Chapter 4: Meal with family

While the two most powerful men in the duchy were in the middle of a discussion, Rohan welcomed his family.

His father, Roland, was a rank 7 Intermediate Warrior and was one of the Duchy commanders. He had blond hair and a large stature. He was an impassive man in public but warm in private and it was almost a characteristic of the family and was known in the noble circle.

He came from a family of warriors who had earned their title of nobility by waging wars for the kingdom and acquired impressive feats of arms over time.

Even if the status of his family had grown considerably when he became an intermediate warrior himself, a title of nobility was not necessarily given with substantial lands and the duke had back then given them the lands of a baron.

This was the most he could do, for an estate the size of a county had to be given under the approval of the kingdom and this one will never agree to give so much power to a new noble. It was already worthy of praise that the duke gave this family lands.

After marrying a baroness whom he loved dearly, they had two children together. The first was Luke, who had failed to become a warrior. He didn't try more after failing to form his core, and instead chose to focus on managing his futur lands as the heir of the family. The second one was Rohan, who became a rank 1 Beginner Warrior at thirteen.

Unfortunately, Rohan's mother abandoned her duty as a mother toward him, and was only concerned with potential social ties and going to participate regularly in balls or other such evening. She was also preparing Luke to be a good heir.

That was why Rohan hated her so much, to him she was just a parasite who was thirsty for power. But since his father didn't say anything, he kept his feelings to himself and his butler.

"Bwahaha! Look at this! A genius, a real genius in the family! If you keep going like this you will become an advanced warrior with no problem! You may even become a Supreme warrior, imagine! The power of the elements, hahaha I can't wait to see that! "

It was at least the tenth time that Luke, Rohan's big brother, had repeated something like this since they had started eating. Probably more, but Rohan had stopped counting a moment ago. Luke had taken his father's blond hair, and was sitting near his brother whom he loved dearly.

Since they were younger, Luke always pampered his brother. He was not blind, and he knew that for a reason, their mother was ignoring Rohan, almost as if he didn't exist for her.

He kept congratulating his brother to be able to become a warrior. He was of course a little bit jealous that he wasn't the one to have this talent, but he was still fine with it.

It was said that in some empires the sight of a novice warrior was commonplace, but in this poor helpless empire, it was exceptional to cross one in the street, let alone in this duchy.

The count was sitting in the main seat, watching his children with a thin smile. Normally they did not discuss when they were eating at the table, they were nobles after all.

But he knew very well that these two were not worried about such frills, as Rohan never cared about such custom in the first place, and Luke was everyday forced to live with a noble mannerism by his wife.

The evening continued like this for a while, before sleep caught up with each of them and they all went to bed.

Dawn was approaching, and a new day arrived.

Rohan woke up as the sun was rising. He pushed back the curtains to sit down and stayed that way for a few seconds, still drowsy asleep. He smacked his cheeks with his hands and hurried up, otherwise he was going to give up all goodwill and go back to the dreamlands.

He stretched and walked out of habit where his leather armor was. He began to dress and put on his armor in the dark, only a thin light of the rising sun illuminating the room. He had put it on so many times that he could do it with his eyes closed without difficulties.

He left his room and found Jonas waiting for him outside his door with a tray in his hands. He smiled and greeted his master.

"Good morning young master, for your breakfast please find some sausages accompanied with scrambled eggs, as well as a fruit juice squeezed only a few minutes ago by myself."

Rohan could not stop sighing at this sight he was used to, he was about to run straight into the courtyard, but changed direction and headed for the dining room.

"Again huh? Is there a day where you will leave me in peace in the morning?"

"Not while I'm your butler, young master."

Rohan rolled his eyes, and glanced at the tray Jonas was carrying.

"I might do better to change it as soon as possible then, look at this, we'll be able to feed at least five people with the amount you prepared."

"You won't find a better butler than me in the whole Young Master Empire!"

He continued by bulging his chest.

"Plus, by becoming a warrior, you are now going to need to eat a lot more! No matter how much you take all the potions or whatever you want, you won't become more powerful if you don't eat enough, young master!"

"If you say it, if you say it."

They arrived in the dining room, and after putting down the tray, Jonas left the room without a sound.

Shortly after Rohan began to eat, the door opened again and he saw the count enter the room. So Rohan stood up and bowed to greet him.

"Father."

"Rohan."

He paused before seeing the leather armor his son was wearing. His eyebrow twitched a bit but he decided to ignore it. He knew that although his son did not respect the manners of nobles in private at all, he respected them in public. In his way.

He then decided to ignore the outfit he was wearing at the table and sat down across from him.

"You are going to train I guess? Remember your body is still weak from yesterday, it needs time to get used to the mana. Don't kill yourself to the job."

"I'll take note of it, father."

The door opened again and a butler brought food for the count, before exiting. Like that, the meal took place in silence.

Once having finished his breakfast, Rohan left the room and walked towards the courtyard, it was time to practice a little.

As he approached the courtyard, he heard loud voices coming from it. By the time he finished eating, the sun had already risen well, so some of the guards were in full training session.

About ten guards were present, all running along the field under the orders of their captain. When they saw Rohan arriving, they all gradually came to a stop in front of him before they bowed. Only the captain spoke.

"Good morning, Young master, would you like to join us?"

It had been a few years since the young master joined them every morning to train with them. At the beginning, he was only ten years old, and had a rather weak constitution, so he held the role of mascot.

The soldiers thought he would give up quickly, but he kept going every morning, and although at thirteen he was far from comparable to real trained soldiers, he had nonetheless become one of the best of his age.

That said, that was the past, now that he had become a warrior, he was maybe only thirteen, but he could beat them one by one with nothing more than his physique, if we exclude the captain.

"For the fifty or so time captain, call me Rohan on the training ground. Go ahead I'll follow you, you will see today what it means to have mana."

With a big smile on his face, Rohan sensed that today was going to be a good day. He wasn't going to be the first to crash to the ground with fatigue like a weak worm.

This is how a memorable training for the guards took place. By order of the captain, they all started running again.

As Rohan ran behind the soldiers, he realized that he was not at all slower than them, on the contrary, he felt he could accelerate without too much effort. His endurance has definitely increased.

He also understood why he didn't see his father train himself, this warm-up wouldn't do much for him anymore. He wondered how his father was doing.

Did he have to race a horse for a whole day before considering being exhausted? What about Edwin? Even sprinting for a whole week toward the kingdom's capital might not be enough to tire him out.

After running, everyone went to retrieve a wooden sword. Rohan took the one he usually used, it was made for his stature and was light. Of course, he should have known, it was now way too light!

"Rohan, please, take this training sword, it's heavier than the one you have, it should fit you fine. I prepared it earlier in case you wanted to train."

Rohan turned around and saw the captain hand him a sword. He took it, thanking him and stood next to the soldiers.

For an hour, they chained movements that they had already learned by heart. Rohan had learned for a long time and had been replicating them every day for three years. Although these movements were far from perfect, they were decent.

In any case, that's what he had thought. He realized that the control he had over his body was much more obvious than before. He thus tried to perfect the various movements of attacks and defenses.

After finishing, the captain walked up to Rohan and offered him an idea.

"I see you are still having a little trouble controlling your strength, if you don't mind, what do you think of a duel against one of the soldiers?"