Chapter 45 Secret

Are you not entertained? That was what Aion wanted to ask just for fun and out loud before he was declared the winner, and the healers came to check on Gravon. While they healed him, Aion left the arena. Most likely, he wasn't going to fight again that day, but he decided to ignore the stares of everyone and watch the other matches.

"You really got more skilled," Henri said. "Still, I am glad that your demeanor got sharper, but not at the cost of making you angrier."

"That doesn't make any sense… anyway, do you think you can defeat that guy?" Aion asked.

"Hmm, I don't know," Henri replied. "Jagger didn't show his true strength, and I lack experience compared to him. I think I am weaker than him in many aspects. I will have to try really hard to defeat him. That will be hard since I don't want to kill anyone here."

"Well, it will be fine if you lose, I will avenge you," Aion declared.

"Don't decide that I am going to lose so soon," Henri said. "If anything, I will try to enjoy the match as much as possible. It is not everyone who has the chance to fight the guild master Jagger. I will learn a lot, in one way or another, the day after tomorrow. I will be stronger than I am today."

Aion could only nod. Again, he felt that his brothers lacked motivation and desire. Still, that was fine. Unlike him, they didn't have any reason to risk their lives to win that tournament. Regardless, the next matches happened without anything interesting happening until it was time for the prince's turn. Until now, no one had seen him. However, aside from his adversary, a cloaked figure went to grab a weapon near the entrance of the arena.

Eventually, he took out his cloak, and then he showed his thumbs up to Henri. Vangel chose a longsword, and when that happened, he got rid of the cloak and he showed dark armor filled with spikes. It seemed that he was in his edgy phase… In any case, Aion saw by looking at his arms alone that he trained a lot and he was quite skilled with the sword. It made Aion think that his father trained him as well…

"It seemed that father used his free time in the last three years to teach him a few things…" Henri said.

"Did you even spar with him?" Aion asked.

"A few times, but we never took each other seriously," Henri replied.

Vangel's adversary sure looked troubled. He was another military officer… He was basically forced to fight with the son of his boss. Destiny can be cruel as a cold bitch to some people… In any case, in order to prevent a disaster, the officer chooses an iron pole as his weapon. It didn't have any piercing power, but it could still kill someone if it hit the head.

In the end, the officer felt that taking his future king lightly would also be an insult, so he assumed his fighting stance resembled that of a spearman. Vangel did the same, and then they waited for the start of the fight.

When the referee gave the sigh at the start of the battle, Vangel suddenly appeared behind the officer. He attacked so fast that many people expected rain of blood to take place before the officer could fall. However, he only got hit in the back a single time and by the pommel of the sword.

A stupid noise of cheering took over the entire arena. Everyone could see how much power their future king already was, and they could tell that he could become stronger. He answered to the audience by raising his sword.

"Did you see that?" Henri asked.

"He used it… Inner force," Aion said.

Family secret, my ass… That was what Aion was thinking. He couldn't imagine someone learning that without the assistance of Lexus… He either did that or told him in detail how to learn the technique. Still, what was really troublesome was the fact that it looked like Vangel could use and control it insanely well. It was almost like the technique had been made for him…

"Shocked?" Vangel asked when he returned.

"A bit," Henri said.

"You guys aren't the only ones who trained hard in the last few years," Vangel said. "If you defeat the guild master, we can test which one is better with that technique."

"Ha-ha," Henri said.

As usual, Henri felt troubled by the royal family… it looked like it was his destiny to let those people bother him so much. He didn't want to let that happen, but he had too many things to consider as the future head of the Kresnik family. Regardless, Aion wasn't surprised that he could use inner force as well. The only problem is that such a technique might be troublesome in the hands of those who are too young and reckless…

Eventually, the sun began to set, but the tournament kept going until late in the evening. The first round had over 250 matches, after all. Everyone watched the matches until the end, but Aion decided to return home and have dinner with his mother to ease her worries. After checking his body, she hugged him tightly in relief. She caused a lot more damage to Aion's body than Gravon.

"I never expected that the tournament would be easy, but it will be harder than I thought to win by using normal means," Aion thought when he went to bed. "I guess from the third round onward. I will have to think of strategies on how to deal with my opponents… the number of skilled people in this kingdom is high, after all."

Still, Aion could only see them as humans. They couldn't be compared to the beings of the legends and those mutated soldiers of other kingdoms… they could be defeated if Aion's used his brain. That was what he thought when he fell asleep while being hugged like a body pillow.