At the Royal Courtroom of a certain country, a girl of noble heritage stood in front of that country’s king with bounded hands and feet. She wore ragged clothes and her prided pink hair was disheveled.
She had an appearance which was unfitting of her stature as a noble.
“Leila Clesiastes, you have been charge with the crime of disrespecting royalty and for disloyalty. My son, crowned prince Jake Carthur Grandellia, and his classmates had bore witness to this.”
The man spoke with a husky and tired voice. This man had long wavy white hair and his face showed signs of aging and weariness. His name was Ark Sol Grandellia. He was the king of the country.
“It’s a hoax! A lie! I would never do anything like that, Your Majesty. Believe me!”
“Be quiet, you deceitful girl.”
A young boy with blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes appeared near the king. He wore a deep blue military-like uniform and had an air of dignity surrounding him. This person was crowned prince Jake.
“Jake! How could you say something like that!? Ever since I was a child, I had never lied to you!”
The girl named Leila screamed with desparation at Jake.
“Please stop it nee-sama... It’s quite unsightly.”
“Nii-sama’s right, nee-sama. Please stop lying and atone for your crimes.”
A boy wearing aristocratic clothes and a girl wearing an expensive dress reprimanded Leila from behind. The boy had a slightly reddish hair while the girl had silver hair.
“Michelle! Mike! Even the two of you are accusing me!?”
““....””
The two looked at Leila with disgust.
“!”
Leila felt her heart getting crushed as she saw her two younger siblings glare at her.
“S-stop looking at me like that!”
Unable to bear their gaze, Leila used her hands to hide her face from them.
“How unbearable.”
A deep voice resounded within the royal courtroom. He had ash brown hair. His face was rugged and had scars in some places.
“F-father?”
Leila slowly turned to the direction where the voice had come from.
“Hiii!”
Seeing his expression, Leila couldn’t help but shriek in fear. The reason why she shrieked in fear wasn’t because his face was scary, but because of the heavy bloodlust he had emitted the moment their eyes had met.
Leila’s father, Sir August Clesiastes, was a duke and a distinguished general. He was victorious in a lot of conflicts and was hailed as a hero by most of the populace that lived in the country. He was also called the greatest swordsman of their kingdom because of his prowess and ferocity in the battlefield. As a result, he was the second most influential person in the kingdom.
“Leila, by committing these crimes, you are hereby disowned. Henceforth, I and those two behind you are now strangers!”
Hearing her Father’s declaration, Leila became pale as her feeling sank to despair.
“F-fath--”
Shin*
Her father’s figure disappeared momentarily and reappeared near her. In between the two of them, a large broadsword could be seen.
“Did you not hear what I just said?”
“....’
“We are now S-T-R-A-N-G-E-R-S, understand?”
Leila’s father.... August intensified his bloodlust as he repeated his words.
“... Yes... August...sama.”
Because she didn’t have a choice, Leila called his father by his name and with an honorific. Her heart became cold and her mind became blank as she lost her family.
“By the authority as King of this country, I hereby strip you of your noble status and be exiled to the neighboring country of Fleigma, Take her away!”
The King declared Leila’s punishment.
“....”
Leila finally understood that no matter what she did or do, no one would help her. Because of that, Leila silently accepted her punishment as the soldiers urged her to walk to the exit.
As she continued to walk closer to the exit, a girl with long silky black hair and deep dark eyes appeared in the corners of her vision. She waved her hand to Leila with a smile. Others may see her smile as an innocent smile that pitied Leila. But for Leila, that smile was a smiled which was filled with arrogance.Leila didn’t really know why she made such a smile to her. She didn’t even know who that girl was.
Then, as the door of the Royal courtroom closed, Leila heard a loud applause from it. This caused Leila to feel an intense feeling of insecurity and impatience.
“Were they that happy with my exile? Did everyone hate me? Huh?”
Leila started questioning herself, the meaning of their applause, and the reason for her exile.
“Was I never loved by anyone? Was I only being played as a fool by them all this time? Huh? Did they exile me because they had grown bored with me?”
Leila became paranoid because of the event. Every time she a question floated on her mind, it would quickly be followed by another. Then, at the end of her questions, her heart became dyed with the color of fury and revenge.
“Did all of you think that you could throw me away like this? Huh? I shall come back to make all of you taste the same emotions I experienced today! I shall return!”
....
...
...
“Morning Akane!”
I turned my head behind me and saw a friend waving her hand at me.
“Morning Kaname~ Yawn*”
As I covered my yawn with my hand, Kaname raised one of her eyebrows as she approached me.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“A-K-A-N-E!!!”
Kaname suddenly started grinding my temples with her fists.
“Owowowowowowowow...”
“You were up again all night weren’t you!? Weren’t you!?”
“S-sorry! The game was so interesting. I couldn’t help but play it till dawn!”
“The teacher will get mad if you sleep in the middle of class again you know.”
“Fufun~ Don’t worry about that, I’ve got it covered.”
“Hooo~”
I opened my bag and showed it’s contents to Kaname.
“... I’m speechless.”
“It’s a great idea isn’t it?”
“Oh yeah... It’s a great idea. Stuffing your bag with that many cans of coffee is a great idea....”
“Hehe...”
While I was laughing out of embarrassment for the praise, I suddenly felt intense pain on my head.
“You idiot!”
“Ueee~ why’d you punch my head Kaname?”
“To help you wake up!”
“I’m already awake though.”
“No! You’re still half asleep! What about books? You’re notebooks?”
“They’re inside of my bag of course.”
“Hee~ then show me one.”
“Un!”
Putting my hand into my bag, I searched for my textbooks?
....
...
Huh?
...
...
Ummm....
“Kaname! What should I do! I forgot my textbooks and notebooks at home!”
Tears formed at my eyes as I asked Kaname for help.
“You could run back to your home to get your textbooks.”
“But I’ll be late if I do that!”
“Which do you prefer then? Being late and be scolded? Or going to school in time and be scolded for forgetting your books.”
“.... I’ll be back!”
I quickly turned towards the direction of my house and made a mad dash to it.
Screeeeeeeeech!
Blinding light suddenly covered my entire view and the loud sound of a truck’s horn deafened my ears.
“AKANE!!!”
Kaname suddenly shouted my name. I turned my head towards her and saw a truck heading towards me. My body stiffened in that moment. The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes in fear was Akane’s dash towards me.
...
...
...
Suddenly, everything became quiet. I continued to close my eyes and after a few seconds, I decided to slowly open them.
Grrrrr....
A large gray 2 meter tall wolf stood in front of me.
“....”
Grrrrr.
“....”
Grrr...
“Grrr?”
In confusion, I mimicked the growling wolf while tilting my head to the side. Seeing my actions, the wolf jumped towards me.
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHH!?”
I evaded his pounce by tumbling to the ground and since it missed me, the wolf’s head crashed into a tree. I then took this opportunity to run away as quickly as possible. However, the moment I was about to run away, my consciousness suddenly faded away.
...
....
“Huh?”
Grrrr....
“Tsk... Dozing off in the middle of a battle like this.... It seems like I still need some more training.”
I bit my lower lip to reawaken my mind. My eyes quickly darted to the place where I stood last and found my sword which had fallen to the ground.
Since the wolf mysteriously banged his head to the tree, it was still trying to regain its composure. As such, I took this chance to run towards the sword.
I picked up the sword and charged towards the stunned wolf. When I had gotten close to him, I quickly stabbed the wolf’s head with my sword. I then removed the sword from his head and stabbed it again. I continued stabbing it again and again and again. I only stopped stabbing the wolf when I became exhausted.
“haaa.... Haaa....”
I breathed heavily as I rested my back to a tree.
“haa... Even though... I’ve been... Living in the forest for a month... I’m still this weak huh.... Haa... Ha.... I need to get stronger.... Stronger..... When I do become strong... I’ll come back to that kingdom and destroy it....”
I tightened my fist as I remembered the day when I was exiled.
In my head, I knew that this was an impossible goal to achieve. A single individual attempting to destroy a country truly is ridiculous. But, if I ever decide to give this goal up, my heart wouldn’t be able to calm down otherwise. Because of that, I continued to live on.
Even if I’m in the middle of a forest.
“Luck really does play an important role in some battles huh? Haha...”
I laughed to myself as I reminisced how lucky I was when I dodge the wolf’s strike back then.
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Changelog:
1.) Changed from 1st POV to 3rd POV when she was exiled
2.) Added a brief peek of Leila's previous life
3.)Combined the last part to chapter 9 of the previous chapter
Next Chapter: Who are you?
The next chapter of the previous version was supposed to be Sieg's story of how he met up with Leila,. Anyways~ I'll post the next chapter tommorrow.
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Well, I've decided to rewrite the whole thing~ Tehee.... the events before the rewrite will still happen. But that's in the future though. The things I will write from here are the things that were supposed to happen after chapter 9, via flashback and stuff. I only rearranged the chapters and combined some as well as add a couple more details to the story. :)