The girls were surprised to see him this early and immediately noticed his gloomy face. They had never seen him really sad before. The two walked up to him and stood close to his side.

"Master, what is it? What happened?" Inquired Harriett in a compa.s.sionate manner.

Emp told them that two of his friends died during the night. The two girls shared his pain and sadness and gave him a few comforting words.

They suggested that he didn't go to cla.s.s that day. Everyone knew the pain of losing a friend so they would understand if he grieved for a day. He needed rest too, doubly so since he had not slept.

After breakfast, they escorted him back to his bed and stayed with him all day. At first they stood at the side of his bed but it annoyed him so he had them both sit beside him on the bed. All three of them ended up shoulder to shoulder with a pillow between their backs and the stone wall.

The two girls seemed rather nervous to be on top of his bed but they were the ones who told him to go back to it. Harriett even mumbled something about not being worthy of climbing into his bed.

Now that they were both so close to himself, his attention got captured by their rings. He caught both of their hands and brought them just in front of him to take a closer look at them. Like he had thought last night in the woods, it had been a while since the last time he had done so.

Neither resisted his movement and they happily showed off their respective rings. The changes in them were huge, both of them were very pretty now.

Harriett's ring was now a large band of intertwined gold and silver with a row of small magenta colored precious stones matching the one in her earring going all the way around it. The ring was large but not thick and many empty s.p.a.ces were left in it giving the impression it was either a net or a kind of chain.

Celtine's ring had another style entirely. Hers was like a delicate string made out of a semi-transparent blood-red stone, flowing like a wisp of smoke around her finger. The back of the ring became a bit larger and seemed to expend into some sort of socket for something that wasn't there. Emp felt it was probably like the wound on the wooden ring he first gave her. Despite its simpler design, Emp felt that out of the two ring, this one was more special than the other. He felt quite sad about the missing piece.

At least now he understood that the missing piece was most probably about how her wings and voice were missing from the real Celtine. He ran the tip of his thumb along the missing piece of the ring as he spoke.

"It took me a while to find the right way to ask the book but I finally found where I needed to go to get your wings and voice back."

He had asked during the night, while he couldn't sleep because he was too worried. He didn't sound excited because of his current mood but Celtine still latched on to his words like the wolves on Vesa.

"Love had told me that we needed Life for your wings and Truth for your voice. After asking the book, I found that Life is in the mountains in Greenpeaks and Truth is a bit south of Neifner."

"Neifner? I never heard of that place, where is it?" Asked Harriett, curious.

"It is far south of the howling hills, somewhere in the large uninhabited forests of Windbow. From what I heard, it's an old ruin."

That was the place Galana's parents went to and never came back from.

"Either place will be hard to find and difficult to reach. Life is further away but might be easier to get to than Truth. I think we should get your wings back first, but not now, only after we're done with this school."

Celtine nodded in understanding and Harriett approved.

"Of course master, your studies are much more important."

"That is not what I meant."

He took a small moment to arrange his thoughts a bit before he spoke again.

"I think Celtine's wings are much more important than learning magic or learning who's the lord of where and since when. You two are much more important than what I learn here, I think."

"I know we are important for you master. I only have to look at the ring to know." Her fingers squeezed around his palm as a form of comfort while she spoke. "Every time I wake or go to sleep, whenever I see it, I know I did my job well and that you appreciated it, I know you care for me and I know my place here, at your side, is safe. I never have to worry about if I did enough or not or if I'm going to be replaced or thrown away. I only need to glance at it and all my fears are quelled."

Celtine couldn't write a word because he was holding her writing hand but she agreed by placing her other hand on his arm and nodding in affirmation.

"I'm sure Celtine doesn't mind waiting because she knows that you have not forgotten about her."

Emp absorbed their trust with a deep breath. Calming himself further.

"I'm glad you trust me so much but that's not what I meant either. I would like to go there right away and give back to Celtine all that she lost but I am not confident in my ability to keep you both safe as we search for these places."

"What does master mean? Master is excellent and strong. Master proved me wrong every time I worried up to now and master even told me to stop worrying entirely and just believe in him."

Emp felt that wasn't exactly what he had said but it was so long ago already that he couldn't remember. He knew however that trusting that nothing bad would happen to him inside the school wasn't at all the same as trusting that he would be able to protect everyone.

"Chase didn't come back from his first hunt yesterday." He chose to explain.

"Willow was scared something might have happened to him and she asked me to help her find him. I agreed and I went with everyone in the woods. I should have done differently but I let everyone come with me instead. I just gave them a few weapons and hoped we would be fine. We ended up not being fine and Vesa died. There were just too many forest spiked wolfs for me to keep everyone safe."

"It can't be all master's fault though. How could master have predicted his group would encounter a pack of wolves? If someone died it's the fault of the wolves."

Emp shook his head in denial.

"I understand that but I should have known that by going in the forest, we would encounter its inhabitant. I should have known my friends wouldn't be able to resist them on their own. I failed my friends last night. They were not prepared and relied on me. One of them died because I didn't think properly."

The girl at the tavern had warned him. As an emperor, he had to know what he was doing because everyone else would follow him. That night he had not known and everyone followed blindly, one of them died because he had not thought about things properly. If he couldn't watch over a dozen of persons, how could he lead thousands?

More about the point of helping Celtine, what if he committed another mistake and something happened to Harriett or Celtine? He lost a friend to a beetle and another to a bunch of wolves. He had not been alive for long but he had already seen far worse out there and read about many powerful foes in the bestiary Galana had sold to him.

He may have been stronger than most people of his height but it did not mean he could use that strength efficiently enough to keep them safe. He needed more than just strength, if he had used his head, he would have known that he would disappear at some point, he would have known he needed another plan.

"I need to better myself to make sure that whatever happens, I can guaranty the safety of you both. Even if I think I can escape any threats that come my way, this isn't enough to make you two safe. What if we run into a woodland horror? I can run, sure, but I can't carry you both out of the way with me. If I fight instead, the horror can just walk over you both and I won't be able to do anything."

Harriett gave him a sad smile and hugged him on her own accord. She almost never did that kind of thing, the last time was when he gave her the earring. The feeling wasn't the same as back then, this one was more like the one Marcy just gave him.

"I understand what master mean to say. May I share a personal story?"

"Yes..."

"When I worked for my father, I knew a slave girl named Ka.s.s. She was a friendly person but she was often lashed because her master was an horrible person. Her master was a good client of my father so she often came. We all had to watch Ka.s.s follow her around with that pained look on her face and none of us could do anything to help. The best we could do was share some good moments with her. One day she didn't come with her master, we never saw her again. I don't know for sure but I always a.s.sumed she was dead. She was my friend and even now, I keep wondering if I could have done something to help somehow. I couldn't, I'm just a slave, we didn't share our master and I wasn't even there. It doesn't stop me from feeling bad about her."

Emp understood what she meant to tell him. It didn't make him feel better but at least he wasn't alone. Celtine too decided to share a story. She freed her hand from his own and quickly wrote her message. She started crying halfway through but still finished it.

Celtine really had lost a lot over time. She kept being unlucky, was there anyone with a worse luck than her somewhere?

"Thank you both for sharing. I still feel bad but somehow, those stories helped a bit. I'm sorry for your two friends, I'll do my best..."

He didn't know how to put what he felt in words. He would try is best to make sure it didn't happen again but that wasn't really it either. He wanted to offer his help and keep as many people safe as possible but he also understood that he did not have an infinite reach and that even those closer to him could be the victim of a sudden accident. Like Chase for example.

Celtine wrote him another message.

"Celtine is right, she won't stand by if something happens to master, just like with master's soul. We do not wish to be burdens, we want to be part of master's strength. We are there for you."

That made a lot of sense to him. He couldn't be everywhere all the time at once. Even with two him at once, he couldn't be with Chinui in Dugo as well as in the school and Redwater and Dark-glint. Love knew this from the start and gave him the ring in order to find people he appreciated, people he trusted enough to give him their help in his tasks.

He wasn't able to protect all his friends in the wood but he should have imparted what he had learned in the school to them instead. Then, they would have been able to protect themselves even after he disappeared. Maybe even Chase would have fared better if he had told him about the combat cla.s.ses. If Chase had lived, they wouldn't have ventured in the woods and everyone would have been safe.

Emp started to understand a bit better how Galana felt about the school. He couldn't picture any of the guys from the school dying from a two headed beetle. They had money so they could get in the school and once out of it, gaining a single kill to reach adulthood should be easy. Meanwhile, the boys in the village had to learn from surviving hunters with some time to spare or parents who never stepped in the woods again after their first hunt.

Her way of seeing this was partially right but partially wrong too. The school students learned a lot and they learned in safety but that safety gave them no real experience. Emp had seen people die, he had seen battles and walked the woods at night. The others had not, hearing about it in a well lit cla.s.sroom surrounded by friends wasn't the same as progressing through thick foliage surrounded by the constant threat of the unknown.

Also, they were stuck here, far from their families and old friends. They were requested to learn everything and anything all day long, almost every day of the year while others played around and had fun. They were constantly reminded of how many people would rely on them in the future and the boys were expected to help the military in one way or another once they left the place. Some like Aglaya even lived with the fear that one of their so called friends would turn against them in the future for reasons Emp could still not understand.

People 'hoped' a villager would survive for his own sake while they 'expected' the students to live for the sake of everyone else.

Emp felt that neither was quite right but he didn't know how to fix it. For now, he was just tired.

"Will you two stay here with me for a moment?"

"Of course master, anything you wish for."

He knew he should sleep but it was so bright in the room, the sun was directly s.h.i.+ning inside to remind him it was daytime. Despite this, having the two of them so close to him after all that happened was calming enough for him to fall asleep. He was so tired that it would have been hard to not sleep instead.

***

He woke up later with a bunch of red hair covering his face. Those were Celtine's hair, she was the only person he knew with red hair. He shoved them away from his eyes and looked around. It was still daytime, Celtine had apparently fallen asleep against his shoulder at some point but Harriett was gone.

It was pretty rare for him to wake up on his own. He wondered if something happened that could have woke him up. He moved her arms out of his way and slid out of the bed to go in the main room, leaving Celtine to sleep where she was.

Harriett was in the other room, she was folding clothes.

"Hi master, you seem a bit better. I'm about to start preparing tonight's meal. Does master wish to request anything from me?"

"No, anything is fine. Did anything happen while I was asleep?"

"No, at least nothing I took notice of master."

Mhn, how strange.

He sat down at the table and not too long after, Celtine came to join them.

She wrote them.

He spent the rest of the day not doing much in the main room. He just let the time flow by, thinking to himself, sharing words with the other two and looking at the city outside.

The only thing that happened that day was late in the afternoon, when knocks were heard on his door. Harriett answered and they discovered it was one of Mabel's servants that came to ask why he didn't show up to cla.s.s on her behalf.

Out of everyone, Mable's room was the closest to his own so it was logical that she was the one to ask first. The other girls were probably all in her room drinking tea and talking about his absence right now.

Harriett looked his way and after he gave her a nod, she answered the slave girl.

"Master received some terrible news and was grieving today. Master himself is well."

The servant girl thanked Harriett for the information and ran off again.

Because of this, the next day, many of the girls from the cla.s.s gave him some words of compa.s.sion, even though they had no idea who died or how close he was to Emp.

When Emp showed up to the moral cla.s.s the next morning, he still felt tired and depressed but it did not turn away the guys or Mable. Contrary to the careful words of the other girls, Mable came straight to him and asked about more details. Was it a friend, was it family was it tragic or was it an old man who died of age? Was he close to them?

Emp wasn't annoyed by her questions. She just wanted to know how affected he was by that death. Emp had seen many people die before but this was the worse he ever felt about it. It made sense to him if Mable thought that not all deaths were equally painful. She wanted to know how he really felt about it.

The teacher however felt that it was highly inappropriate to ask how close he was to the dead and the circ.u.mstances behind this loss in front of everyone.

Emp believed that in reality, she was just scared it was a Muracier that died and tried to protect his secret from Mable but it had nothing to do with this at all. Mable was reprimanded about it but Emp a.s.sured them he did not mind the questions.

"Two of my friends living in a nearby village died in their first hunt the day before yesterday. I knew them well and I feel I could have done better for them. One of the two even had a lover, I don't know what she'll do now..."

The teacher seemed a bit relieved by his answer. Not because she was insensible of course but because it would have been way more complicated and disastrous for her if it had really been a Muracier that died.

"The death of a good friend is always painful. However many you lose over time, it never becomes less painful. You and of course the families of the deceased have my sincere condolences."

"Thank you madam Blackbull."

"This is a saddening event but it is a subject of conversation that we should tackle today. It is as good of a moment as any to talk about how to deal with death. Today, we will consider successions, last wills and also, for the ladies here, what to do when your husband dies."

"But madam, none of us aside from Rica have a husband yet." Complained Josseline.

"It will still be valuable later on. Everyone eventually dies, even the husband you have yet to meet. Adding on to that, I once told you all I would help you steer prospective marriage in your favor. I will give some tips later, after I push all the boys out of the room."

Everyone had to prepare for a long and grim sounding cla.s.s because of the subject Emp had brought with him but like death, no one here could escape it.

The first half of the cla.s.s contained a lot of valuable information for any n.o.ble.

She started by explaining which child of which wife inherited things from their father when he died. This was especially important for high n.o.bles, kings and even the emperor himself.

She presented many situation to them like for example, if a king had five wives and all of them gave him a son on the same day, which of the five would be the crown prince?

In order for the Steelwood society to work without too much problem, a.s.signing ranks between wives was frowned upon. Being the first married to a man did not make the woman into a first wife. Similarly, a wife with a higher political rank did not occupy a higher rank in a familial unit than another.

These traditions were meant to prevent unfair treatments towards any wives of different births and different times of arrival, not by the husband but between the wives themselves.

Each of them was meant to accept the others as equal and help each other out in times of sadness and tragedy.

Since they were to all think of each other as true blood bound sisters, t.i.tles were shared across them all and none were more valuable than another in terms of law or politics. It had worked like that since long before the creation of the empire, everyone was used to it.

Those were also the reason why daughters rarely inherited the n.o.ble t.i.tles directly. It was often given to the eldest son instead since if a daughter inherited a duchy, for example, and married a man who had already six other wives, all six would from now on be legally in possession of the duchy.

Until there, this wasn't too complicated but when they dived into the main subject of the cla.s.s, the succession, things started to become more difficult to understand.

Special situations and exceptions abounded and often bypa.s.sed the simple thumb rule saying that the firstborn should inherit land and t.i.tle.

If a woman inheriting a t.i.tle and land wed into a lower ranking family and had a son, only her own son could inherit her t.i.tle despite all her wedded sisters sharing the t.i.tle on paper. In reverse, if she married into a higher ranking family, the will of the husband would judge which of his children should take the land and t.i.tle of his wife.

A written will was uncommon in the general population but was very important for n.o.bles. That will almost always had the power to supplant the usual succession rules. Madam Blackbull insisted that all of them should be prepared to write a proper will and understand its power.

"I do understand that it is hard for a young group such as yourselves to think about your own deaths but, such a thing often comes unannounced and could tear a previously united family into shreds of hatred if not properly discussed and written in front of a trusted witness."

She hammered into them the importance of preparing for their own deaths for a long time before switching to the next topic, the death of others.

Since most of it was referring to things she had just mentioned, this part was somewhat easier to follow. However, this second part of the cla.s.s was mostly addressed to the girls so Emp and the other boys felt a bit out of place.

Worse, since Emp had mentioned that Chase had a lover, Willow was used as an example for the cla.s.s despite the fact that no one knew her or even just her name.

Blackbull had not failed to notice that the dead had been on his first hunt and had a lover anyway, a thing she had urged the girls here to avoid many times. Since she had been in a similar situation before, she explained in detail what, in her opinion, would be the best course of action for Willow.

It was the shocking loss of her husband-to-be that had made her into who she was today. Emp wondered if Willow would turn into a bitter old woman from the sadness too.

He hoped not but at the same time, he understood that if he was Blackbull, he would probably be very angry to see others make the same mistake she did.

Blackbull explained that in a case like Willow's the most sensible thing to do would be to find a new partner, despite the pain. It would take a while to get over his death but she wasn't married to him yet and she had her whole life in front of her still.

Things would be entirely different if she was pregnant. The teacher used the hypothetical situation of the girl being pregnant to explain how much harder to deal with such a situation would be.

Her main point of concern was that not all men would be willing to take in a girl if she came with a child that didn't belong to him. That child would have to be raised by him and the hard work of that man would serve to pay for his needs. The difficulty of finding a husband for themselves would be much higher.

If she failed, she would have to raise the child herself, without the support of any sister-wives. With a newborn to take care of, many kind of jobs would be undoable, further raising the hards.h.i.+p of the new mother.

When a true husband died, the wives would band together to take care of all the kids and each contribute to the survival of their family, a luxury that an unwed lover wouldn't have.

Even when a man had a single wife, he would have a business to pa.s.s on to her in the event of his death. It was usual and expected of a husband to show the ropes of his work to both his wives and kids. A typical widow could then often boast of knowing the workings of her husband's job but also her father's.

A boy dying on his first hunt had no work experience, no established job, no savings to leave behind.

This really was a depressing cla.s.s to attend to. When it was finally over, Blackbull got into a more hopeful subject but threw every guys out of the room first.

"You will be fathers too one day, if you know the tricks, they will be pointless." The teacher said.

Emp was pretty sure that those secret techniques to convince their parents that the girl's choice was the best must not have been that hard to guess or identify. It would probably be obvious to see so it was pointless to hide them from them.

On the other hand, maybe being released early and not having to listen to all of that was a good thing.

Freed from this, he walked back to his room with Celtine who started a conversation with him.

Emp didn't really know what she meant behind those words, he chose to ask how they did in her tribe instead.

"Doesn't your tribe do that as well?"

(1)

"I do not know either of those pain and I do not know the pain of losing wings."

He did not know how else to answer her, he still had no idea what she meant to say.

She followed.

"I do not know. I do not know what it feels like or how I would react."

Emp pondered about it for some time but did not manage to come to any sort of constructive thoughts or conclusion about any of it. What did she even mean?

He was much more concerned about how to keep those he knew safe and his thoughts drifted back in that direction soon enough.

Later that day, he found a moment to speak with Aglaya. He still remembered what she had told him about fears and now knew what to answer her.

"I know what I'm afraid of now."

"Really? What is it?" She asked, curious.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to help those close to me when comes a time they really need me."

"That's not a fun fear to share at all... I understand what you mean and it's a n.o.ble sounding fear but... Isn't that true for everyone?"

"Maybe, but at least for now, this is the only thing I truly fear."

***

In the cla.s.sroom

"So, now that the boys are out of here, let's talk about how to get the one you want."

The girls leaned forward in antic.i.p.ation. Even if they didn't have any feelings for anyone yet, they were eager to hear about those tricks. Who didn't have some fantasy of the perfect meeting at some point? If they repeated the scene and included the tricks of madam Blackbull, maybe they would one day come true.

Most of the girls present here weren't supposed to have the choice of who would be their husband, getting told by the teacher that she could help with that was very inspiring. Only Rica didn't really care about the subject, she had already found love after all.

"The main thing to remember is that there are only two types of fathers, those who are very proud of their daughter and want the best for them and those that want to gain some advantage using them. Sometimes, it's a mix of both. Luckily for us, the solution is the same."

"What do you mean?" Asked Josseline, she didn't recognize her own father in either of the categories.

"The first kind of father loves their daughters too much, they want to be sure they will be happy and more often than not, they feel that they know better than us who would make a good husband. They feel they can understand other men and their objectives better than a girl and often feel like they have to step in and choose for us to protect us from worthless seducers and unworthy men. Your father miss Josseline would be in this category, except that luckily for you, he felt you were the best to know what you wanted.

The second type is the kind of man who wants more power or prestige. The kind of man who wants to make sure that the rest of his family's life will be improved rather than just wanting the happiness of his daughter. I often heard things like: If I can preserve the peace of this place with just a single daughter than it's worth it. I do not mean to say that they do not care about us, some of them do, I have no doubt but, rather than that, they place everything on a scale and conclude that the best course of action for everyone would be for them to chose in our stead. They would probably not throw their daughters in despair this way but, an unhappy marriage and a lifetime of prosperity for the whole family is better for them than a happy marriage in poverty. Do you understand what I mean now?"

Most of the girls nodded. There wasn't just one of them who heard before "I am choosing for your sake, you will see, I will find you the best!". They had good intentions but what the girls wanted was the choice.

"You said the solution was the same for both but what is it?" Asked Vanessa.

"It's simple really." The old lady told them with a warm smile.

"All you have to do is convince them that the one you want is an objectively better choice."

The girls frowned and moaned, how were they supposed to do that? Brenia snorted and just leaned back against her chair. This was pointless to her as well, her father had no power over her, she would do what she pleased. She was only there because she found the reactions of these n.o.ble girls amusing.

"How do we do that!" Complained Heida "My father won't listen to anything I say."

Many girls agreed.

"That is another important thing, if you go to them directly to argue, they will feel like your judgement is clouded by that sweet feeling of love. As they say, hunger makes a man go crazy, love makes a nation go crazy. To convince them, you have to present them your chosen man without actually showing any emotion towards him, preferably, you shouldn't be the one to introduce him to them either."

"How does that work?" Asked the girls. "How do we present someone without presenting him?"

"You have to first find out the strengths and good points of your chosen man. It should be easy if you have sentiments for him. Then, you need to create situations that would make those qualities s.h.i.+ne in front of your father. For example, if the one you love is a great swordsman, how about holding a fencing tournament? If your father is looking for more soldiers to protect his land, how about making sure he learns of the troops your man commands? You have to show him that whatever points he want your future husband to have, the one you want has it and more."

"What if the guy we love have nothing?" Asked Juniper.

All her father was likely to want was to make sure it would bring him more money, Juniper did not have anyone in mind but it was unlikely anyone she found would bring in any worthwhile benefit to the merchant.

"Then I would say you chose poorly but this isn't often the case. Especially for very high ranking n.o.bles, the list of suitable match in the head of your fathers might be extremely limited. They would not want their daughter to marry someone too below them in ranking, that would be unsightly and they would fear that he married you only to gain standing. A high n.o.ble girl might find the best man she could dream for but if his rank is too low than things become much harder."

"What do we have to do then?" Mable said, a bit confused by all this.

"At that point, it really depends on the value of the one you chose. Is he a peerless warrior? The best cook in the land? What can he bring to honor your family that no one else could?"

"With the way Emp keeps getting stronger it will be easy for you. By the time he leaves this school, no one will be able to beat him." Vanessa told Mable.

"Wha!? It's got nothing to do with him! I was just asking! Don't say that out loud, it's embarra.s.sing! He just our friend right Aglaya?" She cried out with her arms raised in the air in defense.

"Is that the case?" Aglaya answered mischievously.

"Yes... wait, you're supposed to be on my side! Why are you teasing me, meanie! I don't want to be married yet, marriage is no fun, I'm not done having fun."

Blackbull shook her head at their nonsense and soon followed her lesson.

***

"Hi, what a surprisingly delightful encounter. Did you enjoy the new year celebration of the school?"

...

"Yes, indeed, it's me, I met all of you that day. I must say, you seemed much more resplendent than any of them at the time and seeing you again fills me with joy."

...

"Did my compliment bother you? I apologise, I did not mean to tarnish the beauty in front of me with my lowly words. I shall take my leave then."

...

"Nh? Your forgiveness fills me with joy. In that case, would you be willing to let me hear your name?"

...

"What an energetic sounding name, it is very fitting of your smile and countenance. I am still very busy for now but, if you are willing, I will show you my talents on our next chance meeting.

I hope so as well, I a.s.sure you, you will be impressed"

***

(1) I might have said something different about this in a previous chapter. I wanted to make sure I didn't contradict myself but I had no prior notes on this and couldn't find the reference I was looking for as I glanced at older chapters. If I did contradict myself, Let me know while it is still easy to change either of the two instances without breaking the whole story, thank you.