With that, we got kicked out of the duchy.
"Lucas, why did you stop me, hmm?"
I didn't like the dangerous gleam in her eyes.
"Well, would you like me to be questioned by Theo, Matthew, Ezechs, and Father?"
"Well, I don't, but it's important she does!"
She swung her arms down and popped out towards me.
"Why is it so important?"
"I can't tell you, it's a girl thing."
I shrugged.
"So you would let me get questioned then?"
"No, Lucas I-"
I smirked.
"Muuuuu.... Lucas!"
She beat her hands on my chest again.
I loved to tease her, it was way too much fun.
***
So here was a dillema.
I need decide whether to recruit Aisha first or Morgan.
Today I was definitely going to get answers from the original protagonist, but I seriously needed to recruit one of them.
Morgan, is a great dps. I don't need her just yet, and I think today she has no important things going down.
Aisha on the other hand is a noble, and while not a very high ranking one, still a noble.
Her father Viscount Campania, is a good man, and his wife is a decent person.
Quite hard to do in this empire apparently.
So I actually quite like her attitude, aside from one thing.
She's bad with other people.
Like she sleeps to avoid talking to people bad.
It's okay, I'll help her. (Read: I'll make her fight so much, she can't afford to sleep.)
So, where would she be right about now?
So in game Aisha camped out in two spots.
The first was her dormitory.
The second was the outside garden in the east side of the city.
There are trees there that she likes to lean against and sleep.
First, I'm headed to the Estelle hall where she currently resides.
She was no means an average student, but she was nearly the last.
She just happens to have no fighting ability right now.
So when it came down to it, she couldn't fight, like at all.
Her talent was pretty good, sporting a maximum 7th tier.
Her mana sensitivity was even better than mine.
Her mana pool as a 4th circle mage was also quite a bit higher than mine.
But her combat? Atrocious, I mean, when they scored her dummies for the first, second, and and third level spells, she did poorly already.
Add onto the fact she needed to do a special cast, and she was doomed from the start.
She was never really a offensive mage, but she could certainly attack, just not with magic very often.
Her single magic attribute affinity was water.
The prey of Aura's Lightning.
Hopefully, no cat fights break out in the Estelle dorm.
And that's how I got to the dorm.
I rang up Celeste, since if I called Aura about another girl, who knows what would've happened to me?
"Yeah?"
"Hey it's me Celeste, could you let me know if Aisha is there?"
"I can do that, but can I ask why?"
"Well, Aura would kill me if I ask her to do it."
"No, no, not why you're asking me, but why you need Aisha."
"Oh, I'm putting together a squad of people to grow alongside me, because the school often needs groups for assignments, and I've seen who's good."
"So I'm not being recruited then?"
"I mean, I thought if I asked, you would join, same with Mark."
"Oh. Okay, thanks, I'll let you know if she's here just one second."
So I sat in the lobby against one of the phones and waited for Celeste to pick up the phone.
I mean technically it's an orb, but also there's a 'phone dock' or more accurately a orb dock that you put the orb back into to end calls.
She never did 'hang up' but instead set the phone down, or in game terms, set the orb down outside of the dock.
"So, she's not here, and the girls up here have given the okay, for you to come around to the third floor when you need to, as long as you tell us."
"Cool, thanks Celeste."
"Mhm, also, I think they allowed it, because they want to be able to ask you questions."
"Like?"
"If you're dating Aura, and actually, many are interested in that silent triple cast you showed at the special cast competition."
"Good to know."
"Thanks, Celeste, when I've gathered everyone else, I'll make sure to give you the heads up."
"Alright, bye."
She hung up.
Alright time to go the city to find a sleeping girl.
***
Well I found her, but how on earth did she climb all the way up there?
It's not like, in game she was especially agile.
In fact she wasn't.
So that raises a few questions of mine.
But whatever, the branch was massive, and wouldn't break even with 5 of her on it.
I pushed myself up with wind magic, and sat down next to said sleeping girl.
I called out her name, and well, nothing.
So I tried something, that usually worked in game.
Actually, there was a cg, for this.
It's one scene, but it's hilarious.
The protagonist, who at this point is already friends with Aisha, finds her in the tree.
He tries to wake her up, but she doesn't respond.
So he tries to poke her cheeks, and she falls out of the tree.
I can vividly remember the cg finger of Noah's reaching out to poke her face, before her waking up and falling maybe 5 feet, onto a blanket set out to avoid any fall damage.
This was a little different though. We were roughly 40 feet in the air.
Now you may be asking, why such a big tree is doing in the garden, well that's because while it's called a garden, it's more of a park.
So that's how we got here.
Anyways, I was about to try the exact same thing.
Nyx above watch over me as I casually almost plummet this girl to death.
Or at least severe injuries.
Here we go.
I reached out to poke her, and well....
Nothing, so I tried again.
Her face twitched.
She was awake.
I began to draw the infinity symbol on her right cheek, and that got her attention real fast.
She pushed my hand away, disseated herself on the branch, and began to fall.
I caught her by her waist, already anticipating her fall, and stood us both up.
She clung to me as she looked down.
I guess she hated heights.
You learn something new every day.
"Why are you here?"
"Not gonna ask my name?"
"No, I know who you are, Lucas of the Svarmet family."
Guess I was popular.
"Well, I'm here to recruit you, but right now, I'm stopping you from falling over."
With that she clung even tighter around my torso.
"Don't drop me please."
"I won't, but I gotta ask, how did you make it up here?"
"It was raining so I used the rain as stairs."
What a weird way to use magic I didn't even think about.
Maybe I'm too combat oriented.
Well, she will be too in time.
"Anyways, I was going to recruit you to my team here in the academy."
"Will you drop me if I say no?"
"Of course not, that's cruel."
I don't think she believed me as she tightened around me even more, which I didn't know was still possible.
"Alright let's continue this on the ground."
"Don't drop me."
"I'm not, I'm going to use magic."
"Oh."
With that, I let myself fall backwards off of the branch and used my wind magic to descend slowly.
She wrapped her legs around my right leg, and buried her face into my chest.
Feels like something out of the Aura playbook.
I'll let it slide, though since I need her.
As we landed, she pulled her face away from me with a smile.
"And what's that for?"
"Well I had fun falling slowly."
"Really? It looked like you were a shivering kitten to me."
"Well, I did."
"Anyways, give any thought to my recruitment?"
"I'll think it over, and ask my parents."
"I'll give you an answer before the weekend's over."
"Got it thanks."
I had a bad feeling about that parental talk, but I should be okay.
Next on the agenda, stalk the ever loving god out of 'Noah Landerfall'.
His day to day was odd, at least when I got to the knight's course and asked Kimoria, I also asked around to Charlotte, who also said, he trained a lot, but was often falling asleep as soon as he hit the ground.
I asked her what that was all about, and she said,
"Well it doesn't seem like he is fainting from exhaustion or dehydration."
"So then what's your guess?"
"He's just a sir faints-a-lot."
"Wow, harsh and objective."
"You'd make a great military strategist."
"You know I would, and she flipped her hair behind her head in a vivacious way."
We both had a laugh at that.
It got a few looks from some others at the training area.
"But, thank you Lucas."
"Mhm."
"Actually, would you mind accompanying me to the city?"
"Sure."
"Alright, just let me wash up and we can go, unless you'd rather join me in the shower?"
"Nope, I think I might be turned into a porcupine, with how many spears will be put into me, if I tried that."
"Fufufufu, you always make the funniest comments about my teasings."
She traced her finger from the back of my chin forward.
"I will join you in a bit, so sit tight okay?"
I nodded.
What. The hell. Was that.
She just casually did that, in front of the whole knight's course here in the training grounds not to mention, I didn't even fight, so all they would talk about is me talking to women.
Gotta do something about that.
I drew Isla.
'Mmmm... Master *Yawn*'
'Yes, Isla?'
'Was that the princess you were talking about?'
'Yes.'
'She looks interested in you.'
'Well, I'm an interesting man.'
'No, I mean like between a man and a woman.'
I paused.
'What?'
I sheathed Isla after one more particularly hard step of the Svarmet stance and sat down.
'How did you get to that idea?'
'My previous masters, especially the female ones, had eyes just like hers, when they were in love'
'Did they ever make a move on the one they loved.'
'Some yes, others no, probably because one of them had their sights on a married man.'
'Wow.'
'You've had some varied masters huh?'
'Yes.'
"Lucas. You ready to go?"
'Gotta go Isla. Talk later.'
'.....'
She already went back to bed.
"Yep, all good, just got a few swings in."
"He didn't! He went through a ton of sword movements!"
Kimoria was watching us I guess.
"Hello Kimoria."
"I greet the-"
"Stop, here we are equals, just call me Charlotte"
"Yes, Lady Charlotte."
"So what did you mean by he went through a ton of sword movements?"
"Exactly that, he went through maybe 24 movements?"
"Impressive. Was that a stance Lucas?"
"Indeed."
"Must've been the duchy's one huh?"
"Yes."
"You weren't planning to train on the grounds today were you?"
"Not at all, just, what you did, I needed to get my mind off of it."
"I see."
"Lucas, you weren't here to train?"
"Well, I came to ask a few questions, but with sir faints-a-lot over there, I can't."
"I see."
"Then see you around Lucas!"
She waved and went back to her training.
With that Charlotte and I headed into the city.
"So Lucas, would you ever join the imperial guard?"
Is she trying to recruit me to the dark part? or the Tri-alliance?
"I can't. My oath prevents me from serving someone other than Aurelia."
"Then become an oathbreaker, and serve as my knight."
"Huh? If I became an oathbreaker, would you even accept me?"
"I understand the stigma around oathbreakers, but if it's you, I don't mind."
"Uhmm.."
"Just kidding, don't do that."
She stuck her tongue out at me.
"I think Aurelia might kill me before I could recruit you."
"That she would."
"Anyways, why'd you need me to join you in the city?"
"You'll see."