Vol 2 Prologue - Royalty

The Lenore royal family had ruled the Kingdom of Albion ever since its founding, thousands of years ago. In fact, it is one of the most consistent royal bloodlines to ever exist in human history. A bloodline famous for its legendary founding king, Velarius Lebore, and the well-known heroes they've knighted and supported.

And to be amongst them, as the third child and princess of the current ruling monarch, Queen Marigold Lenore IV, Cecilia Lenore possessed such a blessed privilege.

To the people of the kingdom, she is perfect. She is a talented person, born as a prodigy by birth. She could do no wrong, always confident in herself, always composed and mannerful. And despite her fiery personality, it only showed how much passion she has for her own, her family, and for her subjects.

For the people of Albion, her being from this very bloodline was truly something that is expected of her. Afterall, it was why she's certainly perfect in their eyes. She deserved all the praise, and she grew up to love said appraisals.

At least, that's what was told to her. She believed in those words of course, as any relatively sheltered child would, as the words regarding her family's legacy and deeds do hold true for the most part. And as she grew up to the age of 17 and expanded her world-view, due to her well-regarded talent and skills she had honed ever since she could pick up and swing a weapon, she was enrolled to the Royal Academy of Albion.

There was no nepotism involved, nor any sort of bias despite her bloodline, as simply put she was just that potent in her capabilities. Her mother is also very anti-corruption in general, as that had been her policy in the making in an attempt to curb the rates of corrupt noblemen in the country. She would hate it if Cecilia entered this school dishonestly.

Plus, Cecilia always wanted to be a pathfinder, seeing it as a way to further prove that the rumours about her are true directly. She's that confident in herself.

Due to her status as the third princess of the Lenore family, she had the opportunity to choose that path without worry and took it. She had already trained herself in magic and swordsmanship ever since she was young, so truly she is ready.

It's now exactly one day before the time of the entrance exam's commencing. And Cecilia had gotten herself ready and prepared to live in the Royal Academy's dormitories. She of course had also studied the past exams that took place in order to better prepare herself for this year's examination taking place.

She's confident, she's ever ready. She would not back down in the face of potential failure. And that notion itself is considered as unforgivable to her. She would give anything in order to not fail.

"My lady, I have come here to announce that your ride for the academy is ready."

An old man, her personal butler it seemed, was present at the opened door to her personal bedroom in the royal palace. Slightly surprised, halting her deep self-introspection, Cecilia's silver hair and ruby red eyes, ever so graceful, looked towards him.

"I'll be right there, Sebastian."

The butler, whom she called Sebastian, bowed and quickly left the scene. And as he would do so, the princess would stand up and look into the mirror, taking a final look at herself to make sure that every feature of her is perfect.

Her hair had been tied into a twin ponytail due to its length by black and red ribbons, and her cute face is ever so perfect. No scars nor any memory of significant injury existed that would harm it.

During all of her training, she was not even wounded once, even despite the presence of healing magic being clear to the point that limbs can be regenerated in full.

Her dress too is fit for both combat, and dancing if need be. Made for the ease of movement, to ensure that she would not be exhausted under any sort of weight excluding her own.

"They did a fine job tailoring this for me." She said to herself.

She would look at her gloved hand, as fire would be conjured before her. Her very own specialty, the use of the pyromancy discipline of magic.

Most mages are generalists, and learn to cast and understand varying spells as they go. But magical swordsmen such as her own, she only really needed a few focused niches of magic. So understandably, her specialised casting would be very potent.

Probably, there's always a chance it might not be as unique as she would think. But she wouldn't let it get to that point, that's the reason why she would learn in the academy afterall.

She sighed, and put up a smile on her face. She closed the palm of her hand to dispel her fire, and would pick up her bag and rapier, walking out of her bedroom door.

"Carry these for me, please."

Quickly enough she gave those two things, the essentials for the first day, to a nearby maid.

She dusted her two gloved hands from the slight amount of dust both the bag and her sword had accumulated, and afterwards she headed out of the palace's hallways and towards the outside world.

A fiery princess, a prodigious princess. A fierce lady, a strong-headed lady. An ever so pompous girl, an ever so proud girl.

The qualities of Cecilia are well known to her family. And despite it all, she never really had experienced any changes to that personality. Whether or not it's her fated-to-be attitude or simply the result of the environment she's raised in does not matter.

What matters most is that she will always hold true to this ideology of hers. That the ones who live are the ones who can truly dominate, and prove to the rest that they deserve such a position in the first place. A bold ideology, and also a disruptive belief in turn.

The proud princess of the Lenore royal family shall always declare so ever so pridefully.

"Lady Cecilia."

Sebastian bowed and greeted his mistress once again, opening the backdoor of the essence-powered auto vehicle known as a carriage for her to enter. 

It's essentially a car by a certain reincarnated individual's standards, but the people of this world had the intent to not shorten that name for the sake of convenience.

"Thank you very much, Sebastian." She said, grabbing a hold of the carriage's door and entering the vehicle, sitting at the far end so that her items can be stored next to her by her servants.

Soon enough the door would be closed, and the butler would enter the driver's seat by himself. After warming up the engines of the vehicle for quite some time before her arrival, all that was needed to do was to push the pedal and go forward.

The princess would observe the moving scenery from the window at the left side of this vehicle, as it left the gates of the royal palace. Her smile had disappeared as she pondered more deeply.

Truly, what would happen next in this new chapter of her life?