15 The Unexpected

As I swung open the door, my eyes squinted from the bright light cast upon me.

My eyes started to focus again, and I could see clearly that the people's heads were turned towards me. They anticipated for something to happen.

I stepped forward so they could see me clearly, I slightly leaned against the railing and looked around.

I could see some familiar faces in the crowd looking up at me. When I shifted my eyes through the crowd I saw a group of people that I didn't expect. It was the royal family themselves! As soon as I saw them I had many questions forming in my head. Why are they here? Did something happen? How am I supposed to greet them? I wasn't ready. Even though I was a king in my past life, this is still different. If only I knew more about politics in this world... Now I regret not learning about politics about this world because I never thought something like this would happen to me.

I gulped and looked at my parents, my father nodded at me and I looked back at the crowd. Taking a few deep breaths then I began to speak, "I would like to thank everyone for coming to my 6th birthday party and sending me amazing gifts. I would also thank my parents and the people who made this party happen, without them I don't know how this party would happen. I sincerely hope that you would enjoy this party. Thank You!" I said while bowing down.

There was silence, everyone was looking at me with a mixture of surprise and wonder.

Then someone from the crowd began to clap, I looked around and my eyes landed on the king, he was clapping for me, he had a big smile on his face. Everyone else also followed that person's lead and clapped, some cheered. The crowd started chattering with each other.

I sighed in relief and turned back to my parents.

"Good job, Aug!" My dad patted my back.

"Thank you, but I didn't know the royal family was here. Did you know?" I asked, looking up at my father.

"I also didn't expect the king and his family to come, maybe we should go over and greet them." He suggested.

I nodded my head and we proceeded to walk down the swirling stairs.

'Ari, how are you holding up?'

'Good Aug, I can feel that you are quite nervous.' She said, giggling.

'Well, it's the royal family themselves, how can I not be nervous, especially when I don't know anything about politics in this world.' I sighed.

'I can see them, we're getting close.' Ari warned.

I looked forward and I could see them in the distance. The royal family looked pretty stunning themselves. The King was pretty tall with his amazing short dark blue hair swept to the side that matched with his warm green eyes, the queen has a milky white skin with long black hair, her body was slim that looked really good in her white tight fit dress.

There were 2 kids standing next to them, a boy and a girl. The boy took after the queen with black hair and blue eyes that had the look of full determination, he looked a bit shorter than me, but still pretty tall. The girl has brilliant long dark blue hair and green eyes, she is the same height as Kayla, maybe the same age too.

As I zoned out, I didn't see them until Ari warned me.

'August! They're walking towards us!" Ari warned.

I snapped back to reality and looked back at them.

My dad approved the family and bowed, we followed and bowed.

"Your majesty, I am honored for you to come to my son's birthday party." My dad said, the king chuckled.

"How can I not come to one of my greatest soldier's son's birthday party? I also wanted to see your son and I can see that he looks a lot like you." The king chuckled.

"Well while we are on it, I would like to introduce you to our kids, they don't have any friends so I hoped that they can be friends with your son." the King said.

"I would happily accept our kids to be friends." My dad said happily.

"Good, then kids you should go introduce yourselves first." The King gestured to his kids as they stepped forward.

"It's nice to meet you, my name is Noah and beside me is my sister, Avery." Noah said.

I nodded and introduced myself, "My name is August Peirce, you can just call me Aug if you want."

"Nice to meet you Aug." Noah shook my hand with a grin on his face. He looked like an extrovert, I can tell just by looking at his face. But the girl on the other hand is the exact opposite, I didn't even hear her say a word throughout this whole thing.

"Show them around, maybe bring them to the training room." My dad suggested.

"Okay." It wasn't a bad idea, we could hang out there.

"Follow me, I'll bring you to the training room." I said turning back to them.

We walked towards the training room, on the way there we began to talk, surprisingly Avery spoke a few sentences.

Arriving at the training room, I noticed that my father had appointed a few guards to guard the training room before we arrived.

"Can I enter?" I asked, they were staring straight forward into the distance, they were emotionless and standing like a statue ready to leap into action. I've got to say, they are pretty good just by looking.

"Ah, are you master August?" One of the guards said turning shifting his gaze towards me.

"Yes, I've brought some friends, can we go in?" I asked.

"Yes, of course. You don't have to ask us master Aug." The soldier said as he stepped aside so we could walk inside.

I nodded towards them and walked in with Noah and Avery.

"We're here, please feel free to look around." I said, turning towards them.

"Wow, this training room looks amazing and so spacious." Noah said with a amazed expression on his face.

"There is also a meditation room in the far left room, I think there's some books in there if you want to read it." I said, shifting my eyes towards Avery. For a second I could see her eyes sparkle, even though her face didn't change I could see that the corners of her eyes smile a bit.

"Ah, I forgot to ask. Have you guys awakened yet? I know that kids usually awaken at the age of 11 or 12, but just in case." I said turning back towards them.

I won't usually ask this because I know awakening at an early age isn't common, but just in case, since in some times there are special cases where a member or two of the royal family awakens early.

"No, none of us have awakened yet. Why did you ask?" Noah had a suspicious look on his face. Trying not to steer in the wrong direction I didn't want to say anything else that could be suspicious.

"Ah, It's because there is an area where you can practice your magic, my parents said to warn people who aren't awakened to not go in there." I said smiling, trying to steer away from the wrong path.

"Oh, ok. Then let's just go to the sword area, I learned some few tricks to try." I could see Noah was fooled pretty easily, but Avery on the other hand was still looking a bit suspicious.

From this small problem I could tell who was more superior in terms of knowledge. I smiled to myself thinking about this.

"Alright, I could practice a bit with my sword too." If I can't practice my magic, the least I could do is to practice my sword skills even though I was good enough.

Before I died my father used to say, "even if you are a professional or an expert, there will always be someone better than you."

Saying that made me release that someone in this world or even another, there is always someone who's working harder than you, living a life worse than yours. There will be people who live in worse lives but still don't give up because they want a better life for themselves, that's how people rise to the top- people work hard and put in effort.

You work on yourself and the things you want to work on, when you work hard and put effort in your life, the thing you want will slowly come to you; you don't need to go to them, they will come to you once you focus and work hard on yourself.

That's why in this life I decided to work harder than before, I want a better life not made by my parents, but made by me. I want the feeling of accomplishment and success on my own. This is my goal, to build my own life from my efforts.

--

After spending an hour in the training room; it was time for Noah and Avery to go back, I waved them good-bye and waited for the next day to come.

Tomorrow is when I leave to go on my adventure. I will be seeing my family in 4 years, I can't believe that I'm leaving already. It's only been a few weeks. I will surely grow stronger to protect my precious family...