Chapter 31: The Kingdom's Roses
Disclaimer:
This is Day Three of the 5-day upload schedule and I have a fun chapter for you guys with a lot of speech and focus on a different group of characters! I hope you enjoy it since I really liked writing it. See ya.
"Ooh, today's going to be a good day!" A certain Magic Knight yawned and stretched as she woke up from her sleep. She slowly got out of her bed and put on her morning sandals. She drew her blue curtains and the yellow sunshine peered through.
"Well, if I wasn't awake before, I definitely am now. Thanks, Sun!" The girl smiled. She then grabbed her towel and other toiletries and walked outside to go towards the main shower room. After finishing, she got back to her room and started to change and get ready for the day.
The Magic Knight looked in her mirror and put on her clothes. First was the white t-shirt and then the short, blue skirt with darker, blue frilly edges to them. After that was the light-yellow sweater and finally, she put on her dark-blue, ankle length boots.
She was about to leave her room but felt her hair and realised she forgot something. "How can I forget something like this?" The teen reached for her drawer and pulled out a small, dark-green cloth that she shaped into a ribbon and knotted it within her hair, the two ends of the ribbon stuck up for anyone to see.
"That's better". The girl was Daisy, as shown with her signature ribbon on her head. She was getting ready for another day as a Magic Knight for the Blue Roses.
Daisy walked away from her room and while she was going towards the breakfast hall, she would greet everyone she saw with a cheery "hello!".
Eventually, she opened the doors to where everyone was eating and grabbed a plate of food before sitting at a table on her own.
As she sat down, another member of the squad joined her quickly after.
"Hi there, Emilia", Daisy greeted the other member.
"Good morning, Daisy", the 17-year-old replied back and smiled. "You got any plans for today then?"
Daisy took a bite of her pancakes that she had got. "Hm, I don't know. Maybe I'll practice my magic or something? I kinda want to go on a mission though".
"I agree with you. It's been a few days since we last had one. That business with the Royal Capital has all of the captains stressed with internal affairs and whatnot". Emilia bit into her bread.
"I also need a few stories to tell my little siblings! If I'm not doing anything then I can't exactly tell them anything interesting. After the Eye of the Midnight Sun attack, I got to tell them a scary story but now I'm running out of content", Daisy slumped backwards into the back of her chair, crumbs falling down from her mouth to her skirt. "Oops".
Emilia laughed a little bit. "You're actually such a child, you know that?"
Daisy pouted. "Nothing wrong with that".
"Speaking of stories… Did I tell you about that mixer a while ago?" Emilia asked.
Daisy leaned forwards, putting her plate to the side. She was heavily intrigued with what her friend was about to say. "Tell me, tell me! I'm the one that persuaded you to go… so, did you meet your soulmate?" She joined her hands together and put them to her heart.
"Gosh, you're so dramatic! By the way, you didn't persuade me, you basically forced me to go! Anyway, I did meet someone and he was great. We became friends and he was also such an interesting person". Emilia remembered the night.
Daisy took another bite of her food as she calmed down a bit. "Ooh, I'm excited. So, who was the guy anyway?"
"His name was Lucas and he's part of the Golden Dawn. The lad was shy a lot of the time but so sweet", Emilia smiled with a genuine happiness.
"No way you met Lucas-san!" Daisy jumped up, almost hitting her head on the ceiling with how surprised she was.
"Wait, you know him?" Emilia asked, amazed.
"Yeah! We've known each other for ages!" Daisy replied.
"Ages? So, you're childhood friends?" Emilia, who finished her breakfast, asked.
Daisy shook her head. "Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. He was the guy I basically partnered up with during the whole Royal Capital attack. I'm kinda surprised he went to a mixer", she replied.
"Oh, he definitely wasn't there from his own free will. David was there and I guess he fell victim this time. I'm glad though since he really is sweet", the Psychic mage pointed out.
"Well, since it's David then it's not shocking at all. You've mentioned seeing him so many times in that tavern that I might as well be his friend too!" Daisy laughed.
Daisy sat back down after causing a dent in the ceiling from her surprise. She looked at Emilia and squinted her eyes as if she was questioning her. "Emilia... don't tell me you teased him like you do with everyone...", she asked.
Emilia returned the squinted look and suddenly put her hands up as if to say she was guilty. "I did, I did... But, in my defence, he did look at my chest!" She protested.
"You tricked him into it didn't you?" The Ice mage face palmed.
"... yes", Emilia responded with a pout knowing she had been caught out.
The two Blue Rose Knights kept on talking with each other until Emilia had finished her breakfast as well. After that, they left the room and went outside to train with their magic.
"Ice Magic: Frozen Storm!" Daisy used her magic to conjure up continuous and powerful blasts of ice that went towards their target.
"Psychic Magic: Return!" Emilia, who was practicing with Daisy, used her spell to cover each, individual specs of ice in a purple aura and made them go back the way they came, which was right at Daisy.
Daisy widened her eyes realising that she was about to get hit. However, she jumped and turned a page in her crystal-coloured grimoire and landed on a different spell. "Ice Magic: Frozen Quake!" The girl with the ribbon pushed her arms downwards and, from the ground, out came a large wall of solid ice that deflected the returned attack upwards, causing it to disperse.
"Not so fast, Psychic Magic: Telekinetic Warp!" Emilia put her right hand out where Daisy was slowly falling down, pointed her finger at the Ice mage and then brought it to her own direction.
In a short burst of purple light, Daisy disappeared from where she was and teleported right where her training partner was. She couldn't escape as when she tried to move, Emilia put her arm around her shoulder.
"You lose", she whispered and smirked.
Daisy turned her head to see the intimidating Emilia smirking which made her realise that she did in fact lose. Daisy slumped down and sat on the floor, arms crossed and pouting.
"Hmph. It's no fair with your Psychic Magic! You can do anything you want!" Daisy commented.
"You're right. I'm just that powerful", the winner responded in a sarcastic manner.
Daisy poker faced for a few seconds before bursting out to laugh. She stretched and got back to her feet in preparation for a round two.
"Let's go again, Emilia. I'll make sure I win this time!" Daisy pointed and laughed cheekily.
"I guess I'll have to show you my raw power once more". The 17-year-old retreated back to her starting position once more. "Wow, I kind of sound like a villain when I speak like that, ew", she cringed.
The two Blue Rose Knights were about to start their sparring again but were interrupted by another squad member of theirs. They looked to see who had just walked in the middle of them and it was Sol.
"Hi, Sol. We're going to start another spar again so could you move out of the way, please?" Emilia asked the dark-haired girl.
Sol turned to Emilia and then back to Daisy and asked a question. "Could I also join in? It could be a three-way training session if that's alright with you two? I saw Daisy use a spell that looked a lot like mine, and everyone in the squad wants to have the chance to beat you, Emilia, since you're so powerful", the Earth mage said.
Daisy and Emilia thought for a moment but then agreed.
"We haven't trained like this before. It could be interesting", they thought.
The sun shone on the Ice mage as she made the first move this time. "Psychic Creation Magic: Moving Dolls of Restriction!" Emilia summoned four large and purple dolls that appeared from her grimoire. They had no facial features yet knew where to go since they were linked to the spell caster.
"I haven't seen this spell yet, what else is she hiding?" Daisy sweat dropped.
The dolls moved in pairs and each pair targeted the two Knights that were involved. As the dolls got closer to Daisy and Sol, they caused a change in the girls' bodies.
"I… I can't move!" Sol noticed. Once the dolls faced Daisy and Sol, their movements were restricted and there was seemingly no way around it.
Emilia smiled. "This spell uses a lot of mana but it's definitely powerful. Once they face the opponent and get closer, they cause them to stop moving. The best part is that, since they have no faces, you never know if they're facing you or not so it's a lose-lose situation regardless", she thought in her head.
Daisy was locked in place, and she couldn't move any part of her body. The only thing she could do was have her grimoire flick through some pages to see what she could do.
It was the same for Sol too. "This is just great. I'm the one that challenged them both but I'm already in a situation like this!"
"Ice Magic: Shard Barrage!" Daisy summoned individual pieces of ice and fired them at different speeds and different times at Emilia.
"Good move, but it won't be enough. Psychic Magic: Return!" Just as she had done before, she returned the ice attacks to Daisy who protected herself with her own ice shards.
However, it was different this time. Since Daisy fired the shards at different speeds, Emilia wasn't able to reach them all with her magic so some of the attacks got through.
Daisy was about to get her first hit in, but Emilia was prepared.
She nodded to her purple dolls that were restricting Daisy and had them destroy the ice shards anyway.
"Tsk. You're good, Emilia!" Daisy shouted.
"Hm?" Sol noticed. She looked at Daisy as she said what she said and saw something that was interesting. "I can work with this".
"Earth Creation Magic: Divided Mother Earth! Sol summoned her own four golems and had them target Emilia, just the same as when Daisy used her magic. Though, it was more of the same as Emilia made them return.
"Just what I wanted", Sol thought. "Earth Magic: Mud Shot!" Sol, whilst her golems were being controlled by Emilia, fired another spell at the Psychic mage which was a beam of mud aiming for her.
In the same way as before, Emilia was focusing on another spell, so she had her own puppets protect her from damage.
Instead of celebrating, Sol focused on her hands and saw that they could move a bit now. Compared to the beginning, she had absolutely no movement but now there was some. However, they were quickly restricted again once Emilia focused fully.
"This is dragging on, not to mention my mana is slowly running out. I'll have to finish it", Emilia thought. She was getting tired and the sweat from her forehead proved that.
Daisy, who was busy trying to wriggle free, saw Sol as she moved her hands slightly as well. "Ooh, I think I have an idea. Perhaps it's the same as Sol's?"
A few minutes passed as both Daisy and Sol tried the same sequence of moves to get free. It was starting to work more and more as they regained mobility in their arms, legs, and body every so often and at a larger scale.
The time that had gone was telling since Emilia's Moving Dolls of Restriction had started to fade in and out due to the spell caster's mana being drained from focusing on so many different things other than simply stopping her opponents from moving.
"Psychic Creation Magic: Prismatic Slicer!" Emilia started to form a triangular prism around both Daisy and Sol and a beam of psychic energy started to generate from within. However, as she was in the middle of the spell, it disappeared fully.
"Did I run out of mana…?" Emilia sighed.
As this happened, both Daisy and Sol were free from their binds and ran towards Emilia, targeting her with their magic. They almost reached the 17-year-old and were about to beat her when suddenly their eyesight turned black for a split second and then reappeared, making their senses confused.
The two regained their sense of direction but they felt a thud on the back of their heads and fell to the floor. They turned and looked above and what they saw made them realise they had been defeated.
It was Emilia and she had karate chopped the two Blue Rose Knights in the head, declaring her the winner once more.
"Again?!" Daisy spoke.
"You're so strong!" Sol commented.
"That was… close for me! I thought I had ran out of mana, but I had just enough for a Telekinetic Warp spell", Emilia laughed nervously.
The Knights on the floor looked at each other and then back at her. "That was why our eyesight went pitch-black. We were being teleported…", they sighed.
"Correct. Also, this was a three-way training battle but you two only focused on me. If you had gone for each other as well as going to defeat me, then who knows what would've happened". Emilia flicked her silver hair in a way that showed she had all this calculated.
Daisy and Sol fell to the floor as they were so tired from the training.
"Daisy, your Frozen Quake spell is quite cool. It reminds me of my own spell that has a similar effect. I saw your first round and it got my interest", Sol mentioned as they lay on the floor.
Daisy laughed a bit and scratched her cheek. "Well, you see… It kinda is your spell. I saw you using one and thought it was really cool, so I trained to do something similar".
"I thought it was something like that!" Sol playfully hit the Ice mage on her back. "But… Emilia, did you really have to chop the top of our heads like that?"
"Yeah! That actually quite hurt", Daisy reached up at Emilia but was stopped by the Psychic mage's hand.
"Don't try to tickle me, Daisy", Emilia smiled.
The three rested for a few minutes. Their training session lasted a long time and a few of the other Blue Rose Knights had gone out to do other things.
"I kind of have a headache after you assaulted me", Sol mentioned to which Daisy agreed.
"Let's go to the market, then! A bit of shopping will soothe that pain right down", Daisy replied.
"On what planet would going out to shop help a headache, Daisy?" Sol asked.
"Never mind the small details!" Daisy shot up and grabbed Sol's hand. "Emilia, you're coming too!" The Ice mage grabbed both of the Knights and dragged them out of the base and headed towards the Castle Town of Kikka in the Common Realm, where a lot of the markets were.
Some time passed and Kikka was where the three Blue Rose mages landed after a trip on their brooms. "We haven't been here for a while", Emilia and Sol stated.
The sun over the Clover Kingdom had nearly set and the stars were becoming visible to the eye as well as the moon rising from the horizon. The training the three Magic Knights took part it had taken a long time.
"What are you guys on about? The Entrance Exam was in this town a while ago", Daisy replied to what the other two had said.
"Oh, that's right. I always forget that you did your Entrance Exam one year later than most do", Sol said.
Emilia didn't know about this so raised the question: "Why was that?"
Daisy skipped ahead, looking at the different market stalls as well as the people around with their family and friends. "Ah, no reason really. I just had something important on that exact day so had to postpone", she answered.
Emilia and Sol both looked at each other with a wondering expression. Though, that was the extent of the response as they didn't pry more into whatever may have happened with Daisy the year prior.
"You know… I've been meaning to ask, and I hope it doesn't sound rude, but how come you don't spend more time with us or the others at the base?" Emilia asked Sol who started getting worked up.
"I-I-It's b-because…", she took a deep breath and exhaled. "I… I'm not really sure. I'm sure a lot of you know how I'm with Sis and maybe you guys think it's weird, so I never really got involved with others. Today was different since she wasn't here and you two interested me a bit…". Sol blushed and twirled her fingers together.
"That's nothing weird at all! We all love the Captain so it's no biggie that you show that", Daisy replied, and Emilia nodded in agreement.
"We see how strong and confident you are in front of men and it's actually quite admirable", the silver-haired Knight replied.
Sol smiled at the two. "Thanks, you two".
The three kept exploring the various different areas but couldn't find anything that was of interest to them. They perused stalls that sold clothes, jewellery, food, and other items but nothing still took their fancy.
"I have an idea! Why don't we go… here?" Daisy lead Emilia and Sol by the hand to a solid wall.
The bricks were dark-brown and looked very worn. The floor around the wall looked to be a hub for people since their were plenty of footprints left that could be seen.
"What is this place?" The Psychic mage and the Earth mage asked. The two were getting weird vibes from the area and it was no surprise since the place looked a bit sketchy.
"You two really don't know this place? It's…", Daisy stopped and grabbed the two Knights' hands before jumping through the seemingly solid wall.
"AHHH!" Emilia and Sol screamed and closed their eyes thinking they would be hit face-first with the wall. Instead, they were perfectly unscathed.
After a few seconds of thinking they were going to be hurt, they slowly opened their eyes and saw something that shocked them.
The area in which they were was a different side of the normal markets and stall that they saw before. Compared to the common clothes they saw before, the clothes here were more unique such as having more extravagant designs to them. The jewellery they saw before was basic with them just having simple silver or gold chains, but here they saw many different minerals and stones being embedded within. It was the same trend for food, drink, and many other items.
"Wh-what is this place? I've never seen anything like it before", Sol asked. She was still gawking at the difference in scenery.
"This is the Black Market. It sells things that… let's say aren't available by the normal shopping areas. I think we could find some cool things here if we look around!" The Ice mage winked and stuck her tongue out.
"Daisy… we're not supposed to be here, are we? It's in the name 'Black' Market, meaning it's illegal", Emilia sighed and stuck and eyebrow up.
"Details, details. Who cares about the little things?" Daisy giggled.
"Us… since we're Magic Knights…", Emilia face palmed.
Suddenly, to stop the direction the conversation was going, Sol perked up and got excited all of a sudden.
"I wonder if I can find something cool here for Sis?" She started looking around the many different stalls she could see and asked around for many different things, including clothes and jewellery. In a burst of sound, she was gone into the depths of the Black Market, exploring for god knows what.
Daisy walked ahead and Emilia followed behind.
There was a different feel here than what was outside. There was an air of mystery in terms of you don't know what you're going to get your hands on. There could be something you've never seen before anywhere else in the world and you could find it here in abundance.
"Hi there, gramps!"
"Make sure you lock up properly!"
"Nice to see you again!"
Daisy greeted almost every owner that stood next to their stalls, and they greeted back with open arms. It looked like the Ice mage was accustomed to this place and was a regular.
"How many times have you come here before?" Emilia asked. She also waved at the shop owners to not feel out of place, and they returned the gesture willingly.
"Maybe once or twice", Daisy answered.
"Once or twice and you're this accustomed?" Emilia was surprised with the answer.
"Um, no. Maybe once or twice… a week", she grinned with her teeth showing in a cheeky fashion.
"That explains it", Emilia laughed.
"We're here!" Daisy pointed out the stall that she stopped at to Emilia and the two of them got looking at what was on offer.
Daisy and Emilia looked at the display of jewellery that was shown. There were anklets, bracelets, chains, necklaces, and rings available, and you could even customise them with a range of colourful gemstones. These included emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.
"Wow this is a cool range of things. Are these just decorative or can they help in a magic sense?" Emilia asked, still eyeing up the different options.
The shop owner looked like she was about to say something but looked at Daisy for some sort of clarification.
"It's fine, Code. Emilia here is my best friend so she's trustworthy". The Ice mage seemed to know the shop owner.
"Trustworthy? And do you know each other?" The Psychic Magic Blue Rose Knight wondered.
"We get a few bandits here and there looking to steal from the Black Market and I've actually caught a few since I'm here a lot of the time. Oh, and this here is Code. I'm pretty sure she has another name but for safety reasons we call her Code", Daisy explained.
"Safety reasons? This is definitely a shady place", Emilia realised.
On cue, the woman whose name was Code, introduced herself. She had long, flowing orange hair which was tied in a knot and under a small, blue hat. The woman was quite slender and tall and wore a long-sleeved, violet dress with a brown belt and cloak. Another thing about her was that she was very hyper and excited about her job.
"Hello, guys! Sorry about that but I had to confirm with my lovely Daisy here if you were cool to show some of my other crazy trinkets too! Though, I can clearly see you're a Magic Knight so maybe I should've trusted you without needing confirmation? Oh, well let bygones be bygones! Before we move on, can I interest you in some anklets? They're state of the art – well, not really since the kingdom won't let me sell these anywhere else – but trust me they're high quality! Oh, no? Hm, okay what about this magic flying rug? Oh, you're here for jewellery and not magic flying rugs… hm, that's fine, but are you sure? I have…" she carried on, bringing out her products from who knows where. Though her voice seemed to become quieter as the two Blue Roses lost their focus on her.
"Ah, Code. Never change, but only jewellery for us and some of the… cool stuff, please", Daisy put her hand to one part of her face and whispered.
Code realised that she was perhaps getting ahead of herself and calmed down slightly. She agreed and brought out another compartment of her table that was tucked away and showed it to Daisy and Emilia.
The jewellery this time was nothing like what was set previously. These were still items like anklets, bracelets, chains, necklaces, and rings but this time they had different coloured stones already embedded in them that gave off a mysterious glow.
"The stones you see are actually different to minerals of gemstones. Some say there's intense luck packed right in those tiny things. Some even say that they can boost power", Code explained.
"Oh really?" Emilia asked.
"Nah, it's only rumours but I gotta do what I gotta do to sell them", Code winked.
The three paused and laughed for a moment. Daisy and Emilia looked through the archive of different sets of items and had picked a few that they liked. Daisy had one item in her hand that she wanted to buy, and Emilia had two.
Daisy had a silver-chained bracelet with small, circular links that went around the frame. On the top, there was a crystal-clear gemstone that you could see through.
Emilia had a similar item, but the gemstone was purple, linking to her own magic. The other item was a silver necklace that had a blue gemstone embedded into it.
"Great choices, you two. Those gifts are excellent for a special someone, so I hope they love them. Emilia, that'll be 600 yul. Daisy, that'll be 350". Code accepted the money from her customers and waved them away.
As they walked away with their items in small brown pouches, Emilia asked Daisy about what she bought.
"I never gathered that you were someone that liked bracelets", Emilia stated.
"Oh, I don't mind them, but this isn't for me. I actually bought it for Lucas-san. I want to give it to him the next time we meet", she replied.
Emilia realised what this could imply and paused for a moment before replying back. "What about your siblings?"
"I came here yesterday and bought stuff for the four of them actually!" Daisy smiled.
"You definitely are here all the time...", Emilia replied under her breath. She continued on the point about Lucas though. Emilia thought about this for a few seconds and concluded that Daisy may be interested in the mage that was at the mixer.
"Do you like him?" The Psychic mage asked.
"Yeah, I do. He's someone I like being friends with", she turned and smiled. Het hands were behind her back and she leaned forwards. "… But it's nothing more! The only relationship talk that'll be happening is me setting you up with your soul mate!" She giggled.
"I see", Emilia replied before answering back. "Hey! Don't go setting me up with random people just because you want to see something happen!"
"Haha, no guarantee there", the Ice Magic user winked. "What about your gifts?"
"One of them is something for me since I do like my jewellery and the other is for my mom. She's always been into stuff like this, and I think that aspect of hers brushed off onto me", Emilia chuckled with a bit of embarrassment.
Just as they finished talking, they heard the sound of running footsteps from the side. They both turned to look and saw the Earth mage rushing towards them with a large bag of clothing.
"Daisy, Emilia! Look what I got Sis!" Sol shouted and brought out a blue dress. The top half was a darker shade with a white pattern going down the middle and the bottom half was a lighter shade that extended down to where the ankles would be. There was another part to the dress which was a cloak that was another shade of blue with white outlines, which would be worn over the dress and pinned together at the middle with a red pin.
Daisy and Sol looked in awe at how beautiful it looked and praised Sol's clothing sense.
"Sis will love this! Though… maybe I should've waited for some festival for her to wear it? Anyhoo, she will be happy which is all I need", Sol blushed before carrying on. "Say, did you guys buy anything?"
"We did but we'll talk about it on the way back to the base. Besides, we should hurry since we're going to miss dinner!" Daisy skipped ahead and ushered the two others to follow her.
"Coming!" They replied.
NOTES:
I want to make a slight correction. In Chapter 10, I said that the Black Market was in the Royal Capital when it was in fact not. It was in Kikka, which is in the Common Realm, so my bad. I just corrected that here.
Perhaps you weren't expecting a chapter focusing on the Blue Rose Knights so here you go. In this fic I will be adding some development here and there for that squad since one of my main OC's are part of it so it only makes sense.
Daisy buying a gift for Lucas-san. She says it's nothing, so we'll believe her :P.
