Delinquent and Kingdoms True Face!

The handsome king and his queen sat quietly in the beautiful throne room.

Around them, a beautiful display of elegance and regal aura filled the room. Servants milled about, cleaning the ornate golden vases, replacing old flowers with new ones, and ensuring the polished marble floor was always sparkling clean.

"How is her condition now?" the king asked his wife with a worried look.

"She is fine now, my love," the queen replied. "Our little princess is strong."

"I'm glad to hear that," the king said.

An enormous portrait of the couple hung on the wall, looking majestic and royal. The beautiful princess wore a fabulous silver dress. A few days ago, in the same room, they summoned dozens of outsiders as heroes to aid them. 

Now, they watched four knights kneeling with respect.

"Knight Alan, you have worked hard for the kingdom." The king nodded his head. 

"Your Majesty, I live only to serve Your Majesty," Knight Alan replied, kneeling.

Despite being a noble, Alan was a very faithful knight who loved the kingdom and his king with all his heart. 

Thus, he is strict with the heroes when they appear to have no care and ignores the king's kindness in giving them time to adjust before laying on the actual task. 

"How are those lovely new heroes?"

"They have some colourful characters this time. The amusing blond lad introduced himself with the funny act. Ho-ho-ho. Ryuji Vincenzo was it? Although his gaze was fierce, I felt a strong, stubborn will when speaking with him." The king rubbed his whiskers with a smirk.

Alan narrowed his eyes.

He had just met the boy, but his opinion of him changed entirely after today, though he was not a high-ranking hero. His sense of self-worth and his class and use abilities were excellent. 

"He is a promising youth. Not only did he offer to help the non-combatant heroes become stronger. He only asked for two small copper each time he took them into the dungeon."

"Hmm? For you to speak so much, Alan. Do you like the boy?" the king asked.

Alan nodded, "My apologies, Your Majesty, I should not have digressed."

The king and queen exchanged a glance with a smile.

"Speak your mind, Duke Alan, my little cousin."

Alan coughed and stood straighter.

"I am amazed by his ability to adapt. From the rumours, I heard that Ryuji Vincenzo had trained himself every day without rest since the summoning. But from other rumours, he is supposed to be a violent and selfish thug, much like the bandits or rogues that plague our realm."

"However, from his abilities and actions, I believe those rumours are false and would like him to join the weaker knights' training in the dungeon as their vanguard."

"Are you sure, Alan?"

"Yes, my king. I will put my family name of Marduk on the line!"

The king sighed and nodded.

"Very well. I'll let you take care of him."

"What about the others?" The king felt annoyance when thinking of the other students. Ryuji Vincenzo was different. Somehow, he gave a dangerous feeling that he might snap despite being so kind and accepting.

However, the heroes and other classmates were all still secretly planning again the kingdom.

"We have taken six people to the dungeon, lower-ranking classes that won't affect the future. However, two of them have already broken from light discipline. But the humans from the other world are fragile and overly proud, with nothing to back it up."

"Understood. Try to have Ryuji interact with those that might become useful. He seems to have no issues with this world, almost as if he was born here.. Especially the members of the leading party except the holy knight. He is useless."

Alan nodded and stepped back.

He felt a strange sense of excitement when he met the hero, Ryuji. Somehow, it felt different from the other brats, who would complain about going home or call them names in their natural language.

 He was sincere but wise and caused Alan's nerves to feel a sense of danger.

'That's why I was so harsh on him, but that seems stupid now...'

"Knight Dan."

"Your Majesty."

"I heard that the first group of heroes suffered an issue during their test today?"

****

After the meeting, the king rewarded the knights and approved many requests while denying others.

He also approved Ryuji's partner's permission to join him in eating hot meals. In return, they would have him help their knights once a week in low-level dungeons.

"Alan, is that tall kid really that interesting?" Dan asked, lighting a pipe.

"Oh? You want to meet him?"

The four knights walked down a beautiful hallway with a royal red carpet, golden framed pictures and beautiful artwork depicting the kingdom's history of 6000 years.

"I heard he has a giant stone axe and still comes in the top ten for the sprint. What kind of child can run a marathon without stopping in a single day and swing such a huge thing? How much can he lift?"

"Ho-ho-ho!" Alan laughed, "I don't know, but the princess has taken a liking to him despite the Holy Knight being such a rare class; he also seems to respect our ways and asked for a manual on etiquette... It's the FIRST time one of these kids has ever asked. It was rather amusing that he offered to pay, too!"

Another knight joined the conversation; she was female with long red hair and black armour. "The princess, huh? As her knight, I didn't realise."

"Haha, calmed down, Ange! He won't! Haven't you seen the partner he has? If she weren't a beastman, that girl is a top 5 rank beauty of the kingdom!"

"Tsk... men!"

"But it's a little hard, always pretending to be evil and bad, to weed out the weak-willed so we can help them settle down."

"I know..." Allen covered his forehead with a wry smile. "I pretended to kill a student on the first day, but luckily, that Ryuji kid intervened and saved the poor guy. He just didn't move or react!"

Dan nodded, "Ah, they always look at us with eyes of grudge as if to say. 'I'll get my revenge on you!' Then, one day, return and kill us all."

Ange snorted, "What kind of monster does that?"

"Your ex-boyfriend did that, didn't he?" Dan laughed.

"Hey!"

Alan stopped them by waving his hand. "All this talking is making me hungry. How about we go grab a bite?"

"Well, you saved us from having to help those newbie knights and the weaker heroes all the time. I hope the lad doesn't die..."

"Ryuji? Ah? Berserkers are scary because the closer they are to death, the more powerful they become. Not to mention, a berserker will heal faster. I think he will be fine."

Alan smirked as the knights entered the cafeteria for B rank and above, chattering into the night.

If the heroes knew of the truth or tried to find it, the future misfortune might never have happened.