As time passed, more than twenty people had already stepped onto the stage to challenge him.
Without exception, not a single one of them lasted more than five moves.
No one had expected this little-known second prince to possess such strength.
At that moment, every eye in the arena was fixed on the platform.
Luke stood there with a sword in hand, calm and composed, his clear eyes sweeping over the crowd below, tranquil as still water.
Yet what radiated from him was the pressure forged through twenty straight fights.
By now, the soldiers below looked at him with a few degrees more respect reserved for the strong.
After that, no one stepped onto the stage again. A wordless silence spread through the crowd.
Seeing that, Luke finally let out a sigh of relief inside.
If they had kept coming up like this, he was certain he would have dropped dead from exhaustion on the spot.
Just to put on this show, Luke had probably burned through the next five days' worth of energy.
Still, his expression did not change. Looking at the soldiers below, he said, "Since no one else is coming up, then if there's anyone here who still doesn't want to serve as my personal guard, you may move to the right."
As soon as the words fell, the soldiers below remained where they were, motionless, each of them making their choice.
Clearly, Luke had already won them over with strength.
Seeing that no one moved and no one spoke, Luke smiled faintly.
"I hope that in the days ahead, we can build a relationship of mutual trust. I'll be counting on all of you from here on."
Off to the side, Tianna smiled as she glanced at Lev beside her.
"The kid's not bad, is he?"
Lev nodded at her words. "His Highness's swordsmanship is extremely refined. From what I can tell, his individual strength is already no weaker than a soldier of the Dauntless Vanguard."
Hearing that, Tianna's gaze carried a trace of remembrance.
"This brat's personality is just like yours. He's clearly hiding no small amount of talent, yet he has no real ambition. All he thinks about every day is how to coast through life."
"But didn't Your Grace drag His Highness into it anyway?" Lev gave a helpless, bitter smile, recalling the completely baffling path of promotions he had gone through back then.
All he had ever wanted was to coast in a low-level army post, then retire and live out the rest of his life in peace.
Instead, out of nowhere, a promotion order dropped on his head.
After that, things spiraled out of control. He kept rising higher and higher, as if fate itself were rigged in his favor.
Only later did he learn that Tianna had been quietly pulling strings behind the scenes the whole time, leaving him no choice but to shoulder the responsibilities of every new position he was pushed into.
But after all these years, Lev did not actually harbor much resentment.
His life plan had been thrown off course, yes, but he did not dislike the life he had now.
At that moment, his eyes shifted slightly to the left as he looked at Tianna, and an unconscious smile appeared on his face.
Back on the battlefield all those years ago, the dashing figure of a woman had left an indelible mark on his heart.
At the time, all he had ever thought was that it would be enough to watch her from afar as an ordinary soldier.
He had never imagined that one day he would be able to stand at her side.
That alone was enough. He was already more than satisfied.
He turned his gaze back to the platform and looked at Luke's figure.
"His Highness is far more outstanding than I was. When I was eighteen, I probably wasn't even half as capable as he is now."
At eighteen, he had still been nothing more than a young soldier freshly enlisted in Demacia's army, carrying dreams of one day retiring in comfort.
"You're being too modest. But the kid really is exceptional. Even without me, there's no way he could have kept coasting along forever."
Tianna's gaze remained on the stage, and now it carried a bit more emotion.
This brat's life was destined to be colorful.
And some things would never be as simple as he imagined.
Half an hour later, three hundred soldiers stood in neat formation before a statue.
The statue, its wings spread wide and filled with a sacred, holy presence, was the figure Demacians worshipped as the Winged Protector.
She represented justice and judgment, with divine power said to cleanse all filth from the world.
Here, the three hundred soldiers made their vows with solemn expressions.
From this moment on, they would take up the duty of serving as the prince's personal guard and swear to follow in his footsteps.
If they ever broke that oath, then one day they would face the judgment of the Winged Protector.
Demacians valued their oaths deeply. Even a light promise, once spoken before the Winged Protector, became something they would see through to the end.
Not to mention a solemn vow like this.
All three hundred soldiers present chose to follow Luke from the bottom of their hearts.
And among those who swore the oath were Quinn, Vayne, and Frey as well.
Frey did not know why, as a Freljordian, she was swearing an oath before a Demacian god. But as a former shaman, the word god still held sacred and untouchable weight in her heart, no matter the nation.
Once the oath ceremony was over, Luke officially had three hundred personal troops under his command.
At the same time, Tianna had already found a camp for them.
At four in the afternoon, she brought Luke and the rest of his personal guard there. It was a sizable fortress.
"This place isn't any smaller than Jarvan IV's place. Fitting your three hundred men in here won't be a problem at all. But it belongs to the state. Charging you two thousand a month in rent isn't unreasonable, right?"
Tianna looked at Luke with a kindly smile.
Luke looked right back at her. "Aunt, do I look like the kind of clueless rich idiot who throws money around?"
Tianna gave him a serious once-over, then nodded.
"You do."
Luke: "..."
There was no continuing that conversation.
He had also come to understand something now.
Real estate in Demacia wasn't actually expensive. What was expensive was gold itself. These coins had an extremely high gold content.
Two thousand a month in rent was even blacker than a greedy merchant's asking price.
So this was how she treated family?
And besides, wasn't he part of the state too?
He was a prince, for heaven's sake. Using land that belonged to his own side, and he still had to pay?
Seeing the look on Luke's face, Tianna said, "Princes still have to pay. But for your sake, I'll cut it in half. One thousand a month."
Luke let out a dry laugh. "One thousand a month makes twelve thousand a year. At that point, I might as well just buy the place outright."
Tianna's smile widened. "That works too. This whole fortress will cost you fifty thousand gold. Take it and it's yours."
Seeing this woman shamelessly naming absurd prices, Luke refused to continue the discussion.
"Forget it. I'll look somewhere else. This capital is huge. Don't tell me there isn't room anywhere for my three hundred guards."
He turned as if to leave.
Tianna sighed.
"Fine. Nine hundred a month."
Luke turned back and said, "Two hundred."
A question mark practically appeared over Tianna's head.
"At two hundred a month, I may as well just give it to you."
Luke nodded. "That's not impossible."
Tianna answered with a cold smile, fixing him with a stare and saying nothing.
Seeing that, Luke immediately stopped fooling around and raised the price a bit.
"Five hundred?"
Tianna shook her head. "Eight hundred fifty. Not a coin less."
Luke thought for a moment. "Six hundred. I'll pay right now."
Tianna answered decisively, "Deal."
The way the old woman agreed so quickly made Luke's heart sink at once.
Crap. The price was still too high.
The place might not be smaller than Jarvan IV's, but the location was remote, and one look was enough to tell that it hadn't been rented or sold in years. Today she had finally found a chance to dump it on him.
He'd been had.
Just thinking about it made Luke's heart ache so badly he could barely breathe.
Seeing his expression, Tianna glanced at him sideways.
"You make that much money every day, and six hundred gold pains you this much? Back in the day you spent money like you were tossing pebbles. Never saw you this distressed then."
She knew perfectly well that he was sitting on quite a bit of money now. These days he was practically rolling in it.
So much so that even she was jealous.
First there was the newspaper. It was still wildly popular in the capital, and every issue basically sold out as soon as it was released.
And recently, it seemed like plans were already underway to expand into cities beyond the capital.
Not to mention the advertising model he had come up with. If merchants wanted ad space in the paper, they had to pay a considerable sum.
Then there was the bicycle. That thing was even more of a money-printing machine than the newspaper.
A pile of iron forged into a two-wheeled contraption, then sold at ten or twenty times the cost.
And lately he'd been working on three-wheeled and four-wheeled versions too. When those came out, their sales surely wouldn't be poor either.
And if those two somehow still weren't enough, there was something even more profitable.
The two kinds of liquor he had handed over to House Laurent.
That stuff would be hard currency anywhere in Runeterra. There was no such thing as worrying it wouldn't sell.
And its profit margins were outrageous. On top of that, it genuinely tasted excellent, which meant it would dominate anywhere it hit the market.
Most importantly, there were still many other varieties stored in the brat's basement.
At that point, what sat down there wasn't alcohol anymore. It was mountain after mountain of gold.
He had no idea how envious he looked every time he snuck down there to steal a drink.
Luke said with complete seriousness, "This has nothing to do with how much money I have. It's a matter of principle."
Tianna gave a cold laugh. "And what exactly is your principle?"
"My principle is that I have no principles."
Luke coughed lightly, then said, "I'll send the money over shortly."
"Good. You get acquainted with them. I won't disturb you any further."
Only then did Tianna show a satisfied smile. She rubbed Luke's head, looking to be in an excellent mood, and left.
Watching the back of that old woman, Luke let out a helpless sigh.
The next step, naturally, was to get familiar with his new personal guard.
First, he made a point of meeting every single one of them and memorizing their names.
Luke's memory was actually quite good. He was just lazy, so there were plenty of things he could not be bothered to remember.
But the names of these guards were something he needed to know.
After all, in the future, they would be people who trusted him and people he could trust in return.
Then, based on strength, he began assigning squads.
Luke planned to follow the Dauntless Vanguard's system and divide the three hundred men into three companies.
Quinn, Vayne, and Frey would each command one.
Each company would then be split into fourteen small squads of seven.
That left six extra men, which made one more small squad.
From each squad, one captain would be selected.
If the number of personal guards grew in the future, Luke would fill those squads out to eight men each.
For now, though, this arrangement would do.
After the assignments were complete, Luke gave his first order.
Clean the fortress.
The place that old woman had rented to him for six hundred gold clearly had not been cleaned in a very long time. One glance was enough to see dust everywhere, thick and filthy.
There were even cobwebs in the corners.
The place really was large. Forget three hundred people—even a thousand probably wouldn't be a problem.
The fortress itself was built in rings of structures wrapped around the mountain. Demacia was full of mountains, and many buildings were made in this way.
The advantage was that with the mountain at your back, there was barely any need to lay a foundation. You just built straight up along it.
And if war ever broke out, a fortress of this design would also be easy to defend and difficult to assault.
At some point in the past, a military force or private army of around a thousand men had definitely lived here, because there were many rooms built to house soldiers.
A little over a hundred years ago, during the reign of King Jarvan I, private armies had still been allowed.
Because of that rule, many nobles at the time possessed private military forces of their own.
Whenever war broke out, the nobles would lead those troops into battle.
This privatization of military forces was later abolished near the end of Jarvan I's life—or rather, not abolished so much as revised.
One reason was to strengthen royal authority. Another was to prevent infighting among the nobility.
So the law was changed to determine the number of private troops a noble could keep based on rank.
The upper limit was no more than fifteen hundred.
Even to this day, some nobles still retained a certain amount of private armed force.
Back when King Jarvan III had only just taken the throne, the nobles had even used that to launch a separatist struggle.
To put a stop to it, Jarvan III declared that he would use marriage alliances to end the conflict.
So he married Queen Catherine Ireland of House Ireland, and not long afterward, Jarvan IV was born.
Unfortunately, on the very night Jarvan IV was born, his mother died in childbirth.
And later after that, Noxus made its move and launched the invasion war.
The result of that war, of course, was a sweeping Demacian victory—and it was during that war that Luke came into the picture.
Cleaning a fortress this large was no small task. Even with all three hundred of them working together, it would still take real effort.
After all, every guard present knew that this fortress would be their home for a long time to come.
So naturally, they cleaned it carefully.
Luke, of course, did not sit idle either. He put in his share of work as well.
Not long after, a carriage slowly rolled into the fortress and came to a stop.
From it, Fiora, Lux, Kahina, and Sona stepped down one after another.
Luke had sent Yurna to bring them over.
The moment he saw them, a bright smile spread across his face and he walked over at once. Without giving them any chance to object, he stuffed a broom, a mop, or a rag into their hands.
"I'll be counting on you all from here."
"??"
Lux stared at the mop in her hand, practically throwing up two question marks over her head.
"You called us here just to make us do a full cleaning for you?"
Luke nodded. "Yep."
"I'm not doing it! A whole day at school already wore me out enough. This place is huge. How long would it even take to clean all of this?"
Lux tossed the mop to the ground, her face full of displeasure.
She had just gotten out of the Royal Academy when she was brought straight here.
She had thought it was something important.
And it turned out to be housecleaning.
This fortress was enormous. Even if it killed her, she still would not finish cleaning it.
All she wanted right now was to flop onto a chair and rest.
Luke smiled. "Two candy apples."
Lux paused and looked down at the mop on the floor, her little expression turning hesitant.
Luke added, "And a pudding."
At that, Lux silently bent down, picked the mop back up, and marched over to one of the walls. She dipped it in water and started scrubbing immediately.
Then Luke looked toward Fiora, Kahina, and Sona.
Meeting his gaze, Kahina rolled up her sleeves and revealed her smooth arms. Brimming with energy, she said, "Then let's all work hard together and try to get it cleaned up today!"
Sona smiled and nodded, indicating that she was happy to help as well.
Fiora, meanwhile, showed a faint smile. "Two candy apples and a pudding aren't enough to buy me off."
Luke looked at her. "Then what do you want?"
A flicker passed through Fiora's cool eyes. "Lately, my shoulders and my lower back have started feeling sore again."
Hearing that, Luke gave her a brief look up and down, then nodded. "Fine. I'll give you another acupuncture session tonight."
Only then did Fiora pick up a mop and head to the side.
The cleaning officially began.
But after scrubbing walls for a while, Lux noticed Luke leisurely wandering around nearby, and immediately grew irritated.
"You called us over to help, and you're the one strolling around doing nothing?"
She glared at Luke.
Luke glanced at her and said disdainfully, "At your level of efficiency, can you even compare to me?"
Lux gritted her teeth. "You haven't done anything at all!"
At that moment, several other pairs of eyes also turned toward him. More or less all of them were unhappy with his slacking.
Faced with the girls' stares, Luke casually drew a sword he had found nearby and chuckled.
"Fine, then. Let me show you a little trick."
The moment he said that, the girls became curious.
Then they saw Luke step in front of a dust-covered wall and take a calm breath.
The next second, a current of wind gathered around him, and with one slash of his sword—
Whoosh!
A fierce gust instantly roared out along the blade, sweeping across the wall and carrying the dust away in a storm toward the other side.
When they looked back at the wall, a huge amount of dust had already vanished.
Then Luke swung again.
Whoosh!
The second blast of wind carried away the rest of the dust in one sweep, blowing it aside as well.
After that, Luke picked up a bucket and splashed water across the wall. He rinsed it twice, water running down to the floor, but now it was barely dirty at all.
He set the bucket down, turned around, and looked at the stunned girls, the corner of his mouth curving into a Dragon King grin.
"Well? With this kind of efficiency, are you convinced now?"
The girls: "..."
For a moment, none of them had anything to say.
If they were being honest, then yes, they really were impressed.
Such an incredible wind technique, and he was using it to blow dust off walls?
It was undeniably cool.
But why did it somehow feel so down-to-earth?
Still, one had to admit, using wind technique swordsmanship like this really did make the work insanely efficient.
One casual sweep, and an entire wall's worth of dust was gone. Two sweeps of wind, two rinses of water, and it was clean.
The efficiency was absolutely maxed out.
Lux looked at him enviously. Then, thinking that maybe one day she might be able to do the same thing, her mood improved at once.
She picked up her mop and went back to scrubbing walls, and with thoughts of candy apples and pudding in her head, she started working even harder.
Luke also began working, repeating what he had just done.
The only mildly troublesome part, in his opinion, was hauling a bucket around to splash water against the walls.
At a moment like this, if only there were a water mage around—someone who could casually mutter a spell and spray the whole wall with water—it would be much more convenient.
Unfortunately, that kind of thing definitely was not allowed here.
Everyone kept cleaning until the sky darkened, the sun already having dropped below the horizon. That period just before nightfall left the whole place rather dim.
Even with three hundred people working together, they had not yet finished even one-third of it.
The fortress covered a large area, after all, and it sat on a mountainside. It had gone untended for so many years that one could imagine how filthy it had become.
Still, no one was impatient. Since this would be their home in the future, taking the time to clean it properly was only natural.
On one of the training grounds within the fortress, Luke had people light torch after torch and set up a number of fire pits.
Tonight, he planned to simply throw a barbecue feast.
As for ingredients, he had already told Yurna to prepare them in the afternoon, and now everything was ready.
There were enough ingredients and seasonings for all three hundred people.
He had also prepared beer.
The beer had been taken from House Laurent's stock, emptying out the last of what they had left in the warehouse.
And for the three hundred personal guards, this night was destined to be unforgettable.
On this night, they tasted the best grilled meat they had ever eaten in their lives. They drank the hardest-to-buy beer in the capital, and they drank to their hearts' content.
Best of all, they got to enjoy a live performance from Master Sona, completely free of charge.
Accompanied by Sona's music, the guards gathered around the bonfires, singing and dancing, overflowing with joy.
And by the latter half of the night, every one of them had that pleasant buzz of drink in their heads, sitting together and chatting loudly.
Then together they laughed at the people whose tolerance was too weak and who had already been knocked flat by the alcohol.
At that very moment, even though their bodies were drunk, every one of them was clear on one thing in his heart.
From this day on, they would fight for Luke.
Luke, meanwhile, sat off to one side with a skewer in hand, watching his guards laugh and talk, his gaze softening a little.
Once everyone had eaten their fill and drunk to their satisfaction, the guards decided to simply spend the night in the still half-dirty fortress.
Some rooms were grimy, but they did not care in the slightest.
After all, no one would dislike their future home for being dirty, and after a full day of cleaning, they themselves were already filthy too.
As for daily necessities, Luke had already arranged for people to prepare them.
The fortress was large enough that even Luke himself could move in if he wanted.
But he still preferred his own small estate. At most, he thought maybe he might come stay here for a night once in a while.
At nine that night, the carriage rolled to a stop in front of Luke's estate.
"I don't care anymore, I'm taking a bath!!"
Lux was the first to jump out of the carriage. After a whole afternoon of cleaning, she was covered in dust, and even she herself felt grimy all over.
And in truth, every girl present felt more or less the same way.
There was no woman who did not like being clean. Ever since the barbecue, they had all been looking forward to the hot spring that night.
Before long, the hot spring in the backyard had been filled to the brim.
Then, with the sound of splashing water, one graceful body after another slipped beneath the surface.
Everyone had spent real effort on the cleaning today. It had been genuine physical labor.
After working hard for an entire afternoon, the moment they sank their somewhat weary bodies into the hot spring, they instantly felt as if their whole bodies were melting.
That sensation of exhaustion leaving every inch of them was indescribably comfortable.
Even from his side of the pool, Luke could hear one soft, satisfied little moan after another drifting over from the women's side.
It was quiet over there, and each of the girls seemed to be savoring the moment.
Luke also rinsed himself off thoroughly, feeling the pleasant warmth of the hot spring wash away the fatigue in his body.
Then he leaned back against the edge and began admiring the night scenery.
After soaking for about twenty minutes, Luke got up and changed clothes.
Then he headed to the kitchen and began preparing candy apples and pudding.
By the time he had nearly finished, the girls had also had their fill of the hot spring, changed into clean clothes, and come to the living room.
They gathered around the sofas there. Fresh from their baths, each of them carried a natural fragrance, a fresh, dewy sweetness clinging to them.
And on the table sat many portions of soft, creamy-looking pudding, along with a large platter of candy apples glistening with an enticing bright sheen.
That was enough to make the girls' appetites stir all over again, even though they had only recently finished a barbecue feast.
Dessert was always a happy time.
After they finished the sweets, everyone felt a laziness begin to spread through their bodies, making them relax completely, both physically and mentally.
Lux went out to the front yard, lay down on the rocking chair, closed her eyes, and lifted the corners of her mouth in bliss.
Vayne, Quinn, and Kahina, meanwhile, felt that there was still plenty of time left in the evening.
So they headed to the backyard to continue practicing Swift Thunder Swordsmanship.
At that moment, Fiora gave Luke a look.
Luke understood immediately. He nodded, stood up, and walked toward the massage room.
After making a few preparations, he heard the sound of the door opening.
When he turned around, he saw Fiora walk in.
Though she had not missed out on even a single candy apple or spoonful of pudding, she clearly had no intention of letting the acupuncture session go either.
Still, Luke did not lose anything from acupuncture.
He could count it as a complimentary bonus.
Fiora sat down in the massage chair and took off her shoes, revealing two fair, slender feet. Faint bluish veins showed through the pale tops of them, and their texture looked smooth and delicate.
After some time under Luke's bone-setting care, those feet had become exquisitely shaped.
After one glance, Luke tactfully turned his back, and soon heard a soft rustling behind him.
"All right."
Fiora's voice came.
Luke turned back around and immediately saw a flawless white back, bare of clothing, revealed openly before him. Her slim waist was taut and firm.
Because she had just come out of the bath, her skin still held a moist, tender sheen, as if it were glowing with translucent luster.
It really was an excellent back.
Luke admired it openly while thinking to himself that one day, without question, he was going to leave a proper row of cupping marks across it.
After looking for a couple of seconds, he began heating the needles.
The acupuncture followed the same pattern as before, placing needles along the points used to treat soreness in the waist and back.
The moment the first needle descended, Fiora's body trembled lightly.
Face buried against the pillow, she fought to keep herself from making a sound.
It had been more than twenty days since her last acupuncture session.
Experiencing it again now, that sensation of electric current flashing through her whole body somehow seemed even stronger than before.
But as one silver needle after another was placed, the flush on Fiora's face gradually gave way to enjoyment.
This acupuncture felt even better than soaking in the hot spring.
Before long, Fiora's fair back had been studded with one silver needle after another.
Luke finally paused and said, "That's enough. I'll come back in a bit."
Immersed in comfort, Fiora gave a soft little hum in response, one that sounded more like a moan than anything else.
Luke stepped out of the room.
The moment he did, he saw a figure waiting there.
The blue-haired girl across from him was looking at him with those watery blue eyes of hers.
"What's wrong?" Luke asked, looking at Sona.
Sona's face was a little red. She held Etwahl out toward him.
Luke placed his hand on it, and immediately heard her thoughts.
"My prince... lately, I feel like my shoulders have started aching again..."
Her voice was shy.
Sona had experience with Luke's acupuncture too, but unlike Fiora, who had gradually grown used to it, Sona was still somewhat embarrassed.
"It's been almost a month since the last time, hasn't it?"
As he said that, Luke's gaze unconsciously dropped toward Sona's chest.
It looked like it had gotten a little bigger again.
Why hadn't he noticed yesterday?
It seemed to be because Sona was wearing thinner clothes now. The outfit she usually wore had gotten dirty today, so she had changed out of it.
The reason for her shoulder pain was easy enough to understand. With her growing like that, sore shoulders were hardly surprising.
"Come on, then."
Luke decided he might as well give her an acupuncture session too, so he pushed the door open and walked back inside.
Fiora, who had been lying there with her eyes closed in enjoyment, lazily opened them and glanced sideways. After seeing that it was Luke and Sona, she closed them again.
Sona, naturally, knew the procedure by now. She walked of her own accord to the massage chair on the other side.
After taking off her shoes, her feet looked a little smaller than Fiora's, pale and soft, her five toes naturally drawing together with a pretty little elegance.
Luke turned his back once more.
When the movement behind him ceased, he turned around again, his gaze falling to Sona's back, and clicked his tongue in wonder.
They were so large that even lying face down barely seemed enough to hide them.
Her back looked exceptionally graceful. Her skin was as fine and smooth as white porcelain glaze, and her curves were soft and even. Compared to Fiora, there seemed to be a little more softness to her figure.
That gave her back an added kind of lush beauty.
Luke heated the silver needles while Sona buried her face in the pillow, the face hidden beneath it already red to the tips of her ears.
The moment the first silver needle went down, her body quivered lightly.
At that instant, she was grateful she could not make any sound at all. Otherwise, she definitely would have let out a mortifying cry.
And as more and more needles settled across her back, Sona gradually sank into the sense of ease and release they brought.
Having experienced it personally before, Sona knew very well that the prince's acupuncture had miraculous effects.
After the last session, the shoulder soreness she felt every day had vanished immediately.
And it had lasted for quite a long time.
Truthfully, her shoulders were not especially sore today.
It was just that after seeing Luke give Fiora acupuncture, she suddenly wanted it too.
So she had used that as her excuse.
Now, as needle after needle fell into place, Sona's mood slowly relaxed without her even realizing it.
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