Imperium Palace.
A small girl walked along the hallways to where Prince Kane’s room was. Her drilled hair bounced as she took a step on the ground.
`My Prince, I can’t wait to see you again!`
She arrived at Prince Kane’s room and opened the door.
Prince Kane was currently sitting on a chair and leaned on his desk. He was disturbed and looked to where the door was.
“Diega, why are you here at this time of the day?” Prince Kane narrowed his blue eyes.
“My Prince, don’t you no longer like little Diega anymore?” Her cute voice resounded in the room.
“Get to the point already. I still have things to do.” He was becoming impatient.
“My Prince, don’t you want to make Zachariel’s life difficult? I was just about to tell you which classmates he is close with so that-“
Prince Kane grabbed her neck. “Tell me.”
“My… Prince… let go of me! I… can’t breathe!”
Prince Kane snapped out of his rage and let go of Diega. He couldn’t believe he had just done that right now to the little girl.
Diega coughed as she tried to regain her breathe. “My Prince, you’re a bit too rough, aren’t you? But Diega likes this kind of Prince Kane than the other ones!” She felt happy about it.
Prince Kane hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry, Diega. I didn’t want to do that to you.” He felt sad about it.
“My Prince, you’re really the best!” `He hugged me! Ah, I’m going to die!`
“Is that so? I’m very happy to hear it then. Now, Diega, tell me who are these people whom Zachariel are closest with?”
“Ah, yes. I almost forgot about that. Lia Milelli, Luiz Carrico, Luka Alaze, Iria Usenko, and Sabrina Rossi.”
“Those five, huh?”
`Sabrina will be very hard to deal with. But the others…`
He had an evil plan in his mind.
`Zachariel Strom, you will soon experience what it’s like to lose the people around you. I will surely kill them in front of your eyes while you aren’t able to do anything to stop it.`
“Thank you, Diega. Your Prince will reward you for what you have done.”
Diega was happy when she heard that.
“You should go for now. My father’s guards will be here soon. I’ll reward you on another day.”
“Yes, my Prince!” She happily skipped out of the room.
`Zachariel Strom! How dare you go against my Prince! I’ll endure the shame for now, but sooner or later, I will kill you, and those who are close with you! I will make the Prince fall for me, and nothing will stop me from doing it!`
…
44th Day of Exios.
The warm red light from Solus shone upon the Imperium Continent. The workers had long started getting busy with their jobs. The birds chirped happily as the young and old walked along the paved roads, chatting and laughing with one another.
Zachariel had just woke up from a nightmare. `What kind of dream was that?`
He could not believe what he saw back there. He had pierced his sword upon Amelia’s heart as he stared at her with cold eyes. They were surrounded by the dead bodies of his seniors and his classmates from class W1-A.
Far ahead was Prince Kane and the Emperor. They smirked at him with an evil look plastered on their faces. Behind Prince Kane was a small blurry figure that he could not identify but it felt very familiar to Zachariel.
`Damn it, my mind must be messing with me.`
He got up from the bed and started to prepare for the day.
It was 9:50 now. Zachariel went out of the dormitory.
He saw Lia waiting for him on the opposite side of the road. She waved at him and greeted him with a smile.
`She’s really here.` Zachariel thought that Lia was just bluffing yesterday.
“Zachariel!” She ran to him and hugged him. The other boys frowned at how intimate these two were in the public.
`You f*cking bastards!`
They were angry at Zachariel for showing off how close and popular he was to the girls. They wouldn’t have minded it if he did that in other places, but to do it in front of the boy’s dormitory was crossing the line. Moreover, the girl was really onto him.
“Lia, you’re here.”
Zachariel looked at Lia. She was wearing a brown leather fighting dress that extended to her legs. It outlined her sexy body.
“Yes, I am! Zachariel, why are you wearing your uniform?”
“Oh, I don’t have many clothes so I just chose this.”
“Is that so? Shall we go now?!”
“Okay.”
The two of them left the area.
…
They walked to the center of the Imperium Capital City where the public training area was located. On the way, Lia curiously looked over the side stalls and inspected the products or services they sold.
Zachariel felt like he was accompanying a little kid who didn’t know what the world was. `Wait, aren’t I someone who also doesn’t know much about this world? How ironic.`
He just observed Lia and her conversation with the stall owners. He was disgusted about how some of them looked at Lia perversely.
Luckily, he was there and prevented any mishaps that might’ve happened. The perverts wanted to have a go at him but after seeing the Prospect candidate insignia on his chest, they backed away.
It was a law that being aggressive to a Prospect or Prospect candidate without any legal basis was a crime against the Imperium. After all, the Prospects were the hope of the Imperium. The punishment would vary from an arrest to the death penalty.
“Zachariel!” Lia called out to him.
“Yes, Lia?” He looked at her.
“Nothing, thank you!” Lia excitedly ran away; not giving Zachariel the chance to reply to her.
“Huh?” Zachariel was confused. `Is she talking about me driving off those perverts?`
He followed right after her and soon arrived at the public training area.
“This feels like another city inside.” Zachariel was dumbfounded after seeing just how large the public training area covered. It was 10-15% of the Imperium Capital City, in which it covered an area of at least 1,000 square kilometers.
There were even three floors in the public training area.
“Zachariel, follow me!” Lia snapped him out of his amazement.
Many people were going in and out of the public training area. Some even dragged their large demon beasts as they went inside. Some of them noticed Zachariel and had confused expressions on their faces.
`Why is he wearing a uniform even on a rest day?`
The entrance on the northeast was 100 meters long and 25 meters high. There were Imperium guards stationed all around, numbering hundreds. They coldly looked at each individual, warning them that this was an area they shouldn’t mess with.
A guard looked at him with confusion. “Hey kid, why are you still wearing your school uniform?”
“Uhm, is it bad, sir?”
“No, but we have to check your identity to verify that you’re a student and not some impostor. Bring out your student emblem please.”
“Ah, yes.” Zachariel gave his emblem to the guard.
The guard went to the side and inserted Zachariel’s emblem into a slot at the top of a pedestal. A magic screen displayed Zachariel’s information.
“All right, you’re good to go. Just bring a different outfit next time.” The guard returned Zachariel’s emblem.
“Okay, sir. I got it.” Zachariel would have to buy a new set of clothes soon. They then went inside.
The ceiling was longer than the outside. `Is this a spatial magic array formation?`
`To deploy such a large formation for at least 100km must’ve required a lot of mana essence crystals and other sources of energy to power it up.`
It was noisy and many people were looking for a fight, a trade, and other kinds of business or transaction. Magic screens also numbered many, displaying different information. Some displayed live fights on the arenas, while the others displayed the top 25 rankings in each city, in the Imperium, and the entire alliance.
Zachariel looked at one of the leaderboards.
“Alliance Top 25. Matthias Van Houten?” He felt that this name was very familiar to him. `Human, Top 24. How strong!` He looked at the other screens.
The light came from huge magic lamps at the ceiling, giving him a clear view of the names that were displayed.
“Zachariel, let’s go over there.” She pointed at one of the counters for renting a training room. There were counters on the side for people who want to register in the arena to fight, or to rent a room to train.
“Hello young miss, what can I do for you?” A female staff greeted them.
“We’d like to rent a private training room. Here’s my student emblem.”
“Four hours for free. If you want to extend your stay, you’d need to pay an additional 20 silver coins for that.”
“I’ll just take the free option..”
The staff took her student emblem and registered her daily logs to the public training area system.
“Just insert your emblem to one of the rooms upstairs. Thank you for coming!” The staff returned Lia’s student emblem.
The two went back to the main path.
“Uhm, Lia? Can you explain what just happened earlier? I can’t understand why is there a private room on a public training area?”
“Oh, about that, Zachariel. There are public rooms available for everyone, but the dummies, weapons, and environment is not as optimal compared to the private rooms. The students of the Great Schools have a privilege to stay for four hours for free every day. The Prospects have a better privilege, though.”
Lia giggled.
“Well, shouldn’t you have just told me about it? I could’ve just lent out my student emblem.” Zachariel replied.
“No, the private rooms for the regular students are already good. Also, I’m not the type to make use of others for my own benefit!”
Zachariel understood now. `Does she not believe in me? No, doesn’t look like it. I’ll just lend out my student emblem for their training on another time. At least I could make it up for them.`
`But can they enter if they’re not Prospects or Prospect candidates? I’ll ask the staff later.`
However, he remembered another matter.
“Shouldn’t we have waited for Luiz and the others?”
“Oh them? We’ve already planned this out since the last time we’ve come here. It’s my turn to use my emblem this time.”
“This time? So, the next one will use their emblems to extend our duration?”
“Yes!” She excitedly ran around the area.
“I see.” They definitely made use of that rule to their advantage. The Imperium didn’t do anything to it either. It’s not like they were on the losing end. There were taxes, battlefield exercise, and other sources of income. Furthermore, four hours was too long of duration for an individual to train.
Only battle maniacs would spend money to extend their training duration here.
Zachariel saw that there were many flying demon beasts up in the air with some people riding at it.
“Lia, what are those flying demon beasts?”
“Oh, those beasts are called grooks if I remember. They’re fast and could travel up to 100km per hour.”
The grooks were at least 5 meters long and had a wingspan of at least 12 meters. They had brown feathers, and their black beak was a meter long.
They were extremely burly and their claws were 45cm long.
“They are scattered around the entire public training area, and some could be found on gathering points. You can find it on the map in the magic screens.”
“You could ride them for free and guide them to where you want to. Be careful though, if you spend too much time riding on top of them, they might get annoyed and land back down.” Lia explained.
Zachariel nodded at her. `That would be convenient. This area’s too big to walk around.`
He was interrupted when Lia called out to him.
“Zachariel, look at that fight! It’s so exciting!” She pointed at one of the magic screens above.
On the screen was the fight between two mages casting skills against one another. `How boring.`
Zachariel felt like he was about to fall asleep. There was absolutely nothing exciting about their fight. “Who would blindly cast spells during a battle? They’re just wasting mana! Look, that guy casted a fireball again even though the opponent could defend and absorb his attack with that dark shield. What a fool.”
“It would’ve been better if he casted an offensive spell with a large mana output to break that shield earlier. But now, winning is impossible for him. The dark shield had already grown strong enough to absorb any kind of attacks.”
“Also, that guy with the dark mana essence, why is he not attacking? Clearly, as long as his dark mana essence could make contact with the other guy’s mana essence, his own mana supply would increase.”
“He’s just passively defending for a very long time now. If he launched even just a darkness beam right now, that other guy would’ve already been long defeated.”
“If this was a real battle, the two of them would’ve died already from the demon beasts.”
He shook his head. “Matches should be finished in the most efficient and fastest way. The demon beasts wouldn’t give us that much freedom in the battlefield to leisurely extend the fights.”
Lia attentively listened to him. She had already heard from Instructor Rufus much about finishing matches very fast, but to hear it from Zachariel was something she didn’t expect, especially when he lost his memory of almost everything that had happened in the last few days.
Moreover, he even gave more comments that enlightened her. `So dark shields could be countered with a very strong attack!`
Zachariel, on the other hand, was disappointed, but realization dawned upon him. `What’s going on? How come I could give comments out like this?`
His memory should’ve been fragmented, but he felt like he had battled for a long time. Moreover, even if they were fragmented, he shouldn’t have a strong foundation concerning experience in battles.
Even if he had battled before, the experience he had gathered shouldn’t be that much.
“Hey, young one. You’ve got good eyes and judgment over there!” A hearty laugh came from Zachariel’s back. He looked behind him.
It was a tall bearded middle-aged man. His spiked brown hair was highlighted. The scars on his skin indicated that he had battled a lot before. He carried a huge great axe on his back. There were people behind him.
“Hey kid, it’s rare to see someone like you. What’s your name?”
