Chapter 8

Empirical year 89

Kinoya was moving through the corridor avoiding as much gaze as possible. It wasn’t crowded but most of the people here were teen or older. It was natural for 7 years old to attract a lot of attention, but they got accustomed to seeing this child here by the last 1 year. This place is the Arviga academy library.

It was not just any library, and not all the student could enter here, but with the military scholarship, he could move through many of the places. Due to excessive use of the Moon Legion batch, there was a rumour floating about a bastard child of Moon general. But Kinoya couldn’t care less.

For the starter, that guy cheated him. To enter the academy they had to go through the status check. And it let the cat out of the bag. There were very few people who could compete with him. The average stats for a common man was 20, and 60 was the threshold for entering the military. That was right but that will be calculated at the age of the 14, not at 6. And during his growth phase even sleeping will get his stats over 60.

But what Kinoya was most angry about was the Mage Academy. The general didn’t say that I will be eligible for the Mage Academy. Even the high threshold of 200 of Crownen magic academy of capital wouldn’t be a problem if I study hard. By one year his intelligence increased to 82. And the recruitment of the academy will be at the age of 16.

Well, there was a monster like Bable of his orphanage who had the intelligence of whopping 122 at last year, this year it increased to 139. It was quite natural that he was chosen to be a mage.

“Look, if it wasn’t the future Moon general.” A mocking voice broke his train of thought.

After his performance of the day of the invasion, the Moon general actually promised him that after he completed the military training he will be directly recruited as a sergeant, a leader of 10 man squad. And somehow the news leaked and the rumour got weird. Right now it stood for ‘Whoever will beat Kinoya in a game of military chess will get the badge and the position in the moon legion.” Sometime Kinoya felt that it might be the general who intentionally spread the rumour.

“Are you avoiding me?” The one to speak was the son of one of the 2 nobles in the City of Arviga.

“How can I dare to do that, esteemed sir?” Kinoya said to the 12 years old boy.

“I am here to challenge you.” Though the boy said that, Kinoya knew perfectly well that it would be one whom he had hired to beat Kinoya.

‘Talking won’t take me anywhere.’ Kinoya smiled and said, “Sir please lead the way.” He was interested to see who it will be this time.

The Military chess was not much different from the chess on Earth. It just has 16x16 board and the choice of selecting 14 pieces, leaving 16 standard infantry and one emperor and general pieces. The choice should be done from, cavalry, archer, mage, magic warrior and naval pieces never taking any more than 4 of same pieces.

But what surprised Kinoya most was the one sitting across the board. It was the genius of the academy over 350 intelligence stat point. He would be15 years old soon and will be leaving for the Crownen magic academy under the sponsorship of the lord of the city. Naturally, he is very famous throughout the city.

But Kinoya was excited for a different reason. He really wanted to know what does the stats represent, somehow he felt there is more than meets the eye. None of the explanation of the academy teacher satisfied his curiosity. So he did his own experiment.

“If the defeat comes at the hand of esteemed genius, then be it.” He is a child and with the previous experience, he was pretty sure that flattery could save him many efforts.

“Are you mocking him?” a girl’s voice sounded from the side of the genius.

‘That is what I am talking about. If it is really the intelligence then how a genius with 350 stat point couldn’t understand it, where a 10-year-old girl hit the perfect mark.’

“Sorry esteemed Marchioness, I didn’t saw you.” Kinoya stood up and gave a full bow to the girl.

“You act too much.” Said the girl of only duke family of the Arviga, who was also the lord of the city.

Kinoya smiled only to sit down again to arrange his pieces. But as soon as he started playing he felt it couldn't be more disheartening. He employed two strategies at the same time. Simple one on that, ‘The hit and run’ using the 3 cavalry pieces and ‘The bait’ using the 2 archer and 1 mage piece. He beat the genius within 48 moves.

The whole hall was silent. “One more” The genius couldn’t take the loss well. Kinoya started again with a nod. To be fair he chose the side first. The result was same but Kinoya finished as he won by a little margin. Unfortunately for Kinoya, the game ignited the fighting spirit of the genius. In continued for 4 more round.

“One more” the genius almost instinctively said.

“Some people don’t know where their limit is,” Kinoya muttered below the breath, only to find out the little Marchioness staring at him with a shocked expression. ‘Can she even hear that?’ Kinoya quickly avoided the gaze to arrange the board again.

8 moves, only 8 moves were all he took to crush the genius. Even before others could say anything Kinoya stood up from the spot and bowed to little Marchioness, “Esteemed Marchioness, I will take my leave.” and left the room in a hurry.

“I was right, he was hiding his strength.”

By the next morning a new rumour float around the academy. “Whoever will able to beat Little Moon general in a game of military chess, will be awarded 30 gold coins.” And the report came from the house of Duke.

“What have I done to you, little Marchioness?” Kinoya couldn’t help but shout out in his tears. People interpreted it another way to confirm Kinoya is really the illegitimate son of the Moon General, as he was addressed as Little Moon General. Right at that moment a fear for little Marchioness born in the heart of Kinoya.

Empirical year 90

Kinoya was moving through the crowd.

‘Isn’t it too crowded’?

He soon found the reason. There was a flag in the middle of the square. The flag had a snow peak mountain, with a wand and a scimitar cross in front of it. The emperor’s flag.

“Emperor Decree” Someone thundered from the beneath the flag. In a moment the whole square was on their knees, except the man under the flag.

“On the auspicious night of next Union, the 17th day of 10th month of the 90th empirical year, The Rearing Emperor, Tsar Vader will step down from the throne, ending the prosperous era of the Great rearing emperor…” And he continued for quite some time expressing the greatness of the emperor. Kinoya didn’t know about anything else but he knew that it was this very emperor who started orphanage fare, which was directly given from the treasury.

“His son Kaiser Macht, The crown prince of the empire, will become known as ‘The Strongest Emperor’…” And the decree went on for a quite long time. Kinoya ran away from the square.

‘How can father and son have a different name?’ By Kinoya’s standard, the naming sense of the world is really peculiar. His name is Kinoya Arviga. And Arviga is the name of the city. By their standard, the orphan will be named after the city they are brought up at.

“Where are you going to?” The voice of the world took him back.

“Little Marchioness, I am going…” his word was cut short by the slap on his head from the Little Marchioness. She raged “I told you to call me, sister.”

It all started by the rumour she spread. She came back on the very next day with 2 people to beat him, this happened each and every day for 2 months straight. Until he burst in tears, was ready to give the Moon general badge to Little Marchioness. At that moment the little girl burst into laughter and commanded: “From now on you will call me big sister.” From that day his day was never peaceful.

“Sister, I have something to ask you.”

“About the emperor?” As soon as Kinoya nodded she dragged him away to her private room. “What you want to know?”

“The name like ‘The rearing emperor’ or ‘the strongest emperor’ who gave such kind of name? Isn’t that little inappropriate to call someone strongest who didn’t even become the emperor yet?”

“You are really an idiot. Those names were decided by ‘The Shrine of Forefathers’. They control the flow of fate of the empire.”

“Who are they? Oracles?” Kinoya joked, he had learned about many peculiar things about the worlds. Nothing of those fantasy novel is impossible here. Magic is possible here, dragon, the beast man even devils live here why can’t there be an oracle?

“Not Oracle but there are rumours about seers. Not just that after leaving the throne current emperor will ascend the Shrine of the forefather.”

“Where is the shrine?” Kinoya couldn’t help but become curious.

“It’s a secret.” The girl said in a hushed tone.

“This empire has too many secrets, The Protector Army, the Kankaku, Nine secret men now there is a shrine of forefathers.”

The smile Little Marchioness gave made Kinoya forget that the girl in front of it just 11 years old. “You can’t tell other what I am going to tell.”

‘Well, she is a child after all.’ Kinoya smiled and said, “Of course sister.”

“You are mocking me right?” At the serious tone, he could give his puppy dog eyes. ‘Well, being 8 years have its own advantages’

“Actually only all the heredity nobles and the emperor knew about the position of ‘the shrine of forefathers’. And it is ‘The Protector army’ that is controlled by the shrine.”

“What about the other two?”

“I don’t know about them.” She said with innocence. “What tactics are you going to teach me today?”

This was the price for his freedom, every week he had to teach the little Marchioness about new chess moves. Rather than teaching new moves of chess sometimes, he teaches her about the formation of war.

“Today I am going to teach you the formation called ‘Schiltron’. It is pure spearman formation. Though immobile it is very effective against the cavalry charges. Actually what you have to do is…”

Kinoya didn’t mind talking about the tactics of his old world, rather he was happy that he could really remember them. As he decided to be a general who knows when it will come handy. From the tactics, he learnt from these worlds history gave an idea of some innovative formation, but he has to wait. Though he doesn’t know what his first profession is but leading the troop is the only way for him to get the second profession.