"It"s about your earlier offer for help...""Oh! So do you need it?"
"...As reluctant as I am about it, I would really appreciate it if you could help me with something..."
"Hey, hey, no need to be like that! You"re a friend Lucius, so you can ask me for help anytime! I"ll gladly help you out as long as it"s within my ability to do so!"
Lucius still seemed a little reluctant, he sighed powerlessly and continued, "Look, Cecil...what I"m about to tell you isn"t any good news, and not just for the Kingdom, but for you as well!"
"Huh?"
"Listen, during the past couple of months when I was absent, my family and I was combating some of the Empire"s spies and incited beastmen that were sent into our territories. Of course, this wasn"t something that happened only to my family"s territory, but throughout all of the territories bordering the Empire."
"Okay...but since you"re back here, doesn"t that mean everything"s good now?"
"No, it"s far from it."
"Huh?"
"I came back to ask some of my friends to help me concoct some medicinal pills and strengthening pills for the territory...we"re facing casualties now ever since the Empire and Kingdom agreed to open up their borders in order to start trade relations..."
"Wait? Shouldn"t these trade relations bring about fewer problems for the Kingdom?"
Lucius looked a little frustrated at his words. This happy-go-lucky fatty was displaying a look totally unbefitting of his usual behavior and character.
"We let those Empire merchants come in to trade with us, but strictly only to the major cities at the borders...but lately, we"ve been finding some unsavory people mixed in with those merchants...spies, a.s.sa.s.sins, informants, you name it. They"re all crossing into the borders with these merchants in the name of "trading"."
"a.s.sa.s.sins? Spies? What the h.e.l.l?"
"Yeah, what the h.e.l.l...I"m not sure what the Empire is thinking. Don"t they know this might cause the trade agreements to fall apart?!"
"..."
"It"s gotten worse now...some of the spies and others are even resisting arrest and have started combating the guards or adventurers!"
"...this is all bad news...but what"s it got to do with me?"
"They"re all after your head..."
"What?"
"Or at least...what"s inside your head."
"What do you mean?!"
Cecil was puzzled at his words. Just what could those people from the Empire want from him? Was it the knowledge about the magi-tech? But the Kingdom has already agreed to begin trading those magi-techs with the Empire!
The Empire should have many artificers, so once the magi-techs landed in their hands, they"d be able to reverse engineer the tool and start duplicating it for themselves!
They"d be able to gleam all the information regarding their creation if they were able to do at least that much!
"No wait...could it be?"
Cecil"s eyes darkened and he frowned. "But how? I didn"t leak any of that out...I didn"t even tell foster mother or anyone about it..."
Seeing Cecil"s darkened expression, Lucius naturally a.s.sumed that he was furious. No one wanted to be hunted.
In a way, the Kingdom had failed Cecil. Since the Empire"s now after him, they had failed in keeping his contributions to the new magi-tech a secret, not like it could be helped.
But Cecil didn"t care about any of that. Even with him contributing to the new magi-tech, all of those convenient magi-techs were easily replicable once studied.
He could only think of one thing that would make the Empire desperate in trying to capture him, and that was the knowledge about the magi-tech weapons.
"Could the Empire already have known about its existence? Then that could be the reason why the Empire pressured and persuaded the various powers into opening the Urrugdrasil Trials much sooner than the previous times..."
This was a problem for Cecil. He didn"t want to leak this knowledge out to anyone, whether it was the Anglaria Kingdom or the Orca Empire, or any super power for the matter.
It"d be dangerous for him if people caught wind of his knowledge regarding ancient magi-tech weapons. Everyone would be desperate into trying to pull or kidnap him over to their side, and they"d also be desperate in extracting any and all of the relevant information inside his brain.
"Tsk...I"ll wait and see...if those Empire b.a.s.t.a.r.ds force me into a corner...I"ll just leave..." Cecil mumbled.
His words weren"t heard by Lucius, but seeing his nasty expression, the fatty thought that he might have failed the Kingdom. If he kept this information to himself and let the Kingdom handle things, then maybe things will work out.
But as Cecil"s friend and the friend of his beloved fiancé, he didn"t want to leave Cecil in the dark. If worst comes to worst and things got out of hand, Cecil not having any info about all of this might be disadvantageous for him. He might actually be kidnapped by the Empire.
By letting Cecil know, Lucius at least gave him the time and mindset to stay ever vigilant against any of the Empire"s schemes.
"S-sorry, Cecil."
"What? No, I have to thank you Lucius...if you didn"t tell me this...I would still be in the dark. I did receive some warnings from my foster parents and my fellow artificers from the workshop, but I didn"t think it"d be this serious...once again, I thank you, Lucius."
Cecil smiled back at this fat friend of his. Despite being separated for so long, this senior brother had the camaraderie to come back to the academy to inform him of such horrid news.
"Let"s go back now, I bet everyone"s getting pretty impatient by now~"
"Eh? O-okay..."
"Oh, yeah...I almost forgot. What about the help you needed from me?"
"Hm? Oh, I almost forgot about that!"
Lucius had almost forgotten about the request he wanted from Cecil. The bad news he delivered diverted much of his attention from the main reason why he had called the boy out.
"Well...here"s where the problem starts...I just told you about that bad news...I know this might come off as shameless, but...I need your help in combating those... unsavory people..."
"...What?"
"S-sorry...you can decline if you want! I mean...you"d be putting yourself in danger..."
"...ugh...Well, I did say I"d help if I was able to...even if there"s danger I"m still capable of helping out..."
"Y-you don"t have to force yourself!"
"...Nah...It"s alright, I"ll come and help. I"m suspecting that you want everyone else"s help as well, right?"
"Y-yeah...but it"s okay if the Princess, Fina, and Veli don"t come..."
"Hey, hey...I get the thing about Fina and Eli, since they"re important figures and all, but aren"t you being a little too protective of your fiancé?"
"Of course I am! As a man, I"d never want my beloved to jump into danger!"
"Huh? But don"t you think this is a good time for her to train herself?"
"What?"
"I mean, come on! We"ll be fighting against bad guys! This is the perfect chance for her to pile up live-combat experience!"
Lucius couldn"t understand the familiar, yet incomprehensible words coming out of Cecil"s mouth. Experience? Perfect chance? What the h.e.l.l is this guy trying to put his fiancé through exactly?!
It was then Velicia"s words rang inside his head.
"Sh-she was right! You are a training freak—No, a training demon!"
"Hey~ don"t you think that"s a little uncalled for?"
"Wait...Don"t tell me that you order Lucia to jump into battle as well when something like this pops up?!"
"Well...why not? It"s the perfect chance to get some training in~"
"C-Cecil! This isn"t training! This is LIVE COMBAT! They might fall into a precarious situation and DIE! Are you even thinking straight?!" Lucius had already grabbed onto Cecil"s shoulders and began shaking him back and forth, hoping to stir up the boy"s common sense.
Cecil naturally knew about this, but during these kinds of mortal combat situations would be when a fighter"s hidden potential can be stimulated and they"d make quicker breakthroughs. There was no way he"d miss out on the chance to further strengthen his friends, as well as himself.
"Ahh, come on~ the worst won"t come to pa.s.s. I"ll be there to keep an eye on them! And do remember that everyone from Little Kings is powerful in their own right! They won"t fall to some scrubs."
"Oh goodness..."
Cecil sympathized a little with Lucius. If he had the choice, he wouldn"t want to send his friends into an obviously dangerous situation.
"No worries, Lucius...we"ve all experienced so much life and death during the trials...this won"t make us flinch or cower one bit..."
"Y-yeah...I guess you have a point...I heard the casualties were pretty steep this time...even Prince Lance fell in the trials..."
"Yeah...Veli"s brother did as well..."
"...Big bro Leon..."
"Right now, everyone that came back from the trial has been feeling restless and detached from the academy life..."
"...considering what you all went through...it"s a given, I guess..."
"Mhm. This is especially so for the Little Kings...although not all of us, but plenty of us had lost precious people during the trials...right now, they"d all jump at the chance to improve their strength...and to let off some steam."
"Let off some steam...huh...Ahahaha...I guess this is the perfect chance...right?"
"Yup...that"s why we should go...it"s not about moving on or anything, but it"s about venting and moving forward to ensure no one else from our group experiences something like what we all went through in the trials..."
"..."
"I"m sure this isn"t the last of any tragic events that our group will experience...but they all want to do all they can to try and prevent any such events from happening again...this includes me as well."
Lucius released a helpless sigh.
"I"ll go and tell them later then."
"Sure! Now...let"s go grab the guys and hurry on to the cafeteria!"
Seeing Cecil return to his usual self once again, Lucius shook his head and followed after him.
"Oh, don"t tell my bad news to the guys later, alright? It"s better if we kept that information strictly between us two~"
"Alright," Lucius affirmed with a nod.
The two walked back to the cla.s.sroom and quickly fetched the rest of the Little Kings. There was only an hour left from their break before the next cla.s.s started, so the group quickly hurried over to the academy"s cafeteria.