Interstellar Redemption

Ch-8 Encounter Rendark

Now, if Brawly was angry earlier, he was at a boiling point now. To him, the worst part was him insulting Bread and Crobbli. Keeping that thought as motivation in the back of his head, he realized that he and Mustro had to start preparing right away. So he asked Mustro what date it was.
“Today is the 12th of Mantabre.”
“Huh?”
Then he realized that he had forgotten that he was in a different galaxy with a different years and days. But that doesn’t change the fact that they only had five days to prepare.
“Mustro, come on! We have only have five days!”
“I am sorry…”
“We have to fight back Mustro! If not for the sake of this galaxy, we have to fight at least for the sake of my beloved Bread and Crobbli!”
Even though Mustro’s face lit up, he only gave off a weak smile, and said nothing for a few seconds. Then he spoke-
“You know I like your spirit Brawly. Even I was like you”. He stopped to take a deep breath, and then continued-
“But you can’t do anything with the power of friendship. And if you say it depends on luck, luck is usually determined by will, power and hard work. And even for the hope of friendship to help you, the other factors matter. Life isn’t a fairytale. So to sum it all up, I won’t be able to help you from now on. If you want to go back to Earth, I’ll send you. But if you want to help, you’ll have to do it on your own.”
Brawly was heartbroken to hear this, but he understood him. But he wasn’t giving up anytime.
It is definitely not an impossible thing for a twelve year old to save an entire galaxy, am I right?
But his hatred for King Wulfur pulled him together. He came back to Mustro’s home and thought for a while. After a while, he came up with a plan he was satisfied with. But the issue was, he needed to propose his idea to King Aeidos, the king of Hyuneest.
As Brawly wanted to present this idea to the king, he asked Mustro directions for the castle. Oh boy, did he regret not taking public transport.
A few minutes later, he got lost. After walking a few more inches, he was still on the lookout for the castle. And after that he took so much time that I, the writer, got bored and didn’t want to continue writing, but then he suddenly found the grand and gigantic castle.
It was covered in what looked with Hyunestian gold, and plated with a beautiful material, similar to terracotta. It was the most beautiful work of architecture Brawly had ever seen.
He asked the royal security guard to take him to the king, but the guard denied for obvious reasons. After a while of him asking and getting denied, a lofty voice was heard by the both of them-
“Let the earthling enter.”
“On your order, your majesty” said the guard, letting Brawly finally pass.
The guard led Brawly into a tunnel like pathway, which had walls obscured by the king’s ancestors’ paintings. A red carpet was laid down, and there were chandeliers on the roof, each one hanging just roughly two feet away from the previous one. He went through a huge curtain which led to the giant and gorgeous chamber where the king sat on his royal thrones. There were empty seats for courtiers on the right and left. The king motioned his hand and asked Brawly to come forward. The king was a strong and brave Astrouse and wore a royal cape similar to the one wore by King Wulfur, but this one was cleaner.  He wore a gold version of the common Astrouse clothes.
“What brings you here, young earthling?”
“Your majesty, I am Brawly, a human from Earth, and I have a plan to prove ourselves victorious against the Dravice.” said Brawly, using the best words he could think of at the time.
“Really? I am all ears.”
“My plan goes like this- Inform every soldier or guard protecting the shard to go back home three hours before King Wulfur’s arrival. This will create an illusion that we have given up, which is obviously misinformation. We will all hide somewhere near the burial. As the king will see we have given up, he won’t bring his army, and instead come alone. And when he tries to dig the burial, we strike when the iron is hot!”
The king had a grin on his face, as he was laughing inside. Well to cut him some slack for laughing at a kid, even Brawly thought that this was kind of dumb.
“Do you really believe in this plan?” asked the king.
“Yes, King Aeidos, with every cell of my body.”
“Hm. I will only put this plan to use if you prove me your worth.”
“May I ask the method of doing that?”
“You will have to pass two trials; one will be a battle of chess, which may be easy for you as it is a game from your own planet, and secondly, you will have to defeat me in Astralo sword fighting. These are respectively to prove your intelligence and potential. These both will be conducted day after tomorrow. Prepare well!”
The king had sent him back as it was night already. Brawly thankfully reached Mustro’s place without getting lost.

The next day he woke up and went straight to the training grounds to prepare him for the two trials he had the next day. After all, he had only one day to prepare.
He didn’t have a real sword so he started practicing with a wooden stick he found on the ground. He was aggressively swinging his stick on rocks trying to slice them in half but to no avail as his focus wasn’t proper.
As he continued this practice, he noticed an Astrouse looking at him. More accurately, he was staring at him, but not in a bad way. He walked up to Brawly and asked him what he was upto. He explained his situation to him and after hearing this, he had something to say-
“Well, hello there! I am Rendark and I would love to train you! Let’s start right away.”
Rendark looked awfully similar to someone Brawly had seen, but he ignored that feeling and started training.
Rendark said that the most important thing in chess is your mind being free from other thoughts.
“So first I’ll test your focus! Look at that rock over there. Seen it? Keep looking at it without thinking of anything else. I can sense it if you think of anything but the rock. Start!”
Surprisingly enough, Brawly passed the test without a hassle.
Rendark congratulated him and told him to pick up a wooden sword from his bag.
“Brawly, get ready for an Astralo sword fight!”