A Side Villain…

Monday, the first day of week and also the day hated by a lot of people. It was the day when the city's everyday rushed life would activate and everyone would fall in line for that.

 

But things were slightly different today, yes the people in the city were going to their jobs, shops in the market district were opening as usual, the guild too was catering to the enthusiastic crowd of adventurers, the dungeon entrance was packed as everyday. 

 

And yet in between all of this people had anticipation and excitement of the event that was going to be held in the city’s auditorium which itself showed how much importance was attached to it.

 

The city’s auditorium was situated on the border of upper and lower districts making it a perfect place which could be attended by people of both turfs. 

 

The auditorium was a state building meaning that it was fully controlled by the royal family and every event held there had prior sanction of the authorities. It was built after the establishment of the city itself but no expenses were held from making it as grandeur it is standing today.

 

Almost all the functions where either the army or a civilian is concerned are held in the auditorium otherwise for the people related to royalty like the nobles and their families it is held inside of the castle.

 

This practice showed the inherent notion of superiority the royals and the like held in their minds against those of common birth and it was common in all the empires barring a few where merit is bigger than blood like the Lionheart empire.

 

It was also one of the reasons organizations like the cultists existed in the first place with their demands of equality among all and that no king or queen should exist. There was a section of people who supported this notion in the empire itself but they were not as radical as the cultists.

 

Back to today’s function of the medal distribution the event organizer had done a meticulous job, invites to the prominent people were sent, pamphlets and posters were scattered in the city making every citizen aware of the stuff and they even invited the entire first year of the academy which was definitely going to shock Akira.

 

He was already having his fair share of surprises as the last night when he came back after shaking off a ‘troublesome girl’ he found an envelope with royal insignia stamped on it laying on his table by the window.

 

His first reaction to that was burning the letter to the ashes but waited for a while to see if it was going to do something which it didn’t. He then decided to open it but not without using his mana to coat his hands.

 

“Just what in the world is this letter made up of?” He said while tearing the seal and opening the letter.

 

It felt like paper but something was different, it felt so soft, so delicate to touch but yet it was hard and didn’t falter when he used some force. Reading the content of the letter he understood that it was sent by the event organizers who had invited him and his family tomorrow at the auditorium.

 

After he had finished reading the letter turned into mana particles and all that was left was a small token which acted as the entry ticket to the auditorium.

 

“The royals sure like to show off.” He said and tossed the token back at the table.

 

Next day he woke up to the noises made by the announcers that were telling people about the medal ceremony and he had to say,

 

“Isn’t this going a bit too much? I mean we sure did stop the cultists but now it feels that this is done to showcase something.” He mused to himself and began getting ready for the event.

 

After a while he went downstairs only to find that his parents were all dressed up and ready to head out.

 

“Wow! You guys look stunning.” He complimented them.

 

“Haha thank you Akira.” His mother replied while his father just shrugged it off.

 

“But why are you wearing the academy’s dress?” His mother asked.

 

“Oh well the letter said to wear this.”

 

“What a weird rule.” Her mother snorted.

 

“Well we should get going.” His dad suggested and all of them nodded and headed out.

 

Reaching the auditorium he was shocked to see this many people showing up for an event like this. Many of his neighbors, people from the market district and others he knew were present and going in.

 

There were two entrances to the auditorium. One was the people who had tokens and the other was an open one meaning anyone could go in there though the services were undeniably better in the earlier.

 

Akira went towards the one which require a token and after walking for a bit he was stopped by an elite guard who looked at them and said,

 

“The common people's entrance is towards that side.” He pointed to it.

 

“Hello to you too and here’s my token.” Akira replied while showing the token.

 

“Ahh sorry about that sir, I just presumed that you guys-” The guard’s tone showed how alarmed he was as only those who have some standing in the city were given the token.

 

“Were common civilians.” Akira finished his sentence.

 

Now the guard's face turned pale as offending a noble could lead to his termination from the job.

 

‘He must have thought that his actions may have offended us and it might be true if I was an arrogant young master.’ 

 

“Jeez calm down, it’s alright.” His mom stepped in and waved her hands.

 

“Than-thank you ma-mam.” Guard said and bowed.

 

The trio came inside and were guided to their seats by one of the attendants, Akira was told to go in the front rows while his parents were guided somewhere in the mid section. He narrowed his eyes to where they were going and was surprised to see a green haired lady sitting all by herself.

 

‘Jasmine’s here? She didn’t believe me yesterday when I told her about this so why come here now and how did she get the token?’

 

He was thinking all this when he felt a fist coming towards his head, his body reacted to dodge the fist but was a tad bit as the fist still brushed his ears making them ring in process. He was going to use his spell but stopped when felt the mana signature of the person.

 

“Damn you musclehead!” He shouted at Brian who was giving him a smirk.

 

“You are slow.” 

“No you idiot.” Akira said while massaging his ears which were still ringing.

 

“How have you been?” 

 

“I was doing good until you happened.”

 

“Hahaha.” Brian laughed at that.

 

Calvin, Ben and Kazuya who were also sitting came near the duo and started chatting with them.

 

“Hello Akira.” Calvin greeted him.

 

“Hello Cap, how are you?”

 

“Great and I hope you are not slacking from training.”

 

“Of course not, I have so many dreams to fulfill.”

 

“Bah! Calvin, why do you always talk about training and stuff, hey Akira tell me have you hooked up with someone in the academy yet?” Kazuya butted in and asked while making perverted moves.

 

“Not yet but I believe that you might be able to help me Kazuya-sensei.” Akira too humored him.

 

“And here I thought he was a mature kid.” Ben said and sighed.

 

“Hahaha…” Everyone laughed and went onto their seats.

 

The other important guests like nobles, high value merchants, high ranking adventurers had arrived too and were sitting and chatting with each other. The auditorium had reserved it’s right section entirely for the first year students of the academy so they were sitting there too.

 

After some time had passed a gorgeous lady wearing formal clothes came on the stage and took the mic in her hand and announce,

 

“Hello everyone, I am Mira Smith. You all must be excited about today’s event so without further ado let’s start it.” She shouted at the end getting applause from everyone present there.

 

She then proceeded to say other things which weren’t that important so in the meantime Akira began talking with the group.

 

“Hey Cap, don’t you think that the royals are going a bit overboard with all this?”

 

“Hmm overboard?”

 

“I mean yes we did defeat the cultists, stopped the chances of a war and that did warrant us a laurel but don’t you think that this is a too big stage for that?”

 

“Good deduction.” Calvin remarked and looked at Ben.

 

“Well the thing is that the empire wants to put on a show.” Ben replied.

 

“A show that acts as a deterrent?” Akira asked.

 

“Yes, the empire has a habit of doing it from time to time and this time we are the ones up for it.” Ben told him while giving a helpless smile.

 

“The nobles and officials from other empires are present here too.” Kazuya muttered.

 

After fifteen minutes Mira invited the guild master of Origin guild on the stage and suddenly all the noises clamped down and all the eyes were on the old man.

 

The guild master Dave Mcwell was an old man nearing his mid 50s but no way in the world could anyone tell him that he was ‘old’. The Man had long white hair falling on his shoulders, blue eyes with tinge of green, a well trimmed beard and mustache giving him the manly look.

 

He was wearing a black tight fitted shirt along with blue trousers and damn he was giving strong competition to the young guys there. Nobody had a doubt about his strength as it was well known that he was in tier A making him a powerhouse.

 

Well that’s what everyone knew about him, Akira knew just a bit more.

 

‘The old man is a monster in human’s skin but I know that his rank has regressed. It must have fallen to the tier B and in a year or two he’s gonna fall to C or D.’

 

‘Hmm, if I help him, can I get some favors from him?’

 

Akira was thinking all this when Dave began his speech about the current challenges that the empire faced today and how the Dark Swords action against the cultists was detrimental in stopping the war and stopping a crisis from unfolding.

 

“Now I would like to invite the Dark Swords on the stage.” Mira announced, gaining another round of applause from the crowd, especially from the girls that were looking at Kazuya.

 

The dark swords members went up to the stage and received their medals while each of them gave a small speech. Now Mira announced the thing most of the people wanted to know,

 

“Now for the one that you guys are most excited for, the first year student that went with Dark Swords and displayed extraordinary character and presence of mind. So let’s invite Akira on the stage.”

 

Another round of applause followed but this one was special as most of the civilians were particularly interested in him and also the nobles, officials were interested in the kid too.

 

‘Okay, let’s calm down, it's just going on the stage and receiving the award, nothing too heavy.’

 

He might not know it but Akira was experiencing some stage fright and that’s why unconsciously his mana pattern was going through slight fluctuations.

 

‘Focus and deep breaths, I got this.’ Giving himself some pep talk he stood up from his seat and put on a smiling face.

 

Once on the stage first he thanked Mira and then received the golden medal from the hands of Dave who looked quite pleased as he was one of those who believed in the capabilities of the next generation.

 

Akira was still thinking when Brian told him that it was over and they could go back to their seats which confused him he asked Brian about it,

 

“Umm don’t I give out a speech or something?” 

 

“Haha… why did you think that?”

 

“Isn’t it a common thing to say something after this?”

 

“Calvin will do that, not us.”

 

“Ah that actually is a good thing.”

 

They went back to their seats but Calvin the leader stayed on the stage and waited for his chance to speak which came quickly after.

 

Calvin too gave a general speech like others like how the adventurers put themselves at risk and how they should be prepared for the unthinkable and lastly the students should begin training if they aspire to become adventurers.

 

“That was everything people, thanks for coming and long live the Von Astrom empire.” Mira concluded the day.

 

Akira’s parents came rushing to his side and his mother pulled him into a hug while his father chatted with the dark sword members and others.

 

“I am so proud of you Akira.” His mother was tearing up a little.

 

“Please don’t cry mom, here look at this.” He said while giving her the bravery medal.

 

His mother was mesmerized by it and looked at it for a few moments before saying, “It’s beautiful.”

 

“Still not as much as you.” Akira cheekily replied.

 

And both of them laughed cheerfully.

 

“Hey don’t you think you should be heading somewhere?” His dad indicated towards the first year students that were leaving the auditorium.

 

“Ohh I totally forgot about the classes at the academy, gotta go mom and dad.” He said while bolting out of there.

 

The Dark Swords members just shook their head at that and also took their exit. Jasmine came forward and asked the duo about their feelings which got quite a lengthy answer from the proud parents.

 

Akira meanwhile went to join the first years who were taken to the academy by the bus, he quickly spotted the E section bus and went inside to grab a seat. When he got in everyone was looking at him but the surprising thing was their feelings had changed.

 

Earlier it was disdain and contempt but now that was replaced by respect and admireness, well not everyone had that change but quite a few were like that. He went to one of the empty seats in the back and waited for the trip to start.

He could also hear the musings of the students who were talking among themselves.

 

“Hey it was him right?”

 

“Is that even a question at this point? But what I wanna know is how?”

 

“Isn’t he cool? Getting on a mission while we haven’t even gone to a dungeon.” One of the girls said and many others joined her.

 

“But the rumors-” A boy wanted to say.

 

“Bahh! Didn’t you see that the dark sword members were talking to him like they were friends. Do you really think that the rumors were true?” Another boy countered.

 

“So all along we were wrong?” One of the girls said, making everyone go in silence.

 

Now that they thought about it isn’t it childish to believe some random jargon and isolate a person and that they might have been wrong in that aspect.

Other group of section E students led by Ryle were racking their heads as to how this could happen? Ryle in particular was feeling like his blood was boiling, killing rage was building inside of him.

 

He couldn’t forget the day when Akira thrashed him in front of his love, like how he taunted him and made fun of. He just couldn’t get those things out of his head.

 

So he did many things and tried his hardest to make things worse for Akira, he had made sure that he got no one to talk to, no one to form a group with, he was also training like a madman to cripple him in a duel and yet his plans were failing.

 

Even the prince had backed off after seeing that Akira truly did not wanted to make any attempts at Lily and that was a blow to Ryle as his finances came crashing down and slowly the numbers of students around him were dwindling.

 

“NO, I can’t lose. I can’t lose, not to that trash.” He shouted but no one paid attention.

 

Unknowingly to him his hate for Akira was now transcending into negative energy affecting his mana core and his growth as an individual.