Dignity

Damon focused on controlling his breath as he jogged around the training field.

He was beyond exhausted, but the mana threads he had spread through his limbs where slowly dissipating, providing him with energy.

He could form and maintain over twenty threads now and had found that assimilating them into his body allowed his body to draw strength from them.

The more strength he drew from them, the shorter they grew as they were used up, but doing this meant that he could go past the limits of his stamina.

At five years old, it was only very recently that Damon's mother had allowed him to go out onto the training fields, and he relished in the feeling of testing the various physical uses of his mana threads.

As he completed his last lap, he approached the center of the training field where William was also finishing up a training session.

The training field was a large plot of packed dirt. There were training dummies along one side of it, and racks of wooden and real weapons were laid out on another side.

A section of it had been partitioned and was on s slightly raised wooden platform. This was the dueling platform.

At the center of the field, William stood at ease, he had a great-sword in one hand and a large shield strapped to the other.

Great-swords were typically two-handed weapons, but with William's size and strength, he could use one as a normal sword.

In front of William stood Norman Rolcur, his instructor. Norman was a bald, stocky man that sported a thick black beard. As a retired Royal Guard captain, he was a decent enough tutor in Damon's opinion. Not outstandingly good or bad, just average.

The only issue with the man that Damon had was his alignment with Queen Isabel. Initially, it had not been a big problem, but as time crept closer and closer to the King's promise of providing Damon and William a tutor, Norman had grown bolder and bolder in his attempts to get William to change allegiance.

".. will give you a great advantage. Give it a thought lad." Norman was saying as Damon approached.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm happy here. Whatever advantage joining the royal guard will give me, I don't believe that it can't be bridged by hard work." Said William.

"You'd be surprised boy. Some of the newer recruits of the guard could give you a run for your gold even after considering your talent." Said Norman.

"That's all well and good for them, but I don't quite care about that. As long as I'm progressing, that's what's important to me." Replied William.

"If you're scared of competition, just say so. You might think that being personally taught by Uncle Norman gives you an advantage, but a flower raised in a greenhouse is just that – good to look at and nothing more." A scornful voice came from the edge of the training field.

Damon turned to see three people approach.

Beren lead the group. In a short two years he had been promoted to a Viscount and had become a vice-captain of the Royal Guard. He was a rising star in the Kingdom, and he carried himself with the swagger of one.

Behind him came a teenager who was around William's age. He was shorter and stockier than William, and based on his similar features to Norman, Damon guessed that he was the one who had called out to them.

Standing next to this boy was a man that Damon was loathe to see. A tall slim man with mouse-like features, from his long nose to his thinning brown hair and crafty, beady eyes. His name was Clifford Walfian, and he was a minor noble who was in the process of replacing Beren as Kerron's apprentice in administration.

Whilst Kerron was a statesman and Beren was a thug, Damon knew Clifford to be a truly insidious man. Cruel, cowardly and meticulous, he would grow to become Beren's right hand man and was the brains behind much of his future operations.

William looked at the approaching group, then turned back to his tutor, completely ignoring the other teenager's remarks.

Before he could say his goodbyes to Norman, the tutor stoked the fire, not willing to let William walk away.

"He's not wrong you know lad, it's hard to gauge how strong you are when you're training like this. If you join the guard then not only will you get access to exclusive Aura techniques, but you'll also have stiff competition from your age group to help you get a better sense of your combat ability." Said Norman.

William sighed at this continued insistence from his tutor.

Class related aura techniques were automatically unlocked as one leveled up, but it was possible to also create non-class related techniques that could be passed onto others.

Being a commoner, William had no access to these. With his talent, it was only a mater of time before his contributions would allow him to be rewarded some of these techniques, but Norman had taken to belaboring this point to William and trying to convince him to join the Royal guard.

Royal guard trainees gained access to several aura techniques, and Norman's argument was that learning them at an earlier age would lay a foundation for a stronger future, and he wasn't exactly wrong.

"Like I said, I appreciate the offer, but I'm happy with how things are." Said William.

"I told you Uncle, there's no point in giving such an offer to a mere commoner. Someone who lucked into a mediocre position based on some small talent wouldn't even survive our training." Came the dissenting voice again.

This time, William frowned and turned to the boy.

Damon sighed internally, standing to the side with his arms folded.

As calm as William normally was, he hated having his hard work questioned, and he hated seeing Damon belittled. It was possible that this boy had coincidentally triggered both of William's soft spots, but looking at Beren and Clifford's smirks, Damon could see that this boy had been guided in what to say.

"Who are you?" asked William.

The question obviously cut the boy deep as his face turned dark with anger.

"I am Carter Rolcur" said the boy with pride in his voice.

William's blank expression showed that he clearly did not recognize the name, and this further angered Carter.

Clifford cut in smoothly, seeing that Carter's emotions could destabilize their plan.

"Young master Carter is the most recent addition to the Kingdom's rising stars list; he has won a series of duels against various young talents and was recently selected as a squire in the royal guards." Said Clifford

This calmed Carter down, and his pride returned to his face.

"Rising stars list?" Asked William, even more confused.

"You!-" exclaimed Carter, irritate again by William's nonchalance.

"The rising stars list is a list of those aged fifteen and under with the greatest potential in the Kingdom." Said Damon, explaining the situation to William.

William scratched his head at this.

"And what exactly does that have to do with me?" Asked William.

This caused Carter's eyes to bulge.

"It's probably because you're ranked tenth on the list. I'm guessing he wants to challenge you so he can finish in the top ten. It wouldn't mean much to you, but finishing in the top ten does a lot for future career prospects." Said Damon, filling William in.

"Ah, I see, how did I become number ten?" asked William.

This question drew silence from the crowd.

William was purely focused on his training. He did not challenge others and had asked Alan to dispose of any incoming challenges.

Despite this, based on his talent when he awakened and the fact that he had progressed to level 2 by the time he was twelve had secured William's ranking in the top ten.

Damon turned to Carter.

"I take it that you know that you don't match up to the other nine, so you want to challenge William to a duel."

This caused Carter's eyes to blaze with anger, but once more Clifford took over from him.

"To be honest, your highness, this is more of an opportunity for William than Carter. Lord Rolcur has tirelessly lobbied on behalf of William and has managed to get the Royal guards to agree to provide William with their Aura techniques if he manages to beat Carter." Said Clifford.

"And if he loses?" asked Damon, already sure of the answer.

"We believe in William's talent, and we think it would benefit both him and the Kingdom if he were raised as a Royal Guard. If he were to lose, we'd take him on as an honorary squire to dig out his true potential." Said Beren.

"You needn't worry about losing your attendant, your highness, it's an honorary position so he will still be free to work with you." Continued Clifford.

Damon chuckled internally.

He understood that the first Queen's faction was running out of time to convince William to defect. With this move, they would be able to have access to him even after the tutor was replaced.

"William?" asked Damon.

"No thank you, I couldn't care less about this rising whatever list, and I still don't see the need for any royal guard techniques." Said William without giving it a second thought.

Carter looked livid at the response, and was ready to pounce at William, when Beren stepped in, holding him back by his shoulder.

"Relax Carter, relax." Said Beren.

Carter growled and tuned around, grumbling.

"I guess that's all that can be expected from a useless bodyguard of a useless prince." Carter muttered under his breath.

Damon remained calm at this, but he gave Carter a long hard stare. William, however, was not so calm.

"What did you say!" Exclaimed William.

"I said, that's all that can be expected from a useless bodyguard of a useless prince." Carter turned around and repeated himself.

William took a deep breath, then turned, walking towards the dueling platform on the training field.

"Select your weapon" said William as he walked.