CHAPTER 18: DRAGON KNIGHT ACADEMY

XENON WINGATE

2 ½ YEARS AGO

The sunlight shoved upon my face. I feel the cold ground on my right arm that was pinned by my stomach. The fact that I slept on the floor with my right arm made it clear why it is about to go numb. I turned to my other side in an attempt to get more sleep. There are three empty bottles of beer right in front of my eyes, and a bag of chips lying around.

Normally, the sunlight wouldn’t reach me from this corner of the living room. But somebody opened the curtains with the purpose of waking me up. I can hear rants from a woman as she steps beside me and picks up the bottles and empty packs of chips surrounding my body. I just let the woman complain like a mother as I closed my eyes and tried to sleep again.

“For God’s sake, Xenon Paul Animusphere Wingate. You got drunk and slept on the floor again like a stupid. You’re gonna get cold out here, and I’ll have to take care of you, and make your soup, and wash your clothes, and clean your blankets, and…”

That voice, it’s Serena; my trustworthy dragonoid. I’ve never ever heard her badmouth me before since she’s always a nice girl. Just to make sure, I opened my eyes to see who’s talking. And I’m right. It’s Serena. Looks like she finally came back after three days from her part-time job.

“H-Hey, Senpai~” She made a bright smile at me, which seemed to be forced. “N-Nice morning today, isn’t it?”

I raised my body and scratched my head. “G-Good morning, Serena,” I said. Then I yawned and burped at the very same time. My head hurts like hell. The hangover is tolling.

“Senpai, would you mind getting up from that floor so that I can clean your stupid mess?” Serena asked. 

I swear, she sounds so kind and gentle but I know she’s pissed at me. I’ve never seen Serena angry, and I don’t want to. So I complied with her demand and sat on a nearby sofa. I held my forehead and stared at the ceiling, waiting for the dizziness on my vision to disappear. While being a dead-beat man in an early-morning, I watched Serena vacuum all the dust on the ground where I slept.

“Sudden thought, Senpai.” Serena smiled at me. “Why wouldn’t you forget Marisse already? Just move on, and carry on with your own life, maybe? Since the time you saw their wedding clip, you’ve been drinking nonstop even though you know you’re weak in alcohol. It would be way better for you if you forget your feelings with her.”

I didn’t answer because Serena struck all the points. But I cannot do what she’s saying. Feelings are feelings, and there is no logical way to describe them. Even if I was cheated and betrayed by my ex-girlfriend, the feelings wouldn’t fade right away, even for the course of months. Marisse and I spent four years of relationship, and those happy memories together will take a lot of time to dissolve. The pain in my heart won’t go right away. Maybe time will heal the wounds and make me forget my past lover, but not now. The emotional wounds are still fresh. That’s why I succumb to being an alcoholic so that I can cope with my depression and anxiety. You can’t blame me since my friends, lover, and honor are taken away from me. My family is in peril, and I am just here, chilling in an enemy country, not being able to do anything. It’s a miracle that I haven’t resorted to suicide already.

But Serena is right. I’m giving her a hard time for being a self-destructive dead weight. Serena is the one earning the most money with her modeling career and music band. Almost all our living expenses have been covered by her money. If I stay spending useless things, I would really be a burden for her.

Technically and legally saying, all the money she earns is my money. Here in Alterra, they don’t allow dragonoids to have property or monetary rights. So Serena used my bank account where she could stash her earnings. I’m just a freeloader, leeching for the money my dragonoid have earned for a living. I feel bad about it. In fact, I feel so useless. Sometimes, I wonder why Serena is still staying with me.

“Senpai, the final training for the operation will start today. We better suit up and get there. We don’t want Sir Faradeiss to yell at us again.” Serena said.

“Right. Right.” I scratched my head as I walked my way to the bathroom.

“I’ll be in the kitchen making food for you.” Serena tilted her head with a charming smile. “Don’t put yourself ‘thanking’ me once in a while.”

“Ah. Thank you.” I forced a smile as I scratch my head. Serena's sarcasm makes me want to watch out for my own life.

After taking a shower, having a good breakfast to eat, and suiting up with my dragon knight uniform, the pain in my head started to fade. I don’t think I’ll be judged as an alcoholic except for the fact that I’m still burping every ten minutes.

Five minutes of walking from our apartment, and we finally arrived at the Dragon Knight Academy. From the outside, you would mistake this as a gigantic triangular cathedral of some sort painted with white. The front gate has a statue of a knight with a sword riding a dragon, and beside it are human guards for the security of the school. As soon as you are past the gates, you will see a row of a garden full of beautiful flowers. There is a bridge that separates the garden and the actual school, which is the cathedral-like building. The front of this place is certainly for tourism purposes.

The school itself is a large building which consists of ten floors. From the above, you would see that the building is U-shaped. Besides the school proper, there are facilities such as the wide arena, obstacle courses, sports fields, hotels, and even five-star restaurants. It even has a power plant on its own. The Dragon Knight Academy is truly a paradise for most humans, especially nobles. 

The Dragon Knight Academy only have three days for its actual classes, and the rest of the days are for side missions. We have a grading system based on the class of the mission we took up, and dragon knights are being ranked for the missions they have completed.

Missions are ranked from E, D, C, B, A, and the highest is S. The higher the ranking of the mission, the higher the additional grade you get. I have done lots of low-ranking missions that involves me finding a cat in the slums, helping the elderly cross the streets, and transporting criminals who violated the Law Index. I’ve also tried A-ranked missions for the hell of it, such as police investigation work, raiding drug cartels, and catching notorious pedophiles who engage in cybersex. 

I’m usually satisfied with doing such simple missions since I’m lazy. As long as I get to pass, I’m alright no matter how lousy the job is.

But today is different. I have taken up my very first S-ranked mission which will last for a week. On normal circumstances, I wouldn’t take something so long since I wouldn’t have enough time to swim on liquor but this mission may give me a ticket to slit Eldritch’s throat. 

The name of the mission is Operation Arcadia Annihilation. Just like how the title sounds, we dragon knights are tasked to take out the terrorist group Arcadia; which is a resistance force of the dragonoids. The Third Dragonoid War has started from Vanilla City because of that notorious group. It is said by the informants that the leader of the terrorist/resistance group is a human duke named Zac Schneider, who is also responsible for summoning the gigantic Monolith Dragon back in Vanilla City. Our objective is to capture the duke and annihilate all the dragonoids who dare to stand on our way.

I had myself join a squad of four dragon knights, Captain Valesmith included. The other two dragon knights I mixed with are named Alphonse Faradeiss and Danielle Keine. Since Captain Valesmith is on another mission as of this moment, the dragon knight who has the second-highest rank Sir Alphonse Faradeiss, a second-class dragon knight, will supervise our training. We will also have some foot soldiers under our command, so this will be a big training for all who will be seizing the terrorist group.

Serena and I finally reached the training grounds. Unsurprisingly, they have already started. The foot soldiers are doing the obstacle course while the two dragon knights and their dragonoids spar at each other. Swords and magic projectiles clashed, making it hard to see what’s going on.

“Awww, we’re late again.” Serena made an adorable sigh.

When the blonde man in a man bun noticed us, he stopped the fight. He gazed at us with his judging blue eyes as he frowned. “Piece of cunt. You’re late again.” That was our vice-commander, Alphonse Faradeiss.

“I’m not late. You guys are just early.” I muttered.

“You should know that the training will start as soon as I get my foot on this training ground. That’s strike five for you, you doodle useless wanker. You better work with your fucking punctuality!" Alphonse started to burst. "My grandmother wakes up earlier than you, and she’s fucking dead! Fuck off, will you!”

“Fine. Fine.” 

I scratched my aching head. If he’s going to sermon me again with his filthy mouth, I think I wouldn’t be able to do it. My head will hurt more. I already know where this is going. I’ve been through this four times already. This dude likes to sermon like a freaking school principal. He’s way too strict with his own rules. So I turned around and walked away from the training ground, ready to go back home. 

“Senpai, you must!” Serena tried to convince me. Her soft hands held my right arm, trying to pull me back. “That’s just an expression! You shouldn’t take it literally!”

Alphonse gritted as he balled his fist. This is the first time I saw him like this, so I don’t think I won’t just be getting a sermon for this day.

“Oh, you’re really fucking off, you stupid prick! You don’t have any single fucking drop of respect in you! You think you’re better than me, shitface?!”

Suddenly, he removed the glove from his hand and threw it right towards my face. Then the charismatic blonde prince in a man bun vented all his anger towards me.

“I’ll teach you how to respect a Second Class Dragon Knight! Let me beat your stupid-ass face, you filthy shitty-ass Elysian!”

Well, that escalated quickly.