Chapter 64 - Kings

Cecil was intrigued by the word. King, it meant someone who ruled over all. Since someone was called a 'King', then it meant that they towered over the rest of the student body, maybe even standing above the factions– no, they most likely did stand above the factions since the first party of 'Kings' kept on winning the year-long tournament for 4 consecutive years.

Lucia was also interested. A king would be someone that was strong and Lucia's goal was to become the strongest in the academy. This way she could proudly stand by the side of the abnormally powerful Cecil.

To her, Cecil wasn't just the boy she liked. He was her teacher, best friend and role model.

Cecil was unnaturally strong for his age and although he seemed cheerful and simple minded Lucia knew that there was another side to him, a darker side.

On their journey, there were times in battle where the boy would exhibit a cold and calculative side of himself. A machine-like side that completely disregarded everything else with the sole purpose of efficiently eliminating whatever it was that he was targeting.

Lucia didn't like this side of Cecil because when he was like this, then no matter how many times she called out to him, Cecil wouldn't respond. All he would do was intermittently mumble to himself while calmly staring at his target.

It was this cold disregard and personality change that Lucia absolutely hated. The 'peaceful' look in his eyes made her especially scared. Whenever she looked at Cecil when he was like this, she always felt like he was going somewhere far away and if she blinked her eyes for even a moment, he would suddenly disappear.

Another thing that she noticed was that this side of Cecil would only come out whenever hers or Silver's life was at stake. Though most of the time it was her life that was in a pinch and Cecil would come swooping in to save her.

She was always grateful, but with how prideful Lucia was, knowing that her inadequacy and weakness was the cause of Cecil's change frustrated her to no end.

Hearing about these 'Kings' made her hopeful. If she was able to reach this level of power where she could blatantly ignore the power of a faction that was comprised of numerous individuals, then maybe, just maybe she would take a closer step towards the power level that Cecil was at.

She turned a determined gaze towards Fina, prompting with her eyes that she continue with her explanation.

Seeing the two's interest, especially Lucia's, Fina continued explaining.

"A King would be someone who stood above all the other students in terms of technique, skill, stage, and combat prowess."

"Sure enough, it equates to the strongest." Lucia said excitedly.

"There will only ever be 10 Kings in the academy. Of course, no one can self-proclaim themselves as a King. The only way someone could be recognized as a King would be through the acknowledgement of the school's faculty."

"So the teachers and instructors are the ones who decide?"

"Yup, this system was something implemented by the previous headmaster to counterbalance the faction system that dipped more towards the side of a group's prowess instead of an individual's prowess." Fina said.

Ainz interjected on her explanation, "The upsides to a group or faction are that it helps build responsibility, relations, and teamwork. The downsides are that most if not all of the individuals in the group lack individual strength and character. If you take a look at a faction, you will see the similarities between the members' personality and thought process."

"It's the mob mentality." Cecil said.

"Mob what?"

"It means that an individual would respond, react or follow a group's actions instead of doing their own thing."

"Yeah, that's basically it! So what I'm saying is, if a faction is strong then the members would also be strong. If a faction is weak, then the members would also be weak."

Lucia nodded in understanding. "So the King's would be there to change this, mob thingy right?"

Fina liked the word so she corrected Lucia.

"Mob Mentality, Lulu! Hmmm... Somehow it has a nice ring to it!"

Ainz then continued explaining.

"So to become a King, you can't join a faction and you had to prove yourself to the academy's faculty."

Lucia smirked and said, "This King system suits me just fine!"

"Yeah... that was only up until the current Student Council President broke it."

"Huh?"

"The current president is someone who's part of the Arks Royal Family. He enrolled 3 years ago so he's a fourth year now. On his 1st year he purposefully didn't join any faction and by the start of his second year he was able to prove himself to be worthy of the King title. He was given the title Sky King. Then he broke the rules and was dethroned."

"Dethroned?" Lucia asked.

"Yeah, he joined the Student Council right after he was crowned King, he also persuaded 2 other Kings to join with him."

"Is that even allowed?"

"It shouldn't have been, so when that happened the King's System was further improved and that if you were crowned King, you would be banned from joining any of the 10 factions. The problem is, is that because the current Student Council President and the two others have the individual prowess of a King, the power balance of the 10 factions has shifted and almost every plan and regulations issued out by the Student Council have been approved because no one from the other factions could stop the president from implementing them."

"Can't they just rule out the rule that's about to be implemented?"

"They only way to rule out anything is through combat."

"Ah... no wonder the student council has free reign of things."

"Well, it's not like the student council did anything radical that would change the school. It's just that the other factions are disgruntled by the fact that some of their plans and regulations have been foiled or unapproved by them."

The room fell silent. Lucia looked around and saw that everyone was thinking hard about which faction they wanted to join... except Cecil since it looked like he was about to doze off.

"Okay, one last question. Who are the current Kings in the academy?"

Fina and Ainz looked at each other.

Fina was the first to open her mouth, "I don't know. Other than the dethroned kings Zephyr, Lilith and Alex, I don't have any info about the others."

Ainz smirked at Fina and laughed. "HAHAHA! Looks like I one up you aqua brat! Listen here, fox brat. There are currently only 5 Kings in the academy."

"The Disaster Queen, Audrey Flei. Sword King, Robert Stein. Nature King, Anixio. Nature Queen, Anixia. And finally... uhh sorry I don't know who the last one is... the dude keeps a low profile so not much is known about him except that's it's a guy and he's known as the Ghost King."

Lucia put on a charming smile and stood up. "Hmph. Well you two should be honored then!"

Cecil who was almost in dreamland was brought back to their plane when Lucia shouted.

Fina and Ainz were also a bit surprised seeing Lucia stand up and shout so abruptly.

"Before you both stands a future King AND Queen! Nahahahaha~"

Fina only smiled gently at Lucia's declaration while Ainz started mocking her, which of course earned him a few violent smacks to the face and an endless serenade of insults.

Cecil, who was awoken, turned to look at his 2 new friends and Lucia.

'Confident as usual...'

Cecil stretched and stood up.

"Hey, Ainz... it's getting late, let's head back. I'm tired." Cecil yawned.

"We'll send you back~" Lucia said after she punched Ainz in the face one last time.

Their day finally ended when Fina and Lucia walked Cecil out of the girl's dorm complex. Ainz however was literally kicked out of the building by Lucia with a smile.

On their way back Ainz started conversing with Cecil who looked like he was about to doze off. They were still walking back, so it amazed Ainz at the possibility of Cecil falling dead asleep even when they were still on the road.

'Would he just drop onto the ground asleep, or could he sleepwalk back to the dorm? Hrmmm...'

Cecil perked up for some reason and turned to Ainz and asked, "You were thinking about something rude huh?"

Ainz chuckled and said loudly, "HAHAHA, what are you saying brat?! Oh and by the way... that woman of yours sure is violent!"

Ainz rubbed his buttocks that were still stinging after Lucia had kicked him out of the building. His face however was still in mint condition even after Lucia had slugged him in the face a couple of times.

"Woman? You mean Lucia?"

"Yeah! Her!"

"Oh..."

Cecil yawned in response, when the two finally made it back into their dorms. Cecil immediately plopped onto his bed and was immediately whisked away to dreamland.

'Ahhh, can't wait for school...'