ILIAS VAN PAYNE

When I awoke, I glanced out the window and found the village square in the distance a couple of hours away from being ready for a party.

“Mother, have you seen the square?” I ran downstairs asking. “Everything got ready so fast.”

“The colonel was up all night with his Dolls directing everything.”

“Noon is in four hours.”

“It’s not a long wait, so don’t eat too much. Take a bath and get dressed. You can hang out with Jaime if you want, but you two must be at the square by noon. The party is for you and it’s not starting if you’re not there,” Mother warned. “Everyone will grow angry if they have to wait to eat.”

For the occasion, I slicked my hair back and chose to wear a blue and gold vest along with a bolo tie over top a dark brown dress shirt. That was paired with knee-high socks underneath grey short breeches that stopped on my upper thigh.

The fastest way to the library was to cut through the square. I stopped to have a few quick conversations while searching to see if Jaime was here.

“You have speech ready, right?” one of the villagers asked. “A speech must always be spoken by the person who the party is dedicated to. We’re looking forward to hearing yours.”

Speech? I wasn’t told about a speech.

There’s still time before the party starts. I think I can come up with one before then. Good thing I cut through here and ran into someone who informed me.

As I continued to pass through the square, a group of girls began making light conversation before each taking a turn to give me an envelope with their names on it.

They all fled when Jaime appeared behind me. She was a looming figure with her arms crossed. Instead of her usual loose skirt, she wore a white semi-tight dress with a matching white blazer. A gold belt with a sunflower emblem wrapped around her waist. Her hair was tied in a bun.

“Ilias, look at what the colonel brought me from the Capital.” Jaime had a smile that reached her eyes when she unsheathed the sword hanging on her hip. “He gave it to me last night.”

“Yes, I remember picking it up from the blacksmith shop with him. How do you like it?”

“I haven’t tried it out, but I love it!”

We headed to the back of the library where she began testing out her blade. I constantly reminded her not to make too many sudden movements so her dress could stay clean and rip-free.

“Are you done?” I asked after watching Jaime swing her sword for fifteen minutes.

“Why are you in such a rush?”

“Apparently, it’s tradition to give a speech. I wasn’t told so I don’t have one prepared. I’m getting ideas in my head and I want to head inside and write something down.”

Jaime slid her sword back into its scabbard. “I’ll help.”

“I’d rather you not. By the way, you’re not planning to wear that sword during the party, are you?”

“I’m not leaving this sword. I don’t want it to get stolen.”

“I think it has a higher chance of getting stolen during the party.”

We took our seats and began writing and fidgeting respectively.

Jaime took an interest in the stack of envelopes I had placed on the table. “What are these?”

“The girls you scared off gave them to me.”

“They’re love letters. I told you the girls were going to start having the hots for you.” She rubbed her chin. “What if the boys start falling for you too?”

I brushed aside the last comment. “I suspected they were love letters.”

“Are you not going to open them? If not, I’ll rip them up. Even better: I’ll cut them up with my sword!”

“Hey! Those girls put work into those letters—I’m not going to throw them out. At least not before reading what they wrote.”

Once I was done with my speech, we headed to her place to drop off her sword. She insisted on bringing it, but I threatened her with the idea of the colonel taking it away. In the end, she settled on hiding it within the pile of hay in Tank’s stable.

We arrived at the village square on the dot to find the entire village in their nicest clothing mingling amongst themselves. The chefs were still hard at work preparing the food. Musicians and singers were tuning their instruments and practicing their songs. There were a couple of gleemen inside a store rehearsing their performances. Even passing adventurers were allowed to attend in exchange for any sort of entertainment.

Beside the buffet of food was a three-layered cake with a lifesize cake version of me standing proudly on top. On the top layer were hundreds of small candles. Below the cake table were dozens of wrapped gifts.

Are those for me?

Underneath the giant banner that read “Congratulations to Ilias on becoming a State Jynxist!” was a stage with a long table for everyone to view. The table was for me, Mother, Jaime, Camaro, Doria, Gama, Kaiser, Hendrik, Rudolf, and Heloise as there were plaques with our names in front of each seat. Since Heloise wasn’t present, John, who was still bound in chains, was sitting in it.

Me and Jaime’s seats were in the middle of the table beside our respective parents.

“I thought you two were off making trouble again,” the colonel said. “At least you got here on time.”

I pointed to the cake. “That’s a lot of candles.”

“The cake has a giant edible version of you accompanied by six hundred and nine little candles.”

Everything in my head clicked. “The candles represent the other participants.”

Once the chefs were done setting up the food, they took their seats and prompted everyone else to follow suit. Camaro had laid off the entire village to enjoy this day. The exception were the soldiers on duty who still needed to guard Gilead’s outposts. But most of them were excused by the colonel himself to attend the opening part of the party. Camaro even had his Dolls accompany the working soldiers to make up for the loss of manpower.

Everyone was drinking by this point and were more than eager to fill their growling stomachs.

“Speech!” they cheered before turning into a chant. “Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech!”

I took the stage and unfolded the written speech in my pocket.

“My fellow villagers,” I spoke in the clearest voice I could. “About three months ago my teacher, Heloise as you have all come to know her, taught me my last lesson. I passed her test and destroyed the boulder across the ravine my mother fell into.”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The last comment summoned laughter. Trisha shook her head in a flush of embarrassment.

“That night, I decided to become a State Jynxist like our beloved colonel. We left for the Capital the next day so I can take the seventy-third State Jynxist Exam. The event took three weeks in total and consisted of a preliminary phase in addition to the usual three. This year’s exam had the highest number of participants from any year thus far. Six hundred and ten of us took the test and only two passed—one of them being me.”

Everyone whistled and cheered my name.

“I’m happy to make Gilead proud by giving it the opportunity to boast that not one, but two State Jynxists originated from this small village. I’m glad I was born and raised in Gilead. I couldn’t have asked for a better home than this peaceful settlement. Our lovely colonel was the youngest person to ever become a State Jynxist. I’m sad to inform you that he’s not anymore. For I, Ilias Van Payne, have taken that title. And for as long as I live, I will make sure the dawn rises on Gilead.”

The village’s applauding was so long that it felt like it was happening forever.

“Alright,” the colonel said. “Time for the dance.”

“Dance?” I questioned.

“It’s not a party without a dance. It’s simple really, there are so many lovely young girls out there wanting to dance with you. Pick one and I’m sure they’ll love to accompany the floor with you.”

I wasn’t told about a dance either. But unlike the speech, there will be no problem with a surprise dance.

When I was a noble, we were taught how to behave during parties. One of the lessons was how to dance. As luck would have it, a proper dance resembled footwork similar to that in swordplay.

I was an excellent and avid dancer when I was Decan.

There were countless girls in the audience waving and raising their hands. They gave each other death stares as I glanced around for options.

I placed my left hand behind my back and elegantly offered Jaime the other. “Will you accompany me to this dance?”

Jaime was unsure at first, shooting a look at the girls that were practically baring their teeth.

“Just ignore everyone,” I told her. “Pretend we’re alone.”

The moment she grabbed my hand, I pulled her up and led her to the open floor below. The tables were set up in a way that made sure everyone had a view.

The musicians nearby got their instruments ready.

“Umm… Ilias?” Jaime said, her face beat-red. “I don’t know how to dance. I’m going to embarrass you in front of everyone.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll lead you into everything. Just mimic my actions. You can do that, right?”

She nodded.

We interlocked our hands and used our free ones to support each other. She had hers on my shoulder while I had hers on her side rib.

The song the musicians began to play was a tune I recognized instantly. A waltz called Swan Lake that was commonly played during parties to give couples a chance to dance together.

I took initiative of the dance and began side-stepping, guiding Jaime with me. We were out of sync at first, but I added feints to the beat of the music and Jaime recognized the pattern. By then, our rhythm began becoming one and the same.

“The footwork is a bit like swordsmanship,” she mentioned. “I think I can keep up.”

She’s noticed the similarities just like I did.

In synchrony, we moved across the dance floor and the more we danced, the more fluid our movements became.

“Since when did you learn how to dance?” she asked in a whisper.

“We had a couple of parties in our downtime during the exam,” I lied. “I had some of the older participants teach me.”

Jaime had forgotten that the entire village was staring at us. The red face she had when we started dancing had disappeared behind one that was genuinely enjoying the moment.

“The song is about to end, follow my lead.”

As the music rose to its ending crescendo, I let go of Jaime, spinning her with our interlocked hands before ending our dance with open arms.

The villagers began clapping, and even the girls who sneered at Jaime couldn’t help but applaud our performance.

This was the main dance event, but there will be a lot more as the day goes on. After what just happened, I bet each girl here will ask me for a dance.

Camaro summoned back the silence by hitting his glass with a knife.

“Before we get to eating, which I know we’ve all been waiting for, I think now is a good time to give Ilias his biggest gift,” Camaro said. “Now, Ilias, I’m sure you’ve noticed the pile of presents underneath your cake. However, each family here has pitched in to get you something altogether. Think of it as a gift from the village itself.”

The colonel snapped his fingers, which was the cue for Lieutenant Doria to produce a staff from the shadow of the table. It was similar to the one Heloise used.

The handle was a smooth and fossilized hardwood. Along its shaft were pairs of golden rings that were only there for show. Heloise’s staff curved at the tip where a blue rigged crystal levitated. This one had a tip that divided itself into three even prongs and inside it was a smooth circular light blue crystal.

Just by looking at it, I can tell this was very expensive.

Wands and staffs helped cast spells, but the type of material they were made off had a certain affinity to the different types of jynx. My wand had a ruby crystal at its tip which meant it was more suited to fire jynx—Heloise wasn’t expecting to teach me so she had to use whatever materials she could find. This was why Erina had such an easy time using it.

“We present to you: Aurora Ventus,” Camaro explained. “The staff itself is made of petrified wood from an ent tree in one of the country’s few protected labyrinths. The crystal is a rare gem found in the Dreaded Depths. This particular one was left in another labyrinth to gain stronger magical attributes. Heloise is a wind mage and so are you. Those materials will make a wind mage like you cast spells easier.”

I took the staff and caressed its smooth handle.

“How do you like it?” Doria asked.

“I love it, of course. I never knew everyone would pool together enough money to get me something like this. I just know this was very expensive.”

“Don’t worry about the cost. You deserve it.”

“You’re a great jynxist, Ilias,” Mother told me. “You need a great staff to match it. Go on, give it a try.”

I spotted fireworks beside the wagons and used jynx to throw one in the air before shooting it down with a Fire Ball. An explosion of colour filled the sky.

That was a fifth of the amount of mana needed to cast it. This staff is definitely a massive improvement compared to my current wand.

With that out of the way, the party finally commenced. All of us on stage were the first to grab food from the buffet of tables followed by the soldiers who were supposed to be on duty—they took food with them back to their posts.

Camaro made it clear to John that this was going to be the last event like this he’d ever attend. He seemed to enjoy himself, though the colonel only allowed him two glasses of wine. Apparently, John was a master of the Drunken Fist, a form of martial arts where one trained when drunk. So if John ever succumbed to alcohol, he would suddenly become a worthy opponent.

When it was time to cut the cake, I was given the first dibs to cut it. Jaime told me to behead the cake version of me, which I did. But the image of myself with its head separated from its body brought about a haunting scene that, until now, I had managed to suppress.

I stared at the head before snapping back to the happy occasion.

According to Mother, they bought the materials for the staff a couple of days after receiving my second letter. They were originally going to hide it under my bed but were afraid that Jaime might snoop around in my room and play with it. Instead, Doria was given the burden of keeping it secret and safe.

The party went as expected. Everyone was quiet at first as they enjoyed the food. Each family took turns coming up to our table and talking to us. Then as everyone’s meals settled in, they began socializing with each other. Then came the adventurers and musicians and singers and gleemen to entertain us.

Every hour or so everyone got into the mood to dance and there was a line of girls wanting to dance would me. I politely accepted their offers and I would spend the entire time jumping from girl to girl mingling with them while sharing the floor.

During this, Jaime was at the buffet stuffing her mouth with sweets.

Camaro was surprisingly loose today as the alcohol he had avoided while we were on the road kept finding itself in his glass. His unit tried to hold themselves back but were unsuccessful, getting drunk and being the life of the party at one point.

The colonel was a stiff man, but with the right amount of alcohol and music, he’d let loose. He even asked Mother, whose face was fuzzy from all the wine, to dance.

It was an enjoyable party. Everything was, dare I say it, perfect.

At the end of the night, the soldiers who were manning the outposts each grabbed a crate of fireworks. One by one, they shot them into the sky in an array of pretty colours.

The still-sober villagers escorted the drunk ones back to their homes. The off-duty soldiers, along with Camaro’s Marching Dolls, helped clean the place up by stacking up the dirty dishes and pots. Everything else was going to be taken care of tomorrow.

“I hope you had fun,” Jaime said as she and Camaro headed home.

“Yeah. I had lots of it.”

That was how the party commemorating Ilias for becoming a State Jynxist came to a safe end.