Chapter 5 - Best morning of my life

My grandfather let me rest for almost a whole day now, and I have to admit that despite my occasional outburst of pain that plagued my body for the last two years, this may have just been the first time since I've got myself with this curse, a nice sleep. No doubt that the long journey as well as the horrible resting condition the passenger wagon could offer to someone were the main culprits for my almost immediate sleep.

In the morning, for the first time I woke up in a great mood and the most important thing was that the pain that I usually felt in the morning was nowhere, making me enjoy the morning like a normal child.

Sadly, my good time was disturbed when someone knocked on the door. Soon after the knocking stopped, I heard the voice of a woman shouting my name.

"Young lord, are you awake?"

By the grace of the divinities woman, if I didn't was awake, then surely she would have woken me up with her shout. Nevertheless, she was doing her duty, and from what my uncle told me, my grandfather has his way of testing people, and there was no way he didn't put the woman to wake me up in such a way just to see how I would react.

"I'm awake mam, but next time, please don't shout like that."

"As you wish young lord. Lord Braun is waiting for you in the dining hall. If you require help dressing up please do let me know."

"Thank you for your offer mam, but I think I can manage to get ready by myself."

"If that's what you wish for my young lord, then I urge you to get ready soon. Lord Braun doesn't exactly love to wait for something or someone."

It didn't take me long to get ready and as soon as I left my room, the same woman who knocked on my door escorted me to the dining hall. She wore the normal clothes that most commoners had access to, but despite that, the woman was cleaner than most nobles were. Maybe she noticed my eyes scanning her because the woman let out a chuckle before she warned me.

"Young lord, I'm happy to see that I didn't lose my charm, but you should know how improper is to stare at a woman for so long, especially when you aren't ready to pursue her. After all, we don't want you to end up just like Lord Nikolaus."

"I'm sorry mam. I didn't want to stare, I was merely curious why would someone clean so often as you do."

"Oh, my oh my. Young lord, despite how rude your question is, I think you need to learn about Lord Braun's obsession. Lord Braun hates to be near anything dirty or at least for the last few years. I for one don't care, after all, I enjoy cleaning myself and not having to worry about my next meal, but you will also need to get used to it."

I could only nod at her words. While it was definitely strange, it wasn't unheard of for a noble to love living in a clean environment, but it was definitely expensive to buy perfumes or soaps from the merchant guild.

As we pass beside a window, I noticed a boy slightly older than me betting the daylight out of a straw dummy while one of the men at arms was watching him.

The woman saw me stopping and walked beside me before she prompt me to continue walking.

"That was Lance, my son. He's a good boy, but he does love swordsmanship more than he loves his mother. His father, my husband, dies last year when the army of the King of Trolls attacked our kingdom. Since then, my son tried to learn how to use a sword like his father. As for the man that's supervising him, he was a good friend of my husband, Ocelot, the only soldier that had the heart to train a little boy."

A few minutes later, Amila, the woman who woke me up and I reached the dining hall, before she excused herself, leaving me alone with my grandfather. Once he noticed my presence, the old lord looked at me for a second before he nodded his head seemly at no one in particular.

I waited behind a chair for the old lord to tell me that it was ok for me to take a seat, as I didn't want to seem rude to my grandfather, who was also the lord of this town.

"What in the bloody hell happened to you, my child? Did that idiotic son of mine treat you so bad that you need someone's permission to even eat? I swear, I'll take Malut with me and march our armies after your father's head. Seat boy, you are my grandson for goddess sake, you don't need my permission, you aren't my servant."

I was grateful that my grandfather wasn't like my uncle described him to be, even more so than my father, who, after my older brother died, decided to completely ignore me, despite my stepmother, no my mother's threats.

"Thank you, Lord Braun. My father wasn't exactly the best father in the world, but despite his shortcoming, he cared about me in his own way."

"Brat, I'm your grandfather, not your bloody lord. When we are inside my domain, you are to call me grandfather, that's an order from you lord! Am I clear?"

"Yes, lord grandfather."

"Just grandpa, Konrad."

"But…"

"No buts. I waited years for my sons to give me grandsons and yet my first-born left my town to follow his dream of becoming a lord from scratch while the other one doesn't want to have children for some reason. Thank Mira for giving me the chance to meet you. I know, I know that you have been cursed, but fear not, your grandfather pulled some strings, and in a few months a friend of mine from the royal palace would come and examine you. Hopefully, that old beard would know what happened to you."

I didn't have any idea about what my grandfather was referring to, but I still nodded at him, making the old man laugh when he saw me nodding at his words like an idiot.

After we ate, the old man brought me to the courtyard where some of the soldiers that weren't on duty were training alongside some of the new recruits. Apparently, my grandfather didn't employ all of the five hundred swords, the King let him have. His words were,, no point wasting gold and silver for swords and men that would rust doing nothing when I could have the very same men train in their free time with my good old friend after they finish their work. "

Besides, from what I've seen the town wasn't exactly a bug of thievery and crime like the people from my father's domain gossiped about.

My grandfather and I walked in the middle of the courtyard before he caught the attention of all twenty men and women that were training. I forgot to mention but my grandfather was a believer in equality in battle, no matter the gender and because of that, he employed some women that were burning with the desire to fight in his ranks. No doubt a huge middle finger to all lords that were against this kind of practice, but in my opinion, he did the right thing. After all, my mother was a fierce fighter, especially at night when I would always hear my father yelling that he surrenders when they are sparring. I can only imagine how powerful she is and how complex her fighting style was to make my father, a former knight, yield so many times.

As soon as the soldiers saw my grandfather preparing himself to speak, they all stop doing what they were doing and waited for their lord to speak, while at the same time glancing from time to time at me, the little boy standing beside him.

"From today onwards, my grandson would train here with you, or at least we do once he gets better. For now, I want someone willing to sacrifice a few hours every day to explain to him the way of the sword and show him some basic movements from time to time."

Even though he was their lord, everyone knew how hard is to train someone from zero and how much time they would need to waste from their time if they took this assignment. I could see that my grandfather wasn't angry when he saw that no one was taking the offer, instead, I saw him smile for a second before something unbelievable happened. Seemly out of nowhere, a woman walked out of his shadow before she kneeled in front of him.

"My lord."

"It's good to see you too, Keishara. Konrad meets Keishara, one of my most trusted soldiers, and from now on, she will be your shadow. Of course, only if she agrees."

For some unknown reason, a shiver went through my spine when the black-skinned woman smiled at me. Something about her seemed, how to put it, unreal, as if that was her real face, but has at the same time.

"It would be an honor to train the young lord my lord. Can I suggest moving to a more private place before we continue our conversation, my lord? Many birds and ears went active since last night and I don't like that even a little bit."

"So be it. Let's move to the living room. There, no bird, ear, or unholy being would be able to eardrop in our conversation."

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