Haruo opened his eyes; the room was still dark and devoid of any light except for the window that allowed some to seep in. Even then, he was still able to see clearly.
He pulled down his sleeve and pressed his wrist tightly, making a cellphone materialize. As if by a stroke of luck, Kilian messaged him to meet at a particular address, at exactly seven o'clock. Luck might've been a stretch, but it's definitely a coincidence.
Currently, it was five o'clock in the morning, and there was still an hour before they would meet up. He quickly opened the notification and started typing with one hand.
[Am I allowed to use the kitchen?]
[Yeah, sure.]
[What about the ingredients?]
[Use the cheap ones, and once you're done eating, make sure to transfer the food into a container and wash the dishes.]
He stood up and saw two beds, with two people lying on them: Ena and Taiyo. They slept quite peacefully—heavily too—despite sleeping for more than fourteen or so hours now. But then again, their minds and bodies were at their most limit, sleeping this much was to be expected.
Without wasting any more time, he put on his coat and walked to the door.
***
Ten minutes have passed since then, and Haruo has remained roaming through the pearly halls. The palace was much bigger than he originally thought; the number of rooms he passed by was immaculate, and there would always be more just a few steps away from the other.
Not only that, but the hallways seemed to stretch out endlessly, with no end in sight; it felt more like a dungeon than a castle at that point.
By this time, Haruo had realized his mistake; he had forgotten to ask where the kitchen was and only asked for permission. Well, technically, he already knew that, but he had thought that the palace was easy to navigate; now he knows that he underestimated the sheer scale of this castle.
[Where is the kitchen?]
[I'm sure you can find it on your own.]
[It's been more than ten minutes now]
[Trust the process, you're bound to find it sooner or later.]
Haruo could only sigh while staring at the screen; there was no point in trying to get directions from Kilian. Seeing the messages he sent, he had no intention of helping Haruo whatsoever.
"Who're you chatting with there?"
Haruo's eyes shot up immediately; out of pure instinct, his body moved forward, while twisting his entire body to turn his back. With his body fully turned to the person's direction, he got a good view of the person who whispered behind his ear.
It was a knight, specifically a man; everywhere he looked, there was nothing but pure metal armor, with the sole exception of his head. He bore a stern expression, with a hint of friendliness.
But in summary, he looked friendly—he was even smiling at the boy. He bore no intent to kill and only remained silent as they both stared at each other.
But not once has Haruo let his guard down; if it weren't for his hand resting on the sword handle, which hung from the knight's waist, maybe then it would've given him a tiny bit of security.
"Isn't this lucky? When Kilian told us there would be new people in the castle so suddenly, I wondered what they would look like."
"What makes you think I'm not a servant?"
"With clothes like that? Nice try, but I doubt it. Besides, if you were a servant, then I would recognize you almost instantly; that white hair of yours can really catch attention."
A quiet laugh escaped the knight's lips. Seeing the knight, Haruo could only furrow his brows. The knight took a deep breath, as if taking a break from his laughter, and only then did he allow himself to look at Haruo in the eye once again.
Haruo's eyes instantly widened as the knight vanished from his position and appeared in front of him with his blade just inches away from his face.
As fast as Haruo could, he summoned his mana storage and took out his sword to block the attack. To his luck, he wasn't just able to block it, but outright deflect it in the last second.
With both blades recoiling back to their user, Haruo used this chance to step back to create distance from the knight.
Only for the knight to follow him in his tracks, not allowing Haruo to take a single breath. With another strike incoming, Haruo deflected it once again. As he did, the knight took Haruo's wrist and kicked him in his solar plexus.
Haruo gritted his teeth, blood slowly dripping from the edge of his mouth. Keeping the pain to himself, he flicked his wrist away from the knight's grasp and changed the grip of his blade, hooking it toward him.
The knight, using the same hand that he used to grab Haruo's wrist, blocked the blade with the armor. Naturally, the blade was deflected, disarming Haruo of his sword.
Haruo didn't change his gaze and continued despite not having his blade on hand. Haruo used his left hand to grab the knight's wrist. As he closed in toward him, he folded his arm and launched his elbow to the knight's face.
His elbow landed cleanly, but not on his face, but on his hand. The knight has caught his elbow.
In response to this, Haruo pulled the knight's entire arm, dragging him forward toward him while he swayed to the side, before sweeping his leg to the knight's.
But even then, the knight refused to stumble, his foot still planted to the ground. With no other choice, Haruo could only backstep to open his mana storage to reach for something.
"Okay, that's it for today. Anymore, and the old man might get too grumpy with me."
The knight said, slowly sheathing his blade and removing all hostility that came with it. But as for Haruo, he remained still, with his hand inside his mana storage. Nothing but skepticism marked on his face.
"Ease up, will ya? I only wanted to see how strong you were; besides fighting in a place like this, it gives me a great disadvantage."
The knight would continue to step closer to Haruo. He tapped his shoulder once they were parallel to each other.
"But I think we should get going now, and as for where you're going… You'll find it quite easily after this conversation—Unless he changed his mind."
Both made eye contact with each other, the knight's eyes filled with nothing but pure darkness, devoid of all color, contrasting his friendly demeanor. The sight of his eyes only gave him a sense of disgust that mixed well with his unease.
"It was nice meeting you, and maybe next time, I can fight the other one too…"
The knight smiled at him before walking past Haruo, his steps creating a metallic sound that echoed with each one. Haruo turned to look at the knight, but he had already disappeared.
With his disappearance, Haruo took a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders before looking quietly at the ceiling.
***
To Haruo's Luck, he was able to make his way around the palace, as the knight had said to him. The encounter made him question whether the palace had a mind of its own and had let him go to the kitchen.
And strangely, when he went to the Kitchen, no servants were in sight; the only person who was there was himself. What was stranger was the fact that he hadn't encountered anybody—except for the knight—throughout the entire walk there.
He decided not to think about this topic any further and quickly made food before placing it on a table in their room, leaving it for Taiyo to eat. Then he went to the place where Kilian had told him to go.
***
"Is this it?" Haruo said, gazing at the gate that stood between him and the giant manor inside. Funnily, he couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu as he did.
"Must be, I mean, you did follow the directions properly…"
Haruo, as if muscle memory, took out his sword and pointed it directly at Kilian's neck as he turned. Kilian didn't flinch one bit and only maintained eye contact with Haruo.
"Did I scare ya?"
Haruo sighed, dismissing his blade back to the mana storage. " You're not the first."
"So much energy so early in the morning, and I thought you'd still have physical trauma."
"Yeah, well, if you were attacked by a knight, 'so early in the morning' you'd easily get paranoid."
"I'm guessing it was Blondie that attacked?"
"Well, he was blonde, that's for sure."
"So that old man let you meet him… Quite irrational if I do say so myself."
"I never expected to hear the word 'Irrational' coming from you."
"You talk as if we were buddies for ten years… But we will be, considering you are contracted to me, for ten years plus two."
Haruo scratched his head while he was met with Kilian's arrogant smile. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, I'm contracted to you; you don't have to mention it all the time, it's getting really annoying."
"Seeing how you're the only one here, I can tell that brat didn't see my message."
Kilian snapped his finger, the noise piercing through the quiet air, and almost instantly, Ena appeared in the air, not for long, though, as gravity was also there—dragging her to the ground, creating a rough sound.
Haruo's eyes tracked her motion, watching her fall like a carcass that was thrown to the sky and fell like a rag doll.
Ena's whole front was flat on the ground, her body twitched slightly before moving her arms steadily. As she did, a huge amount of water fell from the sky and rained down on Ena while she picked herself up.
"I WAS ALREADY UP WHEN YOU THREW ME TO THE GROUND!" Ena exclaimed.
"Can't be too sure… Besides, it was funny to watch." Kilian said.
"Never thought we'd ever agree on something until now." Haruo followed.
"You're siding with him out of all people!?"
***
The sun slowly began to rise from the depths, slowly bringing light to the city; though it was faint, it was better than being mostly dark.
Not long after the sun cast shadows, Haruo and Ena followed Kilian through the Manor. Making their way to a giant field, roughly the size of a football stadium.
"Are you going to tell us why we're here?"
"Yeah, why are we here? Did you just wake us up for a tour?"
"Since we're on the topic, I'd like to welcome you all to my manor, also where you guys are sleeping from now on."
"Honestly, if we get our own room with a nice bed, then I won't complain this time."
"Of course you do, I'm not that harsh. It was getting kind of empty in this manor anyway, it's just me and Su-nae who live here, so there's a lot of rooms."
"For the first time since we met, you aren't a complete asshole."
"As for why you're here, I need to see how well you both will do in the test."
Ena and Haruo both stared at each other before returning their gazes to Kilian.
"What test?" Haruo asked.
"It's about time to tell you how things work in Marion. Let's start with the basics."
Both Ena and Haruo suddenly felt their legs get swept. Making them fall backwards. But as they traveled to the ground, something solid broke their fall and intervened with their descent—It was a chair.
After confirming what it was, Haruo gazed back to see a whiteboard in front of both of them.
"There is a caste system within the government. The first thing we want to know is that there are five levels. Sub-division, division, branch, main-branch, and finally the city councils."
Ena raised her hand like she was in school, despite not being a student anymore—dropped out unofficially when she decided to join Haruo—But it seems like she kept her academic life with her.
"Is there anything outside the caste system? I know it's uncommon, but it isn't rare as well."
"There is actually, above the caste system, we have the royals, and below are the stale-jobs. But they're unimportant right now; what we need to focus on are the five."
"Let's start with the lowest, Sub-divisions: These are a temporary group made for a task."
"Then Divisions: Groups or specialists that specialize in a certain purpose."
"Branch: They manage divisions and are responsible for keeping everything in order."
"Main-branch: They are the people responsible for all the branches; they organize everything and compile everything for the councils—and fun fact, I'm the leader of the main branch."
"And finally, the city councils are the ones that make the decisions; they're our rational minds that send and create orders. Of course, I can explain more in detail, but that isn't necessary."
"How does this connect to 'the test' you're talking about?" Haruo asked.
"You're servants to this kingdom now, knowing basic knowledge like this is needed."
"Uh-huh, that aside, when is the test?"
"Today."
"October 26? Like TODAY?"
"Yes."
"NO! You want us to do a test with no proper preparation!?" Ena declared.
"The test is easy, it's mostly fighting anyway, you guys are pretty much good to go. But I'll still have to review you guys—"
Mid-sentence, a chair was thrown at Kilian, but of course, he dodged it effortlessly, weaving to the side with his hands behind his back.
"You guys sure are quick, throwing a chair at me while I was speaking; it's kind of rude, but something I wanted from you guys."
Haruo and Ena had already created a considerable distance between themselves and Kilian when they threw the chair at him; of course, they had their weapons equipped as well.
"If you weren't quick to catch on, I would've just punched both of you."
Kilian said, appearing right beside them, munching on an apple. With him being so close, Ena didn't hesitate to launch one of her blades directly at his face. Kilian, in response, moved his hand slightly, using the apple as a shield from the blade.
Haruo followed the blade's movement and closed the distance between him and Kilian.
With the gap closed in, Haruo swung his sword at Kilian, its blade whistling as it sped up its trajectory. Kilian, on the other hand, remained composed. He flicked his wrist, causing the blade that stuck to the Apple's surface to be directed at the sword.
Both weapons recoiled back. Kilian took this chance and tossed his apple in the air, then grabbed the flying short blade and struck it in Haruo's shoulder, before sending him flying with a kick to the solar plexus.
Kilian turned his back and used his palm to push Ena's forearm to the ground, making her plant his blade to the ground.
With one motion, he drove a kick to her side before catching the apple. He then threw the apple behind him, making its way to Haruo's face. Without missing a beat, Kilian swung his leg at Haruo's side, dragging his body along his kick, then shooting him toward Ena, who was on the ground.
Both bodies collided, making inertia toss and roll them around the ground.
"Come on! Use your abilities, they'll play a big role in the Verification test!"
Almost instantly after he said that, a spike of blood launched itself toward Kilian. He side-stepped out of its range and, before tilting his head to the side, which allowed him to dodge the short blade by a hair's width.
Haruo caught the blade and prepared a backstab, but before he could land it, he stepped to the side one more time. There, he was met face to face with the pillar of blood, before it dissolved and spread to the ground.
Behind the pillar was Ena, launching herself toward Haruo. Both of them widened their eyes; they were going to hit each other.
Luckily, Haruo managed to parry Ena's blade before they could stab each other, but not so luckily, Kilian placed his hand at the back of their heads and pulled them together. Colliding their temples.
In sync, they fell on the ground on their knees, covered in blood and bruises everywhere on their body.
Kilian allowed them to stand up and created some distance. Ena quickly placed his hand on Haruo's shoulder, not just for support but to heal him.
After a second of waiting, he decided to sprint toward them. Both split from each other; he first went after Ena and pushed her head to the ground. He then turned his head, not only to see Haruo, but also a gun directed at his face.
Haruo gritted his teeth and gripped the handle with all his might before pulling the trigger.
The huge sum of energy burst out of the gun and toward Kilian; the recoil caught up to Haruo's whole body and sent him flying the other direction.
He looked at the fog around the blast, and there he saw a dark silhouette standing still. Kilian had survived the shot.
"You must be really special to Seiji if he lent you that."
Haruo panted heavily on the ground with one hand planted on the ground.
"That gun has always been beside him, even in his sleep; he had it. It gives me so many memories. He called it his'ultimate masterpiece.'"
Kilian steadily made his way toward Haruo, while Haruo kept the gun pointed at Kilian. But Kilian didn't mind and leaned closer to the gun.
"The monarch - 13"