Gift For The "King"

"By the order of his majesty, the following terms should be fulfilled. Firstly, Varlam and Valnyk Aurae have to willingly follow Royal Guards to the castle, secondly, House of Aurae is to apologize for their irresponsible actions and pay compensation." the soldier read out loudly standing in front of a large gate.

On the other side of the gate, Varay stood not caring about the guards. She was only waiting for the arrival of her father and brother, who went out to meet a certain researcher in the floating city of Xyrus.

'Should I just kick them away?' thought Varay as she was annoyed by the loud shouts from the other side of the gate.

"Not responding to His Majesty will be counted as a protest of the crown and betrayal." Once again the man continued shouting, this time using an artifact to enhance his voice.

A tick mark popped on Varay's forehead. She wouldn't care about them just shouting, but those people were insulting her family with false accusations and now are even requiring them to follow willingly.

"They asked for it." Not giving it a second thought, a giant ice-spike shot out from beneath Varay's feet.

The ice-spike burst through the gate easily and stopped right before it could reach the Royal Guard. The petrified man stood, almost pissing his pants while staring at an ice-spike close to his face. Shakingly, he turned around and walked away with cautious steps.

"Fuck... I thought I was going to die." the man muttered and walked towards his horse.

At the same spot were the other Royal Guards, who with 'O' shaped mouths, stared at the gigantic ice-spike.

"Damn, that thing is enormous." commented one of the soldiers, others agreed with him. The ice-spike sent by Varay reached at least 20 meters above ground level. It was apparent to them that someone behind the gates was out of their league.

"Isn't it better to leave them be? Why bother with these people?"

"What are you saying, soldiers? They made fools out of our king and you are going to not bother with them? They think they can do everything they please and get away without punishment, so let's show those bastards what it means to mess with us!" A fairly young man stood out from the crowd, he proceeded to encourage his soldiers.

'Oh not the lord's son again...' every soldier on the site thought the same.

On the other hand, Varlam and Valnyk just spotted their manor in sight. An ice-spike in their manor's gate bothered them, but Valnyk realized it was most likely Varay who did it.

"They pissed her off." said Varlam as he also realized what happened. In response, Valnyk only nodded.

"Let's get there, before those soldiers kill themselves." Varlam ordered the driver to quicken the pace of the carriage.

It didn't take long to get close to the gates. The carriage was white in color, obviously of an Aurae House and soldiers took notice of this. Right after stopping the carriage, soldiers encircled it, with their weapons unsheathed.

"What should I do, my lord?" said the driver as he entered the carriage.

"Just sit with us." Varlam motioned the man to sit next to him, the driver complied and did as he was told.

"Get out of the carriage!" The three people heard someone shouting from the outside.

Valnyk stood up, stretching himself before cracking knuckles in his fingers, as an act of badassery. He then waited for the right moment to open the door, anticipating the moment for guards to come close and open it.

Just when he heard someone yelling close to the door, only then Valnyk smashed his augmented leg into the door, sending it flying away. Along with the door flew the man, who lost consciousness right after impact.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Valnyk, just for the image, apologized to the other soldier who was panicking like a little kid.

The soldiers were dumbfounded, however, soon someone fell out from the trance and pointed his weapon at Valnyk. The others reacted quickly and shouted at their comrade.

"What are you doing man?! He's just a kid!" Many similar shouts followed, the one who aimed the weapon was greatly startled.

"But he..." The soldier couldn't help, but mutter and lower his weapon.

"Nah, still idiots." Valnyk closed his eyes and sighed in disappointment, with folded arms he just walked towards the ice-spike.

"Mr. Driver, you may follow. I'll melt this ice." he called out for the driver, who carefully looked outside of the carriage. the driver just nodded and took his rightful place.

"Hey, you!" Some soldier intended to put the hand on Valnyk's shoulder, but to his surprise, Valnyk grabbed it first and threw the man over him.

The soldier landed on his belly, he grunted in pain and wanted to get up, but Valnyk placed a knee on his back and brought the same hand behind his back. Applying a little more force and Valnyk was prepared to dislocate the man's shoulder.

"Agh! Stop it!" the man cried out, pleading to get released.

"You order your people to get out of this land, or I'll start breaking your bones." Valnyk whispered in the man's ear, the man tilted his head a little and saw Valnyk's lizard eyes staring right through his soul.

"I'm not going to repeat it again, order them to get out of here." Valnyk's words were heard, although the man wasn't intending to give the order to leave, but something entirely different.

"A-Attack him!" he shouted desperately, his soldiers tensed up and got into stances to shoot their magic at Valnyk, but they were abruptly halted.

Their legs were frozen in ice, to the point where they couldn't move them.

"You are senseless, I gave you a chance, but you wasted it. Not something I expected from the noble house of Ravenpoop." Valnyk mocked the man and with a swift motion, he twisted the man's elbow.

"Agh?!" The man winced in pain, he tried to get up, but in vain. Valnyk applied more strength on his leg and pressed down Ravenpoor's chest on the ground, with face buried in the dirt.

"Listen here, if I ever again see the Royal Guards in my lands, I will personally burn down the castle." he warned and let go of his arm, before retracting his foot too.

"I'll leave a gift for Blaine Glayde, heh." Valnyk smiled like a maniac, revealing his sharp teeth.

He then channeled the fire-mana in his fingers and placed them on the man's back. Since Ravenpoor's head was still underground, his screaming was barely heard. With this, he proceeded to write something on his back. And seconds later, there was a letter especially carved for Blaine.

[Blaine, kiss my ass.]

"Beautiful... now bye-bye."

.

"Did you really write it straight like that?" Varlam asked, during the event he could see everything himself.

"Straight like that!" Valnyk nodded comically. It was indeed a ridiculous thing to do. At the same time, it was convenient, he literally wrote the letter on the living being, which could later automatically reach the receiver.

'Sometimes my genius... it's almost frightening.' Jokingly, Valnyk thought, of course, he wouldn't write such letters ever again.

The mother figure meanwhile was in quite the predicament.

'What is my son becoming?' Her son was either too confident in himself or simply crazy. No noble ever dared to belittle the Royalty ever before, and Valnyk did it casually.

"They weren't strong." Varay joined the conversation and commented about the soldier's strength.

"Some of the Royal Guards are those from noble houses that didn't have much potential, so they were given away by them, as if showing loyalty to the Royal Family. Anyway, the major strength of Sapin was people from noble families. In times of war, the noble houses had to gather troops and help out the country. Some noble houses were smart enough to keep their strongest to themselves." Varlam explained.

"No wonder, this actually speeds up our plans. Actually... Father, you once mentioned this candidacy for becoming the Lance." Valnyk could recall this, it was now time to know everything.

"Now this might be an actual problem. As I was told by the Royal Family, Lances are a strategic military asset and receive some kind of artifact to reach the white core-stage. By the pact signed long ago, the Aurae House, along with Wykes House were obligated to send out their most talented mage to the castle for nurturing. In the end, those mages were turned into Lances."

'White core-stage huh? This can actually pose an issue. From what I heard from legends, white core-mages could technically destroy cities with one spell. But that's debatable, since Elenoir and Darv still exist... if only those countries have those artifacts too, maybe that's why...' once again Valnyk learned an essential piece of information.

'But in battle, I got a card up my sleeve. Unlike them, I'm comparable to strategic class weapons for real.'

Just what he was capable of with the integrated phase of his will, is enough to place any mage who has a mana-core in shame. In addition, the superior regeneration and the extraordinary physical capabilities. Just with the sacrifice of his full core, he will obliterate everyone with one energy blast, that was his current capabilities.

"Then what should we do? Those Lances would be on another level, compared to the Royal Guard." questioned Varay.

"If there were any Lances available, they would most likely send one by now. But hey, if they only receive the strongest mages from two families to raise and we rejected them before... that means, one last Wykes is still probably growing up." Val concluded.

"What about when Wykes grows up?"

"By that time, there won't be a flash of thought in the king's mind about touching my family." Valnyk answered with serious determination.

"Vanessa, we raised such a prodigious son." Varlam proudly proclaimed, but received a scoff from his wife.

"What do you mean 'we?' I was the one who raised him," she eyed her husband.

"But..." Varlam stopped in his tracks and slumped down in defeat, depressed.

"Also, what do you guys think about me going to Lancelor Academy?" a sudden question came from Valnyk.

"Huh, it's still early. You got 3 more years, don't you? Besides, why not Xyrus?" Vanessa put her hand on her chin and asked.

"That's right, I still have three years. However, I want to learn more about military doctrines than actual magic. Xyrus is concentrated on teaching and exploring magic, while Lancelor is more of a militaristic academy. Even father was taught there." explained Val.

"But I can teach you too, I'm a former officer!" affirmed Varlam, who regained himself.

"Hell no, you have no experience leading massive armies with thousands of people," his son immediately rejected his offer.

"Hmm, you are right. I only have experience leading smaller groups." Varlam nodded.

"I heard you right, you said army." suspicious Vanessa narrowed her eyes at Valnyk.

"Exactly." the little draconic human-only grinned in response.

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