Chapter 5

The tournament was open for everyone. Noble or commoner, male or female, old or young as long as one had the strength and the skill anyone could participate.

Rietta walked to the stage lazily with a bottle of wine hanging on her hip. Ever since she started to drink she tasted every alcoholic drink she could find. And among them she liked wine the best. Ever since then she always had a bottle of wine as a companion.

Her opponent was a young men around 15 years old. Probably a noble considering his equipments and mannerism.

"Group 17, Rietta versus Alex"

After the announcement they both drew their swords. Two types of auras were released, one calm, the other one excited yet confident.

Rietta didn't want to crush his confidence but alas she had no patience.

"Uhh boy sorry just consider this as a trial okay? I'm doing this because I want you to try even harder and not to give up easily" hiding her laziness Rietta said her words with a guilty conscience.

The match was over in an instant with Alex's sword shattering. No matter how talented he was their levels were too different.

And all of this didn't escape the emperor's eyes. And unlike others he could tell Rietta was on a different level than every participants. There was no need for her to compete, so he sent someone to summon her.

But Rietta actually refused to come. She had a feeling that if she went there her prize money will vanish. And she might even get into trouble. With her lazy nature she refused to take responsibility in anything.

After her refusal the emperor didn't summon her anymore but watched the tournament for two more days until the end.

Rietta had won the tournament. And the emperor personally came to give the prize. This time the emperor personally invited her while giving the prize money so she couldn't run away this time.

After their departure people murmured about the unexpected champion saying she was ridiculously strong.

***

Inside the luxurious castle Rietta was trapped.

Just ten minutes ago the emperor interrogated her in the name of the citizens safety. He said he has to know about her cause her intuition was unknown. So Rietta had to explain everything mostly how harmless she was to this empire.

The emperor said he believed in her then suddenly started to offer her positions and titles. Of course Rietta was not swayed one bit. But then this cunning emperor suddenly started to talk about his wine inventory!

Inside was not just any wines. There were 10 to 400 years old wines. And the strangest thing was this man actually offered her to be the guardian of the wine storage building. Yes there was a an entire building for wine. And this emperor was ridiculous enough to hire a sword master as a guard not for himself but for wine storage?

And after hearing about the hundreds of years old wines Rietta almost agreed. But she did not persist long and promised to protect those wine with her life. She will be paid 5 gold coins a week and 5 wines per month. As for the wine's age it was her choice.

After a week she was feeling satisfied with a 50 years old wine hanging around her waist. Money was a bonus. After another week Rietta was planning to take 100 years old one.

But before she could celebrate. A boy around 18 came saying he wanted her to teach him swordsmanship. Even after mercilessly rejected the young man persistently came everyday sometimes to sweep the floor around her or sometimes to tell her stories.

That cunning old man! I knew he was scheming something!!

The young man was the first prince Lucius de Averik. The emperor told him that there was a opportunity for him in front of the wine storage building. Being the first prince Lucius was smart after asking the servants about the new guard he immediately understood Rietta was not simple as no one would be paid this generously. And there was actually no need for a guard there even if a guard was needed there would be more than one.

And sure enough she was not simple. Her movements were naturally quite and powerful like a sheathed sword.