Three days later.
In the Black Raven Kingdom.
As the old woman who had talked to Faxul when he reached the palace for the first time walked through the Palace grounds like she usually did each day, she came across a certain area where a very large field had been cordoned off and was now hidden from sight using an opaque barrier.
She had recently been quite disgruntled by the decisions of the new King, who wanted the Kingdom to unite with Lanthanor which had been the cause of many, many soldiers dying over the ages.
She knew clearly what the benefits were. The financial advisers had been hard at work drawing up the estimates, and according to them, an established trade route and fixed prices would definitely result in such a rapid rate of development that they would be able to come out of their dire situation in very little time.
Still, the old woman couldn"t shake the feeling that the King of the Lanthanor Kingdom might be behind all of this happening.
Alas, she couldn"t do anything. The people supported the King, and at least for an year, no contender could rise up to challenge the direction the Kingdom was taKing.
The only consolation for her was that the King had listened to their advice when they had told him that it would not be wise to announce the unification now because of the many detractors in the Kingdom who still hated Lanthanor.
Although the truth was that these detractors were few and far in between, they would definitely be able to make enough noise in case the announcement went live.
What was needed was some way in which the Lanthanorians could garner respect from the proud people of the Black Raven Kingdom.
Now, noticing this 200 m x 75 m field, the old woman wondered what was going on without even her knowing about it.
These kinds of barriers were placed to avoid people from outside spying in, so they seldom had protective properties.
Hence, she easily stepped inside and was dazed by what she saw.
There were two teams of people at the center of the field, and they were facing each other while an egg-shaped object was in between them.
As the loud screech of a Raven sounded, two people who were right in front of the ball on opposite sides lunged forward at the same time but one managed to move faster and grasp it in his hands.
Immediately, he threw the ball behind him with the strength of an Eminent Human Fighter.
As the ball barrelled through the air in a blur, it was caught by someone on his side who began to run towards the opposite side.
The other team tried to tackle this man with the ball, and one finally succeeded before throwing it again.
In this way, the ball switched hands back-and-forth until one team finally managed to reach the other end of the court with the ball in their hands.
After doing so, they started jumping in the air and shouting with joy as happiness bloomed on their faces.
"Good job! Take a break for 10 minutes."
These words were said by a man who had the Raven on his shoulders that had made the sound before which had started the entire thing.
Clearly, he seemed to be in charge.
Walking up to him, the old woman asked, "What"s going on?"
Whatever these soldiers had been doing, it had looked so eye-catching and filled with energy that she had also felt the urge to get that ball and run while facing so many obstacles.
This was the nature of compet.i.tion that was present in almost every warrior in the Army: they loved to test themselves and beat others with their own strength.
Bowing on seeing who had come, the man said, "Madam, this is a game whose rules have been given by the King himself. He told me to pick out the strongest soldiers and divide them into teams before directing them to practice as they might have to compete in this game soon. He did not give any reasons, but we all love the game and the feeling we got when we played it, so we have been practicing non-stop since last night. This is the doc.u.ment that was given."
Handing over a piece of parchment to the woman respectfully, the man who was actually the soldier who was 5th in authority in the Army deferentially stepped to the side before walking to the team who had lost.
"What did I tell you? Use at least the simplest of strategies! Try to jump at each one from all sides so that they can"t escape! If -"
Watching the man leave, the old woman grabbed the parchment in her hands and went through it.
First were the rules of this game, which had a peculiar name to it.
It was called "Handball".
The rules were actually quite simple: the objective of each team was to take the ball to the other end of the court. The ball could not be pa.s.sed forward- only pa.s.ses behind were allowed. The other team could do anything and everything they wanted in order to stop the one who had the ball.
These were the base rules of the game, but there was also a note saying that more rules would be added later on.
Next, four more compet.i.tions were listed, but these did not require special training.
They were archery, a 1 km dash, spear throwing, and wrestling.
The only thing to note was that each of them had clear rules like in the case of wrestling where the victor would be one who scored the most points by putting his opponent on the ground.
Who… had designed all this?
This was the question that popped up in the old woman"s head first. Each and every rule had been clearly thought out and designed to test compet.i.tors in a fair way. Each and every compet.i.tion would almost certainly be a contest of pure skill and strength, which would be a delight to watch.
Unable to hold in her curiosity, the old woman walked back to the Palace and hesitated for a bit before knocking on the doors of the King"s chambers.
It was still early morning, so she actually didn"t know whether the King would be awake.
Yet, on hearing a voice ask her to come in, she opened the door and entered to see the King fondly stroking the Protector Raven which was joyfully c.o.c.king its head and enjoying the treatment.
"Take a seat. I"ll be with you shortly."
As the old woman obliged, the King continued the activity for a few more minutes before patting the Raven and looking it in the eye.
The old woman"s eyes were transfixed on the Protector Raven. She had always admired it since a young age, and it was actually a wish to see it in real life that had led her to enter the Army in the first place.
She had quickly risen in the ranks with her hard work and talent, and she had actually had the fortune to interact with the Raven when the previous King had still been alive.
In all these years after his death, she had always missed seeing this Raven and now that she finally saw it again, a smile unwittingly came on her face which was usually fixed in a cold expression.
After the King patted it, the Protector Raven actually turned to her and nodded before going to a large open window that was always present in the King"s chambers and taking off into the air from it.
Still dazed by the familiar nod, the old woman didn"t notice that the King had taken a seat in front of her and had just asked her about the reason behind her coming to find him so early in the morning.
Just as he was about to repeat his question, the old woman came back to her senses and took out the parchment that he had given last night to the soldiers.
"My King, who designed all these games? And what is the purpose behind you asking the soldiers to practice them and saying that they might compete against someone? If I may ask."
Smiling, King Faxul answered, "I was going to bring this up in the Royal Court that starts in a few hours, but there is no harm in telling you about it now. Soon, Lanthanor and the Black Raven Kingdom will be competing against each other in these sports in the stadium that will be jointly constructed on the land of the Black Raven Kingdom with the funding of the Kingdom of Lanthanor. You said it yourself. They have to earn respect. And they wish to do so by displaying their skill and strength using these sports. When the King of Lanthanor gave me this message, I only told him one thing: that it wouldn"t be so easy to beat my soldiers. Now, it is your duty to make sure that our soldiers live up to my word."