Chapter 9: Chapter 9. The Sparring Grounds

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Family members:

Roseanne: The princess. Frail and ill from an early age, but when she was 17, when her soul died, she made a wish, and our mc transmigrated into her body and decided to live her life like his own.

Leon: The Emperor. Huge, burly but kind. (Looks a bit like a lion)

Lilliane: The Empress. Beautiful, regal, and aristocratic. Tall and lithe, with beautiful straight blonde hair. Can be strict but is also truly kind and loving to Roseanne.

Arthur: The crown prince. He’s the fighter and more charismatic of the two, with an easy going personality.

Martin. The younger prince. He’s the scholar of the two, focusing on his learning and studies.

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I spent the next couple of days following my mother’s orders.  

Not leaving the room at all was of course impossible, but I didn’t wander into the main parts of the palace and spent most of my time in the royal quarters instead. I spent the time before the festivals doing different stuff instead.

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The first day we had a family dinner, which was amazing.

It was wonderful seeing the thrilled faces of everyone, at the fact of us all being able to have a meal together in the main dining room.

Both my brothers talked about their days and studies, which felt surprisingly like just a normal family talking together at the dinner table.

It was very nice.

Father and mother also talked about their days, and the preparations that were being done for the festival. They talked about the main event and managed to make me even more excited than I already was.

I also asked about when I would start my own studies, but everyone felt I wasn’t well enough yet to be put under much strain, and I had to concede under their well-meaning gazes.

Luckily, they said that if I kept having an okay energy level, and were feeling better for a while like I was now, I would be able to have a normal daily life eventually.

I could see on their faces that they all still truly believed me to be truly ill, though that will probably get better with time, when they see me living like normal!

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The next day we also ate dinner together, and doing it two days in a row, really made it feel like it was becoming the new normal for the family, which was a truly precious feeling for everyone involved.

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Now there was only one day left until the festival, and my oldest brother, Arthur, the crown prince, invited me to come to the sparring area to watch him train with the guards.

He didn’t invite me initially, but when I expressed an interest in the palace knights and asked where he trained, he told me all about the sparring area and invited me to come look.

I of course accepted, and were now on my way over with Maja, two palace guards walking on either side of us.

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I had eaten a great breakfast of soft white bread, with different cheeses and some warm soup. The sun was shining outside, and the sky was the kind of light blue that is especially saved for those perfect spring days.

Walking across the wide hallways of the palace, down towards the sparring grounds hand in hand with Maja, I could understand why Mother wanted me to stay inside the royal quarters.

The palace was even more bustling than before, people walking and rushing around, fixing decorations and doing all kinds of stuff.

Whenever they saw me walking by, they had shocked expressions on their faces, before quickly bowing or curtsying saying “Your highness” or “Your majesty” or such.

I was actually happy we had the two guards escorting us, as they made me feel very safe, even with their strict expression on their faces.

Whenever I smiled at them though, they couldn’t quite keep their poker faces.

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I knew we were closing in on the sparring grounds when I started hearing metal clanking together, and the grunts and groans of men working out.

Getting closer the clanking only got louder and louder, before the hallway opened into an impossibly large courtyard, so deep into the castle.

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The ground was a mix of at some places trampled grass, and at others gravel.

There were a couple of shacks holding weapons and equipment, with older guards seemingly in charge of distributing weapons and such.

There was also a bigger shack made out of a mix of stone and wood, where a burly blacksmith in blackened clothing was working on sharpening a sword on a whetstone, and I could see a huge anvil in the back of what I assumed was a mini forge.

The entire area was filled with guards.

At one side of the area, where the grounds were mostly trampled grass, was an archery range.

 There were targets at two distances from the shooting line, five targets that were quite far away, and five targets a distance closer to the line.

The targets looked very picturesque in the warm spring sun, with the colors painted bright onto the round leather, and satisfying thunks every time the arrows hit the canvas.

There were about eight archers currently shooting at the different targets, while one older guard was walking behind them inspecting their shooting and technique.

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However, taking up the majority of the place was a massive open field, where different guards were sparring in pairs, wooden swords moving with startling speed.

The majority of the guards were currently surrounding the small sparring arena, where two guards were in the middle of a heated spar. One younger man with curly brown hair, and one seemingly experienced veteran guard, with grey at the edges of his hair.

It was a true sparring arena, with its own packed sand grounds, and clear chalk lines outlining the fighting area.

I could see my brother overseeing the fight, standing on the edge of the arena, his curly, dirty blond hair shining in the light from the sun. He had a serious but happy expression on his face, and it was obvious that he enjoyed the bustle of being a knight.

The spar was becoming quite heated, with both of the men having taking quite a few hits, judging from the bruised bodies of the combatants. They were both fighting in leather torsos, sweat running from their bare faces and arms.

The fight looked incredibly exciting, and to my untrained eye the fighters looked very skilled, which was probably why nobody had noticed us yet.

We made our way over silently, and I started watching and enjoying the fight, and it was obvious our two knights felt at home here, as their strict expressions had been replaces by more jovial ones.

Maja looked a bit out of sorts, but had a slight blush on her cheeks and seemed to be enjoying the view, which I couldn’t blame her for.

I squeezed her hand, and smiled a tiny smile at her, before I kept watching the spar, at times looking at my brother and the other knights cheering them on.

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When the fight was in one of it’s calmer moments, one of the combatants looked out at the audience, and noticed me, which made him so surprised that it provided the opponent an opening, which was used to disarm him.

It became silent, as everyone was startled about the sudden conclusion to the fight, before everyone looked over to find what the guard had seen that surprised him so.

Seeing me, everyone like one gaped like fish, before they went down on one knee saying, “Your Majesty”.

My brother looked surprised for a second, before rushing over to me smiling, his hands ready to give me a hug, before noticing how sweaty he was and thinking better of it.

I jumped into his sweaty arms anyway, and gave him a big warm hug, before releasing an even more surprised Arthur.

He looked like he was about to speak but didn’t know what to say.

I told all the knights to rise up, before walking over to the loosing knight, also know kneeling on the ground.

Walking over, everyone opened a path for me.

I stood before him and took his hand in mine and helped him up to his feet.

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He was a younger knight, with brown curly hair and brown eyes.

“You were amazing!” I said, and everyone lost their shit.