35 Keeping Secrets

I, as per usual, had spent the morning having lessons with Riku, we went over how the war began according to Tama, I say according to Tama because a lot of it didn't make sense to my soul that had come from Earth.

According to Riku, Tama and Vance used to be one massive country called Zhen. (This was several generations ago). The king at the time was a tyrant, who was always causing his people to go to war with the neighbouring kingdoms. This meant that taxes were high and it became extremely hard for the people to live and work.

There were two factions that arose due to the socio economic imbalance, the war-hungry bourgeois who enjoyed reaping the spoils of war lead by the Vance Family and the peace-loving proletariats who was lead by the Tama family.

Both families had one thing in common, they no longer wanted the royal family in charge. So over time, it had become a war between the three factions. This lasted for two whole generations before the royal family had their only heir killed by one of the opposing families. The damage, however, was already done by that time.

Due to the constant bickering between the Vance and Tama families and the bloodshed on both sides, both factions had decided they could no longer live under the same heaven. The infighting had become so bad it no longer affected just the families but the people as well. There had to be a stop to it, especially since the neighbouring countries had noticed how bad it had become and wanted to wage war while Zhen was weak.

So the country had become divided. Vance had chosen the west to rule over and placed their factions King on the throne, while Tama had chosen the east and had put a Tama kinsman on a new throne. There was a peace treaty that was then put in place, that in the event of a foreign invader both the new countries of Vance and Tama would stand together and fight….

However, the wars that had begun back then had eve carried over to the time I live in. It was sad to think about just how many generations of families had lost their family members. Both Tama and Vance to this day are still trying to recover.

What didn't make sense to me, however, was that there was a sudden peace treaty, how can you have a battle so fierce that you can't live under the same sky as someone and then suddenly make a peace treaty? Where did the rest of the royal family go? They cannot all have perished right?

My head had been left spinning afterwards, left with more questions than answers. By the time I had arrived to my etiquette lessons, I felt like my brain was burning. We had spent up until lunchtime rehearsing my ability to speak between the lines as well how to write calligraphy artfully.

None the less I persisted until it had reached lunch time.

For lunch, I had some form of meat with potatoes and salad, for some reason, however, the potatoes if I could even call them that were actually spirit beasts that would pop out of the ground and stand around until they were eaten. They reproduce by micro seeds like strawberries or bananas.

I actually felt pretty bad eating it but it tasted amazing boiled and served with spirit beast butter.

After my stomach had settled, I went to visit Ren who was in the middle of getting our battle gear together as he always did before our lessons. I greeted him with a fist bump as per usual. We only had a few hours to train as I was told that Lady Yu would be coming to pick me up to bring me back to the academy for formal magic aptitude testing.

Ren seemed to be really excited for me as he told me about how his first aptitude test was done back on a military base near the border. He said he was so shocked when he found out he had darkness attribute that he asked to be retested! Apparently not only does the tester check for what element you can harness but also the connection that you have to that element.

A weak connection will only allow people to create basic magic, while a stronger ability allows people a lot more control. The way he explained it was basically how much control someone has over their magic organ. He also told me not to be too worried about the result, with enough hard work, anyone can become good at magic.

I had actually done pretty well today in my lessons with Ren, I found myself unable to keep my eyes off him for some reason. Riku had become like a brother to me. In a weird way, he could be considered both my older brother and a younger one, since my soul was older.

But Ren was someone I very much admired. Although he is strong he is never one to flaunt it and when he smiles it seems to light up a room. If I had a friend like Ren back on Earth I think maybe things could have been different.

I mulled over those thoughts in my head watching as Ren had shown me a few new basic moves. He must have noticed me staring harder than usual because his face suddenly looked a little sunburnt.

He stopped what he was doing and looked at me before saying " Hey young master, you need anything?" He put his weapon to the side.

[ Ugh I have been caught starting! ]

I became flustered as I tried to compact my thoughts into words. Having been confronted after reflecting like that made me a little scatterbrained.

[ Deep breaths ]

I cleared the air from my lungs before I breathed in another helping of air. The moment from my birthday seemed to spring up into my head and I smiled.

[ That's right he said if I have anything I want to talk about, I can right ? ]

" Uh Ren, you think we could talk for a moment? " I said as I clenched my fists for courage.

" Sure! Give me a moment! " Ren replied happily as he set down his weapon. We looked around for a few moments before I pointed to the corner of the training grounds. We walked over there slowly, and sweat dripped down my back.

My heartbeat began to match every step I took before it thudded harder and stronger. I was going a little pale. I wondered if Ren would really be okay with what I had to say. I had never really had a friend I could talk to about stuff, so I was nervous.

We finally reached the corner I picked and we sat down.

" You doing okay there? " Ren said as he looked at my pale face.

" Mm.. I think so, I am a little nervous" I said worriedly.

" I meant what I said at your birthday, I see how you keep a lot of things to yourself. You can rely on me you know!" Ren said before he flexed his arm muscles.

[ They are really defined! ]

I smiled self-deprecatingly and pulled my head out of the gutter.

[ Me and Ren.. haha.. I couldn't be with someone like him. I would be like a toad trying to eat swan meat ]

I sighed.

Ren looked at me with a strange face waiting for me to talk.

" I .. well. Hm.. can you promise to take this with you to your grave? No telling anyone else." I said seriously.

" That bad is it? " Ren said before he nodded in agreement.

I pushed myself over next to him before I cupped my hand around his ear like a child telling a secret. He seemed to tense up for a moment before he relaxed.

[ I probably shouldn't sit too close to a veteran ]

I whispered in his ear " I ..don't want to marry the princess, I have no special feelings for her at all."

I moved back a little to give him some space, he looked at me for a moment and tilted his head before resting his hand on his chin like he was thinking.

After a few moments had gone by he finally opened his mouth " I see.. am I the only one who knows this?" he said seriously.

I nodded in response.

" I see, that is a tricky one." He said as he thought some more.

He shifted over to me and cupped his hand to my ear, which startled me a little. I felt his soft breath in my ear and it brought shivers down my spine.

He whispers back " I ..don't like her much. I am glad you at least have good taste!"

Ren sat back and watched my face. My stomach that had such a heavy burden on it lightened instantly and I began to laugh. Ren seeing my reaction started laughing too. We spent a few minutes giggling and I wiped a tear from my eye.

" So what are you going to do?" Ren said next to me. He was sitting with his arms over his knees smiling.

" Honestly I don't know. The alliance is important for Tama right? " I said seriously as I looked out over into the distance.

" Mm I am glad you have a sense of duty to your country at such a young age. The people rely on both the royal family and the general to maintain order for us." Ren said before lowering his voice to a whisper and saying " Let me think on this one for a bit, you and the princess getting married has been planned since you were born, it is going to be tricky if you want to get out of it… plus it seems she really does care for you. Not that I know anything about relationships "

Ren then quietened down and covered his mouth with his finger before pointing off into the distance. I looked over to see a very dignified woman walking along the training ground carrying an umbrella to shield herself from the sun.

Ren and I dusted ourselves off and took one last look at each other. I smiled wide and said " Thank you for being my friend" He smiled back and nodded before pushing me in the direction of the woman.

" Lady Yu is here, training is over! Good luck tonight and I hope that you get a good score! " He said as he watched me leave.

I walked for a little while before I met Lady Yu. I bowed my most perfect bow before rising.

" How was training young man? " said Lady Yu with an eyebrow raised.

" It was good Lady Yu, I learnt a lot! " I said with a smile.

" Oh? One can learn combat by sitting like a lazy spirit beast in the sun? I look forward to you teaching me such a method. " Yu promptly retorted.

[ Wow.. Ehh nice lady you are! ]

Yu watched my face as I said nothing in response and said " Come along, We have much to do.." she stopped mid-sentence before looking at the sun.

" Hmm yes. And very little time!" she finished before turning to face towards the training ground's exit.

I followed behind promptly before she stopped in her tracks.

" Young man, I almost forgot, here take this and change quickly, I will not have you enter my halls smelling like a battleground," she said as she rubbed a ring on her finger.

A bag suddenly appeared out of nowhere and landed in her hand.

[ Just what was that?! ]

Lady Yu saw that I was dumbfounded before chuckling.

" A storage ring, each graduate gets one, you too will earn one if you graduate. No more questions we are in a rush!" She said as she handed me the bag.

We changed directions and headed to my room.