Chương 52: Book 2 Chapter 4 - Sharing The Wealth

"Three points to two," the moderator announced, indicating that Ron was leading the spar.

"Begin the next round." Ron took up Mountain Stance again, and Kiara smiled, falling back into Forest Stance herself. She had been on the cusp of discovering something great before that last round ended, and she wanted to get back into that flow state. Soon enough, they were back in the same state, as she slowly pressed the attack into Ron's Mountain Form defense. She once again saw the openings that Mountain Form naturally had against Forest Form, but this time she started intuiting them before they appeared.

She had mastered both forms herself, and was beginning to visualize the upcoming sequences before they happened. She saw slight adjustments she could make to her own movements to minimize those openings. It took her right to the edge of what could still be considered Forest Form. The movements were no longer the normal, structured form that she had learned, but were specifically tailored to account for the openings that would come up when pressing into Mountain Form like she was.

The differences weren't enough for it to be called a new sword form of its own, it was still very definitely Forest Form, but it felt like a different flavor of Forest Form. One uniquely suited to go up against Mountain Form. She even began seeing more openings in their exchanges that she could take advantage of again. The openings in her own movements disappeared, and Ron soon noticed. He grunted, transitioning instead to Earth Form, a neutral form that was considered strong against Forest Form.

He wasn't as good at Earth Form as he was at Mountain Form, and Kiara quickly began picking up on the openings that his own movements were causing again. She ignored them for now. Instead, she once again began anticipating the upcoming sequences and slightly modifying her movements to reduce her own disadvantages and increase the weaknesses that Ron would have.

A slight adjustment to the angle of her blade allowed his powerful attack to slide more easily to the side, leaving his shoulder open for a fraction of a second longer than it otherwise would have been. A small step further to his weak side than was normal decreased the power of his next attack, as he had to adjust for her new position. It was slight enough that he didn't seem to notice, but helped take the edge off of the strong swing.

Her own attack, aimed slightly lower than normal, was more easily blocked by Ron than he expected, throwing his weight slightly more to the side than usual. Kiara, who had done it on purpose, saw the opening happening before it arrived, and could have easily taken advantage of it. This flavor of Forest Form felt perfectly suited to matching up against Earth Form.

Her ability to transition seamlessly between the six forms she had mastered was also available to her, and a quick transition to Fire Form would have put Ron off balance, giving her a multitude of openings against his chosen defense. Normally, her transition could be cancelled out by his own transition, as the different forms were very visibly different, and an expert swordsman could continually rotate to the form that best countered the form his opponent had chosen.

In this case however, combined with one of these adjusted moves that put Ron slightly off balance, Kiara felt he wouldn't be able to match her transition in time, giving her a distinct advantage. Rather than capitalizing on that, she continued to experiment. Her mind flashed back to when Handel had sparred with her, and had beaten her just by watching her body positioning. Feeling the adrenaline high from the discovery she had just made, she tried doing what Handel had claimed to have done.

Instead of anticipating Ron's next movements based on the form he was using, she paid attention to his foot placement and weight distribution. Try as she might though, she couldn't tell where his body was headed like Handel had claimed to be able to. Maybe that was because she was trying to keep his blade from smashing into her face, though.

Involved as she was in watching his foot placement, she failed to see that he had transitioned into Fire Form, and was quickly pushed back as she tried to match his rapid movements. She tripped on a rock and fell, giving him a perfect opening. He struck her torso on the way down, scoring another three points.

"Match!" yelled the moderator, his tone more excited than usual.

"Ron wins, six points to two." Excited murmurs could be heard on the sidelines, from the students that had watched the match. Kiara landed hard on her back and lay there for a minute, replaying the last moments of the fight back in her mind. She had let herself get distracted, and had paid the price. Even with the sudden terrain mishap, she doubted she could have repelled Ron's attacks for long. She would have to find a way to study people's movements without getting distracted herself.

Ron's face suddenly appeared above her, smiling ear to ear.

"You okay?" he asked, a look of genuine concern showing through the smile. He extended a hand to her, which she took, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

"I'm okay," she nodded, a smile slowly appearing on her own face. She had just discovered something incredible, after all. Had she taken advantage of the openings her adjusted form had provided, she would have easily won the match. Ron, oblivious to her discovery, was on cloud nine.

"Great match!" he exclaimed, patting her on the shoulder.

"You've come a long way this semester, I thought you had me there a few times!" Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. She smiled, letting him have his moment.

"You've come a long way too! You're using the offensive forms more than you used to." As they made their way to the sidelines, Kiara noticed Henry had been watching their fight rather closely, but he turned away once he saw her notice him. She also spotted Instructor Handel standing off to the side, a lopsided grin on his face. Unlike Henry, he did not avoid her gaze, but instead nodded to her. * On Wednesday, two things happened that put Kiara in a bad mood.

The first was when she received a summons to court later that day. She was to appear before a city tribunal that evening to account for the happenings of the past Saturday at Lord Grivalt's estate. The courier that brought the notice also brought their refund for the debts they had paid off. The refund was fourteen ruby coins and thirty two gold coins.

Apparently, many of the indentured servants and Lord Grivalt's estate had been there illegally, in the sense that he had never filed proper paperwork for them, and as such, their debts were simply wiped clean. The refund was larger than expected, but honestly fourteen ruby coins meant very little to Kiara at this point, so it only softened the bad news a little. The refund amount, however, was very large to any normal person, and the courier had been escorted to her estate by six city guards.

She had to personally sign a receipt form for the money before they would give it to her. The second thing that brought her mood down was when her parents requested to meet with her and Dustin. Ava was off watching Gabe somewhere, so only Ron and Gentry came in for the meeting. The meeting itself wasn't the problem, it was the decision her family had come to.

"You wish to return to your farm?" she asked them in shock. She knew this had been a possibility, but having them around the house the past few days had felt nice, and the timing had caught her by surprise. Her father nodded.

"We do, ma'am, assuming that option is still available to us."

"Of course it is!" she responded quickly.

"I just… had hoped you were enjoying it here, and might wish to stay. Gentry chimed in, "Your estate is wonderful, Lady Yountal, and our time here has been better than we ever could have dreamed. We just… prefer the simple life. The farm is what we're used to." Kiara understood that sentiment. There were things that she missed about her old life as well, but most of those things were her family itself, rather than the location.

The village wasn't bad or anything, she had just become accustomed to the city, having lived there for a few months now. Everything was so close, it was so convenient. It felt like her view of the world had been opened like someone opening a window wide, and she didn't want it to be shuttered again. Dustin, noticing her silence, smoothly picked up the conversation.

"As you wish, Mister and Mrs Dunsun. We will arrange a carriage ride for you back to your home this afternoon, if that suits?" They nodded. Before they could turn to leave, Kiara blurted out, "Wait! Before you go, I have something else for you." She was sad to see them go, but wasn't about to let them leave empty handed. She knew better than anyone how hard they had to work year round to keep the farm in shape and make ends meet.

Returning now, after being away for four months, would no doubt leave them in a bind financially. She knew her parents' farm brought in around thirty gold coins per year, so giving them thirty gold coins would probably be more than enough to get them by until things got back to normal on the farm. She didn't want to give them too much, and make them feel uncomfortable, but she also wanted to make sure they could get by for the time being.

She held out her hand as if to give something to Ron, who hesitantly held his out in response to receive it. She dropped thirty gold coins from her soul space into his waiting palm, placing them gently enough that they wouldn't spill out of his hand. His eyes went wide when he saw what she'd given him, then he looked up at her in shock.

"My lady?"

"Something to get by, until things can return to normal for you on the farm," she said. He shook his head emphatically and held his hand out to her as if asking her to take the coins back.

"That is extraordinarily generous of you, milady, but we've done nothing to earn this, we can't possibly accept." She closed his fingers around the coins instead.

"I insist. Consider it back payment for the time you spent at Lord Grivalt's estate. I don't believe your time there was anything close to justified or deserved."

"Well that's certainly not your fault, my lady," Gentry said. Kiara snorted out a laugh. If only they knew.

"Be that as it may, I still insist. I feel a sense of responsibility for everyone here at the estate, and I want to ensure you have what you need to get settled back at home. For every objection you offer, I will give you an additional gold coin." Let's see how you handle that! She thought to herself.

"My lady," her father said after a moment, "certainly you meant one less gold coin?"

"Nope!" She pulled another gold coin from her soul storage and stuck it in his shirt pocket before he could react. He blinked rapidly, trying to process what had just happened.

"That's… certainly not necessary, Lady Yountal…" he began. She stuck another gold coin in his pocket. Her Strength stat allowed her to move faster than he could possibly hope to track. His mouth was still open from whatever he had been trying to say, but he quickly shut it and turned for the door, embarrassed that any further words might lead to an ever-increasing sense of guilt at the wealth she was dumping on them.

Gentry, who couldn't see what had been put into Ron's shirt pocket, hadn't quite picked up on what was happening yet.

"Lady Yountal, what my husband was trying to say, is that although we appreciate your generosity, we can make do on our own…" She trailed off as Kiara held up a gold coin for her to see. She then placed it in her mother's hand, firmly but gently.

"Truly," Kiara said, "these gold coins mean nothing to me."

"You have no idea," Dustin mumbled from the side.

"I only want your family to be safe and happy," Kiara finished, glancing sidelong at Dustin briefly, then back at her parents.

"Please, accept the money as a gift from me to you. And should either of you ever need anything in the future, please let me know. And perhaps…." Her parents both gazed at her, waiting for her to finish.

"... perhaps I might come visit from time to time?" she asked shyly. Seeing their looks of confusion, she quickly added, "To check up on your family, and see how everyone is doing?" They shared a look, then nodded to her.

"Of course, milady," Ron said.

"You are welcome any time."