The Reincarnated Prince

Chapter 13: Spirit Sword

A long week had passed since the Duke's execution and already I found that I was forgetting him. Duke Irathmus, the first member of the royal family ever to be executed, was a thing of the past now... and that brief explanation of him was his only legacy, that and being dubbed as the worst ever descendant of the Rosenheim family. A disgrace to his royal status and his kingdom.

From the many times I had snuck out of the palace and wandered about the kingdom, I listened intently to the way people talked and about what they talked in the town squares and meeting halls. A day or two after his execution, the duke's name was on everybody's lips. People talked about how they knew he was a bad egg all along, and about what shame he brought on the kingdom. A few more brazen people would even insinuate that the former duke must have been born from a different mother than the King and Duke Cassian, as he was so different from his distinguished brothers. From then on, the chatter turned in favor of the king, all admiring how well he had held up justice by choosing execution instead of letting his brother off free. After that talk quieted down, nothing else was really said about the duke Irathmus. It seemed like the whole kingdom had moved on, almost as if he never existed. Just a quiet stain on the family's impeccable history.

This place seemed to be completely fine that he was gone and honestly I was too. I thought it was sad though, to have lived a life like Irathmus's, that resulted in no one missing him after he was gone.

As far as I knew, the duke was dead and buried in the royal tomb after the King carried out the execution himself on the Solemn hill. I felt terrible admitting that I was relieved that he was dead and no longer an issue for me to worry about. I knew it was quite offside for me to be so nonchalant about death, but I couldn't seem to make myself feel guilty about it. Somehow, this conclusion felt like justice, even though I hadn't been a supporter of the death penalty back in the US. I guess this new life came with new ideals too. A different sense of right and wrong.

"Focus your Highness!"

I missed Sir Sakaru's emblazoned fist by a few milimeters as it shot past my left cheek. It was so close that I felt the fire magic he had imbued his hand with, scorch the side of my face. After having been thrown off balance I allowed myself to continue to go down towards the solid gold training floor we had been sparring on. The training room, that was reserved for high ranking knights and members of the Rosenheim family to train on was made of pure solid gold. Not only was it spectacularly beautiful when the light hit (especially during sunrise and sunset), in this world gold was known as a catalyst for magic. Thus a training room made of solid gold was the perfect place to train and allowed one to reach their full magical ability and capacity much faster than normal.

While falling I leaned my arms back and made my palms horizontal to the ground and then shot wind magic out of them in a large burst so that I was propelled off the floor. The force of my wind against the floor was so strong that it propelled me into the air so that I was at Sir Sakaru's eye level.

This was it! This was my chance. I had been sparring with sir Sakaru for two days now and I hadn't been able to land a serious blow to him. Now that I finally had the advantage of height, I could hit him. For the two days I had struggled long hours to try and overcome the difference in our statures. Sakaru's six foot height and thick strong muscles were proving a difficult feat for me six year old frame. I don't know why I hadn't thought of using wind magic to propel myself about before, but now that I could I would.

In quick succession I aimed two punches at Sir Sakaru's face, an elbow to his throat, three kicks to his neck, chest and waist, and on my way down from the jump I tried knocking him over with one last kick to his shins but the man was made of steel and was as sturdy as a pillar, and was ultimately unmoved by my attack. With incredible agility he had blocked most of my blows, however, I was sure that one of my punches to his face had landed.