Holfort's Royal Academy prides itself as a place of higher learning for its students. Here young prospective Noblemen from across the nation learn all that they could possibly need in order to defend and manage their lands from the threats that they face: Pirates, Monsters or other natural disasters, while receiving ample opportunities to make connections with individuals of various ranks to enrich themselves and their various lands. Truly a Beacon for the people of Holfort!
Excerpt from a Brochure for the Holfort Academy, found in a toilet paper holder on one of it's border territories.
Left and Right were working together to patch the various injuries that Leon received the night before. So point of interest, the whole suppression of his innate demonic power thing also did a number on his healing factor. Before he could walk off getting a sword run through his chest, now he had to waste bandages on getting his body patched up by Left and Right.
"Please try not to get into any more bar room brawls Waka..." Left stated as she made her exasperation known.
"No one died, that's a plus." Leon stated hopefully, before Right tightened one of his bandages.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" The Limiter ruined his pain tolerance too.
"Only because you ran away when they started throwing things at you." Right explained as she put the medical kit away. "Please get some rest Waka. You have an early day tomorrow."
While Leon was out provoking the Drunkards the twins finished work on his room, a simple spell that pools large amounts of magical power into the room until a breach into another dimension is formed, after that a barrier was erected in the space. As such the room no longer led to the same cramped doorway as when Leon first arrived here and instead into a area of Tir An Nog that the two demonesses had set up as Leon's room complete with furniture, after warding the little place appropriately of course. Leon settled for shorts as he went to bed, having already been wearing them as the girls pulled bits of broken glass out of his body, before curling up to go to bed.
"Monitor him closely this time." The two girls turned to face a piece of furniture that they had placed on the nearby wall, a yellow on purple cuckoo clock stuck at 11:25, despite that time still being hours away. "That child carries the bloodline of the Umbran Chieftess, I will not lose a single drop." The Clock spoke with hundreds of feminine voices, as if there were hundreds of women inside of it and all of them sounded disapproving.
""Yes sir."" The two repentant demonesses responded with deep full body bows.
Even though they said that, as it turns out Exclusive Servants such as them were not allowed to join their masters during class, instead the two maids stood outside of the training field for their first class for the Day: Swordsmanship.
"Gather round class, Gather round." The instructor was a lithe man, his face largely occupied by a large and well oiled moustache. "I am Edward Fia Nashton and I will be your instructor in Melee weapons. Among you there are those who already have some experience wielding a blade. Perhaps your parents took the initiative to train you when you were young, or perhaps your territories have come under threat by monsters or pirates in the past. So we will begin by performing some sparring practice." The Instructor snapped his fingers and his teaching aide brought over a serving table with two mugs on it, filled not with drink but sticks. "Inside each of these mugs are numbers, from 1 to 25, each of you will pull a number, and whoever draws the same number as you will be your opponent for this class, when I have a better idea of your fighting ability then I will try and pick out opponents better suited to you. For now you may draw."
The students walked up and drew the Popsicle sticks, announcing their numbers and were soon paired off with their partners.
"Number 4?" Hearing his number called Leon turned to the direction of the voice and found a familiar head of Cyan hair.
"That would be me." Leon stated turning his own stick around to face his opponent's. To Leon's surprise he recognised the person, or rather recognised his hair, When most of the people around you have Black, Brown or Blonde hair the Cyan really kinda sticks out like a sore thumb.
"My apologies in advance." Cyan had one of those stern high strung looks on him, it was probably the glasses it made him look like he was glaring.
"What for?" Leon asked confused and to his surprise Cyan mirrored his look.
"You don't know who I am?" Cyan asked by way of reply.
"I don't think you know who I am. But where are my manners: Leon Fou Bartfort, son of Merchants and amateur adventurer." Leon crossed his legs as he gave a bow to the cyan haired young man.
"Chris Fia Arclight, Swordsman of some repute." The man in Question pushed his glasses up his nose as he looked away for a moment. "By way of apology I shall let you have the first strike." Chris had already gotten the training swords for them to use and held them both to Leon for him to choose one.
"You aren't going to take your glasses off?" Leon took the sword and gave it a few practice swings, roughly blade shaped wood with a dull edge and a stone core inside or so he believed. "If I hit your face then the broken glass is going straight into your eyes."
"These glasses were made with the same material used in cockpit screens." Chris stated full of confidence. "Even if you were able to strike my face then I assure you these glasses would not break under the weight of a mere training sword." Well that was good to know, even with magic broken glass is a pain in the rear to get out of eyes. Even so no matter how good you are it's important to not underestimate your opponents, to go so far as to apologise in advance just for being paired with him? Leon will forgive Chris for the slight after giving him a bloody nose.
3rd among the capture targets is Chris Fia Arclight. Chris is the son of the current Sword Saint Corvo Fia Arclight, a man who claims that Chris has no talent for swordsmanship, instead has spent Chris's entire life hammering sword arts into his head to the point it's the only weapon he uses. This would be fantastic if this was purely a world of swords and sorcery, unfortunately Chris is often the proverbial knife brought to a gun fight, worst yet is that he also suffers severe confidence issues due to his father repeatedly telling him that he's bad at the one thing that they actually do together. Much of Chris's character arc involves him being able to move past his daddy issues.
Excerpt from Diary 1.
Soon the rest of the students had been paired off with their sparring partners, before anyone could begin the instructor clapped his hands again.
"A quick reminder everyone: This is a sparring match not a death match. Support magic is fine in the dungeon but not in my courtyard." With a second clap the instructor gave only only a single word for a command. "Begin!"
Leon charged forward blade raised into the air, quickly changing his grip on his weapon in order to land a stabbing blow directly to Chris's face. Chris has never seen such a clumsy strike in his entire life, he'll simply dodge the blow and follow through with an upwards strike. The two swordsmen met, Chris unleashed a decapitating strike, and missed completely as Leon broke his charge into a slide directly underneath Chris between his legs before abruptly standing up his shoulder going into Chris's groin, his head into his stomach, and the hilt of his blade into Chris's face. Leon used his entire body to throw Chris through the air and landing on his back feet away from him. Chris came to the sight of Leon looming over him.
"Thank you for the first strike by the way, you bloody tosser!" Leon smirked nastily as he looked down on Chris. Immediately the Cyan haired Swordsman flipped himself over to grab his sword only to discover Leon's foot on his sword, and Leon's sword on the back of his neck. "Don't!"
"Cheater!" Chris spat angrily.
"I posed an obvious feint and you fell for it. You underestimated me and I took advantage of it. Now I've killed you twice over and you've yet to land a single blow." Leon stepped off of Chris and backed away. "If you're done with your warm up now I'd like to move on with my day."
Chris picked up his sword and got back to his feet, he did reset his broken nose before he got into a fighting stance. The two men walked towards each other, watching each other as they moved, and when they were in range of one another clashed. Chris watched Leon's movements as he swung his blade, each strike made a curved motion as it led into another maintaining the momentum of one strike to the next, as opposed to the more amateurish pointed movements where the momentum of one strike is cancelled to make another. Each time Leon blocks one of Chris's strikes he always does it with the top quarter of his blade, with Leon's oft hand acting as a fulcrum the force of the blow pushes the other end of the blade towards Chris like a see-saw, more than one time Chris got a blow to his face by that move, more importantly Leon was watching the flow of Chris's sword, and he was only taking Chris's strikes that he knew he would be able to block. It wasn't just the weapon Chris had to look out for too, Leon kept walking forward, stomping his feet on Chris's toes as he went, and was rewarded by a satisfying crunch on more than one occasion.
"This is a sword fight you-" Chris's face made a screwed expression as Leon stomped on his foot.
"This is a fight that has swords in it." A gut punch was Chris's reward for thinking that a fight was a good time to air his grievances. "It also has hands and feet in it too, you'd do well to remember that." Bowled over as he was, Chris could do little to react to the boot flying at his head.
The rest of the spars were finishing up around then too, some with students that had to be taken away on stretchers much like Chris. A familiar head of Red hair was glaring at Leon from across the room, his eyes moving to a familiar friend and rival that was being carried away on a stretcher.
"Congratulations students for your successful fights." The Teacher clapped his hands again. "If you would consume these potions of healing we can once again draw the next round swo-"
"Spears!" The Red haired student snapped as if he was barking orders to the teacher, before aiming at Leon directly. "And that guy is my partner for the next round." The Teacher let out a sigh.
"I suppose giving the students the chance to familiarise themselves with additional weapons is only proper." With a Snap of his fingers Mr. Nashton had his aide bring in a barrel of spears for the class to use, which was rather suspicious to Leon as in a class room it's the teacher who dictates terms to the students and not the other way around. Red head threw a spear to Leon who deftly caught it.
"I sense I struck a nerve earlier." Leon went to his bag and took out a cloth that he tied around the business end of his blunted spear.
"Greg Fou Seberg." Greg introduced himself before he indicated the battered Chris who was being taken away. "That is my usual sparring partner." Greg popped the cork on his potion and downed the contents.
"Meaning that I must now play the substitute?" If Greg and Chris were roughly on even footing then this shall not take very long.
"Chris lost because he's not willing to play dirty." Greg stated as he got into a fighting stance with his spear. "I am!"
Second among the Capture targets we have Greg Fou Seburg who comes from a family of experienced adventurers, who are also chiefly responsible for running the Adventurer's guild, meaning he was running dungeons when most people his age were still playing with inflated pig's bladders. Strangely enough though he still has the same starting level as the other capture targets, if not slightly more natural talent when it comes to melee. His biggest issue though is that he's good and knows it, so he deliberately handicaps himself by using substandard equipment under the pretence that when he breaks something he can get the replacements and patch jobs faster than anyone else. His Character Development requires engineering scenarios in which he has his pride and haughtiness broken until such a time that he embraces equipment that matches his raw ability.
Excerpt from Diary 1.
Mr. Nashton serving as referee the fight soon began. The Clash initially began with spear heads, Greg stabbing and thrusting Leon twirling his around forming a circle as his flag went round and round, the extra movement was distracting to say the least, the real issue was that the constantly rotating spear kept parrying Greg's attacks, worst yet Leon's longer arms meant longer reach too, he could comfortably attack outside of Greg's strike zone and there was effectively nothing he could do about it. Then Suddenly Greg hopped to the side and charged forward, blocking Leon's side strikes with his spear's butt while charging forward aiming the tip of the spear directly at Leon's head. Leon responded just in time to land a punch on Greg's face, but Greg's spear head grazed Leon's cheek.
"You're a little stronger than your friend, I'll give you that much." Leon explained as he touched the cut Greg left on his cheek, by the looks of things they managed to chip their weapons during the initial part of their spat. Greg was too busy trying to reset his nose to really care about Leon's opinions.
"Ugh. You hit harder than Chris does too." And then the two went at it again.
This time Left tied the bandages a little tighter, annoyance plain as day on her features.
"So what's with the Bimbo's anyway?" Right was the one doing Greg's bandages, unfortunate for him as she was working on a wound on his neck.
"If I was you I'd choose new words." Right made her annoyance plain as day.
"Gack! Lemme explain!" Greg thus was having a hard time explaining, also breathing.
"Right!" Leon gave his maid a warning tone and she released her garrote.
"Sorry. But just to make sure you guys aren't from around here are you?" Greg seemed rather suspicious.
"Son of Travelling Merchants Here to make connections." Leon was all too tired of this rehearsed line.
"Right then, I'll come out and say it. Are you sleeping with these two?" Right Tightened her Garrote again.
"Right!" Leon was sounding increasingly annoyed by this situation, similarly it took Right longer to loosen the noose this time. "Call them whores again and next time I'll let her have her way with you."
"So you don't know then." Greg stated his hand around his throat. "All those demi-human guys around the school you've been seeing?" Leon nodded his head. "They're plowing their owners." Greg stated without hyperbole.
"As in...?"
"Personal Whores each and everyone of them." Greg's eyes darted to Left and Right again. "Present company excluded of course."
"I would think Condoms would be cheaper and less risky but whatever works for them." Leon was going to cut Greg a little slack for his misunderstanding, he didn't know if Left and Right were, Shadows can be quite vindictive.
"You don't seem to know a lot about them but people can't get pregnant from demi-humans." Greg stated as Right finished bandaging him up.
"So they get all the benefits of being pounded but at no risk of having to deal with the consequences." Leon summarised, unamused by the revelation.
"Yeah pretty much." Greg stated as he stood up and stretched, probably off in search of a real healer to deal with what the cheap healing potions the school uses can't.
"To be clear these are the same Demi-humans that the girls use to harass and bully the students of low ranking noble families." Leon's opinion of this school dropped, it was already pretty damn low to begin with but it continued to impress him.
"In any case we have to get to the next class." Greg walked off into a jog. "See yah later Fellas!"
Once Leon knew that Greg was in the clear he turned his attention to his maids.
"You two get all that?"
"Oh yes Waka!" The two were shaking with joy. "So many talented fighters! It's going to take us months to integrate with everything that we saw!"
Left and Right were ultimately demons of Jealousy, they in layman's terms desire what others have, and when you're a demon living with the generational trauma of all the other demons wanting to kill you then the thing you want most of all is to become a better killer, for the shape shifting shadows this means learning the fighting styles of creatures roughly the same size as them, in other words humans. For now Leon had another class to attend, one less martially oriented it would seem, which was good so that the healing pop he was snacking on would have time to work too.
The bad part was...
"Many of you may view this class as a waste of time." Mustache's seemed to have been a tradition in this school, still the elderly etiquette teacher wore his well at least. "But I assure you it is necessary. Etiquette is the social contract that acts as the glue which keeps us together, be they the laws of the land or this humble ceremony without it our world may collapse." Melodramatic much? "I can see that many of you are not convinced. Allow me to provide you with an example." Old man Lucas sipped his tea before he spoke. "When doing a cultural exchange etiquette is both a weapon and a means of communication. Even when people of vastly different backgrounds interact with one another Etiquette allows them to communicate their intentions on equal footing. When you understand the culture you are interacting with and properly follow their etiquette then you can sit at the same table as they do and see them eye to eye, be they a prince or a pauper. Who would like to help me demonstrate?" Old Man Lucas landed eyes on me. "Ah the Foreigner. Why don't you come here and show me the courtesy of your home land?" Lucas asked the question in a way that it could never be taken as such.
Leon stood up and walked down to where the professor was. Before he did anything else Leon took out the sucker from his mouth, wrapped it in a paper wrapper, and put it into his pocket.
"Healing candy, not cheap either." 'Wealthy, High Standards' Lucas noted. "My Parents taught me not to speak with food in my mouth." 'Polite, Respects his Family.' "Apologies if I get things wrong, I'm a little sore." Leon poured a cup of the freshly poured tea for both himself and the professor, put the pot back on the stand so that the spout was aimed away from himself and the Professor. 'Yamatai Tradition but none of the physical features lived there for a time before coming here, pays respect to guests.'
"I've figured out quite a few things about you Mr. Blackmore." The Professor spoke as Leon pulled the chair out for him to sit in. "What can you tell about me I wonder?" Leon looked the man before him up and down.
"Elderly but keeps in good shape. An adventurer when you were young but that isn't a surprise in this country." Leon smelled the tea before he tasted it, smacking his lips as he did. "Tea is an expensive blend but well made, you're not cheap and you're knowledgeable in your craft." Leon looked down at the tea pot, it was covered in cracks that were lined with silver, as if the pot had been shattered and glued back together with silver artistically giving the impression of a dragon wrapped around it. "Kintsugi, the tea pot was broken but was reassembled using silver, really nicely too was the pot broken just to be fixed or is this simply the work of a really dedicated craftsman? Paired specifically with the tea too. I know that some metals can affect the flavour, I don't even like tea and even I think it's good." Leon didn't fail to notice the way that Lucas's face creased at his comment. 'Ignorant but not impossible to teach, passing familiarity with the ceremony.' "You really know what you're doing and love it to at least as many pieces as this pot was in." Leon concluded as he put the cup down.
"Very good but I'm easy. I'm sitting right in front of you as we speak and you have plenty of time to think about what my appearance and gestures mean. Let's see if you can think of something that you can tell me about the professor of the previous class before I'm done my cup."
Leon's face scrunched up a bit as he thought through the situation.
"When they shoved this noble title on me they stuffed a middle name on me too, Fou, explaining that it was for those in the bottom third of ranks. But Mr. Nashton introduced himself as Fia presumably a higher rank than Fou." 'Aware of basic name rank correlation.'
"So why did a Fia take orders from a Fou?" Leon watched the eyes of Lucas go wide for a moment though it was smoothed over as he finished his tea.
"Since you wouldn't be having this question about a member of the staff then I have to assume it was a student. Seburg or Field?"
"Seburg." Leon replied cocking a brow into the air as Lucas put his cup down.
"The Noble Families of our Country were founded by various adventurers, among them six individuals were credited with uniting them together into a whole: The Saintest Ann as well as her five companions, Holfort, Marmoria, Arclight, Seburg and Field. With the exception of Ann's, the descendants of these families went on to become the most respected individual families in the entire Kingdom with their leader becoming their king."
"Why the difference in rank?" Leon asked cocking a suspicious brow.
"Some families have fallen on harder times than others. The Fields for instance are border nobles with the Alzer republic having eaten away at their territory over the years. The Seburg's industry base has suffered due to their strong martial investments. The Arclight's have suffered in battle as often as they are victorious, so they are around the middle rank, likewise the Marmoria's have been the subject of Scandal for several generations but they are also loyal and dedicated servants of the crown so they also maintain the middle rank. Only the Holforts themselves have been able to hold onto their high rank."
"And the saint?" Leon asked sounding concerned.
"Disappeared after her family moved to the newly founded Holfort Kingdom, they shed a lot of blood in order to put a end to infighting among the various families thus earning their duke rank and the name Redgrave, a rank that they maintain to this day. Their daughter young Angelica is even betrothed to the crown prince." Leon nodded his head and went back to his seat. 'Is only interested in the information he thinks he needs to know, a habit we'll have to correct in due time.' "Now that the impromptu history lesson is over onto the cusp of the lesson, my duty first and foremost is to teach you the things that you need to know in order to put together a successful tea party." Various groans echoed out of the assembled students. "And you will have one week to put what I have taught you to good use to entertain one of the ladies of the Advance course." Oh lovely.
Following the Tea lesson and the Crash Course in politics Leon got an introduction to the adventurer course, right now it was all information and various common sense tests to make sure they don't die like idiots in the dungeon.
After that was the lessons in magic.
"Before we begin to practice magic we must first understand affinities." Professor Gandalf was apparently a retired battle mage, he wore his grey hair in a rat's tail and a brimmed conical hat that was apparently part of his uniform from his days of active duty. "Each individual has specific magical affinities which allows them to cast certain magic spells. For instance." Professor Gandalf put his hand on the orb that was sitting on his desk and released his mana into it causing the crystal to display Ratio's. Wind: 60% Water: 30% Fire: 10%. "On average a mage has about three different affinities of varying cost/benefit ratios. For the same cost of a single fireball spell." Gandalf raised his wand into the air and produced a single ball of flame from thin air. "I can cast three water balls." The Fire ball suddenly split into three masses of water. "Or six wind ball spells." Each of the water balls split into two masses of rotating air for a total of six wind balls. "Affinities are determined by blood, passed on from parent to child through the generations. As I call your name you will approach the ball one by one and place your hand on the crystal to reveal your affinity, then you will be giving a text detailing magic spells for you to utilise." With a Flourish of his hand the wind balls were expelled and a list flew into the professor's hand.
"Olivia." Leon observed as a blonde haired girl approached from the other side of the classroom and walked up to the crystal orb and put her hand on the ball. Healing 100% "A strong affinity for healing magic I see, you have a bright future I see." The Professor let out a strong whistle at the revelation before he gave Olivia a textbook.
"Yes thank you for your support!" The Girl gave a bow with her entire body before she returned to her seat, already reading through the book, though Leon didn't miss the look of disdain that was on the features of the other female students that were looking at Olivia.
"Blackmore!" Leon felt suspicious about something but for now he went for the orb and put his hand on it. Darkness 100% "I'm so sorry." Professor Gandalf looked at Leon with pity as he handed him a single book. "This is the best I can do for you right now." Leon just stared at the man before he returned to his seat.
"Field." Leon ground his teeth as immediately he heard various girls all screaming in his ears at the same time. A familiar head of purple hair stood up from his seat as the girls continued their mind numbing shrieking, only further encouraged as the peacock drunk in all the attention that was being hurled upon him onesidedly until eventually... "SILENCE!" A deep booming voice echoed out as the entire class immediately shut their mouths and recoiled. "Mr. Field, I strongly recommend that you find somewhere else to hold your fan club other than my classroom."
"Apologies master." The Field Heir gave a bow to the teacher. "I find it so difficult to resist their affections when they come in such amounts and so frequently."
First among the capture targets is Brad Fou Field, the Master Magician and the son of a border lord with the Alzer Republic. Brad is a naturally talented magician and diplomat. He's able to smoothly utilise three different kinds of magic in Earth, Wind and Fire switching between the three on the fly when he fights. His issue here is that he doesn't. Brad suffers a severe inferiority complex due to his perceived lack of masculinity which he tries to compensate for with martial prowess, his biggest issue though is how bad at it he is at it. Brad is the definition of a glass cannon, high fire power but lacking in durability and endurance, which he technically knows how to swing a blade around it takes only a single hit to drop him. His character development requires that you hammer into his head that it's okay to rely on his perceived less than manly abilities.
Excerpt from Diary 1
Earth 33% Wind 33% Fire 33% None of this was of any surprise to the peacock, he merely flicked his head to the side as he picked up his trio of text books and carried them back to his seat.
"Lafan." There was quite a few students that got their books before Leon saw a familiar face again, the little blonde shorty that smacked the prince around the other day. Error Error Healing 50% The professor looked down on the girl disapprovingly. "Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to take this one as a learning experience." Gandalf stated bluntly. "Exclusively using a magic that you have a bad affinity for will not make it good. At best you will only cripple your own potential." The rest of the class finished smoothly, though Leon couldn't help but notice that the little Lafan girl was making googly eyes at Brad the whole class.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: A disappointing Third Bayonetta game and a disappointing Mobseka male lead tends to have this kind of effect.
KadoyamaOkami: To be fair this story wasn't going in a sane direction since the get go.
Guest: That hasn't been my interpretation at all, I've been interpreting his character as 'prefers attractive girls that look to be between fifteen and eighteen years of age.'
hnh058513: Glad you're interested!