Let The Matches Begin

Trenton and Henry found an opening where they could watch the knight's bracket of the sword-fighting competition. There were benches they could sit on while they waited for Henry's turn to warm up before his matches.

Maximus and Trenton had explained the rules of the competition to Henry before, but seeing matches firsthand was helping Henry understand them a lot more.

There were three 90-second rounds available to each competitor. The goal was to knock the other person down within that time or have them give up. Causing fatal injury was against the rules.

There were 16 fighters in each bracket, for a total of 32 swordsmen competing. Only two could be semifinalists, but a third place was allowed for someone showing exemplary skill and being a crowd favorite.

There were no shields allowed; only gauntlets were allowed for blocking. The knights were allowed to wear their full armor because of the higher intensity of their fights. The apprentices could wear their full armor, but their armor was naturally less protective. They weren't expected to fight with the intensity of the knights anyway.

The first round was executed in two parts. Four pairs of knights fought at a time so that the lower rounds could be decided quickly.

As the action unfolded in front of Henry, he couldn't help occasionally gasping. The slightly older man next to him laughed at his responses. He thought he was innocent because he was nearly 20 years old.

There were so many fights going on at one time that it was hard for him to focus. The clanking of metal and grunting or yelling of the knights filled him with adrenaline, and he could hardly sit still.

The arena was shaped like a giant horseshoe. On the open side, you could see the castle in the distance.

Henry's brown eyes scanned the audience, but he stopped when he saw a tent set up in the middle of the stands, with guards flanking either side of it.

The tent was made of dark red fabric, and there was gold detailing along the edges and through the ropes that tied the tent open so that whoever was inside could watch the matches without interruption.

As he observed with unsuppressed curiosity, he saw a small hand with the fairest skin he had ever seen rest on the side of the brick just outside of the tent as they watched the knights below. Long, blonde hair soon followed as its owner leaned forward with interest in the fighting in front of her.

A hand with a large gold ring on each finger stopped the blonde from moving forward any further, and the dainty hand disappeared, as did the golden blonde hair.

Henry was transfixed, nearly forgetting about the loud matches happening in front of him.

"You aim high, don't you?" Trenton asked with a laugh.

Henry, immediately embarrassed, diverted his gaze back to the matches. However, he couldn't help his curiosity at the knight's words.

"What do you mean, Sir Trenton?" he asked.

"The only public event with commoners involved that the king attends is the sword fighting competition," Trenton explained. "At one point in his youth, King Alfred was said to be a skilled swordsman."

Trenton himself couldn't resist a glance in the tent's direction, but he knew better than to daydream about the impossible.

"It seems this year he brought the princess with him," Trenton continued. "I saw you gawking at her," he joked.

Despite his tan skin, Henry's ears turned red at the insinuation.

"Gawking…" Henry echoed the word, horrified that he was caught doing something so shameless.

Trenton laughed in response and smacked Henry's shoulder plate.

"You wouldn't be the first, nor would you be the last," he said. "Some expect that Alix's elder brother, who is next in line to be duke, will marry her. Though nothing is set in stone yet."

Henry nodded in understanding. He imagined Alix's brother being blonde as well. A blonde would marry a blonde, just as expected.

The princess had probably never breathed the same air as a peasant, nor would she ever.

As he was lost in thought, the first round of the match came to an end. There were only eight knights who would advance to the next round.

In some areas of the brown brick, blood stained the ground, and the occasional servant would be on their hands and knees, scrubbing the floor the best they could to get rid of the sight.

Henry recalled that peasants couldn't even work as servants within the walls of Hydrogia. A job that was seen as the lowest wasn't actually as low as one could be in society.

Along the inner wall of the arena, some knights who had been hurt by their rivals were receiving medical attention. Henry hoped he was never in their shoes, though he would feel lucky if he walked out of the arena unscathed.

Henry couldn't help that his eyes occasionally glanced at the tent, hoping for another glimpse of the princess, who stayed under the tent so that her fair skin would never know the damage of the sun. She would never glance in his direction due to his lowly complexion.

As things were cleaned between rounds, it seemed that the audience took advantage of the break.

Henry observed many people leave and return with food. He wondered what kinds of food were served in a place like this. So far, he had mainly seen meats grilled on a stick or turkey legs.

As the second round started to pick up and the matches were smaller, he decided it was a more calm environment and he could focus more easily on the skill level of the knights.

He paid attention to which strikes received which counters. As his eyes remained focused and his mind vigilant, he started trying to guess what the knights would do next. He guessed correctly about half the time, and if the knights did something other than what was expected, he observed why and to what result.

Trenton glanced at Henry, who was focused on the matches, and he was pleased to see his possible apprentice taking his training so seriously. He had faith in the younger man from the moment he saw him slice the goblin in half.

The red-haired knight had started his apprenticeship as a 16-year-old, 11 years earlier. He came from a working-class family, and his father nearly went broke paying the knight to allow him into the ranks. His father was a butcher, and the salary was consistent but only just enough to keep the family afloat.

Trenton's father was the one who originally wanted to be a knight, but after being forced into military service in his late teens, he was injured in battle, losing one of his legs. If he had an exemplary performance in battle, he was promised an apprenticeship, but it never materialized.

He was obsessed with raising his son to be the knight he couldn't be.

Trenton didn't take his apprenticeship seriously until he faced monsters in battle. By that point, he relied less on skill and more on brute strength to handle the monsters.

It was unusual for a knight to try to gain an apprentice rather than an apprentice trying to gain the favor of a knight, but he believed in Henry's skill and dedication.

Now that he had an apprentice in his sights, he wanted to use his dedication to make him a better knight than he could ever be.