Chapter 228: Sparring With the Knights

Ron’s fist crashed into the centre of Kiron’s face.

Kiron rolled backwards from the impact, blood dripped out from his broken nose, and he fell unconscious.

One minute. That was all Rion needed to defeat Kiron, one of the most talented knights of Barleyhen.

A hush filled the sparring ground as all of the knights turned silent, and Salis announced loudly, “Sir Kiron can no longer continue… lord Rion has won.”

However, his announcement only intensified the stifling silence.

’He wasn’t too bad,’ Rion remarked, and his gaze swept through the knights, searching for someone.

A second later, he pointed at one of the knights and said, “Why are you standing there?”

The knights turned towards the knight in question — Derin.

Derin pointed at himself, muttered with a dumbfounded expression, “Me…?”

“Yes. You, the one who imitated me earlier,” Rion responded, and two of the knights moved Kiron out of the arena.

Derin fell silent, beads of sweat rolling down his face, and Rion muttered in a much louder voice than before, “Are you going to apologise or fight?”

No answer came from Derin.

Shaking his head, Rion lifted three fingers and spoke loudly, “I have a third option for those who want to neither apologise nor fight…

“It is quite simple: do nothing and just run away from the consequences of your actions — like the proud knights you are.”

The knights (other than the Silver Lions) looked at them with surprised expressions, and one of them shouted in disagreement, “How can you say such a thing to the saviors of the town?!”

Rion shifted his gaze towards the new voice. His gaze fell on a teenager who had yet to become a knight, and he said, “Because they are wrong. They are knights, yet they disrespected the guests of their master, and when asked to apologise or fight, they just remained silent.”

Hearing the reasoning behind everything that has happened, the boy yelled, “Does respect matter more than life?”

Rion shook his head. “You got it wrong.”

“Life matters a lot, and that is why you respect those who keep you safe but they don’t keep me safe… for me, they are nothing more than knights that are doing nothing but their duty.”

“You are devaluing their saintly acts!” The boy shouted furiously.

“I don’t give a shit,” Rion stated with a deadpan expression.

The boy’s expression turned extremely furious, his lips parted to say something, “You—” but another knight trainee stopped him by forcing his mouth shut with his hand.

“Treat them like gods if you want, but by doing so, they won’t become actual gods… and it will be fortunate for them to learn that early rather than late…”

His words echoed throughout the silent barracks and reached the ears of all the knights.

A moment later, a Silver Lion knight stood up from the bench. Bowed towards Rion and said, “I want to apologise for the disrespect that I have shown you till now, but I also understand that a single word cannot free me from the consequences, so I wish to have a spar with you.”

Rion raised his arm towards the free side of the arena and said, “Get down.”

Just like the spar with Kiron, Rion won in one minute, and one by one, more Silver Lion knights apologised and asked for a spar.

Each fight lasted exactly one minute, and from that, Salis understood that Rion was much stronger than he had believed.

Normally, such a revelation would have made him anxious, but seeing how he hadn’t injured anyone except Kiron, he believed that Rion wasn’t here to cause trouble.

Even then, he had a duty to follow, so he must inform the captain about him.

Around an hour later, he defeated all of the silver lions, and much to his surprise, the other knights also asked to spar with him.

Rion, who wanted to learn how they fought and moved, agreed in a beat, and the spars began once again.

The period of spars and the winner of them stayed the same.

The only difference between them was that Rion was now helping them improve.

It took him two more hours to finish sparring with everyone except Salis, and the sun had already announced evening.

Looking at the dipping sun, Rion muttered, “I have to go back.”

“What?!”

“Stay for two — no, one more hour!!”

“You haven’t even sparred against Sir Salis!!”

“Please don’t go!!”

The knights, who now knew that Rion was similar to them, begged him to stay, but he declined with a shake of his head.

“Nope, can’t do.”

“Ugh!!”

“Why?!”

“Please!” they begged, giving puppy eyes.

Chuckling, he looked at Salis, who was staring at his colleagues with a faint smile, and said, “It seems we have to delay our spar.”

Salis’s gaze shifted towards him. He shook his head. “That would give me enough time to prepare for my defeat.”

Rion frowned. “Why are you already considering yourself defeated?”

A dry chuckle escaped Salis, and he said, “Because that is destiny — something that we cannot change.”

Hearing his reasoning, Rion’s expression turned sour. Stepping closer, he placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “Death is also something you cannot run from, so why are you still living?”

Salis froze in his spot, thoughts that he never had before began to take root in his mind, and he shut his eyes.

’You have finally stopped holding yourself back.’ Rion smiled and began to walk out of the barracks.

“What is going on?” Derin asked with a confused expression.

Rion waved his hand and said, “You all should prepare a feast, for Barleyhen now holds two superhumans.”

The knight’s eyes widened in shock.

They tore their gaze towards Salis, and before their very eyes, the wrinkles covering his body began to lessen, and they could feel the same aura they felt while being in front of the captain.

Salis let out a deep breath and finally opened his eyes.

Turning his head, he looked towards the exit, but Rion was already gone.

“Congratulations, Sir Salis!” Shouted the knights.

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