Later that night we celebrated the news of my admission at a party with my mother, my sister, Hope, Elizabeth, and, sadly, Albert who had no shame in joining us.
"It's a private party, can you go?"
"Sh-shut up! I'm only here to keep an eye on you."
"You just want to eat for free, beggar."
"Oh, you... Your mother's beautiful son."
"... Yes, you ugly women't."
The party was filled with moments like these, after the exam I was guaranteed to be a privileged student of the academy and so Albert suffered from becoming a boot licker. Everyone was cheering and my mother was not openly surprised, "Your admission was only a formality, I never doubted it", What a beautiful sentence from a mother, with the only downside of condemning me to do my best,
but on his side, Hope, discussing with his sister, seemed bothered.
"Just once more, please, I'm strong enough to assimilate it."
"Hope, the problem is not if you can or not assimilate it, the problem is that if you wish to become a top Emissary you can't rely on me for gathering magic stones at your place."
"Just one last for the academy, just to make it fair, I'll do the rest myself."
"*sigh* Now you're disappointing me, I gave you Hero Time as a last reward for your hard work, what's happened to your will to fight? You call it unfair because Dora and Cid have trained more than you?"
"... No, I've trained more than anyone in this village. If you spent more time around you'd see it... But for once you're here you stick to someone else. Forget what I asked."
After my fight against Barron, Hope was facing an internal crisis, on the one hand, Barron had demonstrated abilities far beyond what he could handle, this was the first time he felt genuinely inferior to someone, someone who should have beaten his rival easily, but that was the problem, his rival was about to defeat Barron,
Hope, therefore, felt faced with a wall that he was too impatient to cross, to the point of making a foreign request of his temper, and his last sentence seemed to hide something else.
"Hope, you know that I am the captain of the royal guards, as such, it's impossible for me to be here every day, or weeks, or even months, I have to fight for the people, and in return, I cannot pass a lot of family time, you should understand it."
"I'm not crying over it, I'll beat you one day anyway, so you'll be the one waiting."
"And I'll be more than happy if you do it, and that's why you really should stay closer to Dora, he'll be more useful than any E-rank group once he takes this seriously.
"Here, do you still have to talk about him every day? He's my friend but you're my…Never mind! I shouldn't be surprised!"
He started to walk away, Elizabeth
tried to follow him but a sudden call stopped her.
"Hey, Liza, I want a private talk about something important."
She turned toward me a little worried.
"Eh... Is this urgent?"
"Since I have to leave tomorrow, yeah."
"Huh, oh, so maybe a little later?"
"... I'd prefer now since you're still sober, my decision to join the academy depends on it."
"S-sober?! You little... Hope, could you...Um...Oh Dora, does this have to be in private?"
"Leave me out of it, Your favorite person is asking for a date, you shouldn't refuse."
Hope left the place grumbling, Elizabeth tried to hold him back in vain but the young man was already far away, I watched the scene carefully.
"Um, is this a bad time to say my request is a bit illegal?" »
"...It's okay, I'll talk to him later, what do you want to ask?"
"Not here, come with me."
We went to a room down the hall, my bedroom, and when I opened the door, Elizabeth was surprised by the sight.
My room does not present the image of the house, a large luxurious bed, a sofa, a tea service, and especially a clock on the ceiling.
"What... What is this place?" She asked dumbfounded "It wasn't like that yesterday."
"... So you did come to my room, this place is one of my techniques, a room in another dimension that only I can open, time passes more slowly here too so we will have plenty of time to chat.
I sat down in an armchair and she did the same, her eyes wandering around the room that looked like a royal bedroom.
" SO? What exactly do you want? You said it was illegal.
"Not a lot of things, it's not impossible for the Captain of the Holy Royal Knights to do. Firstly, as someone you think has great potential for the future, I want to have a royal scholarship."
"A... A royal scholarship?"
"Yes, I did my research and found out that for special students recommended by the kingdom, the academy will offer a scholarship, so I want that one."
"Yes, but it's the scholarship for students from the noble caste, for normal people it's the excellence scholarship, that's the one you can access."
"Yes, and that's why I need you, the one who can force the Kingdom to build a poste de garde pour son village, to use the same authority to make the wonderful Avatar, who can use every type of branch, feel at home at the academy."
"... Every? Are you really serious... No, wait! What you're asking concerns the order of the crown, you will alienate a lot of people if you get what you ask for."
"Ah? How sad, guess my career as a professional peasant can keep going."
"My, my, MY! Why are you so complicated? Didn't you promise to your mom?!"
"Yeah but who knows if I will succeed? Suddenly I feel so unworthy of studying at the academy, guess I'll just chill forever."
"..... Now you'll really be the one owning me something, do you think it's fair for the others?"
"I don't know, I feel like Hope getting a cheat stone without trying, sounds familiar?"
Elizabeth was speechless, no matter how hard she tried, I had cornered her.
I was aware that a commoner could get a scholarship but I also knew that life was so expensive on capital that the Merit scholarship barely allowed me to survive. If I had to sacrifice my life for the kingdom, then the kingdom should also leave an arm.
"I expected you to be a glorious warrior, not a kid blinded by money."
"That sounds a lot like a 'you' problem. So? My lady? Do we have a deal? Are you gonna make me a spoiled brat?"
That was a perfect plan since it was only a cover. The real reason why I wanted a Royal scholarship was that I knew what kind of treatment awaited commoners in a Royal place, Barron was an example, and the Royal scholarship provided me the best weapon: total immunity, I could do whatever I wanted without consequences, but better focus Elizabeth on the financial aspect for now.
"Fine then, you'll get it... Do you also want me to be your Sugar mommy as a bonus? Filthy gigolo."
"Oh, that won't be necessary, only if your brother beat me."
"Good, but as a senior, I can confirm one thing to you: you, with this scholarship, will bring all the hatred in the world on yourself.
"Surprisingly, I feel like I've lived this all my life."
We shook hands, sealing our agreement, Elizabeth not realizing that she had just given a license to violence to a demon.
(A few weeks ago)In the royal castle, the Queen sat on the edges of her fountain. Charming ladies, wearing chitons, sat around her, some singing captivating melodies and others with harps, playing light music, a true heaven on earth.The Queen took a glass of grape juice served to her by one of the young ladies and drank a few sips, when further away, the wind blew, followed by the appearance of a servant with elf ears."Queen Gloria, I'm back."She curtseyed to the queen who handed her her glass, smiling."Well, I felt bad for letting one of my precious nymphs perform such a shameful task.""Do not worry, my Queen, it is my pleasure to be a weapon for the kingdom.""Hm, come, join us."She took a few steps forward, and one of the ladies opened her hands and blew towards her, spreading a pink wind that covered the servant and illuminated her clothes.The spark faded gradually, revealing the outfits replaced by an angelic white chiton.The servant slowly walked towards her but suddenl
"Hello everyone, I hope you've been well during these past months, for those who got chosen as knights of course. For the others like me, it has been a wonderful 2 months, going to studies learning new things, with the same people, having to see the empty seats of our classmates who got chosen... Even some E-rank have beautiful noble ladies... There were boys but maybe there are ulterior motives..."“HM-HM!!!” Thomas coughed."Oh, yeah, let's get back to today's topic. I am Maxim, but for the ladies, Max, or Sir Max, or Sir M... Sounds like maso... And today we are reunited for the 3rd meeting of the student council, after the break. Allow me to introduce you to some special guests."Maxim took a few steps stopped in front of Iris's table and curtsied."From the very first time, this year, we have the blessing of enthroning our wonderful princesses, the Queen in our heart, the symbol of grace and beauty, Lady Freya... and Cid, the unworthy."Cid groaned in his seat while Freya ignored
The train, carrying Dora's group, towards the capital passed through a sleeping landscape. Cabins equipped with beds served as dormitories and were divided between the girls and Dora and Hope.Dora turned around in his bed, seeing the images of Mary and Lilith leaving, again and again.He clutched his chest, troubled by this burning sensation that hadn't existed in him years before.Regret? Sadness? Melancholy? He couldn't give it a name and decided to walk to clear his mind.He disappeared from his bed and reappeared in another car, but as he used his power, he held his hand.Our power shouldn't be wasted on this.He opened his eyes, looking at his reflection in the glasses as if he had just seen a monster.He was breathing heavily and his hands were shaking."What is happening?""!!!... Mid... Midget...?""What are you doing? You don't need to speak out loud, do you want someone to hear you?... What's bothering you so much?"He calmed down a bit, looking at his fingers, even though
Leon was lying on his back, looking at the blue sky, he wasn't thinking about anything in particular, or even feeling.Little by little, everything turned white, everything around him disappeared and when he blinked, he was in his hometown, in his little house next to his grandmother.She was about to read him a book about the hero, but as soon as she opened the book, he felt uneasy."Being a hero isn't so great after all."A hero must fight to the end, isn't that too tiring? Maybe a normal life as a shopkeeper would be better? Especially when we have the blessing of the emissaries. You can work better and you don't have the burden of always getting stronger. You're not competing against nature's tricksters like avatars...He didn't feel anything, but he smiled, he was happy.He raised his hand and whispered."... just... just... you wait... andma... I'll... I'll take care of... the shop... don't... don't... do not worry..."The hand hit the ground, and his fighting spirit disappeared.
Leon's eyes twitched frantically and his poor self fell back, perhaps in an attempt to wake up from a nightmare, as the monster before him looked at him curiously, its yellow eyes reflecting the soul of a soon-to-be broken hero."Wh-What... What...""Hm?... Curious, it's too early for you to be afraid of us. Take a breath and calm down."Leon took a step back, feeling a shiver across his back."How do you plan to reach us if you keep walking away? You wanted to play the hero, so we're just giving you a suitable opponent. Let's play."He took a step forward and spread his arms."Hello, Hero. We are the monster with the yellow eyes, and our name is... G####"A powerful wave of energy emanated from his body, spreading across the plain.Leon felt his body burning and freezing to the extreme, several times in the blink of a second and instinctively dropped his sword... Or so he thought."....?"He tried to move his body, to move backward, but nothing happened. He realized he could no longe
The sun was high in the sky, as was the tension in the air as a hero prepared to face a monster on a plain. Everyone was gathered in a corner, and several meters in front of them, the 2 founders of Shining Sword were facing each other. Kraim stood in the middle and was about to give the signal."Very well... So this is a battle to determine the future of the Shining Sword team. If the gray-haired snake wins, Shining Sword will be dismantled, the false hero will retire, and many dreams will be crushed... If only someone with just a little compassion, a little love, and a human heart, would certainly have mercy... But who am I kidding?""Indeed." Dora nodded indifferently. Kraim sighed and glanced at Leon with annoyance."Well... I'm not a hype man, but it really is suicide. The rules are the same as a traditional mock battle, you use everything in your power, and kill if you want to live a life in prison... Well, even there, the law is fine for royal knights, so... Begin when I'm far