"I live for the dream that my children will be born free," the princess breathes. "That they will be whoever they want to be, and that they'll never ever have to carry a sword wherever they go."
"I live for you," Jeongguk answers. Simply because, he...
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IF JEONGGUK HADN'T ALREADY started his day then he would have sworn it was all a dream. If he hadn't been standing there in the training grounds like that he would have been sure that he's still imagining it.
"Again!"
He tightens his grip of the hilt of his sword. Sweat rolls down his temples at the unforgiving burn of the afternoon sun above him, joining the small stream that slowly trickle down his neck and to his chest.
Axe versus sword.
It should have been easy. The commander was technically demonstrating that your weapon didn't matter so long as you kept it between yourself and your opponent.
Jeongguk thinks it can't be completely true. An axe could shatter a lance, but axes are heavier and slower. A sword fighter could easily slip in no matter how the axe was used to block. It's only a matter of timing.
As for now, Jeongguk raises his sword, panting in exhaustion from the past two hours of training so vigorously like this. Didn't he pass the entry test before or something? Is it always this hard to be a knight?
He can practically feel the commander burning holes into the back of his head, giving him the stink eye. Jeongguk can't find it in himself to blame the guy, though. And he can't say that he's positively confident.
Back then he was solely fuelled by anger and the determination to go home. But now that his life has taken an unexpected and quite unfortunate turn, he realises just how incompetent he truly is at things like this.
He can already feel the other training knights watching him with eyes full of expectation. The pressure of not only proving himself, but to not embarrass himself weighs him down more than anything he's been through before.
Jeongguk eyes his opponent. The other knight is holding his axe with its blade tilted down. Right, he'd come up with the "false edge", Jeongguk theorises. He's not very experienced with axes. In fact, he's never trained with one in his entire life and he'd be lying if he isn't nervous at all.
