The Storm King

Tiberias could hardly believe what he’d just seen. His woman, Elise, fawning over a savage! That radiant beauty, that most splendid of women, the woman he knew would one day bear his children, acting so familiar with a northern barbarian! A man with dirt for blood!

Elise was a noble woman, even if she wasn’t technically a member of the nobility. Her status was unquestionable, her wealth extraordinary; truly, no other woman was fit for the son and heir of the Duke of Aurelianorum, once of the richest and most powerful noblemen in the entire Kingdom. She was still resisting his advances, but he knew that she’d give in one of these days. He just had to be patient. She’d give in and accept his affections. Every woman he’d ever desired had given in eventually.

But seeing Elise with the savage, who offended the entire Kingdom with every breath he took within its borders… Tiberias’ rage was endless, but his shock was even moreso. After seeing the two of them together, he hadn’t even been able to approach them. Not even the social pressure of his friends behind him was enough for him to make a move. He’d only been able to stand and stare at the scene, and meekly back down when Leon turned his gaze in Tiberias’ direction.

Tiberias spent the next quarter of an hour practically catatonic, not responding to his friends with anything more than the barest of grunts.

When he finally managed to get his brain working again, he was hit with a wave of fury and humiliation so strong that he couldn’t stick around. His blood pressure skyrocketed and his face grew so red that he thought himself in danger of getting a nosebleed; he hurriedly excused himself and left the Heaven’s Eye Tower as quickly as his legs could carry him without robbing him of his noble dignity.

For the next hour, he found coming to his mind his favorite daydream, that of the family he’d have one day, with himself taking over his father’s Duchy, Elise at his side as his dutiful and obedient wife, their many children surrounding them, and his spectacular wealth everywhere on display. In this fantasy, he often had many great men and women bowing at his feet, and occasionally a crown around his brow, but for all the forms the dream took, Elise was always there.

As far as Tiberias was concerned, she belonged to him, and to him alone. That Leon would dare to lay his hands upon her was only further proof that he was a barbarian, barely worth anything more than a swift visit from an efficient headsman. Tiberias’ fantasy was quickly replaced with the many brutal and torturous punishments he suddenly wished to inflict upon Leon for defiling what he saw as his.

Almost unconsciously, Tiberias’ feet carried him to the doors of the palace owned by the Duke of Lentia, Gaius’ father. When Tiberias saw where he was, a smile crossed his lips. He and Gaius had some common grief with the upstart savage, now…

Without hesitation, Tiberias rang the enchanted bell at the front gate, and only a few minutes later, was shown to Gaius’ personal wing of the palace. The Duke wasn’t here all that often and so couldn’t receive him, but Tiberias knew that Gaius spent much of his time here when he wasn’t at the Knight Academy or out in the city. It seemed that luck was on his side, for Gaius happened to be here when Tiberias arrived.

Gaius was busy training with the two other third-tier trainees in his unit, whom Tiberias recognized as noblemen from the Southern Territories named Actaeon and Linus. Gaius seemed to be alternating sparring with them, both honing his own combat skills while giving them some personal instruction that his superior skills could provide.

Tiberias wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but at the very least, it would speed up the formation of the alliance that he now greatly desired to have with them.

With the four of them together, they could easily smash the Snow Lions and reclaim Gaius’ honor, and if Tiberias had his way, violently teach the barbarian that he wasn’t welcome in the civilized world.

---

When Leon returned to the Snow Lion’s tower, he dropped off most of what he had just bought in his room and ventured back out into the forest to try out his new hunting bow. The only other things he brought with him were his family’s sword, a one-handed training short sword, and a dozen arrows.

He wasn’t really intent on hunting, he only wanted to get used to the new bow. He strolled into the forest until he found a clearing. It was reasonably quiet there, so there was where he stopped. The clearing wasn’t that large, barely more than half the range of Leon’s bow even if it hadn’t been enchanted. Still, Leon missed a target he carved into a tree with his first round of arrows.

He sighed as he went to retrieve them. He was out of practice and the new bow just felt a little weird in his hand. He had used his old bow for so long that the grip had been slowly molded into the perfect shape for his fingers, and this new bow just couldn’t match up, even with its more well-crafted enchantment.

Leon spent hours shooting at his target and when the time came for him to return to the tower, he felt that he had hit the mark more times than he had missed, though it wasn’t by much.

He spent almost the entire Sunday in that clearing as well, shooting at the tree until, by the end of the day, he could consistently hit it ten or eleven times out every dozen shots. But that wasn’t enough for him, and he intended to keep practicing when he had the time.

---

The following week proceeded much the same as the previous had. The trainees were now familiar with the routine, so their Senior Instructors led them to the training field without any fuss.

The third-tier trainees had gotten bored of sparring with each other, so they all but stopped by the end of the week. The Senior Instructors didn’t press them to continue, allowing them to chat and build connections with each other for the last two days. At their level and with their influence, building connections with their fellow nobles was far more important than combat skill, and the Instructors already knew that their combat skill was adequate for knights of the Bull Kingdom.

However, the same complacency was not found in Valeria or Leon, as the two battled each other five times during that week and each time was just as spirited and vigorous as their first few bouts. Their record barely budged, though, with Leon winning twice, Valeria winning twice, and their Friday fight ending in another draw.

With the exception of the duels between Valeria and Leon, the third-tiers breezed through the rest of the Basic Combat classes with remarkably little effort. The same could not be said for the second and first-tier trainees, who were drilled in the basic fighting style of the Royal Legions almost to the point of exhaustion.

Furthermore, the first-tier trainees had started to bicker amongst themselves, especially the Snow Lions and Deathbringers who nearly started fighting in the middle of class over a few muttered insults. Normally, the instructors teaching the classes would have the first-tier trainees spar against each other and deliberately feed these little conflicts, but the tension between these two units convinced them that the usual tactics used to encourage the battles between units weren’t necessary, so the units weren’t pitted against each other as they usually were for the last few days.

Thanks to the additional instruction given to them by Leon, Charles, Henry, and Alain performed admirably during these sparring sessions, quickly gaining a reputation as some of the strongest first-tier fighters in the Snow Lions.

The afternoon classes were just as uneventful as the morning classes were. The nobles weren’t keen on fighting each other quite yet, and all the first-tier trainees were confined to the Magical Theory classroom, where the Instructors could keep an eye on them.

However, it was plain for all with eyes to see that the Snow Lions and Deathbringers were on a collision course, and things were going to start popping off sooner rather than later.

---

The Senior Instructor had more than usual to say to the Snow Lions at the end of Friday. “Basic Combat is over! You’re all at least mildly competent with the standard Legion sword! First-Aid will take up all of next week, and then it’s on to Light Infantry classes!”

The trainees began to excitedly chat amongst themselves. The start of Light Infantry classes was when they would be issued their armor as well as when they would start learning how to fight as the smallest standard group in the Legion—squads of ten or so trainees, each containing seven or eight first-tier trainees and two or three second-tier trainees. The third-tier trainees would be free to choose which group they wanted to join.

The Senior Instructor wasn’t done talking, though, and he angrily shouted at the chatting trainees, “Shut the fuck up! Those who speak before I’m finished will run the circuit a few hundred times!” Running the circuit was to run around the tower while carrying increasingly large logs and stones. All three Instructors had made enough people run the circuit in the past few weeks for everyone to know that the Senior Instructor wasn’t playing around when he ordered them to be quiet.

The room fell silent in seconds.

“Good. First-Aid training will be fairly straightforward, you’ll learn all about how to activate and utilize low-grade healing spells, as well as how to apply tourniquets, bandages, and splints! After that will be a couple days of drills until you can all save your buddies if they get hurt in combat!”

The Senior Instructor glanced over at the second and third-tier trainees before continuing. “All of you will be expected to step up and fulfill your duties as the leaders of this unit next week! Do not fuck this up!”

With those words said, the Senior Instructor turned around and left the tower, dismissing the trainees.

Leon and the usual group got together for some additional training. Everyone, that is, except Henry, who slumped down onto a chair nearby with a long sigh.

“What’s wrong with you?” asked Charles, sensing a possible moment of weakness to exploit in revenge for Henry constantly poking fun at him.

“Haaaaaaah, I... need to get laid,” replied Henry.

“What?” asked Charles in confusion, having expected the reason for Henry’s fatigue to be something a little more relevant to the Knight Academy.

“It has been more than a month since I last touched a woman!” complained Henry while adjusting his pants. “Gragh! It’s getting so bad I’m growing a damn third leg!”

“Then go out and find a willing girl and get it on… with… her…” said Charles, leaving the others to give him odd looks as he trailed off. Charles only paused for a couple seconds before continuing with a mocking tone like he’d just solved the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything. “Oh, wait! I know exactly why you’re not getting any ladies, it’s because none of them can stand to be in your presence for more than a few seconds at a time! You’re putting your line out there, but nothing’s biting!”

“Oh ho, you want to get personal, huh?” said Henry with a grin as he stood up.

“So what if I do?” asked Charles.

The two men started approaching each other as if they were about to fight, but the barely concealed grins on their faces betrayed just how serious this little back-and-forth was—or rather, how serious it wasn't. They stared each other down for a moment, then laughed and went back to training.

Henry returned to his seat and asked, “But seriously, I’m hitting up the lakefront tomorrow. Anyone want to come with? I’ve heard there are some fine ladies as far as the mortal eye can see there every day!”

“Nah, there’s a girl I already have my eye on,” Charles replied. “A bartender I’ve chatted with a couple times.”

Alain also refused, saying “My fiancées would skin me alive if they heard I was out looking for more women. I think I’ll just hedge my bets and stay out of trouble. Maybe I’ll check out the Blasted Furnace’s local markets, I should be able to find some good steel there for cheap if I look hard enough.”

Henry groaned in dejection. “Seriously?! How is it that all of you have girlfriends or fiancées and I don’t?!” He paused for a moment before turning to Leon, who was quietly moving through a few sword forms that Artorias had taught him years ago and listening to the group’s conversation with a slight smile.

“Hey, Leon!” In response, Leon glanced over at Henry but didn’t stop moving. “You want to go to the beach with me tomorrow? Come on, the only two single guys here!”

Leon chuckled a little but politely shook his head. “I plan on staying here over the weekend to brush up on my knowledge of fire enchantments…”

[.. and I’ll be expecting your help, demon,] he added in his mind.

[Huh? What?] asked a slightly taken aback Xaphan.

[You promised to provide me with ‘power, wisdom, and knowledge’. I’ve given you plenty of time, now you’ve got to deliver.]

[… So be it.]

“You know what?” Henry asked Leon rhetorically after a bit of thought. “It’s probably better you don’t go with me. As you’re a third-tier mage, you could probably just stand there looking as sharp as a sphere and you’d still have better game than everyone else here, without a doubt.”

“I… don’t know about that…” Leon responded bashfully. He knew he wasn’t that great with people in general—and women in particular—and if it wasn’t for Elise constantly approaching him, he doubted that he would be able to speak more than a few sentences to a woman before locking up.

“Whatever, I’m going to bed. I’m going to need to be in peak condition tomorrow…” Henry said as he rose and made for his bed.

The rest of the group wasn’t that far behind, only staying up for another hour before turning in as well.

---

Not everyone in the Academy turned in as early as Leon and his friends. A second-tier trainee ran out of the Deathbringer’s tower not long after sundown bearing a message for Tiberias. The message was a short and simple reminder: tomorrow morning.

When he received the message about half an hour later, Tiberias merely nodded and smiled. He’d calmed down significantly over the week and no longer particularly cared about Gaius’ attack itself, but still looked forward to it as a pleasant distraction while he contemplated less petty and far more permanent ways to get rid of Leon.