Chapter 25: The duel.
With how exciting the first part of the event was, the next performer was boring, probably even to himself. Except Deen Farcry, the youngest and, after Dale's death, the only son of the minister of agriculture, was too nervous to realize that. He read a self-written poem, but it was so childish and clumsy Lee didn't know where to crawl in to hide from embarrassment.
Surprisingly the rest of the audience patiently sat there and waited until the young man was done, and applauded him when he returned to his seat.
While their patience was mostly fueled by large amounts of alcohol, Lee's guess was that it was all because of the respect everyone felt for David Farcry who, thanks to Lee, lost his eldest son. And, probably, realization that sooner or later Deen was bound to become minister of agriculture himself.
The awkward atmosphere was quickly dispersed by minister Newman announcing the annual exchange of pointers between Ian Foxson and Mark Hardwood.
Turns out their spar was something like a long standing tradition. The current score was eight to eight, thus the next match would decide who had the bragging rights for at least the next year.
Only now Lee realized that the rivalry between the two had lasted for at least sixteen years and it was hard to imagine what could be the cause for their competitiveness. No matter how one looked, both sons of generals were handsome and well built, clearly had polished combat techniques and the only advantage Mark had was the attention from Helen and Cecil.
Lee was excited about the upcoming spar even more than the two competitors. He was eager to see how the two superhumans of this world fought, but unfortunately was about to get disappointed.
"This is so stupid!" Drevin complained out loud as if he read Lee's mind, "With every year this shit becomes increasingly boring!"
"How come?" Lee couldn't resist, and asked the drunkard next to him, "Aren't they becoming more and more skillful? The fight should be interesting to watch, right?"