chapter 2

Kazuki watched the bustling streets of Glory City. Some children were playing innocently inside an alleyway while some vendors set up some small stalls to sell some snacks. Different types of people with different types of backgrounds, all were walking peacefully on the same street. It was a lively sight that Kazuki had always liked to see.

..

"Your highness, most of our people had already left our side and joined the second prince's camp."

Attendant Lee who was seating across Kazuki said with a troubled face.

"Uncle Lee, I gave up. I don't eye the crown prince position or even the imperial throne anymore."

Kazuki said with a calm face.

"What! but your highness, it was always your dream to become the emperor. This lowly butler watched you growing up and knows the best of how much you truly sacrificed. Your highness, while your siblings were playing you were studying. When they were sleeping you were training. When they were inside the safe walls of the Glory City you were with the army defending it from the enemies. If only those ministers and the major clans' leaders knew how much you have suffered, and how much you have worked."

Attendant Lee said emotionally with reddened eyes.

"Uncle Lee, please, calm down."

Kazuki tried to calm attendant Lee first before beginning to explain.

"When those ministers and those major clans leaders turned their backs to me after hearing about my grandfather's death, At that time, I finally realized that I had everything but true strength. I was truly naive back then when I thought that they were loyal to me when I thought that, I could rely on them and fight along with them."

Kazuki stopped for a bit before continuing.

"Unfortunately, I was gravely mistaken. Actually, I had recently discovered that those types of people don't really care about morals or honors. They only care about strength. They did not support me because of my personality or because of my abilities, they only supported me because of my background. They feared my grandfather's strength and respected it at the same time. It's all about strength."

Kazuki stopped to take a breath before continuing.

"Uncle lee, they don't respect me at all. Why!? because I was born without the Elemental Affinity talent, unlike my second brother who has an affinity with the fire element. to them, I am a mere weakling who had been lucky enough to have a powerful warrior as his grandfather."

Kazuki paused for a moment before continuing.

"I once wanted to help the people of the Azure Empire and serve our nation, but without power, it would be futile. I no longer have the desire to be the emperor. Actually, what I want to do right now is to increase my overall strength as much as possible, so I can achieve my own goals without depending on the other people's power. I don't necessarily have to become the emperor to be able to achieve my own goals, right?"

Kazuki said while looking at attendant Lee.

"But your highness, by giving up now, we will lose everything. We will lose our ground against the second prince. Years and years of hard working will turn into nothingness"

Attendant Lee said quietly with a face full of unwillingness.

"Uncle Lee, I understand how you feel, but you need to understand that it is impossible for me to rely again on those traitors. I would rather have a single loyal subordinate like you than to have a million subordinates like them. Now, I will only focus on how to increase my overall strength, no more competing with my second brother and no more eyeing the imperial throne."

Kazuki said with a firm expression.

"Your wishes shall be followed, your highness."

Attendant Lee said with a bowed head.

"Very good."

Kazuki said with a smile.

..

The archery training field was located in a remote area inside the Glory City where no people lived. The archery training field's size was extremely massive with some military barracks on it. As a matter of fact, the archery troops of the Azure Empire army used the archery training field as their main basement to train the archers.

"Your highness, we have arrived."

Attendant Lee respectfully.

"Mm."

Kazuki nodded calmly before getting out of the carriage.

Kazuki walked towards his personal training section where he trains his archery skills every day.

A large number of soldiers noticed Kazuki, and obviously, all of them heard about Kazuki's incident. naturally, all of them had the same reactions as the palace workers.

After arriving at the intended section, Kazuki chose a spot and asked attendant Lee for his bow.

with a quiver behind his back and a bow being held by his left hand, Kazuki looked towards the wooden circled board that was used to train the accuracy and precision of the archer. Obviously, the small circle line at the center of the board was the aiming target.

With a 250 meter distance from the wooden board, Kazuki stood calmly and relaxed his breath. Kazuki then looked towards the board's center and shot.

"Shoo, Shoo."

two arrows were released at an extremely fast speed. In under one second, the two arrows reached the board and hit the small circled line successfully.

"As always, perfect shots from his highness."

Attendant Lee complimented Kazuki silently.

After hitting the target successfully, Kazuki went to another spot where the board was 500 meters distant from him. He did the same as before and shot two arrows, all of them hit the small circled line perfectly.

Kazuki then kept moving to other spots where there were different types of archery training methods and continued training.

one of those spots had five boards standing beside each other in one row. Kazuki stood there and asked some soldiers to fire arrows at him. It was a good method to practice shooting arrows while being under the enemy's attacks.

"Shoo, Shoo, Shoo."

Ten arrows came quickly at Kazuki.

"Swoosh, Swoosh."

With incredible footsteps movements and an amazingly flexible body, Kazuki evaded the ten arrows successfully and not even a single arrow touched his clothes. While evading the coming arrows, Kazuki was also shooting arrows towards his targets, the five boards.

"Shoo, Shoo, Shoo."

The small circled line of the five boards was successfully hit by Kazuki.

Seeing this fantastic archery show, all the surrounding soldiers cheered loudly for Kazuki. Attendant Lee stood there calmly, but he couldn't hide the prideful look on his face.

It was an incredible combat skill from Kazuki. Firstly, to a normal warrior, evading those ten arrows successfully could be considered an impossible thing to do. Only an elemental warrior could evade those ten arrows, but amazingly, Kazuki successfully did it and even did it in a seemingly effortless manner.

Secondly, to shoot arrows towards the five boards while evading those ten arrows and even successfully hitting the targets, doing all of this at the same time was considered a never heard before.

To be able to do that incredible fate, Kazuki used three skills besides his incredible sense of accuracy and precision

The first skill was a movement skill called {fury of a mantis}. It was a set of movement skills based on the green-eyed rain mantis. This insect was famous for doing a very strange thing during the times of rains. The insect actually didn't hide during the rain like the other insects, but rather do evade every water drop of the rain.

A famous master from the Sky Empire invented the {fury of a mantis} after watching the green-eyed rain mantis for years. This movement skill was known for having five styles. Every style has its own moves. Kazuki had used the first style, The Three Steps style.

The three steps style was basically moving quickly in a triangle patterned way. To evade an attack, one needs to move to the right or to the left, to the back left or to the back right. Using this style continuously was like moving inside a triangle.

{fury of a mantis} movement skill was rather common among the warriors, but mastering even one of its five styles was considered extremely difficult. Because it needs some special requirements like extreme flexibility and fast reactions and this brings us to the second skill that Kazuki had used.

The second skill was a passive skill called {crimson bones}. to the warriors that were born without an Elemental Affinity talent, their only way to become powerful warriors was to depend on their physical strength. A lot of non-elemental warriors tried to come with a method to boost the physical strength of the human body…

To be continued.