The night continued much the same as before. He found the training with Alucarde to be brutally unhelpful. Even when he started with smaller numbers, the bombardments were much faster and continuous. The entity was relentless.

It seemed almost as if he was enjoying it. The way you could see his teeth smile and grin with every attack that landed was aggravating.

"Huff...hufff..heh.."

"Get up. We're not done yet."

Ora stood and slowly all the shadows around him reappeared. The moment they materialized, several more of the balls were launched at Ora at high speeds. "How many run-throughs was this? fifty? sixty?"

"Sixty-six."

Ora got up again, preparing to defend against the next wave of attacks.

"okay...this isn't proving to be an effective method huh."

"Then...how about this."

An amalgamation of shadows appeared right behind Ora. This shadow formed and took on the appearance of a little girl. "W-..."

The shadow then materialized into an appearance he was very much familiar with. Her jet black hair rested down her back in a ponytail and her eyes took on color reminiscent of a verdant jade.

Her stone grey skin was also very easy for the shadow to imitate. "A..aries."

"Oraaaa~~" she ran around him like an airplane and then immediately noticed the menacing smile of Alucarde on the other side and appeared entirely frightened. She ran and hid behind Ora. "Eeeek! What is that- Oraa, I'm scaared"

She clung onto Ora tightly.

The orbs flew outwards, the first one whizzed past him and ignored him entirely. It managed to just lightly graze Aries and she cried out.

"I'm not aiming for you this time. You claim to have the power to defend your allies. Defend them. All of them."

Ugh...he didn't like this. Not one bit. It carried a heavy weight in his heart reminded him of all his prior failures. "But it's different now isn't it? I have power... I can protect them. I can protect them all."

The various amalgamations of orbs came straight for the both of them in all angles. Better than he could have ever done before, the tentacles sprouted outwards and he maintained his focus. Expanding his mind so that he could see multiple places at a time.

Moving each limb at the same time with various different goals in mind, he was able to stop much of the first coming wave. And repeal the rest of them with his own body.

"Hoho...now we're talking."

"Then how about this!" He launched more and more orbs at him.

As expected, the girl remained unharmed. For the most part, a lot of the orbs were parried and pierced. His shadow appendages appeared as if they were skewers. The rest were parried by his own body. In the end, the Aries facsimile was not injured.

"I see...so you learn best from protecting others."

"Then. Let's see how long you can hold on, Ora."

He became bombarded by wave after wave. His vision began to fade and he was slowly losing mental focus.

"Just how much more is he going to throw at me..."

"I can do it..."

"Aries...You will be alright. I promise you." Another orb propelled into him. This time hitting him straight in the face. The impact left him very lightheaded and yet his shadows continued to move, continued to defend, continued to manifest.

In just a short amount of time, the original 136 tentacles he could create increased. He was, right now using about 300 different appendages. He wasn't even aware at the heights he was pushing himself. His blurred vision phased out entirely and his world became black.

He had suffered too many hits to remain conscious. In the end, however, Aries was still very much unhurt.

"You really do impress me, Ora..." Alucarde yawned. "Sleep well."

He had retreated back into deep sleep.

__________________________

"Ora. Oi ORA!" a knock came upon his door and he woke up reluctantly to a familiar voice.

"rhmm.. Rel?" he rubbed his eyes as he got up. To his surprise, when he opened the door, both Rel and Alel awaited him. Alel stood, kneeling against the wall beside Rel.

"We got company." She said.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Seems there's a whole charade of people here to see you and all that. I got no idea what it is they plan on doing, but I don't trust 'em." Rel scowled.

Ora nodded his head and got up to see what was going on. He slowly got dressed and found both Aren and another man 'Zephise" waiting for him. They were both to escort him in this endeavor. Rel and Alel followed closely behind while completely masked by Rel's ability.

"Whats happening so early in the morning."

"Ne-? Morning? Ora, its 6pm. The sun is setting." Ora almost jumped. He had been asleep for that long? What in the world. Alucarde's training must've taken quite a toll off of him.

As he walked down the steps of the inner walls, he finally made it to the base floor and opened the eastern gate. There he found a rather interesting group awaiting him. They were noble class Sei'ens. The first to greet him was a tall gentleman. He must've been 6'7 or 6'6.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He couldn't quite tell due to the length of his hat. It sat ridiculously atop his head. Ora was certain that he could fit inside there if he wanted to.

The man had one monocle on his face and a long slender black suit, woven from the finest silk. His cuffs were golden with a red lining inside. His hands were covered with white gloves.

The others that stood before him was a knight adorned in rusted black steel armor. His armor only had one chest plate and one shoulder pointy shoulder plate. The rest of his armor was very well uniformed. The man's face was stern and powerful looking.

His ferocious blond hair was not one that was native to Sei'ens. Perhaps he was half Sei'en. His eyes held resolve, and when they met Ora's eyes, they did not shy away.

At the very back there stood the most prominent looking beings. A lady in her 40's and perhaps a man in his 30's. Perhaps is important in that description, because they looked very much androgynous. It could go 50/50 that they were a guy or a girl.

They wore all manner of jewelry amongst their possessions. They seemed to glisten gold and diamond sheen from their very beings. The robes they wore were extravagant. This was undoubtedly much so extravagant than the other nobles Ora had come in contact with.

They had an air of royalty about them. Ora had no doubt that he was standing face to face with the king and queen of Sei'O.

Furthermore, on either side of them were four magicians. They looked to be very advanced at what they do. They almost blended into the background by how still they were. They had not moved a single muscle, eye, or even hair since they had been noticed.

They essentially became living furniture to the scenario and were ready to attack at any time.

The tall man with the hat immediately gave an over-exaggerated bow. "Greetings, young master. You must be Ora."

He walked over to the relic child very slowly and elegantly. His gate was like that of a cat.

"I am Count Lien of Luxe-Sei'O."

'As I thought... nobles. That really must be the king and queen then.'

"We've traveled quite the long ways to visit you. Many accounts had reached our ears of what occurred. To think, that the entire occupation of Baerim would be struck down by the likes of a child--- a plague child nonetheless. Unbelievable, yet here we are."

He spun around and flashily moved his hands. Was he trying to be entertaining? "Does he think I'm some sort of child?" (Well... you are.) Ora was slowly losing patience.

The way the Count looked at him, was getting under his skin more so than usual. That typical look behind his monocle. That look that stated his position as being above yours.

"I do apologize for having such a sudden arrival upon you all like this. Of course, to feast your eyes upon the king and queen must be such a royalty that one like you could have never hoped to see in their lifeti-"

"Shut up. Before I kill you."

Upon hearing that, something in the Count broke and he became visibly mortified. He slowly backed away from Ora and tried to regain his composure.

"N-now...It was not m-mmmeant to be AN insult!" He patted his suit. "I apologize i-if I came off wrongly."

The conviction in Ora's voice when he said that threat just now was nowhere near lighthearted. It would strike fear into the hearts of anyone who heard them. Even if they didn't know his power.

At the same time, the haughty knight stifled his laughter. It was a pleasure seeing the Count like this. 

"What do you guys want?"

"On behalf of the king and queen, I'd like to extend a hand to you and thank you first and foremost for defeating the bloody Baerim dogs." He extended his hand out to Ora once again. His nervousness could be seen on his face, and he avoided eye contact.

There was a long silence as Ora stared at the man's hand. 

"Does he not know how to shake hands?" The count thought. "As expected of plague children. Why did such power have to come in contact with such filth."

"Take off your gloves." Ora demanded.

"Eh?"

"I will not ask again. Take off your gloves. What kind of insolent fool doesn't know how to shake hands." He mocked the man in the same manner he'd expect the nobles to talk.

"I don't believe its necessary for me to remove my gloves, young master. A simple handshake on behalf of the queen is all I need to extend to you."

Ora sighed. "You came all this way to shake hands with me with a glove on? Could it be..." Ora's eyes pierced his eyes.

"Could it be you're too afraid to touch me?"

"Is someone like me too low to touch a being such as yourself?"

The Count was now visibly sweating. That was true. He did not want to dirty his hands touching plagued skin. Disgusting. He could barely bring his hands to touch the same floor as these filthy vermin.

"Tell the Queen and the King, that if they want to extend a hand from me, they'd better do it themselves and not send their dogs out to do it for them."

Ora turned around and began to walk away.

"W-WAIT!"

Ora stopped mid gait and looked at the noble. The rest of his entourage were clearly visibly shaken as well and pressured him to do something. Ah...so there's another motive.

"You see... we were in the middle of forging an alliance with the Lakians. If all went well, we'd have amassed their weaponry and power to push back the Baerim Knights."

"....and?"

"And! You ruined all of that!"

Aren looked confused. "How did he ruin that? If he just killed off 3,000 Baerim guards, he's made your jobs a lot easier."

The noble shook his head. "No. Such an attack and preparation would have taken 2 years to ensure success."

"And...well, with your current actions. Baerim will launch a full-scale rebuttal well before the next couple of months are over. We need the weaponry and equipment they left behind now! IF not, we'll all fail miserably."

"And?"

"W-What do you mean And?"

"What does that have to do with me anyways?"

"Y-you....!"

"If Baerim attacks, we will destroy them. The rest of you weaklings can die." The coldness in Ora just now... where in the world could that have come from?

"B-bastard... you hold weaponry that originally belonged to Sei'O. Refusing to return them to their rightful owner is to steal from the country itself! Do you dare betray the King and Queen."

"It wasn't I who betrayed the Queen. They- no...you all. You all betrayed us years ago."

"You know you'll all be branded as criminals, right?"

"...do you mean to say that you guys have enough power to stop us?" Ora asked.

"Right now...there's only 3 of you." (Alel and Rel are hidden.)

"Though you and your group may have managed to defeat Baerim. You'll have no chance against our six elite mages and the head warrior."

Ora grinned and laughed hard. 

"Let me tell you one thing, Count."

The Count was visibly getting fed up. 

Very faint energy began to seep from Ora. This feint shadowy wind left traces of malice in the air and wafted right underneath the noblemen's nose. 

"It wasn't an entire group that defeated the Baerim guards."

Ora had realized. They must think there were a lot of plague children that participated in subjugating Baerim. Upon realizing this, his grin grew even more twisted.

"The one who killed all of those guards, was me. I alone slew 3,000 guards."

"I-impossible! HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE KILLED-"

"Would you like me to show you?" The answer was genuine, and the Count understood exactly what was being said and he immediately backed away. He ran so fast that he was tripping over his own feet. He rejoined the rest of the group and sought refuge behind the Head Warrior.

The king clapped and laughed out loud. He stood up from his chair and smiled gleefully. His long black hair was very thin and perfectly rested on each side of his face.

Ora wasn't certain if he was a she or not, but for now, he definitely decided to assume he was a he.

He got up out of the chair and clapped as he stepped down from his makeshift throne. Each step he took the magicians followed, but he held his hand up to stop them all. 

They hesitantly stopped, and he continued his advance to Ora, who was still emanating the vile miasma.

"Ora...was it?" He offered his hand to Ora. "I'm King Veilix."

Ora slapped his hand and turned around to walk away. "And I'm done here."

Everyone visibly reacted to that action. All of the magicians immediately began to cast their spells and release enchantments, but the king held his hand up to stop them instantly.

The Head Warrior hesitantly gripped his sword. But even he could see right now, that as Ora was untouchable. As he walked, the tiny child that he was exuded an aura much bigger than the highest mountain in Sei'O. 

"How...dare you- to touch the k-king!" The count yelled. But alas, this was long after Ora had already left and retreated back to the inside of the building.

(That day, they took the fattest L.)