Valerian, The Legendary

125 Goals.

Valerian looked at the group with an amused expression on his face. He asked, “Everything else aside, I wonder what is it that makes you so over-confident?”

Richtor Sax seemed to have speculated a retort like this and said, “Sure, allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Richtor Sax, the eldest son of the owner of the Sax Trades. Our trading house is the third largest in the Lumen Empire.”

Valerian nodded and said, “I still do not understand the reason behind your confidence.”

His lips had curled upward in a faint smile. His reaction was nothing like what Richtor had imagined it to be. In his mind, this child should have been scared. How could this lowly person look back at him in the eye with an expression of disdain?

Richtor felt a pang of anger raging in his belly. He wanted to say something when Lilian said, “Val, forget it. I will apologize on your behalf and this matter will end here.”

Valerian wanted to stop her but Lilian had already gone down at her knees and knocked her head to the ground as she said, “I plea to you, Master Sax, please forgive us, and please show magnanimity.”

Richtor did not care, he glared at Valerian and then at Lilian as he said, “Who do you think you are to apologize for him? Are you his slave? Or was it you who abandoned him after giving birth?”

He could not understand why this fearful commoner dared to stand up for this bastard. Did she not fear him anymore? Richtor was a person who found great pleasure when he terrorized commoners, when they begged for mercy, or when they pleaded with tearful eyes, it gave him satisfaction. He felt like he was the strongest man in the world.

All sadists would use some sort of twisted argument to justify their madness. Richtor was no different. His hand moved, but before he could cast a spell, he blacked out. Valerian had taken action, he had arrived in front of this guy and punched his temples, knocking him out.

.....

Then he turned around to Richtor’s cronies, and said, “If you did not take him out of my sight in two minutes, I will strip you naked, and then tie you up to the flag pole. You are free to test my patience.”

One of the boys was scared and said, “What do you think you are? You are just an orphan. Who gave you the right to look down on us?”

Valerian glanced at him coldly and said, “You look down on me because of my origin, but I look down on you because of your deeds. You are the people who put the rich and generous to shame. It was your luck that you were blessed with these gifts, but if I was to take away your blessing for even a day, you will come to know how it feels when you treat them like dirt.”

His words were enough to scare these people, then he said, “Lutum Hastae.”

A sharp spear protruded from the ground, right between the legs of the boy who just spoke, and the tip of this spear was almost about to break through the jewels of lineage. The four people froze in their spots. After a few seconds, Valerian negated the spell and then said, “You can leave now.”

The boys woke up and they carried Richtor in their hands. They were genuinely scared by the actions of these guys. Valerian turned to look back at Lilian and walked up to her. He held her shoulders and gently helped her stand. He said, “Even if you are at the gates of death, never falter. You will die truly when you have no dignity. This world will always feed on those who do not dare to defend themselves.”

Lilian looked down and took deep breaths to calm herself. Valerian accompanied her for a few minutes and then he walked out of the room with Fortuna resting over his head. She liked his soft hair.

The two had just come out of the corridor when they found a lot of people looking at them. He knew that they were dissing him. The reason was that he stood up for a commoner. Ashlyn was waiting for him at the side and came up to him when she spotted his silver head.

Valerian looked at her and asked, “Your Highness, are you not afraid to be maligned by them?”

Ashlyn shook her head and said, “I have never bullied the weak, why shall I do it now? To keep up pretenses with the others? If forgoing my principles is the cost to gain social standing, then I might as well boycott the society.”

Valerian nodded and said, “Very well spoken. I did not expect her highness to be so articulate.”

Ashlyn looked at him and said, “Likewise, Your Highness Valerian.”

That said, they made their way back to the wood magic tower. Sylvia had been dismissed by Ashlyn early as the former had classes. After seeing off the princess, Valerian went off to his own dwellings. His mind was not eager to train anymore. He wished to find the solution to this disadvantage faced by the commoners.

Lost in thought, he even gave up eating and began to walk around in the hall. His actions made Fortuna irked, she let out a few meow-ing sounds as if asking what are you thinking?

Valerian gazed at her and smiled before he walked over and caressed her chin gently with the back of his finger. He said, “The world is not fair, but we need to make it a better place, or one day, these inferior thoughts will destroy it.”

Suddenly an old voice sounded behind him, “What are you going to do about this world?”

Valerian replied, “Set up some rules.”

Fallax nodded and asked, “Such as?”

“If any gifted is to harm a commoner, they will be punished severely. If they verbally disrespect, the gifted will have to apologize to the commoner, and if the crimes are even bigger, then the punishment should be even heavier.”, replied Valerian.

Fallax nodded and said, “You have a good idea, but who do you think will listen to your words? You do not have any standing in society. Your status as the prince of the Lumen Empire has nothing to do with the mages and the warriors. Why will they listen to you?”

Valerian looked at Fortuna calmly and said, “Then I will become so strong that these people will have to listen to my words, regardless of whether they like it or not.”

Fallax nodded and said, “That is a good idea, but how long will it take for you to reach that point?”

Valerian was deflated and said, “Old man, can you be supportive for once?”

Fallax smiled and said, “I am here to point out the way for you.”

Valerian gazed at him with a raised eyebrow. The old man said, “You know that the academy will hold the annual ranking battle, right?”

The young boy nodded and Fallax continued, “The one who can reach into the top ten in the academy will get a magical beast egg. The ones to get the top five will get the egg and a magic weapon. The one to reach the top, and stand above all, will have the right to make a wish to the council. The council will fulfill that wish.”

Valerian opened his eyes in shock. He did not expect such a thing to exist. He asked, “Are you sure you are not joking? If you are, this is not funny at all.”

Fallax snorted and said, “You think I have enough free time to joke with you? You are still too green, child.”

Valerian did not pay attention to this guy and got back to teasing the cat on the counter. After thinking, he made up his mind and decided to aim for the top of the contest.

Fallax noticed the change in his eyes and nodded. Valerian was not a saint but he did not like to see others suffer that was not their fault. He was the victim of such treatment for his whole life, and he did not want anyone else to suffer from this.

The old man left the place just like he had come, in silence. Valerian sighed and went to bed. Suddenly he thought of something and took out the crystal ball he had in his magic pouch.

...

In the imperial palace of Lumen, Fragrantia was sleeping in her bed, after a long day when she sensed some movement on the bedside table. Opening her eyes she found a crystal ball glowing with shimmering light. She reached out and said, “Connexio animea.”

In her mind, a gentle voice rang out, “Aunt?”

“It is me, Child.”, replied Fragrantia with her mind.

Valerian replied, “How have you been? Is it alright to talk for a few minutes?”

“I am alright, what about you? And yes, you can reach out to me at any time. What happened?”, asked Fragrantia.

The two began to chat, and Valerian told her about what happened there in the academy, from his confrontation with Ashlyn and then Richtor Sax. Fragrantia assured her that she will take care of this matter, and then she told him that she will come to see him play in the annual rankings.

The night grew deeper and the two people put down their communication balls and fell asleep.

Suddenly, Valerian dreamt of Rectus, and the situation was not good.