(Asta's p.o.v.)
The school day had end and I was at courtyard waiting on Leafa while Liebe went back to the dorms, but not before teasing me about meeting up with her. She and I had agreed to meet after school to discuss the questions she asked during our sparring match earlier. We had already received our Hagane armor from the workshop, and were looking forward to learning how to use it the following day. After a few minutes of waiting, Leafa arrived, greeting me.
"Hey, Leafa. How are your wounds?" I asked. She replied, "Just a bunch of scratches, nothing a simple recovery spell can't fix. Your wounds weren't any more serious than mine, so you didn't need any medical attention." I smiled and nodded. She got down to business by saying, "So, about what I asked earlier." I took a breath and explained my life story, leading up to the point where Iska invited me to join the Makai Order. She had a look of shock and sympathy on her face and said, "I see, I'm sorry you had to go through that. Guess you and I aren't all that different." I was confused by what she said and I asked, "What do you mean, Leafa?" She answered, "We're both orphans." I was shocked to hear this, she was an orphan like me. She then began to tell her story.
(Leafa's p.o.v.)
I was surprised when he told his story, how he wanted to make his country a much more prosperous nation, one free of discrimination, only to have his ambitions crushed by the aristocrats of Clover Kingdom. He was just an orphan who never knew his parents, he was discriminated against for something completely out of his control. After he made it as a Magic Knight, gained the respect of many people, and played a part in saving the kingdom, he was framed as the mastermind behind the incident and put to trial by the aristocrats, which led to him volunteering to be exiled. Yet, in spite of it all, he still wants to protect the innocent. Most would give up on humanity after experiencing such cruelty, but he didn't. I honestly found that very admirable and, for some reason, it caused my heart to skip a beat just like in combat class.
After hearing his story, I felt like it was only fair that I tell him mine.
Flashback -7 years ago
Me and my brother, Kazuto were living in a hidden elven village in a very remote corner of Diamond Kingdom. Our parents were from a long line of Makai Priests, who were descended from the original creators of the Weapons used by the Makai Order. The Order wasn't formed solely by humans, it was a group of humans, elves, and dwarves who had their loved ones at the hands of Horrors. The three races joined hands and created an organization whose sole purpose is to defend our world from the forces of darkness.
Anyway, my brother and I were living pleasant life with our parents. Makai Priests have their various specialties, our parents were exceptionally known for their martial prowess and medical knowledge, and they passed those down to us. Kazuto was more suited for swordsmanship, and I was skilled in both swordsmanship and medicine. When he got hurt, I was always the one to patch him up. We both had our dreams, my brother's was to become a Makai Knight to defend his family. Me, I wanted to protect others who couldn't defend themselves, whether from Horrors or from plagues and curses caused by Horrors. I worked hard hone my skills in both combat and medical treatment.
Then one day, my brother came up to me and said, "Hey Leafa, Mom and Dad told us we can take a day off from training and hang out with our friends, come on." I answered, "No, I'm good. There's a new medicine I wanted to learn to make today, go on without me." What he said next convinced me, "Come on, sis. You can't always coup yourself up in your workshop all day, and it's not everyday we get to have some fun with our friends. Life is short, you gotta enjoy while you can." He had a point, so I decided to go with him. The rest of the day we spent having fun with our friends deep in the forest surrounding the village. Unfortunately, when the sun was about to set, a storm had moved in, forcing us to take shelter in a nearby cave until it passed.
After an hour, the storm finally let up enough for us to head home, but when we got to the village, it was almost entirely destroyed. We rushed to our house and saw a huge Horror with a purple, serpent-like body and had many eyes on it's head.
It was fighting our parents and overpowering them. I called out in worry, "Mom! Dad!" They looked at us and our father shouted, "Leafa! Kazuto! Take your friends and get out of here now!" The Horror turned it's attention to us and started to rush toward us. However, our mom used wind magic to propel herself and our dad towards us and put herself between us and the Horror and used it again to push us out of the way. She and dad looked back at us and smiled before saying, "We love you, Leafa, Kazuto." The beast had then swallowed our mom and dad whole, much to our horror, and got ready to devour me, my brother, and our friends as well. We scrambled to get back on our feet and run, but before it's head got close to us, man in crimson armor and wielding a greatsword appeared and beheaded the Horror, which disintegrated into nothing.
We knew right then, that this man was a Makai Knight. He looked at us and asked, "Are you kids alright?" We nodded and thanked him for saving us and he offered to take us in and train us to defend ourselves against the Horrors, saying that he would never leave a child to it's fate as that was his reason for taking us under his wing. All of us accepted his offer and he helped us make graves for everyone in the village, including our parents. He later introduced himself as Rafael Banderas, and the Stronghold Knight, Gaia, and was a friend of mine and Kazuto's parents.
For a year after the death of our parents, my brother and I mourned our loss like everyone else until Mr. Banderas told us something that we needed to hear. "I know it hurts, young ones. But, I know your parents wouldn't want you two to always mourn over them. You must be strong, and live with their memories in your hearts. Even though our flesh dies, we must know that in the hearts and minds of the friends and family we have made, we will live forever." He was right, we needed to be strong for our parents' sake, because that's what they would've wanted us to do.
All of us worked hard and trained to become as strong as we could be at the academy ever since that day.
Flashback over
Asta had a sad look on his face and said, "I'm sorry about your loss. Honestly, I'm jealous of you." I was a bit confused and asked, "Jealous of me? Why?" He explained, "You had loving parents, a caring brother, and equally caring friends. Me, I never had any of those growing up, I was always alone." I then understood why he was jealous of me. He continued, "But, despite my jealousy, I think you're an incredible girl, Leafa." I looked at him surprised and I responded, "I am?" He answered, "Yep, you chose to become strong to protect the weak. Like me, you want to make sure that the innocent live a happy and fulfilling life. These days, most people with power don't care about the weak and only themselves. I wanted to change that when I wanted to become the Wizard King, but that dream was crushed when I was betrayed by everyone I knew in Clover. But despite of that, I still wanted to protect the innocent. When you told me earlier that you chose to join the Makai Order to protect the weak, I was happy to know there are others like me, people who use their power to defend others not rule over them. That's why I believe you're incredible, Leafa. You truly care for others, and I like that about you." He smiled brightly at me.
I was in awe of how noble he was. He had been subjected to the wickedness of the human heart for as long as he could remember, he should have every reason to despise the world and all of it's people. And yet, he still believes there is good in others and strives to become stronger to protect them. And just now he says that I'm incredible for wanting to protect innocent lives in a world where the strong exploit the weak. That was when I felt my heart begin to race, and a bright smile appeared on my face and I said to Asta, "Thank you, and I like that righteous heart of your's myself." He blushed and said, "Thanks." We stood there in awkward silence until Asta said, "Well, I better get back to my dorm room before Liebe starts teasing me about why I'm so late." "Y-yeah, my roommate will definitely do that to me as well." I stuttered a reply. With that, we went back to our dorms and hope that our roommates don't tease us about meeting up with the opposite gender.