Moving Forward

The two began an exchange of swords as cuts began piling up on Evan's fair skin.

As expected, the sword master Finley was completely unscathed, nevertheless, he had a frown on his face as he increased the intensity of his sword strikes.

His frown deepened in the next moment as he poured earth-attributed mana into his sword and swung it downwards.

Evan let out a small battle cry as he filled his own blade with flame-attributed mana, swinging it upwards to meet Finley's blade.

**BOOOMM!!!

There was an explosion of dust and smoke as the duo simultaneously took distance from each other. Finley looked at the blade of the weapon in his hands that could barely withstand his mana before turning his gaze to Evan and speaking.

"Right then, you used another skill. I barely noticed the activation, what was it?"

His words evoked reactions of surprise from all the spectators as none of them noticed anything of the sort.

Even Raplhie who was officiating the duel was no exception as he alternated his gaze between Evan and Finley before asking out loud.

"Are you sure brother? I barely noticed a thing."

Finley nodded and sheathed his sword without removing his gaze from Evan's body while Chief court mage Jenson, who just walked in, looked at the air above Evan and Finley before frowning.

Evan on the other hand, took a deep breath and snapped his fingers. The next moment, spears of flames manifested in the air behind Finley before firing down towards his 'defenceless' back.

Unsheathing his sword instantly, Finley turned around and slashed through the five flame spears simultaneously, causing them to explode mid-air.

'He cut through the cores of the spells instantly, as expected of the number one of the ten great swordsmen.

However, the spears were but a distraction, how would you fare against the real attack?'

Jenson thought to himself as he turned his gaze towards Evan who had dashed towards Finley the moment he made the spears manifest.

His swing toward Finley was matched by the swordsman who used the sheath of his sword to block the strike that came from behind.

Finley was in the process of turning around to face Evan once more when he suddenly felt magic power building up at his feet.

"Explode."

Evan called out calmly as a single-ringed three-meter-wide magic circle manifested underneath their feet. The magic circle glowed brightly and was about to erupt into a pillar of flames, however-

"I guess that's enough."

Finley spoke as he stamped his foot on the ground, shattering the earth of the palace's training grounds, save for the spot where Ralphie and Evan were standing.

As for the spell circle, it was shattered as there was no way a tier one magic circle could withstand the amount of magic power Finley poured in from his feet at the moment of contact with the ground.

The sword master then walked up to Evan and knocked him on the head before scolding him lightly.

"Don't be suicidal, you idiot. There was no way that your paladin skill's defences were going to be able to withstand that spell's power."

He then turned to the duke and continued.

"He's good to go."

After this, he murmured something to himself about body odour and needing to take a bath as he jumped out of the palace's training grounds.

Jenson sighed and tapped his foot on the ground, pouring magic power into it to undo the effects of Finley's actions before following behind the sword master.

Left behind, the royal and ducal family members took a moment to recollect themselves before agreeing to reconvene at another location.

◇ ◇ ◇

"So, now that I've gotten a go-ahead from Finley, I can go over to Merdin, right?"

Evan broke the silence in the dining hall at the palace with his question as he soundlessly dropped his cutlery and took his third glass of strawberry juice within the span of five minutes.

"Yes, you can. However, you would not do so immediately."

"Huh? Why?"

"You are to participate in the upcoming founding festival ball before leaving for Merdin."

Hearing the emperor's reply to his question, Evan scanned through the memories of the original 'Evan' and nodded his head in affirmation.

The calendar system of this world was not much different from his original world.

Twenty-four hours a day,

Seven days a week,

Thirty or Thirty-one days a month, and

Twelve months a year.

The names of the days and months were also the same. This made things a lot easier for Evan who really didn't want to have to adapt to a new date system.

The only thing that was different was the method of counting the years. Nevertheless, Evan was already familiar with this from the game.

The current year was 'Year 1050', making it exactly 1050 years since the previous seven heroes repelled the demon threat.

Counting how long he had spent in this world, Evan realized that the founding ball would mark his ninth month here.

He arrived in the first week of August and began training in the second, carrying on with this training until the week of his birthday in October.

After that, he continued his training with Finley and Jenson until the second week of December when the 'End of year season' began.

He had to take a break from there until the second week of January when the 'New Year Season' ended.

Upon resuming the next day after the party season ended, he had the little spat with Finley that led to his training being extended by one more month.

Sadly, his protests were shot down by the duke who was more than happy to have Finley train Evan some more.

'And that brings us to now, where I'm sharing dinner with the royal family.

If you think I skipped a lot of things, then that's your problem.'

Evan spent a few minutes rolling on the floor laughing when he found out that the Great Western Empire was founded on the first of April.

'An empire founded on April fool's day, how hilarious.'

Much to his surprise, the concept of 'April Fools', did not exist in Aidos, as such no one would ever understand how or why he found that hilarious.