Oathtaker | Chapter 3 - Sword and Shield

  [Kristoph Ranger College - Main Hall]

  [Revalante, Western Sentralis]

  [05-03-5 AN]

  Following that little incident, Mark and the other students were sent to the main hall to gather and hear the opening speech of the Headmaster of the College.

  It was extra special as this was perhaps one of the few days where the Headmaster of Kristoph Ranger College would make an appearance. Mark couldn't help but find it auspicious that he would get to meet the Headmaster up close, he quietly made his way to a vacant seat as he looked onwards.

  The bustling Hall was filled with many first years like him as they all looked onwards to what was happening.

  Eventually the hall came to a hush as the faculty arrived and standing at the center of the stage was an Elven woman in a White and Gold hooded Coat, not just any particular hooded coat.

  The coat that denotes the role of an Imperial Court Mage, as evident with the emblem of a Snake Eating its own tail, an Ouroboros. She had beautiful blue eyes while her long silver hair was done in a pair of pigtails.

  Immediately Mark knew the importance of that symbol, how within the Empire those who bear the emblem of the Ouroboros are reserved for mages who have the rank of Grand Caster. Mages who have ventured above and beyond in terms of magic and are often considered the Magic Advisers of the Emperor himself.

  She was none other than Grand Caster Freia Robin, the Last Grand Caster of the Old Empire.

  “Greetings students, my name is Freia Robin. It is a pleasure to see you all here before me.” She said with a calm tone. “I will be brief, I expect no less from all of you especially in this time period where the world is still in an age of darkness.”

  She paused for a moment, for a brief moment Mark felt a chill down his spine as though she was directly looking at him. He fought the urge to put his hood up to hide his identity.

  ‘I think I made a grave mistake.’ Mark thought to himself as he swallowed hard.

  Unable to listen to her entire speech, the next thing he knew was that he was approached by the faculty for a private meeting with the Headmistress.

  Mark was guided to the halls which were old and cracked as though the events of the Fall of the Empire was felt throughout these halls, every now and then the faculty glanced at him with curiosity as though wondering why this stray dog earned the attention of the most powerful Mage of the world.

  ‘I see, so you chose to follow the path you and your siblings had planned long ago.’ He heard the voice at the back of his head. He recognised that voice, a calming almost motherly voice that came with years of experience and wisdom.

  ‘Please, don't poke at my mind. I have a lot at the moment.’ He thought back knowing full well who was responsible for that.

  At the end of the hall, the two Faculty knocked at a series of massive sets of double doors.

  “Headmaster Robin?” The Faculty said. “We have–”

  “Leave him be I wish to be alone with the student.” The same voice from his head earlier spoke with a bored tone as though she was busy all the while the door opened revealing a strange fog like veil behind it. The Faculty sighed and nodded in resignation as he turned to Mark.

  “Mind your manners boy, you will be speaking with someone important, understand.”

  Mark nodded as he walked through the doors but what he saw past that, he couldn't help but let out a gasp of awe.

  A hill that contained dozens if not thousands of flowers that can be seen as far as the eye can see. At the center of the hill was an office desk with a parasol underneath providing shade to find Grand Caster Freia busy reading a book in her hands.

  Mark quietly walked towards her and noticed that she was surrounded by a series of lantern lilies. Pale blue flowers that are known for their bioluminescent properties.

  “You really thought dying your hair could hide yourself from me?” She said looking up with a rather teasing smile on her face.

  “You were never at the orientation were you?” Mark said with a smile as he looked at his hair as it transformed from jet black to silver, his old hair color, once he considered it as a flaw but now it felt like a symbol of pride that he was forced to hide out of pragmatism.

  “I have better things to do, though I never anticipated seeing my star pupil there.” She said jokingly as a chair manifested behind him while she closed her book and looked at him. “Take a seat.”

  “I don't think I was ever your star pupil,” Mark joked in a low voice as he did. “That title should belong to Silvie.”

  “Depends, you had better discipline in trying to use magic.” She said with a chuckle followed by a brief moment of silence as though the two remembered fondly of events that had long since passed.

  ‘It feels nice, this is nostalgia right?’ Mark thought in a low voice.

  “I entered this place to gain the tools needed to find my family, that's why I chose this path.” Mark spoke as he looked down as his voice cracked for a moment, these years of holding his emotions and trying to remain strong. “I want to–no–I need to find them, I have never been the most emotive or attached child but they're my family and they're everything to me.”

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  “Then I can assure you, I’ll make sure you will get the resources you need to find them.” Freya said, putting the cup of tea down and looking at him. “Though I wish I had found you much earlier, I could have done something and given you a better life.”

  “I’m sure you and the others had done everything you could,” Mark responded with a reassuring smile. “After the Citadel fell and the great secession I’m sure you and the others are struggling to set things right.”

  “If only that was easy,” Freia lamented in a low voice. “I suspect you'd prefer to keep your identity a secret? Marcus Noxsolis Orthros.”

  Marcus Noxsolis Orthros, that was his Birthname or perhaps Imperial name would be more appropriate.

  Born as the Second illegitimate child of the late Emperor Ioshua but is scattered alongside his siblings, the reason he kept it a secret was to keep a low profile as too much attention could be detrimental in the efforts in trying to find his family.

  “Yes please, at least for now. It's bad enough that the four nations that withdrew from the Empire and formed new nations are using my stepmothers as a figurehead, I don't want the spotlight on me for that.” Mark replied bitterly as he did so recalling how in ports all across what's left of the Sentralisian Continent wave the flags of the four nations each one trying to claim as the successor of the Emperor as the leaders of each claim to be relatives of the Empress and the three Consorts.

  “Understandable, truth be told, that's why I settled in Revalante. I knew they had the decency to not use the name of a dead person for their own benefit.” Freia commented bitterly, no doubt just as upset as he was.

  “Please excuse me, I still have things to do.” Mark said standing up and about to leave.

  “But before that,” She said standing up as she walked towards him as she extended her hand with a smile for a handshake. “Welcome to Kristoph Ranger College, Prince Marcus Noxsolis Orthros.”

  Mark smiled back and shook her hand.

  “A pleasure to be your student, Grand Caster.”

  Mark walked his way through the halls of the College on his way to the first class as per his schedule wearing the Kristoph Ranger College Uniform, it was a gray coat that had blank pentagon indicating which was the sign of a Type Two Student and equally black pants though he kept a black hoodie worn between the shirt and the coat with the hood on alongside the muffler he got.

  He preferred to keep the hoodie on as a personal choice, mostly since he had been wearing that hoodie for five years alongside the muffler and while it was worn out and was slightly used, he kept it around as a reminder of everything that had happened.

  Mark made his way towards the classroom where everyone was already in the middle of trying to get to know each other, he slipped past them and made his way towards an open seat for him to take with his bag all the while students ignored him barely noticed him as he did so. It was a rather familiar feeling, ignored by other kids since he was unremarkable.

  That was the life of Makoto in the past as well, though unlike before where Makoto wanted more than that but learned what he wanted was unobtainable so he had long since accepted it.

  Mark let out a tired yawn as he reached into his bag and–

  “Hey there,” He glanced at the young man next to him. A human male wearing a pair of glasses behind his blue eyes while his sandy blonde hair was neatly swept back while his Type One uniform, evident from the fact it had golden accents and had the emblem of a Black and Gold Eagle over the spot of the Pentagon, was neat and tidy.

  Immediately Mark’s first impression of him was “By the Book” and looks like he'd get a stroke at the idea of breaking school rules.

  “Um hey,” Mark responded, it has been a while since he had a normal conversation with someone his (physical) age group on account that he spent more time with adults in Last Light.

  “You like Imperial History?” He said, glancing at the book he was pulling out. It was a copy of Procopius’ Imperators Volume One, the go to source of studying the previous Emperors. His copy focuses on the First Emperor.

  “Just started, wonder when will Emperor Ioshua show up.” Mark responded as the elf chuckled from his rather humourless joke. “Mark Grauwolfe.”

  “Kaelus Solokov, call me Kal.” Kal said, shaking his hand. “It’s pretty rare for someone to be interested–”

  “Who let the mongrel in here?” He heard the grating sound of Clint Werhein’s voice as he loomed over him with a disgusted look, behind him were a pair of Beastmen like they were.

  But where Clint was a hyena, one was an alligator beastwoman as evident from the olive scales around her cheeks, arms and legs and the other was a vulture beastwoman as evident from the hair pattern that resembled that of a vulture and as with the trend with avian wings on her head.

  Mark recognized the two women as the daughters of the elites of Last Light, though as for the names Mark didn’t bother to learn their names all things considered.

  And all three of them were Type One Students.

  “Trash like you shouldn't even be here in the first place, this is clearly for the elites.” Clint said with a sneer.

  Mark ignored him as he turned to Kal.

  “So anyways have you–”

  Mark wasn’t even able to finish his sentence when Clint kicked the chair he was sitting on as he hit the floor with a thud so loud that it caught the attention of a few students as he let out a quiet grunt as Kal stood up surprised as though he was about to get in between him and Clint.

  But Mark raised his hand as though to stop him and shook his head, this was always Clint’s habit of harassment. He recalls attending school and was always the subject of torment for him, this was because he introduced himself as Mark Grauwolfe and not Marcus Noxsolis Orthros, well even if he did use that name it was unlikely that they’ll take it seriously.

  So from Clint’s point of view, Mark was just some poor refuge from the Citadel when it fell five years ago.

  “What do you even want Werhein?” Mark asked as he grabbed his things and placed them back on his table.

  “I want you to leave,” He said with a sneer. “A Secondary Education dropout like you doesn’t belong here.”

  “Yeah this is for the Elite,” The Vulture Beastwoman said with the same mocking sneer.

  “And you are nowhere near Elite.” The Crocodile Beastwoman added.

  “Too bad that’s not your call then,” Mark said walking away nodding at Kal as he grabbed his own stuff making it clear that they are going to move to a different spot. “Plus I’m sure that’s the point of the Student Type system already.”

  “Yeah and who the hell gave you the right to even judge who stays or leaves,” Kal said as he stood between Clint and Mark with a glare who in turn had a glare at Kal as if to say ‘who gave you the right to speak up?’ Mark can tell this was the indication of a scuffle breaking out as he placed a hand on Kal’s shoulder as he was clearly ready to pick a fight.

  ‘Not good, I’d rather not cause an incident and–’

  “What’s going on here!”

  All of them turn to an Elven Woman walking towards them, her short black hair tied in a bun while her dark purple eyes look at Clint and Kal who were still glaring at each with Mark being the only one to notice her arrival.

  What stood out was the fact her uniform was different, it was Type One Student uniform but it was slightly unfixed, her coat was unbuttoned showing her undershirt with the sleeves rolled up showing a pair of fingerless gloves, instead of the standard skirt, she instead wore a pair of shorts.

  “Just a mild disagreement, nothing to worry about.” Mark said, turning to the dwarf trying his best to reassure her. The last thing he needed was to get into even deeper trouble because of Clint’s blatant class discrimination.

  “I can see at least one reason to be worried about this,” She said, commenting as she looked at Mark. “You, what happened?”

  “Oh I simply said something that unintentionally offended him,” Mark said, gesturing to Clint who looked more confused that Mark decided to cover for him.

  “Then he said something that was offensive but I let it slide, but my friend over here was not one to let it slide and was ready to fight for it.” Mark added gesturing to Kal who looked at him in surprise as well.

  “I see then why don’t you move over there while the other person stays.” The Elven woman said as Mark nodded as he took Kal by the shoulder as they moved away all the while the Human woman looked at the two one more time to make sure they didn't make a move.

  Little did Mark know, that wasn’t the only observer in that little incident.