It took four hours for the Hopespur Merchant Guild’s event to end, and Rayne was hyper aware of every second. As soon as the last of their guests filed out and they were called inside, he rushed to return his armor and halberd, get his pay, and get out of there.

  The moment they were out of the merchant house, Rayne bid farewell to Syra and sped off to the guild. Adventurers did not have the most stable of schedules, but Leon, being a loner, tended to finish his commission for the day by five bells, which had passed about half an hour ago by Rayne’s reckoning. Afterwards, the noble boy liked to practice in the yard for a while before heading out, and this was where Rayne aimed to meet him.

  Skidding to a halt in front of the guild, he headed for the yard, eyes keen as he scanned for any sign of the haughty swordsman. Sure enough, Leon was there, his form perfect as he swung his greatsword at a training dummy.

  There were a few others in the training ground, but Rayne paid them no mind. Instead, he caught his breath, watching Leon as he did. This was the first time he had really watched him since the initiation, and he did his best to rid himself of prejudice as he did.

  Wow. Even back at the initiation, Leon’s skill had been obvious, but Rayne had lacked the necessary knowledge of swordplay to see his true level. Now he had been exposed to sword fighting through adventuring and his sessions with Syra, and he could feel his jaw dropping.

  Leon’s skill was, to put it in words, transcendent. Every single move was perfect, with zero wasted movement or deviation. Despite the weight of the enormous sword in his hands, he wielded it like a conductor’s baton or an artist’s brush, effortlessly weaving a web of steel around the training dummy as he practiced some sword form or another.

  Can I really get someone this good to teach me for free? Rayne gulped, his throat suddenly dry as the prospect of putting his plan into motion struck him. But he forced it down. There was no other way. In order to save the gold for Issa’s tuition, he needed to save as much money as possible, and that meant that he could not afford to pay tens of silver on expensive lessons. No matter how much Issa complained.

  Firming his resolve, Rayne stepped forward, moving until he was about ten paces from Leon. If the noble felt his presence, it did not affect him, for he continued to practice, swinging his sword repeatedly for another three minutes until at last he let it come to rest against the neck of the training dummy. Only then did he lower his blade, wiping his sweat with a handkerchief as he turned to look at Rayne.

  “Can I help you?” Leon asked politely. There was a challenging look in his eyes, but his bearing and manners remained unaffected.

  Rayne nodded, his eyes wandering to the sword in Leon’s hand. “I heard you’re looking to start training folks,” he replied.

  Eyes widening, Leon looked at him. Strangely, he now seemed more guarded than before, and he took a moment before answering. “I am,” he said after a few seconds. “For twenty silver per lesson, I can teach you the techniques behind swordplay that are so direly lacking in this guild."

  Rayne nearly choked. Twenty silver a day? Is this guy out of his mind? Had he not had a plan to reduce that cost, he would have walked away there and then. Instead, he smiled. “I’m interested.”

  Leon had been wearing a guarded expression, clearly ready to face rejection, but now his face brightened immediately.

  This guy can’t hide his feelings to save his life, Rayne realized. Filing the information away for use later, he continued. “I’m interested,” he repeated again,” pretending to look around the training ground. “But twenty silver? That’s a lot.”

  Even this soft rejection did not wipe the smile off of Leon’s face, and he shook his head happily. “Actually, it is quite a bargain. The swordmasters that I trained under in my youth cost several gold per lesson, and that was merely to impart the basics of swordplay.”

  Except you’re not a swordmaster. Rayne did not say this, instead schooling his expression into one of disappointment. For his plan to work, he needed to guide the conversation in the correct direction. Even if the deal he had in mind was fair, he could not just state it outright without offending the man. Fallen or not, Leon had his pride as a noble, which was a large part of why he was so ostracized in the guild.

  He must have noticed Rayne’s unenthusiastic reception, for Leon quickly changed tack. “However, I suppose there might be some room for negotiation. What price were you thinking you would have to pay?”

  “Actually, I was thinking free.”

  Immediately, Leon’s face fell, morphing from anticipation to confusion to anger in the span of a second.

  Before he could shout at Rayne for wasting his time, Rayne lifted his hands to show that he meant no offense. “Hear me out. I won’t pay you in silver, but in advertisement.”

  Now Leon’s face was pure confusion, but he did not interrupt, and Rayne took this as a sign to continue. “The way I see it, I need training but can’t afford it, and you need legitimacy.”

  “I am legitimate,” Leon countered.

  “That may be true,” Rayne conceded, “but you’ve got no students because nobody trusts you. You’ve got skill, but as far as teaching goes, you’re an unknown quantity. I, on the other hand, am well regarded in the guild, and people have taken notice of my performance. If I start taking lessons from you, and exhibit even greater strength, what will people think?”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  It took Leon only a moment to come up with the answer. “That my teaching has made you stronger.”

  “Exactly. And really, what do you have to lose?” Leon’s expression read ‘twenty silver a day’, but Rayne ignored this. “Precisely. Nothing. At worst, you teach me for a few weeks and no one joins, so you close shop. But if this turns out well, you stand to rake in the money, and all it will cost you is one person training for free.”

  Leon went quiet here, staring at the pommel of his sword in quiet contemplation. Rather than press him, Rayne also remained quiet. He had made his case. Now all that remained was for Leon to make his choice.

  As he waited, Rayne took the opportunity to watch the other adventurers. They were mostly bronze-ranks with a handful of unranked sprinkled between them, and just watching them made the difference in skill between them and Leon clear.

  Though a few of them seemed proficient, swinging their weapons with strength and purpose, they lacked the easy grace that Leon had. Where they wielded their blades as a tool to cut down their opponents, in Leon’s hands, the sword appeared like an extension of himself. This was what Rayne was after, and why he was willing to engage the annoying noble, even if it meant having to subject himself to excruciating training.

  After nearly two minutes, Leon finally nodded, having apparently come to a decision. “Very well, this contract is acceptable. You have my word, it shall be honored.”

  Offering his hand, Rayne eagerly shook it. Somehow, he had done it. He had managed to get free training. For a few minutes, he and Leon discussed the details, how many lessons per week, the time to meet up, and more. Eventually, with both men satisfied, Rayne bid his farewells and left, heading back home with his head held high. Now Issa could finally stop worrying over nothing and their relationship could return to normal.

  Of course, things were not so simple. Despite the fact that he’d faithfully carried out her orders, Issa was still distant, barely acknowledging him over dinner that night, or breakfast the next morning.

  Undaunted, Rayne set out early, heading to the guild where Leon was waiting. Unexpectedly, the noble had requested they begin their lessons in the morning. Though Rayne had argued that his advertising effect would be more effective later in the day with more people around, Leon had steadfastly refused to budge.

  And so it was that Rayne found himself in front of the guild at six bells, unsure of what fresh hell he was about to experience.

  Conditioning. That was the name of Leon’s first torture session.

  “The best foundation is one built upon sturdy ground,” Leon decreed, sounding remarkably similar to Syra as he did.

  Sturdy the ground was, a fact that Rayne became intimately familiar with in that first session. Push-ups, sit-ups, running laps until he collapsed into a panting heap. Leon put him through it all, and all with a look of dissatisfaction on his face.

  “It is a start,” he said at last, after it was clear that Rayne could go no further in today’s session. “Meet me here after you finish with the day’s commission. We shall start weapon training then.”

  With a weary nod, Rayne hauled himself off to the guild showers, cleansing himself of sweat and doing his best to recover before heading back home to collect Issa so that he could escort her to the Academy. Once he was finished with that, he once again made for the guild to meet Syra at their usual time and take on the day’s job.

  Today was a herb collection day, something that Rayne was thankful for as Leon’s idea of conditioning was even more exacting than Syra’s own. After a day of wincing every time he bent over to collect herbs, he returned to the city, dropping off his herbs and collecting the payment before parting ways with Syra to find Leon.

  Weapon training with Leon was surprisingly engaging. Although his trainer was stiff and inexperienced as a teacher, his knowledge of weaponry was impressive, and he was good at pointing out where Rayne went wrong.

  “Watch your foot there,” Leon called, moving beside him to nudge his foot into the correct position. “The entire point of a vertical slash is to bring your entire body to bear into a strike against the foe. Your back foot is the stable foundation from which you launch this attack, so you want it braced like so.”

  Demonstrating, he showed the strike, doing it slowly so that Rayne could observe the way his feet moved in the process. Like this, they practiced for an hour, swinging their swords with the opposite of wild abandon in the training yard until at last Leon called a stop to their lesson.

  “A good first session,” he decreed, and surprisingly Rayne agreed.

  It had only been an hour, but Leon had found and fixed so many of his bad habits that it was unbelievable. Of course, it would take a lot more training in order for him to fully excise them, but it was a start, and he found himself excited at the prospect of their next lesson.

  Just before he could leave, Leon stopped him, reaching out to catch him by the shoulder with a conflicted expression on his face. Just as Rayne was about to ask him what was up, he spoke.

  “You seem knowledgeable in regards to merchantry,” Leon said unexpectedly. “Is there anything else I can do to attract people?”

  Rayne considered it for a moment, doing his best to hide his surprise. He had not expected the proud noble to lower his head and ask for advice. Normally, he would have told him to piss off, but given that they were entering into a partnership with each other, he supposed he had a duty to help.

  Stroking his chin, his eyes wandered across the training ground, where a few other adventurers were busy with their practice, several of them tossing surreptitious gazes his way as they pretended to strike the dummies before them.

  “Alright,” he said at last, clapping his fist to his palm as he finished his ruminations. “Keep in mind that I’m not a merchant, but if I was, this is what I would do. First off, you should lower your prices. Twenty silver a session? Charge that for a week’s worth of lessons and you’re still going to have trouble attracting people. The adventurers who need your training aren’t the ones doing the high-paying commissions, and the ones who can do those, don’t need lessons from you.”

  With a troubled look, Leon nodded. “That is fair, I suppose. What would you suggest then?”

  Rayne smiled, lifting one finger. “Eight silver a week, with a discount for those that buy a full month in advance. That’s expensive enough that it shows your confidence in the quality of your teaching, while being cheap enough that people who actually want to improve can afford it.”

  His mouth twisted into a grimace, but Leon eventually nodded. “I suppose that would be an acceptable price for lessons from one with my qualifications. What else?”

  “No clue,” Rayne replied. As Leon tilted his head in confusion, he chuckled. “I’ll have to experience more of your lessons for myself first. Once I do, I can look into helping you with a marketing plan. For an appropriate fee of course.”

  This did not earn the laugh he had hoped for, but Rayne simply shrugged. A rapport could be built with time. For now, he would content himself with simple co-existence. Realizing that Leon had no response for his joke, he smiled wryly.

  “Now then, if you’ll excuse me, I have a sister to pick up.”