Part 3 – Standby, Ready
In my past life, I had no name. No, that’s not exactly correct… I ‘had’ a name up until that day, when the king’s men and the clergymen came to me, gave me the holy sword, stripped me of my ‘Name’, and forced me to become the ‘Hero’ and save human kind. At that time, I couldn’t understand why they would tell a commoner like me to save a civilization that treats us like servants. During my first days as a ‘Hero’, I was harassed and discriminated, even though I was the ‘Hero’ who would save them. They even forcefully engaged me to marry that disgusting fat pig of a prince after I defeat the invading Demon Lord. Demoralized and unsupported, I was ready to quit and flee the country when he came.
He was the Royal Court Mage, Servo Sceleris, who was away on a journey when I was forced to be a ‘Hero’, a mysterious man who comes and goes as he pleases… yet he feels strangely familiar to me. He helped me, educated me, trained me, guided me, consoled me, and gave me confidence to face my fate. Our varied adventures transformed me into a better person. I saved lot of lives, averted disasters… yet the number of comrades I could trust never increased. Confident of our victory over the Demon Lord, yet I was not freed of my fate when we return… It was one of the usual nights that I consulted Servo that he proposed something that I tried doing once in the past.
“Hmm, you don’t want to marry the fat bastard eh… can’t blame you on that one. Then, run away? Ah, but that wouldn’t work in the eyes of those royalists…” Servo said to me while pondering. I waited patiently while seated on the bed in the room. Suddenly, I could feel a swirl of magic in the room unlike those I’ve felt before. It felt absolute, impregnable, and otherworldly, and our surroundings faded in grey.
“It’s a bit early, but I can offer a way out of your situation. It involves your death. Will you trust me?” He said in a serious and cold tone much more intense than I’ve ever seen him with before. My heart wavered, but quickly made my resolution after noticing the confidence on Servo’s face.
“If it’s to leave this world… then it is better than being bounded like a slave.” I squeezed out of my mouth as a reply.
“Good. Then, on the last battle on morrow’s eve, use everything you have on the final attack. I will do the rest, including the post-mortem stuff. Nobody will be able to use anything for necromancy or soul magic. In advance, have a nice trip.” He said in reply with a smile, which I’ve never seen him do until now.
Then, on that final battle, I ‘died’, while contemplating his last words after my desperate confession of love, and why did he have to join me to the grave. It was then, while in the darkness, a blinding light swallowed me made me realize… that I became a baby. I was born into the royal family of the Kingdom of Forterra, on another world far different from that filth. I was allowed to be happy, on a world where the people who look up to me does not scorn me nor do they desperately need me. With my memories and experiences from my past life and Calistros who managed to summon herself to me in this world, I learned and enjoyed my life for thirteen years as a princess of this county, exempted from everything but royal and military duties… even that dreaded education was not needed after I proved myself capable. Yet three days ago, I saw it. The name of my savior… it was then that I realized what he meant by his last words. If I could reincarnate, why couldn’t he?
From the time I left my father’s office, until this time, I’ve desperately suppressed the mixed emotions inside of me, ready to burst out. Regret for involving him, uncertainty of the fate I escaped from, happiness and excitement that I might see him again, embarrassment from the last bit of memory from the past, nervousness from meeting him again after thirteen years… yet that know-it-all smile, that expression that casually says ‘Hello, it’s been a while’ at me, plastered all over his face! How can he be so casual after our first meeting in a long time!
Now, due to various reasons, I will beat him up with everything I got! This sword who became more than a companion to me, this mechanized exo-suit armor given to me by grandfather, and the various things I’ve learned from Servo and this this world; I didn’t spend 13 years as the first Princess on this country nicknamed ‘Paradise amidst the War’ for nothing!
“Ex-!“ I shouted as I jumped back and prepared the strongest finishing move I have, capable of destroying even an Aegis-class Mobile Warship head on with its shields on maximum power.
“Hey, that’s plagiarism!” He shouted back at me as I saw him prepare to receive my attack. Did he find out that I named this new move similar to that game I played a few months back? Ei, never mind!
“Not exactly! –Calistros!” I shouted while unleashing the devastating finisher move straight at him.
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Part 4 – Knights and the News
I am Knight-Commander Bradley Pegasus, 34 years old, married, with a 9 year-old daughter and a 3 year-old son. Currently, I’m on my tri-annual instructor shift, as part of the military personnel mental health rehabilitation law. That law states that all military personnel, except for administration ranks, are to take a 1 year occupation shift every 2 service years, on top of the 1 month annual vacation. The jobs you can do while under occupational shift cannot be directly related to the battlefield. For us Knights, the most popular job we take in this program would be being Knight-Instructors… although the guys I’m usually with are still my own battalion. The only real difference is that we’d be teaching teenagers instead of defending our country.
6 years ago, I was assigned to be Princess Alicia’s Knight-Instructor for the duration of my occupational shift. I was considered an elite veteran knight at that point after participating on 3 small wars already, but on the first sparring we had, I was sure that her swordsmanship is definitely leagues better than mine will ever be. It didn’t take long before I was teaching her other things related to knight duties instead of swordsmanship. What can I say; the Princess likes to learn all sorts of things. While I was assigned to her, I learned that the sword she was using, named the ‘Sword of Calistros’, appeared before her on the day she was born. I also heard that she already passed the mandatory education exemption test, so she’s doing whatever she likes already. The other kids might envy her with that, but I think she’s missing the joy of ‘being at school’.
For this year’s occupational shift, my battalion was assigned to train this year’s recruits. Our battalion’s Knight- Commander was recently promoted, so with me as next in line, this year would become my first time training recruits as a Knight-Commander. As I was preparing myself and the battalion for the assignment, top-priority mission was given to us: to escort Princess Alicia while she observes the assessment test of this year’s recruits. I was already familiar with Princess Alicia’s willfulness, so I just quietly accepted the mission and briefed my men. It was decided that we’ll have the management group double as the bodyguard unit.
The first day of training for the middle school recruits consists of an assessment test, for obvious reasons. The batch of 11 kids assigned to me looks promising, as I took them on 1v1. The Knight-Apprentice is my 2nd cousin’s kid, so I already knew his training progress. The samurai girl was fast, but she needs more battle experience. The priestess girl was pretty clumsy; I could definitely understand why she’s a priestess… until she tripped! That was damn scary! At least I can rest assure that her competency as a priestess is as good as she is strong. The shaman girl needs to work on her summon contracts, but the wards can at least stop a magazine’s worth of bullets. The mage boy needs to learn how to properly use magic in combat; spamming advanced magic on a single target is definitely a beginner’s mistake. The ranger girl, oh damn; her archery is good for her age, but nobody tries to stab an armored knight with a knife, especially from the front! I spend a few minutes lecturing her about it. The Knight-Apprentice girl was quite good for her age… but I feel bad about knocking her out just to end the battle. That sniper exo-suit pilot girl was good, considering that it’s already over once you engage her kind in melee. I was already informed about that boy from the Lancaster family, but I didn’t really expect that even I couldn’t feel his presence when he’s serious. After taking a short water break, my duties continued.
The magical girl was different from the rest, like that Lancaster boy. Her accuracy and finesse with magic, as well as her battle awareness is very exceptional. If I was a deployment certification officer, which I was 3 years ago, I would have given her the battle rank of A at this point. Her assessed ranking rose to S when she did a surprise attack with a high-powered ‘Shockwave’. That lag-less teleport and instant cast made me realize that she’s still holding back. Seriously, who’s teaching her? My shield is dented and my armor is in tatters! My armory sergeant will kill me…
While I was waiting for replacement equipment (and inevitable death by my sergeant’s hands), Princess Alicia came out of the VIP stands. When she volunteered to replace me, I just gave up and gave her the ok after considering her personality. What came next was a total surprise for me… she just ambushed that black trench coat wearing boy! Then the boy just deflected the energy slash like he was expecting it. I was too shocked and just watched the boy and the Princess exchange blows, and forgot to stop her when she used that finishing move. The fight that came after that also made me forget about the media reporters that came here after hearing that the princess would be here. When the boy deflected that ship-killing beam with that weird wooden sword and the princess took out that rail-gun (that comes with her custom exo-suit), I just made everyone evacuate to the spectator stands and quietly watched their high-level battle.
…
“On the next news: today, First Princess Alicia Forterra is visiting Forterra Academy, who’s holding its Annual Recruit Assessment Test. Details from our reporter, Jack Turner. Come in Jack.” The news anchor said, as I watch the news with my son.
“Ah, thanks Percy. This is Jack Turner reporting for FMC. Live, today, future talents of the country are taking their Assessment Test to determine their specializations for future study and training. As for the Princess, she’s currently with the Instructor Knight’s command center at this arena’s VIP stand, watching the fights and the assessments the Instructors give. It seems that *loud glass breaking and metal crumpling sound*” the reporter talks while the show on the wide holo screen continues.
“Jack, what was that loud sound just now?” The news anchor asked, while fulfilling his role as the anchor.
“*kssh*… There! Ah, Percy. Just now, a student defeated an Instructor with a display of magical finesse. Playback of the match should be playing right now, courtesy of the Knight-Instructors.” The reporter replied after a brief static.
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A video shows Altina Eonia wearing a cloaked frilly outfit, presumably the work of Serenity’s husband, systematically rains down innumerable amounts of magic arrows on Knight-Commander Pegasus, then she suddenly disappears and appears behind the Knight-Commander already discharging the compressed ‘Shockwave’ spell. Pegasus beaten up by a middle school magical girl… even if it was Altina Eonia, I just can't laugh that off. What the heck is my 3rd Knight Battalion doing… ah right, it was their turn for the occupational shift.
“Here is Knight-Instructor Drake for some explanation.” The reporter shifts the attention to someone I recognize as the Vice-Commander of the 3rd Knight Battalion.
“Yeah! Give the spare set to the commander! Hurry up!” The Knight-Instructor is shouts at the background.
“Ah, yes, sorry about that. What you saw just now was the student using the most basic offense spell magic has to offer, ‘Mana Arrow’ in a very expert manner. She used numerous arrows to disrupt Knight-Commander Pegasus’ movements while distracting him. What she did next was something that’s beyond outstanding, even for us guys that just came from the battlefield; a lag-less teleport and instant casting. A normal teleport consists of gathering mana into a magic formation until the magic activates, but it leaves magical residues and is quite slow when you’re not used to it. To perform lag-less teleport, you either need a large burst of mana which leaves an even larger magical residue, or something else. Our analysis has failed to pick up any magical residues of the teleportation spell, so we plan to ask her later. Please don’t make that face; even we veterans don’t know everything.” Drake says to the camera. Really, that young man really loves his explanations.
“Ah, sorry. Then, what about the instant casting you mentioned?” The reporter asked.
“I’m sure everyone knows that casting speed depends on the caster’s mental processing speed, the complexity of the spell used, and the spell’s natural speed. What the lass used just now was ‘Shockwave’, an advanced melded explosion magic of air and fire. Our analysis... *loud resounding sound, then a pillar of golden light shoots up from the background*” Drake continued his explanation before something that resembles my granddaughter’s finishing move shoots upward in the background. The news then display Drake a report for someone I also recognize as one of his subordinates.
“I’m sorry, I’m needed elsewhere. Please stay here if you want to keep filming. You should be able to ‘it’ from here quite easily.” The Knight-Instructor says, and then shouts “Code 4-24! Raise the audience barrier after evacuating everyone!” at the other knights. Code 4-24, a fight between SS-class people huh. I know that my granddaughter was recently given the SS rank after accidentally sinking a fully shielded Aegis ship but... who is she fighting and what the hell is going on down there?
The news video shifts to an ongoing fight between my granddaughter in full exo-suit that I gave her as a present for her 12th birthday, and a boy wearing a black trench coat. No matter what anyone says, my granddaughter is clearly attacking someone! And that boy being attacked by my granddaughter… is Servo Eonia! As I think of a reason why would she start attacking her fiancé candidate, my son Bartfaust spits his coffee like a fountain as he reads something on his smaller holo screen. He struggles as he coughs and wheezes on his daughter’s surprise deed.
We quietly watch the news while exchanging our impression on the fight. The fight ends and a long silent pause present itself while we stare at the end scene. After a few seconds, as if he’s thought of something, my son starts laughing like an evil scientist (he usually does it from time to time) then coughs again as his spit gets caught in his throat. He clears his throat then starts speaking to me.
“Father, please head over to the scene to calm things down. If the media asks why the princess would attack a civilian, tell them that it was a test for her husband-to-be.” He states formally, but he’s trying hard to hold back from breaking into laughter as his mouth twitches into a suppressed smile.
“… Fine. I’ll depend on you for the additional cover-ups. And don’t touch that spy, since I’d love to see Weilchist’s face when he sees my granddaughter and grandson-in-law’s performance.” I said as I anticipate that bastard’s paranoia acting up.
“Oh, was it decided already? Alicia’s engagement that is…” My son asked after magnificently ignoring my joy of Weilchist’s paranoia, and noticing the implied meaning of how I addressed my grandson-in-law. I grabbed the wide holo screen, turned on the replay function, and pause it on the end of the fight. I zoomed it in to get a close up on my granddaughter’s face. I walk out of our common office and prepare for my press conference.
“Ah, I see.” My son says after he hits his left palm with the side of his right fist.
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Part 5 – Break, Release
There are two ways to survive a beam of light streaking at you. First option is the most obvious thing in the multiverse, and that is dodging it. Second option is when you can’t dodge it, and that is to meet it head on. I’m sure the arena barrier behind can dissipate this giant beam of golden light, but just barely. Left with no other real choice but to deflect it myself somehow, I prepare myself by using my swordstaff to cast one of my most abused spell in my repertoire, ‘Spatial Gate’. Since it would be too flashy to just absorb this beam, I placed the ‘entrance’ on a sloping angle while posing with the swordstaff like I’m using it to deflect the beam, and the ‘exit’ is located just above the ‘entrance’ pointed upwards. I keep it up until the beam attack is over, then goes back to my loosely standing stance.
When my gaze fell on the Princess, her expression was that as if she’s mad at me for some reason. Why is she mad at me? Didn’t I greet her normally? The Knight-Commander behind her just retreats to the audience stands along with everyone else. Hmm, I never noticed but in this country, they just let the strong people duke it out in the arena without much complains huh. I can feel the arena’s audience shielding barrier strengthen while we were having a stare-off. So I’m guessing I have no choice but to pacify this haughty princess. I put on a cold stare and start walking towards her.
The princess deploys a long rifle from her left side that was part of the exo-suit she was wearing. That ominous-looking rifle had its barrel extend out and parts in the center, then electrical sparks run down the parted barrel. Wait, WAIT! Magical and Technological civilization + long rifle with electric sparks… I know that concept! That’s a freaking rail-gun! Are you seriously trying to kill me, huh, princess?! As much as I’d like to paper dodge, but rail-guns generate too much excess force for that. The sparks generated increase rapidly, and a flash of light bursts from the barrel. As impossible as it gets, I swatted the streaking orange round with my black swordstaff and reflected it using the same ‘Space Gate’ spell, and then dissipating it in a purple wave of energy from the point of ‘impact’. The streaking orange round pierces the rail gun. The princess abandons the broken rail gun and rushes in with the holy sword.
The princess diagonally slashes down while lunging while I dodge her sword and body sideways in paper-thin margins. She then lands on her left foot, uses it as an axel to turn clockwise, then lashes out a horizontal slash while I stepped away from her range. She attempts to use the side arm installed on her exo-suit’s left hand, but I enchant my sword staff with ‘Space Breaker’ which cuts space itself and hacks the armament off her left arm. By the way, you can resist ‘Space Breaker’ either by creating a dimensional barrier or using gravity to distort space itself. I recommend the former, even if ‘Space Cutter’ can still cut it apart if it can overpower the barrier, since distorting space with gravity usually results in very dangerous scenarios unless you know what you’re doing.
“Break” I muttered out while cutting away the side armament.
Realizing that cheap tricks won’t do any good, she engages me in a sword fight as she stepped back and executed a counter-clockwise roundhouse slash using her left foot as an axel. I jumped up and performed a helm splitter while she completed a 360 degree turn, braced herself on her right leg, and received the helm splitter attack with the holy sword. She slid back slightly while she struggled to maintain her stance, while I landed a few distance while facing her. Too bad I didn’t have a gun, since I would have shot her twice at this situation while knowing she’d just swat the bullets away with her sword.
After I landed, I performed one of the tricks I taught to Altina, official name ‘Space Shift’ which swaps the contents of two spatial coordinates. Normal teleportation is cumbersome because you’re transporting an object from one coordinate to another by creating a 1-way worm hole, which creates ripples in the target space while creating a deficiency on the source space. ‘Space Shift’ on the other hand, swaps the contents in a two-way cycle manner, which doesn’t disturb other coordinates by conforming with the space-time fabric; thus allowing teleportation to become smoother, faster, and more mana-efficient. She performed a clockwise half-turn back kick, while I step away from her right foot’s range by stepping back with my left foot. Using her exo-suit’s inhuman power, she performed an overhead slash by kicking the ground with her left foot.
“Release” I mutter as I momentarily strengthened myself and the swordstaff, with magic and diagonally swung my swordstaff from the lower left to parry her swing. A loud metallic hitting sound blared out, and her holy sword was flung away after losing the momentary contest of strength. I caught her with open arms as she landed on me. The holy sword stabbed the ground a few meters away, giving of short metallic sound. Silence from both of us the entire crowd resound, as the short duel ends with my victory.
Author notes: If you need a comparison to the exo-suits, please refer to Infinite $!@!*$, only they’re a lot more smaller and actually looks like a futuristic suit of armor.
Please look out for any grammatical errors as I’ve had lesser proof reading at part 3. Also, please be aware that missing information may also reflect the speaker’s lack of knowledge. Also, the fight isn't really supposed to be very long, since it's still early in the story. I won't throw the arc boss in front of Servo only to be slaughtered mercilessly just yet.
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Additional notes:
POV's:
Part 3 - Alicia
Part 4 - Pegasus, then Portemus
Part 5 - Servo