Illusion of Integrity

Trying To Be Normal

Riss yawns in the morning, the sun has risen. Birds chirping, with cool breeze sways the leaves on trees.

"Good morning world!"

["Sigh.. this is so dumb.."]

"Oh, shut up. I'm enjoying myself."

["Yes, yes princess."]

With school days coming, Riss is being immpatient. She skipped more than half of year of school. But now, circumstances changed. She can finally go to school and live a normal, or try to live a normal life. She runs towards the bathroom, prepares herself, checks on her belonging, and dashes towards the dining room to get a breakfast.

"Morning, Papa!" Her wide smile brightens the mood of the dining room.

"Morning, Sweetie. Are you ready for school?"

"Yes! Finally!"

"Haha, try not to break anything, okay?"

"Hmph, as if." Riss sits on the chair.

"Sweetie, don't forget to send us letter at least once a week. If you can do it everyday, that will be better though."

"Really, Mom? Am I making a diary or something?"

["The Joker's diary, doesn't sound bad at all."]

"You too!?"

"Haha, now now, let's not joke around so Riss can go earlier. She was late for school, we don't want her to be late again."

"You said we should stop with the jokes, Papa. Now you did it again."

"Hahaha.." All of them laugh together and then start enjoying their breakfast.

The school is in the different city called Matera, at the east of Imperial City Aran, the current city they are living. Matera is a bit smaller than Aran but it's still one the biggest city of Xagan. That city is the centre of education after all.

After they wave goodbyes on each others, Riss takes the carriage prepared by her father. It takes hours to reach Matera. Although Xagan can fly easily, being an aristocrate itself is a luxury. They can laze around doing nothing. So the other Xagan fly the carriage with a dragonlike creature as a carriage and fly through the skies. This is why Xagan don't have great roads on their kingdom. When people fly, who needs a road? The road was prepared only for traders that come to visit Xagan to make some profit. It does result in complains, but everytime a complain is submitted, the government tells the traders a simple sentence, "Stop growing your balls to complain and grow wings instead." It's always leaves the traders out of the government office shaking their heads.

After Riss arrives in Matera, she comes right away to the school. Matera Junior is the school name, simple, because it's the first elementary school for Matera city. Before she enters, she tells her servant to bring her belongings to the dorm. She doesn't know where it is, but it's not her business anyway. The servant will be able to find it by asking people. After that, she goes to the teacher's office to reports her arrival and knocks the door. And a female voice replies, "Come in."

"Good morning." Riss peeks inside.

"What are you doing not going to your class?" The female teacher closest to the door replies with an annoyed face.

"Ah, I'm just starting school today and I need guidance."

"Starting school?"

"Hmm? Oh! That's Valldo's student, where is he now? Valdo! Your new student is here!"

"Yes yes coming in!" A yell is heard from afar. And a teacher with glasses and red wings closes in.

["Oh? So it seems that you can't fly inside because the flaps will make a mess out of the papers?"

"Ahhhh you are the new student, and your name is? Wait I forgot, sorry."

"It's Riss."

"Ah, pardon my rudeness. I'm sorry that we have to drop the formality here even though you are an aristocrate. I'm your teacher after all."

"No problem, Sir."

"Good, you seems like a bright child. I will be introducing you the your classmates then."

["Wait, I just remember. What are we going to learn here?"]

"Ah, maybe spears?"

["Nevermind, I shouldn't have asked."]

The teacher then brings Riss to the back of the school. There is a huge backyard with dummies scattered around. People are training with the dummies and the sound of panting are heard everywhere. "It's the spearmanship training class right now."

"Told ya it's spears."

["It seems that your 75 luck kicks in when it's about the most useless things."]

"Attention, Students! We have a new classmate here! Now everyone gather around!"

"What is it, Teach?" Just when they are about to ask, a few male students gape their mouth in shock. It's true that someone as beautiful as the Duke Sisters are rare. "Wow! It's a girl!" It brings jealousy to the female students.

"Now, Young Miss please introduce yourself."

"Ah, thank you. My name is Riss, Duke Bernidas second daughter. Pleased to meet you."

"That Duke Bernidas!? What is your level?" One of the student asks. Duke Bernidas is known to be one of the most powerful Xagan in this era. So these students expect something similar from his daughter.

"Ah! I'm level 15."

"Eh? That's too normal." Some students murmur between each others.

['What do you expect? You want us to tell you that we are level 71?"]

"They are kids, just ignore them."

["That's rich coming from you, Princess."]

"Don't be rude. That only means that you guys will have a new playmate. She may be your teammate later on when you guys are going on a mission. Now Riss, why don't you pick a wooden spear over there. You are ready for a class, aren't you?"

"Yes, Sir." Riss puts her bag down in one of the bench and then picks a wooden spear. She looks around the others. This is her first time wielding a spear, no one ever taught her. She doesn't need a spear with her own power anyway.

"Is this your first time?" A glasses guy comes closer, "I'm Zaga." He offers his right hand for a handshake.

"Ah, yes, I'm Riss, nice to meet you." Riss takes her hand.

"You want me to teach you?"

"Eh, you will?"

"Sure, why not. You can either wield it two-handed or one-handed, depending on your suited playstyle. But for a shortsspear to medium spear, it's usually wielded one-handed. Like this, you want your grip to be steady."

["Wow what a nice guy. He doesn't look bad at all too."]

"I have to agree with that."

"Ah, like this?" Riss mimics his spear wielding.

"Yes, about how to swing it, it really depends on family spearmanship usually. There are slashes and stabs mostly, but sometimes a handle smash can be useful too. For now, you can try the horizontal and diagonal slashes I think, like this." Zaga shows the slashes movement.

"Like this?"

"Haha, that's barely enough I think. You need a lot of practice. I will be going on with my practice then."

"Sure, thanks a lot."

"Yeah, you are welcome."

"Now, how can I even train in spearmanship? My family never learned any. We always use our fist to smash."

["How brute."]

"What? Isn't it your family too?"

["Yeah, but that's why I copied those elegant skills instead the brute ones. I deleted the c***k you know."

"Your personality and your preference doesn't match at all."

Riss tries to look around anymore. She can find that most of the students train the same movement. But what surprises Riss is that there is a guy who wields the spear with a stone arm from the ground and just stands there doing nothing instead. The stone arm does the slashes.

"Isn't that illegal?"

["Wow, that's creative."]

Riss gets curious, so she shortens their distance. After she arrives beside him, she introduces herself.

"Hello, my I'm Riss, what's your name?"

"Endine." He just glances at Riss with a lazy face and continues the slashes with a pokerface.

"By the way, isn't how you do it illegal?"

"Why illegal? Their instruction was to 's***h the dummies' not 'use your hand to s***h the dummies'. Either you s***h it with your hand, your leg, or even your teeth still counts."

["Hahahaha this guy is genius."]

"But how do you improve if you are not doing the training like others?"

"Is that what you think?"

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"This method increases my control over my power. Plus, these stone arms can wield even thousands of spears as long as I have the ability to control it. And that is way more efficient than doing it with your hands."

"Hmm, I see, that does make sense."

["Yes, that's actually makes sense to be honest."]

"Wait wait Endine! Stop with your preach. You can do it like that yourself, but don't drag others with you. This is a spearmanship class, not a magic control class!" The teacher comes and scolds him, "Riss, you go back to your own training, don't copy this guy, okay?"

"Ah, yes, Sir."

["Such an inspiring day."]

"Indeed."