Lucas after finishing his training with the princess asked for some advice as she was overseeing his training.
Lucas was trying to wield the double-headed axe.
Since he decided to wield many weapons, he decided to give the double-headed axe ago but it was really difficult for him to use it as its weight was many times greater than his sword and he don't have any axe techniques except for swinging it with brute force.
There was no spar between Julian and Lucas as the strength gap was too wide, so he have to learn it from seeing Julian.
As Lucas was about to leave, he heard something that blew his mind.
"Lucas, be careful on your trip," Julian said without batting him an eye.
Lucas almost fell on his back on hearing the caring words, moreover, the words that came directly from the ice-cold princess.
Though he knew, going by her personality she cares about her subordinate but it hadn't been more than a month that she knew Lucas so Lucas was in disbelief and thought he heard wrong.
"Do you want me to gauge your eyes? Stop staring at me like that," Julian spoke coldly sending a chill down Lucas's spine and he took a few steps back.
Cough.Cough.
Coughing a few times, Lucas bowed showing his gratitude and spoke"Thank you, your Royal Highness, for the concern."
Julian looked at Lucas's courtesy and spoke"Don't speak too much. Even a child could tell that you are a harbinger of trouble if he or she stays near you for some time."
Hearing Julian's mocking words, the ladies surrounding her burst into laughter but stopped noticing her cold gaze
Lucas almost choked his words on hearing Julian. Even a stranger is also now calling him a harbinger of trouble.
Lucas couldn't find any words to refute her claims and just smiled bitterly.
But by going Julian's words it's true, he had been getting in more trouble than Fredrick itself.
Lucas wanted to vent his anger but he dared not to do anything rash.
"I am not a harbinger of trouble," Lucas spoke trying to maintain a stoic face to hide his inner embarrassment.
"Oh! I have recently heard that there was a cold war going on between two first-year students' houses where they both houses suffered losses in thier business. And before this happen a student was found near them. Hmmm, who was the student? Let me think." Julian covered her mouth and giggled as she saw Lucas's stunned expression.
"Okay, that was my doing. I just added fuel to the fire nothing less, nothing more."Lucas spoke admitting his involvement.
There is nothing hidden from her eagle-like eyes. Lucas had already cursed his luck for getting caught in the lioness trap.
But seeing her cute laughing expression, Lucas's anger blew away leaving behind slight happiness.
After all not every day you can see the smile of an ice beauty like her.
Lucas was in a pinch whether he should ask Julian about the recent expedition or not as he was feeling something amiss in this expedition.
In the novel, the number of students was divided into ranks and a battalion was formed consisting of 500 students but here each class is allocated a separate location to clear.
Going by this number there must be a total of 28 dungeons more or less against the original plot where 7 dungeons were used for this.
" By the way, Your Highness is there something odd going on or is there something troublesome happening in the kingdom," Lucas asked mustering his courage after all he had no right to ask about this matter.
Julian's expression crumbled and she blinked her eyes a couple of times hearing Lucas's question.
But that expression disappeared as
soon as it appeared followed by her usual neutral icy cold gaze.
Julian spoke with a stern voice"You don't have to think much about this. There is nothing troublesome going on. More than that watch out for any dangers."
The more she spoke the more Lucas thought something was amiss but what can he do about it?.
Shrugging his shoulders, he left.
As Lucas's silhouette disappeared, the maid beside Julian came near her and spoke"As expected he is surely quick to catch things and to able to tell something is amiss, he has very good awareness."
Julian massaged her head as he heard her maid speak "Yeah, sure enough. If he didn't have such qualities do you think he would be standing in front of me? There have been many undercurrents recently. With the hero association and hunter bureau doing a joint investigation for the demon, we have our hands full on the dungeons which are appearing at the alarming rates."
"If this goes on, I think we need to move the army sooner or later as the Silverknight kingdom will not leave this opportunity, to wage the war," Julian sighed as felt nothing is going right for the kingdom at the moment.
...
Outside the academy, a line of students was formed.
"Is everyone present out here?".
" Yes, Miss Ami all the first year are present. I have counted the numbers."An instructor spoke to Ami who was currently scrolling her tablet.
"Okay Everyone, you can move now." Miss Ami waved her hand signalling the start of the journey.
Forming a close line we took a bus to the train station.
We will be taking a train to the nearby city after which we will have to walk for about 200Km or so to reach a village near which a dungeon had appeared.
Most of the regions in the kingdom are covered by wilderness, so there isn't a train connecting all the parts.
Only major cities have good communication facilities and still now mostly horses are relied on for travelling.
We have been accompanied by ten 5-Star instructors.
We were explained about the place and each one of us was given a map as the smartphone may not work thier and since we will be in the wilderness for a few days to weeks, we can't rely on our GPS.
In the train seats, both Fredrick and Parth sat beside each other.
Looking at them Lucas muttered, "I wish Roan was in my class."
Taking his designated seat, he plugged in the earphones and listened to music on the whole journey.
A boy with brown hair set beside him and looked at him with envy and jealousy.
Lucas became uncomfortable seeing the boy staring at him with a complicated gaze
"I don't why are looking at me like that but can't you be more obvious? It's making me uncomfortable," Lucas spoke unable to take in more after all he can't stay like this on the whole journey.
"Sorry." He retracted his gaze one finding out that Lucas noticed his jealousy.
He was anxious about sitting beside Lucas who is now the talk about the whole academy.
He was curious about how he got close to the princess.
Unable to overcome his curiosity, he asked"Hey, Lucas how did you manage to become Princess servant, did she take you in like that or did you do something extraordinary to catch her attention?"
Lucas sighed on hearing the boy's question.
'Can't he just keep quiet after all we are total strangers? Still, it is better than the other pride full bastard who talks behind the back.'Lucas thought.
"It's exactly because I am ordinary that she took pity on me. You can just say, I was just unlucky for getting caught in her." Lucas spoke.
"Unlucky?" The boy asked raising his eyebrows, unable to comprehend what was unlucky about staying under the Princess.
Lucas pulled out his earphone from his ear pausing the music, he spoke"Do you think, I am happy after working under Princess where each day, I got stared at by whole boys in the academy with disdain."
"The day, I leave her shadow, many wolves would just pounce upon me to tear me," Lucas spoke coldly as he was starting to get annoyed by the recent events.
Sometimes he has an urge to crush thier faces and gauge thier eyes so that they stop looking at him like that.
'If possible, I would gladly transfer this opportunity to someone else.'Lucas spoke to himself.
Hearing Lucas thought the boy's jealousy of Lucas became less as he thought 'He is sure in a tough spot.'
"By the way, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Ash. I know you already know. Still, it's rude not to greet someone in thier first meeting." Ash spoke raising his hand for a shake.
Lucas looked at Ash wearily thinking 'He is quite weird. His personality was quite hard to understand. Just a few minutes ago, he was staring at me with eyes full of jealousy whereas now he is talking with me in a friendly tone."
Still, Lucas handshake and greeted him.
Chatting through the way, we arrived at the station.
The place we were now was the City of Kent. After walking out of the city they had to travel by foot to the southern part where many small villages were there.
The mayor of the city had already been informed about the occurrence of the dungeon and asked for help.
But they can't leave the whole village at once without any help as the wilderness is full of monsters and there are no awakened among the villagers.
Lucas's class was tasked to clear the dungeon, appeared there and if there is anything wrong then escort the villagers safely to the city.
They have travelled here on foot as they can't take a ride on horses as there are not sufficient horses for the number of students of the class.
