Rise of the Blood Prince: From Slave to Emperor

"And this is your earnings from this match. You can tell it was an amazing match just by looking at this. It's the first time since Rocom Arena was built that so much silver has dropped for a youth division match. Once you get yourself together and go out, make sure to distribute some bread to the gladiator slaves. Kindness for kindness, malice for malice—that's how this business works."

While he was bewildered by the unexpected kindness, Liscal had already disappeared. Aslan smiled as he picked up his drink.

"Ugh!"

Since his mouth was all torn up, the burning sensation hit as soon as the alcohol went in. Still, he forced it down.

The injuries weren't bad considering he'd gotten them by stupidly charging forward. Though his face was a mess and still hard to recognize, these were wounds that would heal quickly.

More importantly, the best harvest was that his teeth and nose were intact.

One molar had come out, but after taking that much punishment, losing just one molar was good business.

Aslan felt the intoxication rising and circulated his Drunken Immortal Method.

Time passed quietly.

***

By the time Aslan came back out to the training ground, he had a crew.

Isaac, Oben, Chira.

The three stuck to Aslan even more closely than before. To be precise, Chira was following Isaac and Oben around, while Isaac and Oben were hanging out with Aslan.

They'd shown themselves together a few times before, but now it was different. Isaac and Oben were obviously following Aslan around for anyone to see.

From the outside, it looked like the veterans were doing Aslan a favor by hanging out with him, but the reality was that they were chasing after Aslan.

Because they'd realized the value of the advice Aslan had been casually giving them.

It was the same now.

Aslan was explaining about combat, and Oben and Isaac were listening. Very seriously. Enthusiastically.

"Isn't it good to have lots of techniques you can use?"

"Having lots is good."

"But why are you telling us to focus on just one?"

"Having many isn't bad, but it's more useless than one proper technique. Can you give me that axe?"

Aslan struggled to get up from his seat. The wounds from his fight with Abei still weren't completely healed.

Isaac handed him a training wooden axe. Though it was called a wooden axe, it was a dangerous weapon that could kill you if you got hit wrong.

"Look here, Oben. Do a thrusting motion like this. Then I'll deflect Oben's thrust to the left. And as I rush in, I attack with my right hand. I could aim for the head or chop at the neck."

The technique Aslan demonstrated was from modern boxing.

A technique where you parry an opponent's straight with your left hand while landing a counter.

He'd just modified it to show with an axe.

"Right."

"You know this technique, right?"

"It doesn't feel completely new."

"But the skill level is different."

"I can do it though?"

"Knowing how and being able to use it properly are different things. Oben, try attacking faster than before."

"Faster?"

"Yes. Faster."

So Oben did a thrust with his practice sword. Aslan deflected it with his left hand while rushing in and swinging the axe. It was faster than before.

"Faster."

Once more. This time at an even faster speed than before.

"Faster."

The speed kept increasing. Oben and Isaac watched with serious expressions.

"Do you understand?"

"This is..."

"It's not a difference in talent. It's a difference in practice. How much you repeat the same technique. You repeat and repeat until it can come out of your body perfectly. Until it becomes completely your own technique. And then you learn other techniques."

"..."

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Are you really a crown prince?"

"Not anymore."

"This kind of thing... you should have learned proper combat techniques..."

"There's no law saying a crown prince can't learn these things. The technique I just used would be really good for Isaac. You can do it while deflecting with the sword attached to your prosthetic. Just be careful because if you get the timing wrong, you could get countered."

After hearing this, Isaac asked Oben to try thrusting at him. Then he tried doing what Aslan had done. Since he wasn't lacking in sense, he picked it up quickly. But it didn't have the sharp edge that Aslan's had.

"If you go too far forward, it could become a strength contest. Then you could get reversed in one shot. You don't need to do it too dangerously. You can create opportunities anytime. And Isaac, you have big hands and long fingers. So you could train and use something like this."

"?"

Scrape.

Aslan drew a line on the ground with his foot. Then he told Isaac to stretch out his arm and swing the axe.

"This is just barely out of range."

He positioned Isaac at a distance where it just barely wouldn't reach.

"Why this?"

"Now let me check the distance."

Oben and Isaac were puzzled but didn't object. At least what Aslan did had reasons.

The proof was that Oben's back was almost completely healed.

"Look. If I attack from here, it just barely doesn't reach, right?"

"Right. But why this? To learn distance sense?"

"That's basic. You both already know that much."

Isaac and Oben nodded.

"I'll swing like this."

Aslan slowly swung the wooden axe.

Thock!

The axe that definitely hadn't reached before now reached. Aslan was standing in the same spot.

Seeing this, Oben and Isaac's eyes widened again.

If he'd leaned forward more or made a motion to extend his arm, they wouldn't have missed it. But that wasn't what had just happened.

He'd performed the same posture, the same movement as before.

But his range had increased.

"What magic did you use?"

Oben asked.

A smile crossed Aslan's lips.

"It's not magic. Just a little trick."

"A trick? Did you fake the original distance?"

"Of course not. This really is the distance I can attack from. I just changed how I grip the axe."

"That's all?"

Aslan showed them how he was gripping the axe. He was gripping and holding the end of the handle with his fingers. Without considerable training, doing this could cause injury, but Aslan was using his energy to prevent injury.

"That method would definitely make your range extend instantly. But isn't that too dangerous a gamble?"

"Why do you think that, Oben?"

"If you grip a weapon like that, there's no next attack, right? If you clash properly, you'll drop the weapon."

"Try it."

Aslan gripped the end of the handle with his fingers and swung.

Crack! Crack!

Oben's wooden sword and the wooden axe clashed properly. Even though they clashed quite hard, Aslan was still gripping the wooden axe properly.

Smack!

At the end, they clashed so hard that Oben's arm bounced away. Even so, Aslan was still gripping the wooden axe tightly.

"You train it. By repeating."

"How is that..."

"It works. You think it doesn't work because you think it doesn't. If you think it works, then it works. What's important is belief. Firm conviction. And repetition."

Aslan put down the wooden axe and got into push-up position. Then he did push-ups with both hands, then with one hand. Then he did them with five fingers, gradually reducing the number of fingers.

Finally, he did push-ups with one finger.

"There's a saying in Maran: 'If you do it, it works.' 'Move instead of worrying.'"

Of course, there was no such saying in Maran. Aslan was just making up something plausible by drawing from his modern memories.

Still, the effect was amazing. Isaac and Oben seemed more impressed by what he'd just said than by what he'd demonstrated and taught with his body.

"How does this work?"

"Think simply. If you grip an axe often, your gripping strength gets stronger, right?"

"Right."

"This is the same thing. If you grip it like this often, naturally your strength when gripping like this gets stronger. I know it's hard to believe. But I'm showing you, aren't I? Do you think I used magic?"

Aslan said this while looking back and forth between Isaac and Oben.

"I don't think so."

"Then I'll teach you training to build finger strength."

"There's training for that too?"

"Of course there is."

Aslan also gave advice on other training methods. Oben and Isaac taught the training methods they learned to Chira.

Among the three, the one with the best physical specs was definitely Chira.

Oben had no eyes, and Isaac was one-armed. So discussing physical specs didn't have much meaning to begin with.

Even assuming Oben and Isaac had intact bodies, Chira's specs were much better. Tall with long limbs and a flexible body. His movements weren't sluggish either.

He had the fatal flaw of not being able to speak the common language, but he could communicate with Oben and Isaac.

"But how do Oben and Isaac understand what Chira says? Actually... it's not speech, right? Do you understand his gestures?"

"We're from similar regions. The Chira tribe is more special though. They live in a completely isolated world."

"So that's how you understand."

"We couldn't communicate from the start. There were many expressions we'd never seen before too, but we figured it out as we went. Liscal's consideration was big in this too. Liscal also rated Chira's physical abilities highly. But you know..."

Suddenly Oben trailed off.

Now that he'd figured it out, Oben had a habit of scratching his short hair when he had something difficult to say. Since it was an M-shaped balding head cut very short, the scratching sound came through clearly.

"Go ahead."

"Well... I know what you've done for me and Isaac is a huge favor too. What you're teaching us now is probably one of the secret techniques passed down to the knights of the Maran Kingdom."

It wasn't a secret technique. This was one of the combat basics that Aslan had learned through two reincarnations.

This level couldn't be called a secret technique. He hadn't even revealed what he'd learned in the Martial World yet.

Aslan was currently repaying the kindness he'd received from Isaac and Oben with kindness while testing them. Whether they were the type he could trust or not—but at least based on his judgment so far, both seemed like the type he could trust.

Trusting them meant they would come with him when he left this place. But Aslan hadn't talked about such plans yet.

It was still too early. After all, he was just a youth division boxer who'd barely fought three matches.

To get out of here, he'd need to fight more matches and save more money.

And that wasn't all.

He also had to think about what he'd do to make a living after getting out.

"You want me to give advice to Chira too, right?"

When Oben was hesitating, he made the first move.