Swiss Arms 54 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 54

-VB-

Henry wasn’t a bad guy at all.

He was also the typical man who did manly things like wrestling, contact sports, riding, and the like because that’s just what he did to pass the time and had been taught to do. It was certainly better than whoring, drinking, and torturing.

… Unfortunately, those “manly” activities were the exact kind of things I wasn’t into because I could do more stuff doing other things. I liked smithing, mining, faceting, strategizing, tactical analysis, brainstorming, and burrowing into my pillow fort on the occasional days I felt lazy.

We did, however, have one thing we liked in common.

Training.

“Are you sure about this?” Duke Henry asked me with some trepidation and worry in his eyes. He, a dozen of his knights, half a dozen of my own “professional” soldiers, and I stood around in training gear in my wooden castle’s private training ground.

Our training gear was a simple tunic, pants, and a pair of well-padded shoes. Over the tunic was also a well-padded wool jacket that served to protect people from strikes.

We were having a training session in here instead of outside the castle just in case someone might see something that might hurt the duke’s reputation.

Of course, the duke probably thought that I was protecting myself.

“I am,” I grinned. “I never train unless it’s against at least four different people.”

“Ho? Some kind of training regimen?” Henry looked intrigued as he picked out a wooden sword from one of the weapon racks lining the walls.

“... Yes,” I replied as casually as I could while my soldiers shuddered. I walked over and grabbed a wooden training sword as well.

For just a second, I opened up my character status and glanced at my sword-related skills.

[Swordmanship] LvL. 69

Nice.

Anyways, this was an opportunity for me to compare exactly what my skills meant in comparison to well-trained knights and counts in a non-lethal setting.

I turned back around. I noticed how Henry’s knights looked dismissive of me, probably thinking that I was going to get my ass handed to either them or their liege lord.

“Now, before we begin, I want everyone to understand that we are here to improve ourselves, not show off who’s who,” I spoke up. “We do that at tourneys.”

Some of the knights looked like they agreed with me while others didn’t. Henry did, and that’s what really mattered here.

“That said, may I have the floor with my men, Your Grace?” I asked.

“Of course. This is your training ground.”

“Thank you,” I said with a smile before dropping it as I turned to my shivering soldiers. “You know the drill. All of you against me.”

My words drew up short Henry and his knights, but before they could say something, my soldiers burst into action.

Initially bunched up among themselves at one corner of the training yard, they now quickly spread out and surrounded me. They kept an even distance among themselves and with me, and had intentionally chosen to alternate between spears and swords.

“Good, good! You learned from last time!” I barked out with a grin on my face. “Spearmen does well against someone who can’t take a hit or aren’t armored as a knight!”

My soldiers lunged forward without nary a yell. I parried the spear aimed at my back while dodging a thrust coming from my left and grabbing the shaft of the one from the right. I pushed the right spear away, and the soldier, a man weighing eight stones, stumbled backward despite trying to fight against my strength.

The other soldiers tried to attack me with their swords while I was distracted. I decided to dodge and weave between their attacks.

It made them look uncoordinated if it wasn’t for the fact that my spearmen were attacking between strikes from the swordsmen.

The spears lunged in, drew back, swords swiped and sliced, drew back, and the cycle would repeat. They even set a decent rhythm. Lunge, back, swipe, back, lunge, back, stab, back. Instead of two people against one, it was six people against me. That one lunge was three lunges. That one swipe was three swords trying to find purchase on my skin.

Finally, my soldiers backed off, signaling that they were giving up … for now.

Then I heard clapping. Turning to Henry’s side of the training yard, I saw how he looked amazed by the display of it all while the knights didn’t look convinced.

“Brilliant. I didn’t know a man your size could dance like that!” he laughed before turning to look at his knights and then back at me. “Say, do you want to try it against my knights?”

I was waiting for this.

“I’d be honored to try,” I replied with a grin. “But I may need to actually strike back at them. I don’t think even I can keep up with twelve knights.”

“Wonderful! Get on it, then! Show the baron that you twelve are exemplary knights of my realm.”

-VB-

Henry winced when the fifth knight, Sir James, tumbled away after taking a good kick to the chest.

“He is strong, right?”

He glanced to his side and saw Isabella looking absolutely smitten with the baron. He would know what that looked like; he wasn’t bragging but made quite a number of ladies smitten with himself.

His gaze was drawn back to the training yard when the sixth knight got pushed out of the ring after being used as a shield against his fellows. The remaining six knights, humiliated by being knocked around by a mere baron, redoubled their efforts to bring down the man.

“Maybe he is as special as you think he is if he can win against six knights by himself,” Henry admitted with a grunted. “Seven,” he corrected himself when the seventh knight got knocked out with a headbutt. “Hans is definitely … unique. Not enough unique to get me to completely agree with you on letting him have your hand in marriage.”

She hummed. “He’s not so foolish as to be fooled with my tits and face, though,” she hummed. “Did you know that he let me command his servants?”

“Did he now? Even though you are not the lady of the house yet?”

“I think he’s testing me. I actually asked him why he did, though, and he said for him to see what kind of a person I truly was, he needed to give me power and see what I did with it.”

“A wise man for someone so young,” he agreed. “And then what happened?”

“He let me keep ordering his servants and people around after I showed how absolutely trustworthy I am!”

Henry personally didn’t agree that she was absolutely trustworthy. She was loyal and smart but was also batshit insane at times. He still remembered when he first met her. He thought she was cool and pretty, even if she was a girl. Then she completely flipped that opinion around by shoving bugs down his shirt. His father had laughed at him when he ran around like a headless chicken while the servants tried to get him to stand still so they can pull the giant bug out.

Isabella was unique, politicking at his level, long since used to advising her father on domestic matters, and driving Venetian merchant lords against each other when their employees upset her with their snide comments. Henry was sure that she would get herself hitched to the emperor or a king. Hell, even a duke would be within his expectations!

But a baron?

He didn’t believe it. She had to be coerced. Now that he was here, he was starting to understand. A man capable of whisking the secrets of the far east, creating delicious pastries, and defeating seven- eight knights by himself was more than a match for Isabella.

He just … wasn’t great at talking with people?

At least, Isabella thought so. He had a presence, she’d written to him, and he could feel that now that he was here, but that presence was wasted on a man so focused on doing anything but using his charisma. Even he could tell that Hans just simply wasn’t in ruling like he was. Actually, rather than a disinterest in ruling, Henry felt that Hans was simply interested in other things more. After all, a man who could bring this remote region of the empire to this standard surely had to possess at least decent leadership, no? And Henry could understand that after he saw the porcelain vase, the sweets, and a hundred other little things that were scattered throughout Fluelaberg.

… It was, in effect, perfect for Isabella. She would be able to act as she pleased (within reason), and Hans won’t care as long as her actions had even a minor benefit to Fluelaberg, its people, and this Compact of his.

He was sure that Isabella knew exactly that.

Henry winced as the last of his knights collapsed to his knees after taking a hit to his padded head.

He gave Hans the clap he deserved.

“You are magnificent, aren’t you?”

Hans looked at him, look around, and grinned. “I do a little bit of fighting.” He didn’t even look winded.

‘What a monster.’

But he was a useful monster. Once he was married to his cousin, they would be bound by blood. An alliance would be easy to create, and he would serve as a bulwark against the Habsburgs and the worryingly enlarging Lordship of Milan.

He could use this to his advantage.