The aim of THAMA was to build a place where students from all around the continent could come and learn together. It was not only an educational institution, but also a symbol of humanity where its best could work together and develop into the greatest lords. As such it was built with the latest state of the art technology and all the professors chosen were the best in their fields.
THAMA came under the direct jurisdiction of the Council. The Council was the apex organisation that in their own words ‘Represented all of Humanity’. The Council had a total of seven seats. Five of these belonged to the five greater empires and kingdoms. These five were the strongest nations on the human continent and combined they ruled over eighty percent of the human population. The remaining two seats were given to the smaller kingdoms and regional communities.
It was always difficult for the Council to arrive at a consensus, but having a specific block for all the five great nations was a decision they had passed with a 5-2 majority. These blocks included public gyms, simulation rooms, recreation areas and other facilities. Evidently each block was only accessible to students of that particular nation. There were also giant halls and meeting rooms in these blocks. Of course, this was unfair for the people not belonging to the five great nations, but who could they complain to, the Council where they didn't have enough representation to make any difference?
In one such giant hall belonging to the Dhamlan Empire, Charles was facing a crowd of about a thousand awakeners. Even in awakened standards these were no ordinary people each one of them was at least two stars or higher while a majority of them were three stars. These were the top thousand awakeners of the Dhamlan Empire and Alexia’s future army.
Clearing his throat, Charles began speaking, “Fellow awakeners we all come from different parts of our Empire. Some come from the northern mountains, others from the eastern forests, some from the southern desserts, while others from the western coast. We come from different ethnicities, different backgrounds and different families, but there's still something that unites us together as a single fighting unit. What is it, what unites us? Is it because of the shared history of our great Empire? Is it because of our great noble families? Yes, those are some of the reasons, but don't you think there's something deeper that binds us together, that resonates with our soul and inspires us to put aside our differences and work together? But what is it? What makes us compelled to work together?”
Charles paused, he looked around and surveyed the crowd. Taking a deep breath he continued, “Isn't the answer obvious, it is ‘us’, it is our thirst, our itch to grow stronger, our thirst to emerge victorious against all odds, our thirst to overcome our enemies whoever it may be and most importantly our yearning to not only be the top thousands of Dhamlan but to be the top thousands of all of humanity. But along with this yearning, there is a belief, a belief of our success, a belief that we will achieve our goals and a faith that we will become the strongest… because we are the strongest.”
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Charles stopped and surveyed the crowd. His speech was having an effect, determination and commitment could be seen forming in everyone's eyes. A purpose and sense of responsibility was being drilled into them.
However not everyone was happy hearing him speak. The awakeners standing in the first two rows were more or less glaring at him. Most of them belonged to noble families. It was a common practice during any such speech, to start by first narrating the greatness of the Dhamlan Empire and then one by one acknowledging and stating the contribution of all the noble families whose members were present. Charles being Charles had completely skipped that part, and quite frankly he didn't care about it.
Ignoring the stares, he continued, “But sometimes we may fail, sometimes we may fall and fall so hard that our whole-body screams in pain, our bones yell at us to stop. We will wither in pain, in defeat and despair.” Charles stopped and slowly looked through the crowd, locking eyes with everyone and anyone he could. “But even in these failures, we will fall together, we will suffer together, we will heal together and finally we will rise together. We will fight together, and we will conquer together because we are one and everyone among us is equal and I am certain of this because I Charles Warammar, the third prince of Warammar along with my liege lord her highness Alexia Dhamalan the sixth princess of the crown swear to fight with you, by you and alongside you for eternity to come and eternity gone.” Charles completed his speech, voice booming in the hall.
The whole hall was silent, everyone staring at the teenager on the stage. Right now, he wasn't their lord's most trusted subordinate, he was something different, something greater. Everyone knew about Charles Warammar unorthodox methods but from today history will know him for a different reason because today he had said something no noble would ever say, he had done something no noble would ever do.
No one knew who started the chants, but soon enough everyone was shouting his name. Charles let them continent for a few seconds, then raising his fists he said, “Chant not my name, but her’s as whatever she says, I say; your liege, your lord her highness Alexia Dhamlan.”
Soon the ‘Charles Warammar’ shouts transformed into ‘Alexia Dhamlan’. Charles quickly left the stage and joined the nobles in the first row. They were the only people not chanting, instead they were giving Charles astonished and bewildered looks. Indifferently Charles nodded at them and took his place.