failed assassination

The next day James meets up with some of his classmates at their training areas.

Sam, the petite black-haired supporter and Kai also having joined the five classmates who visited him the day before.

When he shows up as the last to arrive, he feels a cold shudder run over his spine he's not unfamiliar with.

"Yo dude. Can you teach me how you make those weapons? I love weapons and I'm no good at big scale magic so that might be just my thing." Kai asks James excitedly when he arrives.

"I can try to show you how I guess." James accepts, only for the others to start spouting requests like crazy.

"Give him some room. How about James looks into our skills individually. If you're up to it prince." Serena says sweetly, sneaking a finger over his back unnoticed by the rest.

"Yeah, sounds better than this." James agrees.

"Let's go to the gym then. We can use some of the confinement booths to train." Lily says, having read about the equipment allowing students to train on their own without interruption except for when their life is in danger.

"Yeah!" Yasmina shouts excited and starts pushing James ahead of herself with the rest of the class.

Once in the gym the students enter rooms next to each other and Kai is the first one, James entering with him.

"So what element are you good with Kai?" James asks the shorter, Asian muscle packed teen.

"Fire and wood." He tells James.

"Better start with wood then." James says smiling and holds his hand out, a bo staff springing into existence.

"Neat, but how does it work?" Kai asks.

"You need to have a clear imagine in mind. Weight, length, feel, shape, everything about it. That's the first step. Once you have a clear goal in mind you need to practice bending the element to your will and forming your weapon." James tells him.

"It has a long training time and the rewards are limited, since for every type of weapon, Bo, Katana, gun, you need to start from scratch every time. That's why this spell or rather skill, since it has no incantations, is not very popular. There are basically only a handful people alive who are known to use this on a high enough level where they can defeat stronger demons than just the foot soldiers." James tells Kai.

"So I need to get a feel for the weapon first?" Kai asks and James nods.

"Do you have a weapon mind?" James asks and Kai nods happily.

"I'm gonna get it." Kai replies and hurries out of the room.

James knocks on the next room's door and Lily opens it with a gentle smile, letting him enter before closing the door behind him and stands in front of it.

"So, what so you want help with? I don't use support magic much, but I have a decent knowledge on the way it works." James asks.

"Don't mind the magic. I want to know more about your family." Lily says smirking.

"Like, what kind of clothes does your brother like on a woman?" She asks.

"Seriously? This again?" James asks, Lily nodding eagerly.

"Listen I'm telling you. I don't think my brother is the right guy for you. But if you really insist I can have him meet you later. He is still in town and since you're Rowan he won't mind meeting you. But seriously you shouldn't do this. He is a smart man and I love him as my brother, but with women... I don't respect how he handles his affairs with them." James tells Lily.

"You will?" She asks happily, ignoring his warning, thinking he's jealous of the blonde prince.

"Yeah, just meet us later at my place. I will leave you alone and you can get to know him while I take a stroll." James tells her.

"Thank you." Lily says overly happy and kisses his cheek before moving to the center of the room and starting to chant spells energetically, James looking at the blonde with a wide variety of emotion, mostly impressed by her skill, but concerned by her obsession which will lead to nothing good as far as he can tell.

He exits the room and knocks on the next door. The door swings open and he's dragged into a room covered in a thin mist, the person forcing him to his knees with ease.

Looking to his side he sees Serena look down at him with hate and punch him in his face, not holding back.

"Wha.." He chokes out, gasping for air due to the mist triggering his body's reaction to feel suffocated, even though he is breathing.

"I never thought I would get this lucky yesterday. I was prepared to go through with this for the long run. But to think you'd reveal your weakness this easily, let alone it being such a simple thing as a bit of mist." Serena says tauntingly, looking coldly at his panicked face with tears in his eyes as he's clutching his throat.

"You don't know me huh? Well doesn't matter. I will finally get my revenge." She says, while he tries to push her away weakly with Serena just kicking him over roughly and stomping onto his face twice, banging it up a bit, giving him a bloody nose and busted lip before kneeling on his chest with one knee, holding a dagger to his throat with shaking hands while he tries to get her off him. She holds the dagger against his skin, a trickle of blood coming out, decorating the tip of her dagger while she looks down with her eyes tearing up, dropping the dagger next to him and rears her hand back for another punch instead, only to get pushed away by an invisible force, hitting the wall behind her hard and feels blood running down her arm in a worrisome amount, from a headwound as she's guessing. She can't move, simply staring ahead while a coughing James rolls onto his stomach and stabs himself in his leg with her dagger, taking a deep influx of air as far as she can tell, before he rushes over to her, lying her on her back and putting a hand onto her head, the next thing she then can remember is a shining crocodile pulling her out of a sea of black she was sinking into.

Serena shoots up, taking deep breaths and looks around panicking, before realizing she's still in the same room, mist only still on the ceiling, gradually dissipating while James is weakly sitting against a wall to her right, holding a glowing palm over his leg and pushes down, biting into the belt in his mouth while he heals himself.

"Agh. Fuck that hurts." He curses, dropping the belt out of his mouth.

"What did you do?" Serena asks, touching her head and feeling her hair damp and sticky from blood, but no wound on her head.

"I healed you." He groans, feeling his back burning angrily.

"Why? I want to kill you." She asks confused and angry.

"Serena Lenvo, or would you prefer Serena Maruk?" James asks looking at the redhead, sliding her dagger over to her and making her eyes widen.

"You know?" She says stunned.

"I have known since Alfred came here. One of the reasons for his visits was to warn me." James says.

"The Rowan Empire knows?" Serena asks shakily.

"Only that you're here and in my class." James replies, standing up and holding himself up against the wall while staggering over to her, before flopping down next to her, leaning against the same wall she is.

"Are you going to kill me? Like your father killed my family?" Serena asks quietly.

"I hope not to. But that only works if you won't come after me again or my brother. My dad is fair game as far as I'm concerned." James tells her.

"The force wave was unintentional, a spell I cast on myself everyday to prevent me from well, what happened just now to be honest." James explains.

"Aren't you the Empire's number one henchman?" She asks disdainful.

"I was. Until you. Or rather the conquering of the Vilance Kingdom." James says.

"What do you mean until me?" She asks, looking at him with wide eyes.

"You are right. In the past, when I was young I killed and hurt anyone my father told me to. Most of the time I didn't mind because I knew they were bad people. What he did to you when you tried to get revenge for your family, that was the incident where I didn't want to be my father's son anymore." James explains.

"And you think I'd just believe you, let alone forgive you?" She says laughing bitterly.

"You don't need to. I never expected anything good to come from interacting with you. But didn't you ask yourself how you and your parents were able to escape the invasion?" James asks.

"What does it matter? They still died fighting your Empire." Serena says saddened.

"It may not matter to you, but it matters to me." James says.

"Quit lying. You couldn't care less about any of us." Serena shouts angrily.

"Your parents brought you to a farm in the neighboring Kingdom of Solice. They left you with an old trading partner they had and then they made a bad decision. They left you and wanted to get their Kingdom back." James says.

"How do you know this?" She asks with big eyes looking up at the dark-haired teen standing above her.

"Because I was there. I smuggled you out of the country and begged your parents not to go back and fight. But they thought this was a sign that the Rowan Empire is weakened. They didn't even make it back to the city before falling in battle." James says sitting down in front of her.

"No one had to die. I tried to stop it." He tells her with a haunted expression.

"I don't. I can't believe you." She stammers stupefied.

"Like I said I don't need you to. Just don't so anything stupid like this again and one day I may even be able to restore your magic to the way it was. But not if you get on my father's radar and he sends people after you." James says, his father stripping her of most her magic when she attacked him 3 years after her parents died having been what changed their relationship.

"Here. Clean yourself up enough so no one will ask questions." James tells her, taking off his black jacket and drops it in her lap.

James then leaves the room and uses his cloaking spell to quickly rush home and clean himself up before continuing to help his classmates as though nothing happened.