The vast verdant hills had its grass gently swaying back and forth with each breeze from the endless horizon beyond the seas. Leona was standing atop of the hill gazing upon the broad ocean as the wind welcomed her to the expanse scenery as the sun broke between the clouds above.
She extended her hands outwards the sky as rays of sunlight slipped between her stretched fingers, the warmth reminded her of her late mother. Her gentle expression was all she could remember as she closed her eyes before hearing someone call out her name.
"Leona…"
The voice came from behind her and as she turned, the scene seemed to change dramatically. The once verdant hills were barren, a wasteland void of life with violent storm clouds forming above, flashes of lightning and the harsh wind blowing against her face almost made her lose balance. Standing afloat the desolate land was a woman of silver hair. It shone brightly as if it was made of light, her clothing appeared to be weaved by her own hair as it entangled her pale body, her hands reaching towards Leona's face as she instinctively started to back away.
"Leona… you must heed my call, or will you suffer the same fate four years ago?"
As much as she wanted to scream, she couldn't nor could she look away from the woman's eyes. They had a mesmerizing gold color alluring as an endless abyss.
"Will you bow to fate? Or will you carve your own path? Death awaits at every corner, your life is in ruins, do what you must, become what you must, control the reins of your destiny."
The woman released her from her grasp, it was as if her mind had returned to her body once again, but when she looked back to the ocean, it was a sea of red riddled with floating bodies.
"Ah!"
Leona's body jolted up as she gasped for air. Wide-eyed, breathing erratic and drenched in sweat, she tried to shake off the chills down her spine, just thinking of the strange woman in her dreams was enough to tense all her muscles.
"Hey, are you alright?"
Jonathan was sitting across the campfire, they were all huddled together in a clearing inside the Arcadian forest, Krieg was leaning against a rock beside Leona with his greatsword clutched between his arm, right across them was the thief and Phoebe which was deep in her sleep, on the princess' left side Luke and Laslow were leaning against each other and on her right, Laura had Neiliel sleeping near her.
"Ah I'm… it was a nightmare."
Leona lowered her head and her right thumb started to press between the eyebrows. Stress was certainly taking its toll on the young lady and Jonathan knew that. In his line of work, dealing with people was the norm, reading their emotions, learning their nature, controlling or misleading them, those were his specialties, but that wasn't the first time he was hired for a job like that. Before he became a thief he was an assassin like Phoebe, furtive, deadly and above all, discreet, qualities that would get you far in the underworld, but he was tired of that, tired of all the killing, destroying families and futures, possibly really bright ones. The first time he laid eyes upon Leona he knew some of his targets had children like her, children that just wanted to live their lives with their families.
"It'll be over soon, we'll get your father and land back for sure."
"Thank you for your kindness, I… I just want my father to be safe."
"Only your father?"
"Oh… I never told anyone before my apologies, my mother was killed four years ago. I'm the sole heir of House Crossford."
His expression darkened. For someone so young to have their parent taken away, it was all too real for him.
"I'm… I'm sorry for hearing that."
She fell silent, it had been four years, but it felt like yesterday for her. Lying in a pool of her own mother's blood, all the grief and pain she felt, nothing could possibly compare to that. Staring at her frail pale hands now dirtied with mud and charcoal, she felt the same feeling from back then, powerlessness, meaningless, unworthy and beyond that, the anger. Anger for not being able to change. Her hand closed tightly around her pendant as she took a long deep breath.
"Excuse me."
She slowly stood up and shambly headed off behind a bush not too far from the camp. Leona stopped after she was out of sight and held her hand out against a nearby tree, her head hanging low as she leaned forward, gasping and crying. Tears started to pour as she hit the tree with her left fist, once, twice, three, four times, it was painful to think she could lose her father too.
"Dammit…!"
Her fist was stopped as she was about to punch a fifth time, the caring crimson eyes were staring at hers when she looked up towards him. Krieg was holding her fist.
"You'll hurt your hand like that, Princess Leona."
"Krieg…"
"Princess, I'll do what I must to save lord Jean, but it is my duty to see to your health too."
He released her hand, the knuckles were red and some of the skin had peeled off from the bashing against the wood.
"I'm... I'm sorry, I've been dragging you down with my tantrum."
She cleaned the tears but still couldn't face him.
"You're not the one to blame Princess."
He offered her the shortsword.
"Shall we train? I once heard from lord Jean that exercising is a good way to have a good night's sleep."
Leona couldn't help but smile weakly before taking the weapon off his hand.
"Thank you Krieg."
Though not familiar with Krieg being awfully warmhearted towards her, she tried her best to keep bad thoughts away from her mind since he was trying so hard for her. His presence was inspiring somehow, she couldn't just mop around feeling sorry for herself when he was standing strong beside her.
He approached from behind her, gently holding her right hand from beside her arms with his own and closing her fingers around the handle close to the guard. His other hand moved her stiff left grasp from close to her right hand towards the pommel as he gently pulled the hilt to her hip and pointed the tip of the blade forward.
"This guard is more focused on defending yourself."
She loosely extended and flexed her fingers around the leather handle. He then proceeded to kneel and move her right leg forward, bending her knee slightly.
"What is this for?"
She asked while trying to maintain the stance.
"This is so you have a more stable lower body. Footwork is just as crucial as knowing how to hold a blade."
He continued to fix her left leg's position more towards the back of her body with a ninety-degree angle between both feet. While clearly uncomfortable, she felt her muscles fall in place with the stance he was putting herself in, it felt compact, solid and made her ready to use the blade.
"Now the only thing left is your back, try to lean in slightly while keeping that straight posture."
"Alright."
The knight circled around her and inspected the stance from head to toe and with a firm nod said.
"Well done Princess. That was also the first stance I ever learned, it's useful for defending your lower body and it has the advantage of being able to quickly deliver a stab attack."
He picked a long branch on the ground and readied another stance in front of her. The point of the wooden stick was pointed to her as his back leaned in slightly forward with his left foot forward. He twisted the left wrist into a slash aimed towards her left side, but she quickly parried it with the flat of the shortsword. A smile appeared across his face.
"Ideally you'd want a longer blade but this serves the purpose well. Now try to stab me."
"But Krieg… that's…"
"Do not worry, I'm ready for it."
She fell back into the stance and with a natural motion of her muscles, her arms sprung forward with the tip of the sword being side-parried by the branch before he turned it sideways, reaching close to her face.
"For each attack, we have a way to defend ourselves. I'll teach you the very basics of some stances."
"Very well."
Back in the campsite, Jonathan and Laslow were talking to each other while sharing the campfire that was starting to get low. The thief broke some of the firewood before throwing it into the flames before continuing to speak.
"Quite a rare sight of you. Using mana transferring for someone other than Neiliel."
The wizard was holding his tome open on a page full of scribblings while weaving an arcane glyph in the air and without breaking his concentration, he said.
"That girl was more useful than I anticipated. When Phoebe said it was another job involving a noble I thought I'd have to cast silence on them. But thankfully I was wrong."
"Not all nobles are like that. Laslow, you know it better than anyone."
He clicked his tongue before dissipating the orange arcane glyph from the air.
"What are you doing now John? It's rich coming from a former King Slayer."
"I left that life a long time ago. I moved on, and so should you. The binds that held you back before are not here anymore, why should you hold a grudge against someone that has no relation whatsoever with what happened to you? She is a noble, yes, but she made mistakes, she's human, like us, like them."
Jonathan pointed to his fellow teammates around him, most of them still asleep. To the wizard, nobles were nothing but freeloaders abusing their power and wealth over others, but such it has been for as long as humanity has known itself.
Seeing his unchanging expression prompted the thief to continue talking.
"Wasn't it your dream to see this kingdom move forward? Well, you can definitely say it is."
Laslow closed his book after inscribing a few paragraphs of glyphs and put it inside his cloak, his face turned towards the thief before answering, he was intrigued by his friend's behaviour towards such a talented yet confusing noble girl.
"A kingdom is not built upon the weak, authority without power is meaningless."
"Power without vision is meaningless. She isn't like the nobles you'd see in the capital, she's different."
He raised an eyebrow as if mocking him.
"Oh? And what do you have to prove it?"
Jonathan pointed towards the bushes behind Laslow with his chin. The wizard gave a look of disdain before turning around. While it was dark and not much could be seen, he did see the shapes of two figures fighting, a slimer shorter figure brandishing a blade against the taller one.
"You are not telling me that…"
"She had been training there for the last couple of hours. Do you think 'those' nobles would try their hardest for something you deemed so 'mundane'?"
"I deemed mundane for being unnecessary for myself. I'm a wizard and an esper, I don't need to dabble in such things."
"Yes I know full well of it, but that girl knows magic but still tries to learn swordplay. Don't you think someone that expands their horizons instead of tunneling themselves into a corner makes for a better ruler than our previous Queen?"
Laslow averted his gaze, he clenched the corner of his cloak as he turned once again towards the thief.
"That is not for us to answer. A ruler's duty is to see to their subjects, but who are their subjects? You can't consider yourself an Arcadian if you don't believe in your ruler, but many do, they take it for granted, using others as stepping stones for their own benefit or do you think she's suited to fix this?"
"And who are we to say she isn't ready?"
An impasse, while Jonathan was not an scholar he was well versed in the arts of diplomacy and struggles of power between nobles. Laslow on the other hand became a historian before devoting himself in the study of the arcane, therefore his concerns were not unfounded. They both knew the state of the less fortunate in the capital or otherwise, a peasant would be the same anywhere they went, no matter where they came from after all.
"Could you two keep it down? I know talking about monarchy can get lively but we're trying to rest."
Laura's voice had a hint of dooziness as she loosely scratched her right eye with the bandaged hand, the heated discussion appeared to have woken her up. Many parts of her upper torso were bandaged, mostly around the chest and shoulders while the lower body kept covered by the dull brown blanket that covered both her and the priestess.
"I'm so very sorry Laura, I didn't mean to interrupt your sleep."
Jonathan said while holding his hands together in front of his slightly lowered head, though the smile made it look less apologetic.
"Fine… just keep it down alright?"
"I'm- I'm sorry Laura."
Laslow took the chance to apologize to her, but it was obvious by the look of his face that he was upset, but not at her.
"Laslow, I told you to let the spell go off, didn't I? I'm the one who took full responsibility for it."
She closed her right fist on her chest.
"I'm quite sturdy as you can see."
He couldn't help but smile because of her kindness, but deep down he felt guilty for his own incompetence. While he was no war strategist, the well-being of his comrades was one of his concerns when out on a mission. Laura is a tough woman, but one person can only take so much pressure before they bend.
"I appreciate your kindness Laura. Truly, but you mustn't push yourself too hard, that spell was one of my most powerful ones."
A faint smile could be seen on her face, she hustled around with the blanket, setting it on top of the snoring Neiliel before closing her eyes to sleep again. Laslow, for the first time after departing from Windia, smiled.
Jonathan saw his expression change but decided to not say anything in the end and instead started to fumble around his own bag for a tattered faded yellow blanket.
"Right, I'll be getting my share of sleep now, excuse me."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll keep watch."
A few minutes passed with Laslow slowly going through the firewood stacked near the campfire, sticks and logs being raised in the air by an invisible force before being dropped gently into the fire.
The sky was clear with many stars filling the darkness around the bright full moon. It was a common sight for him but it didn't make it any less breathtaking. He returned to scribing on his tome before having his attention shift towards the bushes on his right side. Both Krieg and Leona came out of the foliage, the knight carrying a stack of firewood under his left arm and the princess bearing his greatsword by the leather strap using her right shoulder to support the weight. They both settled down near the campfire where they previously were near a sizable rock, Krieg left some of the firewood on his right side. Leona sat down by his left side leaning against the rock while putting the greatsword resting on the ground near the knight's side.
Without exchanging words she went to sleep, albeit a bit sweaty from the physical exertion she didn't have any problems in finally finding rest by sloping on his left shoulder.
"...Is she a good liege to you, knight?"
An unusual question coming from someone that would prefer to see her away from his group, Laslow was sure not the best for social interactions.
"Where are you coming from with this question?"
Krieg's eyes didn't shift off the crackling fire swaying back and forth, his first impression of the wizard wasn't in a positive light.
"Merely curious, most of the servants from the nobles I knew would rather see their masters dead."
"What would you do to repay the person who saved your life from a miserable end? How far would you go for that person?"
"Not enough to bind me to their lives."
"Loyalty is different from servitude, I do what I do because I believe it's right. Leona needs me as much as I need her."
"Seems contradictory seeing a capable swordsman with a frail noble girl."
The knight shook his head.
"A ruler's job is not on the battlefield. It starts before and after the battle is won or lost. She desires for peace and I will do anything I can to see her wish come true."
"Peace huh…"
He looked towards the starry sky, a very long time ago he also wished the same, when House Lorraine wasn't at war against itself. He closed his eyes as a bittersweet sensation overcame his senses, the feel of someone who had lost a dear person.
"Laslow, can you teach me more about spellcasting today? I've hit a snag with Spark."
A chainmail armored young woman was finishing sharpening her longsword with a whetstone, she was sitting on a tree stump amidst the open forest. Her long and wavy pale blonde hair swayed along the afternoon breeze, her hazel eyes full of excitement. The sun was high in the sky but the trees around them made enough shade for them.
"Why do you want to know magic anyway? Isn't it pointless for a knight?"
A young Laslow was sitting right beside the stump looking up at the woman, he wore a leather jacket that was a little on the bigger side with the sleeves rolled up to his wrists, dark cotton shirt and pants with high leather boots. His expression seemed troubled by the woman's strange request.
"It is pointless for those who are blind to see its usefulness. I, however, believe I can put this knowledge to greater use."
"Like what? Shocking your opponent in arm's reach?"
"Another knight wouldn't be expecting that."
She giggled playfully as she finished sharpening and promptly sheathed the sword. After standing up she extended her left hand in front of her and electricity started to zap around her body, arcing flashes of light around the chainmail to her arm, until it reached the fingers of her gauntlets fizzling out of existence.
"See? For some reason it fails to release."
He sighed deeply as he closed the book with one hand and tucked inside his leather jacket. Standing up nowhere near as tall as her, he removed her metal gauntlets exposing her slim but full of calluses hand.
"Try now. It should release its full potential."
He said while swinging the piece of armor back and forth. She closed her fingers and breath deeply, focusing her mind on the spot between her knuckles and fingers. A jolt of electricity came through her body as she opened her hands and lightning arced from her fingertips towards the ground.
"Ah! It worked! Thanks Laslow."
"Good grief this sister of mine, I swear I should make you take notes when I explain things about magic."
She smiled nonetheless, her right hand scruffing his head with the metallic fingers of the gauntlet.
"I'll be your sword and shield, you'll be my pen and paper."
It was just a memory burned in his mind, Laslow was happy, even though being an illegitimate son of royalty had a steep price. Mostly an outcast, he lived in the shadows of her older sister Lena that sought knighthood from a very early age, however, she was a kind soul, caring for her brother and family.
Laslow smiled while recalling the fond past he shared with her. But that was a long time ago.
"Well, I wish to formally apologize for my behaviour towards your liege and yourself, knight Krieg. I unnecessarily judged you two before having an honest opinion. I'm very sorry."
The knight snapped a piece of wood and threw in the fire before looking at him.
"I'd prefer if you apologized to her instead of me. I'm merely doing what needs to be done."
The wizard gazed at his crimson eyes, but could not see any hint of emotion, it was as if he looked at himself from back then.
"Very well. I shall as soon as she wakes up."
"Hmm."
Krieg stared at his own hands, opening and closing them as if trying to grasp something, he frowned his brow, sighing quietly.
"Nngh… I'm up, I'm up."
A muffled voice came from across the campfire, Phoebe got up and motioned for Laslow to get some sleep. Her messy black hair got even messier as she scuffed it with her hands.
"Oh, hello ser Krieg. Didn't expect you to be on watch duty."
"Both Neiliel and Laura seem to need more rest and I got plenty after we set camp."
She nodded.
"I'll keep you company then."
The elf took out the daggers beneath her cloak and started to set them on the ground in front of her along the longbow and a few shorter but thicker knives. With a small whetstone not bigger than the palm of her hand, she started to sharpen all her weapons with an unwavering diligence in each swipe. Occasionally summoning small bubbles of water on top of the stone to ease the sharpening process she started to glance towards the opposite side of the campfire.
Leona had her mouth half open with a hint of drool coming out of the edge of her mouth while leaning on the knight's left shoulder. Phoebe stopped for a few seconds before speaking up.
"Ser Krieg, if I may."
"Yes?"
"What does the Crossford family do?"
Without taking his eyes off his hands he replied.
"Mostly weapons manufacturing."
"Like swords and muskets?"
"Swords, muskets, cannons, gunpowder… anything you can think of for war."
"War huh…"
She shifted her focus back on the dagger. Cleaning the slurry off the blade as she put it back in the sheath somewhere between her armpit and ribs under the cloak. She carefully cleaned all the knives and put them in a belt holster before moving to the bow. Krieg asked as she was removing the string of the weapon.
"Why the sudden interest?"
"Ah… well… I'd figure it would be good to know who we are helping, that's all."
"I see."
He picked up the greatsword in its sheath and clutched between his right arm while gripping the guard loosely.
"If you're trying to figure out whether they are good people or not, I at least can't say any bad things about them. Helping someone who has the characteristics of a demon while the whole country was on a persecution against demonkind, it's not something a noble family would do only because of goodwill."
"I suppose."
She put the string aside before inspecting the wooden body of the weapon, a few small cracks were forming around the handle where it curved backwards. She sighed and started to fumble with Jonathan's bag.
"Ser Krieg."
While still searching inside the large bag she continued.
"I was wondering about Miss Leona. What does she do? She seems too well versed in magic to be just a sheltered noble girl."
Krieg's eyes darted left and right, checking if any of her other comrades were awake and just after ascertaining they were the only ones up, he decided to speak.
"Her mother taught everything she knows. She is a quadra- no I mean, tri-elemental mage."
The fumbling with the bag stopped as Phoebe's wide eyes looked at his direction, more specifically, towards Leona.
"Do you really mean, she can control that many?!"
He nodded. It was rare enough for a human to be able to cast elemental spells, but being a tri-elemental mage was something out of this world. Different from the favor of the goddess, an elemental caster uses his own ability to control the myriad fundamental forces of the world to release spells. Leona was capable of much more than the average human spellcaster.
Of course that would make anyone's jaw drop and Phoebe was no exception.
"I… I'm not sure what to say, not even Laslow is capable of using more than two elements. I didn't know she was so powerful."
"I wouldn't say powerful, she can't use her magic to harm another human being."
"But with this much power… she should've been able to enter the Grand Academy."
Krieg frowned his brow looking away with a bitter expression. His teeth clenching with regret.
"She did, she was the top student there. But-"
"Sir Krieg."
A male voice came from his left side, he shifted his eyes towards him, Luke was scratching his head trying to shake off the drowsiness. His eyes had a bittersweet expression to them as he continued.
"I'd like you to let me explain, if only for a bit."
The knight nodded. Luke smiled.
"Thank you. Now..."
He turned towards Phoebe who had a puzzled look on her face.
"It's quicker if I show you, Miss Phoebe."
The young man started by removing his cloak, the edges of his shoulders became visible, scarred, tough skin with a paler complexion than the rest of his arm, it was an unpleasant sight. But he continued to remove his clothing and as the shirt came off his whole chest became visible, scarred from the center outwards, a huge burn mark left by what appeared to be a concentrated fiery explosion right in the middle of his torso.
Phoebe winced by just looking at it, she had never experienced the pain of being burned but the huge scar alone was enough to make her uncomfortable. After exposing his skin he started to talk.
"I was an apprentice mage from the Grand Academy before I joined the House of Mages and… I'm the reason why Leona was expelled from the academy."
He reached towards his left shoulder, pressing it gently as he continued to explain.
"Leona was a gifted mage, talented in multiple fields of magic with an endless thirst for knowledge, naturally that would make her stand out from the crowd. But not everyone there had good intentions."
"But what then… what do you have to do with her? I thought you were friends."
"We are, that's why I thought I'd protect her from others but that made things worse."
Eight years ago, when Leona was just a curious kid trying to learn everything she could about magic, Luke approached her trying to understand that unfathomable yet peculiar fellow mage.
"I erm… good morning, Miss Crossford, could I have a seat?"
A glass wearing brown haired boy no older than fourteen years with a very formal overcoat buttoned up to his neck bowed slightly towards the girl in a long indigo dress, her slender fingers held the book up close to her face. She sat by the center fountain of the academy yard where she would usually read and that day wasn't any different. The tall buildings around them kept the place fairly shaded with some finely trimmed bushes to embellish the yard.
Her eyes peeked from the corner of the book towards him.
"Hmmmm? Oh, feel free to have a seat, I'm just reading this book-"
"Elementals, from Archmage Eira, correct?"
"Ah! So you're also familiar with the author's book!"
She lowered the book and a warm smile came effortlessly. She offered her hand for a handshake while introducing herself.
"Leona Crossford, from class 5A, pleasure to meet you…?"
He took her hand.
"Luke of Lorraine, from class 2A, the pleasure is all mine."
She firmly shook his hand.
Luke could just smile from that fond memory.
"Back then, it wasn't all bad, the Lorraine family had good standings with the other noble houses, but something started to change once my older brother became the head of the family. I wasn't allowed to interact with the other nobles for the reason of being considered 'less' than them, or at least that was what my brother used to say."
"Stop hurting him!"
Leona yelled. Luke had his glasses thrown aside from a blow to the face. The bigger student was at least three grades above him, much older and physically stronger, without magic the frail young boy wouldn't stand a chance.
"Make me! He deserves this! No one messes with the Heliels!"
He grabbed Luke by the collar of his coat and started to slug his face, blood splattering across both student's uniforms, horror overcame Leona's senses, the blood dripping from her friend's face was enough to send her over the edge.
"I SAID STOP!"
Her trembling right hand started to emanate heat as on the palm of her hand a red ember not bigger than a few millimeters started to rapidly grow into a reddish orange sphere of flames. The brightness of the spell made the bully look towards her and his eyes went wide when he saw the spell turn from an orange sphere to a much smaller incandescent blue orb, that surprisingly enough was void of heat.
"DON'T DO IT LEONA!"
Luke mustered all the strength he could to push the bully's hand aside and cast a last second fire ward spell on himself. He stood in front of her as she released the spell.
The moment the blue orb touched him, it didn't seem to do anything, until a violent streak of small explosions consumed the center mass of the young boy, denting the shield before a strong focused blast of fire shattered the shield, sending him flying backwards against a bush. His eyes rolled back with a large burn on his chest, some of the overcoat was clinging to the melted skin.
Leona fell back on her butt, eyes shaking looking at her own trembling hands. The screams were all he heard before passing out.
"Were I a better mage back then, I could've dispelled her magic or taken the attack directly without taking that much damage."
The air around the campfire became heavy. Phoebe wasn't aware of how much she actually went through, it was horrible. Her own past was filled with its hardships of training to become an assassin but nothing came close to what she had just heard from the young man.
"I'm… I'm sorry for hearing that."
The elf said without taking her eyes off the scars on his body.
"That must have been a terrible experience for you both."
Luke nodded before starting to put his clothing back on.
"I'm also the one to blame."
Krieg started to speak with regret in his voice. He glanced briefly at the princess before looking towards the crackling fire.
"I became her personal knight only after that happened, I wasn't really aware of the extent of her burdens, first this, then Lady Ravness' death."
Phoebe applied some sort of wax to the loose string before putting it back on the bow, forcing the lower side between her feet and bringing the loop of the string in the nock, locking it in place. She looked towards Luke.
"This sounds one more of Alex's ploys, wasn't the Heliels one of the mercenary families with close ties to the Lorraines?"
His head flinched backwards as his eyes met hers, apparently some sort of idea lit up in his head.
"Now that you're telling me, yeah it is suspicious. They never had any relation to the House Lorraine before, only after Alex became the head of the family… don't tell me..."
He glanced at Krieg and a silent agreement occurred between the two. Krieg reached a conclusion that he wanted to deny, but it was the true hard and cruel reality.
"Then most of the military might in the capital is under his control."