The Rising Pheonix

Chapter 42

Prince Jacobe POV

These past few days have been wonderful. This is the most relaxed I've been since the war started. We have been enjoying the festival and Nico has spent most of his free time either with the court physician or in town with the local doctors. On most days he is busy studying the things he has learned and having Nancee read excerpts out of books and leaving random places blank so he can fill it in. 

Grant and Nancee both have been spending their free time in the barracks with the other knights. Grant joked about how he can beat their strongest knight after being lax with his training for a few years. Needless to say, the knights did not like that. Now after training everyday Grant has to fight a knight. 

Yesterday was his first fight and he won. When he came back to my room he was super hyped and happy. He spent the whole time bragging about how he didn't even use all his strength. Then he went on to say he challenged every single one to a one-on-one fight. The other knights were too happy to oblige.

I was happy for him and I told him to train with them so that  he builds his stamina back up, just in case one of them were skilled enough to make the fight a long one. He laughed at the suggestion, but come this morning he came in the room and asked me to train with him.

So here we are, In the training grounds, apparently earlier than most of the knights. The only other ones here are the higher ranking knights who oversee the others training regimen.

"Greetings Your Highness. I am Commander Jameson. Next to me is my Lieutenant, Jackson. To what honor do we owe for your visit?" Commander Jameson asked. 

He was a a tall man with dark brown skin. His hair was cut short but I could still see how curly it was. It was light brown, almost light enough to be blonde. What caught my attention was his eyes. The left was brown and the right was grey. Not wanting to stare, I turned my attention to his lieutenant.

He was younger than the Commander but older than Grant and me. His hair was longer and in a low ponytail and his hair was straight and light brown. He was tanned and muscular. I smiled at him to let him know I'm here on friendly terms. Turning my attention back to the commander I told him why we were there. 

"As I'm sure you are aware, my knight Grant," I paused to nod my head towards Grant, "has challenged your whole squadron to some friendly one-on-one battles." I laughed. "I'm just here to make sure he didn't offend anyone and for some light training myself."

Commander Jameson smiled as if remembering a funny joke. "Ahh yes. One of my men did tell me about that. I thought they were only joking. There is no way your man can beat every one of my men" He laughed boisterously before adding "No offense."

I smiled good naturedly and replied, "Exactly. It's just not possible." I laughed while bumping Grant who had the biggest smile on his face.

"Yeah. It's just good fun competition. A way to make things a little more exciting." Gant responded.

"If you don't mind, we will get started on our exercise." I said while turning to go to the equipment. Grant followed immediately and when were a good distance away he looked at me and said, "You do know that I CAN beat everyone of them right?"

I laughed before answering. "Well you were away from the intense training we had back at the castle to be in Heartreach. I saw some of the equipment there and it wasn't much. Honestly, I'm surprised you retained as much muscle as you did."

"Yeah well, I did have my personal training schedule I followed. Its close to what we did together." He retorted.

"Lets see it then. I'll do mine and you do yours. We'll see which one yields better results. Mine isn't the same from when we were younger either, I had to alter it to better fit me." I paused to look at the equipment available and it looks similar to what we had back home. "Feel free to ask me for some assistance." I laugh as I move to the heavy sacks in the left corner of the training area.