Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everybody! How are you all doing?

Sixteen, eh?

Somehow, it still feels like we haven't come a long way.

Then again, it took me around 60 chapters to type down EUPHORIA's prologue...

I'm bad at prologues. Mostly because I often needlessly pro-LONG them, eh?

Eh?

... I'll see myself out.

Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...

The Following Morning... - The Academy (Cafeteria) - Alice's Point Of View...

"Wonder what happened to the professor..." One of my fellow classmates said aloud, seemingly directing the semi-question at nobody in particular in an attempt to create some small talk. As one might expect, the first few weeks are when the class gets divided into groups of like-minded people. Sometimes though, groups choose their members rather than the members their groups.

Which is why I was included in one of these groups."The man is an Archbishop, Luke. He probably has a sermon or something..." Was my rather impulsive answer as the boy in question turned around to face me with a quirked eyebrow."Last person I expected to react, but yeah that makes sense, Alice."

Ignoring his silent jab as I look up from my half-asleep posistion, that is to say face-first on one of the desks in the so-called Cafeteria, a room where people gather to eat and drink during breaks, apparently. Yawning into my hand, I decide that I might as well do what I usually do in these kinds of situations recently; count my money."Err, what are you doing now?"

The other members of our group of five also decidedly woke up from their respective trance as I dug out my demon-purse and put it on the table.".. Uhh, that thing reeks." Emma, or more commonly known as Hard-Needy, nicknamed such due to her rather annoying teachers-pet personality and the fact that her surname is Harnedy, suddenly murmured as she stared at the purse, her fingers already closing her nose.

"What is it though?"Joseph Brooke, or rather Booke with the final e being silent, is the same erudite peasant whose current clothes I had bought in an attempt to ensure that I never see whats beneath."Its a purse. A demon purse."

Without wasting any more time, I promptly turned the purse around and caused all the coin I had left to spill out of it... which amounted to around twenty-seven gold in total, currencies varying as not all of my coin was Clausian."Whoah, thats a lot of money..." The last member of our little group was another peasant girl named Maria.

She didn't really have a nickname yet, as the usual suspects seemed to be perfectly happy with what she was, that is to say the boys, and felt no desire to name her anything else."Its really not though..." Luke and Emma said at the same time, causing the two to share a glance for a moment before looking away somewhat embarrassed.

Luke? He was the son of a minor noble who governed the county in which Emma's father was the mayor of a city... which kinda explains as to why they might know each other, though the clear interest in one another is something special. Not special enough for me to care, though.

What about me, you might be asking? Alice, do you have a nickname?

Why yes, I do."Hey Banshee! You feel the need to make us all jealous or something?! Go count your fecking coin elsewhere!" One of the boys exclaimed from somewhere behind me as I let out a sigh. Banshee... a nickname given to me for what I could only assume was an ironic reason, given the fact that I nearly never utter a word during classess or unless forced too, the events prior to this nonwithstanding.

That said, I did feel strangely talkative today."You learn that curse word from your grandma or something?" I said before I could stop myself as I recounted my coin quickly and shoved it back into my purse as the group of five boys approached me. Their leader, a tall boy with a scar across his cheek, pushed his face really close to mine."Oh now you did it, you little noble-bitch. If you just stayed fecking quiet, I'd have letcha go easy, but now Imma smash your fecking face!"

"Wait, you're seriously gonna hit a girl?!"One of the other boys asked as my group shot glances towards me, Maria seemingly ready to rush to a teacher in fear at any moment with Luke and Emma about to stand in my defense. Booke seemed fully intent on staying as quiet and invisible as possible. Typical nerd.

"So fecking what, bro?! Shes a noble! You know how they treat their women, shes probably already used to being beaten! Hell, she'll probably enjoy it too!" He exclaimed in an arrogant tone, elicitng nothing but a quirked eyebrow from me as I took out my lunatic diary and opened it."Hey, you little shit, how dare you ignore me!"

He pulled back his shoulder, readying a blow. A teacher rushed into view as some of the students watching the event play out had already called them, but as the fist came rushing down on me... I caught it in mid-air, as its slow speed was more than just visible to my Chaos-empowered eyes.

Within an instant, I was on top of his back, pushing him face first into the floor as I held his offending fist behind his back. Then, I promptly slammed my own fist into the ground next to his head, cracking the slate with relative ease."U-uuuhh..." He eeked out as everyone stared on right onto me."Take a look at that hole in the ground and etch it into your heads, because the state its in may have been his face. Any idiot that bothers me past my limit might experience that for real. And you know what? As a High Lady, I could probably get away with it, too."

The teacher, who appeared to be a young gnome man with glasses, approached me with a horrified look on his face."Miss Pendragon! What is going on here!?"

Oh, I was about to get hit, yet I'm the one being blamed. How , ahem- FECKING CLICHE."None of your damn business. Now piss off before I hurt you, teacher." My blazing crimson-gold eyes caused the poor man to swallow his pride and promptly fall onto his ass."T-t-the headmaster will h-hear of this!" He rushed off towards the academy entrance as I let out a sigh.

"U-uwaaa..." The boy beneath me started crying quite loudly as I finally released my hold on him and leaped back onto my chair. Honestly, I felt really bad about doing this right now... I don't know what came over me."Go away..." I whispered in a somewhat saddened tone as both the bullies and my own supposed group disbanded within an instant, leaving me all alone.

For some reason... the intense atmosphere of loneliness that I had grown so used to over the years seemed to be... just a little bit heavier right now.

I shook my head out of my stupor, promptly shattering the illusion of darkness that I had created around myself and reopened my demon purse."One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight..." I dozed off as I recounted my coin once again.

Yet as I was counting them, I noticed once again that not all of my money was Clausian currency. A memory flashed within my mind as I held said coins in my hand."I agree... but maybe you could get connections to the different royal banks and exchange the money there?" He laughed."That'd require having people loyal enough to make the transfer without running away with the coin."

I blinked several times before realizing what my memory was trying to show me, curtesy of Chaos no doubt. The image of my probably-insane coachman etched itself into my thoughts as I smiled to myself, promptly creeping several people out as I did. I did have someone loyal enough to make the transfer, didn't I?

Maybe I should start gathering coins from different nations and see what their value is in each? A new mission for my dear mayor, it would seem.

Or maybe I should have Alex do it from the start? No, no, no... that would just gather unneccessarry attention to my very loyal servant. So who would be a good ... Lloyd! Hah, I knew that thief might come in handy.

Honestly, he might have that information already. Nodding to myself in approval, I ripped out a paper from my lunatic diary and promptly started writing."Lloyd, I've got a job for you: I need to know the current gold, silver and copper values around the human nations. We can discuss your payment in person tonight."

Folding the paper into a makeshift letter, I collected all of my stuff and put it into my bag before looking around to find a certain someone."Ah! There he is." The person I was looking for is one of our Academy janitors, a poor person, a homeless beggar hired in order to keep the cafeteria clean in exchange for free food and a place to sleep.

Perfectly fair, no? Except, the guy is a total thieves guild member in disguise. A kind of secret fence for students who want to get rid of a rivals books and get some cash while at it. Rushing towards him with a rather happy look on my face seemed to startle the man, but he most likely remembered being told by Casper about me which caused him to cool down quickly enough."Uhh, mister?"

"Yes, little one, can this old man do something for you?" He asked in a gentle tone, a fake mask which clouded his true self, a depraved mongrel willing to do anything for money."Yeah! I'd like you to take this letter to the mister in the dark."

His eyes went wide for the slightest moment as he happily nodded and stealthily took both the makeshift letter and the gold coin I handed him."Oh, I'll be happy to do that for you, little lady. Anytime!" And with that, he turned around with a savage grin on his face.

Oh well, not any of my business for what he plans to do with that gold coin. Probably buy a cheap slave and ravage her to his hearts content."Miss Pendragon! The headmaster w-will s-s-see you n-now!" The same fucking gnome teacher I shooed away earlier yelled towards me from the other side of the room as I scowled at him, making the possibly two hundred year older man turn away.

But I didn't make another scene and went to see Adhana without pause.

A few moments later...

"So I hear you cracked stone with your fist while threatening to hurt a classmate and a teacher right afterwards... have anything to say for yourself, young lady?" Adhana asked me with a rather unpleasant tone as I sighed."No. I don't. I don't know what the hell was going through my head at the time, BUT!"

"But?" He urged me to continue."The boy who I was *threatening*, actually made the first move when he tried to punch me in the face, saying how I'll probably enjoy it anyway as Noblemen beat their women all the time."

The headmaster let out a sigh of his own."So you acted in self-defense and when the teacher came to protect the boy, you reacted equally defensively. Alice, I hope you understand that making even more enemies for yourself will not make things easier on you."

"A bunch of random kids aren't a threat to me or to my life." I replied somewhat arrogantly, biting my lip in the process. Something Adhana seems to have caught on to."This tone you are using with someone who is trying to help you... Hmm..."

He shook his head in negative."No, you are far too young for that... anyways, while I agree that the children may not pose a direct threat to you, most of them are peasants... who do not have a lot of money."

I quirked an eyebrow at him."You think that... one of my enemies may bribe one of them to spy on me? Eventually resulting in something which is a threat to me." I concluded as he nodded towards me.

He sighed once more."Indeed. I'm glad that we are of one mind, Alice. I... I will not impose any punishments on you, despite potential reppercussions. But Alice, please.. do try to keep your anti-social self out of trouble? Or, if not that, out of social activities in general. While you are important both to myself and to this school due to your title, I simply cannot be bothered to make your life easier at the expese of our other students. Learn and adapt, Alice. Teach yourself how to handle these situations without the need for my intervention. Because I will not bother to bail you out of trouble should you keep this up."

"Thats fair... and thank you, headmaster." I replied with a lowered head. I guess this is sorta my fault.. I mean, I did overreact there. I could've just caught his fist and walked away looking cool instead of... doing what I did."No problem. You may leave now, classess are starting."

A nod was his final reply as I walked out of the office, carrying a somber atmosphere around myself.

Another few moments later...

The walk back to class was met with rather the same shadowed atmosphere as I left the headmasters office.

With the only change being the fact that everybody was staring right at me as I entered. Thankfully, the Archbishop who was supposed to teach us Holy Magic wasn't there yet.

And uh, there were only a few people here."How come theres so few people here?" I asked nobody in particular.

Everyone of my, uh.. my *group* was here, which was kinda expected, but aside from them, only three others were here."We thought we were everyone. Why the hell are you here?"

Someone I didn't know pointed out, most likely because of what had happened a few minutes ago. I let out a massive sigh."I have a talent for holy magic, remember?" I took out my mana-stone, which shone with both crimson and white, anger and peace.

Two totally conflicting emotions. Two things which, when forced together, made me who I was. And what was I anyways?"Oh yeah... sure wouldn't think that way otherwise." The same guy said in a condenscending tone, but I ignored him and promptly climbed up to the tallest corner to the classroom and sat down.

Maria, ever the airhead, walked over to me with a smile on her face."Uhm.. that was really brave of you... even if you were also really mean to that boy, Alice." She told me and, for some reason, my gloomy atmosphere brightened a little."Thanks, Maria... you're an angel, you know that?"

"Ehehe..." She give out a light chuckle which forced a smile out of me just as the Archbishop hurriedly walked into the classroom."A-ah! I'm truly sorry for the wait, children! I have been caught up i-oh, so many potential students this year!" The old man, who was still in his gold-blue holy embroidery, put his bishop hat down and looked at the eight people in the room."Many? This is a lot?" Luke exclaimed inquisitively, to which the archbishop replied with a happy and excited nod.

Hell, this old man seemed to be the ancient, not to mention male, version of the girl next to me. Hah, the irony of the sentence does not escape me, either."Yes! Indeed! You may not believe this, but a talent for holy magic is something very, very rare. All those who possess such a talent are chosen by the gods in heaven!"

My right bloomed its white glow for the first time in days, catching both my attention and that of everyone else."Oh my! Is that a holy artifact, young miss?"

I rose my left hand upwards and shrugged."I don't know. It probably is but... it might be cursed too." Now that, garnered everyones full attention."Cursed? What do you mean by that, young lady? AH! But before that, I should introduce myself; I am Archbishop Delathar! And I shall be teaching you Holy Magic this year, and possibly all of the following years, that you spend here at our prestigious academy!"

His joyfulness seemed to switch into full focus nearly instantly as he dashed over to my side with a kind of speed that an old man his age, which is possibly around eighty and very much ancient for a normal human in this day and age, and grasped my left hand, inspecting my diamond ring. We remained silent for a rather uncomfortable minute before he asked me."Hmm, I do not sense any sort of dark energy from this ring... why do you think that it is cursed, young lady?"

I then pulled my hand back and promptly tried to remove the ring from my finger, only to double over in pain with a silent scream."Uuugh... s-see?"

"Oh... yes, that does.. not seem quite normal. Though, I stand by my words, there is no darkness within that ring. Maybe the gods have decided that it must remain on your finger for some reason?" The old man informed me with yet another beaming smile, but a scoff caught our attention from somewhere below."Hah, probably so she does not become some kind of demon filth, what with that anger of hers..."

The others murmured approvals as I felt a blood vessel pop yet managed to restrain myself from doing anything. My ring bloomed once, showing its approval of my actions which was enough for me to completely calm down."Oh?.. whats this? The ring bloomed once and you seem to have reacted in a way that indicates that you understand what it means, young lady."

A nod as I explained."The ring is a sentient artifact, I think... We managed to reach an understanding a few days ago where one bloom means yes and two blooms mean no." As if in accordance to the current events, the ring bloomed once more. The Archbishop appeared delighted at the prospect."Remarkable! Never before have I seen anything like this. I-where did you find this ring, if I may know, young lady?"

I looked away for the briefest moment."I found it in my mothers artifact collection. I kind of.. put it on without thinking and well, here we are."

A somber nod was my answer as the man rushed back down and pulled out several holy tomes from beneath his desk."Alright, we've spent enough time already, let us begin the lesson!"

He cleared his throat."First, I'd like to know exactly how talented you are. I must know this, not so I can build some kind of prefferences, but to know what to start teaching you with. These tomes are simple testing tomes, which will react and record your capacity for Holy Magic and tell me what I need to know. While you do this, please do tell me if you already know any kind of holy spells."

"I can cast Light Burst and Scratch Away, sir." Emma raised her hand.

So too did Maria."Uhmm.. I can cast Torchlight.. but I can't hold it for long..." Thats because you aren't meant to hold it.

Somehow I managed not to say that out loud... I mean, she did make me feel better a while ago soooo..."I can use Infusion, but thats it."Luke replied with a sigh of self-dissappointment.

Nobody else said a word, but then the bishops eyes landed on me once again."And you, miss Pendragon? Please, do not be ashamed of yourself, young lady. Having a divine artifact, especially one which you have only recently acquired does not mean you have to be an instant priestess."

I swallowed down hard."I uh..."

Rising my hands up and closing my eyes as I channeled mana into my hands, deciding that both saying and casting the spells was needed here, I began my trek into trouble."Holy Light." I cast the spell onto myself, feeling its golden energy rejuvenating me and giving me the strengh to continue.

A silent prayer given."Blessing Of Vytar." Green, surreal leaves formed a sort-of aura around me, increasing my natural regeneration.

Rising my left hand even higher, I spoke."Greater Exorcism." A pale white light shone from my palm, managing to coat and somewhat blind everyone else in the room before I stopped the mana flow.

"Weak Templar Armor." Leaping to my feet, a very thin golden armor of pure light coated my entire body, giving me a somewhat divine shine. It looked really cool, but this thing could barely stop a fork from penetrating it, much less my skin if someone was particularily eager to stab me with said fork.

Releasing the armor and slapping both of my hands together, I chanted."Oh lord of retribution and courage, grant me your spear, your blessed lance as I shout your name." Light gathered into my palms, forging a weapon of pure light as I separated each palm from one another, with my stunned public looking on in amazement, wonder and jealousy alike."Loysal'Far!"

A magnificent throwing lance of pure light forged itself into my hands as I instinctively twirled the weapon a few times before canceling the spell."Well uh, thats all of them."

"Incredible..." My previous haters seem to have changed their minds."Okay, I don't often go back on my insults, but there may be more to you than anger, Alice." My as-of-yet unknown hater spoke with a respectable tone, to which I replied with an uncharacteristically shy nod."Don't get used to it... my anger is hard to control sometimes."

I admitted bashfully and sat back into my chair with Maria's bewildered eyes following me everywhere I went. Huh. I may have gained myself a fan... girl. How odd.

Oh well."Hmm.. it seems that your apparent talent exceeds just about any I've ever seen, young lady. Perhaps that ring chose you for a good reason." The teacher finally managed to say after a minute of outright gaping, his frame returning to his already trademarked smile.

Wait, trademarked? What the heck is trademarked?... Chaos, you really need to help me out here.

...

No answer, eh? Guess I should have expected that.

Anyways, moving on."W-well, now that that is over, we should get back to the lesson. Please, if you would, come and take a book, one for each of you. And infuse it with your mana if you can. Do not panic if you cannot, I shall be more than happy to help you."

Rising from my seat once more, I look at the approving faces of my classmates one last time and think that maybe trying to be friends with everyone wouldn't be that bad of an idea for a change?... only with select people though.

Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...

Wanted to do more. Can't.

Hungry as fuck.

Brb, ordering something...

I will naturally stay and edit out my mistakes for a time. Answer comments too, per usual.

Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!