Rest Before The Spar

Jien sat in the lounge as he waited for the others to rest. However, he didn't have to wait long before the five noble families made their way to the lounge as well. They didn't seem to be in a rush to start the festivities though, instead preferring to have some time to talk amongst themselves while drinking tea and eating snacks provided by the staff of the manor.

The adults all seemed to move to one side of the lounge, surrounding Earl, Runa, Mark and Emily to discuss a wide variety of topics. Meanwhile the five noble children made their way over to where Jien now sat, currently with a book in hand and leafing through its pages calmly. Each took a seat around where Jien sat, on various sofas and chairs provided, helping themselves to tea and sweets.

The first to have arrived was also the first to have entered the manor to rest, Barret Romero. He sat calmly on a sofa directly across from Jien and seemed to observe him silently, not making to interrupt the quiet atmosphere. This action in itself gained even more of Jien's approval, confirming that, at least so far, he could get along with the stoic youth.

Next came the pair of Lesley Knowles and Olivia Mason. They weren't yelling anymore and seemed to have been reprimanded by their respective parents. They were both slightly sulking but their was a fire in their eyes that spoke to the fact that if there was any possibility to start another argument they would happily grab hold. Jien purposely put even more focus on his book, trying to seem as though he really shouldn't be bothered in hopes of preventing the headache he knew would come from interacting with the two of them.

Bernard came into the room calmly, shortly followed by the boisterous but now slightly more reserved Rosalind. It appeared that Rosalind may have also gotten a scolding or perhaps just some general advice to tone down her excitement a level or two. As the five youths took their seats all attention went on the cause of this occasion and birthday boy, Jien.

Jien internally sighed when he saw all eyes were on him. If he could have had his way he would have just ignored them and kept reading, but he unfortunately had a certain level of responsibility as a part of the host family. He calmly closed the book after finishing his current page, putting a bookmark in place and then turned to meet the eyes of each member of the noble youths. He picked up a cup of tea and took a sip before leaning back in his seat calmly. 

"I hope that our hospitality has been to your liking so far." he stated hoping to start off some small talk so as to move things along. If he could have his way in regards to this event he would have had them sparring already before rushing through the meal and dance. If he had had a choice in how the day would go he would have complete foregone the event and stayed in his room all day to read, but now he had to make do until the adults decided to get things going.

Barret responded with a silent nod to the statement, followed by Bernard calmly stating that everything was excellent so far. Rosalind gaining back just a smidge of her prior energy stated that everything was lovely and the handmaiden helping their family was wonderful. Lastly Lesley and Olivia took the conversation as a way to stir up trouble amongst each other. Lesley stated that everything was great besides being in the same empire as Olivia leaving the tanned girl angry as when they had first arrived.

Luckily she didn't get a chance to start another shouting match. Before she could raise her voice and start to tell the boy off Earl cleared his throat and gathered everyone's attention on him. "First off, thank you for coming to Jien's tenth birthday celebration. I know that you likely are all likely still recuperating from the ride here but I wished to discuss the plan for the sparring match."

Looking around at everyone in the room he made sure that all of the children were also focused on what he was saying. "Your parents and I have discussed how we think that this portion of the festivities should be handled." he stated calmly. "We believe that the fairest approach would be a round robin style tournament. This would allow for each of you to get a feel for the others in your group while removing the potential dangers of a free-for-all."

After saying this Earl gave a pause to make sure that what he was saying was understood. "Of course between matches we will definitely help you if you get hurt and allow for time to rest if it is needed. The rules are a simple really. Everything is allowed besides purposely crippling, severely injuring or killing." At this point he made a point to look each of them in the eyes firmly. "A battlefield has no restrictions and you will have to learn to make due with any advantage you can get your hands on, but we don't want to see anyone seriously hurt. For this reason there will be two of us watching over each fight to intervene if things seem to be getting too dangerous."

"Lastly, the winner of each match will be determined by if a combatant surrenders, is knocked unconscious or is ruled as unfit to continue by one of us. These rules are absolute for these sparring matches and we won't tolerate anyone going against them. The winner will be the one that wins the most matches against their opponents. Does this sound agreeable?" Earl ended with this question because though the adults had thought it a good idea nothing was set in stone as of the moment.

Jien looked at his father and the other adults before stating in a calm voice "I have no objections." Shortly after Jien made his opinion known the other children quickly agreed. It seemed that things were going to be a bit more demanding than Jien had originally thought, but he still felt that this would be fine.