Arc 4: What families entail
Road to a hero:
Three chances in another world
Chapter 31. The sole spartan warrior
After a few hours of fun Gray and the rest of the Red Arrows fall asleep. Gray, sleeping in one of the many small rooms gets woken up by a loud knock. Gray stumbles out of bed, puts on his casual clothes, and answers the door.
Gray: “Hello, I’m up.”
Leo: “You got some bed head, oh well we leave in five hours so get ready.”
Gray: “Couldn’t I have slept anymore?”
Leo: “You could but Ceasar will be here in a few minutes.”
Gray: “Should have led with that.”
Leo: “Noted, now come on.”
Gray walks into the common room, noticing only Peter and Soku are in the room both yawning and barely awake.
Peter: “Hey Gray.”
Soku: “Sup.”
Gray: “Very lively.”
Peter: “it’s like like seven in the morning…too tired.”
Gray: “Should try going to school.”
Peter: “You went to a school!”
Gray: “Yeah… where I come from it’s pretty common…. it’s mandatory.”
Soku: “I’m waiting to see your face when you look at Ceasar, his teeth are all nasty and his hair is not well kept at all.”
Gray: “What is he a druggie?”
Soku: “Maybe… probably.”
Gray: “Oh, Peter did you look at that musket I showed you? Leo told me you were good with this kinda stuff.”
Peter: “Oh…I did but I kinda fell asleep…”
Gray: “Whatever.”
They heard steps coming from a bottom corridor, quickly approaching steps at that. They see one man enter the room, Caesar still dressed in raggy attire.
Gray {THIS IS THE GUY!? No shoes, ripped black pants, and an old light blue coat with…no way he cut the sleeves off…this guy’s a joke. Are those scars on his eyes? And on his mouth. It looks like it might be there to make his face look like a skull or something, man that’s edgy. Cool haircut though, almost elbow-length black hair with sharp bangs, it fits ‘'em.}
Caesar: “This place is nice, well hidden too. Oh new guy, nice armor what’s your name?”
Gray: “Gray, Gray Kyojin nice to meet you.”
Gray {Don’t ask about his scars, don’t you do it…I HAVE TO DO IT, NO I DON’T! SELF-CONTROL DAMMIT!)
Peter: “So what’s with the scars?”
Gray {THANK GOD!}
Caesar: “It’s a little hard to explain.”
Gray {DAMMIT!}
Peter: “Is it really though?”
Caesar: “All I’ll say is don’t do drugs.”
Gray {Unsatisfying answer, explains the teeth though, as well as the meth head skin he's got going on.}
Leo: “Enough about scars, where’s the rest of the Spartans?”
Caesar: “Well…about that…yeah they’re gone.”
Everyone: “WHAT!?”
Leo: “No…no,no,no,no,no…NO! YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! SHIT, SHIT, DAMMIT, SHIT!”
Peter: “That..was our only shot…”
Soku: “We’re the hell did they go!?”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Caesar: “Well…I’m not the LEADER…per se…I’m or was more like a higher-up in the lower ranks so I had some men at my disposal…and my higher-up took 'em from me…he told me he could do it better.”
Gray: “So…what do we do?”
Caesar: “I mean I’m pretty strong…so I can still be of some help.”
Leo: “DAMMIT! Fine…I wanted a bigger force but…I think Beauregard might need to just end this rebellion…we’ll have to give in to him…”
Gray: “If we do that…can we guarantee help taking back Walgonia?”
Leo: “Possibly…”
Caesar: “I’ll do whatever makes anybody happy at this point.”
Soku: “So…we just give up?”
Peter: “NO! WE DON’T JUST GIVE UP! SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE FOUGHT AN DIED FOR CHANGE…ANY DAMN FORM OF IT AND WE COME THIS FAR WITH SO LITTLE TO JUST GIVE UP!? FUCK THAT! I WOULD RATHER DIE AT THE HANDS OF A RANDOM GUARD THAN JUST GIVE UP!”
Leo: “Peter…just think clearly…resonably, relisticaly…”
Peter: “Reasonably? REASONABLY!? WE SHOULD HAVE ALL DIED…BEEN FOUND OUT A LONG TIME AGO IF WE WERE WORKING OFF REASONABLY!”
Leo: “I know that…but.”
Peter: “BUT NOTHING! EITHER DO OR DON’T!”
Gray: “Look…I would like to win but…I’m in I say we do.”
Soku: “Whatever…I’ll join.”
Leo turns around to see all the Red Arrows watching, awaiting his answer, an answer to decide their futures. All that power is in his hand, so much that he can almost feel it.
Leo: “WE WILL GO OUT FIGHTING FOR OUR LAND, OUR BELIEF, OUR HOME!”
All the Red Arrows cheer and shout, and the sound echoes throughout the halls, shaking the ground.
Leo: “NOW! ALL OF YOU NEED TO AWAIT COMMAND! YOU WILL HIDE OUTSIDE THE CASTLE…AND DO NOT BE SEEN NO MATTER WHAT YOU UNDERSTAND! IF FIGHTING BREAKS OUT AND I DAMN WELL KNOW IT WILL…WE WILL HAVE TO BE READY!”
Gray: “Alright then, five hours and we talk to some royalty.”
Soku: “Oh yeah…all this hype I forgot we gotta wait a bit.”
Peter: “Kinda sours the mood dosn’t it.”
Leo: “EVERYONE REST!”
All the Red Arrows shout in excitement, they then quiet down and walk back to their quarters Gray included.
Caesar: “Yo wait, Gray, I wanna talk to you about something.”
Gray: “Um…okay follow me I guess.”
So Gray leads Caesar to his quarters and shuts the door behind them.
Gray: “You needed something?”
Caesar: “Yeah, the M on the jacket…is that the Mason Works brand?”
Gray: “The…yeah it is…I KNEW IT YOU’RE FROM EARTH!”
Caesar: “Caught me.”
Gray: “Hey did you know that Arthur Willams, the new king of Walgonia is from Earth too?”
Caesar: “WAIT REALLY! NAH I DIDN’T KNOW THAT! How’d he get here?”
Gray: “His story is pretty dark, his parents died, his girlfriend left him, he went broke…so he just killed himself and he appeared here.”
Caesar: “Damn that is dark…what about you?”
Gray: “I was being a bitch…I was whining so much that I convinced myself that my life sucked…and I got hella depressed…so I walked in front of a truck.”
Caesar: “Ouch…that’s dark too.”
Gray: “What about you?”
Caesar: “I think mines the worst, I got bullied really hard in school and I kinda, sorta became a drug addict.”
Gray: “Damn that is rough.”
Caesar: “Then I think I had an overdose, but then I just appeared here…the rough part is that I kept dying.”
Gray: “What? How are you alive right now then?”
Caesar: “I gotta healing factor! It took a bit, but finally, my body worked it off and I was able to stand. At first, I thought it was hell…but then I figured out about it…and I knew it was some fantasy-type bullshit. So I spent these last four years chilling and figuring out what I needed to do.”
Gray: “Cool…that is rough. I’ve only been here for…three months now.”
Caesar: “You’ve been here three months and you’re invalid with this shit?”
Gray: “Yeah…I’ve been tumbling through it with this infinite luck that I didn’t even know I had, some luck that I wished I had back home.”
Caesar: “Well…I’m gonna let you rest…and I need some too. I’ll see you later!”
Gray: “Yeah I’ll see ya later bro!”
Caesar walks out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Gray lays down in his bed, focusing on the spirits around him making him fall asleep instantly.
Gray {Best part…of…the…spirit…stuff…..}
Gray wakes up to another knock at the door. He gets up and opens the door to find Soku blowing wind in his face. Unlike the time in the mansion where he was flung across the room, this time he unconsciously activates a small mana burst around his body to block the weak blast of wind.
Soku: “Good block, you slept in you gotta get ready quick.”
Gray: “Gotcha, waking up early isn’t really my thing I’m more of a wake up five minutes before I gotta leave guy.”
Soku: “Well then be the ready-at-the-door guy when we need you…in five minutes.”
Gray: “Hey you continued my bit, I never thought this beautiful day would come.”
Soku: “Shut up, just get ready.”
Soku leaves Gray to put on his armor. Unlike the rest of the armor of the countries, Walgonias is the most flexible. Ravorias is intricate and more style than useful, Valatrositces is heavy and dark, and Athens is light and reveling similar to actual armor worn in the Earth version of Athens. But Walgonias is almost perfect, A light chest piece, well-fitting shoulder guards, arm guards that go on like gloves, leg guards that go on like shoes, and lastly the flexible black material you put on before you even wear the armor which is burned resistant, sweat resistant and comfortable. The only thing on this or that isn’t really useful is the pure white color since it stands out and a mouth guard that is designed for the wearer. But Gray does not wear this, he wears a less protective face mask, setting him apart from the rest of the warriors.
Gray walks into the hallway ready to walk into the filled common room, but he is pulled by Peter to a different hallway.
Gray: “It’s like a maze down here.”
Peter: “Yeah, lucky me I got a photographic memory. I got this place mapped in my head.”
Gray: “Useful.”
Peter leads Gray to a room with a grassy floor. He feels cold air and looks up to find a big hole in the ceiling. He looks in front of him to find Dema with a new saddle, and a face covering similar to Gray's mask. Erin waves at him, calling him over.
Gray: “Hey Erin, what’s with Demas new look?”
Erin: “Well the black saddle and the face cover match you. And she seems to like it.”
Gray: “Well if she’s cool with it I’m cool with it.”
Peter: “AN EARTH-BOUND DRAGON! HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES SHE HOLD? HOW FAST DOES SHE DO? IS SHE NICE!?”
Gray: “Two people comfortably, five people uncomfortably, pretty fast, yes.”
Peter: “COOL!”
Gray: “Weird it’s called an Eath-bound dragon and that it can fly…it should have been named Midgard-bound dragon, or a demi-dragon.”
Soku: “Well you should have been there when they named it.”
Gray: “Oh, you’re here. I guess Leo’s going with Ceasar, and the Red Arrows are going to hide?”
Peter: “Yep, But Leo didn’t want me to go…so I’m going with you.”
Gray: “That’s way too dangerous.”
Peter: “What? I thought you of all people would understand…at least that’s how you come off…”
Soku: “I think he should go, I trust him.”
Erin: “I’m staying here, no way am I going there.”
Gray: “Can you fight?”
Peter: “Leo trained me in a few weapons…and I got this short sword and this pouch full of goodies!”
Gray looks at Peter, his short red cape, his many pouches, his arm brace, and a glove that looks as if it has a piece of metal on the inside.
Gray: “What’s with the glove?”
Peter: “I made it with junk, I focus some mana into a certain part of it…and BOOM!”
A sharp blade stabs out of the top of the glove. He swings his arm around, the blade not heavy enough nor long enough to halter movement.
Gray: “Nice…you got one for me?”
Peter: “You sure? Nobody trusts my weapons…what about you Soku you want one?”
Soku: “Na I’m good.”
Peter rummages through a bag on the floor, throwing Gray another hidden blade glove.
Gray: “So what do you call this thing, a hidden blade?”
Peter: “I call it…A Wrist Talon.”
Gray: “Nice, good name.”
Soku: “Alright, we gotta GO!”
Erin helps them all on Dema, and just like that they take off, flying out of the tunnel and heading straight toward the castle.
END OF Chapter thirty-one.