Chapter 15

VALEN REMSEYER

I followed my father to an isolated part of the dining hall. "I must say, I'm impressed. To make so many powerful allies. While I'm not so sure about the Fairweather girl, I'm sure you have your reasons. I was worried about the unnamed man but after learning he was supported by the Denoir's my confidence was restored."

He patted my shoulder. "Good job."

I nodded and returned to everyone. I was annoyed. All my life I was taught that a Highlord doesn't need friends. Only servants, allies and associates, and for a while, I believed that. But after going to school that view changed. I now know friends are important, not just for me but for others as well.

Seeing Grey–a person that barely tells anyone anything about himself–trust in me and rely on me really helped me. I barely did anything for him, I don't give him money, I don't give him resources to get stronger, I don't let him use my authority and yet he still wishes to stay around and be my friend.

He might be getting these things from Caera but I doubt that, he isn't that kind of person. I hope I can be like Grey. Not in combat strength but rather, personal strength. He doesn't care what people think, he does what he wants.

I walked up to Enola when I noticed Grey wasn't around. "Where's Grey?"

"Oh, he just went to get some food. Glad you're back by the way, we were worried you'd miss the performance." said Enola as she grabbed my arm. "Will Enola go out with me if I ask?" I pondered, hopefully she'll say yes.

GREY

"How did an unnamed brat like you get into this party? Did someone take pity on you and invited you as their guest?" asked the old man. "Nope, I was invited by the Director himself," I answered.

"Ya got some weird delusions boy. I'm just going to believe my first assumption." laughed the old man. I sighed, it made sense, who would believe that. "Anyway, the name's Alaric." the man said as he held out his hand.

"I'd shake your hand but I'm afraid I'd get drunk myself if I got any closer," I said. Alaric just laughed, "I like you kid, I'll see you around."

"No thanks," I chuckled as I left the drunk still on the balcony. "We'll see about that!" shouted Alaric.

I made sure my clothes didn't smell of alcohol–which luckily wasn't the case–and returned to everyone just in time to see Eujean had showed up. He hadn't noticed Caera yet, probably because he hadn't realized she was here.

"So, the plan is that I beat him up if he challenges me to a duel?" I asked as I snuck up on everyone. "Grey!" exclaimed Caera as she hugged me. We quickly separated since we were in the middle of a party. Since grabbing Eujean's attention won't be difficult with Caera around we decided to just have small talk until the moment came.

Soon the man himself came up to us. "Hello Lady Caera, I hope I am not interrupting anything," said Eujean as he bowed to Caera, ignoring the rest of us. "You are, I was in the middle of a conversation with Valen Remseyer," replied Caera. Eujean looked at Valen with a bit of hostility but stopped once he realized Enola was grabbing Valen's arm. He then looked at Seth to see Mayla hugging his arm. This time, Caera wasn't on my arm.

Through the process of elimination Eujean came to the conclusion that Caera was single. While he wasn't wrong he is the last person Caera would date. Plus, nothing was official between any of us, although, seeing how everyone is acting it wouldn't be long till that was no longer the case. "Lady Caera, if you could do me the honor of accompanying me this fine night," said Eujean as he held out his hand so Caera could take it.

"I'm afraid I'll have to deny your offer. You see, I'm spending this party with Grey," answered Caera as she grabbed my arm. I couldn't help but notice her…ahm, assets. Fortunately through my many years of being a king I became immune to mental attacks so I was able to keep my face neutral.

Eujean's face twisted in anger and he looked at me. "If you may be so kind as to provide me your name?" he asked me in an angry tone that he tried his best to make it sound polite. Since he tried his best to be polite I might as well answer. "Grey of blood unnamed."

Eujean's face contorted into a mix of surprise and hatred. "I see, I'm sorry to have disturbed you then, I'll be on my way," said Eujean as he left without another word. "He's better at keeping control than I thought," I said.

"Yeah, he really out did himself," agreed Mayla. "He'll probably jump you later. The only reason he hasn't done anything now is because of all the highbloods here. You'll have to embarrass him in private." said Enola.

I sighed, knowing she was probably right. Since Eujean left we decided to hang out for a while, even going to Valen's room to check things out. His room was gigantic, about the size of my birth home back in Ashber. Once again I was reminded of the memories of Dicathen. Mainly the pain of being a baby, I never want to go through that again.

After the party we all left, we made sure to be the last ones to leave so Eujean wouldn't be scared to attack, if he even had the guts. Once we had gotten far enough away from the Remseyer estate we heard a shout coming from outside the carriage. "Hey! Unnamed brat! Come out here!"

We all left the carriage to see Eujean carrying a sword and blocking the path. We all collectively sighed, but didn't say anything since we all wanted for this to play out. "What do you want Eujean?" I asked, despite already knowing.

"I want to challenge you to a duel! The winner gets to date Lady Caera!' Eujean yelled, brandishing his sword. I smirked, I don't know if it was because he was just annoying or if it was because of something else but I really wanted to pound this guy into the dirt. I turned to Caera to see she had a very annoyed expression on her face. "You aren't worried?" I teased.

"As if he could so much as land a hit on you," replied Caera. She was right, even if he was strong he couldn't hurt me.

"Very well Eujean of Highblood, I accept your challenge." I said as I drew Dawn's Ballad. Eujean rushed towards me and brought his sword down over my head. The attack wasn't even that strong, I could block it without mana. He kept attacking and I kept parrying or dodging without even moving from my position.

After a while it grew boring so I started to fight back. I attacked right where the average person's mana veins were, if struck correctly it would paralyze the target and prevent them from using mana. The funny thing is, he didn't even realize what I was doing until it was too late.

"W-What have you done to me!" shouted Eujean as he collapsed to his knees. "I stopped your mana from flowing, thus paralyzing you," I explained as I returned to everyone. Soon some of Eujean's servants came to help him. They left carrying a very angry and very loud Eujean.

"Well, that was fun," said Seth. "I have to agree, it's a shame it was only in private though. We could've probably stopped him from ever chasing Caera again if this little sunt hasn't already," said Enola.

We returned to the carriage. Soon, everyone fell asleep except for Caera and I. "Hey Grey? Thanks for today," said Caera with a slight blush on her face. "No problem," I replied as I felt sleep take over me.

CAERA DENOIR

I watched as Grey fell asleep; leaning back against the wall. I grabbed Grey's head and put it on my lap. Upon seeing his lips I was reminded of the kiss we had shared. I was annoyed that Grey treated it like it never happened. Every night I was plagued by the kiss endlessly repeating.

I looked around to make sure everyone was asleep. Once I realized that they were, I took a risk. I bent forward and put my lips against Grey's. The kiss wasn't as good as I remember. I guess it was because Grey wasn't awake. I pulled up right away just in case he woke up. I didn't care if people thought it was weird.

***

Knock Knock Knock

It was once again lunchtime and we were in Grey's lab eating lunch. "I'll get it," said Grey as he got up and went to the door. Upon opening it revealed Scythe Seris. We all got up and bowed. "Welcome Scythe Seris!" we said all together. Expect Grey though. "Hello," said Grey nonchalantly.

"Grey! That's Scythe Seris! You need to address her properly!" shouted Valen as he looked at Grey worryingly. "Don't worry Valen, Seris and I are pretty close. Isn't that right?" asked Grey as he turned to Seris. Everyone looked at Grey shocked, I just chuckled.

"Yes, I suppose we are." giggled Seris. Everyone was frozen in surprise. Couldn't blame them though. Grey just showed how he's super friendly with a Scythe. "So, why are you here Seris? I don't think you came just to say hi," said Grey as he sat down and continued eating.

"No you're right. I barely have the time to come by. You see, this time I brought along one of your friends," said Seris in an uncharacteristic serious tone. Grey's face went pale and he started to shake. I ran over to him and pulled him into a hug. Fortunately he seemed to calm down. "W-Who?"

"Nico Sever"

KATHYLN GLAYDER

Everyone was sitting in Tessia's training room. Despite Tessia trying her best to keep her emotions locked away I heard her cry every night. I wanted to help her but I couldn't bring myself to.

The progress we made on finding Arthur was about as much as you'd expect. We hadn't found a single thing and by this point we were really starting to believe he had got sent to the other continent. Everyone's morale was at an all time low, even Claire was starting to get dark rings around her eyes.

"So, where can we check next?" asked Tessia as she picked up a stack of papers. "Nowhere, we've sent soldiers everywhere we can. The only place we haven't checked is the deepest parts of the beast glades. We couldn't go even if we wanted to." replied Curtis, his voice tired.

Suddenly the door burst open to show a teacher. "Get outside! The school is under attack!" yelled the teacher. If this had been before Arthur left we would've panicked but after training ourselves we responded quickly despite the absurdity of the situation.

We ran outside to see the Tri-Union hall on fire. I summoned a wet mist to put out the fire. Once I was done I saw Theodore grabbing a boy by the collar of his shirt. "Stop! Stop! I'm Charles Ravenpor, how dare you accuse me of this!" yelled the boy. "Accuse? I know you did it, I saw you!" yelled Theodore.

"What proof do you have?" asked a professor as he approached us. "I saw him do it, isn't that enough?" replied Theodore, his face was red with rage.

"I'm sorry but you need concrete evidence to apprehend him," replied the teacher with a smug look. He's on their side.

All of a sudden the sky turned red. I heard grunts and screams coming from around the campus. There were mana beasts everywhere. Their eyes were… wrong. I summoned ice spears and threw them at several of the beasts, killing them. I don't know where they came from or why they're here but I need to kill them.

"All students, please make your way to the Tri-Union hall for a show. You won't want to miss it, and don't worry, my little pets won't fight anymore," said a voice. Upon hearing those words the mana beasts stopped attacking. I looked at everyone. "Do we go?" asked Theodore.

"We don't really have a choice do we," replied Claire as we made our way to the hall. We had separated into groups so I didn't know where everyone else was.

Once we got to the hall we noticed it was covered in a barrier. Behind it were several hooded men all looking at us. "Welcome! Welcome! I'm so glad you all could make it. Humans! Surrender yourselves and we'll let you live. Elves and Dwarfs! Break your mana core and we'll let you live," said a man in a particularly disturbing mask.

His presence was…overwhelming. The way he carried himself let you know what kind of person he was, a killer. In his hand was a cloth bag that was dripping red. He threw the bag to reveal… Doradrea's head. A girl screamed and Theo ran up to the barrier.

"How dare you! Y-You killed her!" yelled Theo as he banged on the barrier. The masked man just tilted his head, " I suppose I did, didn't I?" he laughed. I felt something boil inside of me, my usual emotionless self had only grown more prominent with Arthur leaving. But I felt it, rage. It overtook my body.

I wanted to fight, but I couldn't. "Now, Now. You all need to calm down, the main show is about to begin," said the masked man. Upon saying that we saw it, it came from behind us. It was Lucas, his skin was pale, almost Grey. His eyes were bloodshot. But that wasn't the most disturbing part. It was Lucas's head, in the hand of a very angry Tessia.

"So that brat failed to capture you. How pathetic, I was expecting for him to at least be of some use," sighed the masked man. Tess looked up at him, her face emotionless but her eyes filled with unfiltered hatred.

"Why have you done this?" demanded Tessia as she locked eyes with the man. "Why? Why? Why for you of course. You see, you are wanted," laughed the mad man. We all shook. What does he mean by Tessia is wanted?

Suddenly a heavy pressure overcame us all. I looked around to try and find the origin of the pressure to find it was coming from Elijah. He walked up to the barrier and black flames came from his hand. "You dare? Tessia is Arthur's! You have no right!" yelled Elijah as black spikes sprouted from the ground, killing every mana beast around.

The hooden men went to attack Elijah but the masked man held up a hand and signaled for them to stop. "Charge!" yelled Claire, breaking everyone out of their trance. We followed orders and charged the men. Firing attacks left and right I was killing everything deemed an enemy, be it human or not. "Elijah!" yelled Curtis.

I turned to see the masked man was now carrying Elijah in his arms and heading towards an anvil shaped object. We tried to run after them but we were stopped by mana beasts and enemy mages. After we had killed them all I walked up to Tessia. "Are you ok?" I asked, showing a bit of worry in my voice.

"Yes, except for the fact that this disgrace tried to kidnap me. Had he been successful I don't know what would've happened." replied Tessia as she held up Lucas's severed head. She then threw it to Curtis's bond who happily set it on fire rather than eating it. We then heard the sound of a barrier breaking. I looked up to see Varay, Bairon and Olfred had arrived.

Varay looked around then turned to me. "Princess Kathyln, what has happened here?" Varay asked in her usual cold tone. "Even if you ask, I'm not really sure. I believe it was that strange group that was seen around campus. It consisted of students and teachers alike, all involved in the attack are dead." I answered.

"I see, thank you for assisting. We'll take it from here," answered Varay. I nodded as the lances calmed everyone down and got rid of the rest of mana beasts. There were corpses everywhere. Human, Dwarf, Elf and mana beasts, all strewn about dead. It hurt my soul to see how many innocent people died in this attack. To think this all happened because of racist nobles.

We lost Doradrea and Elijah. I watched as Theodore picked up her head with tears welling from his eyes. I walked over to him and started to pat his back. This was the best I could do but I soon felt tears flowing from my eyes as well.

***

Here we were, at the mass funeral prepared for all the lost souls. We were all dressed in black attire, the atmosphere could only be described as solem. Not one person dared to speak, those that made even a tiny sound tried their best to keep it quiet. The Elven and Human part of the council was here but not the dwarven part.

After the main service I made my way to Tessia and the others. "How could this have happened!" yelled Claire as she banged her fist against a wall. "Because we spent too much time looking for Arthur we ignored keeping an eye on the school," answered Curtis.

We wanted to retort but knew he was right. We had ignored our duties as DC and student council in order to find Arthur. I felt horrible and judging by everyone else's expression they did too.

"Please do not blame yourselves. You didn't and couldn't know what was going to happen," we turned to see Elder Virion approaching us. We all bowed but he waved us off. "I'm actually glad Arthur wasn't here for this. Knowing him he would've blamed himself," said Virion as he looked up at the sky, regret in his eyes.