The group rise to their feet as they see the prince and Fredrin approaching them. They quickly bow before the prince and turn to Fredrin.

"Greetings, Blue Stars," says Fredrin. 

"Nice to meet you, Sir Alberson," says the leader clad in iron armour. "Andrew Lurtz."

"Aww, who's that absolute cutie on your shoulders?" asks the short female with a bow. "Your daughter, I presume?"

"I am Second Princess Celestia Elise Adellum, the most beautiful, most amazing, most smartest royal child," introduces Celestia dramatically, unaware of the grammatical error in her speech.

"Yeah, and my name is Leslie Asteria, personal advisor of the King; Andrew Lurtz is really an Archduke; Joseph here is the court jester; Orm is the prince of the castle and is currently waging war against a country of dragons."

"She's seri–"

"No, let me do it," whispers Celestia into Fredrin's ear.

Celestia giggles at the ignorance of these peasants before signally to a nearby Valkyrie Rider to come over. The man looks around confused before quickly making his way over to the group. As soon as he approaches a distance of three metres, he immediately prostrates himself.

Celestia is pleasantly surprised by the amount of respect being shown to someone as young as her. Then again, it could be out of the fear of having their ranks stripped away.

"Tell me, Sir Knight, who am I?" asks Celestia, a broad and mischievous smile on her face.

"You are Princess Celestia Elise Adellum," replies the Valkyrie Rider.

"Thank you sir knight," says Celestia. "You may return to your sparring."

The adventurer, upon realising her mistake, prostrates herself lower than the Valkyrie Rider had; her forehead has practically entering the ground. It reminded the infant of that silly myth of ostriches burying their heads in sand. The rest of the group look like they're about to laugh, but upon realising what doing so could mean for them, they swiftly silence their amusement..

'If the Valkyrie Rider had prostrated out of respect, the adventurer is definitely bowing out of fear. Her thoughts probably read as such: "This girl is extremely young and has more power than the man she's sitting on. If I have pissed her off, I might not have screwed myself but also my team as well. I beg to the stars that I haven't ticked her off." You know, I don't know whether to be happy or scared that my words have more influence than most feudal lords as a near two-year-old.'

"You are forgiven," says Celestia.

"May I ask how old you are?" Leslie inquires, her head unmoving from the floor.

"She'll be two years old in a couple of weeks," replies Cirian.

"If I have offended you, I sincerely apologise!" 

"You are forgiven," mutters Celestia impatiently. "Can we just get to the duel? This conversation is already boring me to death."

"Yes, we came here not to chat about ages. My fight with Andrew is the main attraction."

"This time, I will not lose."

'Yes, finally! If I am to improve my own sword skills, I must watch a duel between two professionals in close proximity or else I won't be able to learn. Until I have enough stamina, I can't be trained so this is probably the best I have.'

Cirian sits on a bench nearby, Celestia is carefully lowered onto his lap. Anyone seeing this would die of a cuteness overload. However, for neither party it was comfortable: Celestia was quite heavy on Cirian's lap and Celestia is uncomfortable sitting on someone's lap. Both had to hide their discontent and troop out the awkwardness. Beside them standing is Orm, Leslie Asteria, and Joseph.

Fredrin stands opposite from Andrew in the centre of the courtyard, both swordsmen are grasping wooden replicas of their own weapons. Not only to ensure their protection, but also allow them to be comfortable and for them to fight at their best. 

Cirian twiddles with his training sword while Celestia is leaning closer on his lap. One would interpret it as childish excitement, but it is, in fact, intense studying of the two swordsman's posture and stance. 

"The fight is over when your opponent lands three hits on your waist and above. No magical enhancement on yourself or weapons until three minutes have passed. Do you agree to these rules?" Both swordsmen merely nod their head in acceptance, they've already locked their concentration on their opponent. "Begin!"

The two don't stay in their positions for long. Before Celestia's eyes knew it, the wooden swords of Andrew and Fredrin are fastened together in the centre of the courtyard. Both had moved more than three metres faster than Celestia and Cirian could register. 

Andrew quickly clutches Fredrin's sword, using his advantage of having two arms and better physique. He pushes his opponent's sword away and dives his wooden sword towards Fredrin chest. Expertly, Fredrin angles his body and twists his sword from the grip of Andrew, who finds a wooden sword point hitting him in the temple. If it weren't for his helmet, the strike could've knocked him unconscious.

"Blast," he hisses in frustration. "That's the third time he's done that and it gets me every time."

"You can do it, Andrew!" yells Joseph. "Remember, if you lose, you owe me 500 crowns."

"This is the first time I've seen Fredrin spar," comments Cirian.

"Cirian, is Ruby intelligence?" asks Celestia suddenly.

"Intelligent is the correct word. Not as much as me and you, but still relatively intelligent," replies Cirian. "However, she's really annoying and obnoxious too. I'm happy I was born first."

"Mama told me you were louder when you were Ruby's age, but just before I was born, you got into books which made you a quiet boy."

"N-no! I wasn't loud!" Cirian splutters. "And stop moving around on my lap, it's uncomfortable."

"You're being loud now," returns Celestia.

"Let's just get back to spar."

Celestia gives up on teasing Cirian and turns her attention back to the fight. She turns back in time to see the two swordsmen leaping at each other, their weapons bouncing off their opponents as they rotate in a circle. Probing one another's defences with swift and barely visible attack. Every strike gets faster and more aggressive as they parry and deflect each other's attacks. 

Andrew scowls and goes for a ferocious attack. With near-to-no time to react with the sudden sweeping swing, Fredrin throws up his weapon to block. The one-armed swordsman is thrown from his feet and to the ground. Barely recovering in time to parry a vicious downwards cleft. Their swords slide from each other and to the ground.

Both attempt to kick each other simultaneously, then they both attempt to bury their knees into their opponent, then they try a footstomp. Celestia giggles at the sight of two men seemingly dancing with one another, but also trying to knock each other over. With a heavy-handed elbow, Fredrin is moved backwards again.

Using his superior agility and speed, Fredrin springs from his new spot and dives under another sweeping blow. There is a thunk as his wooden sword collides with Andrew's armour prompting the marshall to smile smugly. Andrew doesn't waste another second, he shoots his leg forward. Fredrin dodges the kick and retreats, however, he isn't prepared for the tornado-like spin that followed. Fredrin does his best to evade and widen the gap.

Fredrin raises his hand to his cheek, that slowly trickles blood. "That move surprises me every time. I forgot you could move like that without magical enhancements."

"Catches everyone off."

The two waste no more time, as they close in on each other, moving so fast that Celestia's eyes are having trouble keeping up. She's totally and utterly engrossed in the duel. Cirian seems too distracted, most likely pondering about books or something similar.

The entire fight, Celestia was analysing the moves and techniques of both men and committing them to memory as best she can. It is important she does this as the brain of a human doesn't start processing and properly storing memories until you reach approximately three-years-old. Although she is inside well over three-years-old, her body is still that of a toddler. Meaning she gets the few advantages and many disadvantages associated with being that.

"Magical enhancements are now legal," states Orm. 

"Great, now this is where things get interesting."

But before the fight could escalate, a man comes rushing over. Celestia immediately recognises the man: he's the personal tutor of Cirian. Ruby has a personal servant too; however, she's the about the same age as Cirian and is actually the daughter of minor nobility. This man looks to be twenty years older than Cirian. Celestia frowns as the duel is cut off by the arrival of this man.

"Princess Celestia, Prince Cirian, the Queen is giving birth! Leodore has requested your presence immediately!" he screams as he goes a knee.

'This soon?! I was only told of this weeks ago.'