"Children...Welcome to the real world..."

His words rang like a bell in Reece's ears, his heart began pounding and his face sweating profusely, Derrick who stood right next to him threw short glances with his side eye, he knew exactly why Reece was paranoid

"I, apologize...for not making my arrival known to any of you prestigious students today and I hope you forgive me, really, it's just that I decided from this year onward I would personally congratulate every graduating student of Magical Studies, as my daughter Valkori would be passing through here as well very shortly and I want to be well uhh... acquainted with the system"

It was very obvious that he didn't prepare any speech for this meeting and was just cooking up words on the spot

"The supremacy as we know it today, has been through so many trying times, so many wars, battles, conflicts, human on human, human on demon, back and forth for many, many!! hundreds of years and uhh, I want to let you all know that it wouldn't get any easier for any of you from here onwards, for those of you who do not belong to any highborn houses you'll most likely have to sign up for the Order of the red belts or whatever they're called in your respective homelands, if you choose to leave the Kingdom of Tremore"

Hector turned around and met Principal Alora with an irritated face "are they always this few or...?" He asked with a whisper, she shrugged her shoulders and pushed her lips out, implying that she had no idea either, he turned his attention back to the students with a big smile on his face

"Anyways, as I was saying..." he paused and squinted his eyes as he focused on Reece, who was twitching nervously and drenched in sweat, the whole arena became very tense as the king went silent, Alora looked back and forth at Hector and the students, very confused by his sudden behavior, the other students began to stare at Reece, as the noticed that the King was looking right at him

King Hector began to walk down the podium towards the students, Reece and Derrick knew they were done for, Derrick tried to pull himself together, keeping his eyes away from the King as much as he could, but Reece was literally about to piss himself, and each step closer that Hector took felt like a blow to the chest;

"This is it, if he does anything stupid, I'm going all out!!!, he's here!!!, he's almost here!!!, this is it, this is the end!!!...."

"Have we...met before?"

Reece's eyes widened, he didn't even realize that King Hector had walked right in front of him already, Hector looked up to his eyes as Reece was a few inches taller than the King who was already an impressive six feet tall

"What's the matter boy?, why are you so afraid, have we met before?" Hector asked him again with a low devilish voice, Reece's blue eyes were wide open and twitching rapidly, his breath uncontrollable

"You know it's punishable to leave your King unanswered child, have we met before?"

"No!!...no my lord!!" Reece blurted out

"My Lord?!!, do you not know who I am?!!"

"Your grace!!, your Highness!!!, I'm sorry, I'm very sorry!!, your grace!!!"

Hector kept on staring into his eyes, Reece was turning red at this point, Hector dropped his gaze down to Reece's chest, and Derrick began to tremble as well when he noticed, Hector slowly grabbed Reece's shirt by the neck

"Your Grace, what's going on?" Alora asked concerned, Hector didn't respond to her and looked back into Reece's eyes instead

"What are you...doing...Sir?"

"I'm taking off your shirt, why?" Hector answered so casually, Reece looked around himself, hoping someone would come to save him, anyone at all

"I don't think you should...do that... your...grace" he stammered, Hector smiled sinisterly,

"Well, if you've got nothing to hide then, it should be fine, right?..."

Reece didn't answer, his trembling and sweating intensified, Hector dropped his evil smile and put on a very serious face

"Right...?!"

Reece still didn't answer, Hector sighed and grabbed the shirt harder

"NOOO!!!" Reece screamed, Hector tore his shirt off his body instantly, Derrick and the other students jumped back, Hector took a few steps back as well and observed Reece's body, there was no demon mark, just a well toned muscular physique and six rock solid abs

Hector began to laugh histerically, Reece was panting with all his might, he glanced at Derrick and noticed that his friend was in the same state

"I'm very sorry for that boy, very very sorry, I just thought...you know what?!!" he turned to Alora and his knights who stood on the podium "Get this kid another shirt, quickly!!"

His knights nodded and two of the five walked away, he dropped the pieces of Reece's clothes on the floor and began to exit the arena

"Alora, we have a council meeting this afternoon, make sure you show up"

"I will do my best, your grace" she replied with a stiff bow, Hector smiled at her and walked off, the two knights who had left earlier came back in with new clothes for Reece.

Reece and Derrick stepped out of the school gates, Reece fixed his gaze to the ground while Derrick kept on watching him, both boys looked traumatized. Reece slipped his right hand through his buttoned shirt to feel his chest, that moment kept on playing in his head

"How?..." he thought it himself

"You okay man?" Derrick asked, Reece nodded weakly

"Yeah, yeah" he muttered

Derrick patted him on the back for encouragement "we need to leave now before they..."

"REECE!!!"

Both boys turned sharply and saw Valkori running towards them, she jumped onto Reece's body and hugged him tightly

"Reece!!, I searched everywhere for you!!"

"Really??"

"Yeah!!" she still had her embrace on him, her head just barely above his stomach as there was a significant height difference between them

"About that, I and Derrick were..."

"Did you see my fight?!!" she cut him off sharply

"Ohh, that, of course, wouldn't miss it for the world", he chuckled nervously and scratched his head "it was wonderful, YOU were wonderful"

"I know right, I knew I could kill that thing, I mean there was this moment during the battle were I thought to myself 'damn!!, I might be making a really big mistake that could getting me dumped in a hospital' but then I got smart, and I used Sapphire for the first time in real battle, it was everything Reece, everything!!!"

"Yeah it, it was" he replied, she noticed he was very uncomfortable for some reason and raised an eyebrow

"What's wrong Reece?, did something happen?"

Reece let out a heavy sigh, "the thing is uhh, I wouldn't be able to see you again for a while"

"Why?...what happ-" she paused instantly when she remembered

"Ohh, you're graduating..."

"Yeah" he replied sadly

"And you're never coming back to this school, to see me..." she dropped her head and her big brown eyes became teary

"No, Vee..." Reece knelt on one knee so he could be eye level with her

"I know it's hard, we've been friends for almost five years now, but we all have to move on with our lives at one point, you know..."

Valkori wiped a tear from her eye "I know..." she sobbed "I know..."

"Look at me Vee" he lifted her face with his hand and wiped another tear with his thumb

"I promise you, I don't know when or how, but I'll come back for, I'll come see you again...okay?"

Valkori didn't respond, she looked down and twisted her fingers together

"My dad finally agreed to let me go on a world tour...and I really wanted you to come with me"

"Wait, you mean your dad is letting you leave the capital?!, for the first time in your life?!!"

"Yes, he did..."

Reece's face brightened with joy, he turned to Derrick and saw him smiling just as much as he did

"That's wonderful, Valkori!!, that's really really good news!!"

"It's not!!" she shot back, still sobbing

"What?" Reece asked, very confused

"I wanted you to come with me, and you wouldn't be here anymore, it's going to be boring without you, Lyla and Sophia said their parents wouldn't let them come, you were all I had and now..." she sobbed and sniffed hard, wiping more tears off her face, Reece looked to Derrick to see if he had any ideas, he didn't

"Well, the good news is..." he cupped Valkori's hands into his palms gently, "I'm still going to be in Tremore for a while"

Valkori's eyes widened

"And once you're done with your eh... world tour, and return to Tremore, I can come meet you before you head back to the capital, would that be fine?"

Valkori nodded her head gleefully

"And I could take you to see my family, I'm sure my sister Olla would love you so much..."

"Really?..."

"Definitely!"

Valkori squeezed him tightly again and he laughed

"I have to go now Vee, come on!!"

"I'll miss you, I'll miss you so much" she whispered into his ears

"I'll miss you too Vee, I'll miss you too"

Valkori stood and watched the two boys walk out of sight, she rubbed her arm as she felt so lonely all of a sudden, she was about to leave when she heard a very deep cough beside her, she turned and saw Damian coughing, he wore his school uniform just like her, his nose was bleeding and he tried to wipe it clean with a cloth

"Damian...hi" she tried greeting him, he looked at her and just waved his blood stained handkerchief before scurrying away, she noticed him hold a very large textbook, it looked as if he was trying to get away unnoticed after stealing it, but she couldn't care less at this moment, she had other things to worry about.