"The next Wizard King huh?" I asked. After the whole incident, a nearby Magic Knight came in and captured the criminal I knocked down, so after he thanked us, Julius decided he would escort me back home. I don't think he knows who I am… this will be amusing!

The blonde haired teen next to me nodded. "That's right! Once I turn fifteen, I'm immediately going to join the Magic Knights! Then I'll slowly work until I'm a captain, and then Wizard King!"

"...Say, Julius, why do you want to become the Wizard King? Isn't our current Wizard King good enough?"

Julius paused for a moment before he continued walking. "I… suppose there are a few reasons why I wish to become Wizard King. I'll narrow it down to three points. Is that fine?"

I nodded.

"Alright. First, the Wizard King is one of the most influential people in the kingdom. With the position comes power, and with power I'll be able to shape Clover Kingdom to how I envision it."

"And in terms of practicality it's easier to become an influential figure through the Magic Knights than trying to marry into the Kira bloodline."

A sheepish and somewhat embarrassed look flashed across with his. "W-Well… that's… not entirely wrong…"

"What do you mean?"

"It's just… nobles are a little scary, you know?"

I completely stopped in my tracks, and I already knew one of my eyebrows was in the sky. "...Seriously?"

Julius looked away. "Geez, you just don't get it! You're way too young to understand, but the nobles of the Clover Kingdom are so strict and judgmental, even if I married into the king's family I would still get made fun of!"

I genuinely laughed out loud and asked, "The nobles aren't THAT bad, are they?" We continued walking, and Julius failed to realize we entered the Noble Realm.

"They are! A single wrinkle and they think you're homeless! Nobles are scary!"

"And what about," I started, before laughing once more. After a moment, I calmed down enough to ask again, "And what about the Royals?"

Julius threw his arms into the air and exaggeratedly groaned. "They're the worst of them all! They're so uptight and tense, I'm sure a pebble could shatter them like glass! And the only one who can relax is the king himself, and he seems to relax TOO much!" We both laughed at that, before Julius spoke up once more, sobering up. "That leads me into my second point. The Wizard King has the potential to bridge the gap between the commoners and the nobles. Think about it, a commoner becomes Wizard King! Just that alone changes so much, it creates so many opportunities!"

"I see, I see. And what about the last reason?"

Julius stopped and stared at his own hand. "...The Wizard King is the strongest mage in the Kingdom. If I become Wizard King, then I would officially be the strongest mage in the Kingdom." He turned towards me with a wide goofy grin. "Wouldn't that be awesome?"

"Yeah, that'd be awesome." We finally arrived at the gates of the Clover Castle, but Julius still didn't notice. "You know, I have a proposition for you, Julius."

He chuckled. "You know, you've been saying bigger words than an average kid your age would know." He leaned towards and said, "Alright, I'm all ears. What's up?"

"Would you like to become my sparring partner? I don't have anyone I can regularly practice my fighting skills with, and you seem quite proficient with your magic."

He raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are you sure? You're a little young to be fighting and training, don't you think?"

"Oh don't worry, I have plenty of maids and butlers to take of me in case something goes awry."

"Maids and butlers…?"

"And that's not even including Acier Silva, who's been helping me the last few months. I'm sure she would know if I was pushing myself too hard."
"...Silva…?" For the first time of the entire walk, Julius looked away from me and took a glance at his surroundings. His eyes grew to the size of saucers and his face began to pale at an incredible pace as he finally processed that he was standing right in front of the Clover Castle.

"Plus, you could even get paid for it! I'm sure my father could stop relaxing for once and give you a couple bags of yul as compensation."

"...Father...relaxing…?" Sweat was pouring down his face at this point, and he slowly turned towards me. "Y-You know… I never asked for your name, did I?"

I imagine I gave him quite the cheeky grin as I introduced myself, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Julius! My name is Augustus Kira Clover XIII! However, you can just call me Augustus, or Kira, if you want."

At this, Julius was overwhelmed, as he promptly fainted.

After that fateful night, a couple things changed. First would be my magic training. I had finally managed to get over the mental block that was keeping me from improving. I had once more found the reason to fight. I had found the reason to keep going forward. To protect the innocent.

"C'mon Kira, you're losing focus again!"

"Wha-?!" However, that didn't mean I was done training. No, that hurdle was something I needed to get over from the beginning. All I had done was earn the right to be at the starting line. Now I was actually improving my magic, stamina, strength, and everything else, which brings us to the second thing that's changed: Julius started weekly visits to the Clover Castle to spar with me. He was quite shocked at my revelation, and I believe he was afraid I was going to execute him, but I quickly assuaged his worries with enough talking (and money). I don't think I mentioned it yet, but yul is the currency in this world. Instead of copper, silver, and gold coins, it's all one material known as yul. A lot simpler, I will admit.

"Alright, let's do this again!" Julius once more threw five balls of his magic right at me, and I found myself letting instinct take over as I dodged each one. Years of war weren't completely useless, thankfully. I was still a little rusty after not fighting for almost six years though. Besides, there was always room for improvement. Refocusing, I created two orbs of light and threw them at Julius. However, he easily intercepted them with his own magic, time magic.

Time Magic. Such an intriguing type of magic, I couldn't help but believe he was the only one with it. Time Magic is easily explainable. Julius can use his mana to manipulate time. The orbs he created were made with the affect of slowing someone down if they're hit, so the more I was hit with, the slower I got. Quite punishing, really. "You need to try harder if you're going to hit me Julius!" Back to the spar, I pulled from my mana reserves once more and summoned three orbs of light, significantly larger than before. The three of them were the size of propelling stones my old world used for catapults. I launched all three of them at Julius, and a large amount of dirt and dust was kicked up. However, I didn't celebrate yet. I didn't get him, did I…? Keeping my guard up, I watched the dust settle with extreme focus.

"You're a bit too tunneled vision, Augustus." A familiar voice from behind.

Without hesitation I spun around, light already forming in my hand, I was so close-!

"Chrono Stasis." Too late, I was stuck in time. He had already completely engulfed me in his magic, and my body was completely frozen in time. "You have good reaction speed, and your mana pool is one of the largest I've ever seen, but you need to be able to anticipate and plan for the future, even during battles. While it's good to be able to react fast when your plan inevitably goes wrong, you should have a back-up plan, or some sort of fail-safe, to rely on. Without it, you'll end up relying on your reaction speed when the plan inevitably goes awry. And by simply reacting, you're letting the enemy hold the pace of the battle, which puts you at a disadvantage."

"...Damn." Everything he said was most likely true, as I was never one to really plan. If something went wrong, I would rely on my strength and speed, rather than strategy.

Julius laughed as he waved away the spell I was under. "You're only five, so I'm sure that over time you'll naturally think about these things more."

I gave a heavy sigh. "I suppose you're right." I clapped loudly and in an instance, a nearby butler arrived with a bag of yul in his hand. "There you go Julius, your weekly payment."

Julius sheepishly grabbed it and said, "You know Augustus, I don't think I'll ever get used to this."

"Why is that?"

"I'm personally training the prince of the kingdom! It's kinda crazy when you think about it. Why did you pick me anyways?"

I shrugged. "You were nearby, and I like you. Honestly, I wasn't expecting you to be as strong as you are. I thought you'd be average, maybe below average due to the lack of grimoire. But instead, I'm getting knocked down every time I even THINK about making a mistake." I gave Julius a smile. "But I don't regret it. You're a good challenge."

Julius barked out a laugh and claimed, "You're gonna have to try harder than that to surpass me then! By the time you do, I'll already be Wizard King!" The two of us laughed and simply enjoyed the weather, relaxing in the Royal Courtyard for a little while until Julius had to leave. When we got to the front gate, Julius said, "I'll see you next week, Augustus!" The teen waved as he walked away and eventually disappeared from view.

And now there's just me. For the last few months, I've been busy with Acier and Julius. It's rare to get alone time these days. "Yet here I stand, alone, with nothing to do." So, I pondered for a while, simply staring out towards the rest of the kingdom. "I suppose I could explore the area once more..." Without hesitation, I nabbed my trusty outfit and left without any fanfare. I had a feeling my boredom wouldn't last.

"God this is boring." I had wandered through the entire Noble Capital in a few hours, and there was absolutely nothing to do. No exciting event, no sudden robbery, no interesting characters to meet, nothing. Just a bunch of fancy people walking through the streets while talking about one of three things: fancy food, fancy jewelry, or, ugh, politics. I didn't want to talk about any of that! So instead, I just wandered from place to place, but stayed in the Royal Capital. I was no fool, I knew that the last time I left the Noble Realm, I was lucky. The prince of a kingdom, completely alone in the less than lawful areas of the kingdom? That's an assassination just waiting to happen. So I stayed in the Noble Capital.

As I was wandering though, a nearby conversation caught my ear. "The Star Awards Festival is right around the corner, just two weeks away!" A nearby aristocrat exclaimed.

The one he was talking to blinked and asked, "January 3rd, right?" When his buddy nodded, the man continued saying "Wow, it really is only two weeks away. Decorations are going to start springing up everywhere!"

That's right, it's already the 20th of December… Wordlessly, I walked back to the castle. After a few minutes, I arrived and went inside without any fanfare. Then, I went to my room, ignoring the butlers and maids around me. I sat down on my bed and wistfully stared at the sky. Five days from Christmas, huh? I wonder if Mother and Father are going to celebrate… I should prepare while I have the time.

Five days passed, and on December 25th, on Christmas day I was alone in my room, a single cookie in hand, staring out across the vast kingdom, watching the people scurry around preparing for the festival. Christmas doesn't exist in this new world. Instead, it's replaced with the Star Awards Festival, a festival that celebrates the achievements of the Magic Knights. So, there I was, celebrating a holiday that only I knew of. Once more, the familiar ache of loneliness pulsed in my heart, but I ignored it. Instead, I simply raised my cookie to the ceiling. "Merry Christmas Mother, Father. I hope you live well." Then, I took a bite of my cookie. Almost immediately I spit the piece out. "Ew, raisin? I thought this was chocolate..." And just like that, Christmas came and went.

AN: Sorry for the long wait and small chapter. College has started up again, so I won't be as active as I was planning. Also, I hit a roadblock here. I'm not abandoning this story, especially before it's even started, but as of right now I have no idea what to do here, so I'm gonna take my time.

Also, I'm gonna make a story for Danganronpa. Love the characters and such, so if you like that, check it out when it gets uploaded. Thank you for your patience!

Have a good one.