[ShadowxReader] - Into the Kingdom's carnage

~ Chapter 5: First training ~

P.S: Another long chapter, sorry.

~

I woke up early by myself from how super excited I was. A sudden anxiety twisted my belly. I still knew nothing about where I was going to be trained. The castle would be a whole new experience but I calmed myself quickly.

Y/N: I'll be fine. The Sire Lancelot will be with me... I'm sure he'll help me out.

Lancelot: Of course I will.

I jumped around after I heard his warm voice in my right ear. The smirk on his lips disappeared.

Lancelot: I need to make sure you'll be used to this new place smoothly without any harm.

Y/N: How... How did you get in?

Lancelot: The door was open.

I looked and effectively, I had forgot to close it after entering the building.

Y/N: Sire Lancelot, I have a request I should have make sooner.

His glare was on me, waiting for it.

Y/N: My brother got injured yesterday and he's not in good shape to work twice harder to repair everything while I'll be training somewhere else and that I'll not be by his side to assist him. So... Could you ask to the King if he could find someone to at least replace me during the sunrise to the sunset? I'll help and finish the rest of the work that couldn't be done after the training.

Lancelot: When I say that my training might be rough, it means you'll might have no energy after the seance.

Y/N: Oh, this is not really a problem. I'm a hard worker and since I have no money to pay the King nor you for training me, I could have my family's pay not erased since we're still working. My brother only need three days of rest if he wants to keep his harm working normally again and my father's really getting old and... Yeah.

A little embarrassed, I looked down.

Y/N: I... Really need this job for my family.

I felt two fingers lifting up my chin. I was wide-eye from the contact.

Lancelot: You're a hard worker but that doesn't mean you have to over-work yourself or else you won't be able to fight correctly nor ready to learn.

He put away his hand and make me follow him but I didn't budge.

Y/N: Do you think it's fine if I go there in pants?

Lancelot: Yes, you're perfect this way.

Wait... What?

I looked to the floor, the same warmness on my cheeks. Outside, his horse was standing next to a water compartment. He climbed on it and gave me his hand out. I took it without really looking and ended up almost trowing myself to the other side of the horse if it wasn't for the hedgehog to keep me back from doing that, holding my left side with his left arm by behind.

Lancelot: Careful Miss Y/N. You wouldn't want me to already take you back here injured on your first day.

I took his waist in my hands and he make rear his horse which make me put my arms around him and had his back against my chest. In less than ten minutes, we were at the giant doors of the castle. Lancelot announced himself and the main doors opened before us. I looked to the floor and walls. The blood was already gone. The knight made his horse stop and took feet while I took the hand he was offering me. A boy came closer and took the animal away. I followed Lancelot and we walked through the castle for another ten minutes before entering a private combat zone. He told me I could choose any weapon that was onto the wall. Many of them were at my disposition but I pick a light simple sword that wouldn't messed up my movements while learning.

Lancelot: It's a good choice but I wouldn't mind to teach you with something else that's more in your comfortable for you to use.

Knowing he was talking about more "rustic" weapons, I still went with the sword. Getting ready, he already began to fix my posture.

Lancelot: Keep your chin up, lower your shoulders and elbows. Tighter your grasp on your sword and stop looking at your weapon.

He put the lame of his sword under my chin to lift it up and did it without any waiting.

Lancelot: Your mind will guide your sword and your will, will be the direction it will go.

Y/N: That's a lot of will in one sentence.

I tried to play it but I saw it wasn't time for that. He ignored my comment and asked me to hit him quickly. I did without waiting and he blocked the attack. He make me learn how to always be ready for an assault depending on the movement the shoulders tend to do before hitting and how to stay in place even though the threat.

Lancelot: In your beginnings in combat, you might be scared and not ready to kill cold-bloodedly. You should take some steps back to let the enemy come closer to you so you can hit after by taking a step further. Be careful because you don't want to get your feet cut in the process, so you must always follow his movements and aim at the head first or then after, the chest.

When he said those things without any apparent emotions, I felt uneasy. The killing. I was supposed to protect people from getting killed by bringing death to other beings? It didn't make any sense to me.

Lancelot: Okay, be ready.

He tried to hit me on each side several times and made a last one on the same side which I barely blocked. The hedgehog said it was my turn and I walked towards him doing three different hits. On my last one, I wanted to do a last hard one on him and to finish in a face-to-face, sword against sword. Instead, I ended up tripping on my own feet and felt forward. I was so preoccupied by the death thing that my body didn't even worked on its own and I was there lamentably falling in the direction of the floor... If it wasn't for the Sire Lancelot to caught me. He put me back on my feet while I felt ashamed of myself.

Lancelot: Never be absent-minded when battle is to come. You must always be ready for anything.

Y/N: Sorry.

He slowly got closer to me again and put his palm on my side. I was deeply surprised and flustered of the closeness that a man and a women shouldn't have before marriage or even proposal.

Lancelot: I didn't knew you were that much in liking of being close to me all the time to this point.

Y/N: N-no, it's a misunderstanding. I really felt without any intentions on mind. Forgive me.

I looked away even if I weirdly wanted to see the look on his face, those crimson eyes.

Lancelot: Hmm.

He took a step back and we finished the first part of the lesson not soon after. Someone knocked onto the door and told him he was asked to come by the King. He excuse himself and told me he would be back in fifteen minutes and that I could take a rest meanwhile.

~