✎ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɴɪɢʜᴛ: ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɴɪɴᴇ
✇ 10:00 EST; District of Tvaru
Northwest of Aeternum | 4th Samas: Year 1345
° ᴾʳᵉˢᵉⁿᵗ
Keiji once told me that missions should be like an uncharted puzzle. Pieces are missing, everything is a mess, everything seems so similar to one another and although there are clues, they are so faint they are barely noticeable. Missions were like that. Except this was a puzzle made for the most skilled of the skilled. You had to be as quick as possible and you aren't allowed to make one single mistake. Otherwise the whole puzzle would fall in shambles.
Father had given a small nod after Keiji's statement but that was proof enough that he had agreed with everything Keiji said. Something that wasn't a common sight to see, since it was a well-known fact that the Marquis and Head Knight would often butt heads at every small matter. How they were childhood friends was something beyond my comprehension.
Now that Keiji was away along with almost forty percent of the knights, we were stuck with training by ourselves with Sir Asher appointed to (babysit) monitor us and our works.
Sir Asher was apparently the one and only bastard son of a Viscount somewhere far along the South. I heard he was supposed to be sold in an underground slave trade before being rescued by some knights who happened to raid the place. This was about 10 years back. Ever since then he had been one of the many apprentice under for Commander Keiji's care.
At least that's what the public files say about him.
The more private ones in our library also included every set of crime, murder and thievery that Sir Asher had committed. Along with the fact, a few years later he had gone back to the south and brought back his father's head to the Marquess in order to rightfully inherit his place as an official officer training under the Ceirin Household.
Without no hesitation, he was accepted.
Ever since back then, Sir Asher had been nothing short of loyal and grateful. The abundance of scars that can be found on his back when he was taken captive was a small proof of that. Not a single information had been leaked out of his mouth in spite of all the efforts the rebel had placed on him.
That's why despite still being under the Commanders wing, he was trusted with an entire squad of dragon knights in the mansion. The other dragon knights outside of the mansion, place and city also knew about him and his achievements.
So I guess he had obviously earned a well-deserved break since he had received none ever since he first joined. If you count training us trainees as a break then, yes I suppose he did.
Nonetheless, it was still confusing to watch him carefully peel apples with his famous pocket knife whilst sitting atop the roof of one of the small storage houses.
He had abandoned his usual knight uniform in favor for a white shirt with worn out black trousers and a pair of glasses.
I guess I wasn't the only one confused seeing him act so casually. Some of the other knights watched from the corner of their eyes, waiting for Sir Asher to do something. Everyone was wary.
I, myself, practiced my laps while keeping one eye trained upon his figure. He could not be trusted so easily. Especially with him acting so calm.
Even when accidentally making eye contact with him, he had done nothing more than offer a small nod and a blink of an eye.
Yup, he was definitely stirring a dangerous plan inside his brain. One that would put the rest of us in pain.
Judging from the mana beast that were poorly concealed in the woods, I already had an inkling of what he was about to do. I guess the other knights came to learn of it too when they began howling at restlessness.
•••••••••••
One small thing we had learned as a kid were to always respect mana beasts.
Mana beasts were unique creatures that escaped from the spiritual world after a person left the real life with an unfulfilled desire. That's why mana beasts were really common to see.
Easy to train and good for all sorts of things made them good companions and war tools. Mainly in combat such as now.
Mana beasts would usually vary in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Yet, the larger they were, the more powerful they tend to be. That's why dealing with mana beasts was a very efficient method of training since real wild creatures would often be twice as vicious once provoked.
Probably a good thing that knights had mana too. Otherwise god knows how much of a mess it would be to deal with them.
Excluding the beasts, there are currently a total of five stages of mana.
Five stages that was later on transformed into the five classes of incantation society.
The first stage was the recurrent mana. Majority of people inherited recurrent mana throughout generations. Regardless of how faint it may be present, quite a lot of commoners and citizens often had small traces of mana inside their soul. Those who did were able to harness their mana and use it to amplify certain aspects in their body. Such as strength, agility, a higher sense of hearing, better eyesight and much more. The stronger the mana, the more quirks you inherit.
Then, there were also people who had an elevated mana. Those who had a link to magic and travelled along the borders of reality and the spiritual world. Most elevated mana belonged to Royal knights who came from a long lineage of family member serving under the empire throughout history.
Besides people with elevated mana there were mages who sorely relied in magic. They usually resided in the mage tower somewhere in the south. They hardly ever came out unless it was for something urgent or under the Emperors order. They lived isolated but content with how they are. Some say, mages have travelled to the spiritual world before but after being dissatisfied with their discovery they had returned back here.
Other than the isolated mages, there were high Priests. Commoners who claimed to work under the name of the lord. They did indeed have mana inside their soul but the only thing their mana permitted to them to do was to help heal people. Useful for the Empire but a waste of time under the Emperors eys.
Finally, there were the royals.
Pure-bred like how we were taught to be; containing the mixed blood of demons and angels. If the others had a link to the spiritual world, we had a full house tour into the world of the unknown.
In the empire of Aeturnum, there was one Emperor, two Marquesses and three dukes.
The pure bred royal Emperor and the five pillars of society who had served under the never setting sun.
The arrogant Emperor Drakos
The Demon Duke Candestine
The fearless Duchess Kim
The powerful Duke Castiello
The ruthless Marquess Ceirin
The brilliant Marchioness Othonos
And these six families were the Empires greatest blessing and curse.