The Cornflower Witch Chapter 21

Chapter 21: New Student Brawl

“Balun, stab his lower left!”

“Solin, come on, take that guy down.”

Inside the training ground, two young men were sparring with wooden swords, and the battle was fierce. Other students stood ten meters away, watching and some even cheering them on.

The area was spacious, and on the wooden racks at the edge of the ground hung many blunt weapons and blades. This was Viscount Xuefeng’s training ground, located within the castle in the North District.

Due to Scholar Hyde’s close relationship with Viscount Xuefeng, this knight training ground was also provided to these students free of charge. Stables and several warhorses could be seen not far away.

On the high grandstand, Viscount Xuefeng and Scholar Hyde sat under a wooden canopy, discussing the two trainees.

“Baron Quaid’s son, Balun, is quite good. His moves are agile,” Viscount Xuefeng commented on one of them.

“This commoner youth named Solin, it’s my first time seeing him.”

“Solin, ah, his father is a warrior who returned from the frontier and is currently living in seclusion in Burntstone City,” Scholar Hyde recalled the student’s background.

“Oh, there’s such a warrior. How strong is he?” Viscount Xuefeng stroked his short, upturned mustache and asked interestedly.

“He should be in the middle of ‘Level 2 – Blood Law’, but he said he wouldn’t go to the battlefield again,” Scholar Hyde shook his head.

“He reportedly experienced too much death on the battlefield, and his wife passed away prematurely, so now his only hope is to raise his child healthy.”

“That’s a pity, but someone who has experienced so much on the battlefield would be a good choice if he were willing to be a training instructor here,” Viscount Xuefeng suggested.

“I will ask the Viscount about it later,” Scholar Hyde nodded slightly.

…

‘Bang.’

With a heavy blow, the wooden sword in Balun’s hand broke directly, wood splinters flying and the break point full of woody fibers. Taking advantage of the opponent losing his weapon, Solin also kicked Balun to the ground and plunged his sword into the mud beside his neck.

This action startled Balun, and it took him several seconds to react, then his face filled with rage.

“You peasant!” He felt this was an insult to him.

“You’re the lowly one!” Solin retorted without showing weakness.

“How dare you insult a noble!”

“Mister Hyde said that here, everyone is a student, and there’s no distinction between nobles and commoners!” Solin brought up what the teacher said on the first day.

“You!”

Balun couldn’t stand it, clenched his fist, and punched Solin, but Solin dodged and instead took a punch.

Seeing Balun getting hit, his two noble friends, who were bad companions, immediately rushed in to help. At this point, several other brave commoner students also came to help Solin.

The three noble friends swung their fists and kicks without restraint, while on Solin’s side, except for him, no one dared to strike hard, merely trying to separate the two.

Facing the boys brawling on the training ground, the girls on both sides were relatively calm.

“A bunch of fools.” Iona crossed her arms over her chest, not wanting to watch such a crude and boring scene.

“Lady Iona is right,” Valeni had completely become Iona’s shadow these past two days.

On the other side, Karen looked at the scene with some worry, “Should we stop them? Teacher said fighting is wrong.”

Komia shook her head emphatically: “No, no, no, let them fight. Don’t drag us into it.”

“We can’t offend the nobles, and Solin’s side isn’t to be trifled with either,” Komia analyzed softly.

“Also, Lia is quite weak, it wouldn’t be good for her to go there.” Using her companion as an excuse, Komia stopped Karen from going forward.

“Okay, we’ll protect Lia.” Karen looked at the gentle, long-haired girl next to her and decided not to participate in the conflict. Viscount Xuefeng and Scholar Hyde observed the situation on the training ground below almost the entire time.

“Hehehe, what a lively group of children,” Viscount Xuefeng said with a smile.

“Young people are just like that,” Scholar Hyde also shook his head slightly.

Because Regas Duchy was founded on military might, it actually encouraged non-fatal fights, which was why several young men in the field came to blows at the slightest disagreement—they were familiar and accustomed to this style.

“Let them fight, then you can go break them up later,” Viscount Xuefeng instructed his attendant.

“Yes, my lord,” the attendant respectfully replied.

…

Half an hour later, the brawl on the field ended. Several injured students leaned against the wooden fence at the edge of the training ground, receiving wound medication from their classmates.

“Ouch—it stings.” The tall student, Lei, covered his finger as someone applied medicine, his eye bruised, and he grimaced.

“It’s no good, there’s still a lot not covered,” Komia grumbled, then continued to apply the medicine with her finger.

Across from them, Balun and a few others leaned on wooden chairs, with Valeni applying medicine to two of them. As for Iona, she was not looking after them, but rather talking with Viscount Xuefeng, her smiling and graceful demeanor making it hard to imagine her usual haughty attitude towards her classmates.

On the other side, Hylial also held medicine, applying it to the restless young man in front of her.

“You have quite a few old injuries.”

The girl finished applying the medicine with a cloth stick, then put the stick back into the medicine bottle, taking a moment to look at the young man named Mick. He was like a wild beast, somewhat fierce, with various scars on his body.

“You don’t need to bother,” Mick responded curtly to the girl beside him.

“Hmm.” Hylial didn’t argue and quietly stepped back.

Mick was a bit surprised by her obedient behavior. He turned his head and looked at Hylial closely. Although the black-haired girl had a beautiful face, her body appeared somewhat frail beneath the wide robes.

She’s quite pretty, just a bit less so than Iona. If she had a little more flesh, she’d probably be similar to Iona, the young man thought.

Perhaps because Hylial seemed obedient, Mick’s attitude became slightly more polite.

“Thanks.”

“It’s nothing.” The girl shook her head and walked over to the other side to attend to other injured classmates.

Cleaning wounds, applying medicine—she performed these tasks skillfully, surprising the other students.

“Did Lia do this often before?” Komia asked curiously, and the others also wanted to know.

“A while ago, many people in the same village were injured, and I helped take care of them, so I learned a bit,” the girl replied.

“That’s still impressive, oh.” Komia gave a thumbs up.

Seeing that these students had mostly recovered, an instructor approached. He was strongly built, dressed in leather pants and a white shirt, with a short beard.

“Scholar Hyde asked me to train you and see what your fundamentals are like.”

“Coincidentally, I was present throughout your fight just now, and I saw some ability.” He walked back and forth in front of everyone with his hands behind his back.

“The few boys are pretty good; they all know breathing techniques.” If they didn’t even know breathing techniques, they probably wouldn’t be able to study under Scholar Hyde.

“Now, pick up your swords and challenge me one by one. I’ll point out the flaws in your swordsmanship and footwork.”

The instructor shouted loudly, making the students gather around, and then the afternoon’s lesson began.

(End of this chapter)