He's a Joke—Until He Strikes

Victor is the second son of the Frontier Marquis and the joke of the capital. Great Xia has slipped to the bottom of the Six Nations in military strength, and in the middle of that its best-known fool acts as if nobody can beat him. The masters who taught him were frauds his parents hired, and his parents also paid the men he beat in matches to lose. His elder brother died training in the martial arts, and after that his parents set up ten years of deception to keep him out of harm, which is what the fake teachers and the bought fights were for. Victor followed directions his brother left him into a hidden martial sanctuary and came out having mastered its arts. He knows exactly what the act is. His mother has a heart condition, so he keeps up his part in it, and the whole city goes on thinking what it thinks. His wife thinks it too, and Great Xia's position among the Six Nations keeps getting worse. The pretence has been running for ten years so far.