Looking around, this kingdom still lived quite well even if they were disconnected from everything else. The houses, shops, schools... Everything was well built and everyone looks so cheerful.
"Come on now, Alex. We already have a room ready for you." He said.
"That was fast." I was surprised how they prepared my room for me.
"Let's go! I can't wait to show you around the kingdom!" Aria said, tugging my arm with her. We both ran to the castle which was not far away, but with this small body I was huffing out air, my throat began to burn and my legs started to wobble.
'Curse this god damn body of mine.' I really need to start training and building up my stamina.
As we headed inside the castle, the servants, guards, and other members inside the castle bowed and greeted us.
"Mr.Alex, your room is this way." A servant greeted up and gestured his hands towards one of the rooms in the hallway. The room had a big doorway carved with different golden symbols on it. I pushed open the door, the room was unbelievably big, especially for a little kid like me.
"Woah." The room was really spacious, the decorations made it look very luxurious, the bed was at least king size. There was a coffee table, a couch, several shelves of books against the walls, and lastly, a desk. There was also another room which must have been the restroom and where the closet was since I didn't see one outside.
"Do you like it?" Kathryn's tranquil voice came from behind me, I turned around seeing her with a smile on her face.
"I love it, but this is a lot to take in. I mean, this room is seriously too big for me." I shook my head in incredulity.
"Well of course, since you are a part of the royal family now." She smiled back.
"W-What?!" I tried to register the thought in my head but it couldn't seem to settle in.
"When did I get this title?" I asked, still fazed by what just came out of her mouth.
"Since you saved her from the incident." She answered, pointed to my left leg which was still bandaged up.
"But still, how can your people accept a human as a part of the royal family?" There was no way for someone to accept me as a part of their kingdom, especially after what happened in the war. There was always a grudge that was held against the humans, we've done a lot of dishonorable things.
"You are different, and I know that, we, the royal family know that. Now go on, you need to clean up and rest. Aria, come with me, let Alex rest for now." She said, grabbing Aria's hands.
"But I wanted to show him around." She said, disappointedly.
"Tomorrow, now, princess, you need to rest too. Come on." She walked with Aria out of the room and closed the door behind her. I sighed and headed towards the bathroom. Opening the closet, I found clothes that fitted me well. I grabbed a robe, and a pair of pants, heading towards the bath that was prepared for me.
As I finished my business in the bathroom, I flopped myself onto the gigantic, marshmallow like bed and closed the lights. Shutting my eyes, I slowly drifted off to sleep.
----
"From this day forward, I, King Stephan III will make you, Elijah, the next Commander of this country. Now, do you offer your full loyalty to this country for the rest of your life? Even if we lose in this merciless war? Will you devote your life to this country?" He asked.
"Yes, I, Elijah, will devote my absolute loyalty to this country." I knelt down in-front of the king.
He nodded and proceeded, "I hereby grant you the title of Commander!"
He tapped the swords on either side of my shoulder and I raised my head, now looking into his eyes, I stood back up. Saluting towards the king then turning towards the crowd below and saluted to them.
The crowd screamed and cheered, they've finally found someone worthy in these years of searching for someone who fits the qualities of leading the entire army.
King Stephen placed a medal with five stars representing the title of 'Commander' on my uniform, next to all the other medals I've achieved throughout my years of hard work.
Looking at the crowd ahead of me, a huge weight has been placed on my shoulders.
'Now it's my duty to protect all these people? Was this even possible? How can I protect all these people?' These questions circled in my head as the crowd cheered on, I looked at them, forcing a smile on my face and waved my hands at them.
----
"Wake up! Alex, I...said...wake...UP!" Aria screamed in my ears.
"Ahh! What?" I quickly sat up, looking around. My eyes landed on the little girl whose cheeks were puffed up and arms crossed.
"Oh, it's you." I yawned, looking down, my robe was wide open, revealing my baby skinned chest. She must've shook me so hard that my robe came undone.
"What do you mean 'Oh it's you'? Come and eat, I want to show you around!" She said, pulling me out of my bed.
"Okay, Okay, I'll be there in a second, let me get ready."
"You better get ready quickly." She hissed as he walked out of the room.
'Jeez, does girls have to be this scary?' I just shook my head off of this and resumed back to what I was doing before.
Fixing my robe, I went to the bathroom and took a shower then brushed my teeth. Looking in the closet, I found a t-shirt, shorts, and a black silk robe that reached my knees with a unique golden dragonkin symbol on the spin of the robe.
Since my old clothes were tattered and ripped, I threw them away.
Walking towards the dining hall, I saw the family was already sitting there eating. Ryker sat at the end on the table while Kathryn and Aria sat on the opposite sides of each other. I sat next to Aria and a plate of food was placed in-front of me.
"Did you rest well last night?" Ryker peaked up from his plate of food.
"It was good, I slept like a baby." I joked, picking up some chuckles and giggles around the table.
"Well then, that's great news. And I have more good news." Kathryn said, placing her utensils back down onto the table and wiping her mouth.
"Hm?" I raised a brow, curious about the news.
"You will be training starting today, with me and Ryker." She smiled.
"Oh, I can't express how honored I am."
"Well you can express how honored you are by becoming the soul knight for Aria." Kathryn answered.
"W- What?!" I feel like if I get shocked anymore, I will just faint from all the surprises being thrown at my face.
"Mhm, me, Kathryn, and Aria talked about it yesterday." Ryker said, twirling his for around.
"Wow, behind my back huh." I joked sarcastically while grinning.
"Well if you put it that way... then maybe. But that's not the point, we know that you have potential, even if you're still four right now both me and Kathryn can help you grow stronger. You know how powerful one of our soldiers are, so you can expect that we are beyond strong enough to defeat an S rank." He looked at me seriously, a glint of mischievousness in his yellow hawk-like eyes.
It was true, my father once told me that one of the dragon soldiers can equal to a veteran B ranked adventurer, almost an A rank. And they are only a normal soldier in the army, so with all the officers in the higher ranks, they are a powerful force to deal with.
"Well now you say that, I can't deny the offer." I smirked, raising both of my hands up in defeat.
"Good, we will see how far you've got and train you from there. And since I know that both of your parents are pretty powerful from my own experience, I will expect a lot from you." Ryker stood up, fixing his robe.
I nodded and finished the last few things left on my plate. After we've all finished eating, the servants quickly came over and cleaned off the table, bringing the plates back into the kitchen.
"Let's go Alex, I can't wait to show you the marketplace." Aria grinned, taking me with her.
We walked around the marketplace, looking at jewels, food, decorations, clothing. There were a whole bunch of things in this place.
"Oh, look at this Alex! This tastes amazing, it's called Siu." She pointed to the grilled meat that was on a stick.
"You want some?" She asked excitedly.
"Why not?" I said, shrugging my shoulders.
We bought a pack of Siu and ate it while walking back to the castle.
"This is still amazing!" Aria exclaimed, still having the skewer in her mouth.
"You like it?" I asked, taking a bite off the skewer. I gotta say, this tasted good, it was a sweet-sour with a hint of spice in it.
"This is my favorite food, I would pick this over anything." she explained. I was about to say 'Even ice cream?' but I forgot that they haven't invented ice cream in this era yet.
In my old life things were much more improved, people already invented flying cars, ships, holograms, devices, machine guns, sabers, e.t.c. But in the war I was in, both sides agreed that we only use traditional swords to show which side was more powerful without these inventions at hand, only pure skill and strength.
And since I studied in different fields in school, I've got a lot of knowledge in engineering and lots of other things. But I didn't want to change things in this world too fast. I also still don't know if this world has the materials that are needed to build things in my old life.
"Alex, stop spacing out, it's rude." She said, pouting.
"Hahaha, alright, I'll stop." I smiled, she looked very cute when she pouted.
By the time we reached the castle it was already afternoon. We walked towards the gate where two guards stood with their spears at hand.
As soon as we walked towards them, they bowed. Since we came here yesterday they've already seen us and know who we are, especially Aria of course.
"Mom! Dad! We're back!" She yelled as she ran inside the castle.
'Sigh, just like a little girl hahaha." I can't still can't believe I've got another chance, one part of me wants to accept this and forget the past but the other part says god is not going to make this life easy for me either; that's why I have to become stronger in-order to protect the people around me.
"Come one, Alex. Let's head to the training room." Ryker yelled from inside the castle. He was still wearing his clothes from this morning but without the robe. Kathryn stood besides him and Aria right next to her. I smiled at them, from where I was standing, they looked like the perfect family. Everyone was smiling and happy.
I quickly walked to where they were and headed towards the training room.
"Alright, you will be fighting me. Give me all you've got." Ryker stepped into the field. I nodded and followed him onto the field. He tossed me a wooden sword and he himself took a stick.
"Really? A stick now." I said, a bit looked down upon.
"There aren't other wooden swords lying around since we don't use wooden swords much. The one you have right now is just one I had." He explained.
I got into my stance, ready for his attack. Ryker took the first hit and leaped forward, mana covering his body. The basics of defense is to protect your body with mana since it will act as a mini shield for your body.
I too used mana to protect my body and dodged his incoming attack, leaping towards the side I swung my sword down on his back but he rolled aside. We both backed up from each other, creating a few meters of distance between us.
Now, it's time for me to strike. Enhancing mana into my legs and sword I sprinted forward, both of us sliced away at each other. Each of Rykers attacks became faster and faster, it was getting harder for me to dodge him. Finally, I had no choice but to receive his attacks. His sticks landed on different spots of my body; from the force of his attacks, I was pushed back.
Since my broken leg wasn't fully healed yet, my leg began to throb again. Not having a choice but to keep going, I once again focused the mana around me and slowly imagined a small drop of water on the palms of my hands, bending it to my will, I've finally unlocked my first attribute, water.
'Finally.' I've never thought my first attribute to be water but I'm still happy.
Making small water spikes, I used them as a distraction to prepare another spell. Only starting to use the water attribute, I wasn't familiar with it. I can only use my imagination to make up spells that won't cause me too much mana.
I covered my sword with water and leaped forward towards him. I first aimed towards his legs, trying to slow him down so I could land more attacks on him. But sadly my plan didn't go well since he saw what I was planning. He leaped back, dodging my sword by just a few centimeters.
"Good job, though that was close." He chuckled. I just shook my head and sat down on the cold concrete floor, huffing and puffing out air. It hasn't even been five minutes but I'm already sweating and my mana is completely drained.
"You alright, Alex?" Aria ran to my side, inspecting me up and down.
"I'm fine, just a bit tired." I laid flat on the ground, looking up at the glass ceiling.
"Your parents taught you well." Ryker complimented.
"They are the toughest people I've met." I laughed.
"You could say that again." He came over and sat next to me. It was quiet for a second, we could only hear the birds chirping, and trees rustling in the wind.
"Now then, Alex. We need to get back and prepare for the ceremony." Ryker stood back up, looking down at me.
"Wait, what ceremony?!" I stood up immediately, hearing the news.
"We think that it will be easier and faster to make you Aria's soul knight before we continue all of your training." Kathryn explained.
"Also since new powers would be granted; we could practice handling your new powers while training and discovering more of your new attributes." Ryker added in.
"Wow, then alright. Better to do it now than later." I brushed off all the dirt off my clothes and walked towards them.