Naeva-To Fight a Monster

Chapter 13

Prince Adrean Terro finally understood why leather armor existed.

His idea had been to temporarily join the city guard. While there, he could better learn how to fight, all while under the guidance of someone who actually knew what they were doing. Captain Maro had taught him a lot about fighting, but his knowledge of the women's weapons was lacking.

Adrean had learned many important things about his rapier over the last few days. He'd learned the right stance for multiple scenarios. He'd learned how and when to lunge. During his off hours, some of his new friends had taught him how to care for the blade properly, taking into account the differences between a rapier and a broadsword.

He had also learned, yes, about leather armor. Adrean had always thought someone could simply cut through it, but after taking many hits from women far more experienced than him, he noticed that the shape of his pauldron forced blades to glance off instead of hit with their full force.

The leather was also treated in such a way that it was stiffer than the kinds of leather he'd seen in town. That, combined with Adrean's natural speed, made him feel invincible... At least until a sixteen year-old girl knocked him flat on his butt.

In spite of all that, he figured that the best part had to be the way he was treated. No more royal pampering, no pedestals too high for friends to reach. Here, he wasn't Prince Terro. Here, he was just Adrean, a new recruit with oddly feminine skills.

Which led to yet another part of his new life: His abysmal performance with a broadsword and skill with a rapier had landed him in a women's squad. He spent every day with a group of women his age, with whom he could speak confidently. No one cared who he was here.

The main issue with his contentment was that he sometimes forgot to watch Luisa's lieutenants for suspicious behavior. That was his biggest reason for joining the guard, after all.

Bearing this in mind, Adrean sat at a table near the lieutenant generals, making sure none of them recognized him as he sat with his back to them. Now, were any of them acting odd...?

He listened for almost the whole lunch hour, pretending to be lost in a book once he'd finished eating. Nothing seemed off. Some of the lieutenants were kind of quirky, but they weren't acting any more or less odd than usual.

When Luisa walked in and called out the time to end lunch, Adrean cursed under his breath. Nothing. He knew it had been only two days, but he thought he knew Luisa's generals well enough that he would have noticed something. Now he realized that he knew next to nothing about them personally. Sure, he knew their history in the military, and he knew certain things most people likely wouldn't, but learning things about them and knowing them as people were entirely different things.

Luisa stopped Adrean on his way out. "Find anything?" she whispered.

He shook his head. "I miscalculated; I need to change my tactic. Give me a week."

She looked worried, but she nodded and released his shoulder. Adrean started for the training grounds, but then remembered that the evening was free. He was still adjusting to this new life.

Actually, this is perfect, he thought, realizing that a free evening meant he wasn't being monitored. For the next two months, Adrean was not under guard as a prince, which meant he had even more room to snoop than usual.

Grinning, Adrean slipped into a secret passage. He had just found his favorite time of the week.