Volume 1 Chapter 2: Part 4: Going to the Capital

"Hero Onyx, hero Irene, we have arrived at the capital." Edson knocks on the door as he says this. It was half an hour later from that incident.

"Understood," Onyx says. Irene is still on his chest, and he taps her on the shoulders.

"Irene, we're here." But Irene didn't budge and continued to be asleep. Seeing this, Onyx raises one of his eyebrows. Then his hands went towards Irene's cheeks and pinched them.

"Wake up!" Before Irene can even react, he screams into her ears! Irene instantly wakes up, jumping up like a frightened kitten!

She looks at Onyx with tears, feeling wronged, "Why did you wake me up like that?! I was having such a nice dream."

"Do you think I wouldn't realize you were fake sleeping on top of me?" Onyx shakes his head. The moment he locked onto her smug expression, he knew she was faking it.

Irene sticks out her tongue, trying to act cute. Onyx bonks her head again,

"Don't try to act cute now."

Irene pouts even more, but she realizes something, "Wait. if you realized that I'm faking it, why didn't you wake me up?"

If he knew, then he could have called her out. So why didn't he say anything about it?

"Oh, look outside. There are so many stores." Onyx looks away from her, ignoring what she said. However, Irene knew why he didn't do anything.

She smiles gently and hugs him. Onyx didn't say anything, but his expression turned red.

It only lasted a few minutes as Irene looked out the window too. Her eyes were full of wonder as she looked around. Compared to the village where stalls ran throughout the streets, the capital was five times bigger. There was more variety and sweets outside.

"I wanna go out and eat that!" Irene was ready to jump out of the carriage to get something to eat. The shop she was looking at sold sweets.

However, Onyx stops her, "Did you forget we have to meet the emperor first?" Onyx couldn't believe her.

She has a one-track mind for sweets.

"But I wanna eat! Can't we make a pit stop?" Irene tears up as she looks at Onyx.

Why are you pulling that out now?! Onyx couldn't say no to those tears. However, they would be disrespecting the king if they stopped. Before he could say anything, Edson steps in,

"Please wait a bit, Hero Irene. You'll be able to go out and visit shops once we meet the emperor." Irene frowns, but she eventually gives in. Onyx could see her eyes tear up even more as the sweet shop got farther and farther away.

It only took a few minutes for the carriage to arrive in front of the castle.

So huge! Onyx never expected the castle would be so big. It made the carriage which he thought was already large, look like an ant.

While he was thinking this, the carriage arrived at the gate.

"Halt!" Two guards block the gates. Edson gets off the carriage and explains, "We have the heroes with us."

When Edson says this, the guards move away from the gates. One shouts out, "Open the gates!"

The large gates start to open up, letting the carriage in. It was majestic and grand.

Edson opens the carriage door, "Heroes, please come out." When the two came out, they saw many knights and maids looking at them.

One person comes out from that group and greets Onyx and Irene,

"Heroes, welcome. Please, forgive this rude greeting. But we are on a tight schedule."

"Huh?" Before Onyx can question him about this, three butlers pick him up! And he wasn't the only one getting this treatment. Irene was getting picked up by three maids next to him.

What is going on?! Onyx turns to Edson, asking him for help.

But Edson gave him a strained look, letting the two get taken away.

...

Why did they have to force this on us?! Onyx came out of a room, dressed in a black suit. After the butlers took him away, he was brought to a changing room. There he got cleaned by them. They started cutting his hair as well and got him changed.

Everything was done in a few minutes.

"Onyx!" Irene shouts, and when Onyx turns around to look, Irene is flying at her. He catches her, and Irene asks, "How do I look?"

"..." Onyx didn't say anything. She was wearing a light green dress.

Nothing needed to be said as she looks like an angel!

"Onnnnnnyxxxxxx," Ireen calls out to him again, wanting a comment.

"Ahh, you look so beautiful." Onyx comes back to reality and compliments her. Irene blushes.

"You look so cool as well." Him being cool is an understatement. There's a large number of maids staring at him.

"Heroes, please follow me." A butler says, stopping the two from going lovey-dovey mode. The two followed him, and they were led to a large door.

The butler knocks on the door,

"Come in." A smooth voice calls out. The butler opens the door.

When the two walk in, they see a man sitting at a desk, doing paperwork. He looks to be in his early 30s. His hair was bright gold, and his eyes were ruby red. He was a handsome man.

Another man was sitting at the table in front of him, examining some papers. He was as handsome as the gold-haired man, but he had silver hair and purple eyes.

Onyx and Irene instinctively bow down. Despite living in such a rural village, they knew who the golden-haired man was.

His name was Eric Walter. Despite not having a hero skill, his fame was that of Legends. There are many tales about his heroic deeds, spreading to all lands.

Even a rural village like there's heard of his tale.

The Espoir kingdom, which was poverty-stricken, only became stronger because of him. He took down the tyrant king, and the citizens nominated him to be the new king.

He, an orphan, became the king.

This is really the thunder lord. Even Onyx was excited when he looked at Walter. He was given the nickname thunder lord because of his lightning magic.

"Sir, these are the heroes." The butler says, introducing Onyx and Irene.

"Oh." Walter continues to act stoic. He tells the butler, "You may leave now." The butler nods and leaves.

Only the four of them are left there.

"So you two are the heroes?" His stoic voice made Onyx and Irene jump up like frightened kittens. Onyx immediately responds,

"Yes, your majesty! We are the heroes!" Silence took after that.

"Pff, haha. You guys don't have to be so uptight around me." The stoic voice was no where to be found as a gentle voice replaced it. Walter pats the two on the head.

"..."

The person sitting on the couch shakes his head, "Eric, if you're going to act like that, they'll be more surprised."

"Hmm?" Walter looks at Onyx and Irene. The two had dead fish expressions, shocked by what they witnessed.

"Ahh, sorry about that, kids. That stoic expression is just my work face." Walter scratches his head as he explains. In front of everybody, he has to be a stoic man, fit to be a king. But when nobody else besides his friend was here, he could be himself.

Onyx and Irene shake their heads. Irene explains, "It's ok! You didn't scare us at all!"

When Irene says this, Walter smiles brightly,

"You guys are such good kids. Thank goodness good kids like you became heroes."

Seeing him smile like that, Onyx was surprised by the change. Walter was his hero when he was younger.

He thought he would be cool. But he was more like a giant dog.

Before Onyx could think about it more, his cheeks got pinched!

"Were you thinking that I'm not what you expect?" Walter smiles as he can see it on Onyx's face.

"Stop bothering the kid, you fool." Before Onyx could answer, Walter's friend smacks him on the head.

Walter lets Onyx go. He turns to his friend, "Leon, how could you hit my head like that?! What if I can't do my paperwork anymore?!"

"I'm hitting you because you are straying away from the whole visit! And you would want that wouldn't you." The guy looks at him in scorn.

Leon? Irene notices the name and asks, "Umm, is your full name Leon Vargar?"

The man looks at Irene and nods, "Yes, my name is Leon Vargar." When Irene hears that, her face turns into excitement. She shakes Onyx by the shoulder,

"Onyx! That's the moonlight wolf in the flesh!"

Hearing his nickname, Vargar makes a wry smile, "I didn't think my nickname spread so far."

Irene shakes her head, "How could it not! Whenever everybody talks about the thunder lord, they will have to talk about the moonlight wolf too! You're his right-hand man! Always backing him up!"

Whenever Irene reads tales of the thunder lord, the moonlight wolf is there with him. She couldn't help but be excited when she read about the two.

The wry smile on Vargar's expression turns bigger. Whenever he heard his nickname, he felt it was corny. It's something he never wanted to spread.

Walter smiles, "Anyways, congratulations on becoming heroes, kids." He pats the two on the head again.

"So, can I see what kind of skills you have?" Walter's curious as to what kind of heroes the two are. But then he got another slap to the head by Vargar!

"Fool! Do you know that it's wrong to let other people know about their skills?" If anybody got word of their skills, it would definitely cause problems for the two. Skills should be kept secret, not shown out to the entire world!

"Hmm, then here, look at mine." Walter takes out his card and puts some blood on it, "Look at my skills. We'll share."

Another smack to the head came to him!

"I never said to let them see yours!" Walter takes out something and drops his blood on it. Vargar screams out. He can't believe the guy in front of him is the king! He turns to the two,

"Kids, don't act like this idiot here. Never show your skills to anybody, no matter what they say. Keep it hidden so as not to attract unwanted attention." Onyx and Irene nod. However, they saw all of Walter's skills.

Lightning Magic Archaic

Sword and Shield mastery Forbidden

Body increase Forbidden

When the two saw the skills, they only tilted their heads in confusion.

What's archaic and forbidden?

Seeing their confused expression, Walter tilts his head, "What's wrong?"

"What is archaic and forbidden?" Irene speaks up. The two don't know where those levels stand. Ex and up to high skills are the only things they know.

"Ahh, that's right. We should explain it to you." Walter slaps his head, forgetting where the two came from.

"There are 9 skill levels. It goes from,

Novice - elementary - intermediate - high - master - monarch - forbidden - archaic - EX.”

Hearing his explanation, the two got a sense of how high they were. They then look at Walter with newfound respect and awe.

"So what skills do you guys get if you don't mind showing it to me?" Walter was still curious, but he wouldn't force the children if they didn't want to.

"I'll show you mine," Irene shouts out. Seeing how Walter had shown it to them, she knows she could trust them. She takes out her card and drips a bit of blood on it.

"These are the skills I got." Irene shows it to them with pride.

When Walter and Vargar saw the skills, they were wide-eyed. Walter shouts, "Damn, you got three EX skills! All of them are legends skills at that! You are blessed by the gods, kid."

"Truly extraordinary," Vargar adds. Never did he see someone to have 3 legend skills.

"Ehehe." Irene blushes from embarrassment. To hear how two legends were calling her extraordinary was awesome.

The two turn to Onyx, "Can we see yours too?"

Onyx nods, not minding too, "These are the skills I got." Onyx shows it to them. When the two look at it, the two turn wide-eyed.

'Hmm?' However, Onyx realized something. They didn't have the same look as Irene. For a split second, it was much tenser. Then it turns to surprise.

"I see. You also got three EX skills. Wow! You kids are gonna make it big in the world too!" Walter's expression turns warm as he rubs the two heads.

"You two just got to the kingdom right now. How about you two go out and have some fun?" Walter walks over to his desk and takes out a bag,

"I'll let Edson show you around town. Take this money and have some fun."

Irene's expression brightens, "Yay! Thank you so much, emperor!" She takes the bag and grabs Onyx, dragging him out of the room.

Leaving the room, Walter looks at Vargar, "This is going to be a big problem, isn't it?"

Vargar nods, "Yeah." Before the two could talk about it more,

"Your majesty! An envoy from the Holy Land will be arriving at the kingdom in a few hours." A messenger came in and told him this.

Walter sighs. And here comes the problem.

"We'll meet with them later." The messenger nods and leaves the room. Walter and Vargar look at each other. A deep sigh leaves their mouths.

...

At night, Onyx lays on his bed. After coming back to the kingdom, the two were given separate rooms. Each room was built with the best amenity there. Onyx sighs as he gets out of the bed.

He couldn't get used to it. He walks out to the balcony to get some fresh air.

When Onyx walks outside, where he sees a beautiful view of the kingdom.

Such a beautiful view. Onyx smiles, as he didn't think he would see such a beautiful view.

"Onyx, why are you still up?" While Onyx was mesmerized by the view, Irene called out to him. Their rooms are next to each other.

"I should be asking you that. Shouldn't you be tired from all that running around?" The moment the two went into the capital, Irene went on a spree. All the items she saw, she would buy.

It was something Onyx hadn't seen in a while.

"I'm not tired. But enough about that. What's wrong? You were out of it when we were shopping." As Irene was shopping, she took slight glances at Onyx. He had a blank look on his face as he was dragged around.

"...It's nothing." Onyx denies it. However, Irene makes a tense look at him. What she did next made Onyx's eyes go wide.

She gets on top of the railing and jumps onto his balcony!

"What are you doing?!" Onyx's heart almost skipped a beat! There was a big gap between the two balconies. If she messed up, it wouldn't be a laughing matter.

"I'm fine. Now talk!" Irene has no sense of fear about what she did. The only thing on her mind was what Onyx was thinking about.

Onyx looks away, not wanting to say anything. But Irene huffs. She walks over to the bed,

"If you're not going to tell me, I'll stay here until you tell me!"

"What?!" Onyx didn't expect her to say something like that. But seeing how she lay on his bed, she was dead serious.

"Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!" Irene starts to throw a temper tantrum.

"....I'm doubting if I should have come here." When Onyx says this, Irene stops.

That was on his mind the whole time. Seeing how fearless Irene was and then looking at himself, the difference was big. Even if he promised himself he would protect Irene, he started to feel something different.

Wouldn't he become baggage for Irene? What if all the training he has done meant nothing? That in itself was something he was afraid about.

"..." Irene didn't say anything.

But the next second, she takes Onyx's lips!

"Mmmmm!"Onyx was surprised by the sudden kiss! This was his first kiss, and it was Irene's as well!

Time stops for the two.

Irene stops kissing him and says, "Stop thinking that you will become baggage for me. The only reason why I'm here is because of you. You are my rock.

You've always been the one to support me. So if you fall, then I go as well."

Irene got to this point because she had faith in Onyx. Irene knows with absolute certainty that Onyx would succeed.

"...Idiot, do you have to make it so cheesy?" Onyx chuckles. His depressed face was gone now. What replaced it was a handsome smile. He hugs her tightly and blushes as he whispers,

"You're my rock as well." When Irene heard that, she blushed too. The two of them just kept hugging each other.