Thomas watched with excitement as the ribbons of light extended out from magic circle and moved towards his chest, the familiar feel of his older cousin’s holy mana moving throughout his body and drawing out a power that had been dormant within him.
The light that came out of him was a dark red, and quickly took on shape and substance as it stood tall in front of him.
But the joy of Thomas’s face faltered as the light began to shrink down, smaller and smaller and smaller still until it was barely an inch long. Its pink, hairless body causing him a little bit of concern.
“Is it… a rat?” Thomas said, worried. He didn’t like the idea of his bond being a rat.
“It looks like it is a Kangaroo.” Scarlet said, giving Thomas a smile. “Now isn’t that cool. Don’t worry about how small he is now. A normal, non-Bond Kangaroo grows to be over six feet tall, and they have super strong legs. This little guy will be a giant by the time he is level 20.”
“Wow! Really!?” Thomas said, perking back up. He looked at his status page and saw that his Bond’s type was called a ‘Sun Roo’.
(So bright out here.) The little guy said softly, closing his eyes a little against the light. (Hey Thomas… You look a lot bigger than I thought you’d be.)
“Don’t forget to name him.” Scarlet reminded the boy.
“Right. A name.” Thomas said, nodding his head seriously. “From now on, your name will be Roy.”
(Sounds good to me. Can’t wait for us to grow up together… but for that we are going to need milk! Lots and lots of milk!) Roy said insistently.
“Um… Okay. I’ll talk to my mom about it.” Thomas said, confused but happy.
“Congratulations Thomas. I’ll see you back home after I’m finished with all the other ceremonies.” Scarlet told her little cousin.
“Okay!” Thomas said before running out of the Cathedral with baby kangaroo in hand.
Scarlet watched him as he went, though it brought the long line of kids still waiting to have their Bond’s Awoken into sight.
...Was it just her or did her line have more people in it than all of the other lines?
While she didn’t suffer from exhaustion from using such a small amount of mana, like the Priests and Priestesses, she was still manning a station completely by herself, just like Joshua did. Did the children just feel more comfortable having the ceremony performed by someone who wasn’t an adult?
“Next please.” She said, trying to keep up the illusion of cheer.
She would bear with it for the night, because it was her payment for all the years of help the Cathedral had given her.
After that night, no one would be seeing a public performance from the Archbishop’s apprentice again. Not for a very long time.
‘She’s grown so much.’
That was all that Maria could think as she stood behind her not-so-little girl, running her fingers through her long red hair as the pair stood in front of a large mirror.
Scarlet was a little above average height for a 10-year-old girl, already breaking the 5-foot mark. She had grown fast, and had a good deal of muscle on her, but had kept enough fat on her body so that she felt soft to the touch.
“You’ve been forgetting to use healing magic on your eyes again.” Maria said, one of her hands touching Scarlet’s cheek, where there were light rings underneath her eyes.
“They haven’t gotten that dark…” Scarlet said, blushing a little before mumbling a few small words, causing the light shadows under her eyes to once again subside. That was all it took for her to remove the shadows that had once characterized her as a child. To hide the results of her terrifying childhood. The part she had never outgrown.
She might be bigger now. She might be stronger now. But she was still Maria’s little baby girl. So it was with a heavy heart that the woman raised the pair of scissors.
Sensing her mother’s reluctance, the young girl looked up in the mirror, making eye contact with the woman.
“I only really need it short for the Class Ceremony. If you don’t like it like that, I can just use magic to regrow it. I won’t need it short again until school starts. And that doesn’t start until late Autumn. And the school is only going to be for 5 months out of the year. After that, we can get back together again.” Scarlet said, trying to comfort her mother. “Once we get my Class, let’s go exploring. Let’s go see things we’ve never seen before.”
“...Yes. I’d like that.” Maria said with a soft smile as she brought up the scissors and started to cut away her daughter’s long and beautiful hair.
Half an hour later, Maria emerged from the room with what appeared to be a young noble boy, with short, raven black hair and a crimson raven on his shoulder.
“I can’t believe we are actually doing this.” Mehal said, sighing as he looked over the child. “Well, let’s go.”
“I’m a little nervous.” Scarlet admitted as she arrived at the Grand Cathedral with Mehal. The pendant around her neck, which would modify the results of any [Divination Magic] magic to hide her name, also changed her voice, making it slightly deeper.
Not by much. She was supposed to be a 10-year-old boy. No puberty yet.
“That’s fine. You’re supposed to be a boy that I found living alone in the wildlands. It would be odd if you were comfortable. So don’t try to hide it.” Mehal said, he himself looked completely relaxed.
It seemed that no one found it at all surprising when Mehal declared that he had adopted a child he found in the woods, perhaps because Mehal himself had been taken in from off the streets. And no one cared about it enough to stop him when he decided to have the boy receive his Class with the rest of the Noble children and sent to the Royal Military Academy.
If the child was to be anything like Mehal himself, he’d be a good soldier, and stay out of politics.
“Would we get in a lot of trouble if we get caught?” Scarlet asked the man.
“Technically speaking, lying about your identity and sneaking you into the Royal Military Academy would be classified as ‘deceiving the royal family’ and would be a serious crime, had Master Typhus hadn’t already informed him of the truth. So no need to worry.” Mehal informed her.
“The King knows?” Scarlet said worriedly.
“I won’t worry too much about that. Our King is an unusual one. I can’t imagine any other monarch in history playing hooky at his own coronation in order to go diving into a Labyrinth with his friends.” Mehal said with a nostalgic smile. “You can’t imagine how thrilled he was to hear your decision to sneak into the academy to go to the Labyrinth. The Queen had to stop him from ‘gathering the boys’ and going in himself for old times' sake.”
...Well she supposed having that kind of personality was natural. If he wasn’t that kind of man, he would have never become strong enough to lead the Big Ten and become the Hero King.
“It is good to see that you made it without incident, Master Mehal, Bran.” Charles said as he approached them with his parents, Leon by his side and paving the way for him.
Since she would need a different name for her sneaking around the school, Scarlet had chosen the name Bran, while Branwen would be known as Crimson while they were in disguise.
“It is good to see you again as well, Young Master.” Scarlet said with a little awkward bow. She was supposed to be his future retainer, so she had to play the part.
Charles frowned a little but ultimately just sighed and nodded his head. “I suppose we do have to keep up formalities. There are a lot of eyes on us, after all.”
“There… There are?” Scarlet said, glancing around them to see that he was right. While there were lots of noble families in attendance, with people who doesn’t regularly see each other talking and catching up, many eyes were on their little party.
Scarlet probably would have noticed this sooner, if she was more observant, but her eyesight wasn’t what it used to be. Her rapidly evolving [Mana Sense] had reached the point where she could sense the mana in inanimate objects, and using her eyes to navigate the world simply became obsolete, resulting in her not paying attention to them much.
“If it makes you feel better, their eyes are more on Sir. Mehal rather than you.” Charles’ mother said with a knowing smile. “He is quite popular among the women of the court.”
Mehal coughed a little in embarrassment. “It is good to see you all. I hope that Charles will keep an eye on the boy when the ceremony starts.”
“Of course.” Charles said, nodding in agreement. Then, while his parents and Mehal talked he moved closer to Scarlet and started to whisper. “Your disguise is good. If it wasn’t for your mana, I wouldn’t be able to recognize you at all.”
“...I suppose I should try to disguise my mana, shouldn’t I.” Scarlet said, before using [Evocation Magic] to change the mana she was leaking out to fit the signature of a different person.
“...I was talking more about the quantity than its signature.” Charles said awkwardly. “Also… is that Mehal’s mana signature?”
“It’s easier to mimic someone else's than create a new one.” Scarlet admitted. “I can’t just stop using my mana. It will build up too quickly.”
“Amazing as always.” Charles said with a sigh. “What is it that you called it? ‘First World Problems’?”
“I suppose it is.” Scarlet admitted with a smile.
“Charles!” The two were disrupted when a 5-year-old girl with bright blond hair dove into Charles’ side, the boy not moving an inch from the surprise attack, but getting stunned all the same.
At the same time, a small blue tiger jumped up onto Leon’s back with a playful roar.
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“Ah, it's nice to see you too, Ray.” Charles said, patting the head of his young cousin. “Did you come to see the ceremony?”
“Yeah! Mama and I came to cheer you on!” The energetic young girl said with a sunshine smile. Racheal was Charles’ younger cousin, born to his father’s younger sister and the second prince of the Kingdom. She was an excitable little girl with a good deal of talent, as expected of someone with royal blood. But when she noticed Scarlet, a blush came over her face. She disentangled herself from Charles and coughed into her hand and attempted a ladylike pose. “Is cousin going to introduce me to his friend?”
“...Ray, you two have already met.” Charles said quietly. “Remember, this is ‘Bran’.”
“Bran?” Ray said, before the name clicked for her. “...Mama was right. All the best men are either queer or girls dressed as boys.” The child said miserably.
“...Did she really say that?” Charles said, surprised by his cousin’s words.
“Sorry Ray.” Scarlet said with a sympathetic smile. “If it helps, your ladylike manners were very charming.”
“...Thank you.” Racheal said, the blush returning a little.
Trumpets started to play, signaling that the ceremony was going to start soon. “We need to get moving. We’ll see you after everything is over.” Charles said, patting his cousin’s head.
“‘Kay.” The girl said, giving him one final hug before moving back to be with her mother, her tiger Bond jumping after her.
“She’s a cute kid.” Scarlet said as they watched her go.
“Yeah.” Charles agreed before turning towards the center of the Cathedral. “Let’s get moving.”
There were 150 Noble children in total, gathered from all corners of the Kingdom, waiting to receive their Classes.
The line was arranged based upon one’s status. As such, Charles was second in line, behind a great-nephew of the King and grandson to another Duke, Lloyd. So Charles was allowed to watch young Lloyd Travis de Vaulthelm go up to the altar before it was his turn.
Lloyd had the bright blue hair which characterized a man of royal blood, and walked with the air of a noble, despite his age.
Charles had never met Lloyd himself, but the boy was the grandson of the leader of the Old Noble’s faction. As such, he wasn’t really a friend of Charles’ family.
Not that Charles’ family could claim to have any political allies, as they were in the bazaar situation of being a self-proclaimed neutral faction that didn’t wish to get involved in politics, that somehow ended up winning and being closest to the King, when Edmer returned to save the Kingdom and was forced against his will to take the crown by a common people who saw him as God’s Chosen.
No one could understand that it was just a fluke of history and not some clever plot, devised by a young woman who could see the future.
Lloyd took the steps up to the center stage and the massive magic circle prepared for the ceremony, his Jade Monkey Bond swinging from his shoulders. The priests started to chant, powering up the ritual as Lloyd placed his hand on a large crystal in the center of the stage, causing it to release a bright light.
Moments later, the light faded, and a screen set up to display the results lit up behind the stage with some of the boy’s stats, large enough for all the gathered nobles to see.
Name: Lloyd Travis de Vaulthelm
Age: 10
Race: Human
Level: 44
Bond: Jade Monkey
Bond level: 45
Class: Exalted Paladin (Tier 7)
Class level: 150
The audience clapped in applause, congratulating the young man on his achievements of reaching a Tier 7 Class, and how he was doing his royal blood proud. Others mentioned how hard he must have worked to reach level 44 before his 10th birthday.
Though still others whispered about his choice of Class, as someone of royal blood taking the Exalted Paladin Class was equivalent to saying ‘I wish to be King’.
Still, the King himself was applauding loudly from his VIP box, so it seemed like no offense was taken, and Lloyd returned to his family after a short bow to the audience.
“Charles Colestar de Dalhurst.” The announcer shouted, calling Charles up for his turn.
Charles walked forward with his head held high, doing his best to close his ear and heart to the world around him. At this moment, he had to let nothing make his resolve falter.
The orb felt warm underneath his fingers and the boy felt himself being drawn in by the magic. Magic older than that of the Bond Awakening Ritual.
While the Awakening Ritual had felt like something within him being drawn out, this felt like his entire being was being washed clean. Like all the imperfections that had always held him back were being stripped away. And as he basked in the feeling, something started to come to him. A web of possibilities.
‘Choose.’ A soft, womanly voice whispered into his ear.
Charles looked closely at the web, seeing himself in each node. A version of himself that walked a different path. One where he held a spear. One where he was a training instructor. Another where he was holding a spell book. Each one related to one of the skills he had been cultivating over the years.
But one stood out above the others. A vision of himself with overwhelming strength, standing at the head of an army with a sword that could separate a dragon’s head from its shoulders in a single swing.
[Tier 8: Dragon Buster Swordsman]
He had thought he had given up on taking it here years ago. But despite everything, he longed to reach out and take it. It represented the power and respect he had wanted for his family since he was a child. Power that would set him above all of the other noble children at the academy.
(But they aren’t your rivals, are they?) Leon’s voice said, echoing within their shared spirit. Charles’ never noticed how much Leon’s voice sounded like his own before. (Take it, if you want it, but will your heart really accept merely this level of power? What are you going to do when all the others surpass you? Do you think you will be able to keep up with her?)
Charles’ hand tightened on the orb as Leon’s word’s pierced him.
No. Even if this was the result he had worked for so long to obtain, he wasn’t going to let his weakness take him here. “I’ll be back for you.” Charles said, before turning his eyes back to the root of this branch.
The voices around him once again reached Charles’ ears as he finally forced himself to make the decision he had chosen long ago.
In order to stand beside Scarlet as an equal, he would risk it all.
Name: Charles Colestar de Dalhurst.
Age: 10
Race: Human
Level: 63
Bond: World Lion
Bond level: 63
Class: Fighter (Tier 1)
Class level: 1