Valerian, The Legendary

82 Endure.

“Sharp reflexes.”, said a young man wearing a vest and trousers. In front of him, Valerian looked tiny.

This person was a student from the warrior branch and had come here to pick up this new student as his lackey. His face was brimming with conceit. He attacked Valerian without even introducing himself.

Warriors were not allowed to do so, the sacred code forbade it. However, the code was not without loopholes. Killing intent was a necessity for the codes to apply. This person did not emit any killing intent.

However, his actions had garnered the attention of the people around them. The pathways were often occupied by students in the evening who come out to socialize during their free time.

Valerian learned a lot about this person from the bugs in the surroundings, they were all talking about it.

“Look, Tyrant is here again.”

“Does he ever stop?”

“Well, we cannot do anything, he is a grade four warrior. Let’s just watch it from the side.”

Valerian appreciated the knowledge they passed with their words. Although they were talking loudly, when they expressed no will to interfere between the two, they were basically telling Tyrant to keep up with his plan and entertain them.

.....

Here, those who moved alone were thought to be the geniuses found by a wandering master and bought back for their talent. The rich always would bring talented people under their wings to cater to themselves, and maintain the monopoly.

Tyrant cast a condescending look at Valerian and said, “Come along, you are strong enough to follow me. I am Tyrant, the crown prince of Stella Empire. By following me, you will not lose out on a good fortune.”

Valerian wasn’t bothered by his speech and arrogance, because he was basically debating in his mind if he should cast a spell and take down this guy with surprise, or just walk away from the situation. He was aware that if he cast a spell, it will attract unwanted attention, and if he walked away, he will be thought of as a coward.

Suddenly, a calm yet cold voice echoed, “So, you want to take away my aid without even asking me, Prince Tyrant?”

Everyone knew who this voice belonged to, and they all shivered. Azula had come over with Consano, Conixia, and Priscilla. Tyrant was surprised and turned around to look at her. He replied, “Princess Azula, why do you say such a thing, I did not know this little brother just now and tried recruiting him. Hehe, I apologize for causing trouble to you.”

Azula did not even glance at him and walked ahead. She stood in front of Valerian, who bowed his head to her gently and the girl said, “Go ahead, I will deal with things here. Do not worry, you have me.”

Her voice was light and enough for only Valerian to hear. He looked in her eyes and the lady smiled as she said, “Go ahead. Priscilla, accompany him.”

Priscilla nodded and walked over, she took Valerian away after putting a hand around his shoulder. The boy turned back to see that Tyrant was almost begging to Azula for his behavior.

Soon, they crossed the mage wing and Valerian asked, ‘Why was that person so scared for her highness?’

Priscilla replied, “Do not look at that pretty face, Princess can be really cruel when she is pissed.”

She was stating the obvious at this moment. Azula was very cruel when someone touched her people, which was a rare occasion. Valerian shook his head and said, ‘No matter how cruel she can be, the other party is still the crown prince of the neighboring empire, how can he be so spineless?’

Priscilla chuckled and said, “Young Valerian, do you think that her highness is beautiful?”

The child nodded and Priscilla said, “Men will always bow down to pretty ladies.”

Valerian cast her a disgusting look and kept walking. Priscilla saw his gaze but choose to ignore it. She did not want to quibble with this greenhorn. Soon, they arrived in front of the battle-mage tower and Priscilla said, “Go study well.”

The child walked over to the battle-mage tower and the door opened from the inside on its own. As soon as he came inside the tower, he found himself standing in front of the reception lobby. He did not really understand the layout of this tower, why did it feel like a hotel and not a school?

Valerian was looking around at the decoration of the place and found that it was somewhat different than before. Now in the place of decorative paintings, a few diagram charts were hanging. Just when he was about to walk up to a diagram, an old voice sounded, “Welcome, to the Battle-mage tower.”

This action of Fallax surprised the child. Valerian regained his composure and bowed his head slightly, which seemed to be a nod and not a bow. Fallax did not mind this and said, “This is your classroom. Do you see those shelves?”

The old man pointed at the shelves behind the wooden bench in the center of the lobby. Valerian nodded and the old man said, “That shelf is connected to the library of the academy, your primary tasks are to read as many books as you can. Also, once a day, you will have to make a trip to the top floor. After a month, I will come back, and check your knowledge points, as well as the physical improvement. You will get punished if you failed.”

Valerian cast him a gaze and asked, ‘What are the criteria to pass and fail?’

Fallax nodded as the boy sharply asked him the question. When Vertex was here, he failed to ask this simple thing and was punished for two months in a row. The old man said, “You will have to finish reading all the books that you see on the shelf at this moment. I will be asking you questions from all of them at random. The first time you took the trial it took you eight hours to get to the top. You will have to shorten the time to seven hours. Understood?”

Valerian nodded and asked, ‘What do I eat and where do I sleep?’

“You will sleep in this lobby until you pass the first examination. The food will be delivered to you at that desk. Three meals a day.”, replied the old man and Valerian nodded.

He did not waste any time and walked over to the bench, took off his tunic to ease his movements, and found a drawer with lots of black paper and an ink pot and quill. He picked up a sheet and began to make an index of the books on the shelf first.

His speed was fast, but Fallax did not know what this boy was doing so, after a few minutes he asked, “What are you doing Valerian?”

Valerian finished inking the last entry and handed the paper and quill to the old man, watching the old man’s confused gaze, he said, ‘Please sign the bottom of this index, to acknowledge that these are the books I have to finish and learn from.’

This was a clever method to prevent the old man from finding faults. Fallax raised his eyebrows, he did not expect this child to be so cautious with him. However, he liked this behavior, it will prevent Valerian from eating a loss.

Fallax signed his name and said, “I will leave you to rest now, if you have something that you do not understand, you can note it down first and I will clear your doubts after the fortnight.”

Valerian nodded and Fallax talked for a bit, before he left the place. The boy did not go to sleep, he picked up a book from the shelf, marked it on the index and began reading until he fell asleep from exhaustion. He did not wish to rest, time was not an friend of his.”

...

While Valerian was busy reading the book, Priscilla stood behind Azula and asked, “Your Highness, is it worth offending Crown Prince Tyrant?”

Azula cast her a gaze and said, “If I had not stepped in, do you think Valerian would have let that guy walk away?”

Consano was sitting on the side and asked, “Indeed, if the bullying had kept going on, Valerian might have injured the other party with a surprise spell attack and injured him severely. That would have been an even bigger problem.”

Conixia did not say anything, she was not interested in what happened to Valerian, she was here to learn and simply experience the world. Suddenly, she asked, “Is the training of a battle mage hard to endure?”

Everyone cast her a look and Azula said, “When second brother had taken up to train here, every vacation he came back, he would be riddled with wounds and bruises. Senior Fallax is very strict.”

Priscilla said, “Then I hope, Valerian could endure the training.”

The other three replied, “Hail Vita.”