67 Brenia

"Alright, are you all done with that nonsense now? Can I finally have my bloody spar?"

The opinion of Brenia on this whole adventure was similar to that of the teacher. It was a huge waste of time only here to distract her from her training.

"You actually even managed to use that damn spell to win against that guy. Now I want to defeat you even more."

She didn't care about rivalries, titles or rewards, the only thing that interested her was to measure her strength against his own. The others were mostly in agreement, not about her eagerness to fight but about her curiosity to know who was best.

This was after all, something they had waited to settle since the very first combat class. After a year of training, who in the new students was the champion and could that champion win against the leftovers from the last school cycle?

They were all dying to know and once again a vivid debate started about who was the strongest. Mable giggled happily and proudly declared her future victory.

"There's no way Emp will lose! He's going to win quick and then I'll get a new cake! That one is going to be all mine too!"

"I'm sure we already had this conversation but why are you so sure he's going to win?"

"Because he's the best!" She answered with no hesitation whatsoever.

Emp thought that Mable's trust in him was impressive. He didn't want to disappoint her. It felt nice that someone believed in him like this.

"Oh? We'll see about that! Come here you, I'm tired of sitting around."

Brenia butted in on their conversation and refusing to wait any longer, she walked into the field. She seemed more than ready to give her all to defeat him. Maybe fighting with real weapons against her wasn't that good of an idea.

Emp followed behind her while the others proclaimed loudly who they were rooting for in this match. He made a long step to reach her side and told her how he wanted to modify the rules of the spar.

"Brenia, if we really use our whole strength to go against each other the fight will end with one of us dying."

"So what are you saying, you want to hold back? No way, that would be boring."

"No, I'm saying we should use wooden weapons instead. They're going to break in a hit but considering how hard we both swing, that one hit would probably be the end of the other in a real fight."

She showed him a large grin when she understood the reasons behind his words.

"Oh, I see what you mean now. The teacher doesn't want us to get hurt so if we use dummy weapons, we can fight to our heart contents without changing too much the final result."

"Yes, the only difference would be the weight..."

"But it doesn't matter because our fight would never be decided by a lack of stamina in the first place. There's only one annoying part really. If we hit the two weapons too hard against each other, they will break."

"True, but we don't really care about that because hitting the other weapon at full strength is pointless in the first place and it gives us some challenge anyway."

"We only have one chance. I like it, let's do that! Hey, teacher! We do have some wooden weapons laying around right?"

Emp was happy that Brenia was a sensible person like him. Getting hit by a wooden weapon would really hurt but the damage would simply not compare to real one, even if the strength behind it was enough to shatter it. (1)

He didn't agree all the time with her but at least when it was concerning a fight, they seemed to share many thoughts.

It didn't take that long for them both to be handed a long wooden sword each. Neither of them really favored swords but neither of them complained for the sake of being able to go all out.

Her armor was mostly a patchwork of leather with steel plating to reinforce her forearms and chest. She had steel toed long boots over her pants and a mail shirt hung in between her chest plate and the layer of leather, ending at her knees. It was cut in the middle from the front and back to let her make complex movements. Her gauntlets were made of soft wool on the inside, hard leather outside and a steel plate over the back of her hand to insure the protection of her hand.

Her helmet was the most interesting part of it all. It was three layers of leather over rabbit skin but only served as base for the main defense. Large curved claws had been painstakingly sowed on top of the leather. All of them followed the curve of her head to point forward. They all started behind her head and protected her whole skull by all being fixed against each other. There were no space in between them for an attack to land. From the side, it looked like a teardrop pointing to the front or some sort of garlic bulb. From the front, it either looked like something had a round mouth surrounded by teeth on all sides or, if you were more poetically inclined, a flower bud barely starting to reveal the treasure inside.

The only real weak point of this helm was the face of Brenia herself since there was no visor added onto it. This meant that in combat, she needed to turn her head in order to protect her face. Of course, in a spar, such a weakness didn't really matter.

As for why he knew all that about her armor, it was because he was really interested in armors and weapons. With all the lessons Marcy was teaching him, he couldn't help but be curious about what everyone else used and so, he kept asking them about details related to their equipment. What type of metal, where did the leather come from, how was it worn, what welding technique had been used, the weight of the different parts, the reasons behind each design choices, he wanted to know it all.

To his great sorrow, Brenia didn't know what sort of fangs were used for her helmet. It had been a gift and at the time, she had not bothered asking. In fact, it was him that told her that the innermost part was rabbit skin. She had not really cared at all about what it was.

"It was a... guy, that... generously gifted that to me after, uh... A strong argument we had. I didn't really have the chance to ask him what the fuck it was made of, only that it could bounce my axe away." Is what she told him about it.

In any case, there she stood in front of him. She seemed to be having just as much fun as Mable and was ready to strike the second the signal would be sent from the teacher. Emp needed to be careful with her, he had trained at her side a lot by now, he knew many things about her strength. He believed that like him, if Noirantel hadn't used some magic to make his sword soft, she could have beat him easily. She could not be underestimated, even with a sword instead of an axe.

"Begin." The teacher said.

Emp started with a long distance stab but Brenia dodged it by leaning to the side. How did she guess he would stab from such a range!

The corner of her mouth raised and she dashed forward. Emp immediately stepped up to her and swung his sword sideways.

Brenia reaction speed was unbelievable and she placed her sword at the vertical in front of her. In such a clash, both weapons would risk getting broken but Emp was willing to take the chance. That was, until she placed her left forearm along the blade. The shock would be absorbed in part by her arm and it would without be his own sword that would break!

He twisted his wrist to avoid the collision and let his swords slide on her side instead as they passed each other.

Brenia didn't waste time and turned around mid charge to swing at his back. He twirled on himself to face her incoming sword and brushed it away from him. The two wood pieces still made a loud clack despite not coming against each other directly.

"He blocked it!" Someone shouted.

Her feet slid against the dirt as she leaned back to stop herself, twisting her upper body in the process, she placed her left hand against the ground and slashed once more at him, this time towards his legs.

Emp stepped over her to dodge the blade and found himself close to her feet from where he trusted at her lower back.

"How did he do that!"

"That's cheating!"

She still managed to dodge the blow however by twisting her left arm against the ground and using the momentum of her sword slash to turn her entire body clockwise. His sword just stabbed into the earth pointlessly.

She had been told in the first combat class that she had no technique and no coordination. It was obviously no longer the case, she was truly a hard worker.

Her feet found purchase in the soil again and giving a push with her hands, she found herself upright again. Emp followed her with an upward swing she should not have been able to dodge, she wasn't balanced properly on her feet yet, how could she possibly dodge this?

Like he had done just before, she used her sword to deviate the path of his own away from her and then stepped up to grab his head.

Using the movement of his sword getting pushed away, he dropped low to the ground and swiped his legs at hers, hoping to trip her while he dodged the grab.

Instead, she put her hand on top of his shoulder and vaulted over him by using it as an anchor.

When did she become so agile!?

"Wow!"

"Like a street performer!"

Everyone was at the edge of their seat. The fight was moving so fast anything could change in the blink of an eye.

After a spin in the air, she was on her feet behind him and slashed towards his head. The large smile shining across her face proved she was having a lot of fun. Emp was already crouched so he couldn't duck bellow the blow and couldn't back step away either. She was awkwardly placed at an angle behind him so he couldn't simply raise his sword for a parry.

This should be a winning move. The only way out was to let himself fall to the ground.

The sword whizzed just over his head and the moment his chest touched the ground he rolled on himself. His armor loudly complained with clanking noises.

Emp was now on his back and the sword of Brenia was once more flying towards him. Immersed in her imminent victory, she did not prepare for a counter attack. He kicked at her leg which cost her her balance and using his sword to guide her fall, made her spin to the side. Her slash went nowhere and from the spin and her forward slash, she fell down towards him.

He raised his other hand up and her back fell right on it. He supported her whole weight with only one hand. She was now laying on his palm, over him, turned the wrong way around, completely defenseless. Both of her arms where hung from her in a cross shape as she was trying to make sense of her own position. He swung his sword at her side from bellow her. Desperate, she twisted her sword into her hand, reversing her grip and stabbed blindly behind herself. She missed by an inch and her sword caught into the dirt at his side while his own made a clean contact. A real weapon would have dug into the right side of her stomach but this wooden replacement smashed against her chain mail and broke in two with a loud crack.

"Ow! Hahahaha! That was awesome! I was so convinced I had won. I want another one!"

"Emp Won! I knew it!" Loudly proclaimed Mable.

While everyone else was arguing again, Emp chatted happily with Brenia.

"Maybe not today since the others really want to know who is the best but I'd like to have another match too. This one was so close, that vault at the end really took me off-guard."

"Right? I felt the same when you just stepped through me, I really thought I was done for then."

Emp pushed her back with his hand and she easily stood back up on her own two feet before turning around to offer him a hand.

"The fight was tense but you seemed to have so much fun, I couldn't help but have fun as well." He told her has he accepted her help.

"What are you talking about, I was having fun because you smiled the whole time. Every time I made a move, you made that smile that said; this is a great one! And then, you kept answering with your own great counters, how could I not have fun?"

Emp had not noticed that he was smiling but now that she said it he could tell, that was indeed the case. The feeling of that spar was so different from the spars he had with the other group just before. This one was much better, it felt great. Even if he had lost, he was convinced he would not have been disappointed, just like how Brenia asked for another one right away.

He was in a really good mood now, this was much better than defeating the other group. It felt like close to the sensation of creating a smile on the face of his friends. Or was it because Brenia was actually smiling from their spar that he felt this way? He couldn't tell, both were similar.

Whether it was the warmth he felt from having Mable be so excited for his win or the one he felt from gifting his slaves some well deserved gifts, both were very close to the sensation he felt right now. It was all the same to him and the only descriptor he could give the feeling was "good".

After he was done talking to her, the teacher proceeded to tell them what they did good and bad and how to improve. Brenia listened very seriously, Emp had no doubt she would continue to improve. He would have to continue to train harder if he wanted to keep up.

Then, Mable asked the others who next wanted to test their might against Emp. By then, she was very convinced that the cake that was promised a year ago was within her reach. No one could defeat Emp, she was sure of it and so couldn't help but look down on everyone else with the proud smile of a victor.

Heida could not stand it and got angry.

"Enough, there's no way that this guy is the strongest! Nicolas! Go down there and beat him for me!"

"I really don't think-"

"It's an order!"

He released a sigh and walked onto the field. In no time at all, he had agreed to the same rules and was equipped with a wooden sword to face Emp.

Nicolas was a returnee which meant that he had already spent six years in this school. He might not have been the best in anything but it was known by everyone that if not for Heida and the situation in their territory, he could have left long ago.

He knew a great amount of tricks, spells and elegant techniques to fight against any and all opponents. The spar Emp had with him was tricky to deal with. It felt similar to the one he had against Jin, not because of the speed but because of the stalemate they found themselves in instead.

Nicolas was unable to deal a finishing blow to Emp and because of the constant pressure, couldn't cast any spells properly. In reverse, Emp was unable to defeat him because of his superior swordsmanship.

What made it more like Jin's spar than Noirantel's was that Nicolas dueled with the assumption that in the end, he would lose. Being fine at everything meant that he wasn't great at anything either and thus, when locked in a situation like this when only a small parts of those abilities were usable, he was at a huge disadvantage.

Just like the teacher told them in the first class, Nicolas was probably the best of the group but only outside of the school, were he could use smart planning, take advantage of the terrain and rely on his many different skills. Here, he was only a good swordsman, nothing more.

In the end, even if Emp couldn't pierce his defense, he would be the first to tire and give up due to fatigue.

The fight didn't end like that however.

Emp attempted to deliver a kick to his stomach which he dodged by stepping back only to get Emp's sword slam against his arm. He had been so focused in this very ordinary sword fight that he momentarily forgot Emp could attack from a distance.

This was a very anticlimactic fight and Heida was very disappointed in him.

"Nicolas! How can you be so bad! What's the point of remaining in school this long if you can't even defeat a guy like that! Come back here, it's embarrassing."

He seemed very dissatisfied by her comments but after a deep breath, he managed to calm himself and walk back to her.

"Good job Nicolas, like always." The teacher told him as he passed by. "That move Emp's got is very impressive, anyone not knowing about it beforehand would instantly die in real combat, there is no shame in losing to it. Your technique was as good as ever."

"Thanks." The student nodded feeling a bit refreshed and by the time he sat down close to Heida, he was calm enough to endure her nagging some more.

The following fights all ended in similar ways. The more he won, the louder Mable cheered, it was as if she provided the share of Celtine and Harriett too.

Frits declined the spar saying it was pointless so Emp won by forfeit.

Norval was good but he was only a new student like him and Brenia so he without any impressive tricks, Emp won easily.

Ivar was one of the returnee too but he was mainly an archer and like Frits, he declared forfeit without stepping in the field.

The others were no match for him even if like Odilon, they claimed otherwise, none of them managed to stand up for long in front of him. The girls didn't even want to try to spar against each other so going against Emp was impossible.

The one Emp feared the most was Oran, he had the highest physical strength of the whole group even surpassing Emp's. But, despite how good he was at fighting and how strong he was, he had too much of a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that Emp could attack from a distance with a sword.

Despite the fact that he had seen it many times, when he fought against it for himself, he still felt surprised and after a few attacks, he got confused and with a feint, Emp took him down like the rest. He didn't even have the opportunity of getting close to him.

With more spars against Emp, the possibility of him resisting and turning the fight around for a win instead was very real but for now, only one conclusion could be seen by the group.

"Lord protector Emp is the champion of group C! He's the big winner. My Emp is the very best here!" Mable shouted excitedly.

She had her arms in the air an instant and the next she was holding Aglaya by her dress and shaking her around in fits of laughter. She was clearly the kind of person who got intoxicated on victory, Emp was glad she was having fun. Plus, he had fulfilled his promise and won her the cake.

"Your Emp?" Aglaya asked, putting an emphasis on "your".

She seemed very amused by this.

"He's working for me now isn't he? He's 'my' lord protector. That's how it works! When he wins he does so for me!"

"Oh? Is that what you meant?"

"Mwahahahaha... Wait, oy oy, why is everyone looking at me like that?

While Mable tried to understand why the girls all looked at her as if she said something incredible, Emp walked back to seating area.

Afterwards, there were more spars to be had but Emp was done for the day. He had participated in all of them since the beginning so now, he had deserved a rest.

Spurred on by Kenneth, the whole group received their champion with some applause to reward him. Emp felt really embarrassed to receive all these praises and claps so he hurried up to the bench.

At the urge of Aglaya, he sat down on the bench between Celtine and Mable and watched the others fight for the rest of the class. His slave didn't seem that happy and he felt she reproached him something but when he asked what was wrong, she just shook her head. Maybe if he asked her later in their room he would get a clearer answer.

Since the great competition to see who was the best was over, the rest of the fights were very relaxed. Most of them opted to use the wooden weapons since when they fought against someone like Brenia, they feared they might lose bits of themselves.

Emp had a great time watching over them. The experience of watching and commenting from afar was very different than when he was the one fighting. It was very interesting and it gave him a lot of time to talk with everyone.

Mable, Aglaya and him took a long time to decide how much was a worthy salary for him. He had no idea what was the correct value and had no need for money so he wasn't really helpful at all but the two girls came up with the amount of a gold piece each month.

The facts were that they had no idea either what was the correct amount to pay, they just felt that a gold coin was seemingly fair. If they stayed for four years, he would have made back half the entrance fee of the school. Plus, ordinary guards would never be paid in gold so there was no way he could complain even if he had wanted to.

Then, they had him agree that he needed to go get Mable for class each morning since he needed to escort her. It didn't bother him at all since her room was close and it made sense for a guard to stand near the thing he was protecting.

Aside from that, he had some nice chat with everyone and Mable looked like a true sunbeam from how much happiness she radiated.

Later that day, once the whole training session was over and everyone went back to their rooms for lunch, Aglaya took him apart from Mable to talk, using the excuse that she wanted to have his help to organize a surprise for Mable later on.

Of course, the girl agreed to lend him giddily and waited along with Nessa and Gytha.

Emp wondered what sort of surprise she wanted to present Mable with and why she required his help. He followed her into a calm corner with Celtine and waited for her to say what she had in mind.

Immediately, she admitted it had nothing to do with organizing a surprise for Mable. Instead, she wanted to talk some more about his task of lord protector.

She must have known how confused he felt and the annoyed look of Celtine was hard to miss. She must have wanted to talk about this as soon as possible to answer his many questions. As long as Emp could get more details about what had just happened and how exactly he was supposed to handle all that, he was more than willing to listen.

Once she was sure that no one would hear them, she exposed part of her thought process to him.

"To tell you the truth, I could probably have gotten rid of them without having Mable put you up against them." She admitted.

"Why did I go through all that then?" He asked.

If he had gone against their whole group by himself, it was only because he thought there was no way around it. if anything, he would have preferred to have some more friendly spars with the others instead of those serious challenges. Her answer just confused him even more.

"To feed the rumor obviously."

Since Emp had no idea of what she meant and Celtine seemed to be the same, he just waited for her to elaborate.

"I felt like I could use you to shield Mable."

"For the fight? But you just said you could have appeased the situation without it. As a guard then?"

"No, I meant about suitors."

"What?"

How did that even make sense?

"Listen." She explained "You may not know this but there is a rumor saying that you have feelings for Mable. If I can make it well known early on, I can stop many problems later on when she is going to grow up. Now she is merely cute but in a close future, I'm sure she will turn into a real beauty and then, we'll have a swarm of annoying pest around us.

No one will dare go after her if they know you will stand in between her and them. That the rumor is true or not doesn't matter here, all I need to know is that you are kind and that everyone else believes it.

Since you're a bit like Zoran and you just do things when people need you to, I know you will step in the way whether you have feelings for her or not. In the end, if it turns out she doesn't like you, everyone will go their own way without hard feelings and if it turns out instead that you like each other than everybody wins."

So the truth behind that whole thing was just that Aglaya intended to use him to stop boys from approaching Mable? That seemed crazy, he wasn't sure he could believe it.

He looked up to Celtine who was back on his shoulders again and she wrote him that she couldn't hear a lie. Even then though, she didn't seem reassured at all.

But why did all the boys think it was troublesome then? That was easy to do no? From what she was saying, just his presence was enough to be a deterrent. He wouldn't have to do anything. As for the protector part, all he had to do was be close by and step in the way like he would have anyway if things turned sour. Since they wouldn't be in the school almost all the time, there was nothing more easy.

"Say Emp, are you not afraid you might you might lose some prestige?"

He had been immersed in his own questioning so he had not expected such a strange question from her.

"Why? I don't get it, how would I lose prestige?"

"I explained it earlier, being the protector of another noble is very prestigious. The bigger the gap between their ranks, the higher their ability is esteemed and thus the bigger the prestige they get. That kind of thing was based on how the Muraciers protect the Grandbois, it's a mark of great honor and trust. However, it isn't so when the ranks are reversed. You told me your name was well known but you do not know the full name of Mable. If it happened that her title was much lower than yours, you could lose a lot of face."

"I don't get it, shouldn't I gain more since I took the time to protect someone weaker?"

"No, they will say the task was beneath you and you are wasting your time while you should do something more fitting of your status. At best, they will think you are pitying her and you wish to take advantage of her somehow by offering a token protection."

"This doesn't seem reasonable."

Emp made an effort to think about it seriously and Aglaya waited patiently for his answer. The fact that this kind of thing came from the Muracier proved that in the past, they indeed cared a lot about the protection of the emperor and his territory. They had not done it to gain respect or because they were selfish though. They could have taken the throne in the very beginning.

"No, I am not scared of losing any prestige or loosing face for my family like madam Blackbull would say."

"So you do not think the difference should be too big? You think she might be more highly ranked than expected?"

"No, I am very sure that my name is stronger than hers but I do not care. Mable is my friend, if she wants my help, I will gladly give it to her, it has nothing to do with some ranking. Even if she was the poorest of villagers, I would still help. No words or snickering can scare me." (2)

She offered him a pleased grin.

"I like your answer, you always say something unexpected. I knew I could count on you. I only have one last question left. You haven't reacted when I spoke about you loving her. Is it because it's true or simply because you haven't thought about it?"

"I haven't thought about it, the main point wasn't about that but about how I needed to block the others. I don't know what love is really about yet."

She laughed out loud and gave him her last words as she left.

"You truly are just like her. You don't have a clue. Let's go get her back to her room shall we?"

Emp felt a bit puzzled by her statement but followed her back to Mable anyway. He wondered once more how to figure out exactly how he felt about things and people.

He walked Mable to her room and left her there with Aglaya before going back to his own.

***

In Mable's room, Aglaya was smilingly looking at her dear Mable. They were both sat at her table and enjoyed some evening tea.

"Are you really only happy about the cakes?"

"Of course, I'm super excited that we won against those guys too but the cakes are just way more interesting."

"But, don't you think you won something much better today?"

"Something better?"

"Yeah, you found yourself a lord protector, isn't that better than a cake?"

"But he was already helping wasn't he? It feels like you tricked me somehow. What are you doing? Also, what is the surprise?"

"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise anymore. I'm just trying to help you. Having a strong protector is important and I know you like him."

Mable made a sour face.

"Why are you always mocking me? I think he is fun and I like how strong and kind he is but... Why can't I have boys as friend too? Dad would never agree to it if I was to like him. I'm glad you found a way to keep him close like that. This way even my dad won't be able complain. I'm glad you're always there to help me out."

"Of course I'm always there, I have to. There's no way I can let such an adorable thing sulk!"

She placed back her cup on the table and quickly ensnared Mable in her arms. Usually she tried to struggle free but in private, the teen found those hugs very enjoyable. There was no one to see such an embarrassing thing here.

She made herself comfortable in her arms while Aglaya continued to speak.

"Once more, it's all thanks to the old traditions I told you to study so many time and the Muraciers."

Mable puffed her cheeks in annoyance.

"I don't care about the Muraciers, I hate them."

"Again with this? You never even met one."

"But they made dad angry."

"Everyone of us anger people all the time, the high nobles, the merchants, even you. Look at what happened today, it was all because you made a bunch of guys angry."

She groaned and refused to leave it at that.

"It's not the same, the Muraciers are filthy liars, I hate them, I hate liars."

"We don't know what happened, we weren't there. Who knows how they really got your dad angry. No one saw them since before you were even born, maybe they just can't fulfill the promise, maybe they're dead. Even so, even you are lying all the time, how can you say that you hate liars."

"I'm not lying all the time! I'm never lying!"

"What about your name then?"

"I was ordered to hide it, that's not the same!"

"Oh? What about Emp then?"

"This... I don't know... Mwu."

"Fufufu, that's exactly why I'm here to help."

***

"Then, what is it you would like to talk about? In the end, we always discus about my work, I would like to hear from you for once."

"..."

"You don't need impressive knowledge to be of interest my dear. You could tell me about the rumors you heard recently or how your friends behave."

"..."

"Hahaha, no, of course not. But, even If I asked you, there is no way my sweet lover would hide anything from me right? People like us prosper because we care deeply for one another and help each other with all we have. For example, neither you or your family will ever have to worry about money again, all thanks to my love for you."

***

(1) Sensible "trademark". Bashing someone else with a solid wood sword at full strength, there is no way this could go wrong in real life. Thank the gods this isn't it.

(2) This him hasn't heard about Marcy yet. Words can indeed scare him.