Book 2 Chapter 60

The training courtyard was awash in the sounds of practice blades crashing against shields due to the sparring sessions being in full swing.

Willow was doing much better than before, her movements smoother and the transitions between forms almost seamless at this point. Her endurance and speed were still ahead of the majority of recruits so now that she better understood what she was supposed to be doing in a fight she won with greater frequency.

It definitely helped that she was in the middle of a growth spurt, increasing her reach and giving her better leverage for her strikes. She still wasn’t allowed to use her growing repertoire of qi techniques for these sparring sessions, but continuously made a habit of miming when she would use them if they were available.

Hugo, the boy WIllow sparred with the most, had largely kept up with her growth in both size and skill. Which she appreciated since he was one of very few recruits that tried to interact with her in a positive way.

Their current match was their third and likely last match of the day and both of them were giving their all as both had won one of the previous two matches each. Meaning the winner of this match would break the current tie and win the prize the two of them had wagered on.

Willow blocked the latest blow to crash against her shield, her arm shifting slightly from the strength of the strike. In a real fight she could have followed up with a shield bash combined with one of her newer tricks, but stopped herself from even miming the action due to that very move being the cause of her most recent defeat.

While she knew that these sparring matches didn’t really matter at this point it was the principle of the thing. She wanted to win their wager, dangit.

Instead, she charged forward with her shield held tight to her chest, catching Hugo off guard. What she lacked in the older boy’s mass she more than made up for in the strength of her legs, and her impromptu Meteoros impression was enough to knock the boy back after crashing into his hastily raised shield.

Before she could follow up, Instructor Lope called for the group to stop, dashing her hopes of a free snack at Hugo’s expense.

The two of them bowed to formally end the spar, and both turned to the instructor with rapt attention. Willow was surprised to see Mister Matias standing at the instructor's side.

He looked out at the yard with one of his more piercing gazes. From his stance he didn’t seem angry to Willow, but she was worried that something was wrong. It wasn’t often that he came out and watched a random training session like this.

After what felt like an eternity of evaluation under the old guardsman’s steely gaze the tension was broken by a sudden smile appearing on his face.

“I came out to see how all of my recruits are doing and I see many a young men and women ready to receive their swords in the next few months. You all continue to make great progress and I’m proud to see the future guardsmen of this city take shape before my eyes.”

Many of the recruits straightened up at his words, the fatigue of the most recent bout of training briefly forgotten as they were complimented by their headmaster. Even Willow was swept up in it despite not technically being a recruit.

“Now, I’ve taken up enough of everyone’s time. Instructor Lope I trust you’ll keep up the good work.” He nodded to the instructor before turning back to the group signalling out Willow with his gaze.

“Willow, with me.” He then turned and began walking back to the building, expecting her to follow with no further prompting.

She could feel the stares of everyone as she hurried to catch up with Mister Matias’ long legged stride.

She was both confused and concerned about why the man would call her to talk at this time, their usual session wasn’t for a couple of days, and if he had extra time he normally wouldn’t make a spectacle of calling her over like that.

Which meant it was probably something serious.

“Did something happen?” She asked as they continued to walk to his office without any explanation. He looked at her and lightly shook his head, signalling that he probably wanted to talk about whatever this was in private rather than out in the hall where anyone could hear.

Which was annoying, but she let it be until they made it back to Matias’ sparse office.

After the both of them were seated Matias let out a sigh and rubbed at his face with his hand.

That wasn’t a good sign.

“My superiors have put me in a difficult position, and I would appreciate it if you could talk to your mentor and ease some of her understandable fury when you relay the news to her.”

That was an even worse sign.

“That depends, what kind of news are you talking about?”

He seemed hesitant to broach the topic, which was quite unlike the direct man that she was used to teaching her combat.

“On orders of House Herrera you are to take part in an exhibition match.”

Willow’s brow furrowed. “Why me? Also, how do they even know I exist?”

He steepled his hands. “Word gets around about who attends my school. Especially when one of them is a child receiving private lessons from me. As for the why…”

Matias got up from his seat and looked out the window, placing his hand on the pommel of his sword, as he so often did. “Your opponent will be a girl of comparable age to you, but due to her high placement in her own clan they didn’t want to risk an incident by having one of their own talents fight her. Especially since the only talents of comparable age they have available are at least a few years her senior.”

Willow was still nonplussed, she didn’t like the idea of being put into the spotlight like this. “There has to be someone she could fight among the branch families, right? There are tons of them in the city, so one of them has to qualify as strong enough.”

Matias winced. “Normally, yes. However the girl in question is the direct granddaughter of the currently sitting Matriarch of her clan. It would be considered a loss of face to send out a branch member to face someone with such a pedigree.”

She raised one of her brows. “Yet it would be fine to send me?”

He nodded. “As I said, you are receiving private lessons from me. Not to mention the fact you have the backing of a prominent member of the Wanderers. You are an appealing enough novelty that while it would be less than ideal if you won, you provide an adequate way for the visiting young miss to show off her talents without damaging the reputation of anyone important.”

Willow was back to frowning. “So I don’t just have to fight, I have to lose?”

Matias winced again. “That would be the preferred outcome, yes. You still have to put up a fight, of course, but it would cause problems for multiple people if you were to actually win the fight. Not to mention the fact that you’d definitely earn the ire of the Li clan.”

Willow tried to keep her face as a neutral mask as her mind raced at the mention of the Li clan. Why did she have to keep bumping into these people?!

“Is there any way for me to say no?” She tried to keep the panic from her voice.

He nodded. “There is, though I am likely to be punished quite severely if you do.”

Willow sighed. She knew that Miss Mu wasn’t gonna like this, but she couldn’t let her current teacher be punished for something stupid like this.

Besides, it could be a good opportunity for her.

“Fine, I’ll do it. I won’t try to sugar coat it for Miss Mu though. So expect her to come knocking on your door when she gets back from her current trip.”

After hashing out some of the details, Willow was let free.

As she made her way over to Jimena’s place a piece of information clicked into place.

Granddaughter of the current clan matriarch.

Was she gonna be fighting Li Wanyu’s sister?