“Hah…Hah…you…bastard…”

Shut up…

“Hah…hah…idiot…”

“Are you two going to get up off the ground? And why are you covered in bruises?”

Such a pretty lady…why have I never seen her before?

“Huh, mom! Nolan said mean things and then he hit me!”

Ah, so she’s Emeril’s mom…ah, wait! That’s not the important part!

“What?! You were being stupid and when I said something to get you to come out, you hit me!”

“You were being rude!”

“You are being a moron!”

“Stop it!”

“You stop it!”

“ENOUGH!”

“Fa…father…”

Shit.

I thought the Prime Minister would be someone a little more…evil looking? Why does he look like a powerful soldier?! Geez, he looks like a manly man! No, he looks like one would expect a warrior king to look!

“Yes, Emeril, Nolan was acting pretty rudely. However, he did it for you. Your actions are worrying your friends. You need to think of how you appear to others.”

“…I’m sorry for hitting you.”

You better be. I only hit you in retaliation.

“I’m not sorry for hitting you.”

“What?! You –“

“But I am sorry for claiming that Hector was sick. I would probably feel upset if someone told me one of my friends was in trouble.”

“…okay.”

Well now then. I am starting to see some puzzles fall in place.

Just as I was about to think deeply on this situation, Emeril’s dad speaks up again.

“You are upset with yourself, right? You think you aren’t fit to be a knight since you nearly let your friends die? We cannot always be there to help someone. Go ask Instructor Ghazi. He knew some good men that died in the last several wars.”

Yikes, this conversation would have been hard to hear to a child who just lost their friend and blamed themselves. It’s essentially, ‘You aren’t the only person who lost people, get over it.’

Wow. That would have sounded pretty dickish if Hector had died.

But, as it is now, Emeril seems to be a little better. I think he needs a push in a different direction, though.

“That stuff is irrelevant. Doesn’t a Knight just have to be so strong, so he can protect everyone? As a Mage, all I have to do is trust the person in front of me to last long enough to use my best spell and kill whatever enemy is in front of me. I don’t need someone who will falter.”

“Nolan!”

Shit, why is the dad getting angry?! I was just speaking my mind!

“No, dad, he’s right. Maybe I was going down the wrong path. I don’t want to be a powerful swordsman, I want to be a true knight! Not the title, but the occupation!”

Oh! I was just being angry, but isn’t this good?! It was true that in the game, Emeril was the best swordsman in the school, but he was just Level 9 if you were to look. He had hit a bottleneck that couldn’t be crossed due to his trauma. Huh, wow. This game was exceedingly deep.

But wouldn’t this part make the game that much more amazing? We all treated Emeril as the arrogant rich kid who had too much power. This kind of trauma would have ruined anyone!

“I see. I will let Instructor Ghazi know about the change in your schedule.”

“Thank you, father.”

Eh? Aren’t we forgetting someone? Oh!

“Wait, Hector is currently in training to be a Knight, but he has better talent in the sword. Why not let someone see which path would be better for him?”

“That is a good suggestion, Nolan. I was thinking about Emeril being a swordsman, but with this, he would need someone who can deal strong attacks around him. Okay, we will adjust the training.”

Oh, the strongest swordsman, the best mage…hehehe.

“Fufufu, doesn’t this seem kind of strange?”

“Nolan?”

“A Knight, a Swordsman, A Mage, and if we count Lily, a Healer. Isn’t that almost a perfect team?”

“Hahaha! You’re right! Nolan, let’s go find Hector and Lily so we can train some more!”

Good, Emeril is back to normal. However…

“No, let’s take a bath first. I am dirty.”

“You’re just going to get dirty again!”

Brat! You don’t know the meaning of good hygiene!

>>>

By the way, another time skip.

Amethia went to the academy and several years passed.

Hector grew to be the strongest swordsman in our generation, while Lily was allowed to learn at the Church to further her healing abilities. Emeril joined the soldiers training to become Knights, but only as a sort of substitute. He never really did much, but he got to experience how Knights protected their allies and had to face the enemies’ attacks.

Emeril had to get over his fear of pain and being killed since all the Knights had to. He learned of their struggles and grew as a person. In fact, he was the one who grew the most out of all of us.

Me? I was finally relieved of the torture of having to use a sword, but I still knew enough to even challenge a few adults. Sad, I know. But, it gave me a suitable close combat option since quick magic was only for distractions or setting up for a stronger attack. I completely disregarded it as a feasible choice for attack.

Instead, I would use my now amazing stamina and strength to move around the field, or kite the enemy, and wear down my opponent. I did a good job, too. I had a very versatile selection of attacks and used certain ones depending on the situation. But, as you can guess, all four of us had split up. We were separated.

Before we knew it, Hector and Lily attended the academy. Then Amethia graduated. And finally, Emeril and I began our first year at the academy.

Lily and Hector were seniors when we joined, but that was fine. I looked forward to this strange setup, as many things would be completely different. For one, Hector was alive.

Then Lily wasn’t the Princess’ maid. Emeril wasn’t a douche. And Nolan isn’t a pudgy marshmallow! I am fit! Hahaha! Oh, started imitating Emeril. Huh, I guess I can’t wait to show him how strong I got!

Let’s see, according to the game, Nolan only had one class with the main character and that was Magic Theory class. It wasn’t an optional class and possibly the most difficult class out of all of them. That was probably because it was on a topic that was mainly fantasy, but now I had all the knowledge. I doubt Zachariah Kenton would be able to challenge me now!

Oh, and let me get some classes with pretty ladies in them, hehe…