Kingdoms Divided

Chapter 12

In Lennox's room, they know no one will care to come looking for them as everyone is probably recovering from the celebration, so they hide in there for the morning after the Lun Eclipsis. They sneak for some breakfast together before heading to train with the rest of the soldiers and trainees. The rumors of them being together grow more, and there are clear words being said about the two at training. Jiban overs a few say something about how they were unexplainably close through the celebration. Some are kind saying that they have never seen the king so happy, or how they look good together. There is one comment that gets to Jiban though, "If that's the case, he definitely earned his citizenship and passed this training so quickly because of it. I mean have you heard of anyone else passing this quickly other than Queen Minaeian? He's definitely sucking the king's-"

"Hey trainee!" Jiban waves the boy over. "It's your turn on sword combat with me." He says and escorts him over to one of the battle circles, throwing him a sword. "Try and kill me." He is clearly angry, but confident as they begin. The trainee is very cocky at first till Jiban easily starts to block every strike, focussing on defense. "Now, don't ever go for the obvious strike, that's the biggest mistake you can make." He instructs and dodges another strike easily. "Okay, now what you did wrong was think you were catching me off guard when in reality-" He starts to say, but begins to actually try, disarming him and having his throat at the end of Jiban's sword quickly, "-it was me catching you off guard.... which is way too easy to do. You should focus on your training more than other things being said to you." Jiban smirks, putting the sword away and the trainee starts to walk away.

"I'm not done." Jiban stops him and the trainee, obviously angry, turns to face him at attention. "What do you use to cure an infection from Mauvé Litic?" and the trainee stands there stuttering. "That's okay, not like that's the main poison our army is currently facing." Jiban speaks sarcastically before answering, "The answers are the herbs Misoral and Gisoral. They must be applied to the wound as well as ingested." Jiban comes closer to him, "Tell me how do you slow the spread of Mauvé Litic poison?" The trainee stutters once again. "Sunlight, though it will not cure it, it will slow the spread. Giving a person time to possibly save themselves or another." Jiban still isn't done, wanting to make his point clear, "Okay, an easy one, what do you do if you are shot with an arrow?"

"You remove it first then-" The boy begins, but Jiban swiftly cuts him off.

"You never remove it. Whatever impairs you, you never remove. This will make you bleed out quicker leading to a faster death." Jiban explains. "So next time you feel like questioning any soldier's honor or skills, think about your own abilities first and assess if you're actually just jealous." The trainee is clearly pissed, wanting to swing, but the soldiers he was talking with are laughing. "Why don't you go practice holding your breath at the stream? It'll give you a chance to cool off." He smiles, "Hey Florence, I think our trainee here is ready to train at the stream for the day." He calls her and she nods. The trainee marches away angrily, passing his buddies who are still chuckling till Jiban stands in front of them. They all fall silent and stand at attention, "As for you all, I think you've got better things to be doing, or do you want to join your friend?" They all shake their heads.

"No sir." They all say synchronized.

"Then why don't you go shoot some arrows and shut your mouths?" Jiban gives them all a stern look before they run away. Jiban stands there now, proud, he never has felt so confident or been able to defend himself like that. It feels nice as even as Prince of the Northern Kingdom he never felt this confident. He did not earn being the prince, but he earned this.

Rize comes over to make sure everything is okay after seeing all the young boys run off. Jiban comes to stand by Rize, "Nothing I can't handle. Just a bunch of young trainees not knowing when they're starting to say things out of line."