-In a clearing of the forest full of the collapsed bodies of young children-

Raina was staring fixedly at the bare muscled chest of Zale, which was covered in various scars. Zale was looked down at her in confusion, he had just been changing out of his dirty and sweaty shirt for a new one when Raina had suddenly appeared in front of him, her eyes fixed on the bulging muscles of his stomach and chest. She started prodding at various muscles, circling around him like a wolf examining prey, she grabbed one of Zale’s arms and began poking at it, gauging the development of his muscles. She kept muttering the whole time.

“The ratio of white and red muscles are quite strange, but the potential…..stamina and hardiness is pretty good but there’s a lot of room for improvement…..still if this unique development were to be polished correctly……..hehehehe~”

Unnerved, Zale tried to pull away, but Raina easily stopped him, not showing even a hint of difficulty containing his Void level strength. Zale cleared his throat nervously, the woman was muttering about a lot of weird things he couldn’t understand, red and white muscle? Wasn’t muscle just...muscle? The strange look on her face wasn’t making him feel better either...

“Uh...Ummmm, Miss Raina, what are you doing?”

Raina glanced up briefly at his words, but then turned her attention back to Zale’s muscles. Irritated at being ignored, Zale formed a spell on his fingertips and flicked Raina on the forehead. Her whole body stiffened, unable to move. Zale poked her again and she fell over, still stiff as a board. The only that could move was her eyes, they glared grumpily at Zale. He quickly pulled a clean shirt on and then smirked while crouched down in front of her face.

“Miss Raina, it is not polite to go around randomly poking and prodding other people's bodies without their permission, I have gathered that you have an amazing amount of strength, but you don’t seem to have a strong defense against binding magic, so let me warn you, I am an expert at binding magic, and I will not hesitate to use it against you, blink twice if you understand.”

Raina deliberately blinked once, Zale frowned, what was so hard for her to understand. Pushing another little bit of mana out to his fingertip, he reached out and tapped Raina’s mouth carefully removing the part of his spell that kept her mouth from moving. He tilted his head and lifted an eyebrow in a question.

“Well?”

“Being polite is boring! Anything else besides training is boring too! I won’t do it if it’s not beneficial to training! Become my new training guinea pig!”

Really, her fixation on training is way too absurd…...and there was something added on at the end about a guinea pig…..Zale rubbed his face wearily with his hand and gave a long sigh. He leaned back and stood up from his crouch, this woman was truly uncivilized, who in the world would willingly submit to whatever atrocities she could think up….he began to turn around.

“I can make you three times stronger!”

Zale froze and turned slowly back around, considering. If he was three times stronger, he could more easily fight Them……

“How about this, every training session I let you put me through, you first have to a master a social grace to a level I’m satisfied with.”

Three times the strength is very tempting, but he wasn’t going down without a fight! As an orphan, he had had to struggle to learn the proper etiquette so people would have to show him at least some respect! He wouldn’t let anyone get away with looking down on etiquette!

“But social stuff is boring!”

“Ah, but you’d do anything if it was for the sake of training, right?”

“Tch, you’re right, I agree, let’s start training!”

Raina uselessly tried to struggle up from the ground, but her body was still unable to move. Zale waggled a finger at her.

“Ah-ah-ah, not so fast, I said you’d have to master a social grace Before you can start a session of training me. I think we can start with please and thank you as the first lesson~

Now, Raina, what do you think you need to say to get me to release you from this binding?”

“Please release the binding!”

Zale smiled sweetly and snapped his fingers. Raina shot to her feet and grabbed Zale’s arm.

“And thank you! Ok, we’re done, now let’s start training!”

Zale sighed and seconds later, Raina was once again laying frozen on the ground. He stared down at her, a slight sinking feeling filling his heart. This might actually take longer than he thought.

“I said when I’m satisfied your progress, Then we can do a session of training, you don’t decide when we’re done, I do, and just saying please and thank you once in context is not satisfactory.”

“Tch...I understand, please let me up now...”

Zale studied her face for a long moment, and then snapped his fingers. Raina moved slowly up from the ground this time.

“Thank you...”

She turned away from Zale and began walking towards a large pot of boiling soup, over which two tied up figures were suspended head down by metal chains. The two figures were swinging back and forth as much as they could, the steam from the pot below them heating up the chains that bound, making their movement the only thing stopping the chains from reaching a level of heat that would burn skin.

“Miss Raina, I am the first princess of Aleridon and Darius is the Crown Prince of Lothyde, and we are both awakened Berserkers, you cannot treat us this way! And Mister Zale, as a citizen not affiliated with a school, you especially should be helping us!”

Raina just ignored them and began stirring the soup, occasionally turning her head to look hopefully at the heaps of still bodies. Zale however, stared darkly at Princess Sophia and Prince Darius. Heavy killing intent suddenly flooded the clearing.

“I will never help the royal families, not ever again. If I had my way, you would already be strung up to be eaten alive by wild beasts! It’s only because Raina insisted you are Felix’s toys and he would be mad if I harmed you that you’re even still alive!”

Sophia Heartstone’s face turned pale and she quickly averted her eyes, Darius, however, held eye contact with Zale even as his mouth slowly began to trickle blood from the extreme force Zale was putting out.

“I….I don’t know why you hated the royal families so much, b-but we haven’t done anything to you! If you have any quarrel, it should be with our parents, not us!”

Zale snorted disdainfully and turned away, letting his killing intent vanish, though the air around him was still bitter.

“Isn’t it the royal families nature, at any age, to manipulate and harm each other? I’m only following your families tradition, so all you have to blame is yourselves!”

Darius frowned at Zale, the manipulation was a key part of ruling any kingdom, and everyone knew it…..but the way Zale had put it made it sound a lot more personal, as though he had been directly involved in a royal family’s dispute….but they usually tried to keep those within the family in order to not show weakness….Machinations of the court were one thing, but the royal disputes were supposed to be kept much more quietly…..Sophia suddenly spoke out sharply beside him.

“So what if that is tradition, it trains the heirs to better rule the kingdom one day, but that is only within the royals of the kingdoms, a commoner like you has no right to treat us in such a way!”

Zale stayed turned away from them, put the bitter air around him seemed to turn even darker.

“......I never said I was a commoner, you should be careful about making assumptions, Princess”

He spoke the last word as though it was the dirtiest thing that had ever passed his lips. Sophia and Darius were both silent for a long moment, confusion flooding their minds. Was he insinuating that he was……..royal!? Zale snorted, guessing their thoughts.

“What, your parents have been alive for a very long time, you really don’t think it's strange that they all have children that are relatively young, not one of you are over eighteen, right? I imagine this is just one of the royal families's unique strategies that is taught at a much later date. They don’t raise their earlier children, they place them randomly throughout the kingdom in low born situations as babies, then keep track of them. When we get older, we naturally show the talent carried within the royal bloodline. The royal family ‘graciously’ offers to support us, and in return, we children, who have always been in lowly situations, feel indebted to the the royal family and become loyal servants. Of course, I have no real evidence to back this up, the royal family has always been good at not getting caught, but I am living proof, as are the several others I have met, they usually keep us apart, but I was placed in an orphanage by accident and they lost track of me so they don’t know who I am….I, myself wouldn’t have even known who I was if it wasn’t for that day…...”

Raina suddenly left the pot of soup (it had failed to revive any victims for her to train) and dashed over to Zale and gave him a hug.

“Poor thing, such potential, yet it was purposefully neglected and wasn’t given proper training…...it hurts just to think about it…...I’ll help you kill those people who dare look down on training…..except for Felix’s toys of course…...”

The dark air around Zale slowly faded away and he looked down at the woman pressed to his chest, an uncertain look on his face.

“Ummm………..thanks……….I think?”

The strange moment was shattered as a black and gold blur sped into the clearing, screeching frantically. Zale started and hastily pushed Raina away….or at least tried to. Void hovered in front of them, his wings beating frantically. Raina stepped away from Zale and turned to face the hysterical Void with a worried look on her face.

“Something bad has happened...”

Zale and Raina ran swiftly through the forest, following the darting figure of Void. Zale turned his head to look at Raina.

“Do you think that little monster Felix actually encountered a magical beast he couldn’t handle? Could the center of this forest really be that dangerous?”

“No….Anyways, They wouldn’t hurt a child…….”

He sharpened his gaze at Raina, what did she mean, They…….could she know what was in the center of the forest?.......Zale shook his head, time to think about that later, right now, Felix probably needed their help.

Arvid’s Point of View:

“Boss…...I think I’m in love…...”

I stare fixedly at the beautiful girl hovering in front of me in the otherwise dark surroundings. Her pale skin shone softly, like a star shining in the sky, far out of my reach. Her long silver hair reached below her slim waist, ending in blackened tips. Her lips were a lush pink that made me want to kiss them. Her eyes were a ruby red color that would pierce into my very soul if she actually looked at me, instead they were glaring at my unconscious boss. Ahhhh, she looks so cute when she’s angry……..She pointed empirically at my boss.

“Thou hast made fun of this one, for this, thou must die!”

Ooooh, she has the old fashioned princess thing going on that Boss told me about…...wait didn’t she just say something about killing Felix? Then she turned her eyes on me and my thoughts turned to mud.

“And thou, what is this about loving this one?”

A faint blush painted her ivory cheeks, and I almost swooned. Instead, I got down on one knee and stared dreamily up at her.

“Yes, Milady, as soon as this humble servant saw you, I inevitably fell in love with you. Your beauty surpasses the heavens above, and your proud, elegant demeanor has struck me through the heart. May I please know your sacred name?”

The glorious blush in her cheeks grew a little redder and she answered my question in a slightly quivering voice.

“T-this one’s name is Attela, what is thou’s name?”

My heart, or what I imagined was my heart, gave a small jump, she wanted to know my name! And her name really suits her…..heh, both of our names start with A, it must be fate~

“My humble name is Arvid, Lady Attela, would you tell me a little about yourself?”

Attela twitched, and absentmindedly began to fiddle with the rich red kimono she wore. Awwww. she’s shy~

“Please just call this one Attlea.This one was made thousands of years ago by my mistress, this one has been helping train the young shinobi of this village ever since Arivd…..ye are from the outside, what is it like?”

On impulse, I stood up and embraced her, her body stiffening slightly at my touch. The poor thing, she had never left this place after thousands of years!? I can’t even imagine staying in one place for so long, I would get so bored!

“Oh Attela, the outside world is a wonderful place, full of adventure and excitement and beautiful things, though none as lovely as you. Will you let me take you there?”

Attela slowly softened in my embrace, looking up at me with confusion in her face.

“That sounds nice, but, what are you doing to this one, it feels quite pleasant…..”

…..So innocent…...I’m kinda glad she’s been stuck here for thousands of years….

“This is what humans call a hug, they use it to comfort each other.”

Attela smiled and snuggled into my chest. I had to struggle to keep my material form from bursting out into a nosebleed. So Cuuuuuuuteee! And so innocent too!!! I unconsciously tightened my embrace, hugging Attela’s slim body to my own. Haaa, I’ve never been so glad that I’m not a human...

“I quite like this ‘comforting’ but Arvid….how do you plan to take this one away from this place? Entities like ourselves cannot move on our own…..”

“Ah, that’s alright, you can just hook a ride with my Boss, he’s the guy who created me, ah…...that is if you change your mind about killing him…...he really didn’t mean to make light of you, you know, my Boss is just an abnormality…...”

Attela glanced at the unconscious form of my Boss, a troubled look on her face.

“Ah, that’s a problem…..this one has already cast the killing curse…..I can’t stop it, but I suppose I can alter it, it’s only eliminated a little bit of his body so far, that tail is quite resistant…...but this one doesn’t want to just let it go, even if that one is an abnormality....”

Heh, it seems like my woman can hold a grudge, I should probably remember that…..

“You can do whatever you want, so long as Boss is still alive and can move, he’s been reincarnated a lot of times, so he should be able to handle anything you do to him….Heh, if you really want to get revenge on him, you should make him as cute as possible, Boss will be swarmed every time someone sees him~”

Attela seemed to consider it for a moment.

“I see….this one could probably alter That curse to do it…….he will be human occasionally though, since he’s your Boss I’ll give him a little slack.”

I gave her a peck on the forehead (even though I really wanted to kiss her on the lips, I had a feeling she wasn’t ready to handle That much yet.)

“That’s great! So, what are you going to do? I can give you some suggestions if you like…..”

Raina and Zale:

Void led them straight to a clearing, which Zale was surprised to see was filled with a large construction that looked like some sort of training course, and even more surprisingly, a significant number of people gathered around said contraption. Raina didn’t even pause at the sight, but instead just dashed forward.

Void was darting frantically above the end of the strange monolith, but neither Raina nor Zale could see any trace of Felix. The crowd murmured in surprise as Raina pushed past them, but their murmurs soon turned those of familiarity and welcome. Zale followed after her, but the people were a bit more suspicious of him, and only reluctantly stepped aside for him, something, he discovered, that was the only way for him to get past him, as even with his Void level strength, they didn’t budge an inch. He was also starting to notice that many members of the crowd have various shades of blue hair….a small shiver ran down his spine and he unconsciously drew his dark cloak around his body in an attempt to hide his body. Both of them finally making it to the front of the crowd, they saw that there was nothing there at the end of the contraption except for a chuckling old man. Seeing this, Raina stormed forward and landed a punch in the white haired old man’s gut.

“Idiot old man, where’s Felix!?”

The old man doubled over and clutched his stomach.

“Gaahhh! Raina, is that how you treat your own father? You didn’t even give me time to use energy to protect my organs…..And who are you calling old, I’m only 2,000 years old! I’m still in my prime!”

Before they could say anything else though, there was a blinding flash of light. While everyone was hastily blinking dark spots from their vision, a distraught and rather squeaky howl pierced the air.