Chapter 5: An Unexpected Meeting
"Please… rest." Bailey muttered as he laid face down in the dirt, a day had passed since he'd come to the camp with the rest of his group – today had been the start of his training.
Bailey was a delicate man, to say the least, he'd never once trained himself physically because it had been too boring and tedious and yet now here he was both physically and mentally exhausted.
Although physically the pain had faded in almost seconds; mentally he was exhausted. It seemed light Elementa only worked on physical fatigue but not mental.
'At least I'm discovering the limits of my Elementa…' He thought silently as he began to push himself up from the floor, dirt covered his clothes and face.
"Do you want to die?" A calm voice came from above him, he looked up to see the instructor glaring at him – he shivered when he noticed the cold look in her eyes.
"No ma'am" He replied curtly, keeping his head down, not daring to look her in the eyes.
'This woman is the devil himself.' He shivered thinking back to the last six hours, he'd collapsed numerous times but had always got back up for fear of angering this woman and finding his head flying from the comfort of his neck.
His pleas had been met by a cold silence every single time, all he could do was get up and continue for his own safety.
Unfortunately, this was only day one of the next six days he would suffer under her command.
"It's the Prince! The Prince is here!" A crowd gathered near the opening gates of the camp, "That concludes our training session for today," The instructor said hurriedly before quickly making an escape to the gathering crowd.
"If anyone's late I'll skin them alive!" She didn't forget to leave some final words before disappearing from sight, Bailey was certain that was aimed at him more than anyone else.
Bailey glanced at the crowd gathering at the gates before sighing and turning to walk back to his tent.
…
Crown Prince Lewis Matthew Keilan – the only son of the current Emperor Luke Alexander Keilan. A brilliant strategist and wise leader at the young age of eighteen had arrived at the continents central camp to direct the defence.
"My Prince." The gathering crowd kneeled as him and his guards rode in through the gates of the camp, Lewis simply nodded at a few of the commanders he had met prior before riding off towards the command tent.
"My Lord, I have no idea how you managed to convince your father to let you come to the frontline let alone command the army!" One of his bodyguards looked at him in awe, to him the prince was an untouchable existence that always seemed to be one step ahead no matter how far you walked.
At a young age he had already become a Fourth Level Elementa Wielder and was leading a defence camp, it was simply unimaginable to other people.
"I simply told him I wouldn't go into the battlefield directly and would take control of the troops from the camp, which seemed to calm him down considerably."
Lewis chuckled remembering the conversation he'd had with his father, it'd been far easier to convince him than he'd thought it'd be.
Of course, he had no intention of obeying the condition of remaining in the camp, this was a day he'd dreamed of since he was little.
To lead humanity as his grandfather once had, it was a dream he'd held in his heart for many years.
'I have the secret power of our family anyway? Why should I be scared of a few beasts, they'll simply die before my sword.' He thought to himself, catching himself in his own fantasy.
One called call his personality both his advantage and disadvantage. The Prince treated all as his equals and spoke even with commoners on equal grounds yet in his heart he held lofty ambitions which were easily manipulated by the many officials around him.
Once he'd stormed the home of a noble simply because another noble had 'accidentally' let slip that they were the leader of a child trafficking organisation.
Of course the news turned out to be false yet the prince simply forgave the noble that'd given him the fake news and apologised to the noble who he'd falsely imprisoned. He was truly an intelligent person yet he too easily trusted in the words of others.
"Hmm?" The Prince felt an abnormally strong energy as he passed the tents of the common soldiers, it was like a sun, and he felt the Chaos Elementa in his own body try to escape towards the source.
It was something he'd never experienced before, the Chaos Elementa kept mimicking Light Elementa as it tried to rush towards the source, 'What the hell?'
Since the day he'd first received the power of Elementa from his grandfathers' guidance this was the first time something like this had happened, it was like a magnet and his own Elementa a piece of metal attracted to the source.
"Wait here." He said to the guards abruptly, suddenly forcing the horse to a stop, jumping off he moved in the direction of the attracting force.
Fortunately, it wasn't painful and was only slightly uncomfortable or else there really would've been a problem.
Lewis had no intention of getting rid of the thing that was causing this reaction in fact he was already thinking of how to use it in his war plan, the possibilities were endless if he'd judged how great the power was accurately.
As he walked through the crowds of tents people began to kneel as they recognised him making him slightly uncomfortable.
He'd always felt that humans were equal to one another due to his grandfather.
One mans' life isn't greater than the others just because of his status.
His own clan hadn't been noble or even a kingdom, to any other continent they had been simple commoners but they'd managed to conquer the world.
He'd only allowed those at the gate to kneel to keep up appearances, it was a tactic his father had taught him to raise morale among the soldiers – show that a person that's competent and respected is in command and they'll be more willing to follow your orders, or so his father had told him, he had no idea how effective this was in reality.
Before long the energy in his body was going crazy as he got closer to the source, it was coming from a tent near the wooden palisades of the camp, a soft snoring sound came from within much to the surprise of Lewis.
'Is he doing this subconsciously?' He thought, astonished that this sort of power could come from a normal soldier, 'this just proves that all humans are equal, just because I've trained hard and I've been assisted by grandfather since I was a child doesn't mean a common soldier can't be my peer or equal.'
Lewis was excited as he grabbed towards the flaps of the tent, opening them to look inside – a boy seemingly his own age was soundly snoring inside, a look of satisfaction on his face.
Naturally, this boy was Bailey who'd collapsed the moment he'd gotten back to his tent, feeling a breeze of cold air rush into the tent with the open flap he slowly began to stir from his sleep as the coldness stabbed his skin.
"What the?-"He opened his eyes to see Lewis staring right back at him, terrified he shouted in surprise.
As he shouted the light Elementa in his body that'd been circulating autonomously since he'd fell asleep sped up to its normal speed.
The prince instantly felt this change as pain coursed through his body – it was as if something was trying to tear its way out of his body.
"Stop!" He screamed in agony as he looked at Bailey, Bailey was puzzled but quickly realised what he was talking about, he could feel his own Elementa trying to absorb the Elementa of the intruder and quickly stopped its movement.
Lewis collapsed, his clothes had become sweaty from the intense pain he'd experienced just seconds before, "T-thank you." He said as he trembled.
He extended his hand towards Bailey, "L-lewis." Still confused Bailey took it thoughtlessly, "Bailey, nice to meet you?"
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