It has been a day since Valdel returned to the knight academy, and it was tense. The moment he returned tons of people surrounded him, and they all started asking about his sword the Zweihander. At first they said that they wanted to buy it from him, when Valdel answered that he didn't plan to sell the sword, the students answered in anger. The students then started slandering Valdel, by shouting words like cheater, thief, commoner, and other wonderfully colorful words.
It was a good thing Sir Matthew was still with him and he easily made the group of student disperse. Once they were dispersed Valdel took the chance to head towards his dorm room, where there was no one there.
For the moment Valdel started to think of what to do next, it was obvious to him that the moment Sir Matthew disappeared the students will come bother him again. He could show the ring the king gave him, but he didn't want to use it for something like this. While Valdel was thinking about the next step, he heard someone knock on the door and opened it. He saw three people enter the room, they were none other than his room mates, Noel, Daniel, and Kurt.
When the three saw Valdel inside the room, they asked if he was alright. Once the three heard about what happened a while ago, they too started asking about the origin of the sword that Valdel has, but they unlike the other students didn't want the sword for themselves, instead they just wanted to know the whole situation to form a plan that could better support Valdel in the upcoming crisis.
Valdel feeling that these guys were somehow trust worthy, explained to them that his sword was given to him by a powerful magician and the sword itself choices the master. If an unworthy person held Zwei then they will be met with an extreme punishment at worst cases death. Of course this wasn't the truth, but some parts were. Valdel wanted to trust these people he really did, but he just wanted to make sure. Once this whole ordeal was over, he planned to tell them the truth.
Hearing Valdel's explanation made Noel and the others look at him a little bit in doubt. Valdel knowing what they were thinking showed Zwei and told them if they don't believe him they can test it out, and see what happens. Of course none of them were brave enough to hold the sword. Instead they all nodded at Valdel and told him that they believe him.
The four of them then started talking about what to do next, but no matter how much they talked about it, the couldn't figure anything out. The opponents this time were a marquis and various earls. Among the dorm mates the highest noble rank they had was Viscount.
The only thing they could think of doing that could actually work was for Valdel to escape, but Valdel didn't like running away like a criminal. He hasn't done anything wrong so why should he run. Of course Noel and the others explained to him why he needed to run.
"Valdel we might not have known each other for long, but I know you're a good guy. So I don't really want you to die like this."
"Yeah listen to him Valdel, aren't we already friends, and as friends we just want to do what's best for you."
"Dying because of something like this is foolish. Once you're dead you can never achieve anything even those ideal of yours."
"Do you really understand what you're getting yourself into?"
But no matter what they said Valdel just wouldn't budge, instead he answered the three by showing them the ring he got from the king.
The moment the three of them saw the ring, they had their mouths agape. This ring was a symbol of the royal family, having this ring meant that the bearer was a friend of the royal family. With this ring alone even Dukes need to treat the person holding this ring with respect.
Knowing that Valdel has this, the three got confused and wondered which person of the royal family gave him this ring.
"The king gave it to me."
When they heard Valdel say that the person who gave the ring was the king himself, the three of them had their eyes bulging out. If they knew that Valdel had this ring, they wouldn't be as worried as they were before.
"How did you get that? Why did the king give you that ring?" Noel asked Valdel still surprised by the sudden knowledge of the ring being from the king.
"The king ask me to take three hits from his sword, if I was able to take the three hits while standing, he would reward me, and as you can see that ring was the reward."
Hearing that Valdel was able to take three hits from the king's blade and live, made the three look at Valdel with newfound respect. The warrior king Willmot Reschbeauch was considered to be the second most powerful warrior in the kingdom. His power was so strong that not even the four Saint level swordsmen of the kingdom could match him. So hearing Valdel who was only a master level swordsman take three hits from the king made them feel amazed.
"Did he use Maellartach?" Daniel asked in excitement.
"Maellartach? What's that?"
"It's the sword the king of Reschbeauch uses. It is a powerful weapon only the king and his bloodline can use." Noel chimed in the conversation.
"Oh, I think I saw that sword. No he didn't use that, we both used normal heavy swords." Hearing Valdel's answer made Daniel look a bit disappointed.
"Well no matter, that's not what's important. What's important is that you have that ring. As long as you have that ring, not even a Duke can do anything to you. So no matter what happens you cannot lose that ring."
Like the king said Valdel really did need the ring. Still for some reason he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.