Chapter 11: The Privilege of The Powerful
Later that night we celebrated the news of my admission at a party with my mother, my sister, Hope, Elizabeth, and, sadly, Albert who had no shame in joining us.
"It's a private party, can you go?"
"Sh-shut up! I'm only here to keep an eye on you."
"You just want to eat for free, beggar."
"Oh, you... Your mother's beautiful son."
"... Yes, you ugly women't."
The party was filled with moments like these, after the exam I was guaranteed to be a privileged student of the academy and so Albert suffered from becoming a boot licker. Everyone was cheering and my mother was not openly surprised, "Your admission was only a formality, I never doubted it", What a beautiful sentence from a mother, with the only downside of condemning me to do my best,
but on his side, Hope, discussing with his sister, seemed bothered.
"Just once more, please, I'm strong enough to assimilate it."
"Hope, the problem is not if you can or not assimilate it, the problem is that if you wish to become a top Emissary you can't rely on me for gathering magic stones at your place."
"Just one last for the academy, just to make it fair, I'll do the rest myself."
"*sigh* Now you're disappointing me, I gave you Hero Time as a last reward for your hard work, what's happened to your will to fight? You call it unfair because Dora and Cid have trained more than you?"
"... No, I've trained more than anyone in this village. If you spent more time around you'd see it... But for once you're here you stick to someone else. Forget what I asked."
After my fight against Barron, Hope was facing an internal crisis, on the one hand, Barron had demonstrated abilities far beyond what he could handle, this was the first time he felt genuinely inferior to someone, someone who should have beaten his rival easily, but that was the problem, his rival was about to defeat Barron,
Hope, therefore, felt faced with a wall that he was too impatient to cross, to the point of making a foreign request of his temper, and his last sentence seemed to hide something else.
"Hope, you know that I am the captain of the royal guards, as such, it's impossible for me to be here every day, or weeks, or even months, I have to fight for the people, and in return, I cannot pass a lot of family time, you should understand it."
"I'm not crying over it, I'll beat you one day anyway, so you'll be the one waiting."
"And I'll be more than happy if you do it, and that's why you really should stay closer to Dora, he'll be more useful than any E-rank group once he takes this seriously.
"Here, do you still have to talk about him every day? He's my friend but you're my...Never mind! I shouldn't be surprised!"
He started to walk away, Elizabeth
tried to follow him but a sudden call stopped her.
"Hey, Liza, I want a private talk about something important."
She turned toward me a little worried.
"Eh... Is this urgent?"
"Since I have to leave tomorrow, yeah."
"Huh, oh, so maybe a little later?"
"... I'd prefer now since you're still sober, my decision to join the academy depends on it."
"S-sober?! You little... Hope, could you...Um...Oh Dora, does this have to be in private?"
"Leave me out of it, Your favorite person is asking for a date, you shouldn't refuse."
Hope left the place grumbling, Elizabeth tried to hold him back in vain but the young man was already far away, I watched the scene carefully.
"Um, is this a bad time to say my request is a bit illegal?" »
"...It's okay, I'll talk to him later, what do you want to ask?" n--0veLb1n
"Not here, come with me."
We went to a room down the hall, my bedroom, and when I opened the door, Elizabeth was surprised by the sight.
My room does not present the image of the house, a large luxurious bed, a sofa, a tea service, and especially a clock on the ceiling.
"What... What is this place?" She asked dumbfounded "It wasn't like that yesterday."
"... So you did come to my room, this place is one of my techniques, a room in another dimension that only I can open, time passes more slowly here too so we will have plenty of time to chat.
I sat down in an armchair and she did the same, her eyes wandering around the room that looked like a royal bedroom.
" SO? What exactly do you want? You said it was illegal.
"Not a lot of things, it's not impossible for the Captain of the Holy Royal Knights to do. Firstly, as someone you think has great potential for the future, I want to have a royal scholarship."
"A... A royal scholarship?"
"Yes, I did my research and found out that for special students recommended by the kingdom, the academy will offer a scholarship, so I want that one."
"Yes, but it's the scholarship for students from the noble caste, for normal people it's the excellence scholarship, that's the one you can access."
"Yes, and that's why I need you, the one who can force the Kingdom to build a poste de garde pour son village, to use the same authority to make the wonderful Avatar, who can use every type of branch, feel at home at the academy."
"... Every? Are you really serious... No, wait! What you're asking concerns the order of the crown, you will alienate a lot of people if you get what you ask for."
"Ah? How sad, guess my career as a professional peasant can keep going."
"My, my, MY! Why are you so complicated? Didn't you promise to your mom?!"
"Yeah but who knows if I will succeed? Suddenly I feel so unworthy of studying at the academy, guess I'll just chill forever."
"..... Now you'll really be the one owning me something, do you think it's fair for the others?"
"I don't know, I feel like Hope getting a cheat stone without trying, sounds familiar?"
Elizabeth was speechless, no matter how hard she tried, I had cornered her.
I was aware that a commoner could get a scholarship but I also knew that life was so expensive on capital that the Merit scholarship barely allowed me to survive. If I had to sacrifice my life for the kingdom, then the kingdom should also leave an arm.
"I expected you to be a glorious warrior, not a kid blinded by money."
"That sounds a lot like a 'you' problem. So? My lady? Do we have a deal? Are you gonna make me a spoiled brat?"
That was a perfect plan since it was only a cover. The real reason why I wanted a Royal scholarship was that I knew what kind of treatment awaited commoners in a Royal place, Barron was an example, and the Royal scholarship provided me the best weapon: total immunity, I could do whatever I wanted without consequences, but better focus Elizabeth on the financial aspect for now.
"Fine then, you'll get it... Do you also want me to be your Sugar mommy as a bonus? Filthy gigolo."
"Oh, that won't be necessary, only if your brother beat me."
"Good, but as a senior, I can confirm one thing to you: you, with this scholarship, will bring all the hatred in the world on yourself.
"Surprisingly, I feel like I've lived this all my life."
We shook hands, sealing our agreement, Elizabeth not realizing that she had just given a license to violence to a demon.