In the royal palace of the heart kingdom, lying in a big Kingsize bed, was an unconscious Alfred with a new big-sized round scare right in the middle of his stomach.
Alfred's eyelids fluttered a little before they shot open with a look of panic all over his face before he calmed down and saw the three people standing next to the bed. Kisano, lolopechka, and Gadjah.
"Ahh, your awake that's great." The princess said in a tone that Alfred found quite weird. "Umm, what happened? I only remember seeing you fighting someone; I got hit by a shockwave. After that, I don't remember anything."
The three held their breaths before the old pervy sensei spoke in a severe and profound tone, " Kid, you have been unconscious for several days; you have been seriously injured thanks to invaders of the spade kingdom. You are only alive because Gadjah found you while on patrol."
Alfred's eyes widened as he processed the information. He looked at his stomach, seeing the nasty scar; he looked up at the three of them with worried eyes "is my family ok? There was an attack. So are they ok?" Alfred quickly asked with worry; the three gulped, looking down at the boy with sad eyes. The old man spoke up once again, "put on a shirt, and the kid then follows me…" the old man said as he brought the other two out of the room with him.
Alfred was quite confused but put on the shirt that was on the desk and walked out of the room. The four walked out of the royal castle and went to a small lake behind the palace. The older man stopped, then placed a hand on Alfred's shoulder and gripped it with strength. "I'm s-or-ry for your loses" Kisano barely managed to say the words as he motioned towards three tombstones several feet away with the names. Luke Godfrey, viola Godfrey, and Mona Godfrey embedded into the stones.
Alfred walked over to the tombstones and read the names with widening eyes as he read them repeatedly in his brain. 'Luke Godfrey, viola Godfrey, Mona Godfrey, Luke Godfrey, viola Godfrey, Mona Godfrey,' he repeated again and again and again and again before he fell to his knees and said with a shaky and cracking voice that was on the edge of breaking into millions of pieces of glass. "This is a joke, right?" Alfred looked up at the three of them with hopeful eyes, hoping for the tiniest glimmer of hope. Lolopechka's eyes started to water as tears ran down her face. "I'm sorry, Alfred! My duty as princess of the heart kingdom was to protect my citizens, and I failed! I! I'm sorry! I failed you and countless other citizens!" The princess yelled with tears running down her eyes as she fell to her knees beside Alfred. Yes, she could get the attacker out of the kingdom but at a severe price to her and the civilians.
Alfred looked at her with a blank look on his face that showed zero emotion. His eyes lost all their golden radiance. But was replaced with a look of confusion, sorrow, anxiety, agitation, and just extreme numbness. His eyes then rolled back into his head as he fainted on the ground, thanks to the intense emotions.
"Alfred!" The princess yelled as she held the now passed-out boy in her arms and looked up at the two men. Kusano then touched Alfred's wrist, checking for a pulse, and sighed, "he most likely passed out thanks to extreme emotional trauma."
They all sighed as Gadjah carried the boy princess-style back to the room he was in previously. It took another seven days for Alfred to wake up. Seven days!
After Alfred woke up, he balled his eyes out, unable to understand why this had to happen to him. Why couldn't this happen to someone else? Alfred continued crying inside his mind even though he knew it was wrong to wish his pain on someone else. All he wanted was his family back!
Alfred got dressed in his usual button-up shirt and tie, nice shoes, and slick black pants and put his glasses on. Put his notebook that they somehow managed to scavenge out of the wreckage of his home, into his back pocket. He checked his pocket watch for the time, then left his room in the palace, where the princess said he would be staying.
He said hi to the princess and Kisano before he left. He didn't see Gadjah or anyone else before he left for the grimoire ceremony.
He went to the kingdom's grimoire tower and waited for the ceremony to start. Many eyes of different teenagers, parents, and especially girls lingered on him a little longer than they should have, thanks to his exceedingly handsome and well-toned facial features.
The ceremony began with a mage encouraging the teenagers to practice and become spirit guardians in the future to help protect the kingdom. After that, the tower lit up, and books started to fly down to meet their owners.
"Wow! Look at my grimoire. It's so thick! Haha, look at your; it's tiny!" A teenager said, pointing at another teenager with a tiny book.
The teenager's face turned red "hey, shut it!" Several teenagers then continued to brag about their grimoires and make fun of others while laughing and having a good time.
Alfred Waited patiently before, at the very top of the tower, a grimoire that shined in a glorious golden light that seemed to be a mini sun that outshined everyone else's grimoire floated down towards Alfred.
Everyone looked at the grimoire flying down to Alfred with widened eyes. Several people started muttering among themselves. "What a beautiful grimoire!" A teenager shouted with widened eyes.
"Is he a royal? He sure looks like one." Another teenager said as he analyzed Alfred.
"Tch, who cares if he has a cool-looking grimoire? It doesn't mean swat! I'll put him in his place sooner or later." A teenager huffed with some jealousy, looking at his grimoire.
Alfred looked down at the book with a golden print of a dragon on the center of it that was now in his hands with an emotional look before he walked out of the grimoire tower, totally ignoring the conversations around him.
He continued to walk till he made it to the royal castle. He didn't have anything to do, so he went to the royal library, and let's say that the place is way more significant than the library of his old home, that's for sure.
He continued reading books on Mana theory, magic circles, rune arrays, reinforcement magic theories, and books on how to use mana zone.
He knows how to form runes out of natural mana and can even utilize them in simple spells. But doing anything that requires a significant amount of mana, he cannot correctly control it right now without the risk of it blowing up in his face. Practice makes perfect.
It's been one month since his parents and little sister died, whom he swore he would protect, and he felt tremendous guilt. He would visit their graves every morning and leave flowers. He would always talk about what he was doing, how he was doing, etc.
Lolopechka looked at Alfred sitting by his family's grave, talking to his family's grave with a sad face. She didn't know why, but it didn't look like it was just a teenager talking to his deceased family. But it looked like he was tormenting himself by telling his family what they should've done together.
Lolopechka walked over to Alfred and said thoughtfully, "I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you, but you need to leave."
Alfred's eyes widened, and they said, "what do you mean leave?"
"I'm saying that you need to leave the palace…. No, not just the palace, the kingdom. You need to leave the kingdom."
"Huh?! Why!" Alfred shouted, standing up and looking very confused. "I'm not going to let you stay here any longer. Every time I see you come to their graves, it looks like you are tormenting yourself! I won't let you stay here until you figure out how to live with yourself. You are not living! Do you think your parents and sister would want you to be tormenting yourself like this? I've noticed you haven't been eating regularly except when I order the maids to bring food to you! So you have to leave! You have to make a new life for yourself! You have to find someone or something to care for again and make your life worth living again!" Lolopechka said angrily
"But I do care for something. I care for this kingdom, you, pervy sensei, Gadjah. I do!" Alfred defended while shouting back
"I know you do, but I can tell that staying here will only remind you about your family, so you have to go! You're leaving tomorrow! Pack your stuff up!" Lolopechka said and walked away, leaving a flabbergasted Alfred, not expecting himself to be kicked out of the kingdom.