Taking a deep breath, I raised my foot and stepped across the threshold into the well-lit room. Taking yet another step into the confines of the chamber, I swallowed hard and steeled my nerves. This was my moment to shine.

“Hello, my name is Roik Fremm and I was directed to this room?” Looking around, I spotted countless books covering the walls of the study and admired the meticulous nature of the room. The administrator had better style than I expected.

“Roik, Roik… oh, yes! High Priest Timaeus should be with us in a moment, please take a seat and wait.” The administrator was a thin light-skinned man with a large nose, sunken eyes, and dark flowing robes — with a peculiar colorful feather on his cap.

“Yes sir.” With that, I took my seat. Better to stay on his good side before the negotiations began… not that he knew this was a negotiation yet. Between my blessing and my bloodline, my value just increased at least a hundredfold.

Looking around the room again, I let my eyes wander across the spines of the collection of books along the wall in front of me. ‘Intermediate military tactics’, ‘Accounting procedures of Year 721’, ‘Bylaws of Rhondale, 7th revision’, the list continued. Seemed like there were a lot of interesting, and some less interesting, tomes among the collection.

For being an administrators office, the decor and books were too on-the-nose. It looked like any study should, with countless books and scrolls and other papers scattered across the shelves and desks. Even the man's desk looked normal, just covered in his inkwell and various papers he was reading or writing on. Based on the man’s reputation I expected more chains, torture tools, blood stains. This was the lower-town adminstrator Ferdik, right? It sure looked like him.

A few minutes later, the high priest opened the door and walked in before talking the seat next to me without saying anything to the administrator. Waiting for him to stop what he was doing, we both sat in silence and waited, and waited. The man was not in a rush for us at all. Giving each other a look, he finally stopped writing, set his quill down, and turned to face us. “So, I’ve heard the church has come to discuss your conscription? I’d like to know what brought this on.”

“Yes, Administrator Ferdik. We at the ‘Lesser Church of the Creator’ appreciate you making this appointment on such short notice, considering we only asked for it yesterday. I’d like to use this chance to re-introduce the young man sitting next to me. You previously knew him as a normal commoner on paper, but that all changed with yesterday’s ceremony.”

Taking a deep breath, the priest took a hard look at me. “This boy has awakened two special traits that I believe should prompt reconsideration of the type of conscription he faces. He doesn’t want to evade going to war, but rather these two traits will make him a significantly more valuable asset to the war effort and we at the church cannot abide by him heading off to be a common foot soldier. It would be an affront to the gods.”

Looking back at the administrator, the high priest’s tone shifted a bit. “I’ll let the boy explain his circumstances, but know this: our recommendation is that you send this boy to the leadership camp instead and dedicate all of the resources you can on him. He needs to develop his abilities, and you'll hear why in a minute.”

With that, both men faced me. Feeling sweat start to break out on my chest, I cleared my throat. It was now or never, I just had to repeat what we practiced. “Hello Administrator, as I said before my name is Roik Fremm. As of yesterday I am the bearer of two special gifts: I have received the rare and powerful bloodline of the Hydra and the greater blessing of the war goddess.” With that, the administrators mouth hung open slightly and a strange look crossed his face. It was amusing, but I needed to focus on finishing my speech and laughing at him would ruin its impact greatly.

“I do not know the extent of my powers yet, but I was told they would be a great asset to me in my coming battles. I would like to serve my country, but as the priest recommended I’d like to serve in a capacity where my newfound strength can be honed and put to work to make a difference in our plight against the Arrick Empire. I'd like to ask for fair monetary compensation given my newfound value and be given the opportunity to learn from those who can help me live up to my potential. I plan to devote myself wholly to protecting the people, but I need the resources to become useful.”

Taking a deep breath, I tried to steady my pounding heart as the administrator stared at me with curiosity and mild surprise in his eyes. Tapping his finger on his desk, he looked at me, then the high priest, and then back at me. After what felt like hours, but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, he began to slowly nod.

“A blessing of the war goddess alone would be enough cause for the leadership camp change, but a bloodline, huh? It’s a shame you don’t know exactly what your powers are. Could you please share your skills and stats with me? That will help me make a decision.”

Looking at the high priest, he nodded at me. Pulling up my status, I recited my stats followed by my skills. When I was done, the administrator was giving me a strange look and tapping the desk more aggressively.

“You seem too smart to be a liar, but… a supreme regeneration skill and those stats? Not to mention your other skills… if we had caught you before we needed to send you to war, you’d no doubt be trained to become a knight instead...” Letting that hang in the air, the administrator clicking his tongue and stopped tapping his fingers while his eyes grew distant.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

With an annoyed looked, he focused his eyes back on me and suddenly threw a knife at me. As it sliced past my shoulder, I felt the pain of the wound and shouted at him. As I ran my hand up my arm and felt the wound I realized the knife had only nicked me and, for some reason, I wasn’t even bleeding. After maybe a second, the small wound rapidly closed before vanishing, like nothing had happened. Looking at the high priest, I saw him shrug and we both turned to look at the administrator.

“Now you should understand your value. A skill like that is nothing to joke about, but I see you weren’t lying. Unfortunately, we still need the bodies and already submitted your name… so the best I can do is the leadership camp and increase your base salary. I will also send you with a letter of recommendation asking for you to be trained further in military strategy during your time there. You will likely need to work longer training hours than other initiates, but this is the path you must take. I assume this acceptable, high priest?”

With that, Timaeus nodded and looked at me. Grimacing slightly at the madness I just experienced, I turned back to the administrator. “This also sounds fine to me. I understand I can’t ask for too much in my situation. I am grateful for what you’re already offering, sir.” I also mentally called him out for stabbing me, not that I’d say it to his face.

“Good. You’ll leave with the rest of the initiates in 7 days time from the east gate. I’ll give you the recommendation letter and some better instructions at that time. You’re dismissed.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, I nodded, rose to my feet, and headed out of the room with Timaeus behind me. As we walked down the halls, he placed his hand on my shoulder to get my attention. Looking at him, he smiled and nodded. “We did it, this is the best we could ask for. Do great things and they’ll have no choice but to offer you distinctions and you’ll rise up the ranks. Earn your future, boy.”

Not stressful at all, thanks high priest. “I appreciate your assistance, high priest. I won’t waste this opportunity. It’s not like I want to go to war, but a promotion and better conditions? That means a higher chance of survival and a better future. I was destined to live in the slums for the rest of my life here, so… this is probably a better outcome than I could've really asked for.

Nodding at him once, we split off and went separate ways. For now, it was time for me to head home and tell my parents about my fate. My mother was likely the only one of them who would care, but I still needed to tell them so they knew they’d lose my salary. With a deep sigh, I marched towards home.

bloody divider [https://i.imgur.com/yTIGwtI.png]

Standing in front of a normal-looking rundown door, I took a deep breath and opened it. “Mom, Dad? I’m home. We need to talk, now.”

“Oh, Roik! Welcome home, dear. What’s wrong?” My mother shouted from the kitchen. We might live in a rundown neighborhood, but at least I had my own room and we had a proper kitchen.

“Could you get dad? I need to talk to both of you at the dining table.” With that, I headed towards the table and chairs in the corner of the living room. Pulling out a chair, I took a seat and took a few deep breaths. Everything was going to be fine, completely fine. There’s no reason to be worried, this is my sworn duty as a citizen. Right…?

As I stewed on what my future held, I waited for the two of them to come and sit down at the table. As I expected, my dad didn’t take my request seriously and I heard my parents arguing in the other room. I wouldn’t miss his stubborn ass. He might be my dad, but ever since I turned 12 he had turned from a caring father into a shell of bitterness.

A few minutes later, they both came walked out and took their seats on the other side of the table from me. “Okay. We’re here, Roik… What is it? Did something happen at work?”

“Yes, I had to quit unfortunately.” I said shortly. My dad’s face contorted with rage as he started raising his fist. I put up a hand to stop him. “I’m not finished.”

“Due to my citizenship and age, I have been conscripted into the army. I will be leaving here in a week to attend the leadership bootcamp to train for going to war with the Arrick Empire. My decision to go is final and I have no idea when, or if, I’ll ever return.”

With that, the anger faded from my dad’s face and was replaced with confusing. As he stared at me with a confused look in his eye, my mom gave me a sad look as an awkward silence filled the room for what felt like an eternity. I knew this would be hard, but this was much worse than I expected.

After awhile, a broken voice spoke. “Roik… war... My boy?” It was my dad, something seemed to have broken through to him.

“Yes, I’m going off to war. Don’t worry, I’m not going to be a normal troop - I’ve been scouted for the leadership division. I don’t know exactly what that entails yet, but I’ll have a much better chance of survival and better wages.”

“Who cares about the damn wages? How could they take you, or any of our sons. Those bastards.” This time the broken voice was replaced with anger, my dad’s anger. It’s not like I didn’t get his point, but was my life here really that much better? It was good to know my parents cared but… I wanted to try to look at this as a new opportunity. I could see the world for free and develop skills that would keep me employed. If I survived the war, maybe I could be employed as a knight or some sort of noble's bodyguard. My career prospects just grew tenfold.

“Honey… it’s been done. All we can do is pray for his safe return. You will be safe, right Roik?” Of course I’ll be safe… who wants to die? Not that I need to worry too much about danger anymore… near-instantenous healing might be a game changer for my ‘safety.’

“Of course, mom. I’m also not supposed to tell anyone, so don’t share this, but… I received the divine protection of the goddess Kaerni when I was awakened yesterday. The gods’ are on my side, so I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.” Hopefully this would allow her to sleep a bit easier. I couldn’t reveal my bloodline at any cost, but my blessing… well, let’s hope they kept it to themselves until I was famous or something.

As my mother bowed her head in prayer, she took my left hand and we sat there in silence. Occasionally my dad broke the silence with questions, but nothing important. They’d be fine, I’d be fine… everything was fine. Right?