Tests ended, and the real summer is welcoming us, along with the most awaited Royal Battle..!
Ahem, let's calm down, for a second.
Royal Battle is an annual 3-part tournament, being held here at the great Capital Academy of Doghanik Empire.
It is also considered as one of the biggest festival, here in the Empire.
For this, the Capital Academy becomes open to everyone. Whether they are from the Empire or from the other continents, they can watch.
Now, let me introduce the 3 parts of Royal Battle; First, the Horse-riding, second is chivalry, and lastly, cavalry.
Students are free to join any tournaments, whether they pick one, two or all of the tournaments, it is alright.
And it is also okay, if they don't join any, after all, the students can go and do some food stalls or something else.
Doing nothing, but just enjoying the festival is alright, as well.
The last was my most wanted thing, although, I wasn't given any leisure to go ahead and just enjoy.
Why, you ask?
…
"Ed"
Just after the tests ended, and just right when the school was still preparing for the Royal Battle, the dandelion boy approached me.
"Hey, are you going to join the Royal Battle?" he asked and I shook my head, which made him ask, "Why?"
Why, you say..?
"Well, it seems like a pain…" I leaned my chin on my palm and he pouted, "You're making excuses that Kirt would surely say"
Don't compare me with that guy..!
"It is fun, you know" with puppy eyes, he looked at me and I shoved his face away. "For you it is, but for others it hurts. After all, we need to fight"
With my words, Gino pouted once again, only to flick his fingers, along with a smirk, after a few minutes.
"Hey, Ed?" called the dandelion boy and I backed off a bit away from him, whilst asking, "W-what is it?"
I am getting a bad feeling with this…
"Will you be going back to the Emerald Palace this fall break?" with his usual tone and smile, he asked me.
I reluctantly nodded to him.
"Everyone will be going back to their homes as well, right?" the dandelion boy asked and I nodded, along with a gulp.
He fixed his way of sitting.
"And, the last time we were talking of going to each other houses, right?" he asked and I nodded.
A smirk was formed.
"You see, I was thinking that it is boring to just go normally" he pressed his chin, as he threw his smirk away.
No, it isn't boring!
"So, I was thinking how about changing it to like this…" the dandelion boy then explained the ridiculous thing he had thought of to me.
Whilst shaking my head, a sigh left my mouth.
I really don't want to think of it anymore. That guy sure knows how to trick me into doing things the way he wants me to…
Well, so I was persuaded easily by Gino and had ended up joining all the tournaments of the Royal Battle.
A sigh left my mouth, once again.
"Ahem, test… test!" a voice was heard all around the arena, as the red haired MC tested the craft magic, "Echo".
He then took a deep breath in and out, before exclaiming, "Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the Royal Battle!!"
Loud and cheerful, and again, loud…
"A once a year festival for the students of the great Capital Academy, and is us adults' entertainment!" with such statement, the audience cheered loudly.
Is it okay to call it adult's entertainment that honestly?
"Today I, Shiro will be your MC for the first day and first tournament of the Royal Battle. As many of you know, today our agenda is Horse-riding"
Horse-riding… it is the tournament which I didn't want to join, and the tournament that is a Devil's friend.
With the flick of Shiro's finger, three holograms appeared.
And of course, it is also a craft magic, where light perceives a scene and creates images of it, in front of the user or the others, who the user wants to show it to.
"In the middle, you can see our starting point, which has the same structure with our finishing point"
The red haired, Shiro started explaining.
"Over your right is our second point, the Lost Forest, where all you can see is fog. Everywhere you look are filled with fog!"
With laughter included, the audience repeated the word "fog", along with Shiro.
"And lastly, over your left you can see our third point, the Utopia, which is a manmade paradise"
I turned my head and looked over the screen, showing the third point.
A neverending sunset that shines the vast flower field, around the trail, I seen over the hologram, showing the third point.
"Now, there's no time to waste. Let us start the Royal Battle's First Tournament, Horse-riding!!"
With such words, Shiro and the audience cheered happily.
Looks like they are all be having a lot of fun, and I here am feeling closer to hell, especially now that I am about to ride the horse.
Ugh..! When is this gonna end?
*
"The first years this year looks good" whilst rubbing his white beard, an old man mumbled with a smirk.
A young man sitting beside him leaned his chin on his palm.
"You're right. Since we just know their faces, we can't just help but choose those who looks good"
With such word from the young man, the old man scoffed.
"So, who did you chose?" whilst rubbing his white beard, the old man asked and the young man gasped, "Eh?"
The old man squinted his left eye and spoke up, "You already have one on mind, right?"
"Seems like I can't lie to you" the young man raised his shoulder up and stated, "I have chosen the third Imperial prince"
The old man spared a look over the third prince.
"He looks skinny…" mumbled the old man and the young man smirked, "Skinny you say. Well, don't you complain, if he wins"
The old man snorted.
"I will be choosing the legendary knight, Christophe Borther's son, that boy with dandelion hair. The bet is on!"
Such words from him made the young man's smirk grew.
*
After a lot of introductions and list of rules, the race have started and the audience have started to shout loudly and a bit aggressively.
Sparing a glance over the audience, whilst riding my horse a bit leisurely, a grin was seen from, before I turned back ahead.
"If I'm gonna do this, I rather do it like my life's in line!" mumbling so, I flicked the reins and my horse went on fast.
Somehow, the horse feels light, unlike how it was 4 years ago.
Is it because of my own growth or because I was always forced to ride the horse, whenever I have time for it or not, by Fiore?
Either one of it sounds possible, though, the latter sounds the most possible.
Still, riding a horse sure gets the weight off my shoulder, like I can fly free out of this place anytime.
But, the fact that I feel like vomiting any time doesn't change.
Well, I must keep on holding it in or else I will be a laughing stock, which will surely drag Father and my reputation down the dirt.
Soon, I reached the second point, "The Lost Forest".
Whilst looking around, I calmly rode my horse, since I didn't found any students that near to me.
"Trees are tall, which results darkness. Fog surrounds the whole forest and there's this smell that is making me feel all dizzy"
Let's see…
The darkness is making it hard to see, whilst the fog is helping by making us lose our sense of direction.
And this smell is slowly taking our focus and conscious away, huh?
Now that I remember, that dandelion guy was saying that he had thought of the truth behind this point.
"In this old forest, lives the ghost of the fallen warriors, who are hunting people to make them their troops to fight the wars.
Once you stray away from the path you will become their target, which will make you lost forever and ever…"
He even said that with a scary tone and face, but I guess such thing is nonsense and all of this around is something made with craft magic, or even with the professors' Elements.
Plus, the story stating that there are a lot of students at the infirmary, whenever the Horse-riding finishes states that my words are the truth.
Now, let me ask you, will I be affected with these magic around me?
The answer to that is no, because right now my mind is focused on one thing. And that is to keep myself from vomiting, which is why the smell can't bother me even for a minute.
How are you gonna go pass this point, then?
That's easy. Using my magic that devours magic, I will take the fog off my front and put them back with release.
Closing my eyes, I gobble up my puke back rather than spitting it all out, and started doing the thing I stated.
Soon, I felt a gentle wind, in front of me.
Opening my eyes, I saw the sunset shining upon a vast flower field that was surrounding the trail.
Illusion magic, which can be categorized into Sol Origin, is used to create an image that is making the flower field look vast, including the Sunset.
I turned my head around.
This flower field is real. Only those near the trail and the ones beneath the sunset, though. The other parts are illusion.
Did they asked someone, with an Element categorized over Gaea Origin, grow this flower field?
"Looks like they put on a lot of effort with this point… Well, I can say the same with the second point, though"
Whilst mumbling so, I looked ahead the trail.
The third point, Utopia, which is also called the replica of the Garden of Eden, that only one man had ever reached.
I looked over the sunset that's been hitting me, once again.
If I were to give a word that suits this point, I would say fleeting suits the sunset and the whole flower field.
Somehow, seeing this place reminds me of a certain image… an image I've forgotten long ago, a memory of a distant past.
"Now, now!"
Suddenly, the red haired MC, Shiro spoke up as he noticed me, who was leisurely riding his horse.
"We can see the figure of the third Imperial Prince, Edward Finn von Collins ahead all of the other participants"
With his words, a mumbled left my mouth, "I'm the first, huh?" and the images that flowed to my mind went on and disappeared like fragments of crystals.
"You guys there no changing your bets, kay?" the MC mumbled and I hastily rode my horse, with my head down.
Why?
I managed to accept all of it and calm myself down about these things, but then, why does it still hurts?
"Ed…"
The smile my mom, Liassa had over her face, whilst laying soulless down her bed, came back to my mind.
"Ed"
My royal tutor, Fiore patting my head to calm me, who was gripping on his own shorts and crying, came to my mind.
"Ed!"
The high-pitched cheerful voice of the mysterious girl, Elia, along with her annoying smile, came to my mind.
"The Utopia, the third point of the trail will remind you of bad memories"
So Gino said, never would I think that one of his speculations, which he said out of his own whim, would ever be right.
What, you trying to tell me that a paradise won't be perfect, if the person who arrived there didn't experienced any pain?
That's utter bullshit!
Nevermind Garden of Eden or Utopia, this place only has one name for me and that is precisely Hell.
I raised my head up, and saw the fourth point just a few minutes away from me, yet it felt too far.
My lungs are hurting, and a heavy pant leaves my mouth every second.
The hurdle of the second point was being lost in place, and the hurdle of the third point is being lost in your memories, huh?
My body's getting heavier and it is hard for me to maintain my balance.
Whilst using paradise as disguise, its true face is a hostile formation of nightmares that haunts as all.
Everything isn't like a paradise or a dream.
More or less, such thing only exists in our minds, they are precisely a formation our imaginations created.
And we must accept that fact, wake up from the dream, break out from all of this.
That's too hard, I say!
Whether it is accepting everything or waking up from a dream, or breaking out from all of this, it is all too damn hard to do.
In a blink, I soon reached the finishing point, which I noticed with Shiro's loud voice stating, "Prince Edward has reached the last point!"
"Ah! But look, Gino Brother is chasing over him like a furious ostrich, from behind"
The following words he uttered made the young man laughed beside the old man, who clenched his fists, all angry.
Soon, I reached the goal and the audience cheered, whilst the dandelion boy came after me.
Fatigue, no.
I fell down because of the weight of the memories that came back to me, thanks to the third point.
My breath is going out properly now and my body is slowly becoming lighter, but the pain my memories brought still lingers inside me.
"Hahaha…" whilst laughing breath by breath, I covered my crying eyes and bit my lips to prevent myself from crying loud.
The dandelion guy brought me out the arena, behind his back.
"Sorry to brother you like this, Gino…" with my words, the dandelion boy shook his head and chuckled, "It's okay! Aren't friends there for these kinds of bothers?"
I sobbed.
"Hey, Ed" called Gino. "I don't know what you saw at the third point, and I'm sure that you wouldn't want to tell me. After all, just remembering it hurts, right?"
Gino…
"I won't tell you what I saw, as well. But, that's just for now…" he fixed his way of carrying me, whilst mumbling so.
He then turned his head a bit, to look at me.
"Ed, until the time… no, even after you tell us about it, we're all here for you.
Russell, especially because that guy adores you a lot, Anna, even if she's so shy, Kirt, even if he's a bit lazy, Forth, even if he's a pain in the ass, Reina, even if she's kinda stubborn.
And me... we're all here for you, Ed"
The words he uttered, with his usual cheerful tone, which was followed with his trademark-like big grin, it all made me giggle, with relief.
"Puu!"
With a dog-cat like furry creature on hand, our homeroom teacher, Mister Hart Gustav appeared, in front of us.
"Lux! Mister Gustav!" I greeted them, after Gino put me down.
Mister Gustav patted my head, as I arrived, in front of him, and said, "You've done a great job, Edward-kun"
Looking up, I saw his soft smile, which was soon covered due to Lux jumping onto my face, as usual.
"Thank you, sir…" I nodded, after taking the dog-cat like furry creature off my face, who then licked my cheek.
Somehow, it felt like the furry little guy was trying to tell me, "Don't cry" by licking the tear streaks I had.
"Thanks to you too, Lux" I raised the dog-cat like furry creature and smile at him.
Utopia.
I kinda hated that point for remembering me stuffs, but now… now that I've reached the end of it, saw the finishing line and heard those words from Gino, I somehow came to understand the significance of saw what it did.
By reminding us of all the bad things, it whispered to us that we need to look back on things, instead of running away from them.
And by managing to look back on those things, we will come to feel the victory and joy ahead more important than how it had, if we ran away.
Telling such fact, I guess that was the intent of the third point.