Reims and I entered a small cafe just a few streets away from the academy. There is nothing special about the place beyond being close to the academy.

At the back of the place, a man of about 24 years of age waves his hand to attract our attention next to him sits Frigs Valz.

"You guys took your time to come" —Valz exclaims as soon as we arrive at the table.

"We had some events ..." —with a faint smile on his lips, Reims responds as we take a seat.

"Oh, what happened??" —the man sitting next to Valz asks with some curiosity.

Lug Riddam, an army captain and instructor at the academy like the rest of us.

As Reins talks about our encounter with the golden shoe children and Brand's carriage, the young waitress approaches us.

"A latte and a slice of your best bread, sweetie" —Reims requests are as contrasted with its rude appearance as usual.

The young waitress already accustomed to the content in the Reims order nods and then cast a nervous glance at me.

"Black coffee as always" —she nods as her gaze on my nervousness.

While we wait for our coffees, we talk about trivial topics like the heavy snow in the north.

"Everyone always complaining about a little snow, during my childhood..."

“A black coffee, another with milk and a slice of our best bread”

Fortunately, just as Valz is about to talk about his childhood up north, the young waitress comes over to place my coffee and Reims coffee on the table.

After the waitress retires, our eyes are inevitably drawn to Reims, who carries spoon after spoon of sugar towards his coffee.

"Anyone who didn't know you guys well enough would surely think you had the coffee of the other" —Riddam lets out a slight laugh as he points to my black coffee.

Valz shakes his head as he gulps down his own cup of coffee.

"What's wrong with putting a little milk and a little sugar in coffee? What Levian does is what they should really point out, what kind of healthy kid drinks coffee without a pinch of sugar?” —Reims responds with some indignation as he shakes his coffee with his spoon.

"I am already fifteen years old, according to the laws of the kingdom, I am already an adult" —I take a sip of my coffee without worrying too much about the matter.

"Since I have known you, you have always drunk black coffee without sugar!" —Reims stresses with a bit of outrage.

"Some men mature before others" —Riddam can barely contain his laughter at his own joke.

The real reason for grace here is not so much that an adult man adds milk and sugar to his coffee. The thing is, it's something that doesn't fit in with Reims rough look.

"Why don't we move on to why we met today?" —showing his seniority as an instructor, Valz claps his hands to end the jokes about Reims.

Riddam nods as he tries to get his laugh under control, while Reims just huffs angrily then takes a big sip of his coffee.

Still keeping some of his sulkiness, Reims focuses his gaze on Riddam just as Valz and I do.

Riddam's expression changes and he directs a slightly subtle glance towards our surroundings. Even though there are other clients in the place, all of them are occupying tables near the windows and the door. In contrast, our table is in the background in a dark corner.

Riddam's clear intention to make sure there is no one nearby who could hear fuels our curiosity and the anger disappears entirely from Reims gaze.

"Last night the communications people received a telegram from Lorgod" —Riddam finally speaks.

Lorgod is a kingdom to the west of the Rilei region, a relatively strong kingdom that has survived several wars against much more powerful kingdoms, "Lorgod always standing" is a motto that the Lorgodi have coined after facing great kingdoms and maintain their independence.

"What was the content of the telegram?" —Reims proves to be the most impatient of us.

"Shocking news and a petition" —Riddam looks around again. "A week ago, an uprising of commoners occurred in Hadas, the capital of Gracia"

The commoners' uprisings are not a strange thing, they are events that regularly occur in any kingdom, even in the quiet kingdom of Larssan they occur from time to time.

The extraordinary thing about the event that Riddam describes, and the reason we are slightly surprised, is that these events rarely occur in big cities, let alone in the capital of a kingdom, something that has never been heard before.

As for the reason commoners might revolt in the kingdom of Gracia, none of us have too much trouble thinking of a reason.

Just four months ago the kingdom of Gracia concluded a disastrous war with the kingdom of Catella.

As Gracia is the second largest kingdom on the continent, Catella's military opted for a controversial strategy.

When facing a larger and better-equipped army, the ideal is to opt for defense. Catella's army did the opposite.

Catella divided his army into small companies and invaded Gracia.

In this way, the war between these two kingdoms took a strange turn, the aggressor ended up becoming a defender, and the Gracian army was forced to hunt down the small Catella's battalions that moved throughout its territory, burning farms, destroying railways lines and telegraphs lines.

Unable to deal with Catella's military strategy, Gracia had to agree to peace after paying a large sum of gold as compensation.

Ashamed of his resounding failure, the King of Gracia committed suicide and his son ascended the throne. However, the damage to Gracia was already done.

With the loss of huge tracts of crops and damage to railroad tracks, the consequences of that disastrous war would show during the winter.

Obviously the food shortages and the increase in prices because of it during the winter would end up affecting the usual ones, the commoners.

In such circumstances, some commoners uprisings in Gracia would not be unexpected. However, reality seems to be always ready to outdo itself.

“Although surprising, I don't see any reason for so much secrecy” —Reims lets out a long sigh as he denies with disappointment.

Before Valz or I could comment, Riddam lets out a slight malicious laugh.

"You do not understand, it is not a small group of commoners, all Hadas commoners revolted!"

The surprise shows on Reims face when he hears that.

"Moving on masse, they assaulted the royal palace and took the royal family as prisoners, many nobles were brutally murdered in the process"

Valz and Reims gasp at hearing that, I just narrow my eyes in surprise and curiosity.

Because of its great territorial extension, the crown of Gracia has always feared that the nobles who rule the territories furthest from the capital could revolt and become independent, or even conspire with some neighboring kingdom.

To prevent these fears from materializing, centuries ago the crown issued a decree by which all Gracia's nobles were forced to live in the capital. Because of this, Hadas is the largest city in the world.

If such an event occurred in some other kingdom, the nobles outside the capital could gather their armies to march to the aid of their king. However, this has happened precisely in the only kingdom in which all the nobles are gathered in one place.

With all the nobles in the hands of the commoners, who will come to the aid of the king? Who will impose order on the rest of the kingdom?

"The regular army of Gracia must still be near the border with Catella..." —Riddam shakes his head at Valz's words.

"From Hadas, someone used the royal seal to send a sealed order to the army at the border, arrest, and execution of all officers of noble descent"

Even I cannot prevent my eyes from opening completely upon hearing that.

Can something as intricate that this really arise from an uprising of commoners? No, there is no way that enraged commoners could account for the army at the border.

"What will happen in Grace?" —Reims breaks the silence by asking what we all have in mind.

"What was Lorgod's request in the telegram?" —as soon as I remember this point, I immediately ask the question.

"The king of Lorgod is requesting the support of the Rilei League to bring order to Gracia on behalf of the five gods"

The surprising answer takes our breath away once again.

The Rilei League is an agreement signed by the six kingdoms that are in the so-called Rilei region.

It is a military protection pact whereby the six kingdoms agree to cooperate if any kingdom outside the Rilei region tries to invade any of the members of the agreement.

It should be noted that since the creation of this agreement a hundred years ago, its implementation has not been necessary.

"Absurd, absurd. Does the king of Lorgod really think we might be concerned about what is happening in Gracia?” —Reims lets out a slight laugh, then takes a big sip of his coffee.

This issue is beyond what is stated in the agreement.

As for the king of Lorgod, the man of almost eighty years of age has strong reasons to meddle in this matter, his granddaughter is the wife of the current king of Gracia.

"Regardless of how far Gracia is from our region, I very much doubt that our Dukes and the neighboring kings ignore this event completely"

My statement attracts the curious eyes of my three fellow instructors.

"What do you mean, Levian?" —Valz is the first to question me.

"Idea of ​​today is the action of tomorrow" —while Valz's eyes widen, Riddam and Reims are confused.

"The commoners can rise against their king" —before Riddam or Reims could question my words, Valz exclaims that. "When this news spreads across the continent, what will prevent other commoners from dreaming of repeating what happened in Gracia?" —Riddam and Reims's eyes widen as he hears Valz add that.

"To prevent this idea from spreading, the simplest thing is to reduce it to ashes" —I exclaim and Valz agrees with an unusual expression of seriousness on his face.

If the kings of the Rilei region are a little smart, they will see the potential danger of allowing what happened in Gracia not to be stopped by blood and brutality.

"But it's not just about eliminating a potentially dangerous idea for the current order, others might see this as an opportunity to expand" —I add, and my colleagues pale.

No doubt the neighboring kingdoms of Gracia will see in this an incomparable opportunity, and under the pretext of seeking an order on behalf of the five gods, they will send their armies to Gracia with the complacency of the Church of the Five.

"Grace will once again become a land of blood and death" —I add, facing the silence of my companions.

In the past, the Romul Empire brutally snatched the territory of present-day Gracia from the Elves.

However, remembering that little detail about someone uses the royal seal to send a royal order to the regular army on the border with Catella, will Gracia really be defenseless against the ambition of his neighbors and the outrage of the kings of the entire continent?

"It seems like at least something interesting is about to happen" —I murmur to myself with a faint smile as I sip my coffee.

Could this event break my monotony and show me the way to my reason for existing?

The very thought of it sparks a certain amount of excitement and anticipation in me for the first time in years.