Emmelyn couldn't contain her excitement when she saw the soldiers' reception. However, as usual, her face looked indifferent. She just turned to Mars and nodded.
"Alright. Start training as usual!" said Mars to everyone.
"Ready, Your Highness!"
Emmelyn estimated that there were about 1000 soldiers in the courtyard. To her knowledge, this was a member of the elite troop who followed Mars wherever he went for battle. They had fought with him in various regions and always came home victorious.
There were two leaders of this elite force, namely Lord Edgar and Lord Gewen. The two were friends with Mars since childhood and grew up with him. For the first time, Emmelyn now saw the two generals up close.
Edgar Chaucer was tall and had long, messy hair like a Viking warrior. His muscles were sticking out from under his armor that looked too tight on his burly physique.
Gewen Arthibaud, on the other hand, was slender and delicate like a woman. His grayish blonde hair was also long. He braided the front part of his hair under his ears while the rest hung down his back and swayed by the morning breeze.
Gewen looked like an elf prince who preferred reading books to sword-fighting.
On his shoulders was a quiver filled with twenty arrows, and in his hand was a longbow that he was famous for. Gewen was the best archer in the country, second only to the crown prince.
"Gewen, can you train with Lord Aldrich?" Mars asked one of his generals. "Don't be too harsh on him. He's young and inexperienced."
Mars deliberately ordered Gewen to train with Em because he knew that this general of his could control his strength well and would not hurt his beloved Em. The prince wasn't sure how skilled Em was with the sword, but he didn't want to take a risk.
Gewen walked from among the soldiers and approached Emmelyn, who was standing upright beside Mars.
"Lord Aldrich, please give me this honor to train with you for one round or two," he said in his sweet voice.
"Lord Gewen, the honor is mine," said Emmelyn out of common courtesy. She managed to mask her voice to sound deep like a man and Gewen wasn't at all suspicious. Emmelyn bowed her head slightly towards Gewen then drew her sword.
She wore a metal vest over her clothes to be protected from the enemy's attacks if their swords touched her upper body. Earlier, Mars also forced her to wear arm protectors to make sure Emmelyn's arms wouldn't get hurt either.
Fortunately, Emmelyn was not a weak girl. She was used to working hard and carrying heavy stuff while going undercover as the prince servant, so the vest and arm protectors which weighed six kilograms in total did not interfere too much with her movements.
Gewen placed his bow and quiver to the edge of the field, then returned with a sword. After bowing deeply to Emmelyn, the man started his attacks with light movements.
Emmelyn was very happy. Finally ... she was able to do some exercise and practice her sword skills. Her body was agile as she moved here and there to avoid Lord Gewen's attacks.
She also didn't want to lose and immediately charged back as soon as she found a good opening to enter. The girl's movements looked light and very beautiful, impressing the people who watched them spar.
Even Mars, who had been worried, gradually started to calm down. Indeed, Emmelyn's abilities were far below him, but he was convinced that this girl would certainly be able to protect herself from the attacks of ordinary people.
He could see that although Gewen was taking things easy with Emmelyn, his attacks could not be underestimated. Ordinary people may now have fallen on the ground and lost the match.
CLANG CLANG CLANG
The sound of weapons clashing between Emmelyn and Gewen immediately filled the air in the yard that morning. Lord Edgar who saw his men were still on their spot and enjoying the show from the two young men sparing, immediately clapped and shouted, breaking their attention.
CLAP CLAP
"Come on, what are you waiting for? You guys should also train!! If I see anyone lazing around, I'll beat the crap out of them with my bare hands!"
After hearing Lord Edgar's thunderous voice, his soldiers immediately rushed into formation and began training.
A total of 200 people separated themselves to a special spot and trained with arrows, while the remaining 800 practiced with swords and spears. The sound of various weapons clanking immediately filled the castle grounds. The men were training with vigor.
Mars just stood with his arms crossed over his chest, watching Emmelyn and Gewen practice together.
Several times his forehead frowned in worry when he saw Emmelyn's position opened and was about to be stabbed by the tip of Gewen's sword, but luckily the girl dodged it in time and opened the counterattack.
"Why didn't I know that Glendale sent an envoy?" asked Edgar suddenly as he walked toward Mars. His eyes followed the direction of Mars's gaze, and he immediately realized that the prince seemed to have paid too much attention to Gewen's opponent.
"They just arrived yesterday," Mars replied indifferently. "Lord Aldrich came alone with a few servants, after all. I promised his father to help him train here and see the world. So he came to collect my promise."
"Whose son is Lord Aldrich?" asked Edgar curiously. "I don't remember seeing him before."
"Oh .. he is the son of one of the lower lords in Glendale. You will not know them," replied Mars.
He would not tell Edgar or Gewen that Lord Aldrich was actually his Emmelyn. He already told them that he had now found a woman he could touch because it was impossible to keep that fact a secret from the people in the castle considering Mars and Emmelyn always had very noisy sex.
However, he did not want to show Emmelyn to his two friends. If Edgar and Gewen found out that Aldrich was Emmelyn, they would become even more curious about her. Ah .. he better kept Emmelyn to himself .. hehehe.
.
.
>>>>
from the author:
I am so proud of myself. I just blew Edgar and Gewen into existence an hour ago. Before today, I don't even know these two people exist. XD