George and Austen were enjoying their stay in the capital.
As disciples of the new king, not only were they treated with utmost respect during their stay in the king's castle, they also enjoyed numerous privileges available only to high nobles.
The brothers were living the dream. A luxurious life, considering they used to be errand boys in Lion City before they met Lark.
"Hey, thich ich good!" said George, his mouth full of meat. Bits of meat and spit flew out as he spoke. He swallowed, emptied his tankard of juice, and spat, "Try it!"
Austen sighed and shook his head. He rebuked his little brother, "Don't you feel any shame? The maids are staring at us."
The two were in the dining hall used exclusively by the royal family.
After getting permission from Lark, the brothers came here and ordered the kitchen staff to cook them various food available only to nobility.
"So what?" said George shamelessly. "We got permission. Stop being a worrywart and just eat."
George was becoming more and more cheeky with each passing day.
Austen worried that their newly acquired status as the king's disciples was getting to his head.
"At least chew quietly," said Austen.
George leaned forward. "Hey, didn't you notice?"
"What?"
George grinned. "I've gained some height this week. At this rate, I'll be taller than you in a year or two!"
Austen's eyes widened. Forget manners—his pride wouldn't allow him to be smaller than his little brother. He stared at George, and after realizing he was telling the truth, Austen nervously looked at the various dishes on the table.
Austen gnashed his teeth, breathed in deeply, and started stuffing his mouth with meat. He'd heard that meat would make a man's body stronger and bulkier. Maybe this way, he would still end up taller than his little brother.
"H-Hey, that's the last one! That's mine!" protested George upon seeing Austen take the last slab of red boar steak.
"Shut it!" said Austen. It was amazing that he could speak clearly despite stuffing his mouth full of meat. "You've eaten your share already!"
Watching the brothers bicker, the maids who'd been attending to them started giggling. Some even started openly laughing. Their gazes took an abrupt turn. From judgmental gazes, their eyes were soon filled with fondness.
"Young sirs," said one of the maids, her lips curled upward. Her eyes were beaming as she looked at the brothers. "We can just ask the kitchen to cook more of those if you desire."
Austen and George looked at each other. They smiled and said in unison, "Then, more of this dish, please!"
The maids laughed. "Please wait a moment, young sirs!"
*** For three hours, the brothers did nothing but pig out in the dining hall.
George ended up eating seven slabs of steak, while Austen ate six. They also tried various desserts and juices. It was enough to feed five people.
"I can't walk anymore," huffed George. His abdomen was bloated from overeating. "Are we there yet?"
Austen looked like he was close to vomiting. He was also huffing. "You moron. This is why you shouldn't overeat."
"Sure," said George. "Are we far from our rooms? Why is the castle so big anyway? Heavens, I feel like dying. Whoever made the hallways this long is evil! And the stairs. Why are there so many stairs!"
Austen nodded to George's rumbling. Although he knew it was nonsense, he still ended up resenting whoever made the castle this big.
Austen halted in his steps. He looked at George in shock.
Seeing Austen's frightened expression, George furrowed his brows.
"What?"
"H-Hey, we still have training later, right?"
George turned pale upon hearing this. He almost vomited on the ground.
"W-Wait! Surely, the old man will understand, right?" said George. He shivered, recalling how Anandra pushed them to their limits during their last training. That old man was a demon, he was sure.
"Let's hurry!" said Austen.
George repeatedly nodded his head. "Let's go!"
The two were about to run toward their rooms when they heard voices.
"It's those town hicks again," said a deep voice.
"I can't believe the new king is letting them inside the throne room," said another.
The brothers hid behind a wall. At first, they thought the voices were talking about them. But soon, they realized they were talking about the fifteen soldiers who accompanied Lark to the capital.
"What do they call themselves again? Blackstone Soldiers?" said the deep voice. "Damn maggots! I've been a royal guard for five years, but I'm hardly given the chance to guard the throne room! But those fools! Just because they were serving King Lark before, they've been assigned to the throne room!"
Austen and George understood where they were coming from. For royal guards, being assigned to protect the throne room must have been the highest honor. It was the position where they were closest to the king, after all.
But now, out of nowhere, a small group of soldiers from a town in the middle of the wilderness replaced the royal guards assigned in the throne room. It was natural that they didn't look at these new guards fondly.
"I alone could probably defeat all of them. Those greenhorns! They probably don't even know how to properly wield a sword!" said the deep voice. "Ah, how annoying. I should be the one serving the new king!"
Austen frowned. As someone from Blackstone Town, he didn't like someone talking about the Blackstone Soldiers in this manner. He'd seen how diligent the Blackstone Soldiers had been in their training. Even when they were close to collapsing, they did not stop stabbing their spears. Even the old man—Anandra—said the Blackstone Soldiers were already adept with the basics of spearmanship.
Austen didn't know what kind of training the royal guards of the king's castle had undergone, but he was sure that the Blackstone Soldiers wouldn't lose to them, at the very least in spirit.
"And did you see how they couldn't even hold their spears properly during the coronation ceremony? They can't even keep them straight!" said the deep voice. "As a faithful soldier of the royal family, it's embarrassing!"
Austen clenched his fists.
He decided to hold it in. Although he disagreed with everything the man said, he knew this was not the time or place for squabbles. The best thing they could do was to hide, wait, and let the royal guards pass through.
"Hey, take that back!"
Austen's jaw slacked seeing George come out of their hiding place. His little brother was flushed from anger. He looked like he wanted to pummel the royal guard to the ground.
"H-Hey, what are you doing!" said Austen. He also went out of hiding and held George's arm.
"I said take it back!" spat George. He glared at the muscular, two-meter tall royal guard in front of him. Beside the muscular man, seven other royal guards stood.
"Don't start a fight!" whispered Austen.
"Who are you?" said the tall royal guard—the owner of the deep voice from before.
One of the royal guards behind him said, "Cherry, they're the disciples of King Lark."
The predatory gaze of Cherry softened somewhat. He sighed. "I see.
You're the kids under the wing of His Majesty, King Lark. I am Cherry, the Assistant Vice Commander of the Royal Guards."
There was reverence within Cherry's voice upon the mention of Lark's name. It seemed that although they despised the Blackstone Soldiers, they still remained loyal to the king.
"That's right," said George fearlessly. "And you're that bastard who kept on slandering our soldiers."
Austen tightened his grip on George's arm. He realized that if this went on, things would really get out of hand. He whispered to George, "Hey, stop. That's enough."
George spat back, "That's enough? Brother, show some backbone. You heard everything this pig said, didn't you? The Blackstone Soldiers couldn't even properly wield a sword, a spear? Lies! If only they'd seen how hard our soldiers worked! How diligently they trained!"
Cherry's brows twitched upon hearing George call him pig. But, he remained still. At the end of the day, these kids were the disciples of His Majesty.
"I heard that the two of you know magic," said Cherry. "Forgive my insolence, young masters. But magicians are normally incapable of seeing through the flows of swordsmen and spearmen. I meant it when I said that the Blackstone Soldiers are greenhorns who couldn't even properly wield their weapons."
Before things escalated even further, Austen decided to mediate. He moved in front of George. He lowered his head and said, "My brother is still young, so please forgive him."
Cherry's eyes swiveled from Austen, then to George, and back. He carefully observed the brothers. He nodded. "Of course. Please don't worry about it, young master. We'll be on our way."
Cherry politely bowed his head. With him at the lead, they passed by George and Austen.
George was still angry at them for slandering the Blackstone Soldiers.
He raised his voice. "No wonder you have a girl's name despite that muscular body. Cherry, was it? Why didn't your mother name you Chris instead? Maybe because you have such a small weenie that she mistook you for a girl!"
The last few words of George echoed in the hallway.
Cherry halted in his tracks. The faces of the royal guards around him started draining of color. Some of them even started clinging to Cherry's arm, as though trying to prevent the muscular man from rampaging in the hallway.
"D-Damn it, why did you have to talk about his name, of all things!"
said one of the royal guards.
"H-Hey, Cherry. You have a manly name. Don't take the kid's words to heart, okay?" said another royal guard.
"What did you say?" growled Cherry.
Bloodlust oozed out of the Assistant Vice Commander. So much that Austen and George found it suffocating. They realized that they'd touched a sore spot.
Still, to Austen's horror, George did not back down. "I said a muscular pig like you has a girl's name!"
Cherry's eyes widened with rage. His shoulders trembled as he started walking toward George and Austen. Some of the royal guards tried to stop him, but they were easily pushed back by the giant, muscular monster.
"You!" said Cherry the moment he stood in front of George.
Three royal guards wrapped their arms around Cherry's body. They were all terrified that the Assistant Vice Commander would start hitting the king's disciples.
"Hey, Cherry! They're still the king's disciples! You can't hit them!"
"Calm down, man!"
George and Austen nervously gulped, but still stood their ground.
"I know," said Cherry. "Hey, kid. You said that the Blackstone Soldiers know how to properly wield their weapons, didn't you?"
"That's right," said George.
"I really want to hit you, but I can't do that, since you're His Majesty's disciple," said Cherry. "I may look like this, but I've vowed to dedicate my life to the crown. Call me a monster all you want, but I still have my pride as a royal guard. So, how about this? Tell the greenhorns—those Blackstone Soldiers—to meet me at the training grounds tomorrow morning. I'll beat them to a pulp in front of you." Cherry laughed. "People like them, who reached their current status due to luck, wouldn't be able to win even if they all attacked me at the same time."