by Andur
“Go!”, Nicosar jumps to the side.
Many people already expected a simple execution to unfold before their eyes. But then Sarda manages to dodge the first attack and the hope of an even battle befalls the observers of the fight.
Only to have that hope crushed soon afterwards.
*Dingg*
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
As the little prince walks up to his opponent.... or was it a victim? Everyone can feel the lust for blood and satisfaction the prince emanates.
Too shocked to even move a muscle, everyone is pinned to their place as the torture unfolds. Or was it a cruel public execution after all?
Only a little red haired girl is unfazed by the cruel aura that pins everyone else to their place. While others can't even twitch, she walks up to the magical monster like knowing that it would never hurt her.
And pats its back!
“Dear, don't grin like that, you are scaring the people!”
“Oh, Sorry Honey I was a little caught up in my emotions, after he made an advance on you! HAHAHA!”
Sardas life was saved by the very one he mistreated! On that day a rumor was born.
Of the gentle flower which is the princess of Stricc, who was the only one that could tame the magical beast!
And the common folk would evermore fear the day, when the princess was no more, to stop the prince of Tirna.
-------------------------------------------------
As we walk away from the bloody pile of flesh, some healers shove their way through the crowd to save what can be saved.
Somehow Nicosar doesn't look like he feels the need to announce a winner and starts chatting with the two bunnygirls instead.
Rose runs up and instructs some other servants to clean up the mess.
When we reach our parents, they are a little more relaxed. The people with them are still stunned.
“I am sorry, I had a little argument with a rude guy. When he refused to leave and challenged me, I decided that he would be a good example for others. Just in case of future disobedience.”, I state.
“Angrod saved my honour! If it wasn't for him, I would feel like I had been defiled by that bastard.”, Celes hugs me.
We where loud enough, for everyone to hear.
Slowly the hall starts to move again, as the people disperse and the music plays again.
“I... I am sorry for the behaviour of my son, he should know better than to cause an incident like this. Instead of giving the celebrated person some space, when asked for. If I and my wife may excuse ourselves? We will talk about this at a more opportune moment.”, a guy besides Arthur says.
“You may go, we will talk later.”, Arthur states while obviously trying hard not to grin.
The guy and his wife walk off, into the direction of the dead....half dead idiot.
Suddenly Ireth picks me up and hugs me, “I was so scared to loose you!”
Nicol starts patting my head, “Good work! Those fellows had the best face I have ever seen. It was a good decision to leave you to Nicosar.”
NOOOOO!
Mothers grip becomes stronger and I have problems to breathe, “Fufufufu! Yes, that reminds me. Weren't you ordered to refuse a duel? That's disobedience! Yes! I will make sure, you never give me such a fright again!”
NOOOOO!
I try to look for help, anyone! When my eyes fall on Celes. She has a very satisfied grin and her tail waves pleased left and right. Witch! I helped you! You got me into this in the first place, by setting me up against those two!
“Guys, I will go back to my friends I found some earlier!”, Celes informs us and walks off.
“How about you let go of Angrod, so he can enjoy the rest of the party?”, Katrin asks Ireth. After another minute Ireth lets go of me and I excuse myself to the toilets. I still have to wash the blood from my hands.
Hmm, strange. Is it my imagination, or are the people giving me more space, as I walk by? At first they gave me and Celes alone only about two meters, but now they seem to keep at least a distance of five?
After I washed my hands, I searched the hall again for Celes and her *friends*. A few minutes later I found them at a buffet. It was Celes and the kids, I got to know before the stupid twins disturbed us.
“Celes, you ran off without me! I felt left behind!”, I grin as I walk up to them.
“Angrod! I thought you might be hungry, so I went to get you the stuff you like most!”, she holds out a plate to me and I muster the food warily.
It is stuffed with food I like, which I find very strange? This is the witch we are talking about, so where is the trick to this? But I find no reason to refuse, so I guess I have to take it.
“Thank you Celes, what would I do without you.”, I take the plate and start eating. If this is poisoned or oversalted I will make you eat pure pepper!
Then I take the first bite, strangely enough it is not the case..... it tastes good......
“Hahaha, Angrod you sure went nuts on that guy!”, Tanja Morden restarts the conversation. The other kids put up a forced smile and look at me like some sort of dangerous animal.
“I just didn't want to give others the impression that a duel with me would be without consequence, by going easy on him.”, I explain.
“Angrod, if it weren't for you, I would have had a seriously bad time.”, Celes states.
You were about to stab him with your hairpin! If you think about it I even saved the bastard, but nobody sees it that way.
I sigh, and listen to the conversation between Celes and the Kids. It seems, that the Cygnus siblings are some serious geniuses. Their family owns the most famed schools, universities and research institutes. Of course they were deeply involved in Midholds educational system.
Tanja Mordens family governs the land on Striccs side of Midhold. During the war, they were infamous for having the best assassins and intelligence networks.
Sven Hjavars is a childhood friend of Tanjas, his family has an amazing history of high ranking military accomplishments. But when I look at the shy little boy, I don't really believe it.
As we talk the party comes to an end and we have to say our goodbyes. Somehow I feel like I was a little avoided in the end?
We are back at our private rooms and I feel like I have forgotten something important. The whole family is gathered, yes strangely enough I came to regard Arthur and Katrin as family members too.
“I have decided! You two are ready for school!”, Nicol lets the bomb explode! “You have done very well at the party. I must admit, I had a sleepless night in fear that someone finds out about you two being like fire and water. It would have crushed all the efforts we had made for peace in the last years. But after today nobody will ever believe that you two can be separated.”
Oh Hell...... I want to lie down and die.
“So next month, you will join the Midpoint School. Everything is already arranged by me. It's a highly regarded school, which takes its student through all educational levels, including university. I hope you two wont let me down!” -Nicol
Pfff! What are you thinking of us? I am over a thousand years old! I don't know how old I am because I stopped counting at 1203! Give us the stupid final test for the university and I will start teaching the idiots who call themselves teachers.
But I am silent. Maybe going to school again is nice. Its like having a long vacation. Yes, a vacation, that sounds good. I am in my own world, while sitting on the sofa.
After everyone has left Celes suddenly stands before me.
“Angrod, I have to tell you something.” -Celes
“What?” -Me
“Thanks, even though I could have managed alone!” -Celes
“Hah?” -Me
“Stupid hermit!”, she bows down and kisses me on the forehead and leaves the room. I am stunned.
What was that? Could...
NOOOO! Stop iiiiTTT! She is trying to mess with my fucking MINNNDDD!!!!
I drop to the floor and hit my head agai
nst it, trying to smash the forming thought out of it!
11 - Interlude - Another judgement!
I wake up in a white place. I sit up and take a look around, its just endless white plains! Nothing is here. It is the worst outcome possible....
I am dead!
This is the river of souls, or what a mind that doesn't want to go insane can perceive of it at least. How did this happen! My memories are just a mashed up pile of fragments. I... I was fighting. Yes, I was fighting that bastard!
And I was winning! His broken, bloody body was lying before me! At last, after all this time I had him to my feet and at my whim! Then he raised his hand and fired that small fireball at me!
No need to dodge such a weak spell! I just stood there grinning! Oh, what an idiot I was. The pain was unbelievable, as everything went red and I could feel my soul being torn apart! I could have dodged it so easily.
It hurt so much, but.... but why am I here now?
“Are you yourself again Myrm?”
I turn around, “S... Seria? What happened? Why are we here?”
Seria is there. The goddess of life and death for this realm.
“You fought with Ascathon. And he killed you.” -Seria
“Yes, I …...”, I don't know what to say.....
“Your soul was torn apart, it took me quite a while to piece you back together.” -Seria
I try to get to my feet, but I am weak and fall back to all fours, “So that bastard defeated me! Where is he now! Surely he is watching and laughing, is he not!?”
Seria goes to her knees and drops a black marble before me.
“No, he is dead too. He died shortly after you, from the wounds you inflicted on him. I put his soul into that marble for safekeeping.”, she says sadly.
“Why would you do that?”, I don't understand.
“To have you both be judged by the council. And since you were quite a piece of work Myrm, I had to keep him from resurrecting.” -Seria
The council? But why should they care? They don't move a finger at the fate of worlds! Such matters don't concern them!
“But... But why. The council ….”, but Seria interrupts me.
“Oh, my Myrm. You are the same as Ascathon. He didn't get what you two did either......”, Seria has a sad look in her eyes now.
“I get it! We trashed a world! And what about it! If we wouldn't have taken action ourselves it would have ended badly one or the other way.”, I am angry.
“hahaha.... the council doesn't care what you did to that world. Or its inhabitants. It wouldn't care if you destroyed a universe. That happens everywhere, at all times. And the same way everything is reborn again. The Council is angry at you for another reason. You two will be punished for something, the council regards as something far worse than those little reasons you talk about. And I was chosen to supervise your punishment.”
Seria smiles weakly.
Tears well up in my eyes, “So what can be worse than destroying a world!”
Seria sighs,
“I guess you two are too young to ever understand in time, so I will tell you. You have killed each other! You two have killed that, which cannot be killed.. You broke the divinity. You ended the unending. That hasn't happened in all existence. And the council is afraid of what that could mean.”
Seria waves her hand before my eyes and everything goes dark.
12 - Choosing your lesson?
“I want to visit culture and art!”, Celes proclaims! “But that's boring and of no use!”, I answer.
“What use has the magic lesson to you?”, Celes asks.
“I can sleep and still ace the test!”, yeah smart smart thinking. You have to admit that.
“So you are lazy! Do you want to waste this life sleeping?”-Celes
I sigh and continue to study the letter we got from the Midpoint headmaster. At the moment we are on the school grounds and about to register our lessons.
Nicol didn't understate when he said it was a highly regarded school. It's BIG. Without the letter and a map, we wouldn't have found our way.
There are areas for each school grade, so the younger students don't get in the way of older ones.
To advance a grade, you have to complete at least nine lessons of it. Mathematics, language and basic magic are fixed lessons for us, but we have to choose ten!
It leaves seven lessons to our choice.
Our problem is that Katrin instructed us to take the same lessons. And I am not in the least interested in the stuff Celes likes. The same goes for her of course.
“Fine, we throw a coin and whoever wins gets to choose first. So he has four choices, while the other has three.”-Me
“Never! I know how good you are with telekinesis, you would just influence the coin to your advantage!”-Celes
“Tch!”
“Hah! I knew it! You had a plan like that!”, she looks at me accusingly.
“Fine! We both choose three and take the last at random.”, I suggest. “How?”, Celes asks.
“We write some leaflets and draw one blindly.”, I suggest. “Hmmm....”, Celes bites her lip while thinking.
“We will ask a random person to name one subject until it is one we can take.” -Celes
“You don't trust me at all, don't you.” -Me
“I trust you my love! I am sure you would take every chance, that would make my life more miserable and yours a little bit better. So let the war begin, I will start!”
“Art!”
“Rune Magic!”
“Culture!”
“Science!”
“Close Quarters Combat!”
“You just want to beat me up!”
“That's not a subject, but if we ask Nicol, he could have the headmaster to introduce it.”
“Magical combat training!”
“Now, you want to beat ME up!”
“So who do we ask for the last one?”, I speak to myself. “Over there! The gardener!”, Celes replies.
“That guy is sure to say nothing intellectual, you want to trick me!”, I complain.
“Fine, we stop that teacher there. HEY! Professor! Can you help us, please!?”, Celes runs up to a random guy and stops him.
“What?”, the old guy stops. “We want to choose a last subject together, but cannot decide. So we want someone else to choose for us, could you be so kind?”, Celes asks.
The old guy starts to grin like a devil, “You two are a pain in the ass, to disturb me for something like this! So I will have you two join the worst lesson a first year can take. MINE! Take the mystic arts lesson. BE there the next time, or I will come and get you! I know your faces and you have horns! Not hard to find you.”, the old guy turns around and walks away.
“Why does it feel like we have problems now?”, Celes asks me. “Your fault!”, I comment. “WHYYY!?”, she screams.
I just shake my head and check the lessons on our applications.
The registration process afterwards wasn't worth mentioning. We went to the responsible office and gave them the required documents we got from our parents.
At least there wasn't any need to stay inside the dorm. Rose would take us to the school every morning and get us in the evening.
Protection wasn't necessary, the school had its own security guards. That's because the school teaches many kids from noble families. There wasn't anyone allowed here who didn't belong to Midpoint.
As we make our way to our first lesson, strangely enough its -Close Quarters Combat-, we meet a known face there.
“Celes! Oh I wanted to see you! You take the same lesson!?”, Tanja Morden jumps as she shakes Celes hands.
“T...Tanja. Why are you here? Aren't you older than us?”, Celes asks. “Oh, no problem at all. The instructor takes everyone who wants to. There are kids from six to twelve here.” -Tanja
Celes gets dragged to the dressing room by Tanja. And at last some peace for me!
I walk to the boys area and change into sportswear too. Then I take a look at
the very spacious gym.
The instructor has already started to individually teach some kids hand to hand combat.
I guess it doesn't make much sense to hold a lecture here. A few small fighting arenas are in the corner of the gym. There will probably some kind of show-fight in the end, to judge our skills.
Everyone is wearing the same track suit, regardless of gender.
“Is that you Angrod?” - I turn around and see a cute girl of about my age. She has silver hair and wolf ears with a tail, her eyes are skyblue. “I am sorry, do I know you?”, I don't recognize her.
“No, you don't know me yet, but I have seen you at the party. You were so coool. I hope we can be friends!”, she walks up and links arms with me.
