Meeting The Shogun

He didn't get hit by the sword cause he dodged to the left and then saw an opening and target his attack there.

Within a mere second, his sharp edge is going to Totoya neck direction, ready to thrust and kill his opponent. Fortunately, he stopped there.

Totoya sighed, knowing if Arden didn't stop, he would be at the ground, dead and painting the ground with his red colour blood.

Then he started walking back while the other just look at the aftermath, with their eyes as big as it couldn't be bigger, to put it simply, scared.

However, they do not cower; they are still confident they could win and still not take a step back. The next turn is against Nobuhisa with his long steel yari.

He took a step forward and get into his position, bowed to Arden to which Arden bowed back. He looked into Arden with his eye like an owl in his fighting stance.

They simply started the fight, with them wary of each other, not attacking, they just observe each other and going in circle.

In an instant, Arden saw his weakness, the reach of his weapon. If he could get close to him, he could end the fight and its weight will wear him out.

Nobuhisa started attacking first by thrusting his long yari to Arden, easily dodged, but Nobuhisa started swinging it to the direction Arden's at.

While taking a step back and managed to hit Arden by a little. He managed to make a little cut on Arden's arm, some drop of blood starts coming out of his wound region.

Arden didn't feel it though, he is focused on his opponent while his opponent makes a smirk. But the table turns to his favour.

Nobuhisa started showing signs of tiredness, he started sweating and his breath rate is increasing. He took this chance and started charging.

Nobuhisa tried to hit him again with the same way but Arden blocked the attack and then start charging toward him while their weapon is still in contact.

The same as before, his sword end up pointing the same direction, his neck and almost killed him. He dropped his weapon and Arden sheathes his sword back.

"Seeing mister Arden got injured, let's rest for a little," They announced and start walking inside the house.

All this time, Maverick, Usha and Arden's sister, Elise is watching him spar, Maverick quickly run into the house and came back with some bandage.

Arden got bandaged by his own squire and joined the others watching the sakura tree while drinking tea poured by his own sister, Elise. Great scenery!

Not long after that, they continue on the spar with their weapon and armour ready after resting for a while.

This time is Fumihiko with his trustworthy naginata on hand. Like every time they started the spar, they bowed to each other.

They observe their opponent as they began warily at each other. This time, Arden attacked first. He wanted to do an overhead attack, but Fumihiko used the blunt need of his naginata to push him back.

Arden almost fell down to the ground but fortunately, he gained his balance and then he saw the blunt edge of Fumihiko's naginata coming to him at such a high speed to his stomach one more time.

This time he couldn't block it, even when he realized it was coming, it's already a centimetre away from his body.

He got pushed back and this time further than before, he also falls to the ground. Mainly because he just regained his balance before getting attacked again.

He fell to the ground and now saw Fumihiko's naginata, the sharp edge coming to his face. Fumihiko wanted to end this fight right now, at this very moment.

Arden regretted that he didn't bring his shield at this fight but it's too late now, he could only do whatever he could to survive.

Too late, the naginata is too fast. Fortunately, fumihiko purposely misses him and targeted the grass right beside his head, a few centimetres more and he had lost his ear or possibly life.

Fumihiko retracts his naginata and stretches out his hand to help Arden get up from the ground, happily Arden takes his hand and he started pulling him.

After Arden is standing like normal, he could tell the other is clapping, giving him applause. Later he found out that Fumihiko is the best amongst them.

The next one is Katsumoto, with his giant no-dachi. Arden didn't think twice and still stick with his sword and not using it with his shield.

No-dachi is extremely big, with a weight of 14 Kg or more or 32 lbs. A shield would only restrict his thinking ongoing with defence and slow him down.

Like before, they bowed to each other, then start the fight, Katsumoto being the no-dachi user, he needed to be aggressive.

Even though it's heavy, once getting hit with the giant sword, no way Arden getting away with living without any permanent mark or even bruises.

Katsumoto didn't go for the overhead attack, the heaviest blow attack, instead, he goes with a slash from the right side of his body.

The sword is going upward, targeting Arden's head, but he ducked down before getting hit, escaping with his life from that sword beheading him.

Even though this is a spar, the weapon used are real, without any cloth covering it. People could die if they got beheaded, even in a spar.

He dodged all incoming attacks that came after him because blocking would probably not protect him very much. More benefiting for Katsumoto.

In the end, Katsumoto started showing sign of tiredness. The weight of that sword finally wore him out as he became slower and slower.

Until one moment, Arden began attacking him. He did the thing called "feinting". Act like he wants to attack but didn't attack.

Most of the time, it's followed by a quick attack or even a heavy one on the unprotected part of their opponent.

In a mere second, he managed to get Katsumoto to the ground and stretched his arm when he knew all of this was over and Katsumoto took it happily while smiling.

Sadly, the day was ending and only a little daylight left for them; they asked to continue tomorrow but soon they realized about the shogun's invitation, for some reason, they forgot.

Arden cleaned himself and treat his wound with the help of Elise, he then came to Usha asking him a favour.

"Usha, could you accompany me to the shogun tomorrow?" Arden said informally and smiled.

"I would be honoured too, you should probably rest now" He then bowed to Arden which make Arden confused, so he bowed back and just went to sleep.

'That was very awkward' Arden thought to himself before dipping his self into the comfortable dream he is going to get.

The meeting is at 12 in the morning, perhaps should be called noon. There would be the shogun himself and then 2 of his son.

The very next morning, Maverick wake him up at 7 in the morning and told him to get ready to meet the shogun at the coming time.

He got ready, using the best clothes he brought with him to the kingdom and then got to the eating room where he saw Usha waiting for everybody to be present before start eating.

Arden and Maverick entered the room and sat at their seat and waited for Elise to come. Some minutes later, she came from the kitchen.

Bringing some rice, which is the most common food to eat and some meat that varied and also a lot of vegetable for Usha.

That is probably the reason he is so muscular, he is eating healthy stuff and not just some meat and meat and meat like Arden.

Seeing this, Arden decided that he would start eating healthy and start work out more. His squire has the same spirit like him, like squire, like liege, right?

After they finished eating, they began making their way to the Shogun's castle while Elise stayed at home alone. At the way there, they became a local attraction that caught a lot of people's attention.

Some Kazuko class and samurai class invited them to their house, but Usha tells them politely they have something to do with the shogun.

They politely apologize to them with most of them ended up bowing. Bowing is a common thing to do here, not only it showed their gratitude but is also showed politeness, making them known as good people.

They reached the shogun's residence which is at the castle and then directed to a comfortable waiting room for the shogun and his children to arrive.

For some reason, Maverick brought a big backpack with him and insisted on taking Arden's armour with him, he said it's for "emergency" in case something happened.

After waiting for some time, they began to show the sign of boringness, but then entered the man with a golden robe and 2 children followed.

The person in the golden robe is probably the shogun and looked like at his late 30 and his son only 10 and 11. At such a young age he became the shogun.

Honestly, Arden was expecting the kind of 90 year's old man on his deathbed and his children ready to start a civil war as soon as he died, but it doesn't seem like it.

The maids began pouring inside the room, with many kinds of thing, teapot, tea glass, big fan and then food, not normal kind of food, but food from all across the kingdom.

Then a woman came into the room, with her golden robe, a quick glance made Arden knew that she is the empress, her face is natural and doesn't seem like there is any makeup.

She is pretty but Arden thought his wife is even prettier. Not long after that, he heard both of them talking and got a little curious, so he asked Usha and tell him to whisper it at his ear.

"Darling, why are you so complicated about these things, we have an honourable guest here, don't make him uncomfortable" Hearing this, Arden giggled a bit.

"You are the emperor, he is from another kingdom, we can't embarrass ourself right?" He giggled even more and then tell Usha it's enough or they could probably hear him and ask him what's wrong.

Then the emperor turns to him and then…