal wave. I was bombarded by dozens of questions at once, everything from, "are you really THE Ironblood Commander," to "is it true that you've defeated more than twenty enemy knights in combat," to even one, "are you single because I've got a really cute sister."
I held up hand try and calm the crowd. "Please, I'm only one person."
Most of the boys looked a bit embarrassed for their behavior. I lightly chuckled to help lower the tension. "Anyway, yes I am the commander of the Ironblood Legion, Leon Fou Bartfort, but Leon is fine."
Most of the lads had stars in their eyes, while those from the Ironblood families looked smug for already being acquainted with, and some even have served with, me. I decided to put on a bit of an act.
I turned to Lucle who was the group's unofficial leader, for now, with a troubled expression. "My apologies. If I had known that my presence would bring such troubles, I would've turned down the invitation."
Lucle waved of my apology while smiling. "Don't worry about it, besides after all you've done for us frontier nobles, it's truly an honor to have you here."
I gave him a small smile. "I see, well I thank you all for having me. The fact remains that I did cause trouble for you, so as an apology I'll cover the costs for this event." I said while taking out a bag of gold coins worth twenty-three thousand dia.
The eyes of Lucle and several older boys went wide at the sight. "No, no, there's no need for that. Right guys?!" He said while looking around.
"Please I insist. It's the least I could do."
I looked Lucle in the eye with a unwavering look. He sighed before smiled back at me.
"Well if you put it like that I guess all I can say is thank you." He was about to give me a bow, but I offered my hand instead. The lads all looked at me with eyes brimming with admiration. With just a few gold coins and a firm handshake, I established a loyal faction within the academy.
---
The Next Day
After the success of yesterday recruitment driv...I mean welcoming party, I decided to reward myself by sleeping in until 0700 hours. Luxion woke me up with his signature electric shock attack, it was super effective.
After getting dressed, I realized that the entrance ceremony wasn't scheduled until the afternoon, so I decided to check out the academy's training grounds.
Upon my arrival, I realized that they were completely saved for one other person, Chris Fia Arclight. I wasn't to surprised to see him here since being a Swordsman was literally his whole schtick.
Watching him go through a series of katas, I realized that although he had mastered his stances, he had almost no combat experience. His moves were perfect, but were far to rigid to be of much help should he fight against an opponent who didn't fight in an orthodox way.
As he continued to practice a three strike chain, he began to speak. "If you aren't here to better yourself, than I suggest you leave."
Tch, what an asshole.
I looked at him while crossing my arms. "The grounds are open to all students of the academy, regardless of their intention."
He continued to focus on his katas, though I did see his eyes narrow every so slightly. "That may be true, but this is a place of self-improvement. If you are going to loiter, do it somewhere else "
I quirked my eyebrow. "It might for improvement, but it seems you should be telling yourself that. Your strikes are made with excellent precision, yet your stance remains as rigid as the training sword you wield."
His head snapped to me with a glare that would intimidate most students at the academy. He looked me up and down before scoffing. "And what would you know about swordsmanship? Do not presume lecture me. I have given my life to walking the path of the blade, my sword is but an extension of myself."
I shrugged. "First, you were the one lecturing, not me. Second, I can tell you spent considerably time honing yourself, but I can also tell you don't have much experience in actual combat."
His eye twitched in irritation. "I have fought opponents many times more skilled than yourself, so your words hold little value to me."
I started walking over to the weapon rack. "If your referring to your father, than yes you have fought an opponent more skilled than me, but so have I." I picked up a wooden bastard sword from the rack. I do a few test swings before walking over to face Chris, my sword at the ready.
"Ready when you are."
---
POV Chris
I glared at the oversized fool in front of me, ready to strike. "Then let us get this over with." With that I surged forward, my blade ready to educate this pretend swordsman.
I feigned an overhead swing only to make a piercing attack against his chest. To my surprise, he calmly parried the strike to the left before swinging his sword towards my throat! I dashed to his right and slashed at his side, only for him block the attack with a surprising level of speed.
Undeterred, I flowed into my next attack with unmatched precision. He dodged the attack, only to launch his own slash. The slash was far more precise than what I expected of the brute. I began to wonder if he perhaps does have some understanding of the sword. I blocked it just as as I would with any other strike, but that proved to be a mistake. The force of the blow was like being hit with a mountain, it blew me back a meter. My first thought that he was using reinforcement magic, but I would have immediately noticed the distinctive magic circles form around his arms, meaning that he attacked with pure physical strength. The thought of a normal student being that strong seemed impossible, yet no other solution was present.
My opponent rushed forward, his sword raised for an overhead strike. His strike came down too fast to parry, leaving me to hastily move to my right. I prepared to strike, only for me sword to be knocked out of my hands by a strike from below, followed by a slash that stopped just before my throat.
I was trying to comprehend what happened when my opponent decided to speak. "And that's one for me."
I looked down at my arms, still trembling from his monstrous swings. "I can't believe it. I trained longer than anyone, practiced harder, yet I still lost." My heart was filled with frustration, shame, and sorrow.
"Yes you did, but do you now understand what I meant?"
I looked up at him in confusion. He sighed before walking towards my training sword. "Your strikes are precise and well honed, but you're far too rigid. You use practiced combos to overwhelm your opponent, but are left floundering when your opponent is able to counter them."
Thinking on his words, I started to understand his words. I'm not used to having others able to interrupt my strikes, except my father. Maybe this is what my father had been trying to teach me all along? "I see your point; however, I am unsure how to rectify my mistakes."
He chuckled as he picked up my training sword. "Simple." He threw the sword to me. "We go again."
As I readied my sword, I felt a rare smile cross my face.
---
POV Leon
Again and again we exchanged blows. With each loss, I noticed Chris improving but by bit. I threw various challenges his way, from wielding my sword with one hand, to using dirt to disrupt his vision, to using the crossguard to hook him. With ever loss he suffered he began to adapt to the shifting fighting styles I used, but all good things had to end.
After three hours of sparring, we finally called it quits. Chris left for the locker room to clean up for the entrance ceremony, while I went directly towards the ceremony.
I was going through reports on my company device when I entered the auditorium. The hall was large enough to host nearly three thousand individuals in comfort, with cool air being generated by enchantments engraved into the walls. Despite its sizeable capacity, the entire students body would barely take up a third of the space. We freshmen on the other hand, took up a maybe a tenth of the available seating.
Looking around the assembled students, I saw Daniel wave at me. As I took my seat that the boys saved for me, I nodded to Daniel. "Thanks."
Daniel smiled. "No problem comm-I mean Leon."
"Wake me when it's over." I said as I popped in my earbuds that Luxion made for me.
He chuckled in response. "Sure thing."
Scrolling through my song list, I picked one of my favorites.
I've been seeing things for how they really been-
And can see it in your eyes, and still you call yourself my friend-
And you've been holding out again-
I've been hoping that you wouldn't be the one-
Normally I should've never been able to listen to this song again, but Luxion was able to connect with my UNSC neural implant, allowing him to access my memories. While some details were foggy, Luxion was able to gather enough information to recreate the original songs, I'll be it with some small discrepancies.
I closed my eyes, and relaxed while immersing myself in the music. I awoke sometime later to Daniel tapping on my arm. Turns out I had fallen asleep sometime after the second song.
That's why we won't back go, we will run and hide-
Yeah 'cause these are the things that we can't deny-
I'm passing over you like a satellite-
So catch me if I fall-
Taking out an earbud, I turned to Daniel. "Is it over?"
He shook his head before giving me a sheepish look. "No, but the crown prince is taking the stage. I thought you might want to hear what he has to say."
I shrugged. "I suppose, thanks for the consideration."
"Yeah. No problem." He said with a nod.
The prince's speech was the typical flowery speech you'd expect from an otome game prince. The school is a place of learning, we should all get along, and titles are meaningless here. A nice speech if it all wasn't a crock of shit. Prince Julius will spend all his time here flirting with a washboard, he'll alienate and unreasonably berate his fiance, and he'll casually fling his title around to get his way. Good thing the hypocrite will never ascend the throne, I'll see to that myself.
By the time Julius walked the stage, I had already stopped paying any attention to him. I instead started looking around for the other reincarnator in the school. I found her sitting below me far to my right. Her crazy long golden hair was easy to spot from across the auditorium. The girl was not even five feet tall, yet her hair went below her knees. How the hell does she even sit down with that shit! I put those thoughts away...for now. I alerted Luxion through my implant, marking her for surveillance.
"So she is the one who will attempt to take the protagonist's place in the world, interesting. I am eager to confirm whether or not she also carries the blood of old man kind."
With us watching her every move, Marie will be my greatest helper, even if she doesn't know it yet.
When Julius finally walked off the stage, the dean gave his parting words before dismissing us for the day. Rather than fighting our way through the crowd, the boys and I waited for other students to stream out before getting up and leaving.
As we headed towards the men's dorm, we were intercepted by a pretty brunette who I didn't recognize, though I'm sure spymaster Luxion knew who she was.
"Excuse me." She said in a much more polite tone than most girls here at the academy.
The other boys looked at each other nervously, before looking to me for directions. The act was enduring, but these guys really needed to stop looking so nervous all the time, some of you have hunted down bloodthirsty pirates with me dammit!
"Hello there. Is there something you need from us?" I said with a relaxed tone.
She looked at my with slightly reddened cheeks, it seems body tune-up did it's job well. She curtsied before meeting my gaze. "Yes viscount Bartfort. My lady extends her invitation to you."
The other boys went slack-jawed before breaking into frenzied conversation.
"Seriously?"
"It hasn't even been a day!"
"Is this what being a hero is like, the ladies come to you?!"
"Damn, I should join the Legion too. Maybe then I'll be sought out by the ladies!"
"Just wait ladies! I'll be the greatest Legionnaire there is! I swear it!"
"Be real, you're mediocre just like the rest of us."
I had to stifle a laugh at the guys' antics, it would be even more hilarious were it not so pitiful. I shook my head and turned my attention back to the young brunette.
"And who is your lady that wishes to meet me."
"I serve lady Deirdre Fou Roseblade, lord Bartfort."
Deirdre someone who highly values competence and ability in men. Even more important than that, she's looking for a partner with the backbone to tell her no. If you take my achievements, and combine that with my destruction of the Offley house whom she despised? It wasn't at all surprising that she wanted to meet me to judge for herself, though I was taken back by just how quickly she reached out to me though.
I looked at my boys, their faces a strange mix of jealousy and pride. I decided that when dealing with Deirdre, playing somewhat hard to get would be the right play. I turned back at the brunette and gave her a small smile. "Tell your lady that I would be happy to meet with her at a later date."
My both were gawking at me like I was an idiot, while the brunette looked confused and somewhat offended. "Umm Lord Bartfort, my lady wished to meet you now."
I gave her a flat look. "I would love to, but unfortunately I have a mountains of paperwork from the legion that requires my personal attention. If your lady truly does wish to meet me, then all I require is a few days notice to clear up my schedule."
I casually walked by the now stunned girl without looking back. A smirk crept up on my face as I imagined Deirdre's reaction to my rejection. I cast my hook, now we shall see if she takes the bait.
---
AN: And that is chapter 1o. Sorry it took me a bit for that one, the events within the academy are harder for me to write, as I haven't spent nearly as much time planning them out as the chapters that focus on Ironblood Legion. On the other hand, we finally broke 40k words!!!
Anyway, I don't have a whole lot to say about this one, other than, I'm happy how it turned out.
As always, if you have any questions or ideas, through them in the comments. I love reading what you guys come up with!
Thanks for your continued support, and I hope you all have a fantastic day!