Paladin

The receptionist returned.

“Your Highness, the Preceptor is ready to receive you.”

I nodded and promptly stepped inside the main chamber. A silent gasp escaped my lips. The interior was laid out in a circular design, where there were desks positioned around the place. The ceiling was made of glass, allowing everyone to see the clear skies above — a large blue crystal hung at the center, a source of light. The floor was made of marble, and the dark walls were smooth with golden engravings.

Parts of the chamber were divided. There were scholars writing on a sheet of paper or writing in books, likely for records and logs. There were also others experimenting on items, such as small crystals and swords, in the creation and research on magic items. There was also a part where people were working on a bunch of flasks, alchemy.

Alchemy was also a part of magic, where they used various magical ingredients to get the result they wanted. A few things made were potions for healing, for restoring stamina, temporarily gaining more strength, sharper eyes, and so on. However, not all of them were without consequences, that was why they were working on making them more effective and having fewer drawbacks. They were also making stuff like poisons, acids, explosive substances, and other dangerous stuff. On the bright side, they were also making medicines for fevers, birth defects, or other conditions. But some of their creations were also made for other experiments.

Examples of such experiments were the chimeras. Who knows what kind of stuff they had the subjects drink. And looking around, those experiments were not here, but they were in another room somewhere.

At a corner, I saw someone in chains. People were observing him. He must be a prisoner. The prisoner held out his hand, and golden light appeared in his palm. I was a bit familiar with that, a different kind of magic. But it wasn’t ours.

“Princess Avenelle, a pleasure to have your presence in my humble abode.” A voice with a ghastly voice called out to me.

I turned to face the one who spoke to me. He was an eight foot tall being, wearing slim dark robes, and he was floating a couple of inches above the floor. Half his face was covered in metal, leaving only his mouth, which showed his onyx-colored skin. He had long silver hair. His hands were covered with black gloves. Furthermore, he had shackles wrapped around his wrists.

Just like the one who was supervising the library, this one here was not human.

He was the Preceptor.

“Preceptor, I see everyone is busy as ever.”

“Innovation and progress never halt, Your Highness.”

“And so it would seem.” I turned towards the one that was casting a yellow light. “What is going on there?”

The Preceptor turned to where I was looking. “Ah, that. I have to thank your brother, Prince Saviel, for this test subject. A servant of the Sun. We’re looking for any changes in their magic, and figuring out a way to better counter their spells, new or old.”

“Do we even have flexibility? Isn’t our magic already specified?”

“Every magic class has potential for new things. With the most flexible is Celestial Sorcerer.”

The magic class within the Celestial branch.

“What about it?”

“It is a class that can cast different kinds of spells. And it is possible to create or adjust spells you can use against the casters of the sun.”

Celestial Sorcerer — it was basically some kind of mage, sorcerer, wizard, or whatever was synonymous with those words. They lacked direct confrontation capability, but they were pretty good in ranged combat, throwing spells around. So perhaps that was why they said it was the most flexible. But, from what I could recall, it was also the most exhausting. It used a good amount of mana from you.

“The sun, huh? Have you tried making slaves of them? Turning them into chimeras.”

“Oh, you’re interested in that, Princess?” He smirked.

“Just curiosity.”

“Allow me to show you our work in progress.”

He brought me to the room next door, and when I saw what was inside, I froze in place for a moment. Inside were rows of large water tanks, and inside were… abominations. They were repulsive masses of flesh floating in water. They were a mess, incoherent. I couldn’t even tell what they were. I could see only vague shapes.

I resisted the urge to vomit.

“Y-You’re working on a lot. Are they all human?” I followed him as he walked forward.

“No. Most of them are random beasts. Human subjects are more difficult to work with, very time consuming.”

“I see.” I paused to stare at a single eye floating inside the tank, with a single brain along with it. I slightly winced. “Are they tame?”

“Some of them are already programmed.”

“Programmed, like the ferryman?”

“Indeed. We changed the composition of his brain, adjusted it to our needs.”

“I guess you were there when that happened.”

He nodded. “But this is the one I want to show you.”

He stopped at a particular tank. I frowned the moment I laid eyes on it. Inside was a human female, with short blonde hair and azure eyes, fair skin. Most of her limbs were changed into weird, inhuman flesh, which extended towards her torso. And worst of all, her eyes were open, and she was staring at me.

I tried moving to the side, and her eyes followed me. “She’s fully aware?”

“Yes, she is aware, every step of the way. Every one of them is aware when the change is implemented to their bodies.”

“Why not make them sleep?”

“We run the risk of losing a subject if we do that.”

Was it like where you had to be awake when going for ‌brain surgery or something? Nasty. It must be torture being aware while subjected to this heinous thing.

“So, what makes this one special?”

“She is a servant of the Sun. A paladin.”

“Is that so? She’s quite young.” She looked a couple of years older than me.

“Young? A lot of soldiers are at her age.”

“R-Really?” Yeah, I forgot that was normal in this world. “So, what did you do?”

“We are trying to make a chimera that can use the sun’s power. But their magic destabilizes when their form is forced to change.”

“Is it not the same for the ferryman? You managed to block him from using magic.”

“Blocking is easier.”

“Is that so? If this one is special, does it mean you managed to go past the problem?”

“Yes!” His smile widened, he seemed extremely excited to share it. “After a lot of work and loss of subjects, we managed to let out light while in changed form! This one here managed it.”

I stared up at the paladin. She was still staring at me. Which was a bit creepy. “Can she talk?”

“Hm? You want to talk to her? Yes, she can talk.”

The Preceptor pressed a button, and an oxygen mask descended from above the paladin and attached itself to her face. Once the water was cleared in the mask, she was free to speak.

I waited for her to speak.

She narrowed her eyes. “You… you are respected… who are you?”

“... I'm worried about answering that question.”

Her getting to know me was a bit uncomfortable. She was an enemy.

“Are you… such a coward?”

Well, maybe I was a bit of a coward.

It was then that an electric shock erupted inside the tank. She screamed in pain.

“Ah… Hah…” She gasped for breath the moment it stopped.

“Show some respect to the princess!”

Oh wow, good job, Preceptor. You just revealed me, crap.

“Princess? Ah… I’ve heard about you… Black hair.”

“Oh? What about?”

“The princess who does nothing.”

My eyebrow twitched. Well, it was true. But it was a bit rude to hear that, and it stung a little. “Hm. Indeed, as a princess, I do not need to do much. Let others take the work.”

That was kind of the point of being a royal, right?

“You lay in your bed of sloth, while… while countless of my comrades perish.” Her voice was full of resentment. “You eat your most delicious food, while people hunger to death.”

I raised an eyebrow. “... Those are none of my business.”

It was kind of sad, but I didn’t really care much, to be honest.

“None of your business…?” She gritted her teeth. “You… you monsters started all of this!”

The Preceptor was about to press a button, but I raised my hand to stop him. I faced the paladin again.

“Do I look like a monster to you?”

“You are!”

Ouch…

“Have you looked in a mirror lately?” I asked. “You’ve become a monster too.”

“... Does not matter… I will… still fight for my people.”

“People judge by appearances, so they will be more welcoming to me than to you.”

“No…” She glared down at me. “I am… a soldier of the Sun.”

“You are a beast, a chimera. They will strike you down before you get to communicate. That’s just how it is.”

“My people are noble, and kind.”

“You have such a strong faith in your people.”

“You would never understand. You who walk in the darkness.”

“... What is it you wish for right now?”

“To destroy you all… All of you! I’ll kill you all! Even you, Princess!”

Despite her expressive rage, her body was not moving much except for the face. It would seem they disabled her movements somehow. Which was a relief, she wouldn’t lash out at me so suddenly.

I smiled. “How destructive. You want that instead of freedom?”

“...” Her eyes narrowed.

I stepped forward. “Tell me, that need for destruction, is that a need of a human?”

“...” Her eyes softened as she listened to my words.

“For a normal human, the most common desire is freedom. Freedom to go out of the house, to run amongst the fields, to look up at the starry sky, to go where you want to go without anything holding you back. To strive for your dreams. The most basic human desire.”

“What are you… trying to say, Princess?”

I raised my hand and softly touched the tank. “To stay human, you must remember what is most important to you.”

Love, family, freedom, food, relief, home, peace, the many basic human needs that would bring you bliss. Needing those will keep you human. For her, was revenge, destruction, and resentments, more important than anything else in her life? What about going back home? To her family?

“If you can’t even do that,” I continued and stepped back. “Then you are lost.” I turned to the Preceptor. “I’m done here.”

With that I started walking out the room, the Preceptor following beside me. “Apologies for the rudeness of that test subject. We have yet to reprogram her thoughts. We still have months of work to do.”

“That is fine.” Once we were outside, I subtly let out a relieved sigh. Good to be out of that scary place. “Now then, I would like to discuss my reason for being here.”