Arcadia’s Ignoble Knight, Vol. 4

  The Sorceress Knight Tournament II

  Brandon Varnell

  Illustrated by

  Claparo Sans

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Arcadia’s Ignoble Knight, Vol. 4

  Copyright © 2022 Brandon Varnell & Kitsune Incorporated

  Illustration Copyright © 2022 Claparosans

  All rights reserved.

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  ISBN: 978-0-9978028-8-7 (paperback)

  978-0-9978028-9-4 (eBook)

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  Dedication

  This page is made in dedication to my amazing patrons. Without them, my characters would never get lewded by so many wonderful artists:

  Aaron Harris; Abraham Madsen; Adam; Alarinnise; Alex Burt; Armando Pastrana; Aaron Cortrighr; Austin; Brendan Smiley; Bruce Johnson; Bryce McClay; ByzFan; Casey G. May; Catcrazy9; Chase Corso; Charles Dorfeuille; Chett Nialo; Christopher Gross; Cody Woodard; CosmicOrange; Daniel Glasson; David Bell; Edward Grindle; Edward Lamar Stephenson; Edward P Warmouth; Eric Bailey; Feitochan; Forrest Hansen; Forrest Hansen; G___Sweet; Grant; Green and Magenta Beast; IronKing; Jacob Flores; Jared B; Jason Wilcox; Jeremy Schultz; Jessy Torres; John Patton; Jordan McDonald; Joseph Snyder; Joshua Hasbell; Manny G; Mark Frabotta; Mason; Matthew Wallace; Max A Kramer; Michael Erwin; Michael Moneymaker; Mike Dennehy; Minocho; MrRedSkill; Nathan S; Norodim; Nyxterrynne; Phoenixblue; Philip Hedgepeth; Rafael; Randgofire23; Raymond T; Red Phoenix; Reent Dopychai; Repooc Ilahsram; Richard Garret; Rob Hammel; Robert Shofner; Rooser45; Roy Cales; Samuel Donaldson; Sean Gray; Seismic Wolf; Smudi Corp; Tanner Lovelace; Thomas Jackson; Thomas Lindsay; Thomas Oconnell; ToraLinkley; Travis Cox; Vincent Frosceno; William Crew; Wizard4Hire; XY172; Zach Miller; Zach Strickland; Zak Whiteaker; Zenn Barger

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Interlude

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Interlude II

  Chapter 10

  Interlude III

  Chapter 11

  Interlude IV

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Interlude V

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  Thank you for reading!

  Afterword

  Sneak Peak

  Manga Page 1

  Manga Page 2

  Manga Page 3

  Manga Page 4

  Manga Page 5

  Hey, did you know?

  Brandon’s LNs

  American Kitsune

  WIEDERGEBURT

  MMG

  Catgirl Doctor

  Incubus

  A Most Unlikely Hero

  Arcadia’s Knight

  Journey of a Betrayed Hero

  Rift

  Executioner

  Follow me!

  Prologue

  The early morning sun glared down on Caspian as he wandered the streets of Axium. He was looking for the inn that Erica was staying at. With everything that had happened, he couldn’t remember the precise location, but he was sure that it was somewhere within this section of the city.

  He’d left Elincia to the other Sorceresses. She would be safe there, he knew. Elincia had also mentioned that she had something she needed to do.

  The streets weren’t busy. With the first day of the festival done and over with, Caspian assumed that most of the population was currently nursing a nasty hangover. With the streets clear, he was able to make good time and quickly find the place where Erica and her entourage were residing.

  The Boar’s Hat was an older tavern. The building showed its age. Bricks were fading, the roof had clearly been retiled several times as many of the tiles were different colors, and the entrance door appeared weathered. As he stepped onto the raised platform, the wooden planks beneath him creaked ominously. He ignored this and walked into the tavern.

  Several patrons were already up. Some appeared to be eating breakfast while reading the newspaper, and others appeared to be, as he suspected, nursing a bad hangover. Walking past several worn-down round tables, Caspian walked up to the bar, where the barkeeper was wide awake and wearing a belligerent expression.

  No rest for the weary, I suppose.

  “Excuse me,” Caspian said. “Which room can I find Erica in?”

  The man placed his hands on the table, palms splayed, and frowned at him. “What’ll ya be havin’?”

  Caspian frowned. “I’m not here for breakfast. I’d simply like to find Erica.”

  “If ye ain’t gonna order somethin’, I ain’t got no reason to answer yer questions.”

  Caspian struggled to keep a lid on his emotions. The reason this man was acting this way was that nobody was paying attention to them, and he could afford to be a jerk. While Caspian didn’t know this man, the bartender clearly knew him. It was no surprise, really, but it did grate on his nerves.

  He was just about to tell this man where he could shove it—

  “Caspian?”

  —when a voice spoke up behind him.

  Caspian stood up and turned around. Derek stood before him. He was dressed, as always, in his red suit of armor, and the giant claymore that he carried hung easily from his back. Caspian wondered if the man ever took that armor off.

  “Derek, I was looking for you.”

  “Oh? You were looking for me?” Derek didn’t look surprised, nor did he sound shocked. “I’m guessing you’d like me to train you.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Uh, yes. How did you—?”

  “My Lady Erica told me that you might stop by and ask for training. She’s already gone to meet with Lady Elincia.”

  “Oh…”

  “Hey, Derek,” Callofloore called out as he came down the stairs. “Do you know where—oh! Caspian. What are you doing here?”

  “Caspian has come to me for training.” Derek’s chest seemed to swell with pride. “I’m going to be training him.”

  Callofloore looked uninspired. “Well, that’s nice. Now, could you tell me where my sister is?”

  “She went with My Lady Erica,” Derek said, his shoulders slumping.

  “Damn that woman,” Callofloore swore. “She’s always wandering off with Tiffania!”

  Caspian thought the boy might like his little sister a little too much. He wondered if this was how all brothers were, or if maybe this was the result of having no one but his sister to be with until Erica had let them stay with her.

  “So,” Derek turned back to Caspian, “are you ready to begin training?”

  “Um…” Caspian needed a moment to respond properly. “Yes, I’m ready.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  Caspian followed Derek out the door. He could still hear Callofloore swearing and cursing about how Erica had stolen his sister from him. It really made Caspian question the nature of the boy’s love for his sister. He seemed to be acting more like a jealous boyfriend whose girlfriend had been stolen from him.

  Whatever, it isn’t any of my business.

  As they walked down the short steps, a door slammed open behind them and Callofloore started shouting. “Hey! Are you two listening to me?! Tell that witch to give my sister back to me! Hey! Hey!”

  Caspian ignored the shouts.

  What else was new?

  Chapter 1

  Lady Erica arrived at the mansion sometime around noon. She brought Tiffania with her.

  Lady Sylvia had just finished scolding Elincia about last night, claiming that she had acted recklessly by sneaking off and how she shouldn’t go off on her own again.

  “You need to understand your importance, Elincia: You are the key to bridging the gap between humans and elves. No one but you can bring about the lasting peace that I’ve strived for all these centuries. You need to take better care of yourself. Stop acting so recklessly.”

  She was sitting on her bed, where she had been ever since waking up. Her body was still so
re, so she couldn’t move too much, though she hoped to be up soon. Lady Sylvia had walked in on her this morning and began scolding her.

  It had been about an hour since this lecture had begun.

  Elincia wilted under Lady Sylvia’s stare. “I’m sorry.”

  “If saying sorry was all it took to appease others, then this world would already be at peace. If you’re really sorry, then you’ll listen to what I have to say.”

  Elincia tried not to squirm. She hated it when Lady Sylvia berated her like this, because she always felt like a child being told off by their parent—actually, it was even worse because Lady Sylvia didn’t feel like a parent. In some ways, Elincia felt kind of like a tool, an object that Lady Sylvia was using to bring about her ultimate peace. She knew that her way of thinking was foolish, but whenever she was treated like a glass doll, that was how she felt.

  “I understand,” Elincia murmured softly. “I… I’ll be more conscientious of what I’m doing from now on.”

  “Good. Now, then, the other Sorceress and I must speak with Headmaster Stratello about the foreign students who’ve come to participate in the tournament. Our Knights will stay with you, so please remain here.”

  “There is no need for that,” Lady Erica said as she walked into the room. “Since I do not have any duties to attend to right now, I shall stay with Elincia and ensure that she is protected.”

  Lady Sylvia gave Lady Erica a cold look that Elincia had never seen before. It was an expression that was so icy that it could have frozen magma.

  “The only reason you do not have any duties to attend to is that you irresponsibly left Ashtown to come here. You should return home, Overseer.”

  The way Lady Sylvia said “Overseer,” a title given to Sorceresses who oversaw a city, as if it was a poisonous word, made the hairs on Elincia’s neck prickle. Why was Lady Sylvia so hostile to Lady Erica? She could only wonder about the bad blood that had so obviously been fostered between them.

  “Now, now.” Lady Erica smiled widely. “There’s no need to get worked up just because I’ve decided to take a little vacation.”

  Lady Sylvia’s glare was bone-chilling. The look wasn’t even directed at her, but Elincia still felt a shiver run down her spine. How Lady Erica could remain so unaffected was beyond her.

  “Now there’s that expression I’ve grown so fond of.” Lady Erica sounded delighted. Elincia wondered if she was crazy. “However, if it’s my lack of work that you are concerned with, you needn’t worry. I made sure that all of my paperwork was finished before I came here. I have also set up someone to send any important documents to me via carrier eagle. So you see, there isn’t really a problem.”

  Lady Erica’s lips quirked.

  “Are there any more concerns that you would like me to address?” she asked, her expression reminiscent of a cat that had just eaten a canary.

  Lady Sylvia did not look pleased.

  Lady Sylvia hadn’t been able to dispute Lady Erica’s words, and so she’d left in something of a huff with the other Sorceresses.

  Elincia had been quite shocked to see the woman that she’d known for years act like that. It made her curious about Lady Sylvia’s relationship with Lady Erica. Why did they hate each other so much? She wanted to know, but she was afraid of asking.

  “Sylvia and I have never really gotten along,” Lady Erica said suddenly.

  Elincia looked up, startled. “W-what?”

  With a knowing smile, Lady Erica took a sip of her wine. “That’s what you were thinking about, was it not? You were wondering about why Sylvia hates me so much?”

  “U-uh, n-no. That wasn’t—”

  “It’s because we have different ideologies,” Lady Erica interrupted. Elincia went silent. Tiffania, who’d not been paying attention up to this point, looked up at them with curious eyes. “Sylvia had tried to shape me into what she believes to be the perfect Sorceress from the moment she brought me into the fold, but I have never really been the type to conform, and I couldn’t believe in her idea that a Sorceress must separate herself from all of her emotions to perform her duty, especially emotions like love.”

  “Love?”

  “Does that surprise you?”

  Elincia took a moment to respond. When she did, she chose each word carefully. “A little bit. It’s a well-documented historical fact that you go through a Knight every decade or so because of, um, reasons.” She tried not to blush at the thought of those reasons. “You also told me not to fall in love with Caspian. Because of that, I always thought you believed in only the physical aspects of a relationship. All of the history books I’ve read that feature you also say that.”

  “Yes, I imagine the history books would say that.” Lady Erica didn’t seem too bothered by this fact. “It’s not like I’ve made it a habit of trying to dissuade people who don’t matter from believing otherwise. In the end, their opinions mean less than the dirt underneath my expensive, name-brand heels. Now, I believe it is time we began our lesson, yes?”

  “R-right!”

  Elincia straightened up. She and Lady Erica were sitting at a table in the study lounge. The brown carpet complemented the wooden walls, which gave the room a warmer tone than her bedroom. Several shelves lined with books were situated against the wall farthest from the door. A stone fireplace was built into a wall several meters from them, and a fire crackled merrily within it.

  Her ears looked human again. The illusion had dispelled when she used all her mana, but Lady Sylvia had invoked a Spiritual Evocation using Loki that temporarily created a new illusion. After she had woken up, Elincia had called upon Loki again and recreated the illusion so as not to strain Sylvia, who’d had to keep Loki inside of her in order to keep the illusion up.

  “I’m assuming you already know about Spiritual Evocation, yes?” Lady Erica asked.

  “Um, yes, I know a bit about it. Lady Sylvia’s been teaching me when she can.”

  “Considering how little time Sylvia has to teach, I’m surprised she even made an attempt,” Lady Erica said before dispelling the thought with a head shake. “Spiritual Evocation is the act of summoning and taking in a Spirit’s power through the use of a chant, otherwise known as an aria.”

  Elincia knew that much, however, she’d never had much use for arias. Because of her elven blood, the power flowing through her veins was altogether different from those of a human Sorceress. She didn’t even know if Spiritual Evocation would work for her.

  I should try using an aria again. It didn’t work last time, but maybe there was a reason for that.

  “Now, arias are, as you probably know, a series of chants that a Sorceress speaks to use Spiritual Evocation. Words have power. Arias are using specific words that resonate with the heart to invoke that power. Arias can be anywhere from single verse chants to fifteen verse chants. I believe the longest chant ever recorded was twenty verses. It was the chant that Sylvia used to destroy an entire forest during the Elven Wars.”

  Elincia knew a lot about the Elven Wars. It had been the war in which humanity rose up against the elves who had enslaved them and fought their way to freedom. She had known about it even before leaving Fas Seras. Her parents had told her about it. Even now, she could remember the sorrowful expressions they wore as they talked about how the war had been the result of their brethren abusing the human slaves they owned.

  Lady Sylvia had been born sometime during the beginning stages of the war, and she’d been the one who paved the way to victory over the elves. Thanks to her, humanity had been freed from elven oppression.

  “The longer the chant, the more power you summon from the Spirit you’re summoning. Arias are basically what we use to summon a Spirit and allow it to inhabit our body long enough to use its power for a spell. For example: Oh, Amaterasu, grant unto me the power of light.”

  Lady Erica chanted a short aria and held up her hand. Elincia watched as light gathered on the tips of Lady Erica’s index and middle fingers, which she’d extended into the air. The light then formed an orb above her fingers, a globe about the size of Elincia’s fist.

  “This is a simple, single verse aria.” Lady Erica dispelled the light sphere. “Longer arias summon more power at the cost of being longer, which is why we have Knights. Their main duty is to protect us while we chant an aria.”