《The Fallen Nobles》 V1:Prologue Hi guys. I have always been a fan of royalroad since I joined. I read a lot of amazing FF on this site and really enjoyed them. that''s why I also wanted to write my own FF and share it with everyone. This is my first fanfic and English isn''t my first language.I also don''t leave in an English speaking community so please forgive me for any grammar errors . I would appreciate if you point them out. that would help me improve my writing in the future. So if you have any suggestions, ideas or criticism feel free to share them. This is an experimental chapter. _________________________________________________________________________________________ A little more than 7 thousand years ago the human race -like all other races- migrated from the central continent and scattered through the vast world of VERAS searching for a new home to settle in after Ragnarok occurred, leaving only a few of them remaining. Most of them perished while searching for these new land , the land of hope in a futile attempt to rebuild what was lost .Only one group remained , those who headed to the western continent. The group had merely a hundred thousand men, women and children left. That was all what''s left of once a great civilization. A civilization -latter to be known as the Pharman civilization- that shocked the world. A civilization built by humans, these weak creatures that had nothing special about them. They didn''t excel in magic as elves did with their high magical affinity, neither did they have the miraculous physical strength that distinguished the beast race, they weren''t skilful with their hands as the dwarves or have long life spans like the demons. Yet they triumphed . They were fast learners , persistent and refused to give up their place in life. If there is a distinguishing feature for humans that would be their overwhelming numbers . They banded together and fended off all those who wanted them harm. But they were foolish and drunk on their achievements , as a result they lost everything and were one step away from extinction. Now here they are on a foreign soil they know nothing about ,and their only advantage -their overwhelming numbers- gone. They had no leader to lead them so they scattered across the land to seek new life and fortune not knowing that these lands already have settlers. The Western continent ,the land of hope was full of resources and life , large fertile lands , forests , rivers and mountains full of precious stones and ore , but that was not what made these lands so special . what made it so was its natural flow of mana , pure and undisturbed mana . Mana is life itself harmonizing with its surrounding bolstering its life force. The mana density was very suitable for the human race. It was not too low weakening the life force of the surrounding lands and its inhabitants of animals, birds and plants ,It also was not too high making it suffocating to live and harder to move and breath. But it was not all good news. The native settlers of these lands didn''t welcome their new guests with warm smiles, what a surprise! The natives had very distinctive features. Small humanoids with green skin , averaging 2 and a half feet in height . They have long, sharp noses, chins ,pointy ears -same as those of the elves- . Their arms are long and slender, they will be latter known as the goblins. Goblins that have hair often have it as ponytails, or spike and they posses some degree of intelligence , less than that of a human but more than that of a common monster. Goblins live in small herds forming small villages scattered all over the place. A village has a chieftain who leads it. A chieftain is the strongest worrier in the village , he has the right to all the women in the herd. A chieftain also has to accept challenges all the time from the herd worriers. In case he loses the challenge he has to give his position as a chieftain to the winner and leave the village. Besides the chieftain there is an adviser . Adviser is the oldest and wisest goblin in the herd , he always advises the chieftain on the best course of action they should take to increase the survivability of the herd. The goblin females numbers twice as the males to satisfy their abnormal lust. These cunning and lustful little monsters were very angry and happy at the same time. Angry for the uninvited guests who came to their land ,consuming its resources and disturbing their life regime . yet happy with the beautiful women that they brought along. The goblins attacked and raided the scattered humans , killing the males and kidnapping the females to satisfy their lust later. For humans who were still new to the land and didn''t have time to adapt, it was a very difficult time .Filled with fear for the unknown land and what it still hides , being continuously attacked by goblin herds , the already scattered humans starting coming together forming small communities to fend off the attacks of the goblins. Originally humans are social creatures by their nature , so it didn''t take long until human settlements and villages started appearing in different places across the continent. Some of the human villages had a few elves mixed within, elves who fled the central continent and traveled to the west with them. Few years later the human race finally managed to get a foothold in the western continent. After forming settlements and villages, securing both food and water sources and successfully fending off most of the goblin raids. By that time nearly third of the western continent was explored leaving the other 2 thirds a complete mystery full of the unknown. Years kept passing and the humans kept thriving. Humans constructed and inhabited 9 settlements and 22 village with a total population of a little over 60 thousand. At first it was just surviving and fulfilling their basic needs , securing food and water , defending the settlements by constructing wooden walls and constructing a hierarchy to rule themselves . But latter they started looking for ways to live more luxuries lives , for it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. They started mining for precious ore and stones especially mana stones which were considered the best source of energy , improving the walls, replacing the wooden walls with higher ,thicker and stronger stone walls. Foraging all kinds of materials and reviving the art of alchemy . building libraries to keep records of their daily lives , the types of monsters they met, types of animals , plants , maps and everything that could help the future generations live better lives than theirs. They already had their chance and screwed it up. They recorded the incident of Ragnarok , what caused it, what did they do after the incident. They hoped the future generations will learn from their mistakes and don''t repeat them. Worriers and swordsmen started teaching their sons the way of the sword and how to defend themselves from the goblins infesting the land. Mages did even more ,they built small classes to teach the young ones the magic arts. Production skills such as blacksmithing , tailoring and cooking were also starting to flourish . merchants started travelling between settlements and villages trading their various goods and wares. There were still no currency so the trading method used was the bartering system by exchanging goods for other with the same worth. It is almost 50 years since the human race migrated from the central continent and settled in the western one. Most of the continent have been explored, only the huge and long mountain range in the southeast of the continent remains unexplored .They mountain range possessed a very high concentration of mana making it nearly impossible for humans to venture in them any further as their bodies can''t handle the mana pressure. The 9 settlement grew exponentially in size , population and technology. Goblins stopped their raids on the settlements intimidated by their large stone walls , fearing the slashes of their trained worriers and swordsmen. And the thing they fear the most was the battle mages , with one spell they could eliminate dozens of them at once. Some of the villages -10 to be exact - united together and formed an alliance strong enough to rival any one of the settlements. Unlike the 9 settlements that consisted of only the human race, the alliance consisted of humans, high elves -which migrated together with them- and lastly their offspring the half-elves. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Half-elves are little taller than humans but shorter than elves. They inherit the lean build and comely features of their elven lineage, but their skin colour is normally dictated by their human side. Like their high elf parents, they tend to have fair skin and hair and brilliantly coloured eyes, range of colours from amber or violet to emerald green and deep blue .Unlike elves who possess pointy ears , half-elves ears are rounded and less pronounced. Humans are a forgetful race, a mere 2000 years were enough to make them forget all their suffering . The records concerning Ragnarok are all but lost and all the wise are all but dead, all that remains are the foolish and greedy. greed for more wealth , more women , more power, ¡­¡­. just more . The air was heavy screaming for war and just waiting for a spark to ignite it. The 9 settlement became 9 countries with the addition of the ''Union'' born from the unison of the 10 villages. The other 12 perished under the continuous attacks of the goblins. One year later one of the 9 countries grown arrogant with its power couldn''t hold its greed anymore and started invading its neighbors the ''Union'' under the name of a religious crusade to purify humanity , It was a religion that discriminated against halves. The followers of this religion followed the teachings of ''Katharos'' god of purity. While in truth Katharos was but fictional and convenient god that was made up to justify the invading and plundering. True believers , people who discriminated against other non-human races started appearing strengthening their cause. And sparking the start of the war. Countries quickly started picking sides. Some chose to follow Katharos side , Sorry , the Katharos fa?ade. Others chose the Union''s side. It was 5 VS 5. Year 2052 AM (After Migration) : Marked the start of the first great war on the western continent between the 10 countries. __________________________________________________________________________ [Let''s stop here for today. Do you have any question?] The old man asked the young boy sitting next to him . the boy''s eyes were sparkling as he was paying attention to every word of the old man''s explanation. The old man was teaching the boy about the history of the western continent. [Yes sensei , I have a question. So in the end what exactly is Ragnarok?] The reason why the boy called him sensei is because the old man was the history teacher who was privately tutoring him in history. [Hmmm ¡­¡­.. What is Ragnarok. Why did it happen. Who caused it. Is a complete mystery. ] The teacher continued [All the records concerning Ragnarok have been lost with the passage of time. All what remains are but theories suggested by some scholars] [Are you talking about professor Gustavo''s theory ? ] The teacher was surprised , for such a young boy who was merely 5 years old to know about such an advanced topic. [You know about Gustavo''s theory!] [hehe. I just stumbled upon a book discussing it in father''s study] [Impressive ¡­¡­..very impressive indeed . Yes you are right . Gustavo''s theory is one of the most popular theories trying to explain Ragnarok.] Many scholars tried studying Ragnarok and came up with a lot of theories. Gustavo was a human mage who travelled to the danger zone surrounding the former central continent , now known as the dark continent. He researched the after effects of the Ragnarok which still remains till today and came up with a theory. Ragnarok is a serious of natural disasters that took place on the dark continent disturbing the natural flow of mana and making it unstable. He claims that mana that was uniformly distributed across the continent was affected by these natural disasters causing the mana to be very thick and concentrated specifically the edges of the continent known as the danger zone at some places and very thin at others presumably the central parts of the continent . This is Gustavo''s theory. He describes it as if mana is like water in lake subtle and unmoving and these natural disasters are like huge boulders that have been thrown at the centre of the lake creating huge circular waves and pushing the water to its edges. The reason for this analogy is because of the very thick mana surrounding the continent and acting as a barrier preventing anyone from penetrating it. If anyone one tries to forcefully pass through this barrier they will experience a felling of suffocation not long before their minds and bodies break not being able to handle the huge pressure of mana and die. Because of that no one has successfully managed to even land on the dark continent let alone reach its central parts to confirm the theory. Some agree with it while others disregard it. But it was the most popular one so far as Gustavo spent a lot of his life researching the danger zone. [Another very popular theory is "The judgement day" theory , but unlike Gustavo''s theory , this leans more to the religious side more than the scientific one] the teacher continued [but that is something for another day]. [I''ll look forward to it.] the boy replied while smiling from side to side. The boy truly enjoyed the lesson from the bottom of his heart and if it were for him he would ask his teacher to continue. But he knew well that the time to end the lesson has long passed and only reason his teacher continued till now is because he noticed the eagerness of his student. He didn''t want to burden his teacher any further , especially this was their first meeting. [Well then , I bid you farewell my prince. We shall continue our lessons next week ] [Yes, thank you for the magnificent lesson sensei] the young boy or the young prince thanked his teacher while giving him respective bow. Even though he was still 5 years old . He was emitting an noble aura combined with the elegant bow, it made the teacher feel both awe and respect for the young prince. ''To think such a young boy has this kind of aura around him. Not only that but he is really smart for a kid of his age. I''m really looking forward to his future'' Is what the teacher thought to himself while leaving through the castle gate. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ [Today you look awfully in a good mood sir Alphonse. Did something good happen?] the carriage driver asked the teacher while he was riding into the cart . [Does it really show on my face!?] the teacher asked him. [Yes, aah I wish I had a mirror to show you . you are grinning from side to side¡­¡­It''s almost creepy for someone so serious like you who seldom laughs]. [YOU¡­..to tell your master he is creepy! You have got guts Lucas.] the teacher replied to river replacing his wide grin with a devilish smile that made the driver shiver even though he was facing the opposite direction. He felt a devilish aura emitting from the person sitting in the back of the cart (he was driving while having this conversation, so he was facing the opposite direction. [Well it doesn''t matter. Today I''m in a good mood. HAHA] [eh!?] [Unlike my expectations, the prince turned out to be a very interesting person. I''m looking forward to teach him. HAHA¡­¡­¡­.HAHAHAHAHA] The Sound of his laughter echoed throughout the city streets. V1:Chapter1 Will be edited later Guys , need your feedback ^_^ Note : The first few chapters will be introductory chapters _________________________________________________________________________ Year 7085 7th January , Rozamaria town It¡¯s was a cool and refreshing morning , the sounds of birds chirping signalling the beginning of the day and the hustle and bustle of people signalling their wakeup¡­¡­¡­¡­. (Inside an Inn) "Alric , be a good boy and wait for me until I get back ok?" "Yes mother" "good boy" The woman replied with a smile to her son while leaving the room. After his mother left the boy ran to the window at the side of the room that was located at the inn''s third floor. Yes the boy Alric and his mother were staying at an inn! . It served as an inn , bar at night and a restaurant at morning .The inn was called the "drinking pig". Not a very nice name eh? but surprisingly this inn is the most popular inn in the village. Why you ask ? for one it was the only inn in this small town and secondly it had cheap ale and wine ! His father the innkeeper and the owner was known for his talent for brewing, the wine he served was very delicious ¨C compared to its price ¨C and the town''s people really enjoyed it. Alric waited for his mother to come out from the inn''s door so that he could wave to her, like he always does. As expected few minutes later his mother came out from the inn''s main entrance holding a basket in her left hand. She wasn''t carrying the basket when she left the room. ''aah¡­father must have handed it to her to buy groceries for the inn '' Alric thought to himself while waving for his mother from the third floor''s window. Upon seeing her son smiling and waving from the inn''s window, she warmly smiled back at him then continued to the market to buy groceries for today''s breakfast. Her name is Melodiana, she had long silky blond hair , blue eyes and a slim waist , she had what anyone would call perfect body proportions. She was very beautiful, because of her ,his father was always a target for jealous eyes from the inn customers. He was always hit by sentences like ''you lucky bastard'' or ''enemy of all men'' and sometimes even ''I wish you just die already'' , of course they were all kidding, or maybe half kidding half serious, or maybe ¡­maybe SERIOUS ?? no no no who the hell said the last phrase!? Anyway Melodiana was a real beauty , she didn''t talk much which gave her the image of a cool beauty. But because of her silent nature which gave her a hard to approach aura she didn''t have many close friends. Unlike Melodiana her husband was a very cheerful and social person . He easily got along with everyone. Well he WAS an innkeeper after all , if he at least was not an easy person to get along with , he would have gone bankrupt a long time ago. Alric''s father name was Baban, he was both the owner and the innkeeper . He had a policy for serving food prepared only from fresh ingredients that''s why he didn''t keep a lot of them in stock. Every morning his mother would go out to buy fresh ingredients to prepare breakfast for the guests staying at the inn. The inn was owned and managed by both of his parents. The family took residence at the 3rd floor of the inn while the second floor was reserved for travelers and guests to stay at. The first floor of course was were the bar and restaurant were located. The inn also had huge basement were all kinds of delicious wine were stored and was also his father''s favorite place for practicing and improving his brewing skills. After confirming his mother leaving his sight and disappearing between the buildings, Alric closed the windows headed to the shelf at the other side of the room and grabbed a large thick book. It''s title was "The 12 Kingdoms Of VERAS" . This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it His mother bought it for him the other day for his 5th birthday celebration. Alric unlike many other boys of his age didn''t like hanging out and playing with other children and preferred staying at the inn , when his parents asked him once why doesn''t he go out much and play with the others he replied "humph , it¡¯s a useless waste of energy plus what''s so fun about running around like an idiot while pretending to be some knight or paladin". After hearing their sons reply they couldn''t help but smile wryly. They knew that their son was bright and smart young boy, that''s why they didn''t pursue the matter any longer on the condition he helps with inn. Alric may say it like this but actually when he was a little younger he used to go out and play with the others and even managed to make a few friends but due to his weak physic he always got tired fast and finally stopped with the (useless waste of energy) . The most important reason why he became a shut-in was because he was lazy with a trauma. Yes he was too lazy to go running around with the others. He was also traumatized when he was younger and started to shun and reject the world ever since. The only other thing he really did enjoy beside sleeping and eating was reading. Alric stayed at the inn most of his time, he spent most of his days either reading or helping with inn doing all kinds of miscellaneous tasks like cleaning or serving food for the guests , occasionally he would be taught by his father about wine brewing , but he rarely left the inn. The only occasion he might leave the inn on was when he headed to one of the bookstores in the town to buy a new book or story. Surprisingly enough even though he was a shut-in and didn''t exercise at all he wasn''t fat , on the other hand he was slim like his mother , he had a round face with blue eyes, black hair dark as a moonless night , his skin had a little pale complexion giving him an aura of nobility which made people sigh in admiration .To summarize it all , he was what you would call a handsome young boy. If it was not for his laziness and sloppiness people might have mistook him for a young prince from a big kingdom. Alric was smarter than his peers , he managed to learn how to read when he was only 4 years old and since then he emerged himself in reading books, his father had a small collection of books and stories which Alric enjoyed so much and used to ask his parents all kinds of questions. When Melodiana and Baban noticed their son''s love for reading and his thirst for knowledge they were impressed of him , especially Baban who started to call him his pride and joy. They decided to help their son to satisfy that thirst by buying him new books every once in awhile since he already finished reading his father''s collection. "The 12 kingdoms of VERAS" was such a book. "hehe now I should enjoy myself reading this new book ,whoa I''m so excited , it''s been a while since I saw such a thick book . It must contain all kinds of stories " Alric had a habit of viewing every book as a story , it made his reading time more enjoyable and the reading material harder to forget. "let''s see what we have here" after carrying the book and sitting at his favorite spot in the corner of the room. Alric started flipping the pages. (knock knock knock !) Just before Alric got immersed in reading his new book he was interrupted by wild knock on the door. V1:Chapter2 Will be edited later Guys , need your feedback ^_^ Note : The first few chapters will be introductory chapters _________________________________________________________________________ "Alric are you there? , Alric are you there? , open the door already and let''s go plaaaaaay , hey Alric answer already , Alric , Alric " A familiar and very energetic voice of a young girl came across the door . she was loud, too loud and noisy..... and annoying. These were the thoughts that crossed Alric''s mind after hearing the voice across the door. The thing he hated most in the world after (aimlessly running around and wasting energy = leaving the inn) of course was being interrupted during his reading time. Especially when the book he was reading was a new thick book! Alric ignored the voice hoping she will give up and leave. Or she might even get scolded by the guests resting at the inn for her loud voice. "Heeeeeeeey Alric are you still sleeping , Alric , Alric answer me already" "you are being too loud lily, you are disturbing the guests. What ¡­ what if they got mad at us? " "What are you saying Toya !? If I don¡¯t be at least this loud he will just ignore us , that lazy bum good for nothing bookworm " "That''s so cruel lily , to c¡­call Alric a bookworm!" ''Wait Wait. THAT is what''s bothering you , what about lazy bum or good for nothing? Haaaaah , do I have to go through this every morning? Why can''t she just leave me in peace? Haaaaah.'' Alric thought while heavily sighing . The energetic voice belonged to a girl named Lily , she is what you would call a childhood friend. While the other timid voice belonged to his other childhood friend Toya. Alric became friends with Lily and Toya - who were both a year older than him - before he became a shut-in , during the days when he still got outside and used to play with the other children. After he stopped and became a bookworm only Lily and Toya didn''t stop being his friends and always visited him at the inn and dragged him outside by force ¨Cmost of the time¨C to play. Especially Lily who appointed herself the leader of their small group was very persistent . She came everyday to bother him and forcefully drag the slim and physically weak Alric outside. She was a lively and energetic girl, too energetic which was troublesome. Toya on the other hand was timid and has long surrendered his fate to Lily, he stopped resisting long ago. The old ladies of the town adored him so much and always addressed him as ''cute'' or ''beautiful'' . yes was beautiful like a girl with his smooth white skin , long grey hair that reached his shoulders and his small build . whenever you see him you feel like hugging him. Alric mistook him for girl when they first met and even had a little crush on him. A lot later he discovered that Toya was a boy . Alric was so shocked that he locked himself in his room for a week and almost cried himself to death. That was one of the main reasons why Alric started to fear and shun the outside world and preferred staying at the inn. "Alric are you there ? Alric answer already I know you are there. I already asked Mr. Baban down stairs and he told me you haven''t left the room." "Don''t ignore me ALRIC , Open or I''ll kick the door open" "Lily he might still be sleeping it''s still 7 in the morning after all , a..and keep it down please or we will get scolded" "HAAAH you are pathetic and you call yourself a man ! If he was asleep isn''t that the more reason I should be loud to wake up that shut-in lazy bum" "B¡­but" After nearly 10 minutes of continues knocking and shouting one of the guests residing in the second floor couldn''t take the noise anymore and harshly scolded both of them especially Lily since she was making most of the noise by herself. After that it was quite again. Alric snickered "serves you right for disturbing my peaceful reading time". 5 minutes later the sound of a key being put through the door''s lock slowly unlocking it . What Alric saw next was his Older sister Siesta who had a troubled expression on her face , behind her 2 small silhouettes could be seen. Upon closer inspection one would find the one on the left belonged to a cute boy with a grey hair who was wearing a simple green shirt and green pair of pants . The silhouette on the right belonged to girl with dark red hair in twin tail style , fiery red eyes . She had petit body . She was wearing a long yellow blouse that covered her knees and long pair of brown boots. The girl had hint of tears in her eyes and wore a disappointed expression as if she was on verge of crying. The 2 silhouettes of course belonged to no other than Toya and lily. Alric was going to rebuke Siesta for using the master key to open the door to his room especially after he especially warned her not to, but stopped after noticing her troubled expression and Lily who was on verge of crying while clenching her small fists. ''Maybe I''ve gone too far'' Alric felt sorry for troubling his sister. He also felt sorry for Lily ,he felt he was partially responsible for getting her scolded along with Toya. Alric didn''t really care about Toya being scolded , he was the source for his trauma a while ago. But since Lily was making most of the noise she also got most of the scolding. And Toya didn''t look as bad as Lily. Deep down Alric appreciated his 2 friends who always visited and played with him . It''s true that Lily was annoying and that Toya traumatized him 2 years ago. But they were still his treasured friends who cared for him. Alric also cared for his friends. He knew that friendship is one of the most precious treasures in this world and that he should not throw this treasure away ,especially a pure friendship that was built between children with no ulterior motives behind it. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Sorry for troubling you sis" Alric told his sister with a troubled smile on his face. "No problem. Make sure you fix this" Siesta replied with a smile then left the room while closing the door behind her. ''guess I''ll have to delay reading you till other time'' Alric thought while folding the book and putting it back on the shelf. He then went to Lily who was still standing next the door clenching her while staring at the floor fighting the tears from breaking through. Alric knew that the energetic and lively Lily who appeared like a tomboy was actually a fragile little girl and a cry-baby with a lot of pride. Yes pride she cried a lot yes but always made sure no one was looking. Only Alric and Toya knew about this. That''s why after being dragged to all places by Lily , both Alric and Toya thought of her as a cute girl. For a girl like that to be harshly scolded of course would result in her crying. After reaching Lily , Alric put his hand on her head, she fidgeted a little but stopped after Alric started patting her . "Sorry , it was my fault so¡­¡­. Don''t cry . okay" Alric told Lily while gently smiling at her and patting her head. "m..mm Its caufe Alec wash bineg meaaan too lily thatlily gosh scodesd waaaah waaaaaah " (it''s because Alric was being mean too lily that lily got scolded) Lily couldn''t hold it anymore and started sobbing. "Sorry sorry I was at fault ¡­.. I won''t be mean to Lily anymore ¡­. so forgive me okay" "bfut you alwvys say dat and then doddntplay with Lillly waaaah waah" (but you always say that and then don''t play with Lily) "That''s ¡­¡­" Alric couldn''t help but remember all the times he ignored Lily and she got scolded as the result, which caused his feelings of guilt to increase dramatically. Alric then directed his look to Toya asking for help with his eyes. But when noticing Alric''s gaze he looked the other way ''I don''t you deal with it'' is what he implied. ''You traitoooooooooor'' is what Alric conveyed to Toya through his eye communication. ''you reap what you sow , I also got scolded by the way you know!'' While being lost in thought about what to do for the sobbing Lily , Alric remembered a book he read recently titled "How to comfort a crying woman" which made him mature in more than one way . one of the most effective techniques was to hug them . And so did Alric , he stopped patting Lily then moved his hands around her back and hugged her gently pushing her sobbing face towards his chest since he was a full head taller than her. Alric was 110 cm while Lily was only 90 cm , by the way Toya was a little shorter than Alric. Lily was startled by Alric''s action since he never hugged her like that before. but she then settled in his little arms which for some reason felt really big and warm. Few minutes later Lily stopped sobbing while her face had a hint of red . After noticing that Lily stopped crying , he released her from his embrace . "I''m really sorry Lily , this will be the last time I cause you to cry. Ok?" "I promise you that starting from today I''ll open the door when you come asking for me okay ?" After being silent for a while Lily opened her mouth "I know Alric enjoys reading books than playing with us. But I want Alric to play with us as well" "That''s ¡­" Alric was troubled but before he could think of a reply , Toya said "I have a good idea" "??" "??" "Alric , how about read your books outside with us while we play?" "Lily won''t feel lonely if you are there even if you don''t join us in playing, right lily ?" Toya said that while glancing at lily who suddenly blushed and her face became like a red tomato. "W¡­W¡­W¡­Wha¡­What are you saying Toya? Who said anything about b¡­being lonely " "Eh!? I definitely thought you were lonely without Alric . Isn''t that why you come here EVERYDAY and cause this ruckus to drag him with you. Anyone who sees you would definitely think You are a MAIDEN IN LOVE " An innocent smile didn''t leave Toya''s mouth while he was dropping bombs on Lily completely shattering her dignity in front of her (Beloved) Alric. Toya was acting (cute) through the whole conversation while in fact he was laughing himself to death from the inside without showing it on his face while observing Lily''s flustered reactions. Yes , Toya was known through the town to be cute and innocent and maybe a clumsy sometimes, his actions may have stolen the hearts of all the Onee sans (old ladies) in the town ,but Alric knew better that behind that cute face was in fact a BIG SADIST who enjoyed mentally teasing others , especially simple minded idiots like Lily. "M¡­M¡­Maiden in love!!" Lily was flustered and her face was now glowing red like light bulb. Alric couldn''t watch anymore while Toya was teasing Lily , and honestly he was getting annoyed and wanted to get back to reading his new book! "No can do" Alric interrupted both of them. After confirming he got both of their attentions he continued "I can''t enjoy reading books when it''s noisy and I doubt there is any place in town which is quite enough for me to read " "There is" Toya replied with confident voice. ''That bastard , he is enjoying himself huh.'' "Hoh and where that might be ? , it is true that this is a small town but there is approximately 5000 citizens living in it" "There is ¡­ one place no one dares to go to" After pondering for a few seconds , Alric''s eyes lit up "you don''t mean¡­" "What what are you 2 talking about ?" Lily was confused Alric/Toya : "THE GREY BEAR CAVE !! " V1:Chapter3 Will be edited later Guys , need your feedback ^_^ Note : The first few chapters will be introductory chapters _________________________________________________________________________ "Eh !? ¡­ The Liar of the Grey bear ? This place is very dangerous!! " "well to be precise , it¡¯s the cave''s outskirts I''m talking about" After pondering for a while , a smile made its way on Alric''s face "I see, this place should be perfect this time of the year " "Right , I knew you would agree ^_^" "but Toya , this cave IS technically located outside the town , you know" "Details , just details Alric , who cares about them" Suddenly Alric interrupted Toya "you know , for a quite some time now you stopped stuttering while speaking , is it alright to stop using your ''Charm point'' ?" "Eh ! , you c¡­cruel Alric , how can you be so cruel and m¡­mean to me" Toya replied after restoring his (cute) act. *Snap* a voice of something snapping came from Alric while his face turned cold ''T¡­That bastard is sooooo annnnnnnnnnnnoying'' "What are you 2 talking about ? No one approaches that place for a reason ,you know , obviously because the ''Grey bear cave'' is the liar of the dangerous magical beast grey bear !!" Lily interrupted them with a worried voice without noticing the imaginary sparks in the air between both Alric and Toya. When Alric noticed Lily''s worried voice and somewhat confused expression, he couldn''t help but let a little sigh then started explaining to her "Lily , What do you know about the magical beast known as ''grey beard'' ?" "Eh !" Lily was a little startled by Alric''s sudden question but then she began recollecting what she were taught about the ''grey bear'' from school and then answered Alric in a serious voice. "Eeto ¡­ Grey bears are magical beasts of the D Class, they are territorial beasts, they take a territory as their own and build their lair inside it . As long as no one invades their territory they won''t attack them. Their main source of food is fish food thus they always make their lair near water sources" After giving such a perfect answer Lily puffed her flat chest feeling proud of herself while glancing towards Alric with gleaming eyes obviously waiting to be praised. Alric noticing her eyes which were practically saying ''PRAISE ME PRAISE ME'' , he couldn''t help but give wry smile while patting Lily on her head which clearly made her satisfied. "As expected from you Lily, even though you are a simpleton at least you are a good student . It seems you pay good attention during your classes . I feel relieved" Alric replied to Lily while patting her. "S¡­Simpleton ! who are you calling simpleton ?" "Haha , joking I was just joking so don''t get angry . Okay " Alric replied to Lily while giving her his best smile which seemed to work like a charm immediately silencing Lily while making her slightly blush at the same time. ''She is really a such simpleton'' Alric continued "What you said is absolutely right but not complete" "Actually Grey bears are not just D class beasts but a top tier D class beasts" "Top tier !?" Lily asked while slightly tilting her head to one side. "It¡¯s a common knowledge that magical beasts are classified from S to F , while the former being the strongest and most dangerous while the latter being the weakest and least dangerous . But what most of the people don''t know that every class of those 7 classes is divided into 4 tiers : low tier , Mid tier , High tier and finally Top tier with the latter being the most formidable " "Also, A top tier D class beast equals in strength a low tier C class which is quite dangerous. According to what I read before , the reason why the grey bears were not classified as C class beasts was due to all of the other bear- like monsters belonging to the D class ,as a result the adventures guild which is responsible for evaluating and classifying these magical beasts classified the Grey bears as a D classes beasts and gave them the tier rank : Top tier " "Actually , all what I told you is a common knowledge for adventurers , Isn''t that right Toya ?" "E¡­eh ? why are you a¡­asking me ?" Toya tried to reply (cutely) as he always does. But stopped when noticing Alric annoyed glance that seemed to say ''just answer the damn question you stupid fuck'' "W¡­well Alric is right. I also knew about the tier classification since my father is a former adventurer and all" "Heeh" Lily looked at Alric with admiration , for him who was a year younger than her and still didn''t attend school yet to so much . she admired Alric for being so smart but tried not to show it on her face. But then she felt confused, if the Grey bears were that dangerous wasn''t that the more reason not approach it''s lair , the Grey bear cave! But before voicing her thoughts Alric continued his explanation seemingly he noticed Lily''s confusion. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it "There is one more thing that is not widely known even amongst adventurers." At this point a smile couldn''t help but appear on Toya''s face who was standing behind Lily. "The Grey bears Hibernates the first half of the year !" "Hi¡­Hibernate !? " Lily was confused since she never heard that that term before. "Yeah , Unlike the other bear-like beasts who does not hibernate , The grey bears hibernates every year from roughly the beginning of January till the end of June " "hmm¡­ Alric is amazing , you know lots of things even though you haven''t been to school yet ! " Lily felt even more admiration towards Alric. "N¡­not really , I just happened to stumble across the information on one of the books I bought." Alric felt a little embarrassed from Lily''s straight-forward praise. "I also heard about the grey bears hibernation form my dad. It seems there are some other types of magical beasts who also do hibernate besides the grey bears. But when I asked him for a reason he didn''t know why ? D¡­do you happen to know anything about that Alric ?" Since Toya''s father was a former adventurer he also knew about the grey bears hibernation. "It''s not strange for your father not know the reason given he is a former adventurer ." "What do you mean ?" "Adventures gathered their knowledge either through the Adventurer guild information network or through their various experiences . " "Adventurers are no schools or researchers so there was no way they would know that kind of information on their own. That only leaves the Adventurer guild''s information network , but again the adventurer guild only cares about practical information , information that would increase the adventurers survival rate and makes their missions more efficient and more profitable " "Do you get it now ? they would of course care about gathering information like what kinds of beasts that do hibernate ? and when do they hibernate ? or for how much do they hibernate ? but they wouldn''t care about why do they hibernate. " "¡­ I see , so that''s how it was ? ¡­ hmm " "So in the end do you know the reason ? why does some beasts engage in hibernation ?" "T¡­that''s ¡­ I don''t really understand the details myself but I got the basic idea¡­ I think" no matter how knowledgeable or smart Alric can be , there were still a lot of things he still didn''t understand. He was still a 5 years old boy after all. Alric was not sure if he really understood the reason behind the grey bears hibernation but his pride didn''t allow him to admit it , especially when seeing Lily looking at him with admiration with gleaming eyes . When noticing Alric''s troubled expression Toya tried changing the topic "Who cares why does the grey bears hibernate ? Since they ARE hibernating this time of the year we can go play there and no one will disturb Alric during his reading time" "Eh !¡­ w¡­well since only few knows about grey bears hibernation no one will dare approach the cave outskirts and disturb us " "Right , I also heard that there is a flower field near the cave ! and the Lake is there too ! it will be the best place for us ." Toya said was an unusually excited tone. "Well , I guess there is no reason for me to refuse anymore." "R¡­really , then will you go out with us every day ?" "That would be very hard Lily, I still have to help with inn . But I promise you this , I''ll go hangout with you guys from time to time , okay ? " "O¡­Okay" Alric promised Lily while gently smiling at her which caused Lily to blush a little. "Then let''s go now , and scout the place first." "Hmm , you are right, I also need to find a good reading spot too." "Good for you Lily , now you got to hangout with your (beloved) Alric" Toya teased Lily and as expected she blushed like a tomato. "Wh¡­What the hell are you talking about y¡­you idiot Toya !!!? " ''Hehe teasing Lily is so fun'' (Toya) ''That sadist bastard'' (Alric) "Yes Yes can we go now " Alric said with a slightly irritated voice. Lily/Toya "Ok" After the exchange between the 3 of them , Alric picked up a random book from the shelf ¨C not the ''12 Kingdoms of VERAS'' ¨C since it was thick and heavy. He decided to delay reading it till later time when he was alone. They then left the inn and headed towards Grey bear cave west of the town near the Rozamaria Lake.