Chapter 28: Day before the Ritual

She sees the gilded armor that recently arrives in her room. This gilded armor made of mithril and tempered steel has a skirt with a gold lining at the edge. The palette of the armor is polished steel. The Mithril and tempered steel turned into a plate made it quite hard. In the middle of the breast plate of the armor lies a sigil of the House of Saclea—a sword shining under the moon.

She touched the sigil and felt the mana core on it. Every Saclea had an armor crafted with a magic core. A magic core allows the wearer’s life force to be bonded with the soul of a Saclea. When the ‘core’ dies it means that the soul of the wearer dies. And once the wearer dies, the magic core that it was connected to will break. This signifies a death of a Saclea.

Most of the gilded armor of the Saclea’s are either buried with them or turned into armor. Sena’s armor, the one she is touching right now was a new armor finely crafted for her. The creation of the Armor started at the beginning of her years in the Academy. Her father once told her that the armor will only be completed near the day of her ascension ritual.

The armor arrived just in time for the ritual. It has been ferried out by a wagon guarded by the Saclea’s top warriors and battle mages. They will also be staying and will act as a guard for the Saclea daughter. Sena is a great combatant no doubt. But it doesn’t mean that she will be allowed to go out there without knowing anything. No man or woman can become a genius at anything without learning first. So she will be escorted until she learns the ways of commanding her own band. Every noble in the school will be escorted by war leaders and be taught. There was no exception and with Sena being a daughter of the Saclea. Obviously, she had a great leader assigned to her.

Sena smiled at the armor. She caressed the steel before nodding in satisfaction. She sat on the chair inside her room. Wearing a floor-length one piece white dress, she took the cup of tea on her table and drank it. After drinking the tea she turned to the snowy weather outside.

Tomorrow will be the day where she will become an ascended knight. Unlike a magus who can only have their origins mixed with them. Ascended Knights are people that are not only had their origins mixed with them. They will be blessed by heroic spirits of old and have their knowledge, abilities imprinted on their heads. Hence the real reason why every noble ascended knight gets his or her war band is to roam the land in order to have the memories fully assimilate into their heads.

A war leader is assigned to each of the war bands. Sena has a great leader so it won’t take long until she gets the reigns of commanding fully forged into her. The war leaders will act as the hammer that will nail the abilities imprinted on their heads fully.

Sena has no worries. She is fully confident that her ritual of ascension and war band will be successful. She is not overestimating the overworld or the ritual. To succeed she gives it her all and never lets her guard down. She learned in the past few days that disciplining herself comes better. Her mindless battle lust in the slums made her realize this sincerely.

Her sword, Astra is always strap on her waist. This is a reminder to her, and something that she will never forget in her life. The back of young girl giving her time, acting like a shield of light in complete darkness burned through Sena’s mind endlessly.

Sena is a pompous princess of a noble house. She is arrogant because she has the talent and skills to back it up. That is why when that little girl stood for her like a wall. She grew up like a normal being and learned from her mistakes.

The little girl has now become her sword in the name. Her decorative sword had a golden blue color to it but now near the guard of the sword is a silver ring coiled below the guard. This silver coil was made from the shiv of the little girl that saved her.

Meanwhile, the scar across her left eyes is a reminder of her cockiness. Her encounter with the Mage Killer has made Sena realize how she can never let her guard down. To her, the Mage Killer was the only one who successfully managed to injure her.

Sena plans to make this scar her last. Never will she ever let her guard down enough to allow such scar to burn her skin again. Due to that her magic protection has never wavered and is on constant alert. It could be said that even though she is sitting idle at the table right now in her own room. A stir in the air or a murderous presence will ring an alarm on her magic protection. That will then trigger her mana to activate and form a shield coating her body.

Of course keeping her magic protection up will exhaust her. To fix such trouble Sena made it so that her instincts are enhanced to the thirteenth degree. That is way past a normal trained warrior’s instinct and this only due to her being a genius by birth.

Sena has been given the silver spoon since birth. And only two times in her life that she was shown trouble. The first time being with the female knight clad in white while the second time was on the day of the test of mettle where she learned to disciplined herself from her battle driven attitude for glory.

But even with that who knows what the whims of fate would do this knight to be.