Lilia's Tale

Chapter 66: Moths

The rest of the way through the castle was silent. I hadn't realised, when blindfolded, that it was this huge. Once we arrived at the exit, the knights inched me towards the barracks without a word. It felt odd, but I figured they had something to tell me. They took me into the same interrogation room as earlier, closed the door and left.

I was now alone in the middle of a military encampment, clueless as to what would happen to me. It made me anxious, although I tried to reassure myself that, due to the Emperor's decision to trust me as a citizen, nothing bad would happen to me. I waited a while before the general arrived.

"My apologies for taking more of your time than you'd like. We wanted to give you more details on the work you might be doing with us."

"Oh, I understand. Go ahead."

"As was decided, you will be able to be drafted by any Imperial Knight division as a reserve unit, were your magic to be needed. These requests will formally be inquired onto me, who will decide whether they are indeed requiring of your powers. Am I to decide for you to be engaged, a knight will come and you will be required to accept without hesitation, and follow him. Is that understood?"

"So I don't have any choice on my own. Well, it was the Emperor's decision, so I understand."

"Then, I would like to know what you are capable of. I have heard of your immensely powerful matter manipulation magic, and have seen for myself your capability at summoning large quantities of creatures, but not of anything else."

"I haven't ever really tried much more than those, to be honest. I've recently been learning to control my wind magic a bit better, and to improve my fire magic, but that's really it. Oh, also, in regards to summoning lots of goblins, it was accidental. It happened while my mind was elsewhere."

"Regardless, you were capable of such a feat. If you were to be needed for such a thing, I believe you would be capable of similar amounts of power. Besides that, I am to take that your wind and fire magic are extra-ordinary, and your matter manipulation magic will be very valuable. Is that all?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"Thank you for your time. We will escort you back to the academy, if you'd please."

"Please."

The general showed me a hand, as if asking to shake it. I did, then he asked one of the knights to escort me back to the academy. Once again, the way was silent.

Once I arrived, the academy guard bowed down to the guard and let me in, with little talking. I went straight towards the dormitory, sighing from relief, remembering I had to give the principal the Emperor's message. Once I arrived, I noticed that it was empty, and the canteen was closed as well, so I went towards the principal's office.

I knocked on the door, and thankfully heard a reply from the other side.

"Who is it?"

"It's Lilia. I need to tell you some things, it's important."

"Come on in."

I entered and closed the door behind me, noticing that he had a relatively large amount of papers on his desk and was working on it.

"Sorry to bother you while you're working, but I have important things to tell you. I just met the Emperor, and he told me to relay a message to you."

"You met him and were given a message? That's quite peculiar. Go ahead."

"He said you have his agreement."

"So in the end he agreed, huh... Well, thank you for letting me know, I will work on that once I'm done with all these applications."

"Alright. The other thing I wanted to tell you was..."