1 Chapter 1 - Captain, Prince, and Student?

"Captain! The Island of Academia is in view now!" The young subordinate called out from the bow of the caravel they were using. The subordinate in question was a lizardfolk not native to the Pirate Kingdom of Ires where the captain was from. They were originally from what is often referred to as the Eastern Continent, the slavery continent, or the Disaster Lands.

"Your Highness, are you positive they won't turn us away at the port?" Another of his subordinates asked the young captain. This subordinate was a Fox-Kin, their kind were also originally from the Disaster Lands. Both of their tribes and many other tribes had been migrating out of the Disaster Lands for the last fifteen years.

"I am positive Hissulk, my father signed the agreement with Islands of Eternus over three years ago. Not to mention we have a seaside villa where you all will be staying and that my elder sister is already in her third year at Eternus Academy. Now ready our men, I want all hands on deck for when we arrive at the private dock of the villa." The young captain had a bright look of eagerness on his face and a sly smile that made others feel he was up to something.

The young captain stepped into the ship and his private quarters. He retrieved his satchel, a duffel bag that was filled with clothes, and hung his Sabre on his hip. Then he proceeded to place several items such as maps and books that were lying out into the satchel. He only stopped to look over the Eternus Academy letter for a moment before he tucked it in his satchel nicely. As he turned to the door he suddenly remembered something and walked over to his bed and lifted the pillow and retrieved his knife and the pouch of coins that were hidden under the pillow.

As he walked out of the captain's quarters it was visible that they were noticeably closer to the shore. In fact there was a small sailing vessel flying a Eternus flag and an Academia Island flag under it. The Eternus was of a red fox on a white cloth with a black 'X' behind it. The Academia Island flag was a green book, a white bow, a red sword, and a gray quill on a black background. The small vessel looked to be only holding six people, but it was unclear why they were coming towards them.

"Your Highness, we are coming up on an Academia Island patrol ship. What would you like us to do?" Hissulk asked. He was actually the prince's second-in-command. His orange fur was flowing and eye-catching. At least it usually was, three weeks at sea made his untended fur knot and become covered in grime.

"Keep on our destination, they know they have no right to stop us. Maquia should know the way to the villa and the procedures. She went here when my sister first came here." The Prince's voice flowed easily as he set down his bags on the ground by the door leading to the inside of the ship.

He then walked forward and stared down the approaching patrol ship. Joining Acaus the lizardfolk watchman. Acaus was another subordinate that would become a long-time friend. He had scales that were a mix of green and brown but were at the moment lacking their shine because of their time on the sea.

"Hmm… what do you think? A problem causer or an actual problem?" Acaus asked as the Prince stopped next to him.

"Have we received a Parrot Message?" The Prince asked. A Parrot Message was the popular method of communicating a message in the Pirate Kingdom. It needed a unique bird that was native to Ires, the grouping of tropical islands that made up the Pirate Kingdom. The bird was used because it had a unique teleportation ability and mimicry ability, after a spell was used to contract the bird as a familiar it could be used to do complex tasks. For example, delivering messages over long distances. It was also the reason the Pirate Kingdom was able to easily contend with other countries.

"No, sir."

"Then I am guessing it will be something stupid." The Prince let out a chuckle but he frowned as the patrol ship got closer. At this point the people on the shore were visible and he could see that there were quite a few gawkers. From what his sister told him, the people of the Pirate Kingdom were popular because of their resilience and tenacity. Not to mention they were one of the few countries that were all-inclusive of all races. Well aside from the Islands of Eternus. "Hoh? Acaus do you see what I see?"

Acaus frowned as he looked closer before he suddenly sighed, "haaa… I will prepare the men for a fight." He then backed away just as the patrol ship came within speaking range.

"People of Ires-" The Prince immediately frowned, the way he was just addressed was typical of the soldiers of the Bludgael Empire since they did not recognize the Pirate Kingdom as a nation. "As of this moment the Eternus Islands do not recognize the Pirate Kingdom nor it's King's sovereignty therefore-"

"Hey! Before you continue!" The Prince still had the mischievous smile on his lips as he waved at the imposters that were wearing Eternus armor. "You should really check behind you."

The imposter looked behind them and saw several patrol ships approaching their position. He frowned as he turned back towards the young man, "they are just our reinforcements to rid our seas of-"

"HAHAHAHA!" The Prince let out a roar of laughter that echoed across the water, catching the imposter off guard, "those 'reinforcements' are flying a black flag if you couldn't tell." The imposter frowned at the Prince's statement. "Now you might not know this since your country doesn't recognize the Pirate Kingdom's sovereignty but we helped the Islands of Eternus set up their flag system. So we know that flag means an emergency situation and since you are not flying it it means you are not part of the Eternus Islands and most certainly not part of their chain of command!" The Prince let out another roar of laughter as the imposters pulled out their simple muskets and crossbows and fired at the Prince.

The Prince dodged to the side only stopping his laughter for a moment. "Feel free to open fire, boys!" The Prince called out and a moment later there was a simultaneous roar of musket fire.

The Prince peaked out from behind the barrel he hid behind to see the small patrol ship was filled with divots and holes from the musket balls. He nodded as he stood up. Then one of his crew members walked up to him. She was a human like him, "Your Highness, I would appreciate it if you would use a genderless exclamation instead of just saying 'boys', after all some of us are not 'boys'."

The Prince gave a weak smile and chuckle in response as he scratched the back of his head as he responded, "my bad Inquisitorial Marquia. It was kind of in the heat of the moment."

Marquia nodded in response, "as long as you know." She then walked away as the Prince looked back over to patrol ships.

"Keep us going to our destination, I am worried about whether this is a coordinated attack or a solitary one." The Prince walked back to his bags. It would only take them another ten minutes to arrive at their villa, the winds were in their favor today.

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Even without anyone saying anything he knew it was a coordinated attack. Not because of the fire nor the smoke that appeared to be on the other side of the villa but because of the echoing laughter of his sister that sent shivers down his spine.

"Damnit, this is what I was worried about." The Prince jumped onto the dock with his bags in hand as soon as the ship was close enough. As he walked along the dock the villa's assigned butler was standing at the end, he gave a slight bow as the Prince approached.

The butler was a Wolf-Man species, he was dressed in formal attire typical of a butler with a suit and tie. But he lacked shoes and his braided chin and head hair were two of the things that gave away he was not the typical butler. The thing that really gave him away was the eyepatch and facial scar. He was one of the King's leading admirals around five years ago, but had since retired to be a villa butler.

"Jarl, take my bags to my room. I am guessing no one has tried to stop my sister before she burns down the villa?" The Prince handed Jarl the butler his duffel and satchel bag.

"Not to worry sir. I decided to instead have the servants ready buckets of water instead, because I knew you were arriving soon." Jarl let out as he chuckled.

The Prince walked in through the back door of the villa and only quickly made his way through the building until he was outside the front door. As expected his sister was standing on top of a small pile made up of debris and corpses laughing like a maniac. The debris appeared to be wooden carts that had been smashed to pieces and were now on fire.

He could only shake his head in exasperation. Then he walked up to the side of the pile and called out, "Big Sis!" His words had an immediate effect as the red haired woman looked over to the Prince with a surprised look.

That look changed quickly to happiness as she jumped towards the Prince and hugged him. The Prince caught his sister as he sighed, "and here I was worried you would burn down the house before I got you to calm down. What happened to put you in a state of Rage?"

Rage was a natural ability that his sister possessed, it is possible to inherit it and also not inherit it. For instance, his sister and father have it but he does not. A good indicator for whether one of their family members can go into a state of Rage is if they have burning crimson hair.

His sister was taller than most other nineteen year olds her age, as well as filled out in muscles. Even now the Prince could feel his sisters' various flexing muscles as she hugged him. The only thing stopping him from feeling her six pack of abdominal muscles was her sizable breasts. She had on her leather armor at the moment with her rapier at her side.

"Baby Bro! I am so glad you are safe! They told me they killed you! How stupid, I should have known you can't die that easily." His sister then picked him up and carried him to the house, "anyways I will send a message to the academy to tell them what happened, luckily you arrived early so there are still four days before the first years have to go through orientation week."

"Thanks for the compliment Anne, you should also let them know that it was the Bludgael Empire. They addressed us as 'people of Ires'. I am guessing they finally declared war on our kingdom, I am sure father is having the time of his life right now." The Prince just accepted that he was being carried, he learned long ago that it was pointless to resist his muscle headed sister. It was a wonder how she could use a rapier with this much raw power.

"Hmm… okay, I will pass on your message. I am sure this also means my mother will start having fun setting up blockades and trade wars. While yours will get a plethora of locations to raid." Anne frowned as she dragged him into the living room and set him down.

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Meanwhile, near an outpost tower of the Pirate Kingdom located nearest to the Bludgael Empire. A ship captain sighed as he looked through the scope at a red haired pirate with braided hair and a braided beard who let out bellowing laughter while he stood on top of a stack of thirty burning Bludgael Empire warships.

"I am glad our king is strong, but I really wish he would let us fight ship-to-ship in situations like this." The captain sighed as he closed the scope, "oh well. Come on ladies and gents! Time to raid Bludgael of its resources!"

"YAAAHH!" There was a thunderous roar of agreement from his ship and all the other twenty warships. It was deafening.

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"Yeah I imagine it is something like that. They really should have learned their lesson by now. Anyways, this whole assassination thing is new. We have never had that happen before." The Prince stated as he followed his sister to a sitting area and sat down on the couch.

"Ah, actually that is normal on this island. It is rare but assassination attempts outside of the academy grounds are possible. But it was a surprise they wore Eternus armor, that will definitely piss off the chairwoman and the Eternus Council." Marianne Unes Ires, or Anne as she preferred, signaled Jarl to come over. "Jarl get me my Parrot Messenger."

As Jarl stepped away Anne turned back to him, "okay, so let me remind you about a few things about the academy, Vander." She then nodded to a maid who brought over a notebook. "For the first week you will be doing orientation. This notebook arrived to help you take notes on those orientation lectures. Then after you will be picking your classes, please for the love of god pick carefully. I saw quite a few kids in my first year here who had problems because they half-assed it from the start."

"Got it, I assume that is not the only thing." Van, or Alivander Des Ires, nodded in understanding as he accepted the notebook from the maid.

"Yup, I am sure you know the rest. But just in case I will remind you. Since you are signed up for a combat based course you will live on campus in dorms for the first two years. As well you will be in a squad of six when you venture out on tasks for your combat class. I suggest you also delegate tasks like cooking and hunting ahead of time." Anne was clearly speaking from experience, apparently her squad spent the first day yelling at each other on the beach and that killed their score.

"Got it, I assume aside from my two elective courses the other four are going to be from my required courses?" Van asked as he started to remember what the letter said, "that means I can pick four of those eight starter courses?"

"Yup, fortunately there are only fifteen required classes you have to do. Then when you get to your third year like I am you get the chance to either internship, apprentice, or adventure." Anne had a smug look on her face as she stated it proudly. "But for now you should focus on the four starter classes. If you need help just ask. I won't be staying in the dorms anymore but I will still be on the same island."

Van leaned back in his chair and sighed, "I will keep that in mind." Then after a moment of silence he turned back to her, "so you got anything fun to kill time until orientation day?"

Anne gave him an evil grin.