Chapter 17: Weapon Training
"Hah…what's this sloppy posture? Are you chicken or something?"
"I-I'm sorry, Sir!"
"Can't you even run properly? Even goblins would do better than that."
"Forgive me, Professor!!"
"What's wrong with your speed? Tsk, how shameful."
"Argh!!!"
"Why so weak? This is just light exercise, you know?"
"Aaaaahhhh!"
"You better run before I make you crawl, you good-for-nothing garbage."
"Uwahhh!!!"
With Endymion's endless verbal abuse that came out without filters, the students completed "light exercises" which contained 1000 pushups, pull ups, split squats, bodyweight squats and all short of body centered movements.
To higher races, those kinds of exercises weren't hard enough to make them set foot on the line of dead, but for young, it wasn't easy either.
It was exhausting. Dark elves were a spiritual magic centered race in the first place anyway. Therefore, they found physical training a bit tricky to handle.
Even for Dragons who have no sense of breathing, when in human form, it was a bit troublesome. Since they were unintentionally mimicking humans, breathing was also part of that specie's biological functions. And so, their breathing got hard to the point where it got in their way.
This was enough to turn on the resentment switch of almost all students.
"Hmmm.." Endymion descended the ground at the end of all sort of verbal and indirect physical torture, humming softly.
From the place where the tip of his shoes touched, a tiny plant came to life. At an incredible speed, it grew so large and hard vines, forming a chair—No, a throne— befitting a hero and a former monarch.
Leaves as green as fresh emerald jewels, flowers as beautiful as a sunset; waffled by the fragrance of sweet roses, wildflowers bloomed under the throne as if they were inviting onlookers to treat them as footrest.
Oh, how wonderful of a throne it was.
Like a throne from ancient lore, belonging to the Goddess of Forest Elves used to worship.
Lifting His chin in arrogance he sat on the vine throne nonchalantly.
"Now take out your main weapon and register it under your name. I want to see which one is an idiot and which one is a slightly brainy idiot. Ah, by the way, from now on, 3 days a week, I'll teach you how to use your main weapon. And in the remaining days you all will learn a weapon of my choosing, which is skippable as long as you fulfill 10-weapon-requirement."
The students, who were gasping for air while laying on the grass bed, shot resentful glares at him as he didn't give them a chance to steady their unstable breath.
"What are you glaring at, you breath-techniqueless fools, if you feel unfair, go complain to His Majesty."
In a nutshell, he was scolding them for not having a proper breathing technique when doing exercises while also saying they have no right to complain as long as they were mere students whose names aren't worthy of remembering by the King.
Hence, in the end, students had to groan inwardly and summon their weapons from the smart watch's inventory.
All sorts of weapons made an appearance.
Fancy jewelled swords, golden bows, rare metal axes, decorative tridents, and all kinds of famous artifacts once lost in time.
"Wow…aren't they too extravagant?" Kyrios expressed his thoughts out aloud, prompting his twin sister to laugh heartily.
"Since they are elite among elites, it's not surprising they have strong backing to get these kinds of items." Kyriaki explained calmly with a faint laughter still lingering in her voice.
Euclid silently nodded to her statement as he observed a weapon being pulled around him with an unreadable expression. He then summoned particularly simple looking twin swords all while maintaining silence.
Beside him, Sirius summoned a massive scythe with a detached look on his beautiful face. With the size of a five year old, the scythe looked more massive and omniscious, almost to the point it felt too heavy to onlookers.
"Your scythe looks cool, Sir Sirius!"
"...Thank you, Your Royal Highness."
"Hehe… is it my turn now?" Kyrios excitedly extended his hand.
Swringgggg!
"Oh my…"
"Wow, classic."
"It doesn't suit this era where humans still have no idea what a crossbow is."
"Who cares about humans, it looks cool to me!"
Whispers of surprise filled the area.
What Kyrios summoned was a small ball.
A simple and plain visual.
He softly squeezed it once. The moment hand pressure was released, the ball started to change.
Click-clack-cling-click!
Metal rings stuck out, rotated and the ball was disassembled without any interference from outside. It then took the appearance of tiny cubes and wrapped Kyrios' hand in the blink of an eye, taking a familiar shape with metallic sounds as background noises.
The final form of the ball was a shotgun.
It had exquisite silver craftsmanship, like it was born on the hands of a master blacksmith. Although it wasn't as fancy as some swords present there, it had intricate engraving of some ancient civilization that invented that model.
It looked both ancient and modern. As if it came from a sci-fi movie about aliens. But at the same time, the closer look of the design was more similar to a beautiful medieval craftsmanship.
"It's a Semi-automatic Fier-3077, From the Ancient Sye Empire. It can hold 30 bullet shells, isn't it amazing?" Kyrios proudly declared with a bright smile. "After my 3rd growth pace, I can summon my claws for close combat while maintaining this form anyway, so why bother taking a close combat tool as my main weapon?"
True.
It was all true.
A dragon tends to finish their 3rd growth pace at the age of 1000. To a dragon with 20,000 years lifespan, waiting for 1000 years for something like that was not very hard. Kyriaki found his argument strangely reasonable.
"But Rio, isn't it better to be cautious?" Kyriaki had to ask, just in case.
The original Kyrios used a long sword. He never liked it. If it was not for the position of the Crown Prince he wouldn't have chosen it.
Ramming through his memories from the original timeline, Kyriaki lost count of how many times he adored guns but never used them as a main weapon.
But that was the original timeline's Kyrios. This one was different from him.
So she has to ask. She wanted to be certain of his decision.
All her worries were washed away the moment Kyrios smiled so brightly like the morning sun, sensing her concerns.
"Don't worry, I have these in case of an emergency!"
All kinds of pistols, revolvers, rifles, machineguns and many more guns and bomb-like balls, cylinders and cubes of unknown technology poured out of his inventory, making a pile of Alien looking guns in front of them.
Young Dark Elves around them watched it with a sense of awe, their jaws dropping. Euclid's eyes widened and Sirius' mouth slightly opened once again successfully.
But Kyriaki nodded her head with a serious expression.
"Well done." She even praised him. "You should always have 100 backup plans in life."
"Now then," Kyrios glanced at her with a curious look in his yellow-golden eyes. "It's your turn, Ria." He skillfully passed the baton.
"It's nothing special…" Kyriaki smiled softly as she extended her hands. "Just a sword."
Shinnnn—
Just a sword.
That was what she said.
But what she summoned made all people speechless.
A dark beauty; the kind that would shine brightest when doing the cruelest things to its enemies appeared on her small, delicate hand.
From the hilt to the tip of the blade, it was a jet-black sword. A Makros-Dragon of same hue, intricated with purple patterns clung to the sword hilt like a greedy demon.
"Gasp!"
"No, that's…"
"Isn't that…"
"Mother of earth- that's-"
First, it seemed everyone was horrified by her choice of weapon, then they quickly recognized what type of weapon it was and again fell into a deep shock.
"Wait a moment, it's a-"
"I forgot for a moment because of the weapon's history, but isn't that a-"
"...wow, just wow."
Kyriaki smirked openly, looking straight ahead—at Endymion.
How, when and why she chose the weapon that brought an end to her twin brother Kyrios in the original timeline came back to her mind in fresh memories.
It happened last night at Endymion's office.
∆ ∆ ∆
「Please think before acting, little Ria」
"I don't know what you are talking about."
「Do you know where you are?」
"At the south wing?"
「Exactly! You aren't supposed to be here! It's not too late to turn around! Let's go back, hmmm? West wing of the crown princess is way more fun to explore isn't it?」
"That's true…"
This conversation was happening between a certain AI and a tiny princess.
The princess, with her golden hair in the rare sight of two braids, smiled very politely to the blue transparent woman walking alongside with her.
"But Selene, South wing is more mysterious than I thought. Wouldn't it be an adventure if I roam around here?"
「Haaah… It's been more than 100 thousand years since I last worked with a female golden dragon. This is tiring」
Selene dramatically sighed, placing one hand on her forehead and the other on the waist.
"That's a lie, you don't know what tiredness feels like."
「This kid! Don't go into details, just accept me as an advanced AI beyond dragon imagination」
"Even if your creator begged me, I wouldn't think of you as anything more than a disrespectful and overly mischievous AI program. Just you wait, the moment I become the Queen, I'll put you back on >Assistant Mood< like my Grandpa did."
「Gasp! This is unfair! How could you go against your own father?!」
"Removing the >Friendly Mood< function of the AI I inherited as a family heirloom doesn't count as going against my dad. Besides, 63% of dragon monarchs did the same. I'm just following the will of my ancestors."
「...How can you spout nonsense with the logic of a philosopher and the taste of a sour lemon?」
At Selene's shocked and dejected expression, Kyriaki's laughter speared through the air. It sounded like a pleasant dream stolen by a mind spirit from the celestial plane to the elven guards stationed around the South wing.
The south wing of Selene Palace belongs to the former monarchs and their beloved Apomeros by tradition. Thus, it was currently used by Endymion Fotis Eleftherios III.
And legally, as the crown princess, Kyriaki had authority to visit this place at her will.
But for some reason, the moment she entered the south wing, Selene appeared out of nowhere to discourage her idea of visiting Endymion. She gave all short of excuses, but Kyriaki didn't budge.
"We are here." Kyriaki nodded to the dark elves guarding the door to Endymion's office as she muttered with a smile.
「Wow… you are one stubborn sour lemon, aren't you?」
"Thank you for your entertainment, I'll call for you if I get bored from now on." Kyriaki casually shot back her teasing as she knocked the door.
「From today onwards, your name shall be lemonaria」
"How petty for an AI modeled after the first Queen." Kyriaki frowned for the first time, finding the new name utterly distasteful.
"Come in." The answer came shortly thereafter, before Selene could reply to her complaint.
Kyriaki entered the office with slow, deliberate steps. She pushed the distasteful name to the back of her mind immediately.
"What a beautiful night, isn't that right grandpa?" She then proceeded with her royal greetings as usual. Endymion accepted her greetings with great enthusiasm.
"Did you miss me, Ria? Did you miss me so much you couldn't sleep? Is that why you came?" His tone of voice had become gentle and meaningful once again.
The sharp and arrogant professor was nowhere to be found. Kyriaki stayed silent, studying his expression.
"Aww…we met this morning too, but I'm happy you came to meet me like this as well!" As Endymion flashed his signature eye-smile on Kyriaki, she momentarily lost her words.
He was so warm, so breathtaking, she felt even elves would envy his every gesture.
'Indeed…what an otherworldly face.' She couldn't help but admire his looks.
Despite being nearly 10,000 years old, he looked as if he didn't know what 30 is in human age.
'By the way, was it my imagination that I saw the shadow of a four-armed giant the moment I entered the office?'
Kyriaki's golden eyebrows lowered slightly, forming a beautiful expression on her face. Endymion stopped talking as if he was struck by lightning and immediately turned to look at the camera drones already floating around mysteriously.
"Grandpa…"
"Hmmm?"
"May I get right into the point?"
Silence followed for an entire minute that felt like an hour.
Endymion studied her face carefully and grinned with a knowing smile.
"You may." He nodded.
"I have a favor to ask."
"A favor?"
"Yes."
"Interesting, go on."
"I want permission to enter your treasury as well as obtain one item from it."
Another silence, heavy with unspoken eccentricity, speared inside the office room.
An anomalous situation had occurred. Silence was a stand procedure when things came to this extent.
'Is he going to refuse?' Kyriaki's mind momentarily slowed down due to anxiety.
This was the first time she even felt that emotion after a long time. But just as it came to the surface, it disappeared in an instant.
Her ten aeons worth of experience together with her dragon ego would always push her to cold and calculating rationality no matter what.
If he refuses, she has to accept that fact with a cool head and prepare for the following events accordingly.
It was understandable.
Asking to enter the treasury itself wasn't a strange request. She and Kyrios had done it countless times before.
But asking to borrow an item could be seen as impolite behavior.
Dragons prefer shiny things.
That was a universal fact.
Everything a dragon hoarder is either shiny by the value or shiny by mere appearance. They are so obsessed with their collections it was hard for an outsider to even get a glimpse of them.
Kyriaki understood that fact. She was also a dragon after all. But that didn't mean she gave up on that "item" she had on her mind since her rebirth.
She'd meticulously make plans to get her hands on it no matter what.
Whether she'd have to exchange it for something else or she'd have to gamble—literally, she's ready to do anything except for theft.
As for theft, there's no way she'd commit a crime towards someone she cares for.
Her intentions might not be fulfilled now, yes, but sooner or later she'll get what she wants.
Was what she thought, but Endymion reacted relatively calmly.
"Ria, you know favors works in both ways, right? If you want to receive something, you have to consider the possibility of giving something in return too. That's how dragons do favors."
When Endymion broke the silence with a light voice, Kyriaki nodded in agreement.
"I agree. That's why, I'll do anything you ask for in return, grandpa."
"Isn't that a given? Pfft…" Endymion suddenly burst out laughing. His clear laughter echoed inside the office with a pleasant aftereffect. "Come to think of it, what's the point of having this kind of serious conversation when it's a given that I'd hand you anything you want in the world."
Kyriaki blinked in bewilderment.
"Huh?"
"Alright, let's go." Endymion stood up, snapping his finger.
The gold ring with a ouroboros design on his middle finger shined with coral orange mixed purple color, then with a faint humming mana around them gathered in one place at the speed of lightning.
Crack!
The space was torn like a piece of paper in an instant.
It wasn't a proper spell of a space attribute user. Since the spell was powered through an artifact, the effect of the spell itself was a bit rough.
Hence the appearance of the space portal resembling some paper that got punched by a fist.
"Ria? Aren't you coming?" Endymion, who had already entered through the portal, waved his hand towards Kyriaki with a relaxed expression. As if he never fell into a state of silence ever once.
∆ ∆ ∆
"Dragons have records of each and every civilization that has been born in the world. They have their culture, knowledge and technology. For a million years, all dragons have done is guard and observe."
—From the book