Mid Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan
"Y..yes... I will lead the way." Lucy nervously turned away with a slightly pale face.
*tap-tap-tap* As we walked down the hallway, the group of people in front of us moved to the side to make way.
Although most of the kids couldn't think straight because of the overload of emotions, a few of them could be heard whispering amongst themselves.
"No uniform? Who is he?" It was a question that everyone was asking themselves, but several of them already knew the answer.
"The dragon slayer…"
It was a nickname I had gotten after the incident in the plaza that I was too lazy to voice my dislike for.
It was truly ironic how I got the name, even when I was more of a dragon than the one I subdued. -I guess it’s not like they would know that though…-
Continuing further down the hallway, the panicked voices of the adults could be heard behind us. The knights and teachers had finally arrived.
"Oh, you poor child... Knights, take him to the clinic!" The loudest voice was that of the middle-aged woman crouched next to the kid's side. Her face turned pale, as if she was sick, whenever she looked at his leg. "Do you mind telling me what happened?" Trying her best to not throw up, she managed to ask the boy on the floor a question.
"I was j..just t..alking to some..one when s..some kid came up an..d did this!!" Tears were flowing down his face as he struggled to form the sentence.
-What an ugly cry.- He had one of the most inelegant crying faces I had ever seen. -It just makes his face look even more punchable...-
"Who is the kid you are referring to?"
"It was him!!" He pointed his finger straight at me.
The teacher didn’t waste any time the instant she saw me. "Knights, detain that child!"
In the next moment, a few of the knights charged down the hall at me and one even pulled out their sword, but just like during the plaza incident, when I welded the armor on their knees together, they all fell over. *Clank-Clank-Clank*
But in the end, I left one standing. The one who brandished a sword and was looking at Lucy with an indescribably disgusting, lust-filled expression. -He shouldn't be a knight.-
*tap-tap-tap* As I turned and walked toward him, he didn't hesitate to raise his blade. -Are you serious?- "Knights exist to help protect all citizens." As the blade came crashing toward me, I closed the rest of the distance and grabbed his head. "Not just bratty nobles."
*CRUNCH* The back of his head exploded as it was driven into the floor, immediately creating a cobweb of cracks spanning several meters.
The room went completely silent. The boy even stopped screaming as he looked at me in horror.
But not everyone was scared. Some of the commoners showed gazes of aspiration, while others looked sickened, but a few girls had expressions that stood out.
They each gave me a look as if they wanted to thank me.
"Who dares kill a knight of Kaelallan?!" A huge demihuman man appeared on the scene as I pulled my hand out of the hole in the ground.
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His appearance made color return to the faces of the teacher and nobles in the room, but it didn't last long.
"Hey, Lawton. Go get the other knights to come and clean this up."
He froze once he saw me and immediately changed his entire demeanor. "At your order, young lord!"
Just before I turned back to continue following Lucy, I could tell Lawton was questioning my act so I gave a short answer. "He shouldn't have been a knight. He was dumber than a bandit and had some.. unsettling eyes. The other two are fine." -But for most of the kids to recognize me, yet not the teacher or the knights? Something about that feels.. wrong…-
Before I could finish thinking, a look of disgust and anger appeared on Lawton's face. "Thank you for sparing the others. Although they are not my direct subordinates, I will make sure to give them proper guidance."
With a single nod, I turned back to Lucy, who had her face shoved into my back. -Maybe it was a little much to kill that knight in front of so many kids.. but at the same time...- When I looked around the room and saw the mix of fearful gazes, I simply felt complete indifference, as if I were looking at a group of chickens. -To think the hierarchy in my mind has shifted so much…-
"Sorry if that grossed you out." I unknowingly spoke with a cold voice as I set my hand on Lucy’s head and wrapped her in my aura.
But she didn't seem to notice before color rushed back to her face. "T..thank you again…"
Quickly realizing my actual feelings were showing, I put on a slightly forced smile. "No worries, you can lead the way now."
"R..right.."
As we walked out of the hall, the knight's body was hastily covered up, and the teacher finally got a knight to carry the noble kid to the clinic.
But as she stood up, she immediately turned towards Lawton. "Sir Keen, who was that child?"
"You must not have been at the Lord's speech." He got closer and leaned into her ear. "He is the dragon slayer."
Her mind was immediately washed over with millions of thoughts, each making her face pale further.
"I would not worry too much about it, Miss. He is kind to those who are respectful to him and far more forgiving than nobles."
Although Lawton helped ease her worry, she was clearly still anxious. "Haah... At least he is not a student…" As she let out a sigh of relief, Lucy, Ilios, and I finally left the hallway.
The next several minutes passed quite quickly as we wound our way down a few hallways and eventually came to the door of a classroom. -The layout of this place is honestly awful...- It felt like something closer to a labyrinth than a school layout, but I tried not to dwell on it.
*Click* Walking inside the room revealed a large, lecture-hall style room with about 30 seats that sat 2 per table.
There wasn't a teacher in the room yet, and only around half of the desks were full, but it immediately reminded me of classes on Earth. -The resemblance is uncanny...-
After quickly scanning the room, Lucy walked up to the back middle desk and sat down. "Uhm.. I guess you can sit here.." She shyly pointed to the seat next to her.
"I'm only going to sit in for a bit, so I'd rather stand."
Thankfully, she picked the back desk, so I could simply lean against the wall behind her and be out of the way of the class. But while I waited for the class to actually start, I leaned down and petted Ilios until he drifted to sleep. -Hehe... He's so cute...-
Wanting to let him sleep, I stood back up and just fiddled with magic.
Most of the people in the classroom were staring at me at that point. Whether it was my aura or simply them watching me play with magic, they all had their eyes locked on me.
But while I had my head down and focused on my aura, a young girl walked up to Lucy. "Hey, do you mind if I sit here?"
Lucy glanced back at me before turning to her. "Yeah, of course. My name is Lucy."
"I'm Viviana. Nice to meet you." She wore a childish and youthful smile, a sharp contrast to everyone else in the room.
"So is today your first day too?"
"Yeah, I just turned 9 a few weeks ago... I barely managed to make the cutoff."
As the conversation continued, they each steadily spoke more comfortably, and even managed to become friends in a matter of minutes.
-She truly has royal blood... She's great with people...-
*Click*
"Sorry I am late, class. I ran into a.. complication."
The middle-aged woman came in and set her books on the desk.
"Nice to meet you, everyone. I will be your teacher for the next few years. My name is-" Before she could finish introducing herself, she met eyes with me and paled.
She stared at me with fear-filled eyes, but I just gave her a look of indifference. -Oh, it's her again.-