CHAPTER 119
I CHOOSE YOU (1)
“So Princess, are you ready?” Chris asked the little girl beside him, standing before the SpaceDoor to Concordia. Today was the day he had to return and resume his studies. It was also the day he was tasked to bring the elven Princess Allynna to Concordia. She was ten, and in recent years was the second to be accepted there through the sheer amount of potential possessed and was underage like Hans.
“Yes,” she replied to Chris, flinging her golden hair and showing off her traditional elven outfit. She was smiling, staring at the SapceDoor. It was her first time travelling through space, and she was enjoying every moment. But suddenly she asked Chris, teasing, “So did you confess to her yet?”
“Who? Me and Deli, pardon my language princess, but are you out of your mind? I barely found another person for her to latch on.”
“You talk as if she is a parasite, but who did you find?” she asked, wondering about the poor soul her cousin was tormenting now and Chris blatantly responded, “You’ll see, but don’t accept some royal treatment from him. Treatment… just don’t annoy him too much… It's even better if you don’t talk to him. Ah! My head, it’s already throbbing thinking about it.”
“Is he that bad?”
“No, not bad, but he has a quick temper and even quicker hands. Deli and he... both act like enemies of past life, but she has softened around him. And he is fun to be around too. You’ll like him, I can’t say the same for him.”
Allynna was surprised listening to Chris's words, she was scarred by meeting Xandor and seeing the bloody work of Dijkstra right before her eyes was not anything comforting, but this bought a boon for her. She was the heir of the matriarchal rule of Clandor, so it was decided from early on that she would remain and grow up in the Elven lands. However, Xandor’s appearance in Clandor forced her mother to send her to Concordia. Since they also had internal enemies they don’t know of. It made the Clandor couple accept Concordia’s invitation for Allynna.
However, unknown to her parents' thoughts and struggles, she was pouting, acting her age, unlike Hans and listening to Chris’s comment that Hans might not like her much, she responded to him, “Who doesn’t like me, look here, did you see anyone cuter than me?”
“Don’t do that princess,” Chris shook his head rapidly, “Please, Hans would send you flying if he sees any of this.”
“I’m a princess, princess of Clandor.”
“You will be just a junior irritating your very volatile senior in Concordia. All are equal there, at least they say so, and Hans seems to exploit that very well. So, just stay away from him as much as possible.” Chris stressed on, and before Allynna could ask anything else, he patted her gently and added, “Princess, remember, if you were chosen for the first battle, crush your opponent with everything you got. Hans might change his attitude since he is pretty famous for doing that.”
“Did he win ‘The Fresher King’ title?” she asked with sparkling eyes, leaving Chris heaving before answering, “No, you’ll understand soon.” He signalled the operator, and the SpaceDoor got connected. “Wlop,” and in a brief moment, they felt the turbulence. “Since this is your first time, You’ll feel a little nauseated, princess,” Chris stated, but the water was already spilt. “Too late Chris, agh.” She shouted and started puking as soon as she stepped out of the SpaceDoor. “Eew, what the hell?” she heard someone and raising her head, she found Deli, concerned, and another person making a sickening face. “This must be him, ugh...”
“Yikes," Hans commented clicking his tongue, "tsk, tsk, no control —”
“Says the one who pukes every time he travels through,” Delimira interrupted and started rubbing Allynna’s back. Leaving him be, but the act surprised Chris, “I was expecting some words in return. Did Hans get numbed or what?” But it didn’t take Hans to break his silence. However, his target this time was not Delimira. Turning to the startled Chris he said, “I see, you started to carry Elven baggage, my friend.”
“Elven baggage,” the words echoed in Allynna’s ears, she was warned beforehand about Hans’s manner of speaking, but this left her dumbfounded. “I’m a princess. Shouldn't he should at least pretend to be polite to curry some favours?” She wanted to refute it, but before she could say something. Chris stopped her and signalled Deli to shut his rude friend.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Haaa..." Deli sighed, pulled Hans closer, and whispered, “Don’t make fun of her, else I swear, I’ll put a banner of you with Squeaky written all over the Concordia. ”
“You make some terrifying threats, Deli.” He looked past her and said to Chris, “Find me when you get rid of her,” and left the Clandorian trio behind. It was not like he was fond of making enemies out of Allynna, but he was genuinely surprised, “What the hell is she?” Hans said to himself. He had seen the so-called elven princess with his ManaVision, “She doesn’t have any circle but still possesses the mana amount of the second circle. If she was not the queen’s daughter, I’d have fought Deli for her. Or should I… If I can’t find anyone useful.” He nodded, saying to himself, “Let's scan someone useful, desperate and talented. Where are you?” He kept observing the incoming first-years right on the SpaceDoor junction with his SCAN privilege, but none was satisfying his condition.
Meanwhile, Deli and Chris had escorted the princess to the grand hall for the initiation ceremony. “What is he doing?” Chris asked Delimira, and she answered shrugging off her shoulders, “Who knows, maybe searching for his minion.”
“I see you got chummy with him!” Chris commented, feeling the absence of annoyance she had before for almost everyone. But that soon reverted as she turned to him, “It seems, I’ve left you happy for a long time, Chris. Wanna catch up —”
“No thanks” he pushed Allynna towards her and ran, shouting towards Hans, as he entered the grand hall too, “Hey, Hans wait for me.” As Chris went to Hans, Allynna couldn’t help but ask her cousin, “You seem...more free, sister.” Pointing at Hans through her eyes, she asked, ”What is he to you?”
“He, a friend, a very dangerous and psychotic friend,” Delimira stated. However, Allynna couldn’t understand the meaning of her words, but nodded like she did, and soon the initiation ceremony started. Like theirs, the first few rows were filled with recommended people, while the remaining were filled with the passed entrants. Soon the division began, and one by one, the new students started assigning to their respective houses. Allynna went to the Sentinels as planned a long ago, and several names were being called one after another.
The Dean of the Foundation department, the green-robed Martha, announced the top scorer of the entrance test, Vanir Dorfiel, a mage of bi attributes - lightning and magma, to Prophets.
“An elf, what are they feeding in Clandor, last year it was Chris and now another one.” Hans commented, and their HouseMaster, Walter responded, “If Clandor did not have the internal conflicts, it would have been the strongest nation, kiddo. But fortunately, there is —”
“Haa…‘Fortunately’, you seem to use the words I really like, Professor.”
“I know right?” Walter humoured him and pushed him forward, “Let's welcome our newbie, it looks like we’ll be only getting one this year.”
“What?” Hans resisted, “I’m not good with words, Professor.”
“Oh, beat it, you got some glib tongue farmboy. Just do your thing.”
Vanir was a head taller and two years older than Hans and was anxiously looking at the members. The house Prophets were known to make the future leaders, but there were some rare occasions when the commoners were unfortunately chosen into this house and painted their future black. He didn’t want to be like his predecessors, but his determination was not going to change the reality since only influential pricks got chosen in this house, and they bury the commoners into the work, reaping their efforts.“I’ll not live like that again, I'll change it —”
“So you are our newbie,” a short boy, who seemed much younger than him asked, so he politely replied, “Yes, and who might you be?”
“Who me? You got balls asking your senior question before introducing yourself.” Hans said with a chilling voice and it was loud enough that everyone around clearly heard it. looking at the familiar scene, Martha who was opposed to this mentoring program sighed, "This is why I don't want this annoying thing to remain in history."And Vanir, not knowing how to handle the situation, just kept looking down. “Hey. Hey Junior. Your senior is asking you to introduce yourself.”
“Tsk,” instead of Vanir, Martha interrupted, “Stop torturing the poor soul. I don’t understand why this wretched mentoring program got resumed, what was the chairman thinking? Sending our recruits to the prickly seniors.”
“Maybe he got scammed, Professor Martha. Long time no see by the way.“
“Shut up Hans, Aah my blood pressure,” Martha said raising her voice, clasping her temples but Hans passed another comment, “It's good to see you doing well, Professor.”
“Haa” she sighed, talking to Hans was always annoying for her, and after she found out who he was, she couldn’t just treat him as a normal student. Meanwhile, some of the recruits were informed of the name Hans Richardson. The senior to avoid the most, if they wanted a peaceful life, and Vanir was one of them. “What luck,” Vanir started criticising his bad fate.
“Oye, junior.” Turning back to him, Hans asked Vanir, stressing, “You scored the first position, right?”
“Yes, sir,” Vanir shouted as loud as he could.
“I like the enthusiasm but tone down a bit. We are not alone here. We should respect our audience before startling them, don’t you think?” He smirked towards Professor Martha and said to her, “Professor, you should take your blood pressure medicine.” He announced, “In the name of tradition, the star rookie of our house challenges the Allynna of Sentinels.”
----------------------------------------