Later that night we celebrated the news of my admission at a party with my mother, my sister, Hope, Elizabeth, and, sadly, Albert who had no shame in joining us.
"It's a private party, can you go?"
"Sh-shut up! I'm only here to keep an eye on you."
"You just want to eat for free, beggar."
"Oh, you... Your mother's beautiful son."
"... Yes, you ugly women't."
The party was filled with moments like these, after the exam I was guaranteed to be a privileged student of the academy and so Albert suffered from becoming a boot licker. Everyone was cheering and my mother was not openly surprised, "Your admission was only a formality, I never doubted it", What a beautiful sentence from a mother, with the only downside of condemning me to do my best,
but on his side, Hope, discussing with his sister, seemed bothered.
"Just once more, please, I'm strong enough to assimilate it."
"Hope, the problem is not if you can or not assimilate it, the problem is that if you wish to become a top Emissary you can't rely on me for gathering magic stones at your place."
"Just one last for the academy, just to make it fair, I'll do the rest myself."
"*sigh* Now you're disappointing me, I gave you Hero Time as a last reward for your hard work, what's happened to your will to fight? You call it unfair because Dora and Cid have trained more than you?"
"... No, I've trained more than anyone in this village. If you spent more time around you'd see it... But for once you're here you stick to someone else. Forget what I asked."
After my fight against Barron, Hope was facing an internal crisis, on the one hand, Barron had demonstrated abilities far beyond what he could handle, this was the first time he felt genuinely inferior to someone, someone who should have beaten his rival easily, but that was the problem, his rival was about to defeat Barron,
Hope, therefore, felt faced with a wall that he was too impatient to cross, to the point of making a foreign request of his temper, and his last sentence seemed to hide something else.
"Hope, you know that I am the captain of the royal guards, as such, it's impossible for me to be here every day, or weeks, or even months, I have to fight for the people, and in return, I cannot pass a lot of family time, you should understand it."
"I'm not crying over it, I'll beat you one day anyway, so you'll be the one waiting."
"And I'll be more than happy if you do it, and that's why you really should stay closer to Dora, he'll be more useful than any E-rank group once he takes this seriously.
"Here, do you still have to talk about him every day? He's my friend but you're my…Never mind! I shouldn't be surprised!"
He started to walk away, Elizabeth
tried to follow him but a sudden call stopped her.
"Hey, Liza, I want a private talk about something important."
She turned toward me a little worried.
"Eh... Is this urgent?"
"Since I have to leave tomorrow, yeah."
"Huh, oh, so maybe a little later?"
"... I'd prefer now since you're still sober, my decision to join the academy depends on it."
"S-sober?! You little... Hope, could you...Um...Oh Dora, does this have to be in private?"
"Leave me out of it, Your favorite person is asking for a date, you shouldn't refuse."
Hope left the place grumbling, Elizabeth tried to hold him back in vain but the young man was already far away, I watched the scene carefully.
"Um, is this a bad time to say my request is a bit illegal?" »
"...It's okay, I'll talk to him later, what do you want to ask?"
"Not here, come with me."
We went to a room down the hall, my bedroom, and when I opened the door, Elizabeth was surprised by the sight.
My room does not present the image of the house, a large luxurious bed, a sofa, a tea service, and especially a clock on the ceiling.
"What... What is this place?" She asked dumbfounded "It wasn't like that yesterday."
"... So you did come to my room, this place is one of my techniques, a room in another dimension that only I can open, time passes more slowly here too so we will have plenty of time to chat.
I sat down in an armchair and she did the same, her eyes wandering around the room that looked like a royal bedroom.
" SO? What exactly do you want? You said it was illegal.
"Not a lot of things, it's not impossible for the Captain of the Holy Royal Knights to do. Firstly, as someone you think has great potential for the future, I want to have a royal scholarship."
"A... A royal scholarship?"
"Yes, I did my research and found out that for special students recommended by the kingdom, the academy will offer a scholarship, so I want that one."
"Yes, but it's the scholarship for students from the noble caste, for normal people it's the excellence scholarship, that's the one you can access."
"Yes, and that's why I need you, the one who can force the Kingdom to build a poste de garde pour son village, to use the same authority to make the wonderful Avatar, who can use every type of branch, feel at home at the academy."
"... Every? Are you really serious... No, wait! What you're asking concerns the order of the crown, you will alienate a lot of people if you get what you ask for."
"Ah? How sad, guess my career as a professional peasant can keep going."
"My, my, MY! Why are you so complicated? Didn't you promise to your mom?!"
"Yeah but who knows if I will succeed? Suddenly I feel so unworthy of studying at the academy, guess I'll just chill forever."
"..... Now you'll really be the one owning me something, do you think it's fair for the others?"
"I don't know, I feel like Hope getting a cheat stone without trying, sounds familiar?"
Elizabeth was speechless, no matter how hard she tried, I had cornered her.
I was aware that a commoner could get a scholarship but I also knew that life was so expensive on capital that the Merit scholarship barely allowed me to survive. If I had to sacrifice my life for the kingdom, then the kingdom should also leave an arm.
"I expected you to be a glorious warrior, not a kid blinded by money."
"That sounds a lot like a 'you' problem. So? My lady? Do we have a deal? Are you gonna make me a spoiled brat?"
That was a perfect plan since it was only a cover. The real reason why I wanted a Royal scholarship was that I knew what kind of treatment awaited commoners in a Royal place, Barron was an example, and the Royal scholarship provided me the best weapon: total immunity, I could do whatever I wanted without consequences, but better focus Elizabeth on the financial aspect for now.
"Fine then, you'll get it... Do you also want me to be your Sugar mommy as a bonus? Filthy gigolo."
"Oh, that won't be necessary, only if your brother beat me."
"Good, but as a senior, I can confirm one thing to you: you, with this scholarship, will bring all the hatred in the world on yourself.
"Surprisingly, I feel like I've lived this all my life."
We shook hands, sealing our agreement, Elizabeth not realizing that she had just given a license to violence to a demon.
It was dawn in the village, the day I left. In the house, everyone was still asleep, and outside, the streets were deserted. The perfect time for my morning round. I headed for the nearby forest, sinking deeper and deeper until I was sure I was completely isolated. "Very well, one last time before the great departure." I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them again, they brightened red. In this scene, I was alone in the forest, in my point of view, I could see a message on a green screen. [Extermination Quest: Kill 10 Boars | Reward: 20 exp - 1 soul stone] [ Quest: Gather 400 black water lilies| Reward: 40 exp - 3 elemental stones] I had a unique ability giving me access to a system offering me a choice of two quests every day. The best part was that after completing one of the quests, I was rewarded with a brand new skill that made me even better at things I'd never practiced before. These skills ranged from combat skills like swordsmanship and archery to survival
We were facing my former companions, given their faces, they must also have been surprised to see me, we hadn't had any contact since that day."Hm? What a surprise, the useless debuff is here, you came to say goodbye to us? How nice." Erick launched hostilities."Erick, stop this, please. Hello, mister Anesidora, we weren't expecting you, are you also leaving?""Oh, Liliana was it? Yeah, I'm doing great, very great" I smirked at Elizabeth in her disguise and she sighed in answer. "I heard that you had subdued the rift last time, excellent job.""... Thank you, it wasn't that hard, everyone did a great job, even though I would have liked to count you with us.""For what? Did we even need to use my poison skill? This only confirms that this thing is worthless, like the user somehow."These words agitated my family and Hope, Wendy, too young to understand what was going on tugged at our mother's sleeve."Mom, who are they?"Mo didn't answer and only patted Wendy's head, she knew how she
"This is your bus stop."I snapped my finger and a dimensional hole opened beneath Erick. He fell there without even realizing what was happening, and in no time, found himself free-falling under the bridge."Say hello to the parents of my payment, stone and stick."Erick felt endless, it would be fun to know what he was thinking at the time, but I had to take care of his companions first."W... What... Where's Erick?! What did you do??""On the bright side... Now you really have the harem of girls you've been dreaming about.""Bring him back, now!"Leon was advancing furiously towards me, his fist clenching and releasing dangerous waves of energy, his means of negotiation."Scary."I snapped my fingers and another hole opened up under Leon, knocking him under the bridge.No matter what people say, gravity has always been a formidable weapon, I took out 2 E rank emissaries with minimal effort, not a feat but still impressive."Are you crazy?! When… What did you…""Ah, I forgot you, Mo
The rest of the trip went off without a hitch, the tension had gone down and the debate mainly revolved around the complaints of my comrades and Hope telling us about his future exploits.We soon arrived in Sungen Town, one of the largest towns in the region and headquarters of the Southern Guild. Sana, Marie, Liliana, and Lilith prepared to go down, the time for our new farewell had come."So keep doing your best mister Dora, We'll do our best too and I hope to finally work with you one day.""You wish to see Leon die?""*giggle* You better keep getting strong because we won't stay E-rank for long.""By the way, Idiora, What is this device you were manipulating in the bus? It looks like a magic stone.""Marie, this thing is called a mobile phone, have you never... Oh, yeah... Poverty.""Jerk.""Hm! No, I mean the village is so poor that no one has one, even I got this... In a special way! I'm not insulting you, I'll even give this to you as a farewell gift. "I handed her the device.
The next day had arrived, the day we were supposed to enroll in the academy.The sun had risen a few hours ago and life was returning to normal in the capital.In the courtyard of an inn, Hope, wearing only shorts, was swinging a wooden sword in the air."Ha!"Powerful blows rent the air, a delectable sight for the inn manager."Mister Hope, you have a visitor."The young man stopped and looked at the manager who was accompanied by a robust man, tall and with disheveled black hair."Hm, not so bad, if It was me, I would have added a few weights, but I think for a beginner it's already good.""Oh Huh... Thanks, but it's only a warm-up, I can't risk getting injured today, my daily training is usually more brutal.""For me, if you don't risk getting hurt, it's not training.""... Who are you by the way?"The man crossed his arms and cocked his chin proudly, showing off his massive pecs."I am an examiner from the Royal Academy of Nebula, Physical Education teacher, and especially C-class
The vehicle had been parked outside and we continued the road on foot. The spectacle behind the walls was divine.A vast area, richly decorated with statues along numerous paths, water fountains further on, and tremendous vegetation. It was like a capital within the capital, this world was simply magical.The architecture of the main building in the distance was reminiscent of a castle, with its many towers and buildings.Other buildings emerged in the distance, this world was infinite.As we walked, we passed more and more students from the academy. Some, grouped on a hill or a public bench, we imagined with curiosity.(Is it because we're not in uniform?)Then I looked to my right and noticed Hope and his duckling walk, spreading his feet wide apart and a smug glint on his face, following Muscle Man as he jutted his chin forward and rolled his shoulder pads.(For God's sake…)After a while, we arrived in the main hall. A large population of students were gathered there, chatting ami
An awkward silence settled in, we stared at each other like animals in different cages in a zoo, Iris noticed this strange tension and broke the ice."Good to see you Thomas, I see you've already brought Cid""Oh, good to see you, Miss Iris, and yes, I brought back this rascal but… What a hassle.""Hey, watch your mouth, I'm not getting ordered around by a subordinate. And what are those beggars doing here? You're not here as cooks or something right? Even this would be too much for the likes of you."Thomas facepalmed and sighed while Iris was giggling."I see, I heard the Avatar enlisted by Dean Candace was quite the character, You seem to live up to that name.""Hm, Yeah, and You should tell loudly to this fool who enlisted me, we don't have the same value."Hope fixed his collar, a smirk on his face." Oh? Is that really all you have? For your information, the one who enlisted us is the captain of the Royal Guards, MY sister. The strongest woman in the country saw potential in us
Hope and Midgard looked at each other without saying a word. The young lady, whose face had become severe, carefully observed the slightest reaction from her interlocutor, like a snake after having bitten its prey, but this time the venom did not spread as expected."System? What do you mean? What system?She looked at him, her irises narrowing so much that they were becoming less and less visible."You don't know what the system is? Are you playing dumb? What are you trying to pull?"Um... What do you mean seriously? What is a system?"... Hm, I see, with your past, I expected you to be the one… Unless you are trying to trick me, little toy.""Look, I have no idea what you're saying, can we move on? I cannot wait anymore!"Go ahead, play your children's game."Hope, as if freed from his chains, rushed towards the end of the tunnel. Midgard crossed her arms and sighed."This game of cat and mouse has been going on too long… You know you're stuck, why do you keep hiding from me?"Hope