Chapter : 7 : Who Slapped The Prince :
Location : Continent Of Aethelgrada : Unknown Cave :
Darkness !
A cold and deathly darkness .
That's was all that could be seen in the cave as not a flicker of sun light from the surface world could pass through it .
It was as if inside this cave the meaning of sunlight itself disappeared .
The silence inside that cave gave such an eerie fealing that even the most bravest adventurers will feel a sense of crisis in their heart .
" Step ! Step ! "
However in middle of this dark cave the silence was suddenly broken by sounds of foot steps .
The sound was not hurried and felt like slow deliberate steps of someone who had crossed through this dark ways for a long time .
Suddenly the dark hallway was brightened by a dark red flame which manifested from the hands of a man whose face was covered in a dark ghost mask that had a colour similar to a snake scales .
After making the light source the man did not stop and continued to walk forward before he came to a huge iron door .
If looked closely one could see multiple arrays of seal and other words that no one can understand caved on it.
" Swash ! "
Suddenly the man put his hand on to the door and let the flame pass on .
The red flame than quickly covered the entire iron door yet mysteriously the door did not seen to get a single bit of damage from the fire .
Instead the red flame was quickly absorbed by various inscriptions written on the door which started to glow after absorbing the energy .
" Crack !!!! "
Soon the gate which had absorbed the energy let out a cracking sound and slowly opened up .
The man then slowly entered the room and the door once again closed shut .
As soon as the man entered the room the crystal embedded on the walls started to glow providing the room with the minimum necessary light required to see .
When the room finally became a little visible the scene would have shocked any normal individual in extreme fear .
The stone walls of the room were decorated with various lkinds of demonic masks of various sizes which looked like they were always looking at you from every direction
The floor of the room was full of red and black circles of various sizes with intricate markings and drawing inside them .
On top of that the entire room was covered with hundreds of candles that seemed like they are used for some kind of ritual .
And at the centre of the room was a huge statue .
The huge statue did not belong to any thing resembling to a human or elf .
The statue was of a monster that looked like it came out of someone's worst nightmare .
It had two huge horns and two arms holding one sword and one shield .
The lower portion of the body did not have any legs and instead it looked like a huge tale of a serpent that coiled around like waiting for a pray to come.
The mouth of the demonic statue was open with a huge snake like tongue coming out as if ready to curse anything that it could touch .
But perhaps the most frightening prospect of the monster were it's four eyes that was pitch black in colour .
And felt as if it could snatch the soul out of a person's body .
Even a seasoned knight would be afraid after seeing something like this let alone a normal man .
However the man in demonic mask did not stop and continue to go forward until he stood write in front of the statue .
Instead of looking at the demonic eyes with fear the man was not trembling in fear but in excitement .
And when he finally spoke it came out as crooked laughter that would have sent chill down anyone's spine .
" Kehhh ... Ke ... Ke ... haha .... Keeh ....Soon.... Very soon.... "
" It will be time very soon !!!!! "
Location Change : Kingdom Of Valerion : Valerion Academy : Class : 1 - D :
" Can I sit with you ? "
" Hey man ! let's sit together . "
" I want to set near the second prince . "
" Me too . "
At this moment the lecture of the principal had already ended and all the students were told to go to thie respective classes and their teachers will arrive after a short meeting with the principal .
So after that everyone went to look for their classes and with the help of the senior students they quickly found it .
But the next biggest phase was to select their seats .
Obviously the most premium seat was the one right next to the second prince followed by the seat next to Elera Ros Thalric .
However obviously for reasons that were quite simple those seats were covered by students of the noble families .
While the Academy followed a strict rule of not discriminating between the backgrounds of students especially in the class of someone like Alistair Frost that does not mean everything was equal.
It was as if an instinctive practice that most people set according to their social status .
Those who were sitting closest to the prince and the daughter of the Duke were either their friends or members of the highest noble family in the room.
And even amoung the nobles those whose family status was greater than the others set even closer .
And as for those with normal backgrounds , they set at the back row .
And the situation was that the Academy could not intervene in this matter .
Because all of them were sitting according to their wishes and no one forced anyone to seat like that.
So on paper there was nothing wrong about.
Then came the middle of the pack of the room .
This belonged to people like Cian who although belonged from noble family but were not quite high in the hierarchy .
As as such did not have the eligibility to sit together with the prince .
At the same time however since they were still considered nobles they were of higher status then normal commoners , as such they did not seat at the back of the row .
And then lastly there were students from common background .
Of the commoners who were studying in the Academy they were either children's of rich merchant families , civilian administrative position holders or scholarship students .
This was because the cost of studying within the Academy was huge that even some low ranking nobles might not be able to pay .
So for the commoners either their families must have the funds to help them study or a little connection to get them within the class .
And the third options that remains is that you have to be exceptionally good to get a scholarship .
Yes ! While the Academy did have a lot of nobles and some people who entered through connections the first and foremost rule that cannot be broken by anyone was that they must have the talent .
If you don't have the talent even if you are from the royal family you won't be able to enter the Academy .
Because they are not training normal foot soldiers here but elites who will become the future pillars of the kingdom .
So even the third rate villains in the Academy can be considered small geniuses .
And If you don't have any of this then there is no need to worry .
The Kingdom provides free basic education for everyone no matter the background and there are also other schools and universities which does not include being wizards and warriors .
You can simply become professors in other degrees and subjects .
Or you can even enter some smaller training institutions .
And if you have shown your talents over there they might send you to the academy for your future studies in a scholarship .
" Well ! This is the world . " - Cian thought to himself as he looked at everyone in the class .
Right now he was not sitting in the middle group where he should be but instead was sitting at the back row were most of the scholarship students sat .
And you are wondering why he was there then just be a little patient because right now there was another huge commotion going on right at the front seat where the second prince was seated .
" Oh no ! My lord what happened to your face . "
" You need to go and see a healer immediately . "
" Alright which one of you idiot is responsible for this ! tell me I will have your entire family punished . "
" Sob ! Sob ! Look at his handsome face who could do something like this . "
The noble boys and girls who were surrounding the prince continued to cause a huge commotion attracting everyone's attention .
And why would they do something like this ?
The reason was that their handsome prince charming had a huge red mark of a hand printed on his right cheek .
Yes ! apparently someone had the audacity to give none other than the second prints of the kingdom of Valerion a tight slap on his face .
This was almost unbelievable to the point that many people rubbed their eyes and looked multiple times to make sure they were seeing everything correctly .
But no matter how many times this saw the situation was the same .
But the biggest question was - ' Who Slapped The Prince ' .
However no matter how much anyone asked the prince continued to dodge the question with a smile and said that it was nothing but a major misunderstanding .
But Cian who was sitting at the back new exactly what happened.
" According to the story before entering the classroom the second prince who was not walking with his usual group of friends accidentally crashed into a girl in a corner . "
And this girl was obviously Jenny Cloudseaker who had went out to fill her water bottle and was just coming back to the class .
And while a simple accident would have not caused for something dramatic the things went the other way .
Because when both of them crashed into each other it turned in an awkward position where she was right on top of the prince with her body fully pressed against him and their faces were so close to each other that they could hear each others loud heartbeat .
A little more and their lips would have met in the most famous - ' Accidental Kiss Scene . '
And I am sure you all can understand what happened next .
But still let me explain it for you all because I know you want to hear it .
What happened was that it was then after sometime they realised that the prince was actually touching something very soft.
Finally understanding the situation she got flustered and quickly slapped the prince and ran away from there , while living the man totally flustered and confused .
However this was actually a pivotal point in the story because this was the incident that made the prince actually take interest in Jenny because it was the first time he was hit by a girl like this .
Before this most of the girls only given him good looks and daid flattering words always trying to get close to him .
And if not that then they were there on formal introduction by their families .
However Jenny she felt different .
This interest will then soon turne into something more finally leading to the start of their love life.
" Cliche !!!! The author really didn't have much original thoughts for writing the story . "
Infact if Cian had stopped this incident from happening then perhaps he could have gotten a tier 2 change reward .
But instead he purposefully decided not to interfere in this.
Because there was no guarantee if he changed these event they would eventually fall for each other or not .
" And if they don't fall in love in this incident then perhaps the Apex battle in the future will also not happen. "
" Which means I will directly lose the chance of not only getting rewards for a tier 3 change but also for other multiple tier 1 or 2 changes during that mission. "
So he decided to let go off this rewarding chance so that he can get a longer in the future.
After all sometimes you need to think more than just short term goals .
' Wait ? Why does it feel like I am some kind of a villain who is manipulating others love life to get rewards ? ' - Cian suddenly felt a strange feeling in his heart .
However he quickly shook this thoughts away .
Although it was true that he was indeed in a way getting rewards of all this but still he allowed their first meeting to go unchanged so in a manner he helped them buy not interfeering .
' I am not a villain but a hero instead . '
However soon his internal monolog was interrupted when he heard foot steps coming towards him .
And without even looking Cian knew that the reason for him sitting at the last row has finally arrived .
" Hello ! Ma.. may I sit here . "
( Author's Note : Hello guys I hope you all are doing well and before ending this chapter , I would like to thank you all for reading the story so far .
And if you have liked today's chapter then do consider supporting my work by saving it in your library and giving some power stones if you want to .
So that's all I had to say today and see you soon in the next chapter .
Thank you for reading . )
To Be Continued .