In the outskirts of a small town called Balford, situated in the east of the kingdom of Carnelia, a boy was diligently practicing the way of the twin swords. It was still early in the morning, but he was already busy swinging his wooden twin swords as he delivered multiple slashes to his wooden targets.
After a few minutes of intense practice, he stopped and wiped off his sweat. A man in his forties came out from the balcony of the wooden house where the boy lived.
"Hey, Cedric! Breakfast is ready. Come and eat it now or you'll be late."
"Coming!"
The boy named Cedric hurriedly washed his body in a nearby well to remove the odor coming from his sweat. He hurriedly put on a new shirt and went inside.
The man who called him earlier was already seated at the table.
"Too excited to go to the academy, huh?" He said with a smile.
"Yeah. It will be my first day there, so I wanted to put my body in shape before I go there."
Although this middle-aged man was just doing household chores and was casually chatting with him, he was actually a famous and highly-ranked gauntlet which was ranked S based on the ranking systems of gauntlets.
Gauntlets are people who belonged to the gauntlet guild, whose objectives were to help people in their requests such as slaying particular monsters, helping with their problems, or even solve crisis where the military couldn't touch due to certain reasons. And unlike the military, the gauntlet guild are tied by the civilian code rather instead of the military code, which made them able to act in dealing problems that are beyond the military's control.
Cedric dreamt for a long time in becoming one, and today, he will take the entrance examination in the academy and study there for two years in order to become a full-fledged gauntlet.
"Do your best then. I won't be accompanying you there."
"Yes. Thank you for all these years you have taken care of me, Sir Vincent." Cedric bowed to the man to thank him.
"Now, go on and fulfill your dreams."
After having breakfast, Cedric packed his things and left the house. The Academy was just in the heart of Balford town, which was a few distance away from his house. There was lot of time left before the entrance ceremony starts, so he went to take a short trip towards the general store to buy the current newsletter about the kingdom of Carnelia.
"Welcome. Oh, it's you, Cedric. How's it doing?" A woman in her thirties greeted him as he entered the general store.
"Hello, Miss Anastacia. I'm doing great."
"Is there something you need? You've been helping us a lot last month so I could give you a hefty discount as thanks." She smiled at him as she said it.
"Really? Thanks then. I would like to buy the latest newsletter from the Carnelia News Source."
His eyes lit up at the mere mention of a discount. He didn't refuse it since she would only give him a discount instead of directly handing out arcels.
"I'll give you a 20% discount every time you buy in this store. That would be 16 arcels for you."
Cedric took out 16 arcel coins from his pockets and handed it to Anastacia while she gave him the newsletter.
"Thanks, Miss Anastacia. I'll be back soon if I need anything."
After saying goodbye to the woman, he went to the direction where the academy was located while reading the newsletter.
What he wanted to see in the newsletter was something related to war that had just ended 10 years ago, which was the year he was also adopted by the famous Vincent Ashbane, a Rank-S gauntlet.
Apparently, there were rumors running around that the rulers of the three nations in the continent of Azeria were involved in the shady activities of those despicable cults. Once the activities were leaked out to the outside world, a much larger, neighboring nation called Naberia suddenly declared a war that only lasted for fifty days, and it was now famously known as the Fifty Days War.
It was quite epic and the one leading the small forces of Carnelia using a unique tactic that drove the Naberians away was none other than the S-rank gauntlet, Vincent, who used to be the commander of the military during that time.
Cedric was a part of a gruesome experiment by an infamous cult who worshipped the demons. He had been subjected to torture, drugs and other harmful chemicals, and demonic rituals in order to summon a greater demon. Fortunately, the goddess Aurelian seemingly heard his prayers and he was rescued by a group of people who are members of an organization called gauntlet.
That was how he was inspired to become a gauntlet, so that he could protect those younger generations from suffering the same fate as him.
As he read through the contents, he sighed after finding nothing worthwhile. For sure, the Aristocratic families covered the whole dirt caused by the royal families so the media won't easily find something worthwhile.
He didn't notice that someone was standing just a few meters away from him and he accidentally collided with that person.
"Ow! Watch where you are going, will you?!" She angrily scowled at him after her butt landed to the ground.
"S-sorry. I was busy reading this article and I didn't see you." He quickly helped up the girl. Fortunately, she wasn't snobby and accepted his apology.
"It's fine. It was my fault for spacing out in the middle of the road."
Upon seeing him being dressed up in the same uniform as her, her eyes lit up and asked him.
"Are you also a new student in the Bright Academy?"
"Erm... I am still going to take the entrance test." He scratched his head nervously.
"Oh, I see. I didn't know they had those entrance test. I was just directly recommended to attend there."
That came as a surprise for him. But as expected, there were types of people who could easily enrol there without going through the entrance examination. Those people were none other than the aristocrats or the royal family members themselves. This girl was definitely someone with a higher status. Still, it was quite surprising that a member of an aristocratic family wanted to become a gauntlet.
"What's your name?" He heard her suddenly asking.
"My name's Cedric Ashbane. What about you?"
"I am Ferris... Ferris K." She seemed to be hiding something as she was avoiding eye contact with him as she said her name. Cedric didn't mind it, though. He wasn't that much of a busybody to start asking strangers about their circumstances.
"Nice to meet you, Ferris." He greeted with a smile.
"Nice meeting you two. It feels like we're quite destined to meet at this eventful day. However, I have to hurry because I need to go somewhere. I'm sure I'll be meeting you again soon. Goodbye, Cedric."
'That was one weird goodbye. She said she would be meeting me again, didn't she?' He thought about it after realizing that she had said it wrong.
"Oops. I have to hurry too!" He heard the bells ringing which indicated that the ceremony was about to start already. With an abnormally quick speed, he dashed through the streets of Balford town and arrived at entrance of the academy unnoticed. Even the guards didn't see him arrive and was just shockingly gaping at him.
"Um, I am Cedric Ashbane. I've come to show this letter. Where should I take the entrance exam?"
The guard, who was snapped out his thoughts by Cedric's voice, received the letter and read it. Upon seeing the contents, his eyes widened in shock and looked at the young man with chestnut hair.
"Kid, this is not a letter for the entrance exam."
"Eh?!" He was utterly shocked. He felt despair upon thinking that he had brought the wrong letter. The guard, who had seen this, immediately cleared his voice and corrected him.
"What I mean is, this is no letter for an entrance exam but a direct admission. Cedric Ashbane, you are now a student of Bright Academy.
He was even more bewildered upon hearing what the guard had said. How could he suddenly be accepted immediately? Then he realized it was Vincent who played tricks on him. There was no entrance exam at all. He should have figured it out already that the middle-aged man would have let him study in the academy with no problems of getting him in at all. He could only chuckle as he remembered Vincent's playful grin in his mind.
He was prompted by the guard to hurry up inside and told him to go straight to the large, open-air sports field in the middle of the campus.
He tried to locate at which column of students he should line up with since there were several types of uniform being worn by different students, which probably indicated their seniority or social status. He spotted a familiar figure in the back, among the students who also wore the same uniform as him. He approached her and lined up behind her as he softly greeted.
"Hello there, Ferris."
"Oh, you're here too?" Ferris asked with as surprise look.