Currently, Mikael and I were in my dorm after the dinner. The room was pretty typical at 16 tatami. The room had a bathroom and was furnished with a desk, bookshelf, table, trunk, and twin sized bed. Mikael was currently seated in the chair by the table as I had called him over to give him a mission.
"Mikael, look into Isabel Dragonheart?"
"That princess from new France in our class, commander?"
After the fall of all the governments, many countries had returned to the rule of monarchy with the families contributing most to the countries becoming rulers. The current royalty of new France, the Dragonheart used to be a prominent family in France that had amassed a fortune through their trading company. When the First Invasion happened, they had poured in all their assets to help the population and research of the Celestial Weapons. In return the family had been rewarded with the status of royalty and now ruled the country.
"Yes, her. I don't know how but she has found out about the identity of my contract..."
"...!! But that's top secret military information..."
"Exactly, which is why we must identify how she got that information..."
"Understood sir, I will look into it"
After receiving the information, Mikael salutes me and exits the room. That night, I stayed up for a long time trying to figure out how Isabel knew....
The next day, after lunch our class was currently at the outdoors training ground. In the middle of the grounds was a magic formation that had been prepared beforehand. The teacher was going over the information about contracts and Celestial Weapons one final time before the students summoned their contracts.
"Alright everyone, once again let's go over the contracts. What you will all do here shortly is pour mana into the formations. Once the mana has been poured in, the formation will act kind of like a transmitter and broadcast your mana basically, letting the mythical creatures feel it. Mythical creatures choose their contactors by the feel of their mana and the compatibility with them. When these requirements are met, the mythical creature will follow the mana back here and form a contract with you. Does everyone understand?
"
At the teacher's question, everyone nods their head in reply. Making sure everyone understood, the teacher then continues.
"Alright, we will now go over Celestial Weapons. For Celestial Weapons, there are 3 forms. The basic form is where you receive a weapon from your contract. The second form, which is called knight form, is where the contract will also provide you with an armor. The final form, the divine form, is when your contract will materialize and fight alongside you. This form is also the only time you will be able to see someone else's contract as in the first two forms the contracts are in the Astral Zone. The contracts determine what form you are as they and only they can tell when you are prepared to handle the power of the next phase. Currently there have only been 8 confirmed people who can use the divine form. These people are the Trinity Seven and our headmistress, Alexandria Di-Leon. Anyways, except for Isabel, Mikael, and Jung Woo who already have a contract, everyone form into a line alphabetically and prepare for the ritual"
All of my classmates get in line. While waiting for their turn, some of the students begin talking.
"....don't you think it's crazy that the freshman grade has 3 people who already have a contract and all 3 of them are in our class?"
"No kidding. It’s supposed to be rare for a grade to even have one, but our class has 3..."
While everyone was talking about this, slowly everyone was summoning their contract. Even though you couldn't see the contract, you could tell by how everyone was throwing fist pumps and jumping in the air in excitement. After about two hours everyone had finally formed a contract. It was now almost time for class to end today. Before the final bell rings, the teacher says one final announcement.
"As everyone knows, in one month a tournament by grade will be held. Every class will be divided into groups of three, which will lead A.I. Soldiers against the other opponents to determine a winner. The winner of the tournament for each grade will be chosen as the school representative for the inter school battles 5 months from now, which will bring great prestige to the students and their school. Also, the winning team will not have to take the midterms at the end of this semester and will automatically receive an A…Well then, let me announce to you all the teams"
When everyone heard the last part, everyone’s eyes started to burn with fire!! Oi, isn’t everyone’s thoughts too easy to read?! Well, I can’t really blame them…. Who wouldn’t try their hardest so that they don’t have to take a test and automatically receive an A… Even I, who didn’t really care about the tournament, had started to become excited. No studying and receiving an A….Every Student’s dream…. With that, the teacher started naming off teams. Towards the end, my name was called off.
"Team 5 will be Mikael, Isabel, and Jung Woo"
Shit... I'm teamed up with Isabel... this is going to be a pain…
“Alright everyone, please gather into your groups and plan for the tournament for the rest of class”
At this everyone starts separating into their groups. Isabel, Mikael, and I get together. It was very awkward as we were silent even when we got together. Felling uncomfortable, I cough and begin.
“*cough*.. Well then, it is nice to meet you again Isabel. Please take care of Mikael and I during this time. So what do you think we should do from now on?”
“…hello. Please take care of me. Please don’t do any ecchi thing to me~”
While saying that, Isabel’s facial expression was still aloof with her eyes still looking sleepy. Oi! Don’t say joking things with that kind of face! I retort in my head. Haa….. I rub my forehead as I feel a headache oncoming.
“I see you can make jokes…Anyways let’s all start off with what our weapons are”
“Hey Isabel, I’m Mikael. My weapon is a bow”
“Hello Mikael. My weapon is a spear…”
“Alright, for me I use a katana…”
“…we both know that, Jung Woo…”
Isabel replies to me saying that she already knows about my weapon…. Mikael and I both turn alert at this. Well… it really isn’t that surprising that she knows as she already knew about Apep…. But….
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“…..I’ve been wondering about this Isabel, but how do you know about my weapon and contract?”
“….You really don’t remember, don’t you Jung Woo?”
“Have we met before?”
“….Secret~”
“…..”
Right as I was about to question her more, the final bell rang throughout the school and everyone gathered their stuff to return to their dorm. Before I could say anything more, Isabel picked up her stuff and bowed to us, saying goodbye.
“….Well then, I hope the both of you treat me well. I will see you tomorrow~”
With her expressionless face that hasn’t changed even once since I met her, she departs.
“….Mikael, am I the only one who thinks she’s the type who only goes at her pace and ignores others?”
“….Nope, she’s exactly that type…. Even though she has that expressionless face, she is quite the beauty though, isn’t she?”
“Well… I can’t argue with that. Whoever dates her though will have it tough… I pity that future person”
“Haha well that is true…”
“Anyways Mikael, lets head to the old hag’s room. I need a talk with her…”
“Roger sir”
After that, the both of us walk to the Administration Building to have a meeting with the Headmistress. After being told to wait for 10 minutes, we’re finally allowed to enter the office. Alexandria Di-Leon today is in a black business suit. She has a white dress shirt that has the first three buttons opened. While sitting at her desk, she watches us enter with a smile.
“I knew you would come here today, my adorable disciple~”
“…Why do I have to enter that stupid tournament?”
“Of course so that you could bring victory and honor to the school~”
“You expect me, the CPT of the Leviathan CO, to fight high school kids? Don’t you think that’s a little too unfair?”
“You are one of those high school kids too, you know? So what’s exactly wrong with that?”
“Haa… as usual, you are a difficult one…. Even though the reward afterwards does interest me, I think I will pass on the tournament”
“Hoo… I can’t allow that~ After all, Valhalla Academy does have those twins… “The Asunder” and “Armageddon””
“….?!?! Two of the Trinity Seven are in high school?!”
The Asunder and Armageddon. They were twins that before I came had been the youngest within the Trinity Seven. Even though so young, they had risen through the ranks swiftly due to their teamwork that left no weakness, rising all the way to the Trinity Seven. It really is unfair for those two to be in a high school competition.
“…Is this why you made me come here? To defeat those two so that you could win a prize you damn old hag?”
“Hohoho…. Don’t be so angry, I haven’t finished yet. I have been looking into a certain Organization also. Don’t you think that it was weird that the Yokai just suddenly appeared all around the world?”
“…..!!!!! You mean?!”
“Hohoho, as quick as ever. Yes, I’m looking into an Organization that may potentially have opened the rifts to our world for the Yokai to invade and been leading them. Right now I don’t have solid evidence as of yet so I can’t say for sure, but my investigation is leading to them being a culprit. I have also found out through my sources that they will be in Rome, the location for the Tournament during that time so while you’re fighting in the tournament, I can rest at ease and look into it further you know?”
“...Whats the name of this Organization?”
“Apocalypse”
“…And is there a chance they have Hyo Joo?”
“…Are you sure it’s okay to say this in front of your subordinate?”
“Yeah, Mikael and the rest already know everything”
“Alright then. You said that Hyo Joo was taken by the yokais instead of killed correct?”
“Yes”
“Like you, I also feel this is quite weird as I have never heard of a case where they don’t kill all the humans… There is a high possibility that they might have taken your sister to the ones leading them… which has the possibility to be “Apocalypse””
“…!! Mikael, form the Leviathan CO up, we’re heading after the organization “Apocalypse””
“Hohoho, as hasty as ever, calm down. Apocalypse is a very old organization with much influence. They have their own people in the upper echelon of the UHF, you know?”
“… then you expect me to just wait here doing nothing?!”
“Don’t worry~ as you saw last time, I have Frank by my side, you know?”
“… How did you get that guy to leave the military and stay by your side anyways? I had heard rumors that he had left when you did and that it caused an uproar higher….”
“Secret~ anyways, I have Frank currently looking into who in the UHF is being controlled or is a part of “Apocalypse”. It’s too dangerous to use a military force for this, you know? Once we find out the members, we can launch a double operation to capture the officials and attack the Organization at the same time, okay?”
“….Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”
“Because I didn’t want to get your hopes high just to fall over something I had nothing on~ Well then, prepare properly for the Tournament, okay? As you know, I formed you up with your subordinate and the person who is most compatible with you”
“Oh yeah, I also wanted to ask about that. How the hell does Isabel Dragonheart know about my basic form and my contract?!”
“You really don’t know her? Haa…. You are a hopeless child, my disciple… You have met her before, you know?”
“…Eh? I did? How do you know when I don’t even remember?!”
“Because I was there of course, my dumb disciple!”
“Then tell me!”
“Nope~ it’s kind of fun watching you struggle to remember so try hard to remember okay? Don’t let that child wait too long for you~”
With those final words, the headmistress goes back to doing her paperwork, clearing showing that she had said all she would. Sighing at this, Mikael and I turn and exit the office. As we were walking to the Cafeteria for lunch, I go through all my memories, trying to remember when I met her.
Just how did we meet?!