Hinata Furukawa was the only daughter of Duke Furukawa, one of the most powerful men of the Kingdom. She was the youngest child of the family but as the only one without above average potential in the martial path she was chosen to be the next administrative head of the family. Her oldest brother was already in a respectable position in the army and receiving training from her father so that he might be another soldier to the house’s name. Her other brother would probably graduate from the academy this year and follow the oldest one. As for her, she had to look into the political side of things and do her best even if she was only 15 years old.
She sent a little over a hundred letters to students of interest in the academy to a small party in her mansion, just about a third of everyone invited came, about the number she was expecting and who she was expecting. Sons and daughters of other nobles, a few leaders of the clubs and a few kids of rich merchants.
“Thank you for attending this meeting. I see that no more people will be arriving so I guess we can partake in some serious discussions now, especially now that everyone enjoyed the party a little.” Hinata said from the end of the party floor and was heard perfectly by everyone due to the magic in the mansion helping.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned towards her and signaled that they were open to hear what she had to say.
“As you all know, about a month ago, the best students of our academy were out for a special test, got attacked by an outside group and won, right?” She asked, everyone nodded in response. “Took a while but word got around and now we know that the girl called Mia killed an immortal and I am pretty sure, especially because all of you are here today, that all of us have orders to get close to her but are not making much progress on that.” Once again, everyone nodded at her in agreement.
“The special class is crazy, you can’t casually talk with anyone there!” One of the boys said. Pretty much everyone seems to agree with him.
“That is pretty much the reason I called everyone here. Our families or the people behind us might not be the best of friends but if we let this opportunity to make a connection to those people pass we will all share failure and nothing else.”
“So what? You want an organized group of people working together so we can have a connection to the special class?” Ashito, the leader of the knight club asked.
“That is exactly what I am planning to do. With all our resources we surely are able to get close to them.” Hinata said. Getting close could mean a lot of things to a lot of people but everyone understood that it was just a way to get close to Mia in the end.
“Then I’m sorry to say that it isn’t going to work.”
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“What do you mean?” Almost everyone in there asked in some shape or form.
“I am the leader of the knight club and 4 of those crazy people are in my club. They might look normal from the outside but whatever happened, it changed them. Don’t get me wrong, they are polite, will probably talk to you, help you even, but the moment you try to do anything slightly malicious, especially towards Mia, you better be stronger, faster or smarter than them because they will deal with you.”
“You are just saying that because you already are friends with some of them!” A girl said.
“Look, I am here more to stop something bad from happening than anything else. Do not approach anyone from the special class with less than pure intentions or you will suffer. If you go after Mia, everyone else from there will hunt you down if they see you are doing something wrong. Go after the rest of the class and do something wrong and I fear that there won’t be much of you left when Mia is done with you.” Ashito said very calmly and confidently.
“And how do you know about all of that?”
“Because those 4 members of the special class said it to me. They are protecting themselves as much as they are protecting us and Mia. The girl is still somewhat shaken by what happened but no less powerful by what I heard. She snapped and killed an immortal, what do you think will happen to us?”
“...” Everyone went silent after hearing what Ashito had to say.
“And what if we want genuine friendship?” A boy asked.
“Then I suggest you get good enough to be in the special class because they are all preparing for something and I am sure that nobody here will be good enough to be taken into account, whatever that is.”
“Yeah, that dwarf girl, Cassandra, is making a lot of money all of a sudden.” A girl who was the daughter of a merchant said.
“Shishen is getting tutored by the Head Healer herself!” Another girl said.
“Narissa is also staying very late at the academy with someone.” A boy said.
“Still, we have expectations put on us.” Hinata said. Nobody said anything against that.
“Just do what I did.” Ashito said.
“What?”
“I walked straight to my grandfather, the head of my family, and told that he could either have me alive or a connection to Mia. You can guess what he chose.”
“You are jesting, aren’t you? Your life wasn’t in danger.” A girl said.
“Girl, I am seriously considering kicking those 4 beasts out of the club because they are a hair away from killing anyone they fight against that aren’t each other. Whatever happened to them changed them! We were already at different levels but now? We are inconsequential to them.”
“I appreciate the warning.” Hinata said. There was a ‘but’ there but it went unsaid.
“I said what I had to, I am leaving, pass the word around.” Ashito said and left.
A few minutes later, after things calmed down a little, Hinata talked again.
“If we want to succeed we might need to prepare more than any of us expected.” Hinata said to everyone. She didn’t know about others, but failure wasn’t an option for her.