Chapter 34: Stone Ruins I
981 Words
Thus, the next day the first year students all went on a trip to the Stones Ruins that are located near the outskirts of the capital territory.
There were four large carriages prepared, one of them were for the teachers and staff members of the Imperial Academy, while the remaining three carried the students.
Twenty royal guards were assigned to escort them. It may seem like too much, but if you think about it, the people there are escorting all sons and daughters of high ranking nobles, there is even a royalty among them.
The students were allowed to pick which carriage they would like to go on as long as there was enough space.
Even though Caine was the last to arrive at the meeting point, most of the students seem to have been waiting and haven't gone on the carriage yet. It was obvious to tell who they were waiting for.
Caine, had been a hot topic among the students ever since he won first place in the mock battle. The students here are all high ranking nobles, some are to inherit their family title, even if their family didn't tell them to, they would still try to develop a relationship with Caine.
Caine, inwardly sighed and then got onto the carriage nearest to him.
'Huh?' There was a person who already got on to the carriage, Caine became surprised, not because a person was on there but because he recognised this person. This person was none other than the first prince, Flynn Belfast.
The two blinked at each other, it seems the latter one was also surprised. Caine quickly bowed respectfully and sat down on the side, opposite to Prince Flynn.
Many other students started pouring into the carriage, but when they saw Prince Flynn they all became silent and settled on a vacant seat.
The atmosphere quickly became awkward with nobody talking, it was a known rule that if the royalty doesn't speak, then no one speaks!
After a long silent, Prince Flynn finally spoke out, "Um… You can feel free to talk to each other all you want, it's also okay to drop the formality."
The others looked at each other before conversations started to break out among themselves, of course they still kept their formality and spoke with a quiet tone. None of them dare to take the initiative to speak to Prince Flynn.
However, this wasn't the case for Caine.
"Caine-Sama it's an honour to finally be able to speak to you. My name is-" Before the person managed to finish her introduction.
Lucas, for just happened to be on the same carriage and also just happened to be sitting next to Caine quickly put his hand up and said, "Whoa whoa whoa! What are you trying to do to my bro? Seduce him?"
The girl instantly blush and turned angry, "W-Who try to seduce him, and plus, since when did Caine become your bro?"
"Since yesterday! Anyway that isn't the problem, just now you just tried to use charm art against my bro didn't you?!" Lucas shouted while pointing toward the girl. He has no formality at all, truly none.
Some of the students on the carriage and even Prince Flynn, however, had an expression as if this always happens between them two.
Prince Flynn looked towards Caine and said with a wry smile, "These two pair always argue."
Caine nodded in response and just kept sitting there silently, while the other students started to play board games on the mini tables that was nailed onto the cart itself.
'It seems Lucas is quite popular around here...' Caine thought to himself, while ignoring the pair's quarrel.
…
Since the Stone Ruins was within the capital territorial border, it only took them a couple of hours to arrive.
When they arrived, Hasen-Sensei started to explain to them about the history of the Stone Ruins.
"The Stone Ruins used to be an ancient defence formation used to defend the territorial border of the capital. The rune that we are looking at is only one of the five ruins."
According to Hasen-Sensei, the ruins were destroyed around 500 years ago, when the kingdom was under attack by the neighboring kingdom, Kingdom of Everest.
It was said that the Kingdom of Everest managed to tame an ancient dragon and attack the royal capital with it.
Majority of the capital's garrison at that time were sent away from the capital on a mission which turned out to be a decoy set up by the Kingdom of Everest.
Under the might of the dragon, the defence formation only lasted 30 minutes before it turned to ruins.
However, it was all thanks to that 30 minutes, the troops that were sent away managed to arrive back in time and the Kingdom of Everest managed to get pushed back.
After the battle was over, the two kingdoms continued a 9 years long war before finally ending in a cease fire agreement.
Even though the war had ended long ago, the two kingdom's relationship is still not very friendly. That's because this kingdom, Kingdom Belfast used to be ruled by the Kingdom of Everest but due to a rebellion the kingdom split into two.
…
After Hasen-Sensei's lecture, the students were given a break to have lunch and talk among themselves.
Just as Caine was about to have lunch by himself, Prince Flynn unexpectedly showed up.
"Caine, would it be alright if I eat with you."
"Of course, I would be honoured." Caine replied while at the same time he thought, "'Do I even have a choice to reject?'
Prince Flynn chuckled and said while sitting down on a small boulder like everybody else, "It's alright to talk casually."
Caine just nodded without saying anything, and used one hand to reach out into his magical bag to grab a sandwich.
Caine then momentarily pulled out a couple of other snacks and a glass bottle of fruit juice. Of course, Caine bought none of this in his 'magic bag', it was created directly with creation magic. The magic bag was merely a disguise.
- Writer
