Sword Calls

Chapter 2: I won, but I still have many questions.

After the audience died down after cheering for quite some time due to my victory, I left the arena and got escorted by the guards to the medic station. Even though I won, I did have some injuries from the spar. As I was being checked up on, the man from the spar got sent to the bed next to mine as they also begin to examine him.

"That was quite some spar, wasn't it? I'm honestly surprised you both came out alive!" One of the medic treating us said that.

"Well..." I spoke. "I didn't think I would get out of it alive either."
"When they asked me to spar with you, I was dumbfounded. Why would a Knight fight a Learner class person?" The man said.

I forgot to mention, there are different ranks of people mastering Sword Calls. All of the ranks are as follows: Beginner, Learner, Intermediate, Master and Knight. There are old folktales that go as far as to say that there is one after Knight called Divine, but nobody in recent history has ever achieved nor seen such a person, which is why it's just a folktale.

"Wait, so you didn't think it was a good idea either? Then why did you decide to spar with my anyway?" I asked.
"Well, your opponent was supposed to be someone else, but I couldn't just call off the ceremony or people would get mad at me. Believe me, I did not want to have to do with anything regarding the ceremony, but I had no choice."
"Then what happened to my original opponent?"
"He called off last second saying that he had official business in Quiniux, our neighbouring city."

Quiniux... It is the second biggest city in the world and it is also our neighbouring city. It is said to be a beautiful city, inspired by the richests architecture of last the century. I cannot say whether it really lives up to the rumors as I've never been there myself, but I do know I would like to. Now that I have done the ceremony, I'm actually free to do whatever I want to now, which also means visiting neighbouring cities. Currently, I am in a rural area called Puraine. Mostly all of the Knight that we have go to Quiniux or The Capital, also knows as Yureix, to train or go on official business, for example fight in the war. I don't know a lot about Yureix myself though.

"He had official business? A Master rank having official business... Something doesn't quite add up." I thought about it for a second. Both Masters and Knights can have official business in another city. The other ranks aren't deemed as important enough to be able to have such business, but it is still a bit strange. Masters don't nearly have as much official business as Knights do. That's because Knights can take care of anything the Master rank cannot. Knights are stronger than Masters after all. As far as I know, we have about 50 Knights in the entire country and over 300 Masters. It is not easy to reach either of the ranks, but some Masters and Knight have come in from other neighbouring countries to help this one.

"I also thought it was strange when I heard it. Why wouldn't you send a Knight to handle such business instead of doing it the other way around? But who knows, perhaps they had a good reason to call it off." The man responded. "Though, I wonder what that 'important business' might be. I should head back to Quiniux myself after I've healed up to learn more about it."

"Can I come with?" I asked. "I mean, may I please accompany you to Quiniux? Now that I have finished the ceremony, I want to visit the different cities and even countries if you don't mind." I've always dreamt about going to Quiniux. I just want to know if it lives up to it's name and find out how I can become stronger. Besides, I'm quite intrigued in this 'official business' myself...

"Yeah, no way. It's out of the question. You need to be at least an Intermediate to even remotely enter the city, let alone keep yourself out of danger on your way there. Sure, I could keep you safe, but you wouldn't be able to enter the city, even with me accompaning you. Besides, what do you want to do there? You don't have a lot of money, do you? Everything costs an arm and a leg there. First, find a way to get money and become an Intermediate rank. Then you can come find me in the city."