4.1 Grace Nellisi
Grace Nellisi
An amazing woman. She was.
Book 1-4.1 Grace Nellisi
Yulian was having a hectic time. In the morning and night, he was focused on his own training. During the day and evening, he was focused on swordsmanship with the Red Storm brigade.
In the middle of all that, he was making sure to pay attention while learning history and strategy, so it was definitely natural for Yulian to be thinking that it would be great if a day increased from twenty-four hours to thirty-six hours.
But since this was something he wanted to do, something he needed to do achieve his dream, and because he was not alone and training together with his fellow warriors who were also filled with passion, Yulian did not feel fatigued.
As he continued his arduous life where it was difficult for him to even get four hours of sleep, Yulian forgot about one very important thing.
It was like any other day as Yulian was focused on training with the young warriors. There were large greatswords flying around everywhere across the training grounds, and the young warriors, who were enjoying the training as if it was real, did not mind that they were receiving minor wounds all over their bodies.
Thankfully, they dulled the blade and covered the blade with mud, or else they would not have survived this dangerous training that could have killed them within a few hours.
Although it was difficult, the majority of the warriors were enjoying it and Yulian did not care.
That level of injury was nothing compared to the torture he had to go through.
Until a few days ago, there were some warriors who would playfully complain, but after seeing Yulian’s body, none of them could say a peep.
Yulian’s body was a perfectly sculpted body fitting a warrior, and in that aspect, there were no issues.
However, on the surface of that chiseled body, there were too many scars to count.
The members of Red Storm clearly remembered Yulian’s answer when they asked how Yulian, who had yet to participate in war, ended up with so many injuries.
Yulian opened up the fingers on his two hands and spoke.
“Everyday, I was hit a minimum of ten times. I was hit for not doing this properly, not doing that properly, hit for talking back, hit for learning too slowly, hit for being stupid, hit for not catching on to things quickly…”
The warriors could not believe Yulian was endlessly beat up. What kind of warrior trains a young warrior that way?
But there was no reason for Yulian to lie. And the numerous scars on his body proved his words to be true.
“That is how I learned. However, I do not want to teach you that way. It is enough for only me to be injured like this. However!”
Gulp.
They clearly heard someone’s spit being swallowed.
“If your skills cannot keep up significantly, I think that I may have no other choice. My only request is that you prevent a situation where I must hurt your pride. I request that to you with all my heart.”
This meant that Yulian would hit fellow warriors like themselves. They weren’t even slaves; getting hit would be grave insult.
The warriors were working even harder to prevent that situation. Yulian was saying all this while showing his own scars, which should have been a source of shame.
Yulian remembered what happened a few days ago and yelled with a smile on his face.
“The person who ends up with the most mud on their clothes today will be in charge of putting mud on all of the warriors’ greatswords.”
Once you put mud on the greatswords, if you are hit by, or slashed by the sword, it was natural for your clothes to be covered in mud. The weak will end up with a lot of mud and the strong just a little. Everyone was using that to gauge their peers’ strengths and worked endlessly to catch up to them.
Yulian’s proclamation was like pouring gas on the training ground filled with fiery passion; and soon, an entertaining phenomenon occurred.
The warriors who had cleaner clothes compared to the other warriors started to focus on defensive swordplay to try to prevent even the smallest amounts of mud on their clothes, while the warriors who already had a ton of mud on their clothes focused on offensive swordplay with all their energy to put mud on the other warriors’ clothes.
Since the person with the most mud was in charge of gathering the mud and putting it on the greatswords tonight, they had to make sure it wasn’t them.
That job was a terrible job. Once the day’s training ended, their bodies were sore everywhere. But to put mud on all the greatswords for the next day’s training meant that their resting period was shortened by that amount.
Naturally, teams were created.
The fiercely attacking team and the endlessly defending team. The winner was obvious. The tides turned in an instant, but the defending team, which lost the momentum could not help but to continue being pushed back.
The heat in the training ground continued to grow fiercely, even Yulian got involved and brutally moved his sword to help out the side that was being significantly pushed back.
Unless something special happened, it was certain that this would continue until the last sun disappeared (TL: Remember, there were multiples of suns and moons).
That is...until a sweet fragrance spread across this place, which was filled with the smell of men’s hot sweat. That type of special event.
None of them knew that something like the leather armor was an item that could make someone look so fabulous. However, for this woman who just appeared with a form-fitting leather armor, it suited her very well.
The woman, who had red hair that would catch anybody’s attention, slowly started to walk towards the group.
Seeing that sight, the warriors, and of course Yulian as well, slightly opened their mouths in surprise. Those long arms and legs, and the view of a woman’s skin, visible between the leather armor, was extremely beautiful.
In addition, different than most women of the desert, her straight hair that was not pinned up but just left down, was blowing in the wind to create an almost fantasy-like entrance.
The beautiful woman. with the red hair blowing in the wind and glowing skin, looked at Yulian and the warriors.
She moved her lips as if to say something, but did not speak.
It was as if she was waiting for Yulian or the warriors to speak to her first.
“Go greet her.”
One of the warriors spoke while pushing Yulian’s back. Yulian was standing awkwardly, before heading towards the woman and cautiously asking.
“Miss...who might you be?”
The woman slightly nodded towards Yulian before speaking.
“I am the young daughter of the Rivolde family, Grace Nellisi. I apologize if I ended up disrupting the training of the Pareia warriors. The reason I came here was to see if the warrior named Yulian Provoke happened to be over here.”
The warriors all looked at each other because of her commanding tone, before all eyes turned to Yulian.
Hearing his name come out of the mouth of a woman he just met, Yulian nervously spoke.
“I am Yulian, but what might you need from me?”
“You?”
The woman responded while opening her eyes wide while checking Yulian out top to bottom.
“Yes.”
“You are truly Pareia’s Young Glow, and the one who is said to have gone to the Monster’s Desert alone to kill a Sand Dragon? The Desert Conqueror Yulian Provoke?”
As the woman responded back like she could not believe him, Yulian nodded his head and answered.
“I am Yulian Provoke, Glow Baguna’s first-born, and indeed the one who proved his adulthood by going to the Monster’s Desert. But why is it that the Rivolde tribe’s young daughter, Grace, is looking for me?”
“You don’t look that strong.”
“What?”
As Grace responded with something odd instead of answering his question, Yulian was distraught.
“Since he was said to have caught a Sand Dragon on his own, I thought he would be over two meters tall, with his fingers the size of the desert cactus, and body the size of a Bug Bear (a carnivorous monster which starts to eat you from your head)...”
Yulian started to laugh at Grace’s words. Now that he thought about it, he remembered someone jokingly saying that rumors about him were just as Grace described.
“Did you just come to verify if those rumors were true?”
At Yulian’s question, Grace made a surprised expression and expressed her intent.
“Warrior Yulian Provoke, I, Grace Nellisi, requests a match.”