Chapter 2: Chapter 2: The Greater part of the Childhood

In the grand imperial palace of the Purson Empire, there were many rooms.

In one such room lay a cradle, and in it a human infant.

The infant appeared much larger than others of its age and appeared quite healthy and energetic, with its eyes having an unusual clarity in them.

Yet despite the unusual clarity in its eyes, none could guess that the human infant was reborn!

Behind the clear eyes of the infant his various thoughts.

‘Had it been a month since my rebirth?’ said the infant in its hearth.

The infant was Cao Xiang! The Demon Fist of Shu Mountain, with various other nicknames of Day In Day Out, and so on.

He rehearsed much of his life in his mind, as he didn’t wish to forget the many skills he learned in his endless murderous travels.

‘I, Cao Xiang, was in my forties at the very least in my second life, yet to think I visited so many places in such an underdeveloped world!’ he then continued, ‘Well… Should I really call myself Cao Xiang now? The woman I accidentally slew by my birth gave me a different name…I think?’

Many thoughts occurred in the madman of the sword’s mind. His thoughts were various.

‘What was the name again?’ he contemplated,’ No matter! I should not think too deeply about it! Now, what was the formula for the alloy of the sword? Jin was copper if I remember correctly… and Xi was tin! So one should part the metal into three equal pieces, with one part being tin, and the other two parts being copper! Yes, two parts copper, one part tin!’

Many other things he recalled, as he didn’t wish to forget the many skill, for there were too many.

‘The blade should be cast with such an alloy, it should be five times longer than the hilt…Wait? Why am I thinking about swords?!’ he thought with frustration.

‘My sword, ’Exemplary Courage’, was the sword I made according to my needs! Why should I betray its memory by getting another sword? Hmm….Though I am thinking about how swords are made…Well not like I will like the new sword…Indeed! Swords are to be used as self protection, so it’s not a betrayal to ‘Exemplary Courage’ if I use a new sword!’ he made a conclusion in his mind.

‘Why not use a war axe? Or a bow…Indeed! Gentlemanly weapons of war! Of the weapons of war, the axe and the bow are the oldest! Though the bow is also among the most refined…Anyhow, I learned how to make the bows and chariots from the steppe nomads.’ He said in his mind.

‘Truly it was with those men that I had the greatest enjoyment! Meat, cheese, and alcohol as food…and the hunts! Truly great! I will be making chariots this time around…’

Then his thoughts shifted back to his name, ‘I really should remember the name that woman gave me…How was I to know that she wouldn’t survive? I simply cultivated internal energy by instinct! Now, what was it? Hmm…Was it…Vikram? Yeah! It was Vikram.’ He shouted in his mind, at the sudden realization, as he had only remembered it now.

And while he was busy with his contemplation, time passed without him realizing.

…

Four years have passed since Vikram’s birth into this new world, and he has already learned a few things!

First among the things he learned was that his father was…quite disturbed by the death of Vikram’s mother, to say the least. Indeed, the middle aged man had a wife, but as a man of high standing, he had many women to spend time with in a graphic, or better described as a reproductive way.

The other thing Vikram learned was the fact that he had an even greater martial talent and a body of quite good proportions, at least for now, so he no longer had the unexpected reach advantage of his sword arm being longer.

As for how he learned of his increased martial talent? Well, he practiced various skills that promoted bodily development. Not only has he practiced skills for the development of his muscles, bones, tendons, and sinews, but also methods for developing the internal organs.

To have a strong circulation of blood and large lungs were quite a great advantage! In his previous life as Cao Xiang, Vikram even visited the mystical western regions where he learned such skills, for those methods were quite useful, and even though he practiced them quite late in life, he could fight for hours thanks to them!

Most fights would end in minutes, if not seconds! And in a battle between experts, it was often minor mistakes that cost one his life. As such when one has abundant stamina, they can use it to make fewer mistakes as they can afford to.

Another thing that Vikram learned of greatly satisfied his vanity. As for what was the fact that satisfied his vanity? It was the fact that he will likely become quite handsome, as even in childhood he was of a large build and had strong facial features of a man who will be handsome, and his hair was scarlet in color.

But today was a special day for Vikram.

“Young lord, today you shall meet your governess!” a maid who escorted him throughout the halls of the great manor said.

Vikram had no particular impression of the maid, but he didn’t bother resisting as life was quite good. One fact about his current life that made Vikram overjoyed was the quality of the food! And not just because of the taste, but because of the great amount of red meat, milk products, and such things that contained protein. Though he also ate a lot of plant based food, as to not eat those was quite unhealthy.

So to attend lectures was not unwelcome, nor did it bother him as he would simply learn new things.

Upon entering the room, Vikram met a blonde haired young lady that was at most in her early twenties, with quite good looking facial features and a well proportioned physique, from what could be seen at least. Her outfit was not quite appropriate for someone who worked as an educator though.

“Greetings, Young Lord!” she said with a bow.

“Greetings to you as well.” Vikram replied while raising his hand in reaction to her bow.

“I am Priscilla, and I will be in charge of your education!” the woman said, after finishing her bow.

“I see…” Vikram reacted without much passion in his tone.

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“Well, let me start with the basics!” said Priscilla, and went on to talk about various things.

Such a scene could be seen for many days, and thanks to Priscilla, Vikram learned of the many things in this world.

The Purson Empire was the dominant force of the Atticus continent, but it wasn’t the only one.

Many kingdoms existed, many being client kings, but even more, being petty warlords of various ethnicities. He, Vikram, was supposed the grandson of such a warlord, and it was the warlord’s inheritance that he looked as he looked.

Vikram’s grandfather, whose name was Poros, was a mighty warlord, of an enormous build and fiery red hair. His race, called Suevi, was renowned for their large stature and their might of hand. As such, Vikram inherited more Suevi traits than he did of the Purson ones.

He would be smaller, of less masculine facial features, blonde hair, and such. The only thing he truthfully inherited from his father was the fair skin, and perhaps the Y chromosome if one were to talk science. Vikram was unsure, as it has been more than a lifetime from when he touched a biology book.

Many more facts were learned by Vikram, such as the powerful dukes and other nobles of influence, then of the people of financial affluence, and so on. Among the men he learned of, the so called ‘Sword Saint’ piqued his interest the most.

When he asked about him, Priscilla said “When you learn to read, I will give you his biography!” as a way to encourage him. And with the needed motivation, he learned the letters of this world in a few days.

Then he got the biography of the Sword Saint, whose name was Charles de Epee, and it was quite interesting to read. But Vikram was glad to learn that the sword saint was still alive, so he decided to visit the man when he gets the chance.

But reading the biography of the sword saint made Vikram become quite interested in the past time of reading, yet a horrendous thing occurred! The library had too few books of quality! Most of them were composed of poetry anthologies! And while that would be good if it contained frontier poetry or the poetry of soldiers, and even better, epic poetry, it contained none of those!

The library was filled with romantic poetry! And that made Vikram annoyed, as he wished to hear of deeds of valor and the might of arms, but the poems made him disappointed!

This was all thanks to the current emperor of the Purson Empire! Yet one thing that made Vikram jump in joy was but a single book, its name being ‘Lives of distinguished commanders’, a collection of about a dozen short biographies of various commanders, yet it compared to surrounding books, this one seemed like a masterpiece of Homeric proportions!

Thus, Vikram read the book with much delight, but his enjoyment didn’t make him become complacent in the field of martial arts.

Indeed, two years had passed, and soon it was to be the day his warrior training started, as in those two years Vikram learned everything that he was supposed to, with time for many breaks even.

Priscilla praised him greatly, as to her he was the first student she tutored by herself, instead of acting as an assistant to a more experienced tutor.

…

In a field, Vikram stood. The field was filled with wooden posts, large stones, and large, muscular men who were training with them.

To Vikram’s side stood a man. The man was well developed in the upper body area and had a fairly handsome face. This man was Albert, Vikram’s personal trainer in knightly arts.

“So, Albert, what am I to do?” Vikram asked, as he needed to pretend he wasn’t one of the greatest swordsmen alive, at the very least mortal swordsmen, though that was in his previous life.

“Young Lord, you are supposed to condition your arms and legs by doing various exercises.” Said Albert, though his voice was more pleading than commanding, and that was because of the fact that the other princes he tutored all refused anything that made them more manly. The fact that they all refused to exert themselves in training made Albert feel deep pain, as this made him worry about their health and their future safety.

Indeed, while nobles had personal guards, many led troops or did jousting and similar forms of entertainment grounded in martial prowess. Yet for a prince to be without achievement hurt the knight greatly, for the emperor forbid him, and other trainers, to force the princes to train, and they could not even punish them,

But the large stature of Vikram that he inherited from his mother, a princess of pure Suevi stock, made Albert have high hopes for the fifth prince. Truly it was weird that Vikram’s mother died in childbirth, yet from Vikram’s enormous build compared to his age, it made sense as the princess was similar, if not a bit smaller in size than the emperor to not make him feel like a complete weakling.

“I see…so what am I supposed to do?” asked Vikram plainly, unknowing of the internal conflict that the knight experienced.

“Well…you are supposed to hit the post with a weighted wooden sword while holding a wooden shield in hand, as to strengthen your shoulder and arms.” The knight trainer said, hoping for the prince’s warlike blood to do its work and not make him a weakling.

Vikram, upon hearing the request, was overjoyed! How long has it been since he had the ability to wield a weapon? The only weapon he was allowed to use was a dinner knife, though such a knife was sharp as this world had no Armand Jean du Plessis to dull the knife and make them unsuitable for murder. But knives were still provided by a person hosting a feast or similar event, yet guest often brought their own knives and cutlery to avoid poisoning, if they went to a feast of an enemy noble, of course.

So Vikram took the weighted wooden sword and shield, and with great joy he hit the post with them, as to condition himself. Indeed, different muscles were made by the act of training with a weapon, so this period of getting used to the weapon was quite short, as his internal energy allowed him to repair any microtears and such.

Albert was overjoyed at a prince diligently training for hours, so Albert decided he shall give his all to train the prince. But he saw that the prince had an immense talent for swordsmanship, and as for how he saw that?

The movements of the prince were quick, yet their strength was controlled. There was a rhythm and the breath was extremely calm. There were various other things, but even the few things listed shocked Albert with joy.

So Albert did his best to tutor the young prince, not only with the sword, as he complied with the numerous requests for a sparring session by the prince, but also with physical training. Teaching the prince the poses to maximize gain, and minimize the possibility of an injury.

As for Vikram, he enjoyed the sparring session greatly as he decided to abandon his previous life’s code of not drawing his sword unless the opponent had the eyes of a swordsman. As for why? He decided to do it to honor his previous sword, ‘Exemplary Courage’! How does it honor that sword, one might ask. It is because of the fact that the only people worthy of being slain by ‘Exemplary Courage’ were people with the spirit of a swordsman. So he had no qualms about beating people with a sword, since ‘Exemplary Courage’ was in a different world. Indeed, death was truly an enlightening experience! 

And so, Vikram learned many things with Albert, on how to ride a horse, on siege equipment, and on military tactics. Vikram was a vagabond swordsman in his previous life, so it would be unusual for him to know such specifical things, as horses were not large enough to be ridden without a chariot, siege equipment was a state secret, and military tactics were quite hard to learn for a person who traveled all the time.

Yet Vikram also taught Albert, for the man learned much from their constant sparring sessions.

And in the joy of training, another two years passed for Vikram.

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