Chapter 4: The Training Grounds
Quite some time had passed since Ruri, as a white cat, explored the castle interior.
The Nation of the Dragon King’s royal castle was divided into twelve sectors. Although she had far from explored the entirety of the twelve sectors, she had familiarized herself with the first sector. It housed the Dragon King’s personal chambers and office, and she had seen almost everything it had to offer except one distinct area—the treasure room! The very words sent Ruri’s heart aflutter. The treasure room held the many jewels and valuables presented to past Dragon Kings. It was an essential place to explore.
The aides of the court disapproved of granting Ruri access to the treasure room, even if she held the status of a Beloved, so she was going to have to pull out all the stops—she looked up at Jade with her large, pleading kitty eyes. She didn’t end there though. She completed her one-two combo by nuzzling up against him while emitting a sweet purr.
Jade cracked like an egg. In a matter of no time, he declared Ruri fit for entry into the room. However, he wasn’t keen on letting her go by herself, so she was required to have one of Jade’s aides, Finn, accompany her.
Finn was a man with green eyes and short indigo hair. He boasted a soldier’s physique, yet his demeanor was reminiscent of a calm wave gently lapping at the shore. He was a high-ranking military official who also served as Jade’s bodyguard. His strength came second only to Jade, the Dragon King, and it was said that if Jade were to ever leave his position, he would most likely be next in line as ruler.
“Now then, shall we be off, Ruri?”
“Yes, we shall!” She hopped off of Jade’s lap and walked over to Finn. Rin took notice and followed Ruri, flapping her tiny wings behind her.
Once they started to make their leave, Jade acted like he wanted to join them. But Ruri wasn’t trying to bait a landed fish and quickly exited the office.
With Finn in tow, the two made their way to the treasure room, greeting the soldiers they passed along the way. Normally, Finn would be outwalking Ruri because of the massive height difference, but he seemed to be courteously walking to match her pace.
For the sake of security, the treasure room was located in a part of the first sector that rarely saw visitors. The amount of passersby gradually dwindled as they proceeded down the dead-silent corridor. They eventually ended up at the thick, solid door leading to the treasure room. Guards were stationed right in front of it. Once Finn explained what was going on, they opened the entrance for them.
Ruri happily stepped paw inside the treasure room to see what it had to offer, but the sight left her tilting her head perplexedly. The room held a blinding amount of treasure from the eyes of the general public, but considering that the Nation of the Dragon King was a superpower in the world, it was Ruri’s humble opinion that there just wasn’t as much treasure as she had initially envisioned. In fact, she felt there was more in the inherited spoils she had gained from Lydia’s former contract-bearer.
When she asked Finn about it, he told her that Dragon Kings weren’t born into royalty but gained the title through their strength. Therefore, wealth was split between personal assets and Dragon King assets. It seemed as though everyone kept their personal assets in their pocket space for safekeeping, meaning this treasure was reserved for the Dragon King alone.
That made Ruri wonder about the mountain of items she’d inherited from Lydia’s former contract-bearer. The fact that one person’s personal reserves were on par with the king of a major nation made her a little uneasy. Regardless of how many riches they accrued from different owners in Lydia’s spaces, it was hard to imagine a normal person amassing so many valuable possessions for themselves.
(Who exactly was Lydia’s former contract-bearer, I wonder?)
The answer to that question came sooner than she ever expected.
On a wall in the far back of the treasure room, two lone portraits decorated its surface. The first one depicted a man.
(I feel like I’ve seen this person somewhere before...) He looked familiar, but it was a foggy recollection and she couldn’t place who it was.
She then shifted her view to the second portrait. Her eyes opened wide.
(Lydia~?!) The woman in the second portrait was, without a shadow of a doubt, Lydia.
Ruri called for Finn in a panic. “Finn-san! Finn-san! Who is this woman in the portrait?!”
“Oh, this woman? I haven’t the faintest clue. It is said this was drawn by His Majesty the First Dragon King, but it’s also said there was no such woman in the Dragon King’s company at the time. Actually, His Majesty ended up going his whole life without marrying because he asserted that he had this woman.”
“Is the First Dragon King the man next to her?!”
“He is. But why are you so worked up anyway, Ruri?”
Finn was clueless as to why Ruri had such an excitable response to the portrait, but Ruri had more pressing issues at hand. Out of the two portraits that adorned the wall next to one another, Ruri believed she recognized the other person depicted aside from Lydia. That same portrait had been hanging on the wall of her room unified with Lydia’s former contract-bearer. Lydia had told her it was a picture of the former contract-bearer in question. She would also stare at the portrait whenever she had a free moment, which is what made it stick in Ruri’s memory.
Rin also stared at the two portraits, fascinated. “That reminds me, I remember hearing that Lydia made a contract with the Dragon King before.”
(So Lydia’s former contract-bearer was the First Dragon King...) Unexpectedly uncovering the truth surprised Ruri for sure, but it made sense. If her former contract-bearer was the First Dragon King, then he would have enough mana to create such a large room and amass such a massive fortune within it.
Feeling oddly refreshed from the new revelation, she left the treasure room. As she racked her brain for what to do next, Finn made a suggestion.
“Ruri, if you don’t have any plans, would you mind coming to sector five?”
“No, I wouldn’t mind at all, but what’s at sector five?”
“It’s where the dragonkin soldiers outpost is located. It’s also where the training grounds are. I’m sure the soldiers are in the midst of training as we speak. Apparently, they’d like to have a chance to see you.”
Wasting no time, they both proceeded from the first sector of the castle to the fifth. Ruri had traveled to sector five and conversed with the laundry women in the past, but she’d never visited the training grounds. Because the area housed the soldiers outpost, nearly everyone they passed donned soldiers regalia just like Finn. And since Finn served as the Dragon King’s bodyguard and held a high rank, the passersby all made a path for him, bowing in respect. But once they looked down at Ruri, walking near his feet, they found themselves shocked.
At the outskirts of sector five and through a connecting corridor was an open area enclosed by stone walls on all sides. It was their destination, the training grounds. There, a sight so gruesome she couldn’t look directly at it unfolded before Ruri’s eyes; her years being raised in a peaceful environment made her ill-prepared for so much carnage. Ruri had imagined that soldiers would be clashing their swords at one another all over the place, but their level of intensity far exceeded her expectations—in a negative way. This display of drive made Ruri want to point out how bloodthirsty they all were. This was less “training” and more a battle royale for survival.
As iron clashed, people naturally got injured left and right, most likely as a result of the extreme lack of self-control. These injuries were no mere scratches either; every single one was so gruesome that you’d be convinced they were dead.
Seeing blood fly like it were an actual battlefield, Ruri’s telepathic exclamation came as no surprise. “Finn-san, what is this place?!”
“What is it? The training grounds, of course.”
“How do you call this training?!” Ruri objected, her tail positively ruffled.
Finn, however, calmly replied without so much as shifting his brow. “This is just how dragonkin train. Is it a little too much for your system?”
“A little doesn’t even begin to describe it!”
“A dragonkin’s body is strong and sturdy. Why, those injuries are no more dangerous than being pricked by a thorn; they’ll recover in no time. Even a hole right through their gut would fully heal without so much as a scar in a week’s time, so you needn’t worry.”
They practically healed like lizards. However, Ruri dared not say that aloud. The word “lizard” was strictly off limits. She knew how much it offended dragonkin to be called as such, so she kept the thought to herself.
As they conversed, one of the soldiers that had been training noticed Ruri and Finn.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were here, sir. ...Oh wow, would this, by any chance, be the Beloved?!” said the soldier in utter glee despite the spear lodged in his back.
This definitely wasn’t the place for him to be starting a calm and leisurely conversation, but neither the soldier nor Finn seemed fazed by their surroundings. The other soldiers took notice, dropped their training, and gathered by the droves. It was such a gruesome spectacle that Ruri wanted to tell them all to go seek treatment first.
She found herself encircled by soldiers drenched in blood, causing her to flee to safety behind Finn. Under the impression that she was freaked out from being mobbed, Finn let out a mighty shout.
“Can’t you see that crowding around Ruri is scaring her?! All of you, fall in!”
Once Finn gave the order, all the soldiers snapped into lines, shoulder to shoulder. They all maintained a certain distance from Ruri, possibly out of consideration of her fright, and gazed at her from afar.
“Dang, she’s really cute!”
“Look at that snow-white fur. Man, what I’d give for a touch...”
“Would she let us touch it? Or maybe not?”
Buckling under the stares of the many hopeful soldiers eager to pet her, Ruri gave them all permission to do so, which triggered an outburst of joy—an outburst so thunderous it made Ruri nervous.
She was afraid the battle-hungry crowd would pet her head right off her shoulders, but the soldiers seemed to have the same reservations and petted her with the utmost of care instead. Their gentleness wiped away her fears and brought a smile to her heart.
These soldiers seemed to be similar to Jade in that smaller animals like cats tended to avoid them. Many of them were starved to pet something soft and cuddly, surprisingly enough. That was clear from how they melted into tender smiles once they stroked Ruri’s fur.
Once everyone had a turn petting her, she was ready to make her way back, but suddenly she heard a call.
“Brother!!”
Running up to Finn was someone so absolutely delighted to see him that if they had a tail, they would have wagged it clean off their body. The person in question had quite the brother complex. A sizable brother complex, in fact. She also knew him as “Casualty of the Spirits’ Rage #1,” a name he’d earned as the first to suffer their wrath since Ruri started to live at the castle.
This young man with large green eyes, just like Finn, and frizzy yellow-brown hair was Finn’s cousin, Ewan. Though technically cousins, since Ewan’s parents both passed away, Finn’s family adopted him as one of their own and they grew up as brothers.
Once Ewan’s eyes landed on Ruri, near his big brother’s feet, he openly showed enough disdain that you’d think Ruri had killed his parents. Reacting to his hate, Ruri’s entourage of spirits readied themselves to strike. Ruri let out a small sigh of exasperation.
Ruri first met Ewan not too long ago. Even on the day they met, Ewan came up to Ruri, also with Finn at the time, with a demonic grimace on his face.
“So you’re the Beloved that showed up out of nowhere?!” exclaimed the mysterious boy as he stood in a daunting manner, cutting off Ruri’s path. The youth was seemingly already angry, offering no first-time introductions in the slightest. The brazen display had made Ruri freeze, dumbfounded.
As Ewan looked at Ruri as if he were staring down his parent’s killer, Ruri couldn’t help but be confused. It made her question whether she had done something to offend him, but she would have remembered such a loathsome glare.
“Uh, yes, that would be me...” Perhaps because he already knew Ruri was a Beloved, even though he still asked, the intensity in his eyes remained the same. No, in fact, it might’ve cranked the intensity up a few notches. His eyes gleamed now he had acquired his target.
Just when Ruri was about to finally ask who he was, Ewan interjected before she had the chance.
“Well, I don’t approve of you! Not at all!” he proclaimed, thrusting his index finger straight at Ruri.
“Uh-huh...” she replied in a vague tone, at a loss as to why the boy suddenly snapped at her.
“End this foolishness, Ewan.” Finn had tried to pull the reins on Ewan, but the young man stared a hole into Ruri.
“Don’t think for a second I’ll just let you hog Brother to yourself just because you’re a Beloved! You’d better learn your place around here!”
As the angry Ewan hurled his harsh comments, Finn nervously glanced over to the spirits. Ruri followed suit and looked at the spirits only to see that their usually bright and smiling faces had taken a rather unpleasant-looking turn. She then realized the situation was about to get ugly. There was no way the spirits would sit idly by while Ruri took this much verbal abuse.
“This boy is a jerk!”
“Should we get him?”
“Let’s get him!” the spirits rallied, fuming mad at the belligerent Ewan.
“Hold on, you guys!” The spirits were primed to act, assuming fighting poses, but Ruri quickly held them back, preventing Ewan from being harmed.
And that was more or less how their first interaction went.
Ewan was a half-dragonkin, half-human. With his parents being of two separate species, the stronger blood of the two was more prevalent, making Ewan more dragonkin than human. Because of that, he possessed powerful mana, but unfortunately for him, his wavelength was never compatible with spirits. He was unable to utilize their magic.
On the other hand, Finn served as the captain of the royal guard, the squadron tasked with protecting the Dragon King, and his powers were said to be second only to the Dragon King himself. Ewan respected Finn above everyone else; he was not only his older brother but his pride and joy. However, Finn had been under Jade’s orders more frequently as of late to accompany Ruri whenever she went exploring the castle.
Jade became ruler through his strength as an individual, so safeguarding Ruri, whose spirit entourage would cause widespread panic if anything threatened her well-being, was higher on the list of priorities. But seeing his brother, captain of the prestigious royal guard, being reduced to guard duty of a single cat instead of the Dragon King was an indignity Ewan wasn’t willing to tolerate.
It was a feeling of vexation that he had let loose on Ruri herself, but because of that, he earned the ire of the spirits. In usual fashion, the spirits had boycotted serving him as a result. But since Ewan’s mana wavelength was barely capable of spirit magic in the first place, the boycott didn’t seem to hinder his daily life.
Since he was one of the rare demi-humans who couldn’t see spirits, he also couldn’t see how enraged the spirits were at him. Meanwhile, everyone around him had been quaking in fear.
Seeing that their punishment wasn’t affecting Ewan at all, the spirits had planned to enact an even greater punishment, but Ruri put a stop to that, keeping the situation from escalating any further.
But now that Ewan had earned the spirits ire, it was dangerous for him to be anywhere near Ruri. Up until that point, Ewan had access to the first sector as Finn’s personal aide, but he’d had that access revoked, giving him a de facto demotion.
Even though Finn had given him a stern lecture, Ewan didn’t show any signs of reflecting on his actions from the way he was now glaring at Ruri.
“So, bothering my brother again, are you?”
“Ewan, enough.”
“Brother, you’re supposed to be part of the royal guard, tasked with protecting His Majesty, so why are you reduced to protecting this mangy cat instead?!”
“Ewan! Say any more and you’ll be disrespecting not only His Majesty but the spirits as well. Watch your blasted tongue!” Finn shouted in clear anger, shutting Ewan up quick.
It was fine that Ewan couldn’t see the spirits, but for Finn and the soldiers who could see Ruri’s spirit entourage, this was a terrifying ordeal. They could see the wrathful expressions on their faces as they seemed liable to launch an attack at any moment as retribution.
“Can I shut this saucy little brat up myself?” Rin muttered, displeased.
Just as Ruri was about to call out to Rin and the other spirits to stop them, a chipper voice dispelled the tension in the air.
“Well, well, who knew the war was takin’ place in our own backyard?”
The cheerful voice didn’t match the atmosphere at all, effectively deflating the mood. However, Ruri thought it was extremely in-character for the owner of that voice.
She turned around. His short vermillion hair caught her eyes immediately—it was Joshua, looking at the scene amusedly with the same reddish-brown eyes as his father, Claus.
Finn quelled his rage and gave a friendly greeting to Joshua. “Oh, it’s you, Joshua. You finally made it back home?”
“Yup, finally is right. That geezer is a real slave driver, y’know. What the heck is he gonna do if I drop dead from getting overworked? ...Anyhow, what did Ewan do to make you lose your cool like that?”
“...You shut up,” Ewan replied coarsely, disheartened that his beloved big brother had scolded him.
Joshua sounded none too amused. The “geezer” that he had referred to was one of Jade’s aides—an old man by the name of Agate. Joshua had probably gone out on a task from him, which was most likely related to the war with Nadasha.
“Well, not like I care either way. Just don’t make the spirits mad. You may not care about yourself, but it’s not gonna be a pretty sight if the people around you get hurt as a result.”
Ewan leered at Joshua for a second before exiting the training grounds in a disappointed huff. Finn breathed a heavy sigh.
Joshua smiled in empathy. “Looks like you’ve got it pretty rough yourself, Finn,” he said in an extremely lighthearted manner.
Finn reluctantly shook his head and then took to his knee in front of Ruri to talk to her on eye level. “You have my apologies, Ruri.”
“No, don’t worry. It didn’t bother me.” She tried to assure Finn, but it was to no avail.
The complaints Ewan launched at Ruri were pretty much the same as the ones she always heard back in her world, so it really didn’t bother her in the slightest. Once they made eye contact with Ruri, Asahi’s followers would tell her to not come near Asahi. Even when they didn’t see Ruri, they would constantly talk about her behind her back. Considering she had no one to help her back then, having the spirits and Finn covering for her made for a world of difference. Ewan’s slight jeers didn’t affect her by comparison.
“Really, though. It didn’t bother me at all. It just shows he cares for you that much. I don’t think I’m causing you trouble to the extent Ewan says, but I do feel bad inconveniencing you, nonetheless. I think I can manage walking around the castle by myself.”
She was free to be on her own in sector one, but as of late, every time she went to any other sector, Finn usually accompanied her. While it was to keep Ruri out of harm’s way, it was also because the entire runaway debacle had spurred Jade’s anxiety over whether Ruri would go off somewhere under his nose. So Finn’s role was not only to guard her but to keep an eye on her as well. Thanks to that, she had a tough time slipping out of the castle for her job at the diner.
Finn finally cracked a tiny smile. “His Majesty is just worried about you, Ruri. Just try to grin and bear it, okay?”
“Jade-sama worries too much.”
Finn was in no position to approve or deny that statement, so he smiled wryly instead.
That was when Joshua gasped as if he just remembered something. “By the way, the old timer wanted you for somethin’.”
“Lord Agate asked for me? I see, I’ll be on my way, then. Sorry, Joshua, but could you accompany Ruri back to sector one?”
“Roger that.”
Finn looked back at Ruri and gave a small, awkward smile. “Ewan isn’t a bad boy. He got bullied when he was young because he was never able to use spirit magic due to his mana wavelength being incompatible, you see. That’s most likely why he ended up so competitive—to make sure no one took him lightly. Also, since I stepped in to help him every time he was bullied, he seems to have a strong dependence on me. I know he doesn’t seem very likable after hearing his tirade, but as long as I’m not involved, he is kind. I hope you don’t hate him, if at all possible.”
“No worries. I want to start getting along with your little brother, Finn-san. I might not be able to now, but I can handle things if we just sit down and talk soon.”
“Thank you, Ruri.” Finn petted her gently on the head. “alright, I’ll leave it to you, Joshua.”
“Gotcha.”
Finn stood up and quickly walked out.
“Welp, ready to head back?”
“Yup.”
“Please come again!” said a soldier, waving them goodbye.
(Sorry, but the training grounds are so scary I don’t think I can come back again...) Ruri thought to herself, turning away from the waving soldier and making her way out of the training grounds with Joshua.
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