Chapter 19: Ruined Kingdom (1)

Disclaimer: I own nothing. This fanfic is purely for enjoyment.

This is a fanfiction, so the familiar characters you see belong to their respected authors and owners.

"Speech"

'Thought',

—Line Breaker—

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Volume 1 - Chapter 19: Ruined Kingdom (1)

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"Is everyone here?" asked Glynda as she checked her attendance's sheets.

"3..9...15..20."

"And 24! Looks like everyone is here, so let's not waste time anymore."

Glynda guided her students toward the Beacon Airship as the students noticed some people near their transportation.

Team JSTA saw two senior teams and two professors.

They were Team GLKR and another team they didn't know and professor Oobleck and Port who were present.

Gran recognized Sora and his team as he waved them hello. Of course, Sora and his friends waved him back.

Glynda cleared her throat as she captures everyone's attention on her. She introduced the person who will follow her during their trip.

"We have Team GLKR led by your senior Gran, the other senior team led by Lancelot, and finally doctor Bartholomew Oobleck and professor Peter Port."

"They will follow us during the exercise and ensure everyone's safety."

"We wasted enough time, so everyone should calmly enter the airship." Said Glynda as she crossed her arms and watched her students enter inside the Beacon's exclusive airship.

Sora and his team entered the airship and naturally met with Gran.

"Hey, Sora, nice to see you there!" said Gran as he patted Sora's back.

'He is still the same cheerful Gran, he knew,' thought Sora with a smile as he looked at the team behind his senior.

"Hello, Gran, we didn't expect you to follow us with our outing." said Jean as she talked with Gran.

"Yeah, we got called by professor Goodwitch and it's not like we are doing this for nothing, as we'll get more credits!"

"Hey, Gran, when are you going to introduce us to your little junior?" said a black-haired guy, who was crossing his arms behind Gran with a stiff smile.

He didn't expect to get ignored till now and it would be too awkward for him to join the conversation without knowing Sora and his team.

"Oh! That's right, I almost forgot! Sorry about that Lancelot." responded Gran with a wry smile.

"Hey, everyone, let me present you team LPSV, they are in the same grade like us." said Gran as he pointed at team LPSV.

"The guy who just talked is Lancelot. He is their team leader."

"Hey, nice to meet you guys!"

"The red guy delinquent over there is Percival." whispered Gran as a vein popped on Percival's forehead as he heard Gran badmouth him.

"Oi, I heard that, Gran. Anyway, I'm Percival. Nice to meet you guys."

"The quiet-looking guy in the back is Siegfried. He is a very cool guy," said Gran as he praised Siegfried.

"Um..." hummed Siegfried as he nodded at team JSTA.

"Don't mind him. He is a man of few words."

"And the last guy is, Vane, he is pretty chill." said Gran as he pointed at the last guy of team LPSV.

"Hey, everyone! Nice to meet Ya," said the happy-looking Vane.

"C'mon let me show you guys' room, we have a long way before our destination." said Katalina as she dragged the talkative Gran away with her.

"Hey! I can walk normally, Katalina!" his word ends up not reaching Katalina as she wisely ignored her captain.

Team JSTA and team LPSV were looking at each other in silence as they silently followed behind Katalina.

[Team LPSV's scroll numbers +1]

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Sora and his team were resting in a room provided by Beacon, as their journey toward the ruined kingdom was very far after all.

They were currently discussing their incoming task and some information they could gather before their mission.

"I didn't expect Beacon to provide us first year with such an important and dangerous mission." Said Jean as she looked at her scroll.

She noted everything she could gather to make it easier for them at their mission.

"Yeah, no kidding, we are going to kill a Grimm nest and we might encounter some nasty mutated one, too." Said Tifa as she hugged herself in stress.

Atalanta was eating on some snacks she brought along before noticing Sora reading a book on his bed.

She couldn't read the title and got curious about Sora's reading.

She stood up from her seat as she sat near Sora, who noticed her sitting beside him.

Sora said nothing as he hummed toward Atalanta.

She gave Sora a cheerful smile and made herself comfortable beside him as she read some lines in Sora's book.

She found out that he was reading a book about the kingdom of Zestiria.

She got curious and asked Sora about it and, of course, her action attracted Jean and Tifa from the start.

"It's a book that I found in Beacon's academy about the Kingdom of Zestiria." Responded Sora as he didn't leave his eyes off the book.

"Really? I didn't know we had such a book in our library… Did you find something interesting about it?" asked Jean as she walked toward Sora.

She was really curious about this fallen kingdom and wanted to read the book.

"Not really. The book didn't give the information I needed." Said Sora, as he shook his head in disappointment.

"Oh, really? Are you searching for something specific?" asked Tifa as she was curious about Sora's interest.

"Mhh, I'm interested in that foolish prince and the royal family of Zestiria."

"Oh? Why the sudden interest in them? Someone like the prince shouldn't attract your attention to him, will you?" asked Jean, in interest.

She couldn't see Sora, her trusted partner, to be interested in that type of scumbag.

"Don't worry, Jean, I'm more invested in the method of this prince to bring his wife back."

"The method? Are you talking about the resurrection that only brought calamity to his kingdom?"

"That's right, I wonder how could such a person be able to have something that could make him believe and resurrect his dead wife. So, I thought the royal family might be behind it, something like an heirloom or relic from the past that they successfully collected." Said Sora as he explained his thought about this strange case.

"IF you say it like that… The prince, from what we learned, is indeed incapable of collecting such method by himself." Said Jean with a frown on her face.

This place might be more dangerous than they thought, and how could this method of the prince bring such a huge calamity to its kingdom?

They were lucky that such negativity didn't break outside the kingdom's walls.

"What makes it even more absurd is the magnitude of this curse." Said Sora as he massaged his forehead.

"Curse? Are you talking about the malice inside the fallen kingdom?" asked Tifa as she noticed the problem.

"Right, you have to be really strong to curse a big kingdom like Zestiria and for such a long period! Honestly, I would think that if the Grimms weren't there to suck on this malice, the malice inside the kingdom would take even more time to disappear completely." Said Sora with a thoughtful face.

"…"

The room descended into silence at the heavy information brought by Sora and, unfortunately; he wasn't done with his thought.

"This bring me to another subject…"

"Another one?!? How can a simple task bring so much trouble…!" said Tifa with a somber expression.

She didn't expect this place to have such a big past.

"Don't worry Tifa and I hope I am wrong about this one, but there is only one powerful god that I can think of that can create a curse on this level." Said Sora grimly.

"God? Sora, are you talking about the Light and Darkness God?" asked Atalanta tentatively, as she stopped eating.

"Exactly and more precisely, the god of darkness, one of the two brothers of Remnant." Said Sora as he crossed his arms in thought.

"B-b-but isn't that ridiculous, Sora? Gods can't be real!" said Jean as she denied her partner theory.

"I'm with Jean on that one Sora, that theory is a bit too much! There's must be a reasonable answer about this curse!" said a scared Tifa.

Those two gods are the one who created Remnant after all, and to have one of them as an enemy would be just terrible for humanity.

"First of all, they are simply fairy tales! They can't be real." Said Jean with distrust and is not that she didn't believe in her friend, but the existence of god is just too much.

"There's a grain of truth in every fairy tale…" murmured Sora as he thought about every fairy tale he read in Remnant in his free time and his little knowledge about the RWBY universe.

"Anyway, don't think too much about it everyone, it's just a theory of mine and let's change this terrible mood. Are you guys hungry?" said Sora, as he changed the subject. As he noticed the shaken attitude of his friends.

"Yeah.. let's do that and Sorry Sora about my raising my voice… it's just…" said Jean as she tried to explain her attitude from earlier.

Sora simply tapped her shoulder in support. "Don't worry, I understand Jean. Let's not think about it and focus on our future together."

Jean's face exploded in red as she stuttered from Sora's sudden attack.

Not that Sora knows as he already faced the door.

"Our f-f-f-future...!" said Jean with extreme shame as the blushes on her face extended to her neck.

"Yeah! So don't worry about it. Let's go!" said Sora as he left the room and grabbed Jean's hand and left the room with her.

Tifa and Atalanta were looking at each other as they puffed their cheeks in anger.

"Hey! Wait for us!"

"…Bad Sora."