Those Who Guard the World

Inside a spacious lavish room, the King of Sheldiawald sat down at his working desk. He brought his hands together on the table to support his head as his peridot eyes fixed on the report file laid before him.

“The criminal has stubbornly shut his mouth. Should we proceed with a harsher method, Your Majesty?” asked the male Chief Royal Secretary.

“If you ask me, I would rather not. However, I shall trust the judgment of the Royal Guard Commander,” the King calmly replied.

“I understand, sir. As for the, hm, tower… Should I arrange the mages to take care of it, Your Majesty?”

“Hm, it seems a legendary earth master has left quite the monument behind. Then, we shall let it be,” the King playfully smiled as he replied, the kind of smile that his dear son often wore.

“A legendary… earth master, Your Majesty?” the secretary was puzzled.

The King recalled the events of the previous week.

The day after the little dragon caught a thief inside the royal palace in a flashy way, the King went to inspect the scene himself, accompanied by Prince Henry and Lucas.

“I heard that one of your guests did this, my son. Is that true?” asked the King as he stared at the earth tower before them.

Skillfully hiding his nervousness, Henry answered, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“The guards reported that the ground instantly rose and the criminal was swiftly caught with those vines…” The King turned to Henry, raising one eyebrow, before he continued. “...by a mere little boy, that is. Is that correct?”

Henry grew tense. “That is… correct, Your Majesty.”

Lucas, who was standing behind his master and the King, lowered his face anxiously.

The King made a quick glance at Lucas before glancing back at his son. “I’m not scolding the two of you. Why are you so tense? Or is it so bad for me to know that you have made friends with the guardian?”

Henry and Lucas flinched as they looked at the King with their eyes widened.

“Ho? So I was correct, I take it,” A mischievous smile formed on the King’s face the moment he caught his dear son and nephew off guard.

Henry and Lucas went speechless with faces full of questions. It seemed even Henry wasn’t a match for his clever father.

The quick-witted King then had promised to the two young men to keep it a secret from everyone.

As he silently stared back at the files on the table, the King thought, My sons seem to have made some interesting friends.

***

The mage apprentices of Athenya had officially ended their winter break and had returned to their normal studies this week. Today, their alchemy class took place in the Alchemy Laboratory in the Magical Study Complex. All students formed a group of three or four to experiment some alchemy reactions they had previously learnt.

“Alright, good day, class. Today, we shall experiment with making perfume. I have some freshly harvested Witch Hazel flowers ready for you. Each group may come to the front and take your share. Do try not to fight over the prettier ones.”

A male professor with long platinum-blonde hair stood behind a long wooden table at the very front of the class with a kind smile. Before him lay several baskets full of peculiar flowers with thin, curling yellow petals sprouting from their red buds.

“Oh dear! Mr Luvan is really as charming as ever, don’t you think?” Elisia whispered.

Nova rested her chin in her hands, with her palms cupping her freckled cheeks. “Can you believe a man of that feature is actually in his mid forties?”

“I know, right? That’s cheating,” said Leo, who sat next to Nova, with a monotone voice.

“Don’t get jealous, Leo! Why are you here anyway?” protested Elisia as she flatly looked at the only male group member of hers.

“Why not? Annette is in this group and you guys have one seat open,” said Leo.

“Um, I’ll go and take the flowers for us.” Annette was at a loss for words and decided to run away just for a little while.

In front of the class, some of the female students made a small fuss as they took their shares of the flowers from Mr Luvan. After queuing for a while, it was finally Annette’s turn to take her share.

“There you are. Treat them gently,” said Mr Luvan as he handed Annette her basket.

“Eh? Ah, um, thank you, sir.”

Annette hesitantly took the basket and returned to her seat. When she returned, her groupmates seemed to be in the middle of another argument again.

“Speaking of a witch, I heard there was a woman crying in the forest in front of Athenya during the winter break. She could be a witch, don’t you think?” said Elisia.

“A ghost, I’d say. I told you we might have seven Ghosts of Athenya,” Leo replied.

“You only made that up, no?!” Elisia squinted at Leo.

“Don’t you think a ghost is more believable than a witch? Right, Annette?”

“Where did that logic come from? A witch is more likely to exist, right, Annette?”

Both of them turned to Annette who just handed their basket to Nova.

“Eh? Um… B-but why witch?” Annette awkwardly asked.

“Why else would a woman cry in the forest for days? She must be a bad mage, a witch! They must hate people in Athenya because we are aiming to be respectable sorcerers and sorceresses of the Kingdom! That’s why she cries in front of Athenya!” Elisia exclaimed.

“I wouldn’t want one of my students to cry either, so I think you should start with your flowers now, Miss,” Mr Luvan said calmly with an amused smile.

It seemed Mr Luvan had overheard their conversation while he was making his rounds to check the students’ progress.

“Mr Luvan! Y-yes. I’m sorry, sir,” Elisia replied, her cheeks flushed red.

The male professor gave her a small pat on her head before continuing his rounds. Meanwhile, Leo playfully smiled at the visibly embarrassed Elisia, while Nova consoled her. Annette could only offer her friend a wry smile.

“Alright, make sure to follow the instructions on page 128 closely, everyone.”

***

In the forest in front of Athenya, a woman stared at the main campus gate. She was hiding behind the trees with a troubled face.

The night had fallen and the students had mostly gone home, making the road empty of traffic for a while.

A ball of tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she kept her gaze fixed on the wide-open gate. She started sobbing.

While she heavily pondered what to do, just as she had been for the past week, her eyes caught a glimpse of a bird flying around above Athenya before finally landing in the middle of the empty road. Soon, a red fog of flames engulfed the bird and grew bigger until it disappeared, revealing what appeared to be a man in his late twenties from within.

In that instant, the woman’s sobbing broke off, and she cried out loud.

“Uhwaaaaaaaa…”

The man, who was staring at Athenya’s building, jolted and quickly turned around towards the forest behind him. His sharp eyes immediately caught the shadow of the woman from behind the tree.

“You?!” he said as he quickly approached that woman.

“Uwwaaaaahhh…”

“Seriously, why are you always weeping?! Why are you even here?! Don’t tell me… you too?!” the man shouted.

The woman cried even harder at his shout. “Uuuhhwwwaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh…”

“Geez, I told you to stop!!” The man scratched his head as he yelled.

“Uuuwwwwaaaaaaaahhh…”

“Fine!! Weep all you want!! I suppose I just have to bring this whole thing down!! How dare they mess around with us!!” he said as he scratched his bright orange hair in frustration.

The man walked back to the road in front of the main gate of Athenya, leaving the woman to continue her cries behind the tree. The mana around him fluctuated as he stepped closer before suddenly it combusted around his arms.

He stopped in the middle of the road and lifted his burning arms, making the flame grow even bigger, spreading around his whole body.

“You dare to mess around with us, you shall taste my flames, humans!! Return to ashes!!” he yelled.

Just before he released his attack, a thick swirling wind engulfed the man and his flames entirely before it finally vanished in a gust. It revealed a golden-blonde-haired young man, who had grabbed the other man by the arm.

“Let go of me!! Why are you stopping me?!” the man yelled.

“Are you seriously mad?! We swore to never harm humans!!” the young man protested.

“They did it first!! I didn’t start this!!”

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaa…”

“For the love of Spirit King, you are so noisy!! Stop your weeping!! I’m going mad here!!” the man yelled.

The man reactivated his fire on the other hand as he tried to approach the gate, but the young man grabbed him with both hands and pulled him away instead.

“Come on, do not attack! Cease your fire! We should find another way!” The young man desperately tried to stop the man before him.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaa…”

“Not you too…” he cried before letting out a heavy sigh.

As the young man continued to pull the man, from beyond the main gate, a young girl slowly walked in their direction hesitantly. Behind her, a young boy followed as he gripped the hem of her clothes.

“Let me go—That’s?! Aldo!!” the man shouted.

“Hiiekk!” Annette flinched.

“What? Aldo?” the young man was surprised.

“Uwwwwaaaaaaaaaaa…”

“What are you—You!! What did you do to Aldo?! Give Aldo back this instant!!” the man yelled even louder.

“Hiiek! N-no… Um, I…” Annette stammered in panic.

The flames on the man’s hand grew bigger once more as he raised his hand, ready to attack.

“Ferno!” the young man called out to warn the man.

“Huwyaaah!!”

Aldo abruptly pulled Annette by her clothes to behind him with a great force before Annette could process everything, his gaze sharpened. As he stared back at the fiery man with a serious look on his face, the mana around the little dragon fluctuated. Meanwhile, all Annette could think was how such a little boy could easily pull her as if she weighed nothing.

The other three jolted the moment they realised what they had done. The man instantly dismissed his flames and the woman stopped her cries. The three of them grew tense until the mana around Aldo settled down.

The young man finally placed a hand on Ferno’s shoulder and whispered, “That was close.”

“I wish you had stopped me earlier, Auvry,” Ferno whispered back.

Auvry closed his eyes and sighed heavily.