In the course of an hour or so, I had managed to go from arguing in the great hall to getting ready for a sparring match in front of a large crowd of Tyros’ nobles. Prior to this, Cadmus’ group and the opposing party got into a short argument about whether Gaius or I should be appointed as the military supervisor for the government exam. And what had resulted from it was the current situation. 

Now, standing or rather hopping around excitedly in front of me was Gaius, his silver hair bouncing with each lithe jump. 

“You doing alright over there?” I asked Gaius, mildly amused by his behavior.

“Couldn’t be better,” he replied eagerly. “I hope you don’t disappoint in our coming fight.”

“Likewise,” I yawned. “What weapons do you want to use?”

“Sword against sword,” he declared. “I thought about doing a spear match but that seems rather skewed against my favor.”

“What a shame,” I sighed. “Actually, is it possible for me to use a mace or axe? I’d be able to put on a better show of skill that way.”

The crowd of spectators swiftly turned to face one another to consult on the matter. For a while, they debated amongst themselves, struggling to reach a decisive conclusion. However, it seemed that the faction backing Gaius held greater weight in this situation. 

“That would not be possible,” Sempronius, an elderly human man opposing Cadmus, spoke out. “Swordsmanship is a quintessential art for a military official in the Iasor empire.”

“It’s not,” I said flatly. “The manual written by Flavian clearly states that swords are primarily to be used as sidearms. But that’s irrelevant, since I’ll fight on your terms. I’m not so pathetic that I have to be scared just because we’re fighting in a manner I don’t like.”

Smiling, Gaius spun his sword around in his hand. 

“That’s the spirit. Now shall we commence our battle?”

“You’re making it sound so grand,” I quipped. “Neither nations nor our loved ones are at stake in this match. We’re just whacking each other to get a temporary position.”

“Fair enough,” he replied with a shrug. 

He must not be aware about the reform issue because I had purposely understated the importance of this match to glean whether our enemies know about our plan or not. Or perhaps he’s just faking his reaction. 

Standing upright, I began to lightly hop up and down to warm myself up. Once I was satisfied, I picked up my personal shield and a practice sword, gesturing to Gaius that I was ready. 

But despite my currently calm demeanor, I was in a bit of a rough situation. During the prior argument in the great hall, we had decided to hold a sparring match to showcase the martial skill of the two candidates. Therefore even if I won, there was no guarantee that I would gain the position. 

And so I would have to put on a show of skill instead of resorting to the most effective strategy: tiring out my opponent with my superior physical ability. 

Gaius and I quickly stepped into the designated area, both of us equipped with blunted arming swords and round shields. 

In a flurry of nimble footsteps, I quickly closed the distance on Gaius, thrusting my sword at his chest when I reached him. 

Just as I had expected, Gaius deflected my blade with his shield. Seeing an opening, he followed with a stab at my thigh. With a clang, I swung my sword down against his, knocking it off course from my leg. 

Seizing the small window of opportunity, I bashed my own shield against Gaius who was clearly not expecting such a turn of events. Struck by the force of my left arm, Gaius barely managed to remain standing. 

Pressing my advantage, I unleashed a hail of blows at the struggling Gaius. Although he managed to block or avoid about half of my attacks, Gaius was hammered down by the rest of the strikes. 

“I yield!” Gaius shouted as my blade prepared to smack him on his helmet. 

Putting my sword aside, I reached down towards Gaius with my hand extended. 

To my slight surprise, he gracefully took my hand with a broad smile on his face.

“That was well fought on your part. Well, I was definitely a fool for thinking that you would go with a safer approach. And although I acknowledge your victory, would a rematch be possible?”

“Perhaps another time,” I replied.

Suddenly, one of the four committee members opposing Cadmus, Porcius, raised his voice. 

“A rematch is necessary. The recent bout is not enough to assess the skill of the candidates.”

I turned towards the older elf, my smile not reaching my eyes.

“Very well, but Gaius here is already a bit battered from the last match. Perhaps you should take the burden of his position.”

Porcius and his close allies glared daggers at me while Cadmus’ colleagues and the neutral parties looked on with amusement. 

“I can still fight,” Gaius said while rubbing his muscles into submission. “And don’t feel as though you have to go easy on me, I’m tougher than I look.”

“And I didn’t hit you that hard,” I pointed out. “But if your backers insist, then let’s put on a show.”

“I’ll fight better this time,” he promised while pointing his thumb up. 

Once again, the two of us were now facing each other in the designated area. However, Gaius looked far more prepared this time, having adopted a defensive stance. 

Due to his far more cautious approach, I responded in kind by slowly trudging towards him with my shield at the ready. 

Carefully, the two of us repeatedly probed at one another with both sword blows and shield strikes. As we were locked in a virtually even battle, the spectators watched on with bated breath. 

Trying to shift the battle in my favor, I danced around his side to strike him in an unguarded area. But because I was unable to complete the maneuver quick enough, Gaius slammed his shield against me. And despite blocking the brunt of the force with my own shield, I was sent stumbling backwards, struggling to maintain my stance as he advanced on me. 

Using a combination of footwork and my shield, I managed to survive the onslaught with only a light blow landing on my right arm.

Once I had regained my posture, I knocked aside one of Gaius’ swings and began pushing him back. Still, his wariness allowed him to hold his ground, leaving us in a situation much like before. 

I advanced on Gaius once more, now focusing on a direct frontal approach. My current plan is to use my greater physical ability to force him to make riskier decisions. Not the best way to showcase my skill, but possibly the best in this situation. 

Unleashing a barrage of feints and strikes, I began driving Gaius into an increasingly desperate situation. However, I was certainly expending more energy since I had to put in more effort to maintain a believable spectacle. 

But my efforts soon paid off when Gaius made a faulty block with his shield, creating a small opening for me. In the blink of an eye, I stabbed my practice sword right into his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs.

And to appease his backers, I followed the thrust by swinging my sword to the side against Gaius’ own weapon. Thinking that the match had ended, Gaius had slightly loosened his grip on his weapon, allowing me to send it flying out of his hand. 

Now with my weapon pointed at Gaius’ face, I turned to face the crowd of spectators before glancing back at my defeated opponent. 

“Do you yield? Or do you think we need another match to showcase our skill?”

Snapping out of his stupor, Gaius suddenly began to laugh loudly. 

“Yield. I yield. My pride is at its limit already.”

He seemed way too satisfied for a man who claims his pride is at its breaking point. Normally the correct response would be a facade of calm barely masking a shaking anger. 

In contrast, Porcius and Sempronius were the spitting image of barely contained rage, imaginary steam puffing out from their heads. Meanwhile Marcus and Varro, the two other members of the committee opposing Cadmus, simply looked mentally tired, most likely realizing that they were now on the losing side. 

Proudly stepping forward to face the crowd of nobles, I raised my arms in preparation for my declaration. 

“If anyone doubts any of those two victories, then please step forward. After all, I still have the energy and mood for quite a few more matches.”

Muttering amongst themselves, the crowd of human and elven aristocrats stalled for a while, a few people almost stepping forward but decided against it at the last moment. Based on this, I could assume that Gaius ranks well among the city’s nobility in terms of martial prowess. 

“What a shame,” I sighed while smiling. “But now that matches have ended, does anyone here dispute my appointment as the supervisor of the government exam’s martial section?”

“I-,” Porcius started before Varro patted him on the shoulder. 

When the elven magister looked around at his surroundings, he soon realized that his faction had no support from the neutral parties and that his own powerbase was even faltering. 

Shortly after, Cadmus held a proper vote to determine which candidate would be selected. And due to spreading word about my own military accomplishments, I had swept Gaius with the support of around four-fifths of the present nobles. With that out of the way, my remaining task would be to swing the tide of battle in favor of Cadmus within the committee.

As I was preparing to return home, I was approached by both Varro and Gaius. In contrast to the mostly elven nobility, Varro looked to be of particularly mixed blood. Although most humans and elves are mixed blood throughout the world, having interbred over the course of time, most individuals lean more heavily on one side. I myself happen to have some elven ancestors, though my bloodline is vastly more human, resulting in my very human appearance. As for Varro, he would be considered to be close to half and half, his ears not sharp but not quite round either. Additionally, Varro had the tanned skin tone of southern elves combined with the trademark brown hair of the Aeolian populace. 

“May we have a moment with you?” Varro requested with a slight bow. 

“Certainly,” I replied warmly. 

Hearing this, Gaius lightly shoved Varro forward, indicating for him to speak first. 

“If it’s possible, I’d like to have a more in depth talk with you later,” Varro informed me. “The location is irrelevant to me. Whether it’s at the Considia house, my own family’s house, or another location it’s fine with me.”

“Perhaps a neutral meeting ground then,” I suggested. “How do you feel about the bar by the fountain of Pymeria?”

“Sure,” he agreed. “But let’s meet later at night, that place is mostly busy during dinner time.”

“Then it’s agreed,” I concluded. “So Gaius, what are you here for?”

“Oh, it’s nothing as important as Varro’s business,” he said. “But I want to invite you to dinner at my family’s place later. Preferably after the exams are finished so you can focus on your new job.”

“Sure,” I replied. “I’m staying with the Considia household, so you can always come by to let me know when you decide on a specific time.”

“Well good luck with your position in that case,” he announced while shaking my hand. “I’m certain that you’ll do a better job than me.”

“Have some more confidence in yourself,” I chided. 

“There’s no point,” he chuckled. “I’m completely inexperienced in military matters unless you consider reading and theorizing to be a suitable substitute. And even my skill at arms which I pride myself in needs much improvement.”

“I guess,” I conceded. “How old are you anyways?”

“I’m 19,” he replied. 

“Huh, we’re the same age,” I remarked. “Well I’ll be turning 20 soon, but still.”

“And yet you have so much more experience,” he sighed in fake exasperation. “Perhaps you could take me under your wing.”

“That’s possible,” I answered, surprising Gaius a bit. “I’m currently working in Damask as a high ranking official so I might have a position for you to take. Well, that’s if you show promise.”

“Looks like I’ve found my focus for the next few weeks or so,” he replied optimistically. 

After regrouping with Cadmus and Quintus, the two of us made our way back home. Although we kept our cool along the way home, the moment we stepped out of view of the public, the three of us began to excitedly pat one another on the back, celebrating our first victory. Unbeknownst to us, Minerva was quietly observing our merrymaking from the sidelines. 

“So Azel got appointed?” Minerva asked curiously once we had mostly settled down.

“How long were you watching?” I asked, turning to face her. 

“From the moment you stepped inside,” she told us. “I didn’t feel like interrupting since you all seemed quite happy.”

“Well you interrupted anyways,” Cadmus remarked.

“That’s not how it works,” Minerva replied flatly. 

“But that doesn’t matter,” Cadmus teased. 

For a moment both Quintus and I looked at one another before moving to separate the two before they got into a remarkably pointless and stupid argument. Oddly enough, this had happened before, each time resulting from Cadmus instigating his sister out of amusement. And although these verbal spars are certainly fun to watch, they were generally a bit time consuming. 

“You think we should have let things run their course?” I asked Quintus after we separated the bickering siblings.

“It would have been funny at least,” he chuckled. “But I think we should let Minerva have a break while she’s busy with her studies.”

“I agree,” I added. “Do you think Cadmus is doing this because he believes in his sister?”

“Most likely,” Quintius replied. “He has high expectations for her after all. But that’s the problem. Those two have a bad habit of expecting too much from other people.”

“Is it a family thing?” I asked him.

“Somewhat,” he answered. “It’s more accurate to say that it’s just those two.”

“I guess that’s what too much talent does to a person,” I remarked. 

“It’s better to say that it’s an excess of talent compared to experience,” he told me. “Unless you’re suggesting that I’m not quite so talented.”

“Fair enough,” I admitted. “But I actually don’t know about your capabilities. As of now, I only know that you’re a reasonably capable old person who helped birth those two oddities into the world.”

“I used to work in a bigger position, you know?” he told me. “But too much work is bad for the elderly, so I decided to ask for a demotion.”

“I’m assuming you get saddled with requests for advice all the time?” I wondered. 

“I have a specific tray for that,” he explained. 

When I finished my short talk with Quintus, I went over to check on Minerva. As of now, she had gone back to reviewing a pile of texts laid out over a table by a window on the first floor. Seeing me approach her, Minerva closed the book in front of her and looked up at me. 

“Are things going well on your part?” I asked her. 

“Quite well, though I hope I don’t jinx it,” she replied cheerily. “If it’s possible, can you help me practice for the martial section of the exam in a few days?”

“Sure,” I answered. “But it’s going to be less important during this exam and hopefully remains that way.”

“I guess,” Minerva sighed, surprising me.

“I thought you were okay with our proposal,” I wondered. 

“I am,” she replied. “But you need a way to guarantee the quality of our candidates, otherwise their poor performance will lower the reputation of the city.”

“But that’s what we’re trying to do,” I pointed out. “We’re limiting the martial portion to weed out those who are depending on it too much. After all, if their strength lies in warfare then it would be prudent for them to seek out a proper military position.”

“I know,” she continued. “But I suggest that you don’t downplay its importance too much. Unless an applicant is particularly talented in administrative affairs, then they have to at least meet the minimum for the martial section.”

“That was my plan,” I informed her. “Besides, we don’t have enough influence too push for too many drastic changes.”

“Glad you thought about it,” Minerva said while nodding. “Wait, I have an idea. How about you increase the difficulty of the administrative portion of the exam to further guarantee the quality of candidates?”

“Do we have the time to?” I asked her. 

“We don’t,” she told me. “But I know someone who had been working on reforms for a while.”

“Who is that exactly?” I asked her. 

“My former teacher,” she told me. “I can arrange a meeting for you if you want.”

“That would be great,” I replied. “I’m glad I talked to you about this.”

“And I’m glad that I could help,” she said while smiling brightly.

Resisting the urge to rub her head, I went back to my room to rest for a bit before dinner. Because we were celebrating my appointment, dinner was slightly grander than usual, the most notable addition being vintage wine brought out from the cellar. 

Unfortunately, I had promised to meet with Varro later so I held off on drinking too much. Well I still enjoyed myself without risking potential damage to my liver. 

After celebrating with my companions and Minerva’s family for a while, I excused myself to go and meet with Varro at the nearby bar. There, I found the regional administrator waiting for me at a small table.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I said while sitting down.

“It’s not an issue,” he replied. “You came early after all. I just got here even earlier.”

“So you did,” I commented. 

After some idle chit chat, Varro and I finally arrived at the crucial topic. 

“I heard that Cadmus is planning to lower the importance of the martial portion of the exam, is that true?” he asked. 

“It is,” I told him. “It’s not anything drastic however. We still intend to require candidates to meet the minimum requirements for all parts of the exam, unless they are some sort of prodigy in the administrative area. And even then we would have to further examine them to ensure their skill.”

Varro blinked for a moment before regaining composure. 

“That sounds… very reasonable. I apologize for assuming the worst from Cadmus in that case.”

“You’d have to apologize to him in that case,” I replied. “Well I’m also considering the possibility of increasing the difficulty of the administrative portion of the exam to further guarantee talented individuals.”

“I would support that,” he informed me. “I’m sure that Cadmus’ allies would agree as well. But as for the other three, I think Marcus is the only one who can be convinced.”

“But six against two is enough right?” I asked.

“Mostly,” he responded. “Well you’d have to ensure that the nobles in the city don’t oppose you too much. Because although we have far more power as committee members, our influence isn’t absolute.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I assured him. “Though with that out of the way, how about a toast to our future partnership?”

“Why not,” he said while raising his glass.

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Hey, hey, author here. I'm curious about whether you all enjoy the fight scenes or not. Since I put a good amount of effort into depicting mostly realistic battles, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter.