Asela was combing her hair when she heard her cou…brother had arrived in the capital. Her followers are already on the lookout. Her twelfth birthday had come and gone, and all and all, she’d maybe only grown a few inches. Standing a solid four-foot-four, her height was a bit of a sore spot.

She adjusted her blue uniform and put on her shoes. She was now ready to meet with her brother.

Chester, her number one self-proclaimed servant, was waiting at her door with a glass of orange juice. Chester was a good egg. He studied under Charles with the full intent of becoming her butler. Chester was kind of weird, but he was competent. He even managed to make the team. As their final string, of course, but that in and of itself was an accomplishment. Defending his spot on the pile as their weakest member was hard work.

“Milady, I heard that your brother had begun to frequent various food stalls. Should we meet him?”

“That fool went and got distracted! I was going to warn him, but it seems he’s too late.” A few candles in her room and hallway were suddenly lit and then snuffed in and second.

“I take it that’s a no.” Chester said stoically.

“Darn right. That boy can go eat all he wants. Let’s go find Nicole.”

“Miss Nicole is in her lab practicing alchemy. She’s been down there for a week now. Something about baking an experimental love potion for a friend. She did not say which friend. Would that happen to be you, milady?” Chester said as he led the way to the lab building.

“She’s hopeless. It’d be bad for team coeasion if I left her down there when he’s here. But whatever she’s concocted is going to be dangerous, and no, pretty sure she’ll say it was Wrua or Kiara who commissioned it. If you do ask.”

“But Wura…”

“Don’t apply logic to that you’ll lose brain cells and I need you with all of them. Your our strategist afterall.”

“Milady said she needs me.” Chester swooned without his blank expression changing whatsoever.

“Oi! None of that.” Asela lightly hit him on the back.

“Sorry. I’ll be more professional. And we’ve arrived.” Chester opened the door for Asela.

The smell of chemicals and sweat perforated throughout the room. A girl with disheveled white hair was standing over a large cauldron with a giant spoon, laughing maniacally.

“Nicole! Kyrion’s here. Time to get out of your creepy laboratory! Before he gets bored and decides to leave.”

“He’s here? He’s early.” Nicole stopped stirring and looked up in surprise.

“You’ve been down here for a week. Smells like a skunk died in here.” Asela backed out of the room and got a reasonable distance away.

“What now Milady?” Chester asked, the door still in his hand

“Close the door. We need to find Kiara and Wura now. Nico’s been informed if she misses him oh well.” Asela shrugged.

Kiara was talking to Noah about nothing when Asela arrived. Sadly she was beaten to the punch by a chestnut-haired boy.

“N-noah the headmaster has requested your presence immediately.”

“Oh Ok. Kiara, see you when I get back.” Noah seemed chipper.

“What was that about?” Asela asked.

“An outing in the city later.” Kiara answered.

“Another date? He’s going to get complacent if you keep this up.”

“I think it’s great. Who does he have to contend with?” Kiara stated.

“Well Kyrion just arrived in the city.”

“Great. Just great. My time in peace has just ended I know it.” Kiara seemed to deflate

“Rude.”

“Where Kyrion goes things seem to happen. I bet Noah’s going to go back to nonstop training after today.”

“Why?”

Kiara looked at Chester, who was standing next to a rumor mill.

“It’s a fact of the world. There are three certainties I have observed in my lifetime. Death, paperwork, and Kyrion stirring up trouble one way or another.”

“Um Asela? It seems your brother will be fighting two of our teammates in the colosseum shortly. He also has two kids with him.” Chester walked over and told the two.

“You may be right about that. He did say his teacher wanted him to deliver something while he was out.” Asela sighed as the last bit started to hit her.

“Why does he have two kids with him?” Asela added.

“Told you so. Let’s find Wura and Isaiah.” Kiara shook her head.

“Just Wura, the two chosen were Isaiah and Noah.” Chester explained.

“Our heavy hitters. One and two against my brother. Oh how wrong is this going to go. Where’s Charles?”

“I’m right here young Asela.” Charles said from right behind them.

“How!” Asela yelped in surprise.

“Ask your brother, he figured it out on his own.” Charles replied.

“That’s an assination technique and you know it.” Kiara squinted.

“I’m sure it is, now let’s go, the show is just about to begin.” Charles clapped his hands.

“Wura first.”

“She’s already there.” Charles led the trio to the colosseum, where they met a surprised Wura.

“Uh. Kyrion’s here.”

“We know. Fighting our captain and co captain.”

“Both at once?” Wura asked.

“Yup. If it isn’t quick I suspect it’s going to be interesting.” Charles said with wisdom befitting his age.

“I see. Great. Nicole just grabbed some seats. Apparently the stores are running low on food today so no snacks and a show today.” Wura said while squinting her eyes.

“Yeah, it was probably that glutton again.” Asela followed Wura to their box seating. None of the loud cheering or tall neighbors blocked sight.

After ascending the stairs, they arrived in their particular viewing room. Nicole had cleaned up quickly. Her white hair was in a braided ponytail with flowers braided in. Her brown eyes looked through a pair of fancy glasses with silver trim. A white dress covered her form, as a smell that reminded Asela of fresh roses emanated from Nicole’s form.

“Really?” Asela took her time blinking and then looked at Chester.

“Deploy sentinels.” Chester opened his jacket, and various wooden birds flew from inside before they floated out the window and began to circle the arena. Multiple screens made from mana appeared, showing various angles of the stadium.

“Nice forethought.” Asela complimented.

“Watch carefully there is a lot you can learn from this fight if it goes as I expect.” Charles looked at an adjacent box with a smirk.

Bastion and Eden entered a door held open for them where quite a few adults and odd people were seated. In moments they had become the center of attention as uninvited guests.

“What are brats doing here?” So asked a figure coated in golden armor, their face entirely hidden by a helmet.

“Now now, you were a brat like them not so long ago, be courteous.” Said a man in black sunglasses.

“Who are they?” So asked a girl in silver armor. Her short purple hair drew the odd-eyed boy’s attention.

“Kyrion picked them up on his way here. Apparently they’re both orphans.”

“Two orphans… Does that make three now? Or does the Silver Knight not count as an orphan.” Said a red-haired woman with tired eyes and a weary expression. A young girl with raven black hair sat next to her. Curiosity in her face.”

“Three. I don’t know what to say about that track record.”

“He’s almost as bad as my father. Why are you two following Kyrion.” The red-haired woman asked the kids with a smile.

“My parents were turned into monsters by a leech thing. Mr.Kyrion saved me.” Eden said, trying to keep tears from coming.

“Parents were killed during an assault on Lodrim. I was enslaved after that fight. He came across us during a transport when we were going back to the camps when a troll stopped us.” Bastion said with a hopeful expression that made him look crazy due to the mismatched eyes.

“I see.” The woman sighed and shook her head.

The black-haired girl hopped out of her seat and pulled a squirrel out of her pocket.

The creature observed the two kids with a blank expression.

“Why do you have a squirrel in your pocket?” Eden asked.

“Why wouldn’t I have a squirrel in my pocket?” The girl said with a lost expression.

“Because…” Eden did not know how to answer that.

A line of drool leaked out of the silver knight’s mouth, and the squirrel went right back into the pocket.

The girl looked at the silver knight. “You can’t eat Snickers!”

“Oh. Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.” The words were nice, but the girl still looked hungrily in the creature’s direction.

“So how strong are the people Mr. Kyrion’s fighting?” Bastion asked the headmaster.

“The strongest in our current batch of students. Most of us graduate at eighteen and then take on positions in the military based on their rank here and various recommendations.

“Can they beat a troll alone?”

“They can quite easily.” A lot of firepower in this batch.

“Wow. Kyrion needed help for the troll he beat. Had a deer person with a bow assisting.”

“How does one beat a troll without a fire affinity….” The gold knight asked no one.

“The help was a fire arrow. He made it swallow a pepper first.”

“Ah. Brutal.” The red-haired woman stated.

“What did he do?” Eden asked.

“Probably used a plant to amplify effects. Plants aren’t my specialty but something like that is commonplace. Using items with trace elements of an affinity to supplement what you don’t have. If he’s doing things like that already then we won’t see much of what he can do in the upcoming battle.”

“Why is that?” The sunglasses-wearing man asked with a smirk.

“Caeden, your son has taught Kyrion how to fight smart. You know how much of a troublemaker Gamodren is. If his disciple is being forced to fight a fight he doesn’t want to then he’s going to mess with the audience he suspects is watching.”

“What makes you say that?” The headmaster of Norn asked.

“My son has always been free-spirited. He doesn’t like doing anything he has to and will actively find a way to do the bare minimum when forced to do something he doesn’t care about.” The red-haired woman’s right eye seemed to twitch.

“That explains his grades… Only thing he excelled in was anatomy and other healing related classes. Which should be hard, yet everything else he barely manages to pass. Which made sense given that he skips his classes on a regular basis.”

“Why hasn’t he been expelled?” The gold armored figure asked.

“Let me reiterate. He’s never failed a class despite taking test on subjects he wasn’t in class to show up for. He has a method for obtaining knowledge that he missed and is clearly capable despite his attempts to fall back. If he doesn’t do his best in this fight he’ll face the pain of breaking an oath.” Caeden said bluntly.

“He did say tell Noah that if he didn’t go all out at the beginning then he’d lose.”

“He pulled one over on me. He said he wouldn’t lose before going all out.” The headmaster of Norn steepled his fingers.

“So if Noah survives the beginning Kyrion will be all tapped out and run out of mana.” The gold figure stated.

Ceres, the headmasters, the black-haired girl, and the red-haired women looked at the gold figure with a sense of pity.

“Noah defends while Isaiah attacks with powerful spells. The two work well together, so long as Isaiah is in the fight Noah won’t have to worry about going offensive. My students won’t lose to a slacker like that so easily.” The headmaster linked unsure but stated it plainly.

“He’s up to something.” The red-haired woman looked around the area before taking her seat.

Eden looked at the woman curiously. “Wait, Kyrion is your son!?”

The room went silent as Ceres realized what was stated and looked at the red-haired woman.

Caeden shook his head. “She’s a sharp one.”

Kyrion removed his hand from his ear and laughed to himself.

So the mother is watching along with the headmaster and Illanda. If Ceres is there, then it’s likely that Gamodren and Tiffany are in another room, if not in the stands. They didn’t talk about dad, so chances are he isn’t here. Kyrion knew planting those flowers on his students would come in handy. The best part of the only person who’d know to remove them was Gamodren, who wouldn’t tip his hand by doing so.

“So I’ll need to do my best to put on a show.” A glint appeared in an eye hidden behind an eyepatch.