"Why...are they here?"
The voice of Hybris echoed in my empty training room inside the castle. The morning sunlight invaded the cold interior of the Palace.
"Haaaah? Do you have a problem with that?!"
"Jeez, chillax, princess. Nobody's gonna steal your boyfriend."
"Girlfriend , not Boyfriend, you peasant."
"I have a scholarship, that's why I'm here. Daddy's money ain't doing the talk here, you know."
Ah, such a relaxing morning, isn't it?
"Girls...please be quiet..."
I tried to defuse the whole situation. I wore a smile, taking my chances at calming them down.
"Guys, just calm down...!"
Artemisia saw my face tense, and my eyes twitch, so naturally, she worriedly addressed to the pollar opposites.
"...wait, did you just say 'Girlfriend?' Don't tell me...you're lesbian. Yeah, not surprised there."
"Y-you...! How dare you! That's a commoner's way of addressing such important matters of the heart! 'Lesbian'! Such...vulgarity! Preposterous!"
"...uh, but you are one, right? You like girls and all. Unless it is a phase. Maybe it is..."
Aurelia drew her Surger from her belt and pointed it on the throat of the newcomer in our group, Hybris.
"I would keep my mouth shut, if I were you, pathetic human."
"Oooh, it seems I hit a nerve. Look, talking shit isn't really your cup o' tea, so keep your trap closed, a'ight?"
Aurelia was ready to crack, as a dim light revealed itself sparsely on the tip of her wand.
"Listen here, you little...!"
"Huh, what's that? Whatcha gonna do, especially with your level in Sorcery? Beat me? Soz, I don't waste my time on incompetent idiots."
"I demand silence! Silence, for God's sake, silence! Both of you!"
My shouts carved their anger in thousands of pieces, shattering their moment of strife upon me intervening. Never have I ever seen two so different people. Hybris, a human with extraordinary magic abilities, is regarded
as the human race's most powerful caster.
Aurelia is a prominent young aristocrat with unlimited magical capabilities. Disciplined, intelligent, and well, feminine, compared to Hybris.
These two couldn't be more opposite. Opposites attract in certain circumstances, but not on this one.
The two of them froze in their positions, taking a few steps away from each other, looking at each other with their peripheral vision, with the corners of their eyes.
I exhaled a little, trying to relax. I don't like it when people are messing with my nerves. Especially when that is the equivalent of screaming and arguing. They are ruining my inner peace.
"I tried to warn you..."
Artemisia raised her shoulders, looking at the ever more unlikely duo.
"What am I going to do with them...tell me, Artemisia?"
My companion just crossed her two arms in deep thought. Unlike her more aggressive counterpart, Aurelia, Artemisia is a strategic, analytical thinker, capable of solving any problem. That's why she's one of my first conspirators. She's received a lot of my blood these past few months, making her even more good-looking and analytical.
"I just don't see her value in here. She's not am Urg! She's just a puny, weak human, carrying all this stinky, horrid, red substance inside her, keeping her warm and alive...disgusting."
Do the Urgs discriminate against humans? Yes, they do. In the game, my sister took on her side all the humans of the Empire, thus having an army with far greater numbers. With the "power of friendship," she manages to overcome Vespertite in the end.
Vespertite, me, on the other hand, didn't really have the Humans on her side, not their armies. She only had the support of a handful of Imperialist Urgs, managing to maintain the Imperialist roots this land once valued.
The populist Aristea, and her radicalism, swayed the people, an exercise in which Plato called "Demagogy." I advocate against this kind of treatment. "Everyone is equal", yeah bullshit.
Call me a stinky fascist, an Imperialist, anything, but you can't change this: an upper class person is in the "upper" class for some reason. Because they have money? Yes. However, using that money to educate yourself in the ways of the sciences, is what makes you different than a typical nouveau-riche personality.
Anyway, I got a little sidetracked here. Thank God there's no communism in this world, otherwise, I'd know who to destroy first. And it wouldn't be my sister, I assure you. Damn those utopianist idiots.
Aurelia may feel disgust towards humans, as any other Urg would, but I can't bring myself to. I was a human in my past life, and I just can't wrap my head around it. To hate them, I mean.
"What did you just say to me, you little shit?"
"Whatever you heard, you athuroglot*! Such effrontery!" (*Athuroglot≈a vulgar orator.)
"Why speak this way when nobody understands you?"
"Uh, they do. You're just a peasant, that's why you don't understand. You're supposed to be a serf. I have no idea how you've come to inherit such a powerful magic Odos."
"Aurelia," I interrupted her, "let's just calm down, alright?"
"But, dearest Vespertire, this is no way to speak when addressing thyself and myself! This is preposterous, proletariat-style behaviour!"
That's it, I'm marrying this girl. But I need to mediate things here. If I want a powerful asset who can appeal to the masses, like Hybris, for example, it would be great to have her by my side.
"Ugh, another one of your philosophical and Liberal Arts discussions, booooring. I just want to be tutored by Miss Evil Princess. May I be tutored by Miss Evil Pri-?"
"First of all, don't call me that."
"Alright, how should I call you then? Vespertite?"
"That is fine by me."
"W H A T? You're letting her call you by thy glorious, magnificent first name?! And why can't I do that too?"
"You can, Aurelia. I never said you cannot. I'm your girlfriend, after all."
Just for a moment, I saw Hybris' stoic face crack up, with me mentioning the term "girlfriend" when referring to Aurelia. Maybe she's just a close-minded conservative Church follower. She's a human, after all. She doesn't think the same as us. We're a different race, and generally a different people, so we're bound to be different in some way.
"Why can't we just get this over with? Show me. Show me the magic."
I looked briefly at Artemisia for a moment, silently asking for her permission. She just smiled, nodding her head silently. Aurelia looked at us, thinking that something was going on here. And if she did indeed think of that, then she's goddamn right.
"Alright. You two, versus me. Sounds fair, doesn't it?"I said, taking swiftly out my Surger, striking an aggressive stance, ready to attack.
"What?! Me too?!", the confused partner of mine asked.
"Yes, Aurelia, you too. You're going to assist my fellow apprentice here."
"Oi, oi, oi oi oi oi! I didn't sign up for this! You told me you were going to teach me some spells!"
"And that's what I'm going to do! Hey, you can't learn spells without proper training first!"
"B-but where are the incantation lessons?! Where's the theoretical aspect of this training session!?"
"Incantation lessons? Nay, we aren't puny little humans to study 'incantation' and other hindrances like that. You're going to train, and you're going to train in Urgish-style asymmetrical magic warfare!"
"Asymetrical wha-?!"
"Level One! Latin!"
"We're screwed..."said Aurelia, taking out her Surger, lining next to Hybris.
"H-hey, nerd...I have noticed you're...trembling a little..."
"Shut it. You're the one who's trembling, not me."
"Hey...I landed a hit on her previously. This might not be so hard."
"Just be careful not to blink."
"...what?"
Just in front of her, Hybris happened to find me. From the 50 metres away that I was, I just teleported right in her face, charging up an attack on her abdomen. My smile seemed to trigger some sort of unease to her.
"...bam"
With that, an explosion triggered in point blank range of Hybris, sending her off the window of my old room, out on the courtyard of the 149th floor in the Palace.
I trust that she landed safely.
"Uhm...I surrender...?"
"No, Aurelia, you're not."
"I guess I'm not then..."
A blue-ish beam came out of her Surger, as I blocked it with ease. The next time I checked up on her, she isn't supposed to be this fast...
Aurelia chose to regroup up with her "friend" outside on the courtyard, using a weak spell as this for me to block, so she could have a time-frame to go and help her.
"Nice thinking, dearest..."
I walked my way on the broken window, but I sort of hate to duck out of it and risk getting my beautiful skin unneeded scars.
So I blew it up.
"What the...?!"said Aurelia, helping the burnt Hybris stand up from the ground, as troubled, but entertained guests seemed to enjoy our fight.
I stood up on the end of the blown wall, staring down at my adversaries.
"Level Two! Ancient Greek!"
"Uh-oh, it's getting harder..."
"It's getting what?"said Hybris, now freaked out, as she self-healed her own wounds.
"Hey, Hybris! I expected you to be more battered than what you are! Survive one more of my attacks, and we're going to Urgish Level next time!"
Aurelia and Hybris had their jaws dropped, with me laughing sinisterly, looking down on them.
They looked behind them. Another one of those attacks, and they wouldn't stand lucky, to find themselves on a courtyard such as this.
"The next courtyard is 50 floors down, if that's what you're thinking."
I let my feet touch the air, falling down elegantly, levitating downwards, slowly descending down to face my unnerved adversaries.
"So? Who's going to go next? Come on, I'm waiting. If you can land an attack on me, I'll tell you the incantation of a single Urgish spell to use. For each attack you land, you'll learn one spell. How does that sound?"
"It's the shittiest, most cursed, most sadistic training session of my life! She...she's...!"
" 'Evil'? Yeah, I get that a lot."
Hybris clicked her tongue, as I just blew off my nails, waiting for one of them to come. I'm an expert at close quarter's combat, but I'm also efficient in long range bombardment; it doesn't matter from which angle or direction or range they attack; if their attack is not good enough, they're bound to get injured.
"You...screw you, Vespertite!"she said, flying off from her position, attacking me using Magica to strengthen her legs, thus making her faster, the ground getting blown off her.
I gotta admit, she's getting stronger with each second that passes. I thought this would be a nice time to kill time for my match with Aristea, but I'm thinking of actually making this my actual training session too.
Instead of using her Surger, she just formed a punch with her hand, trying to land a hit on me. With a simple drop of a shoulder and dodge of my head, I moved aside.
"Use your Surger, not your hands. This Duel is noble, not to be confused with brutish fist-fighting."
But, just from behind her, Aurelia advanced, charging up an attack. Ah, I see. A diversionary attack from Hybris to bait me, and a real, follow-up attack from Aurelia when I'm off-guard.
Ambitious. Promising. It would have worked on a normal, strong and skilled opponent. Unfortunately, I'm not your average, simply talented magician.
"I...got you!"
Just as she tried to project a beam on my face, point blank, I just teleported next to her, and then behind her, mid-air.
"Oops, seems like I need to actually use some percent of my power...you got me."
Both of them looked behind them, with me yawning, not even facing at their direction.
"I'm bored." I simply told them. An effective taunt.
"You cocky little...!"
"No, that's all part of...!"
With a step on to the ground, Hybris found herself stuck onto the ground, with some kind of chains binding her from the ground.
"Ah, one of my traps. Come on, even an elementary school kiddo can spot that.
With a simple stretch of the chains, however, Hybris managed to break them and continue her advance.
"...yeah, I'm pretty sure an Elementary school kid cannot do that.
"Just fight me already!"
"I am. You just haven't realised it yet. That's because I've been landing hits on you since the start of this fight. You just haven't received them yet, for the simple reason that I cast a 'time freeze' on them."
"Translation, smartass!"said Hybris, with her throwing whatever hex and spell she could find in her arsenal at me.
"Meaning that you have already lost."
Just then, the sound of shattered glasses penentrated reality. I released the time freeze I had on my magical footprint on my hits, and the magical spells I had cast on them, found their way on the duo.
The results were just what you'd expect; Aurelia had already given up as soon as she found out about my time freeze, waiting for the inevitable, and Hybris, while still coming at me, found herself knocked out, blown off just an inch before she reached me with her wand.
Both of them, with a concussion each, cuts, and injuries, just rested on the ground, raising their hands, looking at the sky helplessly and giving up.
Artemisia just kept staring from the broken wall, drinking a fizzy beverage, whistling at how fast this escalated into a massacre.
"Ergo, read pages 214 to 300 of the Urgish Magic Dictionary, both of you. Train your muscles, and also improve your timing. Additionally, your chemistry and synchronisation, while it had its good moments, it was obviously lacking. Try to pin me down instead of attacking me at point-blank range. I mean, yes obviously I'm gonna dodge it from afar, but that goes for the same thing when you're up close."
"I give up already...how the hell am I supposed to beat you?!"
Hybris seemed to be on the wrong path here. I walked close to her, standing above her.
"Dear Hybris, my young lady, let me be straight with you: you weren't ever supposed to beat me. In fact, your fight today was so pitiful it nearly made me crawl on the ground and cry for hours."
My words seemed to carve inside her brain, with her eyes seemingly trembling a little.
"I hate boredom. I hate boring people, I hate boring spells, I hate routine, I hate every single thing that causes me even the slightest of lethargicness. And that fight, was boring. If you wish to learn even the slightest from me, learn not to be boring, please."
And just like that, I left her on the ground, with a bunch of other people rushing at the sight to see what had happened. Aurelia, with a few bones fractured, after she had calmed down, she tried to stand up.
She must be disappointed in herself. If there is anyone who can actually land a hit on me, a real hit on me, then that's her.
Artemisia levitated downwards, to heal her and Hybris, as I just disappeared inside the castle through the front door which lead outside of the courtyard.
This was barely even a warm-up. I need to actually train myself for this weekend's match...if only I had a proper adversary to spar against...
But, it didn't matter in the end; I got Hybris under my control now. With this kind of challenge presented on her, she'll try to muster more courage and power to be able to even hit me, thus making her chase me and my tutelage. This ought to make her obsessed with the idea of what she will be able to learn if she's under my wing.
She'll be a fine asset to my growing Empire someday. An advocate of the people. A public figure. The head of the Humans. Their future Prime Minister.
This ought to increase the loyalty and fealty of Aurelia too. She probably thinks now that she's not good enough for me, probably thinking about how to increase her firepower more. How to be useful to me.
Ah, yes. It is all coming together. I'm strengthening me and my bonds everyday, thus increasing my connections everywhere.
Now, it's your turn, Aristea. What are you going to do? I wonder...what kind of ace do you have under your sleeve.
I can let her think she has some chances of winning, before I murder her in front of an entire audience.
Then, my army stationed inside the Palace will capture the whole place, and I'll imprison my father.
Oh! I'm so close to making this Empire mine, once and for all! Soon, my plans will come to fruition! Wait for me, Aristea.
...just to let you on this little secret, my dear sister...you're already dead.
『AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Sorry for being so off schedule guys. My university had me submit this kind of thesis that had me hooked on since February, and I really had to publish it before the 1st of June. I will upload 2 more chapters tomorrow, as a treat! Also, a little hint: something unexpected might happen in the next chapter. You won't see it coming! See ya soon!』