After we sent Casilia back to her room in the middle of the night, the girls gave her some makeup so it is not noticeable that she cried, we had an uneventful night. When we wake up in the morning we all dress up in t-shirts and jeans and go to the guest dining room. Some kind of luxurious room only kings have left over space for, with it we can eat our meal in peace without disturbing anyone else.

Halfway through our breakfast, we are late to start our day. It is about 9 to 10 o’ clock. Sebasan tells us that we have been summoned by the king to discuss the plan of action for us.

She guides us to a big room with portraits on the walls from what I guess are important and historic people but I could not give an actual damn. In the center are two tables, they are standing parallel to one another and have a gap in the middle. Both tables have seven seats arranged on opposite sides so opposing parties can look at one another.

The room is used for trade discussions of two equal parties. The king is in the center of the opposite table. From our perspective the order of people and empty seats is as follows: empty, the magic adviser, but with a way less ceremonial outfit, military adviser, but now with what I assume is an usable getup for a fight, the king, he wears something that looks to be about the same level of yesterday, the politics adviser, Gradius, with and even more dismissive expression, the economy advisor, in a robe that looks the same as yesterday and the last chair was empty as well. Behind them are a total of six guards standing against the wall.

We walk to the seven chairs that are clearly meant for us. I take the center chair. Elise stands next to me in a way that allows me to use her tail to secretly communicate between all of us. To my right are Ratan and Megda and to my left is Dennis. Luke, Filia and Thomas lean against the wall behind us.

I open my mouth and begin in a respectful tone, “Hello Theodorus, is this a discussion on how we can help with the Demonic Emperor? If yes, then I need to disappoint, while we do have cheats we do not have any fighting experience. So we can not jump into the planning of that without anticipating training time.”

The fat Gradius is fuming, but Theodorus is faster, “I thought as much. If you tell your class we can arrange someone to teach you in it.”

Gradius is quick to clarify, “this only goes for you, you need to arrange something for your pets.”

The room temperature drops a few degrees.

Dennis is the first to talk, and he does so in a sneering tone. “And what good do you think that gives? If we can not fight, the only thing we can do during a fight is jump in front of a single blade. While if we can fight, we can fight off multiple blades making this operation more likely to succeed.”

Gradius responds coldly, “it is more expensive to train you than to buy a few slaves. So that is dubious. Also what kind of cheats do you have that make you more likely to kill that demonic emperor?”

Luke responds from the back line in a flat voice. “A supporting kind, one that grows more powerful the more battle experience we have and the closer we are, physically. Seeing how the current relationships are, makes us reluctant to share more information.”

Theodorus stops Gradius from lashing out again and speaks, “understandable, I would like for our relation to become good enough to be able to share it. So for now let us plan ahead for the next few months. Looking at your posture and body builds I assume that wherever you came from you were not used to fighting with the blade.” I will not tell him all the street fights I have been part of. That will not be useful anyway. “Will you be so kind as to provide the classes so we can start planning for training?”

We all state our class and that in the following list:

Me - Animal Handler

Elise - Singer

Ratan - Enchanter

Thomas - Tank

Dennis - Swordsman

Luke - Archer

Filia - Scout

Megda - Mage

After writing that information down and confirming it the king responds, “Thomas, Luke and Dennis will be able to be taught the basics by some idle guards. Ratan, Elise and Megda can be taught some things by the mages that are on standby. Filia and Berand can be taught by the Rangers. That should be a good start to bet the basics down. After that some cooperation training. In total that should take about 2 months. After that we will need to see if you are making your worth.”

Filia tails us, [Filia to all. So not even a king can squander money around.]

[Dennis to all. More likely, if he spends more money on us he might be in big trouble. Gladius might be able to convince more nobles and stage a coup if we turn out to be a useless money sink.]

[Berand to all. A political hellscape with us at the center. Let’s get out after this training plan.]

I respond, “thank you for your understanding. When will we be able to start training? Or meet with our trainers?”

The military looking dude responds this time, “if Thomas, Luke, Dennis, Berand and Filia will follow me I can get you set up directly.” He turns to the mage “Heather, I assume you can do the same for Ratan, Elise and Megda.”

“Of course, if his highness commands it.”

Theodorus ends the meeting, “let it become reality, you are all dismissed.”

I follow the military dude out with the other four. We walk to the direction of the door to what I presume is a barrack. I speed up my walk and start walking next to him. “I never got your name. I am Berand.” I put my hand in front of him for a shake.

He grabs it and responds, “John Rickson, why the politeness?”

“I give those who I respect my respect and the others I will be insulted or treated neutrally. I also give respect to your king, but I have always had trouble with giving authorities the respect they wanted. They always are asking for more respect than they earn.”

John begins laughing and hits my shoulder, “I like you, although I will need to ask all of you to at least talk to the king with his highness or his majesty. For now it has been tolerated that you used his name as you do not know etiquette but it would have been your death sentence otherwise.”

“Thanks for the advice.” I feel Dennis share this information with the others. “You do not seem to hold the opinion that Gradius holds.”

“No,” John responds with a sigh, “he holds a nobility supremacy belief. Although I am not a commoner I have lived with enough soldiers to know that they possess abilities equal to us. Only difference is that Nobles have a higher chance for a levelless skill.”

I remember that the girls were talking about that with Casilia yesterday evening. It comes down to local versions of our hero cheat. But sometimes it is a blessing and sometimes a curse, but most often both.