Chapter 22: New chess piece.
The sound of blades clashing echoed in the air, as two individuals were locked in combat, Gazeff Stronoff ducked beneath the sword slash aimed at his head dodging by a wide margin, then swung his own sword aimed at Arthurs's torso only to miss as Arthur quickly jumped back avoiding the attack, however Gazeff pressed on and attacked, this time going for a thrust that Arthur parried easily but Gazeff was not done, he moved closer, getting a bit too close forcing Arthur to step back to open distance however Gazeff had used his foot to trip up Arthur by inserting his foot between his legs and block Arthur's right foot from moving back and he planned to swing at him once his balance was lost, however even though he tripped Arthur, the blonde knight pulled back his left leg and managed to stop himself from falling back, he then used the same leg to push himself forward, this time forcing Gazeff to jump back and opening a distance between them.
Arthur pushed on the attack, once again clashing the sword in his hand with the one held by Gazeff, the warrior chief parried the attack but before he could counter Arthur was quick to recover and swung again, but Gazeff once again blocked the attack and went in for a counter attack by knocking Arthur's sword to the side forcing him to expose his right flank and Gazeff capitalized on that and swung his blade but Arthur was quick, he jumped back and opened the distance once again, Gazeff didn't give chase but instead stood on his position panting. Their bout has been going on like this for a couple of hours now, and neither of them have landed any decisive attack.
"It seems that this might take quite some time, won't it?"
Gazeff spoke, in between breaths as beads of sweat trickled down his forehead, his arms were feeling quite tense and his grip on the sword felt slippery and difficult to hold and from what he could see he couldn't tell if it was the same for Arthur, the man didn't even seem to be sweating that much.
"So, it would seem, Gazeff."
Arthur answered whilst letting out a deep sigh, he felt a bit guilty at the moment, while Gazeff was giving it his all and using the years of swordplay that he cultivated and had earned him the title of strongest knight of the king, Arthur was basically cheating, with [ultra instinct] as long as he could perceive it he could counter and dodge it, there was nothing that could harm him if it was not fast enough to exceed his own perception, it also did not help that [UI] enhanced a his sixth sense allowing him to be able to dodge things that he cannot technically see, however the weakness was speed,[UI] doesn't mean you can dodge everything, it just means your body moves on instinct allowing you to dodge and attack without putting much thought into it however if the person is faster or stronger than you then they'll still be able to land attacks, after all Jiren gave Goku a run for his money despite Goku using [UI].
"But I have to admit that, in pure swordplay you're superior."
"If I was, I would have won already, but it's clear that isn't the case."
Gazeff refuted and smiled a bit. Truthfully, he was feeling a bit elated. The last time he felt challenged like this was during the finals of the tournament of rounds, and that was years ago Another thing that made him feel excited was the fact that Arthur seemed to have an impenetrable defence regardless of how many faints he throws at him the guy just seems to be able to defend against them even though he fell for them, Gazeff had the sense that Arthur was holding back and was keeping things even, for what reason? he did not know.
'No wait, is it…'
Gazeff began to chuckle before he started laughing. He could not believe that he hadn't figured it out when it was so obvious and transparent. Arthur looked at the man with confusion. He could not begin to guess what was so funny. Perhaps Gazeff was reminded of something funny? That happened to him a lot back on earth. After a few seconds of laughing, Gazeff then spoke.
"of course, it makes sense now, Sir Arthur. Your swordplay revolves around tiring out your opponent and then pressing the charge once they've become tired and sloppy, isn't it"
This was their second spar this month since their both are busy with their duties and do not have much free time or rather Gazeff hardly has free time despite having designated days to relax, guarding the king is a full time job, however he was also certain that this past month Arthur has been busy as well, the princess has been making him build up his reputation and he even got the moniker of swordless swordsman.
"You got me."
Arthur held up his hands in the air as if he was giving up, truthfully Arthur had no idea what Gazeff was talking about but it was better to play it off like he knew, the fact of the matter is that Arthur is actually trying to learn swordsmanship from Gazeff without anyone being the wiser, he did not know any sword techniques himself so he had to learn something to keep up the visage of being a skilled swordsman.
"Couple that with your quick reflexes and perception, then you got yourself a strong defense, quite the technique you have there."
Gazeff praised, and Arthur noted that Gazeff was extremely perceptive, meaning that the chief warrior was carefully studying Arthur's movement as they sparred and was able to somewhat decipher the way Arthur was fighting.
"Good eye, Gazeff. You got the eye of a swordsman, the better swordsman between us clear."
"ha-ha! No need to be modest ah-"
"Sir Arthur!"
Gazeff was quickly interrupted by a servant of the castle who approached the two of them. The servant was a young man wearing a butler's uniform and carried himself with a graceful posture as he walked. Hearing his name, Arthur turned his head toward the one calling him, giving Gazeff an apology for the interruption.
"Excuse me for the interruption, sirs, but may I have a word with Sir Arthur?"
The butler asked and Gazeff could only nod before taking his leave and bidding Arthur farewell, he could see that the blonde knight was less than pleased by what happened, his tired sigh spoke volumes, this wasn't the first time a servant has asked for an audience and in the past month Arthur has been plagued by a few of such occurrences but it was still annoying, his accomplishments in E-Rantel seemed to be more of a curse than a boon. Gazeff could not help but be reminded of his early days as the sword of the king. With Gazeff leaving Arthur, he was once again faced with the dreaded pests that are the nobles. He wondered what this one wanted, there was only two options, this servant was an assassin or an envoy.
"What is it?"
"Excuse me for my rude interruption, sir, but Marquis Boullope wishes to have an audience with you."
In the span of four weeks roughly five nobles have either tried to eliminate him or tried to recruit him, as he understands it, those that want him gone are the nobles from the royal faction, a side that is loyal to the royal family more to the king than anybody else, they might want him dead because Arthur is a knight that can compete with Gazeff and that gives the princess enough power to possibly form a coup' de tat , with the backing of the Aindra family and help from Lakyus a member of that family and an Adamantite rank adventure, the princess forming a coup is not impossible.
"Lead the way, my dude."
So far, marquis Raeven a noble that Arthur believes is the second smartest individual in the castle with Renner being the first, has yet to contact him, from what he understands is that the marquis was an opportunist as such he is most likely to bide his time and wait, regardless none of them would manage to either kill him or bribe him. In all honesty all these nobles just wanted his strength, granted Renner wants the same thing but the difference is that one, is Renner a woman and likes her and two why would he go from a person that wants him for his power to another person who wants him for the same thing, and they aren't even hot women just old men.
.....
Prince Zanac took a bite off a biscuit as found himself relaxing on his seat letting the full weight of his size loose onto the couch and forgoing his pasture for the moment, like always the blonde-haired marquis that is Raeven was seated opposite of him with a coffee table separating them.
"Tell me marquis why is that we aren't trying to get Sir Arthur on our side, because it seems to me that my brother might get him before us."
The prince voiced, demanding an answer from his ally, it was a reasonable concern for the prince after all Arthur was a new piece in the chess board that everyone sought to command, with his strength not only would he bolster the military strength of the kingdom by at least a thousand but he would be a great tool for intimidation, plus his growing reputation among the masses will translate well into political power, his accomplishment in the attack of E-Rantel had already put him in the eyes of many but his recent feat of slaying the giant basilisk, a creature that many adventurers struggle with was one that established him as the next big thing, in fact Zanac would not be surprised if other forces in the kingdom are already gunning to either kill him of have him join them.
"we need patience your majesty, while prince Barbro maybe the first prince and has a fair amount of wealth to throw at sir Arthur, he certainly has a limit one that he won't cross, his attitude towards commoners will never allow him to give a commoner more than what he believes they deserve meaning he'll offer a subpar sum that Arthur will not take, even if he does offer the right amount, prince Barbro doesn't not respect Arthur and I believe that is why he won't accept any offer that the prince tries to negotiate."
"I suppose that is true, but Marquis Boullope can remedy that by talking to Arthur by himself. Given his history, he should be able to convince Arthur to join his cause."
The prince explained, Arthur was a warrior someone whose main job is to slay and vanquish foes and monsters and marquis Boullope was the same for a period of time in his youth as such to the prince it made sense that that the marquis would understand the wants and desires of a warrior and unlike Gazeff Arthur doesn't seem to be driven by a sense of patriotism and respect for the royal family as such that makes it easier for Boullope to convince him.
"Again what you say is true your majesty however putting sir Arthur in the same category as every warrior out there is also not a good approach, Boullope puts too much stock on his days as warrior in this kingdom on this continent, what is true for warriors in this continent might not be true for warriors elsewhere, hence why we need not assume things for sir Arthur but instead let him tell us what he wants, by just throwing money at him we are just proving to him that we value not him but his strength and that he as an individual is not relevant, something that we will avoid."
"Hm, I see."
Placing his hand on his chin, the prince thought deeply about what the marquis had just told him. However, his deep contemplation was interrupted by a knock on his door.
"Enter!"
The prince answered absentmindedly, the door opened, and the princess entered. A smile was plastered on to her face as her maid closed the door behind and gave the people some privacy.
"Plotting to steal my knight from me, Ey brother?"
She asked, half joking and half serious. The marquis stood up and gave a bow, which the princess dismissed with a wave of her hand.
"Entering without so much as greeting? what happened to your manners, dear sister?"
He asked, and she strained a smile as she looked at him. He did not deny her accusation and instead changed the subject, so she did the same.
"Last month, my knight, along with members of Blue Rose, captured one of the people responsible for the attack on E-Rantel, correct?"
She said with a surprising amount of elation when she spoke the phrase "my knight" something the Marquis found odd. Zanac gave her a nod but found himself curious about why she seemed interested in that matter, currently Khajit was within their custody and has been very uncooperative with sharing information about his organisation and torture was entirely unreliable so for the moment they're taking a break from all that.
"Then would you be willing to take me to see the prisoner? I have something to ask him?"
The two men in the room glanced at each other, with the prince, silently demanding an answer from the marquis and Raeven silently showing his own confusion at Zanac. Turning his head toward his sister once more, the prince asked.
"What makes you think you can get him to talk when we couldn't?"
"Oh, I don't want information. I just want to have a word with him, that's all."
Both the men immediately thought that her answer was a lie. They refused to believe that was all she wanted from the prisoner, and there must be a deeper purpose.
"Then why did you wait this long to have your word?"
"Because I wished to wait until I was certain he would be no danger to me plus I wished to be out your hair while you worked."
She explained, and Zanac's suspicions were not alleviated. he was very much aware of her character as such, he knew there was a deeper reason for this, but he failed to think what it could be.
"Very well, sister. However, a fair warning the dungeon isn't a friendly place for maiden, but then again, that should not be a problem."
Zanac agreed. If she really had a deeper reasoning behind this, then he figured it would be best to just let her have it and see what it is. Prince Zanac was, however, overthinking things as this time, the reason for her actions were not some plot or scheme. At her brother's words, Renner could only strain a smile before turning her back and leaving.
"I'll be changing into something appropriate. Wait for me."
...…
A/N: thoughts on the chapter? Or Perhaps there are ideas you wisht to share? Please share em.
S/N: "when you stand next to sexy Red I believe you see two bad bitches"
Did Kendrick Lamar cook Drake or nah?
Chapter 23: The Dungeon.
The dungeon was a place where variety of criminals within the kingdom were kept and confined, these criminals were of the same type, hardened criminals such as rapists, murderers and individuals who partook in financial scams that effected the lives of a majority of the people within the kingdom, there were other criminals as well, such as spies from other countries , fallen nobles and knights caught taking bribes from criminal organizations such as eight fingers. The Re-Estize Kingdom had two locations with which criminals were held, there was the southern prison [king's cage] a place where low nonpriority criminals were held and kept for as long as they are needed, and the dungeon, which was located directly under the castle itself, of course the dungeon was not large and was kept small so to not collapse the castle.
Renner having stepped foot onto the dungeon, and her nose caught the smell of urine and blood. The walls were dirty with some parts of it painted with dried blood. The princess had changed the attire that she usually wears and wore a plain one-piece dress that was coloured dirt brown, the dress was seemingly made from rags, she also wore low heeled shoes made from cow skin and had her lustrous blonde hair neatly tied into a nice, neat bun. She was accompanied by both her brother with ten guards, five in front and five in the back.
The dungeon was dark with no light from the sun reaching to its halls, creating a situation where torches were necessary to see. As she walked the halls moving towards the cell of her target, she could not help but note that the dungeon had a less dreary and hopeless feel to it, of course it was still very much like that, but she had expected the atmosphere to be much worse, something fitting of a true dungeon rather than just a prison imitating a dungeon.
"I smell perfume!!"
"Oh, shit it's a woman."
"Yeah right, I bet it's the guards messing with us."
"Nah I'm sure it's a woman, I used to work for a nobleman, I know what noble women's perfume smells like."
"Finally, something to touch myself for."
The prisoners sounded, as they began to converse without even being able to see each other, each cell was made with no window and had Iron doors with only a single closed slit at the middle of the door that opens from the outside to slide in food. Renner could not help but feel disgusted with such a place and not only that, but she was disappointed to know that the captives were livelier than they should, clearly whoever oversaw this place could not do their job well.
"I say brother, you seem to be treating the captives better than I expected."
She voiced, although her words were not meant as a compliment, among her siblings Zanac was the one with most responsibilities, it should be Barbro who is the crown prince but he was too concerned with getting the throne and doing whatever to care about anything that wasn't appealing to him. Despite being a candidate for being king, Zanac was too soft, it was obvious he would end up like her father, a good king but weak and too fearful of retaliation from the nobles not to mention keeping an opportunist like Raevan by his side would not bode well, as such she thought that she herself was the only option, a half decent option like Zanac was someone she was willing to let be king as long as they had an agreement about the things concerning her marriage however that was before she had Arthur.
"I believe that is a good thing, after all these are people, just because we must torture them to get information doesn't mean they deserve to be treated terribly and besides a few of them easily confessed the moment we mention torture."
Zanac explained, having understood what her words meant; he had always figured that she was a bit off, but he never thought she was a sadist as well.
"Is that so? I suppose I misjudged you."
That was all that was spoken as they traversed deeper into the dungeon. Renner for the most part has always held the idea that being a ruler was more trouble than it was worth, despite how it may look she was quite selfish and compromising on her desire just to placate the nobles seemed very unappealing, in fact throughout her life she has lived without an ounce of power or control, the only thing she could ever do was compromise. She didn't like how people seemed to force the image of the golden princess upon her, but she had to compromise and use it to her advantage, she didn't like how she had no choice on who to marry, there she couldn't even compromise just delay it as long as she can, but now with Arthur she didn't need to compromise. Her research into the religion of the Slane theocracy has led her to find out some interesting things. As such, she needs someone like Khajit to tell her what she needs to hear.
After a long walk of silence with the sounds of the captives talking and joking about as the background noise, Renner and Zanac finally made it to where Khajit was kept, the guards entered first to ensure that the prisoner was bound to the chains properly, after that was done the two royals entered.
"Is it time for another session? Try as you might you'll get nothing from me."
Khajit spoke first, his entire body was bound to the wall by chains that held him in place, his hands and feet were locked in iron glove like cages, as a necromancer and mage his hands were dangerous but also his eyes were covered to make sure he can't see, the guards had taken out his gag to allow him to speak.
"Afraid not, that scheduled for a later date, but my sister is here to ask you some things."
The cell smelt of blood and burnt flesh mixed with urine body Oder, it was a horrid smell that had assaulted the princess' nose quite unexpectedly forcing her to have to put her handkerchief to her nose, it was unpleasant. She could tell that the one who tortured the captives had utilized high-grade healing potions in order to be able to repeat the torture endlessly, and that was the reason Khajit looked unharmed
"Good afternoon, Khajit Dale Badantel, it's a pleasure to meet you, I just have some questions concerning the doctrine of the Slane theocracy. You wouldn't mind answering my questions, would you?"
"Humph! if you thought a woman was enough to get me to talk, then you're even more foolish than I thought. Get on with the torture already."
Khajit answered with annoyance in his voice, hearing the gentle voice of a woman after a month of torture had reminded him of his mother but he still wont say anything, of course Zurrenorn was an organization that only helped in his research, he held no loyalty to it at all however if he gives up the information about the organization then his death was guaranteed, of course he was not afraid of death or rather he doesn't want to die here as that meant he wont return as an undead, his ultimate goal was to become a lich and spread death across the continent.
"Is that so…"
Renner smiled as she heard those words. It was a good thing she was wearing disposable clothes.
....
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