CHAPTER XVIII.
This place was wonderful, almost like the trip to that island in the south last year!
Even though this place was nothing like ancient Japan, it still reminded her of her previous life, more specifically the music festival of Woodstock.
There were so many people here!
Perhaps it was her own good mood that colored her opinions but she could see everybody around her having fun.
She finally had both the Saintess Pendant and the Saintess Bracelet, and both of them reacted to her! She was closer than ever to becoming the Saintess and obtaining Queen Mylene's approval to marry Julius and the rest, she would live a comfortable life in the palace surrounded by handsome men, excellent cuisine and be surrounded by luxury.!
She was on schedule too, the third year Tourney had come right on time, here she could contact the church priests about testing herself with the Saintess staff and be recognized as the Saintess!
There was also the fact that both Chris and Greg were participating in the Tourney, so there would be some prize money to look forward to as well!
There would be a preliminary round for those of lower fifth rank and below while the representatives of higher ranked Houses would enter the main Tourney directly.
Her boys had taken her to watch the preliminaries even though none of them expected much from the rural nobles they still wanted to scout the competition, and even if they denied it, they wanted to see the Pirate's Bane in action.
Angelica's husband had made a name for himself by completely annihilating the pirates that dared to attack his territory, and even capturing their ships to later resell them for profit!
She hasn't forgotten about the incident during the second year where that rural Baron had one of his servants hold Jilk at gunpoint.
Truth to be told she would like him to fade completely into the background but everytime she heard something about him she was reminded of the strong impression he made that night.
Baron Leon Fou Bartfort, if this was still the game she played in her previous life she would think of him as a secret optional boss she had accidentally unlocked by acquiring all of the capture targets during her first semester…
And she desperately wanted to avoid his event flags.
However this world was real enough, from the horrible family she was born into, to the inhumane efforts she made to keep herself alive and increase her abilities with Holy Magic to the villainess who kept living her life even after being defeated, she wasn't sure there was a way to avoid the conflict with Angelica's husband.
From what Queen Mylene had told her, this Leon character was the most impressive adventurer of the century, and a formidable knight in his own right… most likely someone the Duke would use against the Royal House if the current politics didn't change course.
She cringed at that thought, knowing about the wars in her previous life made her want nothing with them in this life.
In this world wars were still seen as something honorable and romantic in a way, the young men of the kingdom saw the battlefield as the place to earn respect and live stories to tell their kids when their hair turns gray.
Marie could never see war that way, because the way war evolved in her previous life stripped any of the romantic ideas anyone would have about war. decades before she was born for the first time, her country suffered the attack of the world's most terrible super weapons and that left scars in the population that lasted various generations after the incident!
She was happy there were not atomic bombs in this world.
But that only means that most noble men looked forward to wars and the honors they can gain in battle, her five handsome boys included!
Marie was currently resting in a rather comfortable loveseat with Kyle handing her pastries periodically while watching her boys train inside their tent.
Greg was lifting some heavy looking dumbbells, his arms looked like they would burst open with every repetition he made.
Chris was performing some sort of dance with his sword, it was precise and elegant, even the small area he had to practice couldn't hinder him.
Julius and Brad, who were not participating in the tournament, were playing a chess game at a nearby table.
The only one missing was Jilk, diligent and resourceful as always he took upon himself to scout the campament fir Julius.
"Your Highness, Bartfort isn't participating in the Tourney!" that was Jilk, reliable like always, but he held a grudge against the Baron…
"That can't be right, Mother told me she saw Angelica and her family in the rural nobles district!" Julius said, it was strange for the man to not participate when he has such an impressive reputation.
"Maybe he is here as a spectator?" Brad asked, as he took one of Julius' bishops, that is a possibility but she couldn't see it happening, Angelica would surely push her husband to enter hoping for yet another achievement, for their House.
"I don't believe any knight over sixth rank would lose the chance to participate!" Chris paused his routine to scold the purple haired noble. Being a court noble he put great emphasis in a House's ranks within the court.
"Who knows? Maybe he knows his limits?" said Greg arrogantly, he still was the most experienced warrior among the five and either he or Chris could be the strongest of their generation.
"Indeed there are many powerful warriors already registered, Robert Fou Harris among them!" Said JIlk with a smug smile on his face, she didn't know who this knight was but that seemed to ignite a fire in Chris and Greg and all of them suddenly looked eager to fight!
Even Brad who has been pushing his magic in training looked like he wanted to fight whoever that man was.
"I hope that old man doesn't lose before I can get my rematch!" Greg said confidently.
"Last time I almost had him, if he is my opponent I'll surely win this time!" Even Chris seemed excited about this mob knight!
"I'm sure I could have defeated him if I went all out with my magic back then… I'm not the same fool I was back then!" Brad, Chris and Greg all lost to that guy at some point? Isn't that weird?
"Who is that Harris knight Jilk?" she asked not being able to remember his name, she was curious that three of her lovers had lost to him.
"He was Angelica's representative during our duel two years ago" that would explain why Jilk was so smug about it, he was the one who finally defeated the outside help the Villainess had gotten.
"Oh!" she said for their sake, it would be fine if they have something to look forward to, but… "Please don't be upset if none of you ends up fighting him!" all of these pretty boys can be really childish in this kind of matters!
"Don't worry Marie, I'm sure they know their chances to fight him again are pretty low, it's not as if they are fated to fight him again or something!" Julius saud making fun of the three, but it was the right thing to do at the moment, they were getting too excited for a match that may never happen!
Julius was becoming a good leader for the group, it was in moments like this she noticed he had come to accept that he was born to rule and be a leader, his desire to be more than just his title was something that needed to be channeled properly, now he wasn't just some spoiled brat who hated being born into royalty.
The way he managed his friends to accept that they may never get a rematch with that knight was proof of his growth.
"Julius is right, please just give your best in your matches!" She encouraged them, it would still be nice if they won this Tourney, even if winning here wasn't mandatory it still helped to build them for the war ark according to the cutscenes she watched.
More composed now than a few moments ago both Chris and Greg nodded in acceptance.
"Your Highness," Jilk started with a mischievous tone, "I've found the Duke's training area!" that could be bad…
Queen Mylene wanted them to stay away from the man and going to spy on the training of his knights was not something that would endear them to him!
Julius smiled and said "Lead the way then!" She wanted to protest but all of them just went out of the tent they were assigned to, leaving her to chase for them, this was such a bad idea!
0x0
She failed her boys trying to stop them, they are all Heirs of important noble Houses and were used to getting away with their whims, even she couldn't succeed in stopping them a hundred percent of the time!
Kyle didn't follow after them, preferring to take care of his chores.
The training area the Duke had set up was a huge empty tent where his knights could practice swinging their weapons around and practicing their combinations all at the same time.
She was expecting something a lot more elaborate coming from that old man.
And better guarded, even though right now there were knights training no one had even attempted to stop them when they entered through the main door!
These boys were so privileged that they could enter an enemy camp like they owned the place!
Or perhaps the Duke felt he had nothing to hide, they were far from the only ones watching the knight train, there was a lot of public present.
"His Highness is truly shameless" a voice called out to our group, it was Angelica, she was sitting in one of the few chairs prepared for the public, she was wearing a comfortable looking dress in red and black and she had a baby in her arms… her baby, she felt a pang of nostalgia seeing her, she was such a bad mother in her first life.
She was sitting with another two girls, both girls shared a strong resemblance with each other and they both were wearing the same colors as Angelica, red and black, as if to indicate that they all belonged to the same group, the same House.
"Angelica" Julius said with a firm voice, it was almost threatening, this was not going well at all, there were a lot of Redgrave knights around them, she grabbed his arm to calm him down… but he interpreted it as her being afraid!
"What are you doing here?!" This time there was no denying it, Julius just threatened Angelica in her father's tent!
In a second everyone was staring at her group, many of those staring at them had swords in their hands too!
"Calm down Julius!" She told him harshly, she was not afraid of Angelica, it was everyone else here that was scary!
"This is my father's tent, your Highness, my husband is training over there," she nodded with her head in the direction one of the youngest knights was currently walking towards Angelica, sword still drawn, but he had his eyes on them.
Her boys finally noticed the precarious situation they were in. Surrounded by enemies!
"I don't think you haven't met each other" Angelica said with a smug face as the brunettes helped her to stand up taking care to not disturb the baby in her arms. She , her husband and the girls walked towards them and soon after the possible hidden boss was with them as well.
"This is my Lord Husband, Baron Leon Fou Bartfort" she said, signaling the sole man that had walked with them "Our Heir Baby Gilbert!" she said smiling, holding her baby up for them to see "and my sisters-in-law, Jenna and Finley Fou Bartfort" this time she signaled to the older brunette and then to the younger one… who despite being younger than her, and rather petite still had a better figure that the one she had in this life!
"And these… gentlemen are His Royal Highness Julius Rapha Holtfort, his woman, Marie Fou Lafan, his foster brother Jilk Green Clown Fia Marmoria" she mockingly pointed at Jilk.
She couldn't blame the rather insulting nickname after what happened the last time they met each other.
Jilk though, wasn't happy at all with the way Angelica referred to him, but Angelica simply continued with the introductions "Chris Fia Arclight, Greg Fou Serberg and Brad Fou Field" as if they were mere peasants and once she finished the girls gave a curtsy, but the Baron just stared directly at Julius eyes in defiance. Something none of the other boys liked, Julius was strangely comfortable with such defiance.
"What is His Royal Highness business here" the Baron bluntly asked, keeping eye contact with Julius.
"We are interested in the Training the Duke's men are performing before the Tourney" Julius replied just as bluntly.
"My Liege has allowed free entrance to the area, but please keep away from My wife, especially you Green!" the Baron said with cold fury, before guiding Angelica and his sisters back to their seats, showing his back to Julius, the Crown Prince!
It was clear that the Duke's vassals had no respect for Julius!
"Rude bastard!" Jilk wasn't about to let the Redgrave vassal have the last word apparently, none of her boys did.
The Baron, having heard the insult turned back with a teasing smile on his face "You are right lordling, it was very rude of me to forget to thank you and your House, the ships you sent us were a blessing, we were able to buy this and that when we sold them!"
What does that mean? It made Jilk angry… he couldn't mean? Right?
"How dare you!" Jilk reacted impulsively for the first time since she met him and it took both Chris and Greg to restrain him, all while the damn Baron looked at them as if they were some mere bugs to be smashed
She looked at Jilk, the reliable boy was glaring at the Bartfort boy… he did it?! He attacked Angelica even after she asked him not to?
Another man joined the conflict, he was tall and handsome, his hair was blond and his eyes had the unique red-wine eyes of the Redgrave.
"Leave!" was the only thing he told to her group, and no sooner he finished talking every knight in the tent sheathed their swords and took a couple of steps in their directions intent on kicking them out.
That was the absolute authority Gilbert Rapha Redgrave held inside this tent. Her group left before they could be kicked out!
Marie was not too preoccupied with the fact that she raised yet another flag for the hidden boss to forget about the things that were said about Jilk.
She just hoped that the attacks on Angelica's family were not Jilk's doing!
A/N:
So another chapter is done, and I hope you all enjoy it.
So I want my esteemed readers help.
You see, I'm in need of a name for a Dungeon's Final boss, right now I have named him Sheeptar in honor of all the laughs SAO: Abridged gave me, and I'm tempted to keep it, however I would like some suggestions.
The monster will have horns so please take that into consideration the moment you suggest a name.
See you next sunday!