Volume 1 Chapter 6: Part 1: Expedition

 

"Goodness. Look at his form. How can he be so swift?"

 

"That's not the point. Do you notice how precise the hero's slashes are? I bet he can cut a fruit clean in half!"

 

The knights look at Onyx in astonishment. They watch him smack the training dummy in the courtyard. The way he moves his sword is so quick, making his arm turn into a blur. 

 

But what made it more surprising is how mundane Onyx's movements are. His motions are repetitive. 

 

Going from the speed and motion: it has the same rhythm and tempo! That is not normal at all. 

 

As expected of the hero. 

 

She kissed me. While the knights look at him as a monster, Onyx thought something differently. Onyx can't get over what happened a few days ago. Irene would kiss him frequently, and he would be ok with it. She has done it so many times to the point that Onyx was used to it. 

 

But this is on the lips!

 

Onyx touches his lips, and a blush forms on his cheeks. Her lips are so supple and soft. Remembering what happened, his face turns a bit mushy.

 

He quickly shakes his head!

 

Onyx looks at the training dummy and begins to swing harder at it. Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Stop thinking about it! He should be training, not thinking about the kiss. 

 

But then, the image of Irene's face came into his mind. For that split second of his thoughts being clouded: Onyx doesn't control his strength!

 

The moment Onyx's sword makes contact with the dummy's head, it explodes!

 

"..."  As the remains of the head dropped to the ground, the knights watching gulped. The training dummy is made out of steel! Hard metal steel! So how much force did Onyx have to use to cause the head to explode with a wooden sword?!

 

What made them gulp even more was Onyx continued to cut down the dummy! The man doesn't even realize the head got cut off. 

 

It wasn't enough that the head got cut off. But then, the rest of the body got sliced into tiny little pieces!

 

"..." What did the dummy ever do to you?! The knight felt pity for the training dummy. 

 

But not Onyx. He looks at one of the knights, "Can somebody get me another one. This one broke a little too quickly." It isn't enough. He needs to swing his sword more to get those thoughts out of his mind!

 

"R-right away." One of the knights says as he quickly runs to the shed and brings out another dummy. 

 

Teacher isn't here, so I have to work harder on my own. Onyx continues to slash at the metal dummy. Every time he hits it, he increases his power. 

 

Because of the extra days they rested at the inn, Vargar missed a lot of paperwork. So now, Onyx had to practice by himself. 

 

As Onyx continues to slam his sword at the dummy, 

 

"Well, well, well. To think the commoner worked so hard even though it's useless."

 

A pretentious and smug voice shouts, loud enough for all the knights to turn to see who said it. Not him again. Their expression turned dark when they saw who dared to say something like that. 

 

But Onyx continues to slice at the dummy, ignoring what the person calls him. Well, more like he couldn't hear him. Onyx's too tunnel into his training to even care about what people say about him. 

 

Seeing how he got ignored, the guy becomes even more furious. He extends his arm out, wanting to stop Onyx from swinging his sword.

 

The knights around shout out, "Stop! Don't you-" Are you mad?! They wanted to say this was the worst move yet. But it was too late! Onyx's instincts kick in as he swings his sword right at the guy's throat like a wild animal.

 

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

 

Ahh. Onyx snaps out of his focus as he hears the pig-like squeal. The damage is done. He turns around to see the person's pale face as he drops to the ground. His legs shiver like a newborn deer. Before Onyx can ask why he jumped in like that, 

 

"Young master, are you ok?!"

 

"Master, please get up!"

 

The two people behind him quickly pick the guy off the ground. And then, the guy shouts at Onyx, 

 

"What is wrong with you?! Are you trying to kill me?!" If the sword was even a millimeter closer to his neck: he would be dead. 

 

My fault? Onyx looks at him strangely, "But you were the one who tried to disturb my practice?" Every knight knows not to touch their comrade as they practice. When they're in the zone: they can perceive a simple touch as an enemy. 

 

"Hmpf! How dare you talk back to me, commoner! After I grace you with my presence." The other knights rolled their eyes at him. 

 

"Not this again."

 

"Does anybody know where Frederick is?"

 

"I think he's in a meeting right now."

 

"So that's why Gregory thinks he can do anything he wants now."

 

As the knights talk, the look on Onyx's face is weird. The next words that come out of his mouth are, "Who are you?"

 

He has never seen him before in the courtyard. And he looks like a person who would do something absurd. 

 

"Aggh. Does your commoner mind not know who I am?! I am Gregory Von Irkeng."

 

"Oh, and I'm Onyx." Onyx greets back and goes back to focusing on his sword. 

 

"..." Gregory's face turns even more blank. Did he just ignore me again? 

 

He can hear the snickering coming from the knights around. And the embarrassment just keeps piling on. 

 

"How dare you treat a noble like this?!" Gregory shouts as he takes out his sword, ready to cut Onyx down. It isn't a training sword; this is a real sword. Before he has a chance to swing it, Onyx flicks the sword out of his hand. 

 

That's not a toy." Onyx shakes his head and continues, 

 

"And shouldn't I be saying these words to you instead. Do you think you can treat a hero like dirt?" Onyx retorts back. Gregory didn't need to say he was a noble. Onyx knew when he heard his name.

 

Most nobles will have a middle name. But even if this guy is a noble, why should Onyx care about him?

 

Even if Gregory's a noble, Onyx has the title of hero. Weighing the two, it's obvious the hero title has more weight than the noble. 

 

But Gregory laughs haughty, "So what if you're a hero?! You have the blood of a lowly commoner. While I have the blood of the nobility."

 

"So what does somebody with noble blood want with me?" Onyx rolls his eyes. This conversation is getting boring. 

 

Gregory sneers, "Stay away from Irene! I'm warning you!"

 

Huh? Onyx makes another weird face. But it's different from the one he did before. This expression was wondering if this person had lost it. 

 

"Repeat that." Onyx thought he heard wrong. 

 

"You heard me! Stay away from Irene! Your commoner blood isn't fit to be with her." Gregory's voice turns even heavier. 

 

"Oh, I get it now. You're one of the guys Irene rejected." So that's why I feel deja vu. 

 

"She didn't reject me!" Gregory shouts even louder. But his denial wasn't needed. Just his action was enough to make Onyx know what happened. 

 

So she rejected him the hard way. This isn't the first time Onyx dealt with this kind of situation. With this, it should be in the triple digits now. 

 

"It's not my business who Irene decides to be with. So leave me alone. You've already bothered me enough." All of that time wasted because somebody didn't know the concept of no. 

 

Before Onyx can swing his sword again, Gregory throws a white glove at his chest. 

 

"If you aren't going to listen to me, then I'll just have to teach you the hard way. I challenge you to a duel!"

 

"Have you gone mad, Gregory!"

 

"Do you know what kind of thing this duel will cause?!"

 

The knights watching this situation look at Gregory in shock. And Gregory's followers also have wry expressions. They didn't expect this either.

 

Onyx's the only person who was confused by this. 

 

"Can somebody explain to me what's a duel?" Like he knows it's a one-on-one fight given the name. But from their expression, it seems to be more than that. 

 

One of the knights explains, "A duel is usually done when there's a dispute between two people. The loser will have to listen to whatever the winner says. And that even means if the winner wants the loser to die."

 

That's why this duel was so shocking to everybody. It doesn't matter what identity each person has. 

 

Once they accept the duel, nothing can be done about it. Hearing this, Onyx asks the knights, 

 

"I don't have to accept this duel, right?"

 

"Of course, you don't have to accept. And not from a stupid reason like this." The knight says. The reason for such a duel is just too childish. 

 

And Onyx thought the same as well, "Alright then. I'm not going to accept this duel." Betting his life over some guy's petty whims is just ridiculous. 

 

"What? Are you scared that you're going to lose?" Gregory begins to goad Onyx, wanting him to fight. 

 

But how can Onyx be goaded into something like this? He sighs, "Oh, please. Why should I be afraid of losing to somebody like you? Do you even know what you're wearing right now?" Gregory isn't dressed as a knight.

 

Instead, he's wearing very showy clothes. There are too many frills on the edges of the clothes. And the amount of jewelry added on makes him look like a headlight. 

 

Even regular nobles didn't wear this much jewelry and clothes during the meeting. 

 

Gregory looks more like a joke when he wears this surrounded by the knights. 

 

"I'm not going to fight somebody that looks like a joke. You're not worth my time. And you already wasted a lot of my time with your useless rambles."

 

Onyx doesn't look at Gregory anymore and goes back to training with the dummy. His training is much more meaningful than Gregory's ramble. 

 

"You!" Never has he faced such humiliation. Gregory doesn't care if Onyx was a hero. As he continues to step closer to Onyx, some of the knights realize it. They were about to tackle him down.

 

But they didn't need to do anything. 

 

"Gregory, what the hell do you think you are trying to pull?!" A cold and dark voice calls out from behind the crowd. The knights' faces quickly pale and make way for Frederick. 

 

The expression on his face is something nobody wants to mess with. 

 

"W-what do you want, Frederick?!" Gregory's voice shakes as he shouts out. His arrogant expression is nowhere to be found. Seeing Frederick here is enough to instill fear into him.

 

"What do I want?" The tone in Frederick's voice sounds condescending. Then he yells, "Do you think you can do whatever you want when the higher-ups aren't here?!"

 

"H-How dare you talk to me like that?! My father will know about this!"

 

But what came after was Frederick's fist slamming down onto Gregory's head,

 

"I don't care if your father hears about this! This is my knight order, you brat!"

 

And Gregory just drops to the ground without any resistance. All his muscles went limp with that one blow. 

 

"..." Is he dead? Onyx didn't think he would go down with only a blow.

 

Frederick continues to shout, "What kind of idiot would challenge a duel to the hero?! You'll definitely face the consequences!"

 

"Take this fool away and bring him to solitary confinement!" Two knights nod and quickly drag Gregory away. 

 

"And don't think you two can get away either. You guys will be going out without food for a month. And I want you two to clean the stalls as well." Gregory's followers' knees went weak. Frederick's voice is powerful and imposing. 

 

Hearing his threat, the two quickly ran away from the courtyard. Frederick sighs and turns over to Onyx, 

 

"I'm sorry that the fool pulled something like that on you." He was only gone for a few minutes, and something like that was pulled behind his back. 

 

But Onyx shakes his head, "It's ok. I don't really care about what he said." Gregory was nothing more than somebody he could ignore forever. But then he asks him, 

 

"Is that person really a knight?"

 

"....Trainee. But yes." Frederick's voice was weary, hesitant to answer Onyx's question. Saying that Gregory is part of the knights brought great shame to him. 

 

"How?" How can somebody like him be a knight trainee? The guy doesn't look like a knight at all. Just from appearance alone, Onyx can tell he is not a knight.

 

With his stomach protruding and his clean shirt, it just shows Gregory hasn't trained at all. 

 

"He was brought into the knight order because his parents funded a lot of money into the kingdom." Gregory's parents are marquis. And wealthy ones at that. They have donated a lot of money to get Gregory into the knight order.

 

"Can you really allow that?" Onyx was skeptical of this. If people can join the knight order with money, wouldn't the knight order be doomed?

 

"It's not something I can decide on. If we hadn't accepted Gregory, the Irkeng would become even more of a nuisance to us." 

 

"A nuisance?" 

 

Frederick shakes his head, "It's something you don't need to worry about." 

 

Seeing his expression, Onyx doesn't ask anymore. Instead, he asks, "Sir Frederick, can you have a spar with me?" Since Vargar isn't here, he needs somebody else to spar with. He can tell from the other knight's expressions that they didn't want to. 

 

"Sure. Let me see how much you have improved last time we fought." 

 

Frederick smiles and takes up a practice sword. 

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