Hearing Gust’s movements next to him, Wesley said, “Hey Gust, good morning.”
“Morning to you too, little man.”
Gust pulled some bread out of his bag and handed some of it to Wesley. “I managed to hunt down a rabbit this morning. You want some?”
“Mhmm.”
As Gust skinned the rabbit and otherwise prepared it to be cooked, he began to prod Wesley’s interest with his latest idea.
“Hey kid, what do you think about participating in some fighting contests along the way to your family’s place? We can make some money to spend nights in rooms, buy some new clothes. I can participate in some fighting tournaments, while you’re pretty good at magic, right?”
Thinking about it, Wesley was fairly enticed, but he wasn’t sure how well he would be able to fight any magic duels. After all, although he’d participated in competitions at the Western Conarite Institute of Magic, it wasn’t as though he’d been a prodigy. Furthermore, their teacher Mr. Clayde had been there to guarantee their safety.
However, Gust had a secret weapon waiting. “Heck, if we make enough, maybe we could buy some really tasty food. It’s been a long time since I’ve ha-”
“These contests sound great! Where can we participate?”
With a smirk, Gust ruffled Wesley’s hair. “Knew you’d come around. Anyway, the Kenta Kingdom is full of stupid muscle heads, but we’re almost at the Larwin Kingdom. They several competition venues in each city, as well as some of the larger villages - they’re there to attract talent to the Kingdom. The payouts are pretty decent if you’re able to win several fights in a row.”
“That sounds great and all, but don’t you suck at fighting?”
“...Don’t you have any faith in me?”
“Yes, but not when it comes to fighting. Isn’t your plan just for me to do all the work?”
Gust facepalmed. Was this really what Wesley thought of him? He’d simply thought that the contest venues would be a convenient way for him to retrain his fighting skills and to earn some money at the same time.
Instead, he’d learned that Wesley thought that he was a weak pile of trash.
Wonderful.
After some more squabbling, the two ate the freshly cooked rabbit, then set off again.
…
A few days later, they came across a large village in the Larwin Kingdom. After asking around a bit, Gust learned that while the village did have a competition venue, and there were prizes for winning, the village’s payouts for winners was rather low, hence the level of competition was also very low.
Which was fine, for Gust and Wesley. To be fair, neither of them knew how they would match up against skilled opponents, so to hear that they would most likely be fighting against weaklings cheered them up a bit.
As for money, beggars can’t be choosers. They weren’t just poor, they were out of money! On the plus side, if you achieved a five-win winning streak, the village would provide you with free housing.
However, you would lose this housing as soon as you lost.
After finishing off the last of their bread, they made their way to the competition venue, a small stadium that in a corner of the village. The arena looked to be big enough to only host small skirmishes, while the entire stadium only looked to seat a few hundred.
For a village with only a few thousand residents, it was enough. As for Gust and Wesley, it was a promise of a roof over their heads for a night, and a satisfying, properly cooked meal.
But only if they won.
Gust and Wesley walked up to a ticketing booth near the entrance to the stadium.
The ticketer addressed the two. “Hello there. 1 gold coin apiece, please.”
“Hey.” Gust addressed the ticketer, a medium aged woman. “We’re not here to watch, we’re here to fight.”
“Oh?” The woman looked Gust up and down, then turned and looked at Wesley.
“I see… well, go in and open the first door on the right. You can register for fights there.
“Thanks.”
As the two left, the woman scoffed, derision in her eyes. “A few more punching bags.”
…
Gust and Wesley followed the woman’s instructions and entered the registration office. A very obese man looked up and addressed them with a very bored tone.
“Registering for the arena?”
“Mhmm.”
“Ages and combat styles?”
“I’m sixteen wonderful years of age. Knives. My friend over here is…” Gust paused - he actually wasn’t sure how old Wesley was.
“Uh, I’m seven years old. Nearly eight. I’m a mage initiate.”
“Oh?” Hearing that Wesley could use magic, the man sat up, intrigued. However, once he paid closer attention to Wesley, he instantly noticed that the kid was blind.
Disappointed, he leaned back in his chair. While the Larwin Kingdom would have rewarded him for “discovering” a talented young mage, but a mage was no use if he was blind.
“Well, alright. You, fighter, you’ll be on stage in half an hour. You’ll be fighting one of regulars. He’s not a great fighter or anything, but has a fair amount of experience. He’ll be a good test for you.”
“As for you, kid, you’ll be going against a Rank 1 Elementary Mage. We don’t have any initiates here, so you’ll have to make do. You’ll be fighting tomorrow morning.”
He then looked back toward Gust. “Any questions?”
“Yeah, are we fighting with real weapons?”
“Of course. It’s more entertaining for the audience that way. What, you scared?” The fat man smirked.
“No. I have another question. Is killing permitted?”
“Hmm?” The fat man narrowed his eyes. “Yes…”
‘This kid is awfully confident…’
“Alright, thanks.”
Gust and Wesley left the office, then headed for the stands.
“Hey, little man.”
“Yes, Gust?”
“You heard the man, right? Killing is allowed here. You still okay with fighting?”
“Yes.” Wesley answered without a hint of hesitation.
“For your family?”
“Yes.”
A sad smile hung on Gust’s face. “Atta boy.”
Chapter 13
One of the stadium’s workers walked up to Gust. “You’re Gust?”
“The one and only.”
“Your fight is after this one.” The worker gestured toward the arena stage, where two people in heavy armor were bludgeoning each other, one with a two-handed hammer, one with a one-handed sword and a shield.
“Got it.”
With his task completed, the worker left. Gust, in preparation, already had his kukris hanging in sheathes attached from his waist. The hand-and-a-half sword, however, was nowhere to be seen.
He drew his kukris from their sheathes, then handed the sheathes, along with his bag, to Wesley.
“Take care of these for me, little man.”
“Mhmm.”
Meanwhile, the fighter with the two handed hammer landed a hard hit on his opponent’s head, whose body then collapsed to the arena floor.
The stadium announcer, who’d been letting the fighting speak for itself, yelled at the top of his lungs. “And with a crushing blow, John, our veteran of the arena, with seventy-eight wins and thirty-two losses, takes down similar heavyweight, Marcus, down!
“Marcus is going to be out of commission for a while, folks! Sources are telling me that… yes, he won’t die, but he’s going to have to spend a few years to recover! Don’t worry though, we’ve got quite the battle coming for you, coming right up!”
Gust walked into the arena, where his opponent was already waiting. He looked his opponent up and down, then smiled.
His opponent’s equipment couldn’t be any more standard. A short sword in his right hand, a round, wood shield in his right. As for armor, his opponent was clad in leather armor - clearly someone who prioritized speed and agility.
; Gust’s only equipment were his two kukris, wearing nothing other than his normal travelling clothes.
He and his opponent stood facing each other, a few meters apart.
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“Gust, you?”
“Why the hell aren’t you wearing any armor, Gust?”
“Well, I -”
“Aren’t you disrespecting this village’s fighters too much? An arrogant kid like you oughta be taught a lesson - and perhaps it’ll be your last.”
He raised his sword and pointed it at Gust’s head, then mimed slashing his own head off with it.
Gust just looked at the stadium’s announcer, and said, “I’m ready.”
“I’m ready.”, said his opponent.
“Well alright, ladies and gentlemen, we have two young, talented fighters in the arena for you today! On my right, we have Eric, the tanner’s own flesh and blood son! Hardly a newcomer to the arena, he’s garnered a respectable record with seventeen wins and eleven losses!
“On my left, we have...Gust, a newcomer! At the age of sixteen, Gust is experienced in the use of… knives! Speaking of, those are some unusual looking knives! Never seen anything of the like, myself. Anyway, he seems pretty confident, opting to fight in the arena without a shred of protection! We’ll see if this decisions comes back to bite!
“Alright, the contestants have given me their ready signals, so count down with me.”
“3”
“2”
“1”
“Fight!”
As soon as the countdown ended, Gust rushed forward with his kukris raised as high as his arms would go.
Seeing this, Eric stepped up as well and raised his shield to receive Gust’s attack. His sword was drawn back, ready to strike.
However, when Gust was only a meter away from Eric, instead of stabbing down with his knives, he fell to the ground and slid forward, knocking himself into Eric’s feet.
With his feet knocked out from under him, Eric fell face-first onto the arena floor. Before he could pick himself up, Gust had spun around, climbed on top of him, and slit his throat.
And just like that, the fight was over in a single series of moves - the audience hadn’t even had time to blink before it was all over.
“NO!”
Before the announcer could announce Gust’s victory, an anguished shout raged through the stadium.
A red-faced man had stood up and was shaking his finger at Gust. “How dare you kill my son!? Who do you think you are, you little bitch! I’ll kill you!”
With that, he aggressively marched toward the arena. However, before he could make it, several stadium guards blocked his way.
“What the hell are you doing? Get out of my way!”
“Uh, sir, unregistered fighting is not allowed in the stadium. Please return to your seat.”
“He killed my goddamn son! How am I not allowed to kill him?”
“If you really wish, you can request a fight with him in the registration office. Now please, return to your seat.”
The man glared at Gust, who was still in the arena, then stormed toward the stadium exit.
Before he could leave the stadium, however, Gust started preaching.
“You know, it wasn’t really my fault that I killed him.”
He started stripping Eric’s dead body of its leather armor.
“You see, he asked me why I wasn’t wearing any armor. I was trying to tell him that I was too poor for armor…”
Gust began to don his newfound armor.
“... but you see, he had to lecture me about some kind of respect or something, and he really looked like he wanted to kill me! But hey, turns out he was pretty kind. He gave me this leather armor for free!”
With that, he patted the dust off of his new leather armor, and proudly looked up.
“Looks pretty nice, doesn’t it?”
Eric’s father nearly coughed up blood. That armor was a set that he had personally hand-made for his son!
“We’ll settle this in the arena, boy! Don’t you fucking dare run away!”
With that, he stormed his way to the registration office.
As for Gust, he gave the stadium announcer a jaunty salute. “Hey man, aren’t you supposed to be announcing my victory sometime this year?”
“Ah… yes.” The stadium announcer coughed, embarrassed. He’d gotten caught up in the previous exchange - this Gust was just too shameless!
“Ahem, sorry about that. The stadium rookie, Gust, with newly minted record of one victory and zero losses, takes down the tanner’s son, Eric, who now has a final record of seventeen wins and eleven losses! Speaking of which, that was quite the move just now, wasn’t it!”
A murmur of assents spread through the crowd.
“Now, next up…”
As the stadium announcer prattled on, Gust returned to Wesley, who was still still sitting in the stands.
“Hey, little man. You want to keep watching, or you wanna go get my earnings?”
“Money! I’m hungry.”
“Ha.”
They went to a counter near the stadium’s entrance to collect Gust’s earnings, then went to explore the village.
Gust weighed his new sack of coins in his hand, delighted. “Twenty gold coins! This’ll be enough to get us a fancy meal and roof over our heads tonight, haha. We’ll use your winnings tomorrow to buy our usual supplies though, okay?”
“So what are we eating tonight?
“Uh…”
Chapter 14
That night, they found a small family restaurant to eat at, and filled themselves with their respective vices. Gust ordered himself a steak, whereas Wesley only ordered desserts.
Either way, the two found themselves unable to move after their respective meals.
With incredible effort, the two of them dragged themselves to a hostel, where the two crawled into their beds and instantly fell asleep.
As soon as he fell asleep, Wesley drifted into the dream world.
“Thomas, what happens if I can’t see my opponent? For example, when I’m in a forest, or am being pursued by an assassin? What do I do?”
“If you do not know how to act versus your opponent, then ask yourself. If you were your opponent, what would you be most afraid of?”
“So what you’re saying is, what would an assassin be afraid of?”
“Yes…”
“If I were an assassin, I would be afraid of someone who was strong, or had strong backing.”
“I mean, you’re correct, but you’re not thinking usefully. If you were strong, would you need a specific method for dealing with assassins? You’re a mage. In the future, the properties and efficiency of your spells will be constrained only by your knowledge regarding the structure of seals, as well as your imagination.
“I’ll be more specific. Think. What types of spells would you hate to have have to deal with as an assassin?”
Wesley scratched his head, then replied. “I’d probably be most afraid of a detection spell, or a spell that spanned a large area. Or an attack that can negate certain types of cover, like a sound wave attack or something like that.”
Thomas smiled. “Now you’re getting somewhere. Well, if you’re worried, I’ll teach you some area-of-effect spells once you’re mana pool is large enough to cast them. If you casted any now, you probably wouldn’t have the mana to fully utilize them.
“However, like I said, the magic seals under one’s belt are only part of a mage’s arsenal. With enough creativity, even the simplest spells may be all you need in any given scenario. Now let’s get back to the topic of the structure of magic seals.”
“This section of magic seals dictates the fundamental property of the spell, whether it be something like fire or ice, or even time and space. Each property has its own structure, which you’ll have to memorize. We’ll be starting with ice. Now…”
The lecture continued long into the night, ending with Wesley repeatedly drawing sections of m
agic seals on pieces of paper supplied by Thomas.
As time passed, the scene faded from Wesley’s eyes, and he woke up. Despite having slept for a full night, he didn’t feel rested at all. However, he noticed that instead of being stuck in a pitch-black world of blindness, there was a reddish hue present as well. What this meant, he didn’t have a clue.
Memory Seal- Volume 1 Page 10