" Jean , If you still don't get down , I'll tell Teacher about you running away ! right!now!."
"Sister!How could you be so cruel . "
The girl in the ponytail wearing a neat Olive green skirt, a white shirt, a vest of Olive green with white lining its edges, white knee length boots stood down the wall.
The boy also wore similar clothes except the skirt was replaced with pants.
These were the students of Estelle Academy.
....
"Cherrs! ", a group of men and women sat in the tavern and clinked thier mugs full of beer.
No matter how loud noise did they make , no one scolded them , no one criticised them . Instead they were looking at this group of people with awe.
These were the members of Ceres Hunters. A hunting team consisting of now more than 200 people.
These group of people sitting were the top members of the team and had recrntly recieved thier Gold Hunrer's Badge.
In the hunter's guild consisting of hundreds of thousand hunters, being the first people to become unique, how could they not celebrate.
......
' hu....hu....hahh' , hundreds of people stood in a row and swung thier swords in a uniform motion.
Each swing precise and powerful.
The head to toe black and olive green uniform telling thier identies of being members of Military academy.
The swings of thier sword making the air cry .
In the didtant arena. Two shadows kept flashing and exchanging blows. thier speed making them not be able to be seen visible to the naked eye.
In the end , A teenager stood proud in his black vest and black combat pants with knee length boots of similar color. Looking down at his embarrased opponent who was grnning in pain on his knees.
" Curse you Seven , What kind of freind are you. Was it necessary to be this hard on me ,I'm not even newcomer to Shadow" , the youth on the ground looked hatefully at his freind who claimed to his best freind on weekdays but look! this evil thing didn't show even a silver coin worth mecry in Arena.
......
Such scenes showing the vitality of duchy were commonplace.
.....
3 years ago , thier Young Duke started reforming the whole Duchy. People were dissatisfied at the begining when the duchy was closed to ouside world. But the magical changes that occurred afterwards made them want to further close the gates and never let anyone sully thier place .
The Military academy and the Estelle academy were the academies the chose best of the best from the whole duchy. No fee should be paid by the students.
There were small academies estabilished in the 56 newly built towns.
Each town Mayor was chosen by thier duke personally.
The status of awakened had increased tremendously .
Even a commoner had wealth of a Gold coin worth the minimum.
No one was hungry , no one had to worry about not finding work.
The best thing was the reward given to awakeners . The treasure to enhance thier ability.
The non awakeners were given a choice between vitality or wealth.
Scaled beasts , fur beasts , different type of carriages could be seen moving from one place to another.
The Black horned bull beasts were used in common carriages for travelling long distances. A concept similar to taxi.
The crops grown and food were abundant.
The tax has been minimum in the past years. The excess crops were sold to the Chamber of commerce .
Lives of people were satisfactory.
There were still somethings that people did not know.
largescale warehouses were prepared on borders. soldiers trained day and night for the upcoming war mentioned by thier lord.
The bunkers were built and the amazing crossbow with sharp arrows placed on border of all sides in the duchy.
The gold coins were abundant . The soldiers and knights were equipped with high quality newly developed steel weapons from the iron ore obtained .
The beautiful market was always full of vitality . At night , the lamps lit would give off a different kind of beauty to this livliness.
Food , clothing , weapons. Everything was available.
People never died for not getting treatment in these two years.
The healing potion developed by the pharmacists and awakeners were such magical potions that could bring a person back to life from brink of death.
Such days were like dream to people of the duchy. They never want such peace to end again .
Overlooking all this was a majestic castle standing atop the highest mountain in the duchy. People couldn't help but feel awe and respect towards the person sitting there who brought them such happiness and fulfilling , peaceful life.
.......
" Master! We did as you said. All the preparations are made and we will set off when you signal " , A youth bent his one knee and looked up to another youth in the grand library , so vast that the number of books could not be counted at all.
The youth standing in front of him had tall stature, pale white skin without a blemish on it. Black waterfall like long hairs fell loosely on his back upto his knees.
The tight fitting outfit of blue and white with golden intricate patterns showed his lean but excellent figure.
No matter how harmless the youth appeared like a painting in front of him , he would never underestimate him.
Not a single member of 'SHADOW' would underestimate him .
When the youth finally found the book he was searching for , he picked it up from the bookshelf and looked over.
Those Golden eyes so cold that could make people shiver. He didn't dare to look up again.
Kai was currently in the library of Estelle Academy .
The luxury library that was the reward he obtained from the system.
He didn't know what his subordinates were thinking now. He couldn't care less though.
SHADOW was what he named the assasins team under the Intelligence organisation. Those who were restless were solved by these people who were trained to be assasins by him.
He should feel burdened morally , but the urgency of impending danger swept that little thought away.
He still had a thorn of 'treasure' stuck in his throat planted by his ancestors.
The duchy was currently running well. Too well that some people started becoming restless.
Each court session, nobles would try to pressure him in opening the duchy gates. They don't know the real situation.
These restless things should have been solved long ago , he thought coldly.
The system had always been silent. Watching it's host growing up from a naive young child full of fantasy to a young boy who could break your neck without blinking. The change was too fast. Too sudden.
But it won't complain. It has always been here for only one purpose.
A data fluctuation occured without it's knowledge and subsided without alerting it.
.....
Looking outside the window , Kai closed his eyes first , feeling the cool breeze on his face. Opened them again .
He was ready. Ready to face what would come next.
The gaurdian shield that once protected the duchy , but also was cage would soon lose it's effect .
If he was the same childish Kai , he would indeed be worried.
But he is Kaizel .The grown up Kaizel who knows, He protected his people , but people need to grow too. And the best way to grow up is hardship.
What hardship could be best opportunity than war.
...
If people of duchy knew Kai's thoughts . They would definitely shudder at what demon replaced thier gentle lord.