His tone tinged with a trace of annoyance caused Lucia to frown. She began circulating her mana in preparations for a confrontation. The dark red aura began to slowly rise from her body. Seeing Lucia's reaction to the question, Eli and Velicia also began channeling Aura Manifestation. Their respective auras began to surround their bodies and they looked pretty cool like that.

Ainz was surprised seeing the 3 girls' reactions. He was at a loss at what to do. These were the leaders of the 10 factions, although the twin leaders of the Royal Foxes had withdrawn earlier, there were still the remaining 9 leaders. Was it really a good idea for them to offend all 9 of them? Couldn't they just politely decline?!

Fina who was next to Ainz seemed to see through his thoughts and she spoke up softly, "A simple decline won't be enough for those factions to back off, Ainz..."

She waved her hands and her 2 wolf familiars were brought into existence besides her. Then she waved her hand into the air and small frozen butterflies formed in the air and the butterflies began to move around to surround their party. Ainz only sighed in resignation and prepared for the confrontation, but then Cecil suddenly chuckled.

"There's no need for that guys~" He said lightly as he turned to address his uptight party members.

Their quick and decisive actions caused the faction leaders in front of them to falter a little. They were also surprised to see the aura skill that was unique to Cecil and Lucia being used by Elizabeth and Velicia. Leon Darkclaw, Velicia's older brother, was especially surprised because a top-tier unique combat skill like Cecil and Lucia's respective Aura Bursts was actually being used by his little sister.

Lance and Zephyr were also surprised to see their sister being able to use the same skill as well. Lance only sighed in resignation and decided to give up pulling his sister into his faction. Zephyr, however, started frowning in anger at this point. He was about to snap his fingers, a clear indication to whatever action he would do in case Cecil's party did decline, but then a loud booming voice interrupted them.

"STOP!!!"

"He was talking about us!" A young boy's voice rang out, it was then echoed by another young girl's voice, "Yup yup, he wanted our attention~ not yours!"

5 individuals approached the two sides who were just about to jump at each other. They were the current Kings of the Academy. The Sword King, Robert Stein, accompanied by the silent and petite Ghost King–Ghost Queen, now that her gender was finally revealed–the Disaster Queen, Audrey Flei, and the twin Nature King and Queen, Anixio Las and Anixia Las.

They walked forward and stood in between the two groups and confronted the faction leaders. Sword King Robert was the first to open his mouth as he greeted the student council president, "Zephyr..."

Zephyr snorted before replying with a question, "...What do you guys want?"

"Let's drop it shall we? It's clear that those 6 don't want to join a faction."

"Hmph. What makes you say that? We haven't even begun our... negotiations..."

Cecil then perked up and said in a playful tone, "Do those negotiations involve the 50 students that are surrounding us?"

"!"

Zephyr had a mildly surprised look on his face. The Kings turned their attention back to the boy and they smiled slightly.

"Hehe~ King-level perception. Let's stop this, okay, Mr. President?" Disaster Queen Audrey said airily.

The silent Ghost Queen spoke up softly, "The headmaster already asked us to come and pick them up... you shouldn't get in our way..."

"Tch. Haaah... so they're already going to be crowned Kings and Queens, huh? Fine, I expect a good cooperation between us during the Joint Tournament though," said in reply while clicking his tongue and then sighing.

Robert only grunted in response. The Student Council President sighed once more before turning away, taking with him the 50 individuals who were surrounding the area with him. The rest of the faction leaders held a helpless and rueful expression as they turned to leave as well.

"Now that that's out of the way~ follow us! The principal's asking for you 6~" Audrey Flei smiled and invited Cecil's party cordially.

Cecil turned an eye towards his party members and saw that each one began retracting back their auras and dispelling their spells. He then turned towards the academy's 5 Kings and said, "Sure, take us to him."

Robert nodded and turned on his heels. At the same time, the Ghost Queen quickly disappeared from her spot. Cecil's eyes were able to keep up with her speed and his mouth twitched a little because Ghost Queen Alice Mayden had flickered into Sword King Robert's cloak. He could already guess what she was doing. The girl was obviously snuggling and clinging onto the Sword King again just like earlier during the awards ceremony.

'Thank goodness Lulu's not like that...actually... why would she even be like that?'

Cecil had involuntarily compared the two, but then thought otherwise. It was clear that the Ghost Queen was head over heels in love with the Sword King, so why would Lucia ever try and do that with him? They were only friends so there was no reason for her to do so. He shrugged and started walking. Behind him, Lucia was staring at the spot where the Ghost Queen was at and then she stared at the Sword King. After that she turned a discrete glance towards Cecil and thought, 'Must be nice...'

She too had picked up the location where the Ghost Queen was now hiding in and thought that it must be wonderful. She felt a little envious seeing that the Sword King was obviously not against the Ghost Queen's actions.

Cecil's party followed the 5 academy Kings and they were led towards the Academy's Main Staff Building. They quickly entered the building and got onto the magic platform situated in the middle of the large building's ground floor. They rode the platform all the way to the top floor and got off. They then walked through the passage in front of them and arrived at a large magnificent double door entrance.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Sword King Robert stepped forward and knocked on the door, "Headmaster! It's us. We've brought the 6 King candidates."

After a moment, a faint voice invited them in, "Come in."

Robert pushed open the double doors and led the group into the room. The room was really spacious, but it was lightly decorated. The only thing that made the room seemed a little cramped were the long bookcases aligning the two sides of the room.

Ahead of them was a long desk with a chair that was currently facing the opposite direction of the door where the group had entered from. Someone was currently sitting on it and everyone thought that it was Headmaster Elufied until they saw that he was actually standing next to the chair and was waiting on the individual who was sitting on what was supposed to be his seat.

"Sir, we've brought them," Robert bowed and reported.

"Thank you, I'm sure the faction leaders didn't give you a hard time, did they?"

"Not at all."

"Okay, you 5 may go and sit down."

"Yes."

Robert led the other 4 Kings to sit down at the seating area that was at the side of the large room near the entrance. Cecil's party stayed put and was now waiting for the headmaster to address them. Cecil and Lucia were frowning a little at this point. They felt it strange that the headmaster was standing and not sitting. The two of them also felt that the individual currently sitting down on the chair was rather...familiar.

"Congratulations! The 6 of you have been successfully chosen to be our academy's King candidates."

"Oh...yes."

"Mhm."

The party gave a somewhat lackluster response to this. They already saw it coming and didn't think much of it.

"Eeehhh... at least sound a little bit surprised you guys..." The headmaster said a little exasperated. He then cleared his throat and continued, "Well, anyway. We'll now issue each of you a trial that you will have to complete on your own! Please submit the completion and evidence once you've finished, hopefully, before the Joint Tournament begins, okay?"

"Yes."

"Alright."

The Little Kings only nodded in response.

"But your names... Little Kings, it's quite the ambitious name~ but, I'm glad every one of you have lived up to such a tall name. A wish you all success in your trials."

Fina quickly raised her hand up.

"Yes?"

"Uhm, Headmaster... I remembered that the school was only allowed to have 10 Kings... if you add the 6 of us with the 5 of them, we'd have 11 Kings in the school..."

"Ah, you're right~ what to do... well it's no problem. 3 of those Kings are going to be graduating this year so you'll be down to 8 Kings after that! So don't worry about it. Just quickly finish your trials. Remember! Prioritize your safeties! A King Title is important, but most important are your lives!"

"Yes! Thank you headmaster," Fina said and bowed in thanks.

"Alright, you're all dismissed! Take back the 5 others with you! You can ask them for some advice for how to complete your trials! I've already sent the details of your individual trials to your MIDs, so please check them later."

"Thank you, Headmaster! We're leaving now," Cecil said and was about to turn on his heels before Headmaster Elufied stopped him.

"Cecil and Lucia, please stay for a bit. I have someone I want you two to meet," Elufied said with a gentle smile.

"...okay."

"Mhm..."

Cecil turned towards his friend and told them to go ahead. They nodded in response and walked out of the room alongside the other 5 Kings.

"Well, you two. I'm pretty sure you'll be surprised to–"

"Oh, shut it, El," A woman's voice interrupted from behind the chair.

The chair was immediately turned to face the two foxkins and just as the two had expected...

"Mama!"

"Mrs. Anna!"

"Kids!"

Anna Yukihime was indeed the person sitting on the headmaster's seat. The beautiful foxkin woman stood up and walked towards the two with her arms spread open for a hug.

"My children, you've worked hard! And Cecil! What did I say before?"

"...Mother..."

"That's a good boy. Now come here."

Lucia immediately lunged forward and went to hug her mother and Cecil followed suit. The heartwarming reunion was currently being witnessed by the smiling Elufied who then quickly made himself scarce after Anna sent him a piercing glare.

"Lulu, Cel... I'm very proud of you two."

"Hihi~"

Lucia giggled in response while Cecil just lightly smiled. Anna quickly brought them to the side where tea and snacks were prepared for them. From the looks of things, Anna wanted to have a long talk with her two children. Both Cecil and Lucia didn't even question why they were going to be having a talk in the headmaster's office after their mother had kicked him out.

They just followed after Anna and made themselves comfortable. Lucia was clinging tightly onto her mother whom she hadn't seen in such a long time while Cecil just acted as he normally did, not sticking too close to his foster mother and keeping a respectable distance between them. Anna sighed seeing this, but she didn't pester him about it.

The reunion between the 3 of them continued as they made small talk for a little while before Anna finally began the important talk which explained the very reason why she came to visit them. Of course, that was besides the fact that she deeply missed her 2 children and just wanted to go out to meet them.