Chapter 8 - The birthday party begins

Stab stab stab…

It was early morning on the day of Julian's birthday, and the training ground was covered in fog, amidst which, one figure has been continuously stabbing at the training dummy.

As I stood there on the training ground stabbing the dummy without stopping, an old conversation from back when I had just become a corps commander came to mind, {I sat there on the training grounds with a book in my hands as I bathed under the glorious morning sun, when a fellow company commander, who I had been friends with since my academy days began a conversation with me. 'Julian, my friend before you decide to earn any martial art there is one thing you need go know' he said as he sheathed his sword and sat down next to me.

'Huh? What I mean can't I just practice it as is?' I said as I looked away from my book, to look straight at him.

'You could, but you are better off knowing this before you do that, maybe you will notice later on your own, but by then it will likely be too late' he said as he shrugged his shoulders.

'Well go ahead then, you are going to talk about it even if I don't really want to know' I said with a sigh, knowing well how annoying y friend could be if he wanted to be.

With a laugh he started to speak as he stood up, 'Kekeke, you know me quite well bud, anyway, as I was speaking, before you learn any form of martial arts, there is something that you must know, which is that irrespective of what weapon you use, and what martial art you use, there is one thing that is the same for all martial arts. It is that all a martial art allows you to do is connect the most basic moves if a weapon, say for example, take a sword' he said as he pulled out his sword and slashed at the air.

Swoosh swoosh slash

'You see that, all I did was connect two different slashes, and that can be called a technique.' he said as he sheathed his blade after making the attack.

Slamming my fist on to my palm is said, 'Ah I see I see, so you mean to say martial arts are basically bridges that connect multiple basic attacks right.'

'EXACTLY' he shouted as he pointed at me and laughed.

'OYE YOU TWO KEEP IT QUIET, THERE ARE OTHERS HERE THAT ARE ACTUALLY TRAINING' a shout came from inside the barracks.

'YES GENERAL' we both shouted.}

"Hah to think a day would come when I would start to actually use that idiot's advice." I said as I sighed and ended my training, and returned to my room to get ready for my birthday celebration.

"Ughhh, shit my shoulders hurt" I sighed as I entered my room, where I saw Meyline had been just standing looking at the gate.

As soon as I saw her, my face turned blue from fear caused by the last two days of massages.

"Young master, are you returning from your training?" she asked me.

"Huh, oh - yeah, I just finished training for the day, and decided to get ready for the party."

"I see I see, well I have already prepared your clothes for you, and the bath has also been prepared, so you can go take a shower if you wish." she said as she looked at me and smiled.

"Thanks Meyline, well I will be going take a bath then." I said as I left to take a shower.

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"Huuuuh that was relaxing" I said to myself upon coming out of the shower.

Knock knock knock

"Young master, the count is calling for you, so if you are ready then please go and meet him, he is in his office right now." Steven said to me as he knocked on the door.

"Okay Steven, please tell dad that I will visit him as soon as I am ready." I replied, and began to get dressed, for the party that would happen later in the day.

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Knock knock knock.

"Dad it's Julian I heard you called for me." I said as I stood before the gates to his office.

"Right Julian come in." he said.

I entered the room, and closed the door behind me.

As I entered the room, my father stopped what he was doing and put his pen down as he spoke, "Julian you are leaving in two days right."

With a nod I replied, "Yes that was what we had discussed and as such have asked Steven to get all the necessary prep completed by tomorrow."

"I see that is good, since you asked Steven to do it then I don't need to worry about you having a shortage of supplies." he said as he followed up with a nod.

"Yep" I said.

"But son I have a question for you." he said as he crossed his arms and looked at me.

Knowing what he was about to ask I spoke, "Is it about what changed my mind about martial arts?"

With a nod he said, "Yep, and the sudden change is quite surprising to me, so I wanted to talk to you about it."

"I see." I simply nodded in understanding.

With a worrying gaze my father started to speak, "So why now all of a sudden? While I'm proud that my son is maturing well, I know from experience that such maturity doesn't come overnight, so mind telling me what happened."

"I see where you are coming from." I said, before taking a brief pause and with a nod started to speak "recently I've been having dreams, or rather nightmares, it showed me a future where everyone was dead, you mom, Steven, Meyline, everyone, and I don't know maybe I felt that I just wanted to change so that such a thing doesn't happen in real life."

"So you changed because you were scared that such a potential future could happen?" he said as he nodded and looked at me before getting up and walking to the sofa that I was sitting on, and sat on it.

"Maybe, I am not quite so sure myself about that, but the dreams also made me feel helpless, weak, and alone, and maybe it was because I felt that fear that I decided to change or the utter helplessness I felt, but one thing is for sure I can never change back to who I was before."

"I see well son, just know that if there is anything you ever want to talk about now, or ever in the future me and your mother will always be there for you." he said as he patted my back.

"Uhuh *sniff*" unable to hold onto my tears I started to weep slightly, I may have aged, and maybe it was because I had reverted into a younger version of myself, but when my father said that he would always be there, after having lost him to those lizards, I just completely broke down.

"Come on boy no need to cry, come on, wipe those tears, dink a cup of water, and let's get going your mom is likely waiting for us, maybe the guests have even started to arrive by now." he said as he patted my back, and made me get up and walk to the washroom to wipe my face of the tears.

"You okay now son?" he said as he sanded me a towel to wipe my face.

"Yeah I am feeling much better than before." I said as I wiped my face and looked at my dad.

"Great then let's go champ." he said as we walked out of the room and moved towards the banquet hall.

"Oh yeah I had forgotten to mention this before, his majesty has decided to come to the celebration today, soooo don't do anything that you shouldn't" he said as he patted my back, and made a thin smile.

"Ehhhh god father why??" I said while internally, my thoughts were just running amok. 'This never happened in my last life, why would he be here? Shouldn't the palace be in complete workforce mode, because the demons gathered at the orcish border?'

"I just I bought up the topic to him that you had changed, and he just wanted to see for himself I guess." my father said with a shrug.

"Ah heh, just because of that the emperor himself came to my birthday celebration? Also, why wasn't I told about this before?" I said with a frown.

"Yeah no we just were busy, and could not find the time to tell you that." my father said as he snapped his fingers, and his eyes wandered around from side to side.

"Good god, father these details were important" I said as I sighed.