2 Always Learning
As the carriage finally reached its destination it came to a halt, the door opened and out came out the Baron's son and his personal maid.
The eyes of the commoners all around him seemed to shift towards him, the air felt heavy as silence filled the place.
Before everyone started warmly welcoming Avery, he couldn't help but wave his hand as he laughed nervously while sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, no matter how many times he experiences this he can never truly get used to it.
He knows he'll eventually have to grow a backbone in social situations but "What a fat pig." "Seriously? This is the quality the Montalle family fell to?" "The kingdom is doomed if this bloody pig is the person protecting the borders."
Even if the people of this territory loved him for his innocence and odd quirk of not seeing a difference between nobility and commoners.
The nobles of the kingdom saw otherwise, to them he was nothing but a stain on the aristocracy's name, he was nothing but a disgusting, embarrassing piece of garbage that parades around with the title of noble.
Going even as far as to spread unfavourable rumours about him in their territory for nothing out of share hate for him.
He was doubtful of many things, will he be able to take over the territory after his father hands it to him? Will his dad truly even consider him and not just adopt or birth another kid to crown them as the head instead? Will he gain a skill strong enough to be worthy of the Montalle family name? The worries only keep on bubbling up whenever he thought about them.
Sensing a weird shift in the boy next to her, Lilly took to the initiative to help and relieve the stress, she grabbed him by the hand and started dragging him to do what they came here for.
The boy caught off guard starting blushing, the red tint on his cheeks almost matching the colour of his hair.
Yes, he didn't need to worry about any of those things at the moment, he didn't come here for that, he came here for one thing, challenge 'him', he quickly started matching the speed of Lilly and both were running hand in hand through the crowds of the city, everyone eventually returning that what they used to do before the young master came.
As.he was passing through the crowd, most of the town folk were welcoming him and he simply smiled and waved as he walked Lilly, he just felt confident whenever she was close to him.
He was thankful to her.
"Oh dear me, I almost forgot."
This made them both stop.
"I'm afraid I hadn't had the chance to eat lunch yet, would you like to come with me to the food stalls young master."
He couldn't help but blush at the suggestion, it felt like a date, even though he was mostly sure that Lilly didn't know what that is.
He just just slowly nodded, as they both took a detour towards a nearby food stall that was selling meat skewers there.
"Oh, hello young master what can I do for you today?"
He turned to look to the girl besides him.
"How much do you need Lilly, today's everything is on me!"
But those words were the worst words he has uttered that day, for as soon as they left his mouth a devilish grin spread across the maid's face, her bangs covering her eyes making her look like a cool, laughing maniacal at the fool who just made a deal with the devil.
She just looked at him in the face and responded.
"Thank you, Avery."
As shivers went down his spine, he quickly turned back towards the knight that was appointed to follow them that day, he quickly gestured for him to get closer and told him to show the money they brought with them.
20 silver coins.
"S-sir how much is a skewer?"
"3 coppers a pop, kiddo!"
'10 copper coins is 1 silver...10 silver is one big silver...10 big are a gold'
They had thankfully the equivalent of 2 big silver coins, this brought relief back to Avery so he sighed and turned back to Lilly.
"How much do you want Lilly?"
"25 for me."
He felt himself turning to stone.
He just stared at the stall owner with dead eyes and said.
"30...skewers in...total please..."
The man was overjoyed, while both the boy and the knight felt like dropping to the floor.
***
Both kids were walking again, this time they were heading to the outskirts of town, completely opposite to the direction they came from, avery looked dead on the inside, Lilly on the other hand looked refreshed and ready to go through a whole day's worth of work in minutes.
Well at least, if there's any solace to this for Avery, it's that she is still holding his hand even till now.
"After we're down with your "bout" we shall head to do more shopping."
And it just became a contract he can't escape from.
As they were getting close to their destination they started hearing a voice from the distance.
This made Avery hasten his steps to try and see what was going on, making Lilly speed up in kind and the knight to quicken his pace as well.
When they got there they saw a bunch of kids standing in front of a large rock.
What was shocking was that those kids were hanging up on 3 others, 2 girls one with violet hair and the other with red and a boy with blue hair standing in between them shielding them from the others with a sword in hand.
"We heard you're getting chummy with that bloody pig and we had to see it for ourselves" one of them said.
"You think that dimwit will help you get out of the orphanage when you grow up? You must be as stupid as he is!" Another followed.
"If your willing to associate with the pig, doesn't that means you're also a bunch of pigs like him? Hah! The pig crew!" Slowly all of them started chanting the words put crew toward them as they approached the 3 kids again.
The blue haired kid had small but noticable injuries, while the other two seemed to only have dirt over their hair, probably those savage children trying to rough them up.
Lilly felt the hand of Avery tighten on hers, he obviously didn't enjoy the words being thrown around at him, but she could see it in his eyes, what annoyed him the most wasn't that, but what they did the three kids.
As the ruffians got closer to the three, the blue haired kid got ready in a stance, but before anything could break out.
"Oi!"
This caused all of them to to turn to the direction the voice came from, and there he stood, Avery with the knight behind him.
"What are you guys doing to those 3?"
"N-nothing." these kids weren't idiots enough to try to lash out at the son of the lord, especially when a knight was behind him ready to beat them if necessary.
"We...we were j-just having a game of tag, now that we're done we're leaving, RUN!" They immediately dispersed and went about their separate ways to try to not get caught.
Although Avery didn't try to catch them, he didn't really care about them at all, al he wanted was to keep those 3 safe.
As the other kids disappeared into the town, probably heading back to the orphanage, the other two girls finally stepped out from behind the boy, as the three of them stared at Avery, everyone of them had a different reaction, the girl with red hair seemed to be admiring their saviour.
The girl with violet hair kiclked her tounge and grumbled something to herself Avery could easily guess what it was, probably something along the lines of "we never needed your help anyway, idiot!"
"Thank you for the save, young master Avery!" The red haired girl known as Gaelle.
"Gaelle, don't thank him!" Screamed the girl with violet hair, the one known as Carole, a respond Avery saw coming from a mile away.
And lastly, the boy who seemed unimpressed, and surprisingly showing an expression he doesn't usually show around Avery, disappointment, disappointed he stopped the fight? No he was staring at Avery but his gaze kept shooting back at the knight.
'He's disappointed that I hid behind the protection of the knight?' Avery thought to himself.
That seemed be the case, completely in character for none other than Luke.
The reason Avery came to the village everyday, the reason he always brought a wooden sword with him, was to beat this kid.
His look of disinterest was slowly turning into an even different expression that Avery never saw, a frown.
He really didn't like him stepping into the situation the way he did, but Avery couldn't let it pass himself, so how is he going to get through this stubborn kid?
He glanced over his wooden sword that was carried by Lilly and a smile slowly dawned his face.
He gestured for her to give him the sword and she immediately complied, noticing the same things Avery did.
He picked the sword and pointed it through Luke.
"I didn't want to fight my rival at his worst, neither did I want to waste my stamina on those idiots, I came here only to fight you."
This again, for the third time today made Avery bore witness to am expression he never sees Luke having, a smile, as small as it was the boy was smiling at the proclamation.
And so in response he readied his sword.
The two were now aligned against the other and both anticipating what's to come.
Reading the room, Lilly went closer and started a count down.
"3...2...1...fight!"
Both launched at the other, one with incredible speed for someone his age and the other with nothing but what can be considered sluggish and sloppy movement.
Their wooden swords clashed and Avwry almsot stumbled backward, but he held his ground.
Immediately breaking the lock and going for a piercing strike towards the stomach that was too easily dodged by Luke who sent a swift counterattack hitting Avery on the shoulder.
The hit was hard enough to drop one of his arms to the ground as the other struggles to keep the sword in its grasp, buy je quickly got back up and went for a wide swing.
Thump thump
Avery kept wildly slashing at Luke, but the blue haired boy kept on casually blocking them.
The knight was impressed, but not ny his master, but by the kid that wielded the sword like it was naturally a part of him.
Lilly on the other hand was both worried and impressed by the young master, no matter how many times she sees this she couldn't help but be captivated by his tenacity even though the final outcome of the fight is clear, and she was worried because of how he kept pushing himself even with all the blows he kept receiving, both sentiments were shared by Gaelle.
All while Carolle was cheering for Luke to beat down Avery in the most humiliating way possible.
Avwry kept on going, slashing away at his opponent until hopefully his sword connects with flesh, but he kept only hearing the thumps of wood.
Thump thump.
He slashed some more.
Thwack thwack.
Slowly Luke has gotten bored and began counter attacking him after every blow.
But it didn't stop him.
Thump thwack thump thwack.
This continued for several minutes until by the end Avery was one knee to the ground, the sword that's supporting him was the only reason he hasn't hit the ground yet.
The winner was obvious to all, yet despite all of that, all of them can see Avery trying to get back up, his body in pain telling him to stop but he didn't want to.
No matter how many bruises he got he didn't want to yield, no matter how many times his clothes got damaged and holes ripped in them, he didn't care, he just wanted to hit the boy infront of him at least once.
But it seemed today he won't be able to just like any other day.
Dropping his gaze to the ground signaling to the others that the fight is done, Carolle immediately rushed to Luke to congratulate him for beating Avery, while Gaelle was worried for Avery instead, but she didn't have the courage to go talk to him, not yet at least.
As the crimson haired kid was gathering his breath, he noticed a shadow cast over him, looking up Luke was right in front of him, looking down on him.
"You improved, keep it up." With those words he left and started heading towards the town, Carolle quickly following after and Gaelle nervously bowing down to the three before she followed after.
'Improved my arse, I'm still pathetic.'
But Lilly could easily tell where her young master'sind was going to go now, so rather then let him sit and stress himself over it, she went in front of him and extended her hand.
"Master Avery, today's is still long, let's continue our date shall we?"
The thoughts quickly vanishing from his head and a blush taking place on his face instead, he took her hand and stood up, the knight might've not been impressed by his young master's fighting skills but he liked the ferocity and tenacity he possessed, he also patted him on the back telling him did well.
But Avery was thinking about the fight anymore he was just happy to spend more time with Lilly.
As their silhouette started to walk towards the village a thought entered Avery's head.
'Wait how does she know what a date is?'
