The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

"Is that so? I will keep that in mind," Zaos said.

"... I don't believe I have the right to ask you this, but have you already considered anyone?" Laiex asked.

"I did," Zaos replied.

"Someone like Edea?" Laiex asked. "Everyone was mentioning how you talked with her for so many hours."

"And? I don't care about rumors," Zaos replied. "Still, I think she is a better option than most girls around my age."

"She is twenty years older than you," Laiex said.

"So what? Before you assume anything, she isn't interested," Zaos said. "She said that she won't make a move on the son of a friend."

"I see…" Laiex said. "Since we are already here, I should tell you that Orleand was talking with me about his daughter. She says that he will let you marry her if you move to Vezar."

"I won't move," Zaos said.

"I also said that you couldn't since you have duties here," Laiex said.

"I won't move because my mother's grave is here, not because of anything else," Laiex said.

"Whatever it suits you, still you have duties here," Laiex said. "There are many families of girls around your age who promised an arranged marriage. Knowing you, you won't make one of them unhappy. Still, you should decide for yourself."

              After that, Laiex left. Something was off. This time he talked about marriage more than usual. Something probably happened… or perhaps he was planning to take Jeline as his wife. Almost six months had passed since Lyra had died, and according to nobles, that was a good time for widows and widowers to find other partners. After all, Laiex wasn't even in the middle of his thirties. While that was a bit troublesome, Zaos wouldn't let that bother him too much. After all, Nyana will become his sister for real. Speaking of her, she showed up a few hours later, even though it wasn't the seventh day.

"Zaos, let's go to the festival together!" Nyana said.

              Zaos had forgotten about that, but the festival will last for three days. He decided to stay at home for three days since the capital would be noisier, more crowded than usual.

"Sorry, Nyana," Zaos said. "I am not really into that kind of stuff. By the way, why aren't you at school?"

"The school is closed during the rest of the week because of the celebrations," Nyana said. "Speaking of celebration, congratulations! Now you are the commander of five hundred men!"

"Not like I want to be one…" Zaos said and then sighed.

"Come on, let's celebrate in the festival," Nyana said with her eyes sparkling. "I heard that there are all types of food being sold, of all the countries in the world! How amazing can that be?"

              It seemed that she was a glutton, even though Nyana seemed pretty fit physically. In the end, Zaos sighed and gave up. He didn't want to disappoint his little sister, after all.

            Zaos took a shower and changed his clothes, and even though he was hungry, he decided to eat at the festival. He wasn't the type who eats outside that often, so he might as well enjoy that day and spend a little of his fortune.

          Just as he had expected, things were too lively even though it was breakfast time in the streets of the capital. During the festival, the king forbade the use of carriages because they took too much space, and the people all over the country had to make their stalls on the streets. Zaos immediately looked for food, the recipes that looked tastier. Still, Nyana wanted to stop and play some games that also could be found there. There were all kinds of games at the festival, but Zaos could see that a good number of them were just made for the people to lose money.

"I wonder if the king is aware of this…" Zaos frowned.

"Zaos, let's try this one," Nyana pointed at one where the customers had to throw boomerangs at some objects in the wall to gain them.

"Let's not, I never used a boomerang before," Zaos said.

"That is why you should try now," Nyana said. "Come on, it will be fun!"

          Zaos shrugged and decided to try. After paying the owner of the stall, he got three boomerangs. He had three attempts, but there was a problem. Each boomerang was different from the other. One of them was well-balanced, but the other two were slightly heavier on the sides.

"I guess this is a scam… well, I can't just retreat now," Zaos thought.

          Although the boomerangs were defective, there was a way to ignore that. Instead of throwing horizontally, Zaos just had to throw vertically.

"Which do you want?" Zaos asked.

"Hmm… that flower hat seems nice," Nyana said.

"What else?" Zaos asked.

"What else?" Nyana frowned. "How about that vase? Mom likes flowers."

"We have three attempts, so what else do you want?" Zaos asked.

"That magic book… I guess," Nyana replied, slightly puzzled.

            Zaos didn't even see the magic book, but it was only since it was lying down instead of standing. A toy boomerang would never make a book that heavy fall... under normal circumstances, that is. Just to be sure, Zaos decided to scam the owner of the stall as well. It was a pity that he would start the festival with such a loss, but he deserved that. Zaos enhanced the boomerangs with wind magic and then threw them toward the rewards that Nyana asked. In the end, he hit the three in the blink of an eye, and they fell as well. The owner of the stall didn't even have time to check how he threw them. After all, there was always that he could make up an excuse using his Posture.

"Wow! That was amazing, Zaos!" Nyana said.

"Humph, it was nothing," Zaos said with a slight prideful smile on his face. "Hello, good sir. Could you give us our rewards already?"