"I think you'll find that an alliance between the two of us could bring about great ach-"
Balthasar Selati. The name came unbidden from the depths of my permanent memory as the individual himself, and two goons bodily blocked my current path to a secluded spot for lunch. Son of the influential nobleman Aide Marquis Joachim Selati. Younger brother of Stephania Selati and older stepbrother to the twins; Addy and Kid Alter. A two-bit bully that gets demolished by Kid after he has the gall to pull an extremely underhand tactic in a pathetic attempt to preserve his so called standing within the school. Arrogant, self-entitled, and ultimately a weak coward, this child was the textbook stereotype of a pompous noble brat.
"-obviously I will be sure to put a good word in for you in my family's dealings if you so-"
He hated the Alters on principle of them being born of his father's mistress and thus could technically inherit something should some major disaster occur. Obviously, the boy was just being a stupid and prejudice fool.
"-to imagine the looks upon the faces of our peers as they gaze upon our combined efforts-"
A non-threat, but oh so annoying. Compounded by the fact that I couldn't just pulverize this blond idiot without just cause, in this current timeline that is. At least I could take solace in the simple blessing of living in a country whose personal mandate was to fight monsters.
Thousands of years ago, the entire continent of Zetterlund was overrun with magical and violent monsters that were collectively known as Demon Beasts. Due to not having any magical abilities of their own, this early humanity paid dearly in those early years for every scrap of land that they liberated from the monsters, many of which grew larger than even modern buildings. What would be recognized as a Kaiju by someone from the modern world and was later known as Division-class Beasts by the denizens of this one, were akin to living hurricanes. An existence that would only be avoided or endured to a certain extent, for to resist was to simply be crushed underfoot, without even the dignity of the creature knowing that you were there in the first place. There were plenty of ancient tales of kingdoms being causally erased by legally distinct giant lizards going out for strolls.
It wasn't even the discovery of the crystal catalyst that lay within these creatures that turned the tide in their favor. That privilege belonged to the invention of the Ether Reactor, swiftly followed by the creation of the first Silhouette Knights.
I did have a slight chuckle out when the lecture that went over this material failed to mention any sort of specific inventor, be it a singular man, or even a particular country trying to claim credit.
Either way, with a viable and effective weapon in hand, humanity pushed back the Demon Beasts at an unprecedented rate. During this time the "weight-class" system for the monsters was also invented. It was a simple system that denoted how many Knights that it reasonably took to kill the beast in question. Soon enough the entire western half of the mainland had been conquered, up to what would be known as the Aubigne mountain range. These mountains acted as a natural barrier between humanity and the deepest and most heavily infested lands that had ever been discovered to that point. And there was a very good reason for that after all.
It was where most of the Deamon Beasts came from, with all the powerful ones in particular having come through this place. Thankfully, there was only a single major pass in the entire range, which created a bottleneck upon which a great fortress was built as a cork. Soon though, humanity wanted to push further, to push to monsters back so that the entire continent, if not the world could be theirs. "The Great Push" was the name given to the campaign the countries of the time waged against the Beasts. After pushing through the bottleneck themselves and clearing out the general surrounding lands, they set up what they had assumed would be the first in a long line of new kingdoms; The kingdom of Fremmevira.
Unfortunately, after this act, the Great Push was shattered once the immense army entered what was known simply as the Sea of Trees. There were no records of what happened, because there weren't any survivors from that expedition, nor from any expedition since. All who have entered those cursed trees have never returned.
The line of Fremmevira was then charged with holding the mountain pass and the lands surrounding it on the eastern side. To do this, the newborn kingdom was given all of the greatest warriors and hunters that could be spared from all the other lands, to shield the rest of humanity from the threat of the Demon Beasts. Thus was Fremmevira given an eternal purpose, an eternal threat to fight. Because of this, the country of monster hunters was mostly spared the political bloating and rotting many other countries face.
After all, the idiotic and incompetent tended not to live very long in the enteral war against the Demon Beasts, in a case of literal Darwinism. In fact, such individuals rarely, if ever rose to any real level of influence due to the vast majority of the country only really respecting one's monster kill count or their contributions to society that helped others increase their kill counts.
To wrap up this whole thing, I could indeed take satisfaction in knowing that this fool won't make it anywhere major in life, if he doesn't get himself eaten by a Demon Beasts that is.
"-perhaps at that point we could then move onto securing an even more lucrative arrangement with-"
That is, if I don't end of caving his face in due to him NOT SHUTTING UP! WHY IS HE STILL TALKING?!
]I[
"Balthasar Selati." the voice of his target finally speaking caused the boy in question to stop talking for a moment, a slight frown pulling at his lips as his argument towards their alliance being interrupted. Balthasar quickly pushed aside his annoyance before settling his face into a polite and attentive smile.
"Yes, Echevalier?" he replied, making sure to maintain strong eye contact with the silverette heir, despite how much their near permanent glow made his green eyes uncomfortable to look at for most people. Thankfully he considered himself above most people.
"My brother Ernesti is very close friends with Archid and Adeltrude Alter." Frededen began, his head tilting slight as Balthasar struggled to keep a polite expression on his face. "He intends to have them become close allies as they grow up and train together. I suspect that Adeltrude will attempt to make their relationship even closer as they become of age. Ernesti is quite magically powerful, more so than even me, and is cultivating the twins to be likewise." the boy then leaned forward, and Balthasar suddenly realized that there were whisps of smoke starting to curl out of the boy's mouth.
"Is that going to be a problem, Selati?"Frededen finished with a growl, his voice ever so slightly starting to distort from magic. Magic that blond noble realized he would be receiving the full force of if it was used. Balthasar gulped as sweat started to gather upon his face, he could see that his followers were reacting similarly. After all, the three of them had been there during the entrance exam.
"I- uh- O-of course not-" the blond cursed himself in his mind for stuttering like a spineless peasant. "W-we would dare to do-" he continued, only for Echevalier to stomp forward and loom over the three. The sweat upon the young nobleman's face started to run and drip as the temperature in the area soared.
"Then why did I see such rage in your eyes the moment I mentioned the twins?"the green eyes blazed as the boy hissed, the smoke coming from his mouth starting to darken and thicken. Balthasar stammered but couldn't get his mouth to say anything coherent.
"Mark my words, Selati..." Frededen growled as the angry buzzing of the electricity arcing between his armored claws filled the air. "My brother is now their keeper, and I am his keeper. If you so much as touch them, I will tear strips from your hide in a duel for the whole school to see!" he finished with a yell, his enhanced voice leaving a faint ringing in their ears. "Do I make myself clear?"
Balthasar stammered for a moment.
"I said: Do I make myself clear?!"Frededen roared, flames starting to leak from his mouth as the heat continued to climb. It was like standing before a Knightsmith's furnace.
"'"Y-yes!!!"'" the three boys wailed, their courage breaking as they all fled the presence of what they later swore was a dragon pretending to be human.