"There's no doubt the one you have chosen to carry on your legacy is...quite the choice, Lucifer." Says a faint voice.
"Oh please, did I not give you the ok to start calling me Lucy? It's true the boy is still young... and a bit of an oddball... but I have faith he'll grow to be the capable Lord of Death that will bring ruin to your petty oversized structure blinding the poor little people of the mortal realm with your unpromised salvation." Replies a woman in a black suit, dark as the night.
"Oh? Since when is the former ruler of all that is unholy capable of having faith? You continue to prove yourself to be quite the fool."
"Oh, you don't mean that... the only way I'd believe a word you say to me is when you decide to be a good girl and descend from your hideous lair that taints the puffy clouds in your ugly light and face me~" She replies in a taunting manner.
"Oh, how I wish I could strike your tainted body with my foot the same way I did when I banished you from the place you used to call home. You will never be welcomed back here, Lucifer. The mere thought of you is enough to pollute my realm in a state of disgust."
"Now you're just being mean~ Just you wait, when the boy learns to fully control the power of Sin is the day the sky will be painted in red. And your precious cute little angels will be losing their wings and being stripped of their faith. Then the central continent will be engulfed in entropy. I won't even have to go through the trouble of breaking free from here and manifesting myself. The silly boy I've chosen will meet you up in the cozy little haven you think is unbreachable. Make no mistake, you will see the new Lord of Ruin face to face when you least expect it. Then you'll be wishing you never set foot in this world at all, and I will be the one laughing at your face as it decays into a state of nothing." She gives a sinister giggle, the chain binding around her neck clanking as she lets out a lighthearted laugh within the confines of a room located outside of time. "But that's just about everything I wanted to say about that matter, how's your day?" She smiles.
"I really wish you would take our talks more seriously, Lucifer. Hmph, my day is just fine, thank you for asking. However, I'm afraid our little conversation is at an end. And do keep that boy in control. The way I see it, he's no threat to me. I've observed him at one point and do let me tell you watching him was like watching a dimwitted compact version of yourself. I do question why you've felt the need to elect him. Or why you've chosen to imprison yourself away instead of allowing me to dispose of you on the day of your little rampage." She sighs.
"It's a secret~"
"Well, until next time, Lucifer. I won't be missing you." The presence then vanishes.
"Oh boo... now I'm all lonely..."
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"Uuaaawhh"
I yawn as I drag myself to the academy on a foggy morning.
"It's impolite to not cover your mouth, Alek." Says Akane as she walks besides me.
"Hush, I'm tired damn it."
"Sigh just try and make a good first impression, if all the future knights think you're some sort of rude and lazy buffoon it'll ruin your reputation and any chance of joining the King's Will." She warns me in concern. "And fix your tie!"
I turn my face at her direction and look at her as if she just said the dumbest thing ever.
She did.
I'd rather join whatever cult that wrinkled crow lady and that one obscure artist were in than that circle of dorks.
Now that I've turned 15, I've pretty much been forced to enroll in the Academy of Knights thanks to an UNWANTED and very very sugary recommendation Yukki gave to the headmaster. And recommendations from a knight of the King's Will aren't something to joke about. Because the King's Will is always hopeful more strong people will fill in the gaps.
What did she even tell him anyways? Sometimes I think she did it just to be able to annoy me every day.
And it makes me fume.
It's not like just about anyone has a chance of getting in though, you'd need to accomplish a monumental task of I don't frickin' know. I ain't want nothing to do with it, really.
I look up and see the giant tower that's connected by a bridge onto Luthran castle.
"I've always wanted to see the inside of the Grand Archive" Says Akane as she roofs her hand above her eyes to shield her sight from the sun.
"Hell no, it's probably dusty crusty and musty."
She gives me a look of annoyed disapproval.
"I really am worried about your reputation, Alek." She sighs. "What are you going to choose to study by the way?"
"Hmm..." I bring my finger onto my chin and give careful contemplation to the given question. "I do not know." I say as I almost trip on a pebble.
She watches me stammer a bit before adding. "Really...? Did you even give it any thought? This is important you know. It will decide your future."
"Yeah yeah sorcery this summoning that blah blah blah I think I'll just stick to swinging a sword thank you very much." I quickly dismiss.
Seriously who needs all that?
Who wants to just sit in their room all day reading up on ways to shoot a magic banana at an aggressive hobo at 3am? Just give the man a taste of iron and be done with it. Need I say more?
Iron gang.
"W-wait for me!" She says, hurrying behind me as I pick up the pace.
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We eventually reach the Academy gates, the sun already covered in thick clouds as usual.
"Move it, schmuck." Says a very mean student with red hair as he bumps my shoulder and my feelings, then walking ahead and joining a group of boys who are now laughing at me.
It's not just them though, I hear the various group of giggles from the other students around us.
Well at least I won't have to 'worry' about ruining my reputation, it's already starting to show signs of going to shit.
"Damian, that jerk! Are you ok?" Asks Akane as she crosses her arms.
"It's all good."
It isn't.
I dust my shoulder and pick up my bag that I dropped from the force of that bump.
That dude was pretty big.
"I have to go, the lecture starts early and there's going to be a summoning exam" She gives a pleading smile. "I'll meet you back here so we can walk back together, okay?"
"Sure, gotta go meet the headmaster first thing anyway."
She gives a wave as she starts running off into the giant main building.
"Wait, where do I find him?" I ask myself as I stand there awkwardly within the crowd before getting bumped into again.
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Hundreds of students used to roam these long hallways within the academy, now it's a ghost town.
"Dude where the actual hell..."
I've been wandering around the building for about 30 minutes, the hallways are already empty and quiet. Everyone's already in their respectful rooms and classes.
While I'm out here stranded in this empty hallway and left in the solitude of my own thoughts.
This is exactly why they have maps in any mall you go to.
Why can't giant academy buildings follow in their footsteps?
"You there." My inner complaints are interrupted as I see a slightly tall girl approaching me from ahead.
She's got long black hair and red eyes with a small mole under her left, black tights, and a red tag around her left arm.
"What do you think you're doing?" She asks in a demanding tone.
She's kind of scary.
She is now standing right in front of me, glaring at me in a chilling way.
This might not come as a surprise, but I find myself at an impasse in this moment in time.
I've never dealt with someone like this. It feels as though one wrong move and I'm toast.
I should really choose my words carefully.
"What up."
Nailed it.
"What? Explain this nonsense, you have fifteen seconds." She crosses her arms and shoots me a death glare and waits in absolute silence.
Maybe I should try a different approach in my wording.
"Oh, tis' but a flawless greeting I've conjured within the inner machinations of my mind. However, it does seem to be quite lacking in the execution department, further testing will be necessary to morph it into the grandest of greetings I can possibly give shape to." Hopefully this makes me come off as a cultured and refined young man, and not the dimwit she probably thinks I am.
First impressions are important after all.
"What?"
"Good day."
I simply walk past her with haste. That whole ordeal could have gone swimmingly, unfortunately my time simply wasn't right. I propose I take this experience to heart and further evolve and improve myself as a person.
"Hold it right there." My right hand gets grabbed as I am stopped in my tracks. "You don't get to just walk away from me." She grips me tighter and turns me to face her again. She's got a face full of depleted patience.
The heck did I even do?
Her scary red eyes then fall onto my chest before she speaks up.
"Fix that tie." she says as she glares into my eyes again.
"Oh, right." I start to fumble with it, twisting it and turning it around into knots.
"You can't even do something as simple as that?" She says in a very mean tone as she brings her hands onto my tie, straightening it and tying it in the way it's supposed to be.
I'm helpless.
She lets go of me and backs up a bit to give space to our once close proximity before crossing her arms.
"You have the nerve to waste the fifteen seconds I gave you to give me a proper explanation to your strange behavior. And then you proceed to give me the trouble of fixing something you're not even capable of doing, just how illiterate are you?" She starts tapping her finger against her arm.
"Uh... do I get time to think of an answer?"
She shoots me an annoyed but unamused glare.
You really can't blame me. From another's perspective, I probably look like a pea brained blind numbskull just going in circles for thirty minutes trying to find their destination. And I really wish I had an answer for that.
Next time, I shall work up the courage to ask for directions.
Matter a fact, I'll do that now, watch this.
"Ay yo tell me where the headmaster is really quick. Not even gonna try and lie to you, I'm lost big time."
No wait, can I get a do over? I think I can ask in a more swag way.
"What?" She stops tapping her finger.
Damn, I guess not.
"You... are looking for the headmaster?" She now has a look of curiosity. "Why?"
"No questions please, he wants to see me and I'm thirty minutes late."
"Thirty?"
"Okay thanks" I start to walk past her again.
"Wait" My wrist gets grabbed again. "You will stop trying to walk away from me." She then pins me against a pillar within the hallway and places her right arm against the pillar wall next to me, trapping me. "You will not hide anything from me, you will tell me what business the headmaster has with an idiot like you. And you will do it without wasting any more of my time. Speak." She leans in slightly, scanning my eyes for any hesitation.
This chick is bad news, not exactly sure what I did to receive her irritation. It's best I drop any idea of trying to change my tone and wording to the correct one and just speak normal. No more games, not with this girl. I've got to stop wasting both our time and lock the hell in.
"Oh, hey Akane."
"Alek?" Replies Akane who just strolled into the hallway.
The girl holding me captive then turns her glare to her.
"Oh!" She drops the books she was carrying. "Pardon me president...!" She kneels to pick them back up and starts speed walking out of the hallway without even looking back at the predicament I'm in.
"See you after school Akaneee" I yell out to her with a wave.
The girl turns her sharp gaze back to me and squints her eyes in impatience.
"So, 'Alek' was it?" She lets me go and re-crosses her arms.
"Yeh."
"Hmm... I don't recall anyone with that name... are you new?"
"No, I'm Alek."
"....."
"Yes, I'm new." I say as I drop my gaze to the floor.
"Why did you not just say you were new instead of treating my time like it was nothing?"
"So, you're president? What a strange name."
"...."
She lowers her gaze to the floor and begins to rub her forehead, almost like that was the last straw.
"I'm Rin, the student council president." She says as she looks back up at me, almost like she's daring me to say another terrible pun just to have the excuse of throwing me out the nearest window and into the big fountain outside.
Look man I'm just trying to lighten the mood or something. This whole meeting has been nothing but a pain. I guess she doesn't do well with puns or jokes. I'll have to remember that.
"Now, tell me what the headmaster could want with a nimrod like you, Alek" She crosses her arms and starts tapping her finger against her arm again.
"I don't really know, I've gotta meet him to know, you know?" I say casually.
"Hmph... follow me" She turns around and starts walking off, not even looking back to see if I have the mental capacity to follow her order.
I start to fix my tie as I follow behind her.
"It's unusual for a person like you to be enrolling into the academy this late into the year, such cases are very unheard of." She says before she looks over her shoulder and onto my wicked self fumbling with my tie. "Do you have any explanation for that?"
"No not really." I say as we continue to walk down the many long halls.
She stops and looks back at me with a skeptic look.
"What do you mean you don't? Explain."
"Well, I got recommended by someone to the headmaster. And I'm hating every second of it."
"Someone... recommended you? Who?"
*WAM!*
The door to the room right in front of us swings open in a fast instant.
And my eyes fill with dread at the immediate new sight in front of me.
"Alek~! Wow, you really did decide to show up huh?" Says Yukki, her twin tails swaying as she approaches me before coming to a stop after realizing who's right next to me. "Oooh, well hello there prez, what are ya doing with my friend there?"
Friend?
"Well, if it isn't the little roach that doesn't know when to crawl away." Rin gets in front of me and crosses her arms as they are now face to face. "I thought a little twerp like you was busy far-off slacking while the rest of us are busy maintaining and providing stability for the Academy and its students." She says coldly.
"Hmm~ Funny you should mention that prez, I'm actually here to report my assignment to headmaster!" She twirls her finger around her hair. "Yet another perfectly finished assignment for me, better not let me catch up, it'll be a nasty sight for ya, could you really afford that, rin-rin?" She smirks.
Can I leave yet?
"The gap you and I have regarding real assignments done is just a sorry sight. It will take a century and a stroke of real perfection for you to reach my accomplishments. And perhaps a stool." She replies as she looks down at Yukki's slightly shorter frame.
"Oh yeah~? Well, I'm on my way now to fulfill yet another easy assignment from the headmaster~ Have you ever asked yourself why you don't get the assignments I do prez? Surely you've stepped foot outside the Kingdom at least once in your life, riiight~?
"That is irrelevant. And our tasks are vastly different given our positions within the Kingdom. Get your little imp mind in check before you get eaten by an ogre one day, shrimp."
"Now now, do behave yourselves at least a smidgen amount for our newcomer here." Says a posh voice as a man with a top hat and mustache steps out of the room, the candle lights reflecting off his monocle. "You must be Alek, correct?" He asks as he pulls out a golden pocket watch from his classy black jacket. "You two run along now."
The two girls give a final competitive look to each other before turning away.
"Byeee Alek! Let's talk lots during our school life together!" She gives a wink as she jumps out the window and flying away on her BIG ASS blue dragon.
"Hmph. You." Rin turns to look at me and gets close in a threatful manner. "I'm not done with you, and you're not done explaining yourself. I expect you to see me in the library after school, and you can't refuse. You will be there; do I make myself clear?"
Oh, no. No good can come out of this.
"Now now Rin, give the boy his space. Rather than demanding his audience, why not show him around instead? I'm certain the capable student council president is eager for such task, yes?" He says as he puts his golden pocket watch away.
"Very well. I will take some time out of my schedule and educate him about our academy rules and what is expected of him. Failure to comply or showing slow signs of improvement will authorize me in expelling him. Is that acceptable to you, headmaster?"
"But of course, when have I doubted your ability? Run along now."
"Hmph. Remember, you, library, after school. And don't even think about being a second late." She shoots me a scary brief gaze before turning away and walking off down the hallway.
I'm tired.
"Well then Alek, do come in. We've much to talk about." He stands by the door and motions for me to go inside.
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"So, what do you think about our establishment, Alek?" He says as he walks towards his desk.
"Pretty big"
"Ah, is that right? Anything else?"
"Not really." I reply as I sit on the comfy red cushion of the sofa in the middle of the room.
He looks down at my right hand covered in a bandage.
"So, Alek." He sits, resting his elbows on the desk. "How much do you know about the Luthran Kingdom?" He looks at me as he waits for my response.
"Uh... well, it's a Kingdom... and there's knights and stuff. Oh, and a King."
"Hmm..." He joins his gloved hands together, connecting his fingers and resting his chin on his hands.
"Why?" I ask as I lean back against the very soft sofa.
"You're not from this Kingdom, Alek. It's very evident." He says, scanning my eyes.
"Yeah... well I uh..."
Crap, what do I tell him? That I came to this world after getting my ribs pummeled by a garbage truck like it was something straight out of a spoof movie? No that would just make me look like someone that ruined my mind with alchemy. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I am in no way a drug addict.
Then something in the large room catches my eye.
I look to the wall on my left and see a painting of old man Lux.
He looked pretty good when he was young, when was that painting made anyway?
"Well the thing is... I was adopted and brought here.. haha..." I really hope he buys that.
"Brought here? That is most unusual, from where if I may ask?"
"I was very young, the memory is hazy, my bad."
"But... it would be impossible. Life outside the walls is a cold, dark and unforgiving place. The other Kingdoms are far too large in distance from here. The only nearest Kingdom is..." He pauses.
I pick up a cushion and start fluffing it, I should get me one of these sofas.
Might be hard to do though, it looks expensive, and I'm broke as a joke.
Maybe another episode of stealing from the rich doesn't sound so bad.
"Alek."
"Oh uh, yes?" I drop the cushion back on the sofa.
"Does the word 'Alvara' seem familiar to you?"
"Nope."
The hell is that? Some kind of plant? Or maybe a cake.
"It was the name of a certain Kingdom that used to exist, it's long been ruined after a catastrophic event that occurred across the central continent." He stands up and walks to the bookshelf. "It was known as the Second Calamity." He picks a book from the bookshelf and starts flipping through it.
That actually sounds kinda metal, that would make a pretty killer name for a band.
"Doesn't ring any bells sorry."
He closes the book with a loud thud and places it back in its spot. Then he goes over to his desk and pulls something out of it before coming over and sitting on the opposite sofa in front of me.
"Alek, I have reason to believe you're just what this Kingdom needs, I see potential in you. I believe if you inform yourself plenty, you'll be the next one to join The Order of the King's Will."
Oh great, this again.
"I don't think I'm cut out for that, I just got here. Ask someone else, okay? Okay."
"Oh, but it's true young lad. Yukki has already recommended you. And..."
"And?"
"I can sense something in you. Something that shouldn't be this... interesting for a boy your age. I'm not certain just what it is. But I can assure you it's something you ought to make use of." He places a large silver key on the coffee table. "I'm not supposed to be giving this to just about anyone, but a little secret wouldn't hurt between us men, you agree, yes?" He gives a slight smirk. "Take it, it's a spare key to the Grand Archive. The books outside the archive won't do you any good in enlightening you. It's best you seek from within a place forbidden from the common folk."
I reach out and take it.
I guess a little stroll into a forbidden library sounds pretty dank.
"Oh, one more thing. Do make sure you sneak yourself in, the guards won't just let a boy seek entry. And if you do get caught... well you didn't get it from me." He strokes on his mustache and gives a mischievous smirk before turning away.
I head out towards the door and back out into the hallway.
"Wait, I didn't ask him where my assigned class was."
.
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