Juda slowly opened his blue eyes, blinking a few times until his vision came into focus. An unfamiliar ceiling was all he saw as the events that had happened slowly returned. The sheer might of his foe, the way he was effortlessly slung around and the cruel smile on his enemy's face, all of it came flooding back. The memories were unpleasant, filled with pain and desperation, but they also offered a view on how much he had messed up and how lucky he was to even be alive.
He had tried to hit a foe that was stronger than him without talking or reasoning which wasn't like him. It could be said that the main reason was overconfidence, Juda having felt powerful after having defeated Fantasia and 2 weak nobles. He probably thought he could solve the problem with strength and intimidation like he had with the rapists and had rushed in without quickly considering his options. It wasn't his finest moment but it had opened his eyes and given him quite the reality check.
"So this is what losing feels like huh?" Juda asked himself aloud as he gazed up at the rather high ceiling. "It doesn't feel as bad as I expected. That guy was way too strong for me though...he must be experienced in magic."
"Actually, he's only a first year like you," A masucline voice said from the side. "Your probably the same age as he is as well. The difference in strength is simply because of the environments you were both raised in and the differences in privilege along with resources."
Juda was a bit startled to here the voice at first but calmed down after a few seconds. He tried to turn his head to see who had spoken but soon figured out that he was unable to. The only thing he could do was to sit up, but the moment he started, he immediately regretted it as near unbearable pain shot up his body. The pain was nowhere near as bad as when he was getting pounded into the ground by Jakeem but it was definitely close to it as he collapsed back onto the bed he was laying on.
"I wouldn't try to move for now," The voice said with an indifferent tone. "You're lucky to even be alive right now. Honestly I don't even know what magic you used, but your body began regenerating the moment you passed out. If not for that then I'm afraid you probably would've fallen into a coma and died or become brain dead. Even now your body is still regenerating.....its quite impressive for a slum dweller."
"Who are you?" Juda asked as he looked up at the ceiling. "Where am I?"
"Your currently on floor six of the second building but most people call it the Medical Ward. Jakeem left you on the floor outside the school after beating you down and acknowledged that you had passed his challenge. I don't know what challenge it was but it seemed to improve his mood greatly. The one who brought you here was Miss Haruna Jumanji, another first year as well as a royal."
Juda didn't say anything as he took in the information. He hadn't thought that Jakeem would actually go through with his promise and actually act like nothing had happened. However the biggest shocker was that Haruna was a royal and that a royal, someone more high ranked then the nobles had actually carried him here. He didn't know if it was outta kindness or because he had taken a beating for her but he still appreciated nonetheless.
"As for who I am.....well first lets talk about why I'm actually here," the voice said after it had let Juda process the information. "Its about the royal Haruna Jumanji. Me and you will be discussing her in length so I took the liberty of providing a [Sound Shield] for us. Should make things much easier without us being overheard."
Juda's eyes raised in surprise as he once again tried to turn his head to no avail. A [Sound Shield] was Sound Elemental type spell that allowed the user to block sound from escaping inside the area of choice. It was a highly complex spell that required focus and a certain level of mastery over Sound Elemental magic. It wasn't something that just about anyone could master. He was dealing with at least a highly trained magician in training or someone even higher up in authority like a teacher.
"What could be sooo important that you would use such a complex spell for the sake of privacy?" Juda asked with a bit of suspicion. "What could you possibly tell me that would require you to keep this much secrecy??"
"Oh, so you know this spell??" The voice asked in surprise, answering Juda's question with another question. "I'm surprised kid. You earned yourself a reward....Ill give you the full version of Haruna Jumanji and we can just keep it between you and me."
"Technically I'm supposed to just be telling you to avoid her but I'll go into her background as well seeing as I never liked nobles or royals much myself." The voice paused slightly before continuing. "Tell me Juda, what do you know about Royals?"
Despite his curiosity reaching an all-time high on who this person was, Juda thought over everything he knew involving royals. His dad had nor his mom had never really covered it during his homeschool lessons and his parents knew quite a bit which by itself was surprising enough since they INSISTED that they had grew up in the slums themselves. In other words, he knew a little but not enough to get a passing grade on whatever this person was talking about.
"I know a little bit," Juda said as he narrowed his blue eyes in concentration, recalling all the information he knew. "The King has four brothers and three sisters with each having their own number of kids. Each kid was part of the same household but almost all of them went by different family names. I don't know much more then that."
"So basically next to nothing which is about right as even most nobles don't know the TRUE story of the royals." The voice gave a small sigh of what sounded like annoyance but without a face to attach it to, it was difficult to tell. "Allow me to fill you in on the tradition of those who possess royal blood."
"From birth, royals are raised to rule. They're taught early on how to act, how to behave, how to dress and a lot of the other boring stuff. They're taught and trained in magic combat, they learn history, language arts, economics and everything that would be involved in running a business or a kingdom." The voice sounded bored telling the story but the person told it nonetheless.
"That doesn't sound so bad," Juda said as the voice paused for a few seconds. "In fact, it sounds cool if you really like to learn things. I wouldn't mind the training to be honest."
"Well I never said it was gonna be a bad story now did I," The voice replied with a hint of laughter in his voice. "I'm only telling you the true story. Now, the main secret that the royals keep from you is that from the moment they're born until they reach a certain age (about 35 years) those with royal blood have their emotions sealed off completely without exception. Everyone believes that royals are just naturally coldhearted and that they're just too cool to show them their feelings, but thats not the case. Its that they CAN'T show them their feelings."
"Wait wait wait," Juda said, now completely confused. "Why in the world would they do that? It makes no sense whatsoever as having no emotion would be a hindrance in some situations so why bother? It doesn't really add up."
"Well, that makes two of us I guess," the voice replied with a bit of anger. "The royals however believe that having no emotion means that it'll be easier to run a country or business as you'll be free of all emotional attachments and personal problems. In a way they're not wrong to do it. However, they take the lack of emotions thing too far when they had Haruna."
"Haruna was born to one royal who was emotionless and involved in a large business operation which had him travel a lot from city to city across the country leaving Haruna home with a noble who absolutely hated her guts. Haruna had already recieved her emotion blockage so she only felt the pain of the blows when the noble began beating on her." The voice paused for a second as the person took a slow breath before continuing on.
"The noble was smart and clever, hiding the fact that he beat Haruna for over 13 years. Luckily she had the blockage so she onlynwent through the beating instead of also having to deal with loneliness, sadness, and confusion as she wondered why she was getting beaten." The voice stopped again but continued almost once again. "The bastard had managed to get away with it for quite a while as every time he finished with his beatings he would simply pour Elixir over her to heal all her wounds and make her pain disappear. He would even make her vow silence, promising death if she did which she agreed to in her logical and nonemotional state. However even with all his careful nature he still was killed once the royal found out as it was against the law to lay a hand on a royal child unless you were betrothed to her."
"So then Jakeem is...." Juda said as he finally began piecing the puzzle together.
"Thats right, hes Haruna's fiancé," the voice replied. "However, Jakeem unlike everyone else hates Haruna's guts. He believes that Haruna is simply acting like she's better then everyone else and too cool for him. He wasn't informed of the tradition as he's too young and would probably spill the beans so he drew his own conclusions and now resents her with all his being. He's quite strong and very quick to violence as you witnessed for yourself. I recommend you stay away from him."
"I still don't get it though," Juda said as he pondered what the voice was telling him. "How did they take the emotions thing too far for Haruna? Thats just a summarized version of her past which only left more questions then answers."
"The one thing that can break the emotion blockage is to constantly make the person feel veryyyyy strong positive emotion.....or at least I guess its something that WOULD make them feel strong emotion if they had any." The voice sounded rather confused for second before pulling itself together. "Normally, a royal would interact with other kids and go about his day as an emotionless person. If the spell happens to break every couple months or so then that was fine as it was immediately FORCEFULLY replaced. However for Haruna, they took a different approach in both the spell AND the method for breaking it."
"The spell will remain intact throughout her entire life regardless of what age she reaches but in turn for that, the spell cannot be put back on. The royals couldn't have that so they asked the principal of Mastik Academy for a favor. In exchange for a generous donation to the school, a rule was placed down in the beginning of this year about 6 months ago. No one apart from Jakeem Mastlelt and faculty may approach Haruna Jumanji at any time. Those that violate the rule would face severe punishment and, if violated again, expulsion." The voice stopped there as if it didn't want to go on.
"So the royals hoped that isolating her would drastically decrease the possibility that she would have.....wait," Juda frowned as he recalled something the voice had said. "You said that they changed the method for breaking it."
There was a rustling sound followed by light footsteps walking away. "The method for breaking it became that you have to make Haruna feel loved. It sounds corny but its actually quite genius. They not only isolated her but gave a challenge thats almost impossible."
"Why did you even bother to tell me all of this?" Juda asked curiously. "All you managed to do was leave me with more questions then answers. Who are you? Why tell me this? Whats your aim?"
Juda once again tried to sit up but this time he was forced back down almost immediately as if by some invisible force. His head was spinning from all the information but he had so many more questions he needed answered that he didn't care if his braim shut down on him.
"Who I am isnt important," The voice said from the distance. "As for why I told you all of this.....lets just say that I wanted to keep myself amused. This place is boring enough as it is but throwing you into things might be worthwhile."
With those words, the door to the infirmary opened and the person walked out, the door clicking shut behind him, leaving Juda alone with far too many unanswered questions.