CHAPTER 4: THE ROYAL ACADEMY (4)
~4.4~
*****
The next morning, Alethea woke just after dawn. She felt a weight on her left arm and had no idea what it could be in her groggy state. As she came to the first thing she noticed was a mass of blonde hair. She smiled and laid there until Kye opened her eyes.
“Morning.”
“Morning, love.”
Kye leaned in to kiss the pink-haired girl. “I love you.”
At some point, all four of their attendants had entered the room. When their lips finally parted, the four retainers began clapping in applause. Alethea practically jumped out of her skin and was across the room in an instant, as far away from both Kye and the attendants as she could get.
“W-w-what are y-y-ou guys doing w-w-watching?!” Alethea grabbed a sheet and covered herself to hide the embarrassment.
Kye giggled and rose up from the bed. “Sa-chaaaaaaaan!”
“Cease this embarrassing fanfare at once!” came Alethea’s voice from beneath the sheet.
Kye gave the attendants an apologetic smile and gestured them away. She walked over to where Alethea was hiding and crawled under the sheet with her. “Hi, they’re gone.”
“Yeah, I could tell by their mana.” Alethea had a tear in one eye that Kye could barely see with the sheet covering them. “That was so embarrassing!”
“Oh, it wasn’t! They’re our attendants!”
“That’s why it was so embarrassing! They know us!”
“It’s fine, love. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about!”
Alethea smiled and kissed her blonde partner again. “What were you going to do if they had not agreed to us sleeping together?”
“Uhh...” Kye fake smiled. “Hehe.”
“You were going force them, weren’t you? You know you shouldn’t use your power like that!” Alethea tossed the sheet aside and tackled Kye. “What if I use my power on you, huh?”
“Ha, you wish!” Kye spun around, caught Alethea from behind, and kissed her cheek. “I win!”
“I don’t mind losing like that,” Alethea said with a giggle. Their eyes met again and they stared at each other for a while until the sound of Andrea clearing her throat interrupted them.
“Lady Alethea, Lady Kye, breakfast will be ready in twenty minutes. Shall I draw baths for you in the meantime?”
“Oh, yes, thank-” Alethea said
“No, wait,” Kye said. “Let’s go spar before breakfast!”
Alethea nodded with a grin. “Right!”
With the extreme motivation of having a sparring match, the two were dressed and out of the building in two minutes with Andrea and Aliana following.
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*****
“You two are late,” Allison said. She was sitting on a bench at the training grounds reading a book. “I expected to see you two out here before dawn.”
“Well... some stuff happened...” Kye said.
“No matter, go ahead.”
“Are you refereeing for us or just watching?”
“Of course I’m refereeing. You two cannot be allowed to use your power unsupervised anywhere, much less here.”
“...I don’t think that’s necessary...”
“The council is unanimous in disagreeing with you. There’s not much point in arguing. I’m going to be keeping an eye on you both regardless, so just get on with it.”
Kye sighed and turned to Alethea. “What weapon do you want to use?”
Alethea thought about it for a moment, then said with a smile, “Let’s go with katanas!”
“Sounds good!”
The two took their places opposite of each other in the middle of the training grounds, held their arm up that had their weapon in bracelet form, and chanted, “<
Allison stepped between them and said, “No extravagant spells, please. I don’t want anything destroyed, and I don’t want you to cause a commotion.”
“Understood,” Kye and Alethea said.
“Short introductions.”
“I am Kye Akari of Nippon Sekai.”
“I am Alethea Atlantis of Terra.”
Together, they said, “I vow to fight such that I bring honor to my people.” Kye clad herself in golden mana while Alethea did the same with white mana. Before they could begin, a few older students ran up to the training grounds.
“Oh, somebody’s already here,” a girl said.
“Yeah, but there’s plenty of room for us, too,” a boy said.
“You three,” Allison said. “You should stay back and watch if you want to be here.”
“Lady Allison, what do you mean?” a second boy said.
“Look.” Allison gestured to Alethea and the three noticed the white mana-clad girl.
“Oh, holy crap, it’s the Atlantis girl. Who’s the other one that’s about to fight her?” asked the first boy.
“I feel sorry for her getting stuck in a match with the white mana girl,” the girl said.
Aliana could not let that comment slide, “You are in the presence of the Crown Princess of Nippon Sekai, Lady Kye Akari. I ask that you do not make snap judgments before witnessing her power.”
“But the Atlantis girl has white mana!” the second boy said. “There’s no way Lady Kye can match that!”
“Do you really think Alethea is going to go full tilt with her white mana?” Allison said. “Your inexperience is evident. I’ll have all three of you attend remedials. Now, be silent.” Allison formed a ball of blue mana and placed it between the two combatants. “When that fizzles out, begin.” Allison joined the onlookers at the edge. As the ball slowly shrunk, Kye and Alethea released more mana in preparation.
“Oh wow,” the girl said. “Lady Kye has quite a lot of mana herself.”
“She is a royal. Of course she has a lot of mana,” Allison said. “She is also my niece and my student.”
“She’s the student of Lady Allison?” the first boy asked.
As soon as the ball completely disappeared, Kye and Alethea rushed each other. A small shockwave from their clash knocked the unprepared students in the audience off their feet. Bands of light and white mana circled the dueling pair as each tried to overpower the other.
“Holy crap, that’s insane!” the second boy shouted.
“Her light mana is so strong,” the girl said. “She’s like... a goddess of light!”
Alethea had the edge with her white mana and was able to push Kye back, but as soon as she started losing ground, Kye parried. She quickly moved around and aimed a slash up across Alethea’s chest. Alethea managed to block the swift attack and countered. Several parries, counters, and blocks later the two jumped apart and stared each other down, each with a satisfied and determined smile.
Kye gave her a confident smile and turned it up a notch. She vanished. Suddenly, several afterimages of Kye appeared and launched a wave of light mana toward Alethea from all around her. Alethea poured extra mana into her blade and released a circular blast of white mana that canceled out all of Kye’s light attacks and erased her afterimages.
“Slick move,” Kye said.
“Same.”
The two went on for several minutes, trading blows and trying to one-up each other until Allison finally called it a draw and ordered the crowd that had formed to go prepare for class. When the match started there were only a few onlookers, but by the time it finished, there were over fifty watching the royal duel. As much as they wanted to continue, they still needed to return to their shared rooms and eat the breakfast that Liliana and Elaina prepared.
*****
Revision: 12-18-2023