Two shirtless young men stood opposite one another, their sweat dripped slowly down to the ground, and their haggard breath halted only when their blades clashed.
“This is a waste of time, Vanir,” said the man with long icy-blue hair tied neatly into a bun on his head.
Vanir looked at the man and tried to catch his breath, “I must become stronger, and currently, only you and Cri can assist me with my training.”
The other man let out a piercing scream in frustration and charged towards Vanir. Their blades clashed again, and grating metal echoed through the training grounds. Vanir huffed out of breath, and as his opponent's blade came down once again, he smiled and used the angles of the edges to let the other man’s blade slide to his side, causing the man to stumble. Just as he was about to slice at the man’s side, something grabbed his ankle, flipping him onto his back.
“Vanir, this is a waste of my time. You're just not cut out for close combat like Cri and me. It seems like you can barely handle anything other than a pen.” The man screamed.
“Silence, Arc,” Vanir screamed back, grabbing his long hair and slicing it with the sword he was using.
Arc looked wide-eyed at Vanir, “What are you doing!”
“Continue,”
“Stop! You're being moronic! What was the point of doing that? You could have simply tied it up. Now you just look foolish.” Arc said
“It just seemed like the most logical course of action.”
“Logic,” Arc rubbed his eyes, “I can’t tell if you are red-eyed or just an ice mind.”
“Doesn’t matter. We continue,” Vanir said, returning to a battle stance.
“No, this is pointless unless we start using our Scholar Paths to fight; you stand no chance…”
“NO! I need to get stronger… and this is the only way.”
“Look, Vanir…”
“You two look like idiots,” a man with short dark blue hair said, walking onto the field.
“Cri,” The pair of men said, giving a small greeting.
“The meeting starts in an hour, so get ready… It seems like a long one,” Cri said with a sigh.
Guardian Cermin walked into a large room, the seats around the long table were empty, and nothing but a decorative cloth lay on the table itself.
“Am I the first?” He questioned the empty room with a long sigh
Just as Cermin sat down, three more guardians walked in two old men with wrinkled faces, one with silver hair, the other bald, and lastly, an older woman whose messy hair was starting to gray, but her face still seemed untouched by the wear and tear of time.
“Elder Bran, Elder Urther, Elder Melry,” Cermin greeted
“Oh, Elder Cermin, you were already here… wait, where are the others?” the trio asked.
“I only just arrived myself, but there is still time for those kids to get here,” Cermin said
“The young these days making us old folks wait; in our day, we would arrive at the meeting first so that the elders could come to help make the final decisions.” Urther, the man with silver hair, said his tight clothes almost ripped as he sat down from his toned muscles flexing from his movements.
“Why are we here? Do we not have something else to do? Oh, hello, Cermin. Wait, why is the old coot Bran here…” Melry said in confusion, scratching her already messy hair and making it even worse.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Melry, could you please focus for just one moment so that you could know what was happening.” the bald man Bran said with a smile as he shook his head.
“Oh, Bran, this reminds me of a topic of my new research that, wait, Cermin, what happened to that favor I asked you about?” Melry said
“That was hundreds of years ago, and I also fulfilled it hundreds of years ago. Did you lose it again?” Cermin said
Melry looked in confusion just as the sound of arguments echoed from outside the door.
“Well, seems like the children are here,” Urther said
“What do you mean! Look here; your inference is incorrect, here look at this…”
“What would you know? I have spent two hundred years studying this!”
“Well, it looks like you should change your research topic because you seem misguided on the… Oh, hello, elders.”
The group of thirty people entered the room arguments and conversations echoed around, but two of the Guardians' argument was the loudest.
White and Rein are leaders of their respective families and subsidiaries within the ninth family. Despite belonging to the same family, they constantly engage in battles, regardless of the topic or occasion. This has become a tradition within their families since they first arrived at Genisis.
White, a woman with tainted red hair from an experiment gone wrong. She was set to lose her seat as head of the family, but due to her own brilliance managed to keep her position.
On the other hand, Rein is an argumentative fellow who loves to hear his voice, and his intelligence does not lose out to White or any other Feyrishian.
Between these two and the trio of Arc, Cri, and Vanir, these youngest of the Feyrishian Guardians keep most of the meeting very heated and entertaining for the others.
“It seems like we have a couple of guests,” Bran said, seeing an extra set of people walking in.
“We apologize for our presence here. We know it is rude to include ourselves in a deliberation such as this selfishly, but…”
“Haha! Princess, we are in your home, and the child has been in your care, so it is only right to include you in this procedure,” Cermin said, waving to a seat for the pair to sit.
“Thank you,” Nesha and Sivie said, taking their seats.
“Humph, Why let these things in? They are Seedlings, not Feyrishians; they have no right to say what we do with that child. Do you even know what he is capable of?” Urther's voice grated on the pair’s ears; they could hear the contempt in his words.
“Oh, just let the children listen. They may be able to help,” Bran said with his typical smile.
“I’m sorry this may come across as rude, but how well do all of you know Carter? As far as I know, this is all of your first time to meet the child other than Vanir,” said Nesha
Melry’s loud laughter echoed throughout the room, “I like this child; come sit next to this old lady.”
Nesha stood waiting for the other Feyrishians to speak, but none did; they simply went to their seats and sat silently.
“Well, it seems the vote is three to four, so please take a seat,” Cermin said with a smile as Urther huffed and puffed in his seat.
Nesha and Sivie gave a slight bow, thanking the elders for allowing them to stay before taking seats.
“Well, now that the guest are taken care of, let us move on to the first topic… Vanir’s trial” said Urther.
When those words were finished, the room was filled with silence; everyone turned to look at Vanir, giving different gazes to the man who silently and calmly sat in place.
“Vanir, your charges are short but severe.” Urther said, pausing to try and let Vanir speak, but he only stared back at Urther, “When Carter arrived at the Genisis Continent, he arrived in your territory where you met him, correct?”
“Yes”
“And it is under your watch that the child was lost to an organization that partakes in illegal activities,”
“No… I had sent him away alone while I tended to a task that I was in the middle of taking care of, a task that was assigned to me.”
“But you will not deny that he was under your care, correct.”
“I… Correct, he was under my care.”
“And to make up for your own failure, you were tasked with finding the lost child, and through your own incompetence, you failed for almost thirteen months, nearly a year. And it was these Rosen Blades who not only found the child but also rescued Him?”
“Yes”
“With all this, Vanir, what would you deem acceptable punishment?”
“I leave it to the elders and the other Guardians here today to decide my fate.”
“Good response, then we Guardians deem no punishment,”
Nesha hearing this, nearly jumped from her seat, her eyes large as she looked around. None of the Feyrishians seemed surprised at this declaration. Something was wrong.
“I thank you, elders and other Guardians, for this. Although I am young and incompetent, I hope that with time I may exceed your expectations.”
Cermin smiled, “I know that the current demeanor of the child leaves much to be desired, but he is fine and safe now with plenty of guardians protecting him. This is enough to ignore the situation… that is until those on Feyrish truly decide on what to do.”
Nesha thought, it seems something is going on, but what?
“Now, shall we move to the actual reason we are gathered today,”