Chapter 23: Interlude – A Chat in the Garden

Roland Aizenwald's Perspective

"Hah!" Roland swung his sword downwards with all the force he could muster.

"Hm." Gertrude, Roland's Guardian Knight and the person who he was sparring with at the moment, used his own sword to strike the side of Roland's sword as it was coming down, parrying it with ease. Roland used the momentum of Gertrude's strike to rotate his body and sweep his blade sideways, forcing Gertrude to defend it using his sword guard.

"Got you!" Capitalizing on the small opening, Roland sent a kick to Gertrude's crotch.

"Good." Gertrude nodded in satisfaction at his student's ruthlessness. He infused his body with Qi and moved to dodge the 'dirty' blow. Gertrude's sword disappeared into thin air and he smiled as he offered a compliment. "That was splendid, Your Highness."

"Haah haah..." Roland wiped away the beads of sweat on his forehead as he tried to control his breathing.

He'd been training for the past two hours or so. His body was slick with sweat and his muscles screamed in protest, but it was a feeling Roland was used to. It was a sensation that meant that he'd just had a good training session.

"I... still... can't activate... my Qi..." Roland held his head low as he tried his best to speak in between heavy breaths.

"Do not worry, Your Highness." Gertrude placated, giving the young Prince a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "It will happen eventually. You're still young. Why, I was twenty years old when I unlocked my Qi!"

"I see..." Roland heaved a small sigh of relief. Gertrude was an Ascended Knight, so if even he took that long, Roland felt a bit better about not being able to use his Qi yet. He looked up with determination in his eyes. "Let's go again."

Gertrude shook his head. "That's enough for today, Your Highness."

"Hm?" Roland tilted his head in confusion. It was over already? They usually trained for four hours in the morning. "Don't we still have two hours or so?"

"Let's continue later." Gertrude smiled as he sent a look in the direction of the castle. "It seems you have a little visitor."

"Visitor...?" Roland followed Gertrude's gaze and saw a tiny figure pattering over with a retinue following behind him.

Who else could it be but the Second Prince Reivan? He was the only child in the entire Royal Castle after all.

'Oh? What's he here for?' Roland couldn't help a warm smile from appearing on his face. The sword held in his hand vanished into the void as he patted away the traces of dust on his clothes. Then he took out a fresh, chilled towel from his spatial storage ring and did his best to wipe off as much of the sweat as possible before his little brother arrived. 'Here's hoping he doesn't call me a stinky-head or something.'

Roland wistfully recalled how he would push away his father, because he didn't like the smell of sweat when he was young. He didn't want that to happen with him and his brother.

"Well, then I suppose we'll continue this later," Roland said as he set out to meet his visitor halfway.

 

---

 

"Big brother!" Reivan squeaked as he threw his arms wide open and puffed out his chest. "I am here!!"

"Pfft. Where'd you learn that...?" Roland couldn't help but chuckle. He didn't quite understand what Reivan was referencing, but he found it silly nonetheless. In any case, anything Reivan did would be adorable in Roland's eyes. He walked over and ruffled his little brother's ivory-colored hair. "Did you come to play with big brother?"

"Nope!" Reivan nonchalantly, making Roland's shoulders unconsciously droop for a moment. "I came because I wanted to hear stories."

"Stories...?" Roland muttered in confusion. Why would Reivan come to him for that? When Roland came over last time, there were plenty of picture books in his Reivan's room. Even if he couldn't read, the maids would've been all too eager to read it out for him. "What happened to your picture books?"

"I got bored of them," Reivan said matter-of-factly.

"Bored, huh..." Roland nodded in understanding. He'd also gotten bored of picture books when he was young. Albeit, he was seven by then. 'Isn't it a bit early for him to get bored of them? He's only three...'

Roland was a bit bewildered, but he chose to just accept it. He and Reivan were different, so they would naturally like and dislike different things.

'Besides, he's used to being flown around all over the place for entertainment. I suppose it wouldn't be all that strange for him to be bored of pictures...' Roland rationalized. 'But wait... why did he come to me for stories...?'

"Just go to the library if you're bored of picture books," Roland suggested.

"Father won't let me..." Reivan's shoulders drooped as his eyes watered.

"Oh..." Roland felt a sting in his heart. He inwardly cursed his father for being unfair as he thought about how to cheer his brother up. Then, his eyes widened in realization. "Well, in the meantime, let's go somewhere we can converse easier. We can't just stay standing here."

"Mm." Reivan nodded as he complained. "I'm tired."

Roland chuckled as he picked up his beloved little brother. "Let's sit over there."

 

---

 

There were a few gardens in the Royal castle, and each of them had three or four gazebos available in certain areas so that the Royals or their guests could use them to take a break after their stroll.

"There we go." Roland plunked his butt down on a chair in one of those gazebos. He placed his little brother in his lap as he took out a cup and a pitcher of ice-cold apple juice from his ring and gave the cup to Reivan. Roland was about to pour some of the juice into Reivan's cup, but then he hesitated. Would it be too cold for a child? But then he remembered that Reivan had inherited his mother's [Ice] attribute, so he would probably like the coldness of the juice even more. As he filled his little brother's cup, Roland asked. "So what kind of stories do you want?"

Roland was a bit more well-read than most children. However, most of the things he'd read were history books and other educational ones. He wasn't confident in satisfying a child's curiosity.

"Mm!" A smile appeared on Reivan's lips after he took a sip of the juice. After taking a particularly large gulp, he looked up and stared at Roland with his bright gold eyes. "I don't know!"

"Huh...?" Roland's lips twitched. He was a bit at a loss for what to do.

"I don't really know anything... so I don't know what I want." Reivan clarified. "So I want to know more!"

"Oh, that's what you meant..." Roland nodded in realization. "I don't actually know much though..."

"That's okay!" Reivan chirped. He angled his head and widened his eyes a little as he begged with a face that made Roland's heart melt. "Please?"

"Fine. But if you fall asleep, I'll hit you, okay?" Roland jokingly said as he shrugged in compliance. How could he say no to a face like that? He racked his brain for everything he knew, then quickly discovered that most of them didn't feel appropriate to tell a three-year-old child. "What can I tell you...?"

Hearing Roland's soft mutter, Reivan also looked troubled.

"I guess I can only really tell you about our country..." Roland decided. He tried to organize his thoughts first, then asked. "Wait, do you even know what our country is called?"

"I do!" Reivan nodded with a smile on his face. "Aizen!"

"Yes. Correct." Roland nodded in approval as he stroked Reivan's head. He held up three fingers with his other hand. "Right, so our country is one of three countries in the continent of Sentoral."

"Sentoral..." Reivan echoed.

"Yep. Sentoral Continent." Roland repeated. It was then that he realized that Reivan probably didn't know what a continent was. "Uhm... A continent is like... this really big piece of land in the middle of the ocean... Ah! An ocean is a super big body of water... Oh, and a country is like a group of people..."

'Oh god. I'm so bad at this...' Roland lamented. In his life, he'd always been in the position to be taught. As his respect for his teachers grew by the second, Roland tried his best to choose words that Reivan would understand.

"Mm. Mm." Reivan nodded along. "I know what those are! They show up in the picture books!"

"Oh! They do?" Roland sighed in relief. "So uhm, the countries... There's us, the Aizen Kingdom. Then there's the Magitechnocratic Republic of Arkhan. Finally, there's the Empire of Argonia."

As Roland recited the names of the three countries, his face visibly darkened when he mentioned the final one.

"Aizen, Arkhan, and Argonia...?" Reivan repeated.

Roland nodded as his smile grew, glad that his brother was paying attention. "Our country is the smallest, next is Arkhan. Argonia occupies most of the continent's land. I think it was... seventy percent...?"

"Woah." Reivan gaped in amazement.

"Yes... Oh, wait." Roland realized that Reivan wouldn't know how much seventy percent was, so waved his hands as he roused the mana in his body. Ten orbs of light floated in front of them. "So, let's say that these lights symbolize the continent..."

"Wah. So pretty..." Reivan gawked. "Is this magic...?"

"Yes. Well, it's just a cantrip though..." Roland smiled wryly as he willed the lights to separate into three groups. One group had seven lights, another had two, and the final group only had one. "So, the one with lots of lights is the Argonia Empire. "

"Oh..." Reivan nodded, then pointed towards the cluster of two lights. "And this is Arkhan?"

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"That's right!" Roland ruffled Reivan's hair roughly, marveling at his intelligence. "And the last one is us."

"We're so small!" Reivan giggled as he exclaimed.

"Mm. That's true." Roland nodded in agreement. He raised a finger to get Reivan's attention then puffed out his chest with pride. "But that doesn't mean we're weak! The empire has been trying to conquer us for thousands of years, but they haven't even been able to place a foot in our territory!"

"Oh!" Reivan exclaimed, mouth agape.

"Kuhum." Someone standing behind the siblings cleared their throat loudly. It was Gertrude, Roland's Guardian Knight. "Your Highness, I don't think you should be telling Prince Reivan that..."

"Oh..." Roland's eyes widened in realization. Although the conflict with the empire was common knowledge and he hadn't used any explicit words, he probably shouldn't be talking about bloody things with his three-year-old brother. "A-anyways... Just know that Argonians are the bad guys. They want to take our stuff."

"Okay..." Reivan nodded with a bit of hesitation and confusion. "What about Arkhan?"

"Oh, them?" Roland's expression eased. "They're fine. They're not our friends, but the republic... I mean, Arkhan is a good neighbor. We trade... I mean, we get lots of stuff from each other."

"I see!" Reivan chirped in understanding.

"Alright, moving on..." Roland dug into his well of knowledge, then tried his best to word it in a way his brother would understand. "Telling you about all three would take too long, so I'm going to focus on our country, okay?"

"Okay!" Reivan nodded twice.

"Good." Roland took a deep breath, then explained. "Despite being small, Aizen is fully independent. That means we don't rely on others to survive. Through magic and technological advancements... I mean, because of things that smart people invented and knowledge that they discovered, we're able to produce more than enough food in our small country."

"Wow, that's amazing!" Reivan's eyes shined as he exclaimed.

"That's right! Hehe. Our country's pretty awesome. In fact, despite our country being smaller, a lot of food in the republic actually comes from us!" Roland said proudly. He then continued. "And because all of the previous rulers from our family did a good job, and were all nice to the people, everybody in our country loves us!"

"Everybody...?" Reivan's asked, disbelief written all over his face.

"Yep, that's right. Everybody." Roland nodded. Compared to everywhere else, the lives of the common people were of great quality in the Kingdom.

Aside from the Royal Family, everybody was equally underneath the King. As such, the laws judged everybody equally. Whether you were a knight, a civil servant, a baker, or a beggar, if you did something against the law, you would be judged mercilessly. This meant that as long as the Royal Family didn't go around abusing people, they wouldn't have to worry about someone using their status to oppress them.

Education was readily available and cheap, health care was advanced and affordable, and to top it all off, because of the strength and ability of the knights, crime was all but nonexistent in the Kingdom. Although there were petty disputes and pickpocketing from time to time, criminal organizations and bandits would be rooted out and exterminated before they could get comfortable.

Speaking of the Aizen's Knights, they were the most elite forces on the continent. They alone, can protect the Kingdom from invaders. Their existence brought peace of mind to all of the Kingdom's citizens.

There were all sorts of other reasons why a commoner would want to live in Aizen, but these would be the main ones. Relative equality, quality of life, and safety.

'The dystopic Empire aside, even the republic isn't free from discrimination. Civil servants and those favored by the upper brass throw their weight around and bend the laws to their will. They're just Imperial nobles, but with different titles.' Roland inwardly mocked. 'Most of all, the republic isn't even in control of their country's strongest troops, so they hold no actual authority in the eyes of foreign forces.'

It was too complicated to explain all of this to his little brother, so Roland kept it to himself. Reivan would eventually have to study the specifics when he got a bit older anyway.

"What else..." Roland rubbed his chin in thought for a moment, then his eyes brightened in realization. He held his arm out and a sword appeared in his hand. "This, is a Soul Armament, Rein. It's something unique to our country."

"Wah..." Reivan gawked at the sword, his eyes running through its half black and half white blade. "A Soul Armament..."

"Yes. Well, specifically, this is a Royal Armament. They're a type of Soul Armament that can only be used by members of the current Royal Family." Roland waved his sword a little as he explained. "You'll get one soon too. I got mine when I was ten, but since you're smarter and more physically able for your age, maybe you'll get it a bit earlier."

"I'll get one too!?" Reivan squealed in excitement as he got off his brother's lap and jumped up and down. He looked as if he was ready to zoom off into the horizon. "Where do I get one...?"

"Haha, slow down..." Roland chuckled in amusement. "You'll get it when you get it. Besides, there's a ceremony for after..."

Roland trailed off as his face darkened, recalling his own ceremony. The feeling of blade piercing flesh. A puddle of blood on that pooled on the stone floor. And that place. That dark, eerie place...

"Big brother...?"

"Oh." Roland was snapped out of his thoughts by Reivan's hesitant mutter. The sword vanished as he said. "Sorry, I just remembered something... Anyways, you can't get one yet."

"Okay..." Reivan held his head low as his shoulders drooped.

"Ch-cheer up, alright? You'll be all grown up before you know it." Roland gently picked up his brother and placed him back in his lap. He ruffled Reivan's hair in consolation as he asked. "Don't you wanna know more about Soul Armaments?"

"I do..." Reivan looked up, traces of disappointment still on his face, but curiosity still welled up in his eyes.

"Haha, there we go." Roland nodded in satisfaction, then held his hand out again. His face screwed up in thought as he explained. "People can only form contracts with Soul Armaments by using a member of the Royal family as an intermediary-- I mean, they have to get our help. Soul Armaments can use Soul Energy-- I mean they have a special way to augment-- I mean, power up their owner. It's different from advanced mana application or Qi... which is too hard to explain, so I won't."

Roland sighed in frustration. Explaining things was so hard, and hearing the Knight behind him trying his best to hold back his laughter didn't help.

"That's okay, I'll ask mom if I don't understand something!" Reivan said, trying to reassure the visibly annoyed Roland.

"Yeah, that would help." Roland nodded in defeat. He waved his sword then it transformed into a knife. He waved it another time then it transformed into a hand ax. "Aside from being able to appear and disappear whenever one wants and powering up its wielder... I mean its owner, they can also change into whatever weapon their owner wants."

"Wah!" Reivan exclaimed in wonder. "Can they really transform into any weapon...?"

"Hm? Yes. As long as it can be wielded and carried by a single person..." Roland fiddled around with his Soul Armament, "Siege weapons... I mean, if they're too large, Soul Armaments can't transform into them."

"Awesome..." Reivan muttered, his smile growing as he sunk into thought.

"Uh, yeah..." Roland looked at Reivan strangely. For some reason, his little brother seemed to be really hung up on the Soul Armament's transformation ability. Roland just chose to shrug it off, though. When he was younger, he also found all sorts of things cool or curious. Reivan was just having a similar episode at the moment, so he continued. "There's more! I can't do it yet, but once you get strong enough, you can even have armor!"

"Oh, Armor? Like the ones that knights wear?" Reivan asked.

"Yep. All of the knights wearing armor that you see, their armor comes from their Soul Armament." Roland said with a look of longing. "One day, I'll also have that kind of armor."

"Me too?"

Roland nodded vigorously, with a childlike smile on his face. "Yeah! The both of us! Once we're both all grown up, we'll charge into battle side by side while wearing our armors! It'll be so cool!"

"So cool!" Reivan echoed.

"Yeah!" Roland raised his arm and cheered. Then he remembered something and he looked behind him. "Hey, Gertrude. Show Rein your armor."

"As you wish, Your Highness." With an amused smile, Gertrude took a large step forward to give the pair a closer look. Moments later, his entire body shone with light, and a full-body armor that covered every inch of his physique manifested from thin air. Its sleek shiny surface reflected the morning sun's light. The plate and chain clanked and scraped together as he flexed his arms, but the knight had no visible problems with movement.

"You see that, Rein?" Roland pointed excitedly at Gertrude's armor. "You'd think it was really heavy and that moving around in that would be hard, but in reality, it's as if the armor isn't there!"

"Wow..." Reivan muttered in amazement, but Roland noted that he was less impressed by this than the transformation ability. Roland shrugged and continued to continue, his heart thumping loudly in enthusiasm.

"After you've unleashed it once, the armor will protect you even if you don't manifest it. Of course, its defenses will be lowered by around forty percent, but that's still amazing!" Roland excitedly explained. He was so worked up, that he'd completely forgotten to select words that Reivan would understand. "Plus, it's so economical! The Soul Armament's armor is much better than even High-Quality enchanted gear, and yet we can equip every knight with it for free! Because of that, we spend minimal budget on the military and can focus it on agriculture, medicine, and infrastructure. You could even say that it's because of this that our Kingdom was able to advance civilization so much!"

"O-oh..." Reivan smiled stiffly as he gazed at his brother, who was now staring at empty air with a strange look on his face.

"Kuhum." Gertrude cleared his throat a second time, snapping Roland out of his reverie.

"O-oh. Sorry, I got a bit excited there..." Roland smiled guiltily. "Anyways--"

*Grumble*

Roland's words were interrupted by a loud sound coming from his brother's stomach.

"..." Reivan held his head low in embarrassment.

"Haha." Roland chuckled as he stood up while carrying his brother. "Did all that walking make you hungry? Let's go eat an early lunch."

"Yes..." Reivan agreed as he hid his slightly reddened face away from Roland's gaze by burying his face in his big brother's chest.

"Hahaha!" Roland laughed as he made his way through the grass, back to the castle.

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