A soft grunt escapes from the guard's lips as his back hits the ground, he can't even react before a blade point touches his neck.
A small murmur rises in the watching crowd.
"That's almost twice as fast as last time!" "It's his eleventh victory, right?" "Did he have a Revelation? He's been improving so fast recently..." "Maybe the Head found him a teacher in secret?"
Place Cublue looks at his defeated opponent, his breath coming in slow, laboured breaths. He moves his sword to the side and offers a hand to his sparring partner, who takes it with a grin.
"Well done, young sir! Your skills with a blade have completely outclassed me!" The guard lets out a deep breath. "You will be practising with the captain in no time if your growth keeps up like this!"
Place gives nothing more than a hum in response as he stares at the ground, seemingly deep in thought.
"Something wrong, young sir?" The guard's voice snapped him out of his mind. "Do you need healing?" The guard gestured to a man in the audience to come over.
"No, I'm just thinking a bit." Place waved down the man dressed in coarse brown robes as he hurried over. "Thank you for your concern."
"It will be on my head if I accidentally injured you, young sir." The guard said, and Place felt the familiar warm feeling of healing magic wash over him as the healer muttered a spell.
Place said no more as the magic soothed his pain and washed away the bruises he had recently obtained.
The healer clicked his tongue. "You took it too far this morning, young sir. This could have had an effect in the future."
"What's wrong, Tach?" The guard frowned as he looked at Tach the healer. "I'm sensing overwork in his muscles, he pushed himself too far during his morning training." Tach furrowed his brows. "But he showed no signs of this during the spar, it's a bit vexing."
"I'm very used to pain." Place stated matter-of-factly.
"This is not a matter of pain tolerance." Tach softly spoke. "It's-" Place raised a hand and cut him off.
"I'm very well aware of what my body can and cannot take, do not worry about it." Place ended that line of discussion and turned to the guard.
"Hert, go and take a Wall reward from the treasury, you deserve it."
Hert blinked, then he crossed an arm across his chest and bowed slightly.
"Thank you, young sir." Hert turned and left immediately.
Place looked at Tach. "Thank you for your work."
Tach's eyebrow twitched. "I wouldn't need to work quite so often if it weren't for you, young sir."
Place grinned.
"Indeed, shouldn't you thank me for providing you with enough work, otherwise, you would sit around, with nothing to do!"
Tach's face was impassive as he replied calmly. "Most people consider needing a healer once a month a bad thing." Place's grin widened even more. "I consider it a slow week if I have to heal you less than twenty times."
Place giggled like a child, watching Tach's face intensely as it twitched ever so slightly.
Tach let out a deep breath. "If there is nothing else, I-"
"Yes, yes, you can go back to your living wife and children, say hi to little Ool for me and remind him not to eat just anything."
Tach's lip twitched when Place interrupted him.
"Until next time, young sir." He bowed stiffly and moved to leave.
"Right, see you in three hours." Place waved his hand to dismiss the audience.
He removed his protective clothing and placed the sword in its place before heading to clean himself up.
He revised the earlier spar, going over what could have been done better, what could have been avoided, and any possible slipups he had made.
"Damnit..." As he stared at his reflection in the water, he suddenly lashed out, picking up a bucket and dumping its contents over himself all at once.
The sudden chill sent a shudder through his body as he slammed the bucket down on the ground.
"Damnit, damnit, damnit... Not enough..." He stood up and clenched his fists tightly as he tried to control his anger.
"Damn...it" He brought his fists together in front of his chest, then slowly unfolded his fingers all the way.
He stood with his palms together for a moment, breathing heavily as he stared at nothing and tried not to punch anything.
"Hoooooo..." He let out a deep breath as he made a pushing gesture with his palms turned outwards.
He wrung out as much water as he could from his clothes before walking back to his room, drawing a few puzzled glances from some of the servants.
One of them sighed before turning to another.
"Vanthi dear? Go and get a few clothes for the young sir." A middle-aged woman dressed in fine red and black robes spoke to a much younger one in plain brown robes.
"Ah! Yes!." Vanthi startled at being called, before nodding quickly and moving hastily to complete the request.
Place lay on the floor of his room, staring at no particular spot on the ceiling as he muttered something under his breath.
"Aswalhi thanagram bakht, shalagino intus peroom"
He muttered the words repeatedly as he lay listlessly.
"Intus peroom, bakth hatodh remma t'ur." A voice broke him out of his reverie.
Place looked to the side to see a spectral grin formed from white lips and blue teeth just floating in the air.
"You're back." Place spoke emotionlessly, not at all surprised by the sudden appearance of what could be considered a ghost.
"So I am." The grin did not move, but sound emerged from it all the same.
"How are you enjoying the body I gave you?"