“Why not?” Gram asked, his eyes becoming narrower with deadly seriousness.
Lakshman appeared as if he was thinking for a moment before he smiled sweetly and said, “Think about it a lot today and try again tomorrow, okay? Oh! If you pester me before tomorrow about it, you can forget about it. Okay?”
While it appeared as though he was smiling, he laid out a threat so sweet that made Gram’s face become sour. Then, without another word, he closed the door and left Gram standing there at a loss for words.
“Why did you suddenly refuse him?” Asura asked him inside his mind, sounding confused. “You told me you’ll take him as your student, and it came true when he asked you to train him.”
“Asking and demanding are two totally different words and things entirely,” replied Lakshman, heading towards the closet to get a change of clothes. “If he learns to be a bit humbler and asks me politely, I’ll definitely consider.”
Asura snorted and said, “Humbler? Politely? I don’t think that man knows any of those two!”
“We shall see. If he doesn’t understand and change, it’s his downfall because one’s arrogance can lead to ruin,” said Lakshman, his voice becoming soft by the end of the sentence as he was reminded of his own past.
For the remainder of the day, Gram remained silent and only spoke if someone spoke directly to him, which pleased Lakshman because it showed that the young man had self-control at the very least. In the meantime, the attack on the train spread quickly like wildfire and everyone was very concerned that something so unnatural had occurred, causing them to think it was an alien attack.
The students at the Hero Academy gathered around the Nine Heroes of Legends when they arrived and began asking them questions about what had happened. They informed everyone that the ground had suddenly exploded due to some kind of chemical failure and caused the train to end up in such an accident. The reason they told such a story was due to the influence from Bolten and Erza, who had met them soon after arriving at the castle.
“It’s best to keep the information that it was a terrorist attack a secret from the populace so we don’t want to worry them,” said Bolten when he told them the story they should tell everybody else.
“Yes. We’ve been living in peace and developing our world, so it will needlessly cause stress for our citizens over something this small,” said Erza in support of her brother, looking imploringly at the heroes to listen to their request. “Please don’t reveal the truth.”
“We can’t give the terrorists the chance to think they can shake us by something like this!” Bolten added with a firm look on his face.
The heroes were taken aback at the statements they just heard but nodded without having much of a choice. After all, the two royal siblings had a point that it would just cause stress and that would be exactly like Bolten had said; playing right into the hands of the terrorists. Even so, Lakshman did not approve of deceiving the populace, but he told the same story like the rest for Erza’s sake.
“I don’t like this… Deceiving the citizens to suit our convenience… but… Erza asked me so… I can’t refuse her,” muttered Lakshman uncomfortably, feeling a little justified to lie at least this much.
And so, the day drew to a conclusion with the heroes feeling tired again, this time from the number of people that pestered him with questions. Vikram had become so fed up with them pestering him that he used his powers to run away from there in the blink of an eye. The rest of the heroes left the academy in the normal way and found Vikram waiting for them outside the gates in front of the transportation that was waiting to pick them up.
“What took you so long?!” He demanded furiously.
“We’re not as fast as you,” replied Natsu with an exasperated look on his face. “And we’re not runaways like you.”
“Dammit! What else did you want me to do with such a crowd pestering me so many times?!” Vikram demanded, looking very irritated.
“But we’re popular?” Martin suggested, hoping that it would calm him down.
“Being popular and being a news item are completely different!” Vikram retorted, looking furiously at him and causing Martin to jump in fright.
“Whatever. It’s over. Let’s drop the subject,” said Maxwell, who sighed as he was fed up with Vikram’s irritable attitude. He indicated at the car and said, “Let’s go. Today was one hectic day for all of us, and I sure could do with some rest.”
“Yeah. I agree,” said Natsu, looking intriguingly at Vikram, who shrugged his shoulders with indifference.
They waited for the royal siblings to arrive, who soon did a few minutes after them and they all got into the car before it took off. While flying through the busy traffic, Bolten, Santa and Erza listened to Vikram complain about the hassle they faced at the academy and expressed their sorrow for their discomfort.
“We’re sorry for the predicament that you’re in, but please bear with it for a few more days. By then, their interest will shift to other things since they got their studies to focus on,” said Erza, looking hopefully at them, especially looking at Vikram in particular in a beseeching way.
The Sonic Hero, who saw her looking at him with such a look that made him blush a little from embarrassment and reply, “F-Fine. S-Since you’re telling me so, I’ll believe your words, princess!” Suddenly, he had a thought had puffed his chest out proudly and said, “Besides, I’m a man, and men don’t run away!”
“Really? I’m glad to hear it,” replied Erza happily with a sweet smile, causing him to feel like he could fly with joy.
Watching this from the sidelines, the rest of the men looked at him in amusement and thought the same thing without realising it.
“He’s too easy.”
Upon reaching the castle, they separated from the royal siblings and headed over to their rooms, bidding each other goodbye and locking themselves inside their rooms. Once inside their rooms, each of the heroes behaved differently to the experience they had accumulated that day.
Vikram was jumping around with joy because the princess spoke kindly and smiled sweetly at him, giving him the false impression that she was interested in him. He was young and easily misunderstood her intentions as that of someone that cared deeply for him without realising the intentions behind it. Basically, he was innocent when it came to dealing with the opposite gender and could get easily tricked. This time, fooling himself thinking she had something for him and it made him smile ear to ear with excitement.
Natsu sat down on one of the chairs and looked up at the ceiling while sighing in tiredness. He did not like that he was unable to do anything when he suddenly had the thought of requesting Lakshman to help him train. It was obvious that he was the strongest hero within their group and could teach him a thing or two on the basics of fighting since he sorely is lacking in that area.
“Yeah. I’ll ask him tomorrow. Vikram also said he wanted to get trained, so maybe this is a chance,” he muttered in a quiet voice and closed his eyes as he fell asleep where he sat.
Meanwhile, Fred immediately went to have a shower and then came out to fall flat on the bed in tiredness. The exhaustion of all of what happened that day made him quickly fall asleep while lying where he fell on the bed. The same was the case with Martin, Maxwell and William, who were all feeling as drained as him and also went to sleep.
Ward, on the other hand, took a shower to freshen up and sat down to read through several books that were placed on his table. These were the books containing history, and literature of this world that he had requested from the royal siblings, to which they happily complied. He looked somewhat happy while reading through the contents of the books with great interest.
Gram also had a shower and sat down on the bed, not feeling as relatively tired or sleepy like the rest of them. He was thinking about the words that Lakshman had left him a few hours ago and wondered what the meaning behind them were. Racking his brains about what he did wrong in asking the king from another world to train him. In fact, he felt really angry that despite him lowering his pride and asking him, he was still shot down without a proper reason. This frustrated him and made him continue to wonder what the meaning behind Lakshman’s words was.
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While everyone was either asleep, reading, or contemplating, Lakshman was in his room having freshened up from having a hot shower. Having nothing to do till dinner time, he switched on the Television using the voice-controlled command and watched whatever was being displayed to pass the time. To his surprise, the story of the train accident was being broadcasted on the television and the news reporters were also claiming it to be a chemical accident that had caused failure to nearby electronics and resulted in the accident happening when it did.
“Seriously, I don’t understand why they have to hide that it was a terrorist attack,” muttered Lakshman in confusion.
“Maybe, they can’t bring themselves to face the reality of the situation,” suggested Asura. When Lakshman did not understand, he went on to say, “Like, it might be too much for them to accept that one or many of their own people were the perpetrators behind this attack. I mean, judging by the peaceful attitude that we were surrounded by, I just thought it’s only to be expected from people becoming too complacent in times of peace.”
Lakshman nodded in understanding and said, “Maybe… Or maybe not.”
“What do you mean?”
“It feels like the government is trying to cover up these acts of violence for some reason, but I’m unsure. It’s just that kind of feeling I’m getting, as if something is going on that we’re not being told about.”
“I see. I suppose that’s a valid point to make, but we’re not sure. We don’t know about this world as much as we should, but I doubt the others will let us in on what’s really happening,” said Asura inside of his mind, who sounded very annoyed. “I’m sure these people enjoy keeping us in the dark, these sadistic bastards.”
“Now, now, Asura. We can’t jump to conclusions based on conjecture,” said Lakshman with a light smile. “Anyway, let’s get some rest since, starting tomorrow, I’m going to really start training again! I somewhat feel sloppy from not training for a while now.”
“You’re not sloppy. It’s just you feeling that your body is sluggish when it really isn’t,” said Asura in a stern voice. “Remember, the training you did since you were a child was intense and Felix just increased that dramatically within that one week before the tournament. Normally, most people would break, but because it’s you, you survived, got stronger and are here now. So, don’t ever think you’ll lose your skills or regress just because you don’t train for a few days.”
“But it’s not good to go without training, right? After all, training is what keeps you fit, active, and ready at all times,” said Lakshman with a grin forming on his face.
“Yes. That, I will agree on,” replied Asura, who seemed to be smiling with the way he said that.
Lakshman nodded with a smile on his face with pleasure of his past self-agreeing with him because they have clashing opinions most of the time. So, with their exchange completed, Lakshman used the voice-controlled command to switch the lights off, climb into bed, and quickly fell asleep.
In the early next morning, he was ready for training as he wore a determined smile on his face. As he opened the door and walked out, he was surprised to see Natsu, Vikram, and Gram standing at the end of the corridor. Apparently, they had been waiting for him in complete silence because they moved when they noticed that he came out.
Gram opened his mouth to say something, but Natsu walked forward first and said, “Please, train me martial arts!”
Blinking in surprise, Lakshman asked, “Martial arts? Why?”
“Well, you see,” began Natsu, and he looked towards his hands while saying, “my power demands a great deal of imagination and prowess, which I have, but I have no experience in actual combat, so I thought it’s better to train under an expert and since you’re a king in your world, I had hoped that you would teach me martial arts.”
“Me too!” Vikram added from behind Natsu with a serious look on his face. “I’m fast and all, but I can’t seem to get the hang of it, so please help me get the hang of it! Please!”
The king from another world looked at the determined looks on the two faces and smiled in happiness.
“Okay. I will do my best to teach you the basics, but from there, you’re on your own.”
The two of them smiled in happiness and said in unison, “Thank you very much!”
Lakshman smiled and began to walk towards the courtyard of the castle, where the first prince often took to practicing his swordsmanship. As he, Natsu, and Vikram walked past Gram, the prince from another world turned to them and shouted at Lakshman to catch his attention.
“Hey!”
The Solaris Hero paused and turned to look at him just as Natsu and Vikram also did the same.
Gram walked towards Lakshman and stopped within meters distance before asking, “Why are you accepting their requests and denying mine?! Ha?! Explain yourself!”
Lakshman remained silent for a moment, looking down at Gram, who was a few centimetres shorter than him. Gram was a little surprised to see a cold stare emanating from the man standing opposite to him and wondered why he was giving him such a glare.
“It’s clear that you didn’t reflect on your mistake from yesterday,” said Lakshman simply in a severe voice that made Gram become very irritated. “I repeat what I said to you yesterday, think about what you did wrong and come back tomorrow. If you dare to pester me in-between, I will refuse altogether.”
He could see that the Tempest Hero was very frustrated and was waiting for him to reply. Soon enough, like he had expected, Gram spoke to him in an angry filled voice while giving him a furious look.
“Damn it! What do you think of me? A dog that you can order around as you please?”
Lakshman stared at him with an amused look on his face before letting out a light chuckle, which angered Gram even more. He suddenly turned and continued heading to the courtyard with Natsu and Vikram following behind, leaving Gram behind feeling incensed about the treatment he was receiving.
“Hey! Dammit! Wait!” He shouted and ran after them in a hurry.
A few minutes later, Lakshman arrived at the courtyard to find Bolten training his swordsmanship against several of the Royal Guards. Sweat was flying from him with the speedy, accurate swings he was performing against his opponents, who appeared to be getting pushed back with his relentless force. Behind him, Natsu and Vikram marvelled at the fluid movement of the first prince, who appeared to be dancing rather than actually fighting with such grace.
The Royal Guards, seeing them standing there, informed Bolten, and so the first prince broke away and glanced in their direction. He was relatively pleased to see Lakshman and was amazed to find Natsu, Vikram and Gram, who just hurried into sight, standing with him.
“Oh my? You’re not alone today?” Bolten asked Lakshman, a look of interest on his face while a smile showed that he was being casual with him. “Where are the others? Are they going to arrive shortly?”
“No. They’re fast asleep, those lazy buggers,” replied Vikram with a look of exasperation, which made Bolten laugh.
“Well, I suppose it is early in the morning,” stated Bolten, looking at the horizon where the first speck of sunlight broke through. He turned back to them and asked, “Are you here to train as well?”
“We want to hone our skills a little bit,” replied Natsu with a look of embarrassment that Bolten waved his hand at to shrug it off.
“Don’t be so embarrassed about it. There’s no shame in being untrained since you never excepted you would be in the position you are in currently. But it does go to show your sincerity in wanting to develop your skills and work hard to get stronger! I like that attitude,” said Bolten, his praising causing both Natsu and Vikram to smile in happiness.
Only Gram appeared to be unimpressed as he said, “That’s well and good, prince, but this guy’s ignoring my requests and keeps sending me away! I don’t understand what he wants from me.”
Bolten appeared to be troubled and turned to Lakshman, asking him, “Really?”
To that, Lakshman drew nearer towards Bolten and whispered into his ear, “He kept demanding me to train him instead of requesting. These two requested me politely, and I’m happy to train them for it. So, I told him to reflect on what he did wrong and come back the next day in hopes that he changes, but you can see for yourself the result so far.”
“I see,” said Bolten slowly, nodding in understanding as he noticed the clear aggression that Gram was feeling towards Lakshman. “Very well. Leave it to me.”
As Lakshman nodded and backed away, Bolten turned to Gram and said, “It seems you are mistaken in your approach to have him train you. I’m unimpressed by your attitude, Gram.”
“What?” Gram asked, his eyes widening in disbelief. “Unimpressed? Prince! It’s not right for you to just hear his end of the story!”
“Go ahead and tell me what your side of the story is,” replied Bolten in a cool voice, causing Gram to appear surprised.
“Um… I… I told him to train me so that I can become stronger! That’s all I did! Honest!” Gram said earnestly, glaring angrily at Lakshman who smiled coolly back at him.
“You… told him…? Is that right?” Bolten asked in a slow clear voice so that Gram would not miss it. When Gram nodded with look of confusion on his face, the prince sighed and went on to ask, “Have you ever heard the term ‘politeness,’ ‘discipline,’ and ‘courteous?’”
“Huh?” Gram asked, looking a little baffled by such a question. “Yes. I’m aware of them.”
“And, you never once thought of applying them when you speak to somebody else, especially when you want them to do something for you?” Bolten asked, his voice becoming deadly dangerous that caused Gram to look at him with a hint of fear on his face.
“I don’t understand,” replied Gram, looking very troubled. “Back in my world, whenever I told people to do something for me, they did without question no matter how difficult the task is!”
A moment of silence followed his statement, and then the first prince replied in a dangerous voice, “That’s because you’re a prince in your world, but not here. You’re not a prince in this world, Gram. I am. Got it?”
Gram became hesitant and looked like he was struggling to voice the mixed emotions hiding inside of him. Still, the matter in question was not left alone because he suddenly demanded while pointing at Lakshman, “Fine! Maybe the way I speak is the problem, but I still don’t understand why he doesn’t train me!”
To that, Lakshman said flatly, “It’s not that I don’t want to train you, but your attitude is what’s upsetting to me. Change that and you’re automatically a better man.”
Gram looked at him with a look of disbelief on his face, when he was suddenly taken by surprise when Bolten said, “Here,” and threw the sword at him. Catching it with good reflexes, Bolten said, “How about the two of you spar against one another to measure each other up? I think that’ll be a good test for you as well, Gram.” He turned to Lakshman and asked, “Are you up for it?”
Lakshman looked at Gram, who was observing the blade with curiosity, and then turned to Bolten and said, “Yes.”
Gram, who heard his reply, became fiercely determined to prove himself as he said, “I’m ready!”
Bolten nodded and turned to the Royal Guards, instructing them, “Form a barrier around us so that no damage from this battle leaves this place.”
“Yes, sir!” They replied, immediately activating their Magic Enhanced Devices to form several layers of barriers around them large courtyard so that damage stays within its boundaries.
When they gave the signal that everything was set, Bolten nodded back at them and turned to speak with the two warriors with a smile of excitement on his face.
“Alright! You two, take your positions and get ready for the rematch between the Solaris Hero and the Tempest Hero is about to commence!”