“It’s a little big, but it’s fine,” she said. “Thanks!”
“You’ll grow into it in no time. The outer layer is made of running dragon skin, the lining is made out of wyvern wings, and the buttons are carved from earth dragon scales. The buttons don’t matter much, but the dragon skin makes it heat- and water-resistant. It offers some magic resistance too. Oh, and I stitched a small Otori family crest onto it,” I explained.
I’d placed the crest on the lower left side of the cloak. It was about the size of a fist, so it wasn’t noticeable unless you were looking for it. I figured putting it there was better than plastering it across the back. As long as people could see the crest, that was all that mattered.
The students and their parents were shocked once they heard what the cloak had been made of. After all, there had only been five reported dragon slayings in the past century. Three had been earth dragons, one had been a running dragon, and the other had been a dragon zombie. Only the earth dragon from eighty years ago had its materials actually go to market. The rest of the dragons on that list had been defeated by either me or Gramps. We had kept most of the materials ourselves, aside from the parts we had given or sold to the royal family or our close friends. That meant these materials were virtually impossible to get.
The situation with wyverns was similar, but their materials did hit the market a few times a year. However, only my party and Margrave Haust had gotten any recently. Hydras popped up every few years or so, but since they were as rare as dragons, whoever defeated them kept the materials most of the time. So, long story short, the cloak I was giving Amy was practically priceless. Even if every single noble in this room begged for one, they’d have zero chance of actually getting one right now.
“Gramps, someone’s coming. Pretty sure they’re royalty,” I said.
“Seems like it.”
Most of the students’ guests hadn’t noticed, but I could hear the sound of several sets of armor clinking. The noise was heading our way. It was probably the king’s guard. I used Identify just to be safe and confirmed it. They were here guarding members of the royal family, of course—and there were a lot more of them than I’d expected.
And leading the group...
“Your Majesty!”
...was the king himself.
We’d been told ahead of time that neither the king nor the queen would be attending this party. Only Tida, Luna, and their parents were supposed to be here. Something had clearly changed.
The moment the parents noticed the king, they all dropped to one knee.
“No need to kneel. You’ll only dirty your nice clothes,” the king said.
The students in the room were about to follow suit, but he stopped them too. Gramps and I had stayed in our seats. I’d started to stand when I’d noticed everyone else kneeling, but when I figured the king would stop them, I sat back down.
Amy had started to follow suit with everyone else, but I gently nudged her back into her seat. The moment I touched her, Tida glared at me sharply. When I let go of her, he relaxed. But I was feeling mischievous, so I touched her shoulder a few more times just to get a rise out of him. Gramps and the king eventually caught on and gave me exasperated looks, and Amy just stared at me like I was some kind of weirdo.
Meanwhile, the royal party made their way over to us.
“I’ll let you tease Tida a bit since his reactions are so funny, but I do actually have a favor to ask you, Tenma,” the king said.
“Can I say no?” I asked. I was ready to shut it down before he even said anything because let’s face it—when a king says he wants a favor, it’s never going to be simple.
“At least hear me out.”
“Tenma, this is a serious matter. Will you at least let us explain?” Queen Maria asked.
“All right. There’s no point in us standing around, though. Please have a seat,” I said.
I grabbed three chairs from nearby and set them down for her, Prince Caesar, and Princess Isabella. I even pulled out the queen’s chair for her. She nodded to me before sitting down, and Prince Caesar did the same for his wife.
Tida and Luna grabbed their own chairs since they were students here. Of course, Tida tried to sneakily sit next to Amy, but Luna shoved him out of her way and claimed that seat for herself. She then immediately started complimenting Amy’s new cloak, and the two girls began chattering away. Tida had no choice but to try to talk to Amy through Luna. He pouted the whole time.
“Alex, stop standing there like a statue and grab a seat already!” Gramps said to the king.
“Oh, pardon me.”
The king went to grab his own chair, but Amy noticed and stood up to get one for him. But the moment she stood up, Tida did as well. He gently guided her back into her seat as he went off to get a chair for his grandfather.
Queen Maria and Prince Caesar looked quite pleased with that exchange...until Tida turned his back.
The moment he did so, Luna slid his chair away from the table. When Tida returned, he looked around, completely lost, wondering where his chair had gone. Luna snickered to herself the whole time, tipping Tida off to her prank, so she put his chair back.
That, however, only made Luna laugh even harder. As I watched this scene unfold, I had to think that Luna was going to get scolded once they were back at the castle. The glares from the queen and Tida made that obvious.
“Luna, remember that you are in a public setting. That’s enough,” Prince Caesar said sternly.
Luna realized her father was upset. “I’m sorry...” she said, seeming very depressed.
“What we wanted to ask was... Well, I’ll just let Caesar explain,” the queen said.
“That’s right. Tenma, we’d like you to spar with this year’s top students.”
“Huh? That’s fine. What are the rules?” I asked.
Since this was a request from the royal family and I owed them a lot, I agreed right away, which seemed to surprise them a little. But once I accepted, I learned that the rules were quite a pain.
“A ten-on-one match?” I asked.
“Do you have a problem with that?” the queen asked.
“No, but what if someone gets hurt? And I’m not talking about me not being able to hold back. What if they hurt one another?”
The real danger in a large battle wasn’t the enemy—it was friendly fire. I asked Amy and Tida about it, and while the students at the academy did have mock battles a lot, they were always one-on-one or with students acting in small squads of five. They never fought in ten-person squads. That was why I wanted to confirm that condition. However, some of the students and their guests thought I was just being rude, and everyone in the room suddenly got tense.