Despite it being openly known that I'm gay... and infertile... and taken....
I still had many admirers who always watched me from afar. Ot honestly got worse after Liam passed.
Which meant people were over analyzing everything when it came to me.
Unfortunately.
I was summoned to do recruitment, which meant a public training group. And that meant I wore a loose fitting shirt that showed off basically my entire upper body.
And even some soldiers seemed distracted by my physique.
I understood it.
Liam and I actually had similar builds. And I was very much attracted to him and his body. And Damon. He was well built, but that anyone ever really saw it, but I was attracted to him and his body too.
So I understood.
"Now, if you could all stop staring at my ass and start sparring, that would be great."
Everyone panicked, even onlookers.
I caught Damon's eye as he sat with his brothers and sister, and he seemed pretty entertained by the whole ordeal.
Well, why not give him a show?
So I let the soldiers and awkward wannabes soldiers spar for a bit, before grabbing a sword myself.
"Alright! I propose a challenge for all of you," I exclaimed loudly, causing every eye to fall on me. "You all have training swords, the first one to hit me with it can have one request. I will fulfill it the best to my abilities."
Eager eyes stared at me as I saw their ideas race through their heads.
"And to make this more fun," I tossed my sword into the nearby wall and pulled off my shirt. Using the sword to make a makeshift blindfold. "I'll give myself a disadvantage. I walked to my spot and sat down, eyes focused on me. "First person to beat me wins. Anyone can participate."
I mentally set up one of my game abilities.
'Mana eyes'
With it, I could see the world around me.
It had been awhile since I'd bothered with my game abilities, but I thought it would be fitting.
I glanced Damon's way, and he had a crooked smile on his face as if planning something.
He probably was, knowing him.
I could sense the first guy approaching me and stood up, watching him near.
"Where's your sword solider?" I asked. And the guy stilled and ran away.
Though the next brought his sword and I quickly disarmed him, holding it to his neck. The next few guys were pretty to disarm, and I took a few down.
This went on for awhile, no one being able to land a single finger on me.
And then, Damon was in front of me. With his very real sword.
Playing it that way. Still, I handicapped myself for a reason.
I sighed his attacks and tried to disarm him to no avail, but he wasn't able to land a hit. I actually got pretty close, but was sent sprawling backwards when he tripped me with his sword. He tilted my head up with it.
"Is this payback for last time?"
"Just showing you I've improved."
"I can tell," I snarked.
Damon held out his hand, and I held it, being pulled to my feet. I took off the blindfold and looked around. Everyone looked exhausted and awed.
"I'll claim my reward at a later date. Thanks for the show," he joked.
I rolled my eyes, moving over to my spare shirt, pulling it on, "understood." And I turned back to the soldiers, "that's it for today, get some rest and make sure to eat. Any people looking to join the army is free to sign up with a local officer."
Everyone started to disband and Damon still hadn't left.
"I need to talk to you in private, but I have to go back home. So, I'll meet you at your house tomorrow."
I nodded, smiling a bit, "always welcome. Safe travels back home. Your guards are pretty competent."
"I just kicked your ass, I'm good enough."
"Kicked it while I was blindfolded and without a weapon?"
He frowned but accepted it as he went to join his siblings.
I was a sweaty mess, but decided to wait until I got home to bathe.
And god, it always felt good to bathe after training.
Though, what greeted my when I got out of my shower was my father staring at a letter.
"Dad? What's going on?"
Dad looked my way and handed me the letter. So I snatched it from him and carefully read the contents.
"What?" I muttered.
"One of the princes asked for Rose's hand. Florian I believe."
I groaned, "I'm going to have to go in person to reject this for her. What the hell..."
"I was shocked too," he admitted. "He never showed any interest before. That and she only barely came of age is concerning."
"I agree." Even if it was normal for there to be some age between two people when they got married... the timing was rather gross. "I'm going to talk to rose for her opinion on the whole ordeal first, where is she?"
"Ah, she should be outside in the garden. Your brothers were teaching her fencing."
I nodded and took the letter with me as I made way to the garden. I honestly didn't know James and Jackson were teaching Rose, but it was nice to have some girl power.
And what I walked in on, it seemed more as if rose was teaching them.
She had ditched her dress for something akin to riding gear. Pants being the best aspect. As it stood, she had managed to disarm both my brothers and have James pulled to her, her sword facing Jackson.
"Having fun here?" I joked as I approached.
They all quickly stopped what they were doing to turn to me. Jackson groaning, "she's a fast learner."
"Good. I actually need to speak to her about something, so as you were." With that, my brothers grabbed their swords and went back to sparring as Rose approached. I pulled her a bit away and out of ear shot of anyone.
"What did you need to talk to me about?" She asked.
I handed her the letter. "This arrived for you. I wanted your word before I did anything rash."
She looked confused and read the letter, her face morphing into disgust rather quickly as she handed it back. "I'm allowed to reject it, right?"
"I was going to go reject it in your stead if you wish," I offered.
Rose shook her head, "no, if we're rejecting him in person, I'm coming with. Shall we go today?"
I chuckled and shrugged, "if you want. But if we leave now. We'll probably be stuck overnight."
"Ah, I'll go grab my travel bag real quick. There are some good hotels nearby that would be happy to host us."
I smiled at her and nodded. "I'll inform everyone about our departure. Meet you at the entrance."
"Meet you there."
As she scuttled off, I went back over to my brothers. "Rose and I have business in the capital, we'll be back tomorrow."
"Eh, why not take us?" Jackson loudly complained.
"Because you two have studies to get to. How are either you supposed to inherit my title if you slack now?"
They both groaned but accepted it.
"Good. Don't give the staff or father a hard time."
"We won't!" They chorused back at me.
And I went to dad to tell him the plan, but it seemed Rose was already telling him.
She moved rather fast when not wearing heels.
Well, seeing as she was all packed, I should grab my things as well, then we'd be set to cuss out floarian.
As we should