(5) Group Chat?

Claude POV

A day after the ball, Melissa Introduced me to Duke Podebrat or her father. Melissa told the duke that she will hire me as a personal guard-cum-musician. I didn't hate the fact I will be a guard since I don't have anywhere else to go to.

The Duke was pretty concerned having someone like me, A random person Melissa picked up from somewhere to be her personal guard since I might leak secrets of the duchy but Melissa just made a reasonable excuse that she helped me and some other beggars and that I swore my loyalty to her as a form of gratitude for the kindness she has showed.

The Duke was a bit skeptical at first but just sighed with defeat and approved. There, I'm finally Melissa's guard but there is only one problem that is troubling me about my occupation. I didn't know how to fight with a sword. I told Melissa this news in her room after her conversation with the Duke and she was pretty shocked.

"Huh!? You told me you know how to fight and you don't even know how to use a sword?" She says while face-palming.

"I don't know how to fight with it but I think it will be easy to learn since it's me." I say while looking at the sword on my waist. Melissa gave me this sword after the talk with the duke since I didn't have my own sword and because who would fight someone with a sword with a fist.

"Sigh... I guess I need to hire a personal teacher for you. Yona, Tell the Duke to introduce Me and Claude to the Empire's greatest swordmaster. While Claude is getting trained by the swordmaster I might as well try to learn Swordsmanship as well." She says while leaning back on her couch.

Yona just sighs and I heard her mutter before leaving "What kind of lady is this needy." I giggle a bit after hearing her words.

Melissa then asks "By the way Claude, Can you sing me a song. A nice song if possible." She then lays down on the coach waiting for me to sing.

"I'm not your personal Vinyl player you know?" I say with a scoff.

"I know, you're much better than that." She replies.

I then took the guitar besides the wall and sat on the chair next to her couch. Then I started to play the guitar and sang a song that I remember. (Song : Khai Dreams - Ultimately)

After I sang the song I looked at Melissa who had a bit of frown.

"Was the song bad? Pretty sure all of songs i sing are good since it came from my mouth." I say with confusion.

"I told you to sing something nice not sing some depressing shit." She says with a bit of irritation.

"I see, but it was good right?"

"Yes, now sing another song. One that isn't depressing."

I sigh and sang another song to her, something that is a bit cheery other than the one I sang since she is picky. I then heard a bunch of voices with a high and cheery voice talk behind me.

{Wow, this human has a great voice! Say brothers, Am I right, right?}

{Yep, definitely. This human knows how to sing!}

{Wowie!}

I look at my back only to see the wall behind me. 'What the..' I was confused on who could those voices be, I look at Melissa and saw she was still listening to me play music. She seemed to have not heard the voices so I thought it was just me going crazy or something.

(Next Day)

It was now the next day and I am standing behind Melissa who is taking a seat while drinking tea. Today was the time the swordmaster will be coming to the duchy to teach me and I was impressed on how fast the Duke was able to convince someone with the title Swordmaster of the kingdom to teach Me and Melissa immediately.

We were infront of the estate's personal training grounds. This place is where the guards of the duchy usually train and practice fighting/sparring with each other.

After a few minutes of waiting, I saw someone riding a horse heading towards us. It was a well built man with a beard, After seeing him I assume it was the swordmaster since this is the meeting place Melissa told the Swordmaster.

"Am I late? I'm sorry lady Melissa. My name is Hilbert Vria the kingdom's best swordmaster." Hilbert introduces himself after getting off his horse.

"You are not late even if you were we wont mind since we are the one taking your time. As you already know you will be mainly teaching Me and my personal guard, Claude. You will be teaching two people, I hope you dont mind Sir Hilbert." Melissa stood up from the chair she was sitting on and shaked Hilbert's hand.

"I don't mind. It was written in the letter written by the duke that I will be teaching you both which I don't see a problem with." The three of us then head to the middle of the training grounds. Hilbert took 3 swords from the sword stand by the side and hands Melissa and I one for each of us.

Hilbert hands me my sword and asks "Say young man, Have you had any fighting experience? Assuming that you're a guard, you should know how to fight." I then took the sword from his hands and reply.

"Yes, I guess I have fighting experience. I know how to fight with hand to hand combat and Yesterday I have fought a wolf and someone with wolf ears if fighting those two have any significance." I tell Hilbert. Honestly, I have no idea if fighting a wolf and that red haired guy something to be proud of since I don't know if they were even strong.

"Oh, Impressive. So you have fought a wolf and a werewolf. Thankfully, you are still alive after fighting a werewolf alone. Since humans are physically weaker than werewolves, people tend to lose their lives fighting them." Hilbert tells me.

'It seems that I'm strong enough in this place. Wait... by the way, did he just say werewolf? Like in those children stories where they turn into werewolves when it's full moon?' I was a bit shocked after hearing the news that a race of species like that actually exist and seeing how Hilbert said it, I assume for it to be true and now I am sure I'm not in my original world or at least I might be dreaming.

*Clap*

Hilbert Claps to get both of our attention.

"Alright we will be first learning how to swing a sword properly. I will be teaching you guys with different speed of training since one of you might be able to learn faster than the other." He says. Melissa and I both nod at his statement.

"First, swing your sword. I will teach you how to swing a sword properly after seeing both of your swings."

After he said that I held the sword that is in my right hand tightly to get a good grip of how much speed and strength I need to properly use it. Just like when I fought the wolf, The sword in my right hand felt like I have been practicing it for more than a decade.

*Whoosh*

With only my right arm, I swing the sword diagonally with ease. It felt really comfortable when I swing it that way so I kept repeating the same action for a few times.

(General POV)

Melissa and Hilbert who saw this had widened eyes. Hilbert was impressed after seeing Claude swing the sword with grace. Hilbert was now thinking if Claude has been practicing swordsmanship ever since he was a child. Meanwhile Melissa was thinking 'This lying bastard! I thought you didn't know how to fight! Judging from how easily you swing your sword, You do know how to fight with it!' Melissa is swinging her sword a bunch of times, She swung well but not as good as how Claude swing his.

"Impressive." exclaims Hilbert, He was surprised to see two talented individuals swing a sword well unlike a newbie. He was impressed to see Claude know how to handle the sword so well but what shocked him the most is how Melissa, a Duke's daughter know how to swing properly as opposed to other noble ladies who tried to learn swordsmanship.

"Alright, that's enough. You both have the basics but still lack consistency. Swing your sword 1000 times without stopping." Hilbert told the duo to swing the sword so he can evaluate what is their shortcomings so that he can tell them what to improve on.

(2 Weeks Later)

And just like that 2 weeks have passed. Claude has learned there was no such thing as modern in this world. He told himself he was in "Another world" since there was no such thing Japan, USA, Africa, or even China. He has went to the duchy's library in his spare time when he is not guarding Melissa to learn more about this world.

One of the biggest information he has gained is that he is in a kingdom called Roan Kingdom in the western continent. The western kingdom was pretty huge, It has an Antarctic up north and down in the south there is a gigantic jungle ruled by southerners. Roan Kingdom rules the east of the western continent.

Claude has also learned how to wield a sword and use it properly while fighting and Hilbert told him that he has already mastered wielding the sword and cannot teach him anymore, Hilbert just decided to teach Melissa who also starting to get a hang of swordsmanship.

Today, Claude was behind Melissa who was outside eating outside with Martha who was Melissa's childhood nanny. Even if he was a guard, most of Melissa's orders were for Claude to sing for her. He didn't mind it since he loved singing and the only thing is he wanted to perform in a much larger audience but since he is a guard, there was only so much he can do. He also got close to the other staff since he would sing them songs everytime they were on break.

Claude was watching Martha and Melissa talk until he sensed something dangerous heading towards them, Melissa also felt it a second later. Claude was now able to sense danger somehow after sparring with Hilbert continuously.

"BOTH OF YOU, WATCH OUT!" Claude yells to Melissa and Martha.

Melissa grabbed Martha and jumped to the side to dodge what is about to come and Claude unsheathed his sword instantaneous speed. Claude then swung his sword upwards and hit a red silhouette, It was Jack Forton. After the initial clash, Jack flew 30 meters away and hit a pillar.

"Argh!" Jack groans from the sudden attack.

Claude was on guard and points his sword into Jack's direction.

"What the hell was that!" Melissa yells from the unexpected barge of Jack.

"It's the werewolf I fought in the ball. Maybe he wants dog food from your pitbull." Claude tells Melissa who was behind him.

Jack the stood up with a bit of pain and yells "You bastard, What the hell was that for!" he says like he wasn't in the wrong since he almost endangered someone.

"I'm protecting my boss since it's my job."

"You-" He was about to say something until the ground Infront of him made a small explosion.

It was a bullet hitting the ground infront of Jack, everyone looked at the rooftop from where the bullet came from and saw Jake or Melissa's little brother sitting with his rifle out while scratching his red nose.

"Get the fuck out. You stink." Jake told the werewolf. Jake has allergies to dog fur and seeing Jack nearby, he couldn't help but make sure that Jack stay far away from him.

"YOU FUCKERS!" Jack yells in annoyance.

Jack grabbed stones that was on the ground and threw it towards Jake while Jake shot bullets heading towards Jack. They go back and forth like they're playing a snowball fight.

The staff who was nearby were scared of the havoc that was happening on the estate. Claude was protecting Melissa and Martha from debris that comes their way by slicing it with his brand new sword Melissa gave him.

'This bastards!' Melissa was starting to get pissed seeing as how the mansion is getting destroyed and the staff was getting hurt.

"YOU BASTARDS GET THE FUCK OVER HERE!" Melissa yells to the both the troublemakers. The duo stopped and Melissa then scolded the two meanwhile the staffs who saw this felt that they were cherished by Melissa and felt her kindness.

"Wow. Since when did you become an alpha gorilla?" Claude asked with a grin to Melissa.

"Shut up or I'll fire your ass."

....

It was now past midnight and Claude was walking outside the mansion since he couldn't sleep. He felt something bugging him and decided to find out what it was. He was walking around the mansion with his sword on bis waist and he saw a small crater on the ground.

He stepped closer to the crater and saw a rectangular black box. It was a phone.

"Wait... there's cellphones here?" Claude was surprised since ever since he came to this place he has seen no one slumping down and looking down on their phones like some sort of drug addict.

He picked up the phone and he sighed with relief. The phone he picked up was not apple. He clicked the power button and the bright light from the phone made him wince a bit.

There was no password and there was a calendar with the corresponding clock. Claude swipes and only found a messenger app.

'Why is there no play store? Who am I gonna chat with in this random world where phones are non existent.' He sighs with disbelief.

He opens the messenger app and logged into his account. Thankfully the phone seemed to have wifi and when he looked at the battery it has ♾️ symbol which confused Claude as he knows phones are supposed to be charged.

When he opened the app he only saw one group chat. He opens the group chat and it seems like he was the only member there which made him feel a bit lonely.

Until a message popped up on the screen.

[Would you like to Invite random members?]

[Y/N]

'Of course I want to, Only if there really are people with phones here.'

He clicked the 'Yes' option and waited. He waited for a few minutes until a notification popped up.

[Invitation sent waiting for the others acceptance.]

Claude didn't have anything else to do so he waited. He waited for an hour until he felt the phone vibrating. He looked at the screen and saw that someone has joined the group chat.

[The 99th Emperor of Britannia has joined.]

'An emperor? why would someone so high up join something like this?' Claude thought to himself, then the phone vibrated again. He then saw the new member chat something.

The 99th Emperor of Britannia : Hello, Anyone here? Wait, How does this chat group know who I am? Is this some sort of geass!?

"Geass? what's that." Claude wonders what this guy was talking about. He then clicked the push to talk option.

Melody of Madness : I don't know what a geass is but I also just joined this group. It seem to give random nicknames.

"Melody of Madness? what a cringy name. MOM for short, what the hell." Claude tells himself after seeing what the nickname he was given is.

The 99th Emperor of Britannia : Hmm.. I don't trust this, one bit. If this is not a geass then how does this chat group know?

Lelouch who was sitting on his chair was frowning a bit. He was in hiding after getting 'Killed' by his best friend only to wake up in some unknown place a month later. He was hiding his identity so that no one will know he is still alive.

Lelouch even tried to kill himself because he knew that him dying was the only way for his sins to be forgiven for all the things he had done. However every time he would try to kill himself, something unexpected would save him from dying. He told himself he must've been cursed by a geass but didn't know who it was.

He was now looking at his phone with a bit of curiosity and wariness since the chat group immediately knew who he was.

Claude was a bit happy from seeing someone join the group chat since that means that someone out there has a phone and knows how to use it. Then his phone then started to vibrate again. He looks at the screen and saw another person joining.

[ Pink-Haired Psychic has joined. ]

(A/N : Sorry guys. I'm only posting whenever I get ideas on my head. So chapters might take a while.)