Born From A Divine Gamble

Every day he would be awakened more or less violently by the girls. Then, he would train for a while, lift the hammer, swing his sword and even go outside sometimes to practice his archery. After some days had pa.s.sed, he noticed that he was leaving small dents on the floor of his room when he practiced with the hammer so he moved his training outside for this as well.

During that month, the flowers growing in Emp"s leg started withering. The condition of Celtine greatly improved as well, her hand completely healed and both vigor and color came back to her as she devoured the meals prepared by Harriett. She made a lot of surprisingly good food Emp would never have expected to be possible.

He was used to simple things like placing a fish above the fire and waiting for it to be ready but his slave was much more knowledgeable in that field. Every day the tastes would be completely different than the last. When part of the food remained, she would use it in another recipe instead of reheating it later like he would have done.

For the sake of the meals, she would often go down to speak to the receptionist, Esther, as Emp learned she was named. She would go there with money borrowed from Emp and ask for missing ingredients or even go to the market by herself to find something cheap and seasonal. She understood well that even if Emp had a lot of money for now, he probably wouldn"t gain anymore until he left this school.

While Harriett was busy cooking and cleaning she tried to teach Celtine her skills and help her walk properly. Emp also tried to help her practice walking around their rooms but honestly, it was easier to just carry her around. She was weighting nothing to him, it was simply faster and more practical to have her on his shoulder than to let her walk around.

He had no idea how she felt about being carried like that all the time but he kept doing it because he enjoyed the company. When he trained inside, he would leave her with Harriett but every time he went outside in the training yard, he would bring her along. When he wasn"t training, he was more often than not trying to decipher the common language with Celtine peeking at the books content from the side.

Then, in the evening, they would all play card games together. Harriett had to teach them each one because she was the only one who knew how to play but after many games, they got the hang of it. They would then relax a bit on the balcony before going to bed.

One day, after being woken up particularly strongly by Celtine who had lost way too many games the previous day, he decided to go practice in the archery range. He had practiced a bit since he arrived at the school but he still couldn"t hit the target. He knew that archery was an important skill in the Steelwood empire so he felt that he needed to at least be able to get an arrow into the target if he didn"t want to look out of place.

He left with Celtine on his shoulders after their dinner, with his bow and a bunch of arrows in hand. As he approached the entrance hall, he saw a girl speaking loudly and angrily to Esther.

"Just tell me where that stupid Nicolas is hiding!"

"Miss Heida, I cannot tell you where sir"s Bluepeak"s room is as long as he doesn"t ask me to tell you himself, this is part of the school rules."

The girl was blond and thin, she wore a frilly dress of green and gold and a pair of sharp, angry eyebrows. She refused to give up in front of Esther"s denial.

"Then have him come here! Who does he think he is to not only fail to greet me upon my arrival but also ignore me? This is scandalous! Treason even!"

"Please my lady, stay calm. Maybe he simply did not know you were coming."

Since this whole thing had nothing to do with him at all and he didn"t want to be dragged into it, Emp pa.s.sed them silently and went outside.

"How could he not! Not only this but why is he still wasting his time here instead of doing the work he was a.s.signed to!" Emp heard as he left.

That small girl was really angry at this Bluepeak guy, he wondered what he could possibly have done as he circled the building. Maybe she had paid him for something he didn"t deliver? Celtine seemed to not care at all for that girl and just dangled her feet lazily.

They pa.s.sed a couple rows of trees and found themselves in a large empty area covered in gra.s.s. At the end of it, targets and practice dummy stood in wait.

Emp lowered Celtine in the shade of the trees they just pa.s.sed before he readied his bow. This was the problem he had about carrying the girl around, It was hard to make wide movements with his arms when she was there and he couldn"t turn his head at all. In order to practice his archery seriously, he needed to put her down. Even though he had brought her all the way here to have some company, he could only leave her there with a book to pa.s.s the time. He wasn"t sure on how much she could learn alone with a book like that but she seemed really serious about it so he gave it to her every time he trained outside.

After Celtine had opened the book with a focused frown, he stepped into the field and moved to the center of it. He believed most people would stand at one end of the field and shoot at the targets on the other but he couldn"t do it. Even standing at half the distance, he still could not hit even the biggest of targets. At least, there was no one else there to witness his abysmal ability with a bow.

He took position, readied an arrow, drew the string and shot it at one of the target. The arrow flew above it and buried itself in the gra.s.s far behind it. He had missed again, that was expected. He drew another one and missed again, then he fired another one and missed again. Like that, he shot twenty in a row and every single arrow failed to hit the target.

That wasn"t surprising, he wasn"t even annoyed by the failure. He just walked up to the targets, picked up all his arrows and started over. He repeated that whole process two more times. The arrows would go astray every single time. He couldn"t figure out why they refused to go where he wanted them to. Would they be more obedient if he asked them politely? He took the last arrow one more time and did just that before shooting at the target again. It didn"t work, those arrows weren"t kind at all.

He lowered his bow wondering how he would hit the target or if he would ever manage to do it at all. He seemed to be making no progress.

"Don"t worry about that, this always happens." Came a voice from behind him.

He turned his head to discover a tall man with a longbow strapped on his back. He had a head of brownish blond hair and dark yet amicable eyes. He stood on the path to the archery range near where he had left Celtine, with his hands in his pockets.

"We"re too far from the forest here in the middle of the city, the ancestors aren"t helping. I"m sure that some of the new students will get confused as for why their arrows can"t hit the targets anymore when the first archery cla.s.s happens. It"s normal to miss your mark at first."

Emp wondered is he should tell him that he never managed to hit anything even back when he was in the forest but chose not to in the end. Seeing as Emp didn"t answer, he said a few more words.

"Sorry, I didn"t mean to disturb you. My name is Ivar Longhorn, I"m a student."

"I am Emp, I"m a new student. You"re not bothering me at all, I just did not know what to answer."

The guy got closer and extended his hand for a shake which Emp accepted.

"I see, well, nice to meet you. It"s always fun to meet someone interested in archery."

"I am not that interested though, I would just like to be able to at least hit the large target, even if not in the middle."

The young man didn"t seem to take it badly at all.

"That"s still more than most, you wouldn"t believe how many people think it"s pointless to learn how to use a bow properly if the ancestors are going to help the arrow reach its target anyway. You at least try to do better."

Was this why the archery range was always empty? No one bothered to practice archery? What was that help the ancestors provided them that made practice pointless and why was he not receiving it? By the way he said it, it seemed like common knowledge so he chose to keep his question about it to himself for now.

"I am trying but I am also failing. I never hit the target once."

"Would you like me to help?"

"If you are good with a bow than yes, I would be thankful for your help."

"I won"t pretend to be some sort of genius with a bow but at least, I"m better than those who only rely on the ancestors."

Ivar then proceeded to show him a lot of things and tried his best to help Emp. He talked about distances and the curve of the arrow"s trajectory. He talked about how to hold the bow properly and explained things about angles and deviation. He spoke of the weight of the arrows, the wood used for the bow and the strength of the string. He even provided many examples with his own bow and arrows, showing what happened to the arrow if he did this or that. Emp was fascinated, this man was really good with a bow, all his arrows. .h.i.t the intended target, every time close to or right in the middle. That guy knew well what he was talking about.

"Here, your turn now, pick a target and try to remember what I told you." He said to Emp after a while.

Emp picked one of the arrows he had fetched back earlier and focused his attention on the target dummy he had tried to reach since the beginning. He took into account everything Ivar had told him and shot the arrow after a deep breath. It flew in a straight line and hit right in the middle of a huge painted target.

"See! I knew you would be able to do it! And it"s right in the middle too!" Exclaimed Ivar as he hit Emp"s back in congratulation.

"But that was not the one I was aiming at, I was aiming at the dummy on the left not the painted target." Emp confessed.

"..."

The smile of Ivar froze, unsure on whether to laugh or cry. Emp had failed again. From behind them, Celtine made a smile as if she was laughing.

"Well." Ivar said with sympathy. "At least you hit something this time... Maybe if you do the exact same but shoot at the other target next to the dummy, you"ll hit the right one instead?"

Emp tried to do what he was told but the arrow flew between the target and the dummy, missing both. That was disappointing. Ivar made a defeated shrug.

"At least you have the right angle, neither of them flew over or bellow the target, I"ll call that an improvement."

This was true, Emp felt better after he heard that. He did not hit the target today but had made some progress.

"I have trained enough for today, I think I will go back to my room now. Thank you for your help Ivar."

"It would have been more rewarding to receive your thanks if you had actually managed to hit the target at the end but I"ll accept them anyway. Maybe we"ll see each other again when the cla.s.ses start again, we may even end up in the same group. Until then, have some pleasant days."

"You too, have some pleasant days."

Emp picked up his arrows, placed Celtine back on his shoulder and left with the sounds of arrows. .h.i.tting their targets at his back. Maybe next time he would be able to do it.

Back in the entrance hall, the angry girl wasn"t there anymore.

"Good afternoon sir Emp." Said Esther.

"Good afternoon Esther." Answered Emp. "The angry girl left?"

She answered with a half smile.

"For now but we"ll both see her plenty more since she is now a student here as well. To hide nothing from you, she will be in your group."

"By group you mean those that will study and go to cla.s.ses together right?"

"Yes, there is too many of you to have you all in the same room so the ancient divided you into more manageable groups."

"And that girl will be with us, what about a man named Ivar Longhorn?"

"Yes, that one too is in your group. Do you perhaps know him?"

"I met him earlier, he helped me with my archery practice."

"That sure sounds like him. He came here to study in the last batch of students, five years ago. Aside from the bow, he doesn"t seem interested in much else. The teachers have no complains about him though and he seemed to be doing fairly well, I"m not sure why he is still here."

Emp thanked her for the information and went back to his room where the warm smell of vegetable broth welcomed him.

Later that evening, he asked Harriett about the things Ivar had told him and got to understand about the help of the ancestors. This meant that everyone else was good with a bow as long as they stood in the woods but why not him? Harriett said everyone born in the empire received this help but if so, how come even in Chinui"s abode, he was unable to hit the target? Was it because he wasn"t truly born? He had been created instead, did that not count? This seemed like the most logical explanation for now.

This also meant that everyone would be better than him in archery, as long as they were in the woods, and probably everywhere else too seeing how bad he was at it anyway.

Aside from that encounter in the archery range, nothing much happened. A few batch of clothes were delivered to him and thankfully, none of them were too strange or extravagant. The store owner came to deliver them herself and even stayed a while to make some last minute adjustments, what a diligent woman.

Harriett got a cla.s.sic long sleeved dress of green and purple with just a bit of frills at its extremities. Celtine got a long dress open in the front with a pair of matching light breeches. If Harriett"s dress was of a cla.s.sic beauty, Celtine"s had a more delicate charm, the whole thing seemed light, or even weightless. The colors were the same but because of its form, when she was sat on his shoulders, her dress gave the impression it was some sort of cape he wore himself instead.

His own clothes were comfortable, long and supple to let him move and seemed both casual and elegant. He liked them. They were mostly purple as well and he found it funny that all their clothes matched. The only difference was that there were no traces of green on his own to not confuse him with a servant of the school by accident. He had a new belt that wasn"t too big for him anymore and a new pair of l.u.s.trious boots.

Speaking of the belt, Harriett had managed to change his old buckle for the one he had bought in Red-water so now he had two belts.

His only complain about the new clothes was that there were too many pieces to them and he had to request the help of Harriett to fit them all on him. It was way more complicated than donning his armor. There were laces and b.u.t.tons everywhere, around four layers of s.h.i.+rts and even a necktie. Harriett seemed particularly pleased with the necktie. She smiled every time she had to tie it up for him but Emp just felt it was annoying to have something around his neck.

As long as she was there, he wouldn"t have trouble putting them all on but was it not a bit exaggerated? This was only the normal set too, some of the clothes he received after were much worse like his ball set.

Finally, aside from the clothes and his training, he made a bit of progress in his learning of the common language. It was mostly thanks to the efforts of the second him in Dark-glint. Much more interestingly, the rings of allegiance changed a bit. The two wooden rings he had given the girls now had some carvings added onto them and Harriett"s had some little stones encased in it. Not precious stones, just some sort of heavily pigmented, grainy stone.

Now, when asking the ring for information, it would tell him that they were safe and healthy as well as alive instead of just telling him they were alive. Emp guessed it meant that if they faced some danger, the ring would tell him instead of just telling him they were dead after the fact. That information still wasn"t anything complicated but it was extremely useful if he wasn"t too far away because it would let him intervene in time before it was too late.

The two girls had widely differing reactions about the changes on the ring. While he often saw Harriett widely grinning at her ring, Celtine seemed bothered by hers. She would be acting normally until she caught a glimpse of it while playing cards for example. Then, she would make a pained face and hide it somewhere out of her sight. Emp had no clue why she disliked it but he needed her to keep wearing it for his experiment so he didn"t say a thing about it.

***

At the end of the month, when he received a message telling him to go in the great hall for the entrance ceremony speech, he was more than ready to start his studies for good. he was eager to learn new things.

He put on his good clothes with the help of Harriett who he didn"t fail to thank and went towards the great hall with the two girls. The servant that came to tell him about the speech had said that he could bring the two of them so he decided to do it, maybe they would understand something he didn"t.

"Is master really going to bring Celtine like that? This slave understand that master isn"t bothered by the thought of others but some of those people will see and interact with master every day for years to come. Is master really fine with this being their first impression of master?" Asked a fidgeting Harriett from his right side.

"Again? Have we not talked about this just yesterday? Why are you so stressed about this?"

"We have but I still do not understand. My only wish is for my master to succeed and this slaves feels that this will hamper master"s future endeavors. I do like Celtine and I believe it is really kind of master to propose himself as her legs but I fear the rest might not be as comprehensive as master is."

"The duke Jasay told me when I first got into this school that I should not talk about the Muraciers and it would be better if the rest thought I was a commoner, which is actually the case. Seeing your agitated state and what I already learned about n.o.bles, there is no way one of them would do such a thing, this is perfect. As a proof, it already worked on the mouse guy."

Emp had already forgot his name. Thinking about him, he didn"t hear from him again. No guards came to ask him what had happened and neither him nor Harriett saw him again outside the school. He wondered if the man was alright.

"But, isn"t master worried it will end up like that time?"

He understood what she meant, it was about Celtine being a cursed-blood again. People around here really did not like cursed-bloods.

"I do not know any other cursed-blood, I do not understand well why they feel so bothered by them either because I am lacking in both knowledge ans experience. All I know is that Celtine is harmless, look at her, I do not believe anyone should feel anger about her."

"Even if master doesn"t believe it, they will anyway. Please pardon my words but, I do not understand why master is so insistent on this. Celtine, would you be bothered if master was to put you back on the ground before entering the great hall?"

A small tap of her left foot let them know she wouldn"t be bothered. She did not seem to mind but Emp did. What Harriett really wanted to hear from him was why he refused to drop her off but he wasn"t sure he knew himself. In the end, since he couldn"t find the answer and since it would be easier on everyone, he reluctantly agreed to let her down.

"Fine then, since you both insist, I will do as you say and place her back down before we come across anyone."

Harriett nodded, quite visibly rea.s.sured. Emp was happy she felt better but he himself now felt odd.

After they took the last flight of stairs, he put Celtine back down and they slowly walked towards the great hall, with her walking with a bit of help from Harriett.

As they approached, they joined up with many more students and their slave on their way to hear the speech. Everyone including Emp"s group came from a myriad of side corridors and all joining up into the main path leading the great hall. Some of those they crossed shot strange looks at Celtine and Harriett but no one said a thing. They probably wondered why one of his slaves needed help walking.

Once they entered the hall, they witnessed hundreds of people standing around awaiting for the speech to begin. Emp had not expected that there would be so many students. Even considering that close to two thirds of them were slaves of students, there were still more than a hundred of them and Emp wasn"t the last to get into the hall.

Some were standing alone or with their slaves, some chatted in small groups and some went around presenting themselves to the others. Emp wondered what was their intentions, there were too many people here to know everyone, why were they anxious to meet them all. He steered himself away from the rest like most of those here and chose an empty corner to wait for the speech in peace.

A high stage had been placed at the end of the hall to let everyone see clearly the person who would do the speech. The room itself had been emptied of all furniture and statues to make room for the crowd of students. Since the room wasn"t against the outside wall, there were no windows, they had all been replaced by giant portraits of people Emp didn"t know about. The room was lit by a great amount of crystal globes s.h.i.+ning more powerfully than a torch, they were all hanging from the ceiling at short intervals and lining the walls.

Because there were so many people here, Emp couldn"t figure out who were students and who were slaves. Of course, some were obviously slaves by the way they were dressed, that at least, he had caught on, but many had found more dignified clothes for their attendants like he had done himself, blurring the line somewhat in such a large crowd.

With the time the other him had spent in the village, he was starting to understand how the growing up thing worked. He could somewhat guess the ages of those present here and was surprised to see the wide range of it. There were small people of about ten years old up to people who looked to be almost twenty. Emp wasn"t the shortest here but he definitely wasn"t the tallest. He now understood that growing taller wasn"t a thing that happened in a matter of weeks but because of that, he was still unsure if he would indeed grow or not. next time he met with a G.o.d, he would ask why he was only this tall for sure.

More and more people flooded the hall until it was half filled before no one else came in. A mildly long time pa.s.sed after that before the old princ.i.p.al came in and walked up to the stage. He seemed in a really good mood as he climbed the steps with a bouncy gait. He took the central spot and started his speech right away.

"Aye young lads and missus, keep it down fer me will ya?" He professed loudly.

Since it was mostly calm already as most of the future students kept to themselves, he had no problem to quiet the crowd.

"Good. Fer those that was here last time too, you know I"m bad at speeches and I don"t be one to like them. Ma name be Jorman Jazay, Duke of the eastern grove of Artefine. I be the Princ.i.p.al of this here school. I will be short with my words.

If you made it here, it means that the empire be puttin high hopes on ya. You all be already worthy to become great, this place is only here ta make ya all bloom and help ya spread your branches across the land. I be havin good feelings on this here group of younguns and I be needin ye all ta stay focussed on the task of learnin.

Because of what I be seeing here since I came to be the head of this place, I decided to shuffle things up a bit. As some of you might know already I be allowin you all to hide yer names. n.o.body be knowing if you are higher or lower than themselves on the social larder."

There was some confusion and whispers spread across the crowd but Emp had a hard time guessing if it was because of the announcement itself or because he said larder instead of ladder. He would probably have been confused as well if he had not met him once before. The Duke didn"t care about the commotion and followed it up.

"Aye, you all be hearing right. Ya can tell yer names to whomever ya please but you don"t have ta. This be meanin that ya all better be respectful to everyone equally if you don"t want to be in fer a nasty surprise after yer all released from here.

I don"t be caring for the rest, miss Wren Esther here be namin people and a.s.signing them to their group. Listen well, study hard and may all of you become huge trunks holding up tha leaves of our great empire. This be all, welcome to the Steelwood imperial school."

The students awkwardly clapped for his strange speech and miss Esther took his place while he stepped down and walked out of the Hall without a look back.

Armed with a huge list on a parchment, the receptionist started naming up people one by one. As they were named, they were each sent to a corner to join one of the groups. She took care to never speak the family names before she got the consent of those she named but sometimes, she let out a t.i.tle when it was gained out of their own talent. For example, Brenia scragling hunter who ended up in the group C. Another example was Emp himself.

"Emp s.p.a.ce blessed, group C." Esther said with a smile.

Every time a t.i.tled name would be called, the crowd would cheer and whisper, they were particularly loud for him. No one knew who he was but like the Duke had said when he met him, a G.o.d"s blessing made quite an impression.

The crowd all looked in every direction searching for the one who was just called and Emp had no choice but to move up to the group C under all their gazes. He had never felt so many eyes on him at once, it was a bit intimidating. He walked up to Brenia and the rest of his group and waited in silence for the rest of the students to be a.s.signed a group.

In that group, there was also the angry girl he had crossed the other day and soon after, Ivar joined them as well like Esther had told him before.

"We really ended up in the same group." He said as he joined him. "I never expected you to be the holder of a blessing though. Usually, there are some with famous names that get surrounded right away but since all the names are hidden this time they"ll probably all target you instead. You"re gonna get swarmed by people the moment this thing ends you know."

That would be horrible, would he have to fight his way out of here?

"What should I do then? I don"t really want to fight them all."

"Oy, who said anything about fighting? I just meant that they will all want to talk to you." Ivar told him with an incredulous look.

If they all came to talk to him at once, would it not be like that time in the village? But here, there would be ten times the amount of people. This sounded just as terrible to him. He would be here forever. What would they even want to tell him? Would it all be about s.p.a.ce? he didn"t know that much about the G.o.d, what would he answer?

Seeing that his face wasn"t getting any better, Ivar tried to help him out a bit.

"Yeah, seeing your face and how little you talk, I guess this would indeed be some sort of fight for you. Just ignore them if you don"t want to talk. Only this group here really matters since the rest you will barely ever see. Just be yourself, is what they say but don"t do anything extreme if you don"t want to be known by everyone for the rest of your time here."

Emp nodded at his advice while the angry girl was scolding someone in a low voice not too far behind them.

"I tell you I"m sorry." Was saying the man. "I truly haven"t found anything yet, I"m not just wasting my time!"

Emp was curious about what they were talking about but focused on the end of the students distribution instead. Many more joined the small group, the last person being a short girl named Mable. She came up to the rest and hugged another older girl she must"ve known from the group, making the total number of student in group C twenty-four.

"This is all for the group selection." Declared Esther as she folded the parchment. "All of you have been placed in the groups by the princ.i.p.al himself so if you have any complaints about the group you ended up in, you will have to address them to the duke himself. You are all free for now, make sure to send someone to the front desk to receive the schedule of your study group so you won"t miss anything. As a final note, yes, even the returnee have to go to the basic cla.s.ses again at least once. Thank you all for your attention and in the name of this whole school, I wish you a good day and a marvelous stay."

With this, she bowed deeply to the students once and left the stage. Right after, everyone started interacting with the rest of their groups to learn a bit about them. A large amount of gazes gathered on Emp like Ivar had predicted but one of them was way more hostile than the rest.