章 9: A new era has begun
Empirical year 89
Kinoya was moving through the corridor avoiding as much gaze as possible. It wasn't crowded but most of the people here were teens or older. It was natural for 7 years old to attract a lot of attention, but they got accustomed to seeing this child here by the last 1 year. It is the library Arviga academy.
It was not just any library, and not all the students could enter here, but with the military scholarship, he could move through many of the places. And with the badge of the Moon general, there were very few who could bar his path.
But excessive use of the Moon Legion batch had its side-effect. There was a rumour floating about a bastard child of Moon general. But Kinoya couldn't care less.
Two-star general or not, that guy cheated him. To enter the academy they had to go through the status check. And it let the cat out of the bag.
There were very few people who could compete with him. The average stats for a common man was 20, and 60 was the threshold for entering the military. That was right but that will be calculated at the age of 14, not at 6. And during his growth phase even sleeping will get his stats over 60.
Due to the disaster on the recruitment day, he had no chance to meet the representative of the mage academy or the magic knight academy. So all he could do was to wait.
But the matter regarding the Mage Academy angered him most. The general didn't say that I will be eligible for the Mage Academy. Even the high threshold of 200 of Crownen magic academy of capital wouldn't be a problem if I study hard. By one year his intelligence increased to 82. And the recruitment of the academy will be at the age of 16.
Well, there was a monster like Bable of his orphanage who had the intelligence of a whopping 122 at last year, this year it increased to 139. It was quite natural that he was chosen to be a mage.
"Look, if it wasn't the future Moon general." A mocking voice broke his train of thought.
After his performance of the day of the invasion, the Moon general promised him that after he completed the military training he will be directly recruited as a sergeant, a leader of 10 man squad.
And somehow the news leaked and the rumour got weird. Right now it stood for 'Whoever will beat Kinoya in a game of military chess will get the badge and the position in the moon legion'. Sometimes Kinoya felt that it might be the general who had intentionally spread the rumour.
"Are you avoiding me?" The one to speak was the son of one of the 2 nobles in the City of Arviga.
"How can I dare to do that, esteemed sir?" Kinoya said to the 12 years old boy.
"I am here to challenge you." Though the boy said that, Kinoya knew perfectly well that it would be one whom he had hired to beat Kinoya.
'Talking won't take me anywhere.' Kinoya smiled and said, "Sir please lead the way." He was interested to see who it will be this time.
Military chess was not much different from chess on Earth. It just has 16x16 board and the choice of selecting 14 pieces, leaving 16 standard infantry and one emperor and general pieces. The choice should be done from, cavalry, archers, mages, magic warriors and naval pieces never taking any more than 4 of the same pieces.
But what surprised Kinoya most was the one sitting across the board. It was the genius of the academy over 350 intelligence stat point. He would be 15 years old soon and will be leaving for the Crownen magic academy under the sponsorship of the lord of the city. Naturally, Kinoya had his list of people who he should avoid but…
But Kinoya was excited for a different reason. He wanted to know what does the stats represent, somehow he felt there is more than meets the eye. None of the explanation of the academy teacher satisfied his curiosity. So he did his experiment.
"If the defeat comes at the hand of esteemed genius, then be it." He is a child and with the previous experience, he was pretty sure that flattery could save him a lot of effort.
"Are you mocking him?" a girl's voice sounded from the side of the genius.
'That is what I am talking about. If it is the intelligence then how a genius with 350 stat point couldn't understand it, where a 10-year-old girl hit the perfect mark.'
"Sorry esteemed Marchioness, I didn't see you." Kinoya stood up and gave a full bow to the girl.
"What have you done if you had seen me before?" The girl of only duke family of the Arviga, who was also the lord of the city. The little Marchioness frowned, "You act too much."
The edge of his lips twitched but Kinoya looked down with a smile. He sat down again as he arranged his pieces. But as soon as he started playing he felt it couldn't be more disheartening.
He employed two strategies at the same time. 'The hit and run' using the 3 cavalry pieces and 'The bait' using the 2 archers and 1 mage piece. The emperor of the so-called genius was sacked in 48 moves.
The whole hall was silent. But, "One more."
'It looks like the genius couldn't take the loss well'. Kinoya started again with a nod. To be fair he chose the side first. And the result was the same but Kinoya acted as he had won by a small margin.
Unfortunately for Kinoya, the game ignited the fighting spirit of the genius. In continued for 4 more rounds.
"One more" the genius almost instinctively said.
"Some people don't know where their limit is," Kinoya muttered below the breath, only to find out the little Marchioness staring at him with a shocked expression.
'Can she even hear that?' Kinoya quickly avoided the gaze to arrange the board again.
8 moves, only 8 moves were all he took to crush the genius. Even before others could say anything Kinoya stood up from the spot and bowed to little Marchioness, "Esteemed Marchioness, I will take my leave." and left the room in a hurry. Looking at the leaving back of Kinoya the little girl frowned but didn't respond.
By the next morning a new rumour float around the academy. "Whoever will able to beat Little Moon general in a game of military chess, will be awarded 30 gold coins." And the report came from the house of Duke.
"What have I done to you, little Marchioness?" Kinoya couldn't help but shout out in his tears.
People interpreted it another way to confirm Kinoya is the illegitimate son of the Moon General, as he was addressed as Little Moon General. Right at that moment a fear for little Marchioness born in the heart of Kinoya.
Empirical year 90
'Isn't it too crowded'? Kinoya was moving through the crowd. And he soon found the reason.
There was a flag in the middle of the square. The flag had a snow peak mountain, with a wand and a scimitar cross in front of it. The emperor's flag.
"Emperor Decree" Someone thundered from the beneath the flag. In a moment the whole square was on their knees, except the man under the flag.
"On the auspicious night of next Union, the 17th day of 10th month of the 90th empirical year, The Rearing Emperor, Tsar Vader will step down from the throne, ending the prosperous era of the Great rearing emperor…" And he continued for quite some time expressing the greatness of the emperor.
Kinoya didn't know about anything else but he knew that it was this very emperor who started orphanage fare, which was directly given from the imperial treasury.
"The esteemed son of Crownen, Kaiser Macht, The crown prince of the empire, will become known as 'The Strongest Emperor'…" And the decree went on for quite a long time. Kinoya ran away from the square by the first chance he got.
'How can father and son have a different name?' By Kinoya's standard, the naming sense of the world is peculiar. His name is Kinoya Arviga. And Arviga is the name of the city. By their standard, the orphan will be named after the city they are brought up at.
"Where are you going?" The voice of the world took him back.
"Little Marchioness, I am going…" his word was cut short by the slap on his head from the Little Marchioness. She raged "I told you to call me, sister."
It all started by the rumour she spread. She came back on the very next day with 2 people to beat him, this happened every day for 2 months straight. Until he burst into tears, was ready to give the Moon general badge to Little Marchioness. At that moment the little girl burst into laughter and commanded: "From now on you will call me big sister." And his peaceful days were over with it.
"Sister, I have something to ask you."
"About the emperor?" As soon as Kinoya nodded she dragged him away to her private room. "What do you want to know?"
"The name like 'The rearing emperor' or 'the strongest emperor' who gave such kind of name? Isn't that a little inappropriate to call someone strongest who didn't even become the emperor yet?"
"You are an idiot. Those names were decided by 'The Shrine of Forefathers'. They control the flow of fate of the empire."
"Who are they? Oracles?" He had learned about many peculiar things about the world. Magic is possible here, dragon, the beast-man even demons live here why can't there be an oracle? Who would have known he was almost right.
"Not Oracle but there are rumoured to be seers. Not just that after leaving the throne current emperor will ascend the Shrine of the forefathers too."
"Where is the shrine?" Kinoya couldn't help but become curious.
"It's a secret." The girl said in a hushed tone.
"This empire has too many secrets, The Protector Army, the Kankaku, Nine secret men now there is a shrine of forefathers."
The smile little Marchioness gave made Kinoya forget that the girl in front of it just 11 years old. "You can't tell others what I am going to tell."
'Well, she is a child after all.' Kinoya smiled and said, "Of course sister."
"You are mocking me right?" At the serious tone, all he could show was his puppy dog eyes. 'Well, being 8 years have its own advantages'
"Only all the hereditary nobles and the emperor knew about the position of 'the shrine of forefathers'. And it is 'The Protector army' that is controlled by the shrine."
"What about the other two?"
"I don't know about them." She said with innocence. "What tactics are you going to teach me today?"
This was the price for his freedom, every week he had to teach the little Marchioness about new chess moves. Rather than teaching new moves of chess sometimes, he teaches her about the formation of war.
"Today I am going to teach you the formation called 'Schiltron'. It is pure spearman formation. Though immobile, it is very effective against the cavalry charges. Actually what you have to do is…"
Kinoya didn't mind talking about the tactics of his old world, rather he was happy that he could remember them. As he decided to join the army remembering different strategies might come handy.
From the tactics, he learnt from these worlds history gave an idea of a few innovative formations, but he has to wait. Though he doesn't know what his first profession is but leading the troop is the only way for him to get the second profession. Otherwise, he will be stuck with [Apprentice General] title for his life.
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