The Three Factions
As promised here is the chapter for the day.
Tomorrow, work starts again. If everything goes well, I will be able to post another chapter on saturday and sunday. Hopefully this will speed up posting the 4th Arc chapters eventually, forcing me to write the chapters for the 5th Arc.
Hope you enjoy reading!
三つの派閥
Screams continued as the smokescreen of dust from the explosion covered the whole square. It will be a no brainer to expect a scene of utter gore when the dust subsides.
“Dispel this cloud of dust” while waiting for the dust to subside, I hear a girl’s voice echo in the chaos. “Aero Wind”
What should have looked like a B-Rated Gore Scene became a scene of beautiful transparent crystals covering everyone.
“Beautiful…” curious, a girl touched these crystals and soon enough immediately started to crumble to the ground. “Ahhh~”
“W-what is this?” Seeing that the crystal would crumble when touched, everyone started doing the same.
“Seize the students!” while the voice earlier held the same bewilderment she came prepared with knights and even brought Healers from the Church and carried out her main purpose. “All of them!”
“Do you know who this person is?” One of the blue-coated uniformed students tried to resist even shamelessly stating the power of their leader. “This person is none other than Alfred Sanctis y Fritzer of the house Mordredia, Son of the Duke Elliot Sanctis y Fritzer Mordredia. This person is the one who is next in line of the Throne. Bow down before him plebeians.”
“Yes, I am aware of his lineage.” The girl who does not bow down comes closer to the boy who turned pale the moment he comes face to face with the girl who intervened with the commotion. “Though if I am not mistaken, the House of Limright should be the next to the throne and still a story 95 years from now.”
“Princess Hisui.” Alfred was clearly irked with how the princess pointed out some facts. However true to being a gentleman he willingly gets himself arrested and made sure all his faction does the same. “Everyone, you are not to resist.”
“Logical as always.” the princess - Hisui smiles at him and slightly bows. “Thank you.”
“…” the same weird look also came from the leader of the other faction, Magnus. “We will abide by the princess’ will.”
“Thank you, Magnus.” Magnus curtsied to the princess and made sure that his faction follows the guards’ instructions.
“Hisui.” Another girl who came together with the princess started to call her by name with a stoic, almost mechanical voice. “What do you think those crystals were?”
“I don’t know…” she must have wondered about it. It can’t be helped there should be no record of that kind of magic, after all it is not one. It is an original skill I had developed and honed to counter the effects of magic. “Ah.”
‘Ah.’ Our eyes met, this is bad I should make my exit. After slightly bowing to her, I immediately left the scene, but I was still within earshot so… “Is that…?”
“Hisui?”
“Nothing, I thought I saw someone I know.” The princess then calls for her friend and headed for the direction of the school.
“The ‘Fighting Eagles’ started the commotion because the nobles started to harass some local vendors.”
“The commoners was just pushing their luck with the ‘Noble Stallions’. Those plebeians really should know their place.”
“The princess was like ‘wind magic~’ and whoosh the dust flew away and beautiful crystals appeared.”
Looks like getting involved with this would be troublesome, better make sure not to get too close with either of the three.
Now where was I? Right better go shopping for materials.
*****
The Nobles Faction had gone berserk.
The Commoner Faction had started a rebellion.
The princess is a saint!
These were the main rumors that spread like wildfire when school resumed the next day. Well, it could not be helped the disturbance yesterday was indeed too juicy for anyone to just pass.
There was even a rumor about the princess being a saint possessing the power to save anyone from even huge explosions. Sorry about rising the hurdle princess, but I don’t ever want to get involved in politics or nobility.
Due to the commotion, the perfect day for shopping and information gathering was put on hold. The stores that should have been open had to close early due to costumers dispersing. I have to wait another 6 days to pass before my next work-off.
…and the day ended.
*****
“You!?” while deep in thought a somewhat familiar voice call for me.
“Yes, my Lady.” Geh… one of the persons I did not want to get involve pops in front of me. “How may I be of service?”
“Hmmm…?” while looking at me, she tilts her head quizzically “I knew that you entered school, but why utility personnel?”
“I am sorry to have misguided you, your highness.’’ I do not know what the princess is saying so I just give a vague apology. Old-man Billy keeps reminding me not to disrespect nobles and this one in particular is no ordinary noble, she’s the Crowned Princess of the Kingdom Levantis, any comments or actions can be treated Lèse-majesté and will lead me the gallows.
“You do not have to apologize.” The princess bowed down to me though, as if she was the one who did something wrong. “I’m sure you have your own circumstances.”
“You… the one who handles the library…” the girl with the stoic-mechanical voice beside the princess was not asking for a question rather she knows it is me. “Thanks.”
“That’s right. This girl, Sara, she is part of the Library Committee and always gets late because the committee has to clean early in the morning.” The princess happily smiles that her friend is no longer late thanks to my intervention. “Allow me to say my thanks as well.”
“I am glad that you are happy Lady Sara.” Well, I guess this girl is one of the reasons why I get to stay late at night at the library, she deserves my thanks as well.
“Title… not needed… not a noble… Sara is fine…” she is a commoner? She always addresses the princess by name so I thought that she is a noble. I guess the princess is not one to discriminate between noble and commoners.
“Then Miss Sara, I am glad that you are happy with my work” When I called her Miss Sara instead, she still swayed her head and the shoulder length hair followed softly at the gesture. Unfortunately, this is a compromise, after all commoner or not she is a student and I am a worker for this institution, she still has slightly higher authority over mine.
The chimes of the bell marked the start of the next set of classes interrupted our conversation. The two then bowed and left for their class. Before completely leaving my sight, the princess looks back towards me and…
“Yesterday… you…” then she stops halfway her speech, closed her eyes, and said her farewells again. “Thank you again.”
What was that about? Now that you mentioned it, she seems to have known me. Clearly, I have never met her before now, or have I? “Well, there’s no point in dwelling about that, let’s go back to my daily duties and get reading at night.”
The princess was quite the image of tranquility there was no hidden agenda or any implication of aggression in her mannerisms or even on her words. She had that lovely ambiance that denies most of the images of rotten royalty. Well, I guess Lady Anna and Sir Heid’s image of the King was not too far off after all.
“Well, I guess I need to go back to work.” Dereliction of duty is one of the leading causes of getting fired in work, and stopping work to talk to someone is one of them, I simple do not want to get sacked at least not until I get all necessary information about this world.
Well, even Mr. Co-Head will not sack me for responding to a Noble, a princess at that. But I still decided to hasten my work for lost time and it’s almost lunch too. Or so I thought when another of the three type of peoples I wanted to stay away from came to me.
“Ohhh, it looks like we have another young commoner.” While working for lost time, I chance upon trouble, it should have already been time for class but these guys are out. “Trying to work diligently to get a scholarship, perhaps?”
Now that is just sad. I guess now I know the reason why the guy I replaced wanted to work here despite there being a lot of nobles. He wanted a scholarship to enter school and these lowlifes cut his only dreams.
“…”
“Ohh! We have a fighter.” They then got some hefty amount of coins from their pockets and started to bet in front of me. “How ‘bout a week…?”
“I will bet three days.”
“Don’t know you guys, he looks like a fighter, how ‘bout 1 month for 5 silvers.”
“Ohh, I guess Nobles are so smart they no longer go to class, I wonder if they are so kind enough to teach us…” while coming up of ways to give these guys some non-physical-painless punishment, a new comer interrupts my thoughts.
“M-Magnus!” their laughter earlier replaced with grim. “Tche, We’re going back to class… remember this…”
“Magnus, you know they can’t hope to lecture the third rank student.” The girl with glasses behind the boy –Magnus, scoffs in a mild laughter.
“Are you okay? Don’t let those scoundrels get to you and keep working hard.” Ohh, from the looks of it, he must be speaking from experience.
“Thank you.” while low on my bow, a blip in my Danger Perception kicks in, more specifically slightly far at the back of Magnus.
It is probably a strong magic aimed for the unprotected Magnus, no the main target is probably the girl. Looks like this would be a good time to try off that physically painless punishment I thought off earlier.
.LOG {
•Image of Blood lust formed, succeeded in creating skill BLOODLUST LVL 1
•BLOODLUST Skill Activated
•船長… please come back…
•Ohhhh! That so cool...
}
“Arghhh!!!” I then sent a surge of BLOODLUST to the assailant’s way and manage to render them unconscious.
“Get them to the infirmary. Hurry!”
“What’s up with those guys…?”
“They must have been aiming at us with magic but back fired.” after gesturing his goodbye, Magnus and the girl finally went for their own classrooms.
Now I really need to get back to work... or Co-Head will get my Head….
*****
Magnus Ramirez. He had a fiery passion and seem hardworking to the bone. He has this great aversion to nobles though. However, I could also feel that this hate is somewhat superficial. Part of this is probably due self-indulged arrogance upon climbing up through sheer will and intelligence.
Unlike the princess who has no qualms about being with either commoner or noble, Magnus seem to stray or try to beat Nobles at their games this is probably where his pride kicks in. Overall, he is a likable guy.
Classes end at 15th Bell by then all students go back to their respective dormitories emptying the hallways and allow me to use Flash-Step and Half-step to hasten the job for the day duties.
“Let’s see how powerful you are now, Mr. Noble.” just when I was about to finish my cleaning, angry voices echo the supposedly empty hallways. “Or is it that you want to call for your underlings to back you up?”
“Plebeians.” Was the only response of the Noble boy, I believe his name is Alfred. Surrounded by 15 students wearing red coats. “You think you can win with just 15 of you?”
“What’s going on there!?” while I do think that Alfred can manage, I still needed to intervene… if only to make sure that the hallways stay clean.
“This has nothing to do with you.” The students in red coats try to push me away with their words.
“Walk away, their mettle is with Me.” while the commoners had forcibly pushed me away Alfred had offered me to leave, he had the air of a true nobleman. “Now, you plebeians who disrupt social order will feel my wrath.”
Looks like they are really going for this even if there is a witness right in front of them, well from their perspective I should be an unreliable witness. Guess there is no helping it.
.LOG {
•BLOODLUST Activated
•BLOODLUST Level-up from 1 to 2
•Captain you are having that evil grin in you, please take it off.
•Force level up due to control, is it?
}
Grim-chan I simply do not have that kind of face. I see so being able to control is also a requirement for level-up not just usage. Most of the Active Skills I had leveled-up had been through countless usage. I should probably try controlling them as part of my training regime.
Now, I had better relocate these guys to stop these childish squabbles.
“What happened?” looks like Alfred woke-up first. He should be slightly disoriented, amongst the ones I had struck he had his guard up the most, so I had to hit him harder. “Where am I? What happened to the others? Argh! My head hurts.”
“A mist suddenly enveloped the area, and everyone passed out.” Lies of course, hope he buys it. “I had to call for some help carrying all of you here so…”
“You have my thanks.” Oh, he thanked me too. He seems like a good fellow but from the looks of it, his pride and lineage will not allow him to get along with others making it look like arrogance. “What about them?”
“I am a nobleman it is my duty to uphold the citizens.” I guess he noticed my confusion and so answered it. “We nobles promote social Justice. Without nobles, chaos will ensue.”
The three people whom I tried to stay away from are all good people. Yet their circumstances disallow them to notice it.
While the world I came from previously no longer adhere to monarchy, we still had a distinction between the arrogance of the rich, the unbecoming of the poor and those who are in between who try to reconcile them both but is also in a difficult position.
Looks like I won’t be able to completely stay away from them, I seem to be tied to these guys for better or for worse.
“Well, it’s time for me to read books.”
