Showing Off At The Training Grounds [Rebecca’s POV] (Part 4)

I tried to put some distance between us, but before I could, he launched himself with ice again to get close to me. This time, I knew he was going to use his ice sword, so I had time to prepare my stance and put force behind my own sword swing. When his sword hit mine, they clashed in a power struggle.

While I was struggling to match his strength, he scoffed, "I don't know what I was thinking in the past. My wife is much better than you, she is far more obedient. On the other hand, you have a husband who doesn't care at all about your marriage unlike me."

I was so focused on the power struggle that it took a moment for me to process what he was talking about. Once I did, his disrespectful attitude towards me so far made a lot of sense.

Back when we were friends, who saw each often, he had confessed that he liked me. It was soon after it was announced that I would be engaged to the original Nicolas. He must have felt bad that the person he liked was suddenly getting married to someone else, but I never saw him that way in the first place. I pointed out to him that we would have never been together since I was a noble and he was a commoner. Instead of accepting the inevitable, he argued that we shouldn't let titles stop us from being together with the person we love.

I agreed with his sentiment, but I had to awkwardly explain to him that even without the titles, I never had any feelings for him. We were friends that played together a couple hours a day, but we hardly knew anything about each other. All our conversations were surface level interactions. How could I fall in love with someone who doesn't really know and understand me?

After my rejection, Samuel stopped coming over to play with me and I rarely saw him in the manor. He avoided me so much that I couldn't even recognize him when I first saw him today. It looks like my rejection so many years ago still irritated him. It's especially weird to be so worked up about it when you already have a wife.

It seems like he just wanted to rub it in that he had found a wife he liked and I was stuck with a husband that everyone thought would be neglectful to me. His continued grudge against me for just letting him know I didn't have any romantic feelings for him seemed unbelievably immature. However, the thing that bugged me the most was how he was insulting me for not being obedient and insulting Nick.

While we were still clashing swords, I voiced me opinion. "I want to say my husband is also much better than you, but comparing the two of you feels like an insult to my husband. Like comparing Prince Charming to a slug…

Also, I feel bad for your wife if all you care about is obedience. You better be careful, or she might just leave you in the future…"

Samuel laughed as he thought I was talking nonsense. "What do I have to worry about? A wife and husband can never leave each other in their lifetimes."

Even though we were in a power struggle, I couldn't help but laugh. "Haha, not for too much longer."

Samuel got angry when I started laughing, so he put in more force into his sword. I was obviously going to loss the power struggle now, so I jump back by shooting ice from my feet like I saw Samuel do.

As I racked my brain for a way to beat his ice sword strike, I suddenly remembered something Nick told me he learned from his engineering background.

To trick Samuel, I started limping backwards slowly as if I had twisted my ankle from our earlier sword clash. Samuel saw this and chuckled, "women are so fagile. Don't worry, I'll end this quickly."

He jumped at me to initiate our third sword clash. However, this time I had a secret up my sleeve. Nick explained to me once that the amount of force you put on something depends on how long your shaft is. He wanted to use it for his extendable lightning blade, but it ended up no being possible for him because his lightning blade don't have a tangable form.

But since my ice sword did, I should be able to greatly increase my output force by doubling the length of my sword. You can't do this for most steel swords because it will become too heavy, but my ice sword was very light.

With my doubled sword length, the clash only lasted a second before Samuel lost the grip of his sword. After he dropped his sword, my sword continued its momentum and hit him square in the head, knocking him unconscious. Luckily, my ice sword was more like an ice cylinder, so it didn't cut his head.

Samuel's body hit the floor and I worriedly turned to look at Arthur. He quickly ran over and put his arm around his son to carry him away. "Don't worry too much my Lady. This kid has always had a thick skull. He will be fine after a little rest."

"Should I go grab a stamina potion or two?"

Arthur frantically shook his head. "No need, it would be a huge waste for such a small injury."

"I'll trust your judgment…"

While we were discussing what to do with Samuel, my Mother and Brother came up excitedly. My Mother screamed, "Becky, you were so awesome!"

My Brother chimed in, "you really beat a County mage…I'm very impressed."

I, on the other hand, am my own strictest critic. "I still learned a lot of areas where I need improvement. For instance, I only won the final sword clash because of a trick I learned. I need to find ways to gain distance fast to avoid close combat or I need better strategies to win in close combat."

Rob nodded his head in understanding. "Still, a win is a win. It's good that you were able to think on your feet with so little battle experience."

"Thanks Brother, I'm pretty tired now, I'm going to head back to my room so I can wash up."

"Yeah, you should rest before dinner."