Chapter 4: Saving a princesses

While he was doing some quests for the adventurers guild, Lucas noticed a carriage being attacked by some ogres. Ogres were once part of the demon territory and were used mostly by demon army, but now they were reduced to a tribal clan based structure similar to orcs.

Lucas looked at the people fighting for a while and noticed that they were about to lose. He then decided to help them in a quick swoop. In a matter of seconds, all the ogres were defeated.

One guard pointed a sword at Lucas and said "Who are you? What is your business here?" Lucas simply answered "My name is Lucas Knave and when I saw you in trouble, I decided to drop by. Now that we are done here, I'll take my leave. Toodaloo." The guard tries to stop him, but Lucas just leaves so that he doesn't get into trouble with a noble.

Later that summer, Lucas received a request from the guild that was addressed to him. The receptionist didn't say it, but the seal of the request letter was from the royal family. Even if she did not say anything about it, the receptionist urged to fulfill this request as soon as possible. Lucas figured that there was more to the story than the receptionist would tell him, but he pressed on and went to the address he was told to go to.

The address where he had to go was in the noble district and he had to pass a gate. It was a bit difficult, but when he showed the letter that the client said to give the guard, the guard let him pass. The house seemed to be a mansion, which wasn't all that weird since Lucas was in the noble district. He didn't have any fancy clothes on him, so he changed his appearance to a more dignified look that wasn't too flashy but did the job.

The guard of the mansion asked "What are you here for?" To which Lucas answered "I have come to fulfill a request." The guard asked "Are you Lucas Knave?" And Lucas answered "Yes" while showing his guild card. A guild card can work as an ID if you don't have one. The guard looked at it and mumbled to himself "Only rank C" To which Lucas responded "That's what I was given." The guard then says "You may enter" and let Lucas pass the front gate. The guard then made a call with a device in his ear and Lucas went forward.

When Lucas knocked at the door, a butler opened the door and greeted Lucas with "Greetings Mr. Knave. We have been expecting you. Please follow me." Lucas did so and when he and the butler were in front of a door, the butler knocked at the door and said "He is here young lady." A voice came from the room "You may enter" and the butler opened the door.

Once inside, Lucas saw three young ladies sitting and drinking tea. One of them was the noble lady Lucressa who attended the practical exam the same time Lucas did. Lucressa seemed to be around 15 years of age, which is the minimum age required to be registered as an adventurer. She had long dark hair with green eyes.

Then a lady who had long pure white hair and blue eyes said to the butler "You may leave Maxwell" and the butler followed the order given and left the room while closing the door. The same lady seemed to be around the same age as Lucressa. She said "Thank you for coming here today Mr. Knave. My name is Victoria Ilnias. The first princess of Alnias kingdom. I believe you have already met my good friend Lucressa Rosset." Lucressa bows her head a bit and says "It is a honor to meet you again Mr. Knave."

Then Victoria continues "And this is my little sister Annerose Ilnias. The second princess of Alnias." Then Annerose, who had long blond hair and blue eyes, waved at Lucas and said "Hi. My name is Annerose Ilnias. Age 13 and without a fiance."

Lucas then bowed his head and said "It is a pleasure to meet you all. As you know, my name is Lucas Knave and I'm a rank C adventurer. My appearance might deceive you, but I'm in fact a demon."

Annerose then said excitedly "I knew you had to be a demon of some sort!" Victoria responded by saying "Didn't Lucressa already tell us that he was a demon." Annerose replied "I knew it the moment he came and rescued us. That is before Lucressa told us about Lucas." Victoria then said "Manners Annerose. Manners."

Lucas then gave a chuckle and this gained the ladies attention. Lucas then said "It's quite alright with me however you address me. I don't really mind." Victoria then said "But still. As princesses, we must have proper manners." Lucas said "Then how about when we are together like this, you all may address me as Lucas."

Annerose then said "I think that's a fair deal." Victoria was hesitant at first, but then Lucressa said to her "It is fine when no one else hears us. Just like you call me by my first name when we are together like this." Victoria then says in defeated voice "Fine. Let's go with that then."

Lucas then asks "Is the reason why you made an official request to get me to come here because you were on the carriage back then?" Victoria says "That's right. We would like to compensate for your trouble. The payment will be handled by the guild when you get back. But after that payment, we have a suggestion for you."

Lucas asks "Suggestion?" Victoria says "Would you like to work for Ilnias household?" Lucas asks "What would you need me to do?" Victoria says "You would do jobs under Ilnias name when the situation warrants it. You wouldn't work under adventurers guild anymore, but you would have to take guests that were allocated to Ilnias household."

Lucas thinks for a moment and then says "I think I pass on your offer." Victoria is surprised and asks "What made you reject my offer?" Lucas answers "Two reasons. One is that I have left the higher class stuff behind me. I do still carry my family name, but I don't plan on raising my status any more than it already is."

Victoria says "I see. I don't know your reason why you left all that behind, but I can't force you back. But if you continue as you are with the adventurer work, you might rise your status regardless." Lucas responds "That is something for me to deal with later."

Then Victoria asks "Then what about the second reason?" Lucas answers "The second reason is that I have made a promise to the principal of the Saint Diane's academy to be a teacher in the next years' classes. I don't want to take back a promise that I have made."

Annerose says "You are going to be a new teacher? The three of us are students in that academy so we will see you around there in the future. What classes are you teaching?" Lucas says "Most likely practical classes, some magic maybe and perhaps even some history. The history part is most questionable, but I won't be surprised if Lucy makes me do it."

All the girls are surprised and Victoria asks "Lucy? You mean Ms. Tyrp?" Lucas says "Oh right, I shouldn't call her that when I'm talking to others. Forget what I said. She will get mad at me if she finds out that I called her like that around others." Annerose says excitedly "You call Tyrp Lucy when you two are alone?! What kind of relationship do you two have?" Lucas says "We are just old friends. Well she did ask… nevermind, I don't want to cause any misunderstandings."

Annerose is excited and makes weird noises. Lucressa just tries to hold her own laughter and Victoria is facepalming as she is disappointed hearing her sister make those kinds of noises.

When Annerose calms down, Lucressa says to Lucas "I'm sorry about what happened in the adventurers guild." Lucas says "About nepotism? No worries. I didn't come to the adventurers guild to become famous anyways. Wait… I did plan to make a name for myself so that Luciana would take the letter more seriously, but it ended up not being necessary. Well if anything, I got more money by signing up to the guild for me to live on before I start to get a salary from my time in school. In any case, I didn't really mind the ranking system. What mattered at the time was that I could sell the dragon that I hunted."

The girls were surprised for a moment after hearing Lucas had defeated a dragon by himself, but then Victoria says "Well you did take care of those ogres in a blink of an eye so it should be expected of you to be able to hunt a dragon. But don't dragons usually need a party that consists of rank A members?" Lucressa responds "Depends on the dragon, but generally that is done by a group of rank A adventurers. Even people at rank S would have trouble taking on an adult dragon by themselves. They could probably do it by themselves, but it would be a tough fight."

Annerose then says "Then that means Lucas here is at the very least a rank S." Lucressa responds "My estimation is about the same."

Victoria then says "It is a shame that we don't get a person that has skills akin to a rank S adventurer to our house." Annerose says "It is a shame indeed, but in all honesty, he would have ended up being a decoration most of the time." Victoria responds with "Unfortunately that would have been the case. Nevertheless I would have liked our family to have him."

Lucas then bows a bit and says "You honor me with these kind words Victoria and Annerose." Annerose is confused and asks "What did I say?" Lucas answers with "You showed concern over me when you said that I would have ended up as a decoration." Annerose then says "Ah yes, of course. Why wouldn't I say that?"

Victoria stares at Annerose for a moment and then looks back at Lucas. Then she says "I think that you can leave now Lucas. Give your contact info to Maxwell so that we will be able to contact you if need be." Lucas says "As you wish" and starts to leave.

After he closes the door, Lucas hears Annerose say "I can't believe we will get a hottie teacher to our school." Lucressa comments by saying "He might still hear you, you know." Annerose then makes a weird noise that indicates that she got embarrassed.

Lucas then goes to speak to Maxwell and he exchanges his contact info and in turn, he receives his.

Later that summer, Lucas receives a call from Lucy saying that he should come meet the other teachers. Lucas knew that this was something he had to do someday, so he went to the academy.

Following Lucy's instructions, Lucas got to a classroom that consisted of around thirty people. There were two dwarves and six elves while not including Lucy. There also were two beastmen there, one woman that had cat ears and tail, the other was a man with wolf ears and tail. Rest of the teachers were humans.

Lucy started the meeting by saying "Now that we are all here, let's start this meeting. If you are wondering who the three new faces are, this year we will have three new teachers joining our ranks. I'll introduce you. Michael Stronof." A human man with blond hair and brown eyes raised his hand and said "Here." Lucy continued "He will be our new alchemy teacher. He also can teach history, but he can't teach anything fighting related." Then Michael says "It is a pleasure to meet you all."

Some people chatter a little with other teachers. I seem to be mainly positive.

Then Lucy says "Next is Logan." Then the beastman that had wolf ears and tail raises his hand and says in a deep voice "Here." He has short dark hair with brown eyes. Lucy continued "He will be our new swordsmanship teacher. He is a former mercenary from Lugsen so he might know about how things work there and some history of the place." Logan then says "I might not be bright in terms of books, but I am confident about my swordsmanship."

Then there was some chatter that was mostly neutral. Some comments about the fact that he wasn't a noble were said by some snobby teachers. Lucas heard a comment "As long as he knows his place, then we won't have any problems." Lucas was not impressed by those comments since he could sense that Logan had such a strong aura that would make Lucas act seriously.

Then Lucy said "Last but certainly not least we have an old friend of mine. Lucas Knave." Lucas raised his hand and said "Here." Lucy continued "He is a demon who once lived in the time when the demon king of abomination Legul was on the throne. Thanks to that knowledge, he may be able to give some insight on demon history if need be. He also excels in magic and swordsmanship, so he can teach those as well. Even if he can teach those, he will mostly act as a practical. He will be the new homeroom teacher for class 3B as the professor Hawk retired. He also knows a lot about the art of war, so if you feel like another perspective is in order, be sure to ask him about it." Lucas then said "I think you went a little overboard Luciana. Anyways, my name is Lucas Knave and I hope we all will get along."

Some chatter comes from the teachers again. Some positive comments were "Did Ms. Tyrp say that he is an old friend of hers? He must be quite impressive then." and "Ms. Tyrp sure has a lot of trust in him. I might come and see one of his lectures." Some negatives were "And now we have a demon in our ranks. How wonderful." and "I hope this doesn't stain the academy's name."

Then Lucy said "Now that the new teachers have been introduced, let's get to other matters." Lucy talks about the academy rules and some minor changes. Then she talks about other matters a bit. And the last topic was about the drug that was being spread around. Lucy said "As we all know, there have been notices of an illegal substance known as "demon dust" circulating in the kingdom for around four months now. We had some minor incidents with this drug at the end of the last year so we must stay sharp on this matter. I'm sure it doesn't need to be said, but if you suspect that a student or another teacher has grown stronger too fast in any sense of the word, then be sure to make them take a test to see if they have been using it or not. It is a simple aura test where the person touches a crystal ball and emits some of their aura to it. If it turns green or purple then there is a possibility that they have been using it. After that, bring the person to me and I will check it personally. Only I can make the final judgment in the academy grounds. Outside it is the knights pro… I mean duty. Stay vigilant. Dismissed."

After Lucy dismissed them, the teachers started chatting amongst themselves. The new teachers seemed to be welcomed by the older ones and even Lucas got some people talking to him. Nothing important was said while they were talking. After the crowd started to disperse, Logan and Michael came to chat with Lucas as well.

Michael seemed like a kind hearted fellow who might be a little weird if he gets too into alchemy.

Logan seemed to sense that Lucas had a good fighting spirit in him, so he asked to spar with him to which Lucas agreed. The only condition Lucas had was that they would do it infront of students one day to show what two experienced swordsmen can do. Logan agreed and the two shook hands.