Last Scion Of The Sun

Royal Academy

At the moment, there were too many strange things happening around them. The fact that Sol defeated so many people was already strange enough, but even more strange was the fact that Sol was aware of the hidden passage which nobody had located till now.
'Strange, If he was aware of the hidden passage, why didn't he just escape via it?'
Lance pondered.
While walking through the dark hallway's of the hidden passage, Lance kept on pondering about the things happening around him.
But having no conclusive evidence and having no one to trust beside Sol, he trusted him and followed his lead without doubting his intentions.
At the same time, Sol was having conversation with the first king inside his head.
'Where exactly is this mine located?'
[It's located on the outskirts of the northern part of the Surya empire.]
Bordered by Chandra empire in the west, Surya empire in the north and Jal empire on the east. The mine shared it's border with three mighty empires. Thus, there was not even a moment in history when the war hadn't broken out for the control of the mine.
Sol's hometown being at one of the northern part of the empire was affected by the war for mine as well. And just like him Fred, Alfred and Lance being from the northern part of the territory were affected by the wars.
"I've been curious about one thing from the moment we've met."
Sol blurted out, all of a sudden.
The sudden questioning caught Lance off-guard.
"Uh- Huh? What are you curious about Sol? You can ask me freely, I'll try to answer you with as much honesty as I can."
"If you belong to a noble family then how were you captured? Was your hometown destroyed as well?"
Sol questioned.
"I'm not sure of it. If my hometown were to be destroyed then I should have been able to find familiar faces in the camp, but till now I've not found even a single familiar face. So they must be all right."
"And as for me, I was caught when I was returning from the academy."
Lance replied straightforwardly without stammering.
His words highlighting his honesty. There was not even a hint of lie in his words.
"Perhaps your family is not even aware of your abduction."
"May be they're aware of it or may be not. But even if they're aware of it, I'm sure they wouldn't worry at all because I'm only the son of the second wife. And I'm not even the rightful heir of the house of Steelheart."
The tone of his voice got lower and he frowned while replying.
Not to pry more on his personal life, Sol changed the topic of the conversation.
"You mentioned about academy right? What is it? I've never heard of it before."
Understanding Sol's intentions, Lance let out a gentle warm smile.
"Academy is a place where you learn and train about different things. You can learn arts, history, science, magic, maths and many more things in academy."
" Mainly there are three types of academies in the empire. One being the academy for learning magic, another academy for learning combats and the final one academy for learning miscellaneous stuffs. There's also a special academy in the empire which is reserved for some children's of the aristocrat's of the empire. And this special academy is not confined with only one speciality, it teaches everything unlike other academies."
Sol's eyes widened in awe while listening to the descriptions of Lance. Sol who had learnt basic magic from his mother was intrigued by the presence of so many learning institutes.
"Which one do you belong to?"
"I belong to the special academy reserved for aristocrats. The Royal Academy of the empire of Surya."
Sol's eyes gleamed in awe upon listening to the majestic introduction of the Royal Academy.
[Oh it's still intact! I was the one who founded the Royal Academy in the empire]
Sol twitched his eyebrows upon listening to the brags of the first kings.
'You don't have to lie, you know? Your goofy attitude makes it even hard to believe that you were the first king.'
[If you don't believe me you can ask the kid yourself. Ask him if the academy was founded by the first king.]
While Lance was enthusiastically explaining about the Royal Academy, Sol abruptly interrupted him.
"Lance, Was the academy founded by the first king?"
Lance's eyes widened in shock upon listening to Sol.
"How did you know Sol? I'm sure I haven't mentioned it to you yet."
Lance exclaimed his astonishment.
[See I told you. If you're still doubtful of me, mention him my name.]
"[Azrael Thunderfire]"
"How- how did you know that name?"
Lance's eyes widened and jaws dropped upon listening to that name.
That was the name of the first king of the Surya empire. A name forgotten by the history. Nobody except few of the nobilities of the empire were aware of that name.
Despite amassing countless ethereal feats and accomplishment, the name of the first king was buried by his own descendants.
During the time of his reign, Surya empire used to be a thriving empire.
Built on top of volcanic soils and surrounded by three active volcanoes, the kingdom of Surya  wasn't even an empire around that time and used to be nothing more than a barren wasteland. They used to be nothing more than bunch of nomadic tribe people living together. Oppressed by the rival nations, they couldn't even expand further.
Their situation used to be so worst that not even the neighborhood empires considered them worthy to be conquered.
It's not because they couldn't, it's because if they did conquer the tribe of the Surya then they had to bear responsibility of the tribesmen of the Surya. Thus to avoid being responsible for the tribesmen of the Surya, they simply closed their eyes and ignored their presence.
Due to the nature of the soil of the tribe, agriculture was an unattainable dream.
Poverty, hunger, famine used to be a common sight in the tribe. Every year a lot of people would die due to hunger and starvation.
But even so the tribe still continued to exist due to mineral rich mines. The volcanic soil on top of which the tribe was founded was both a boon and a bane.
Found within the volcanic soils were countless minerals, which the individual of the tribe would trade for food with the neighborhood nations.
But due to the harsh conditions for mining the minerals, it wasn't easy for them to mine a lot of minerals. They could mine barely enough to sustain their living.
Until the appearance of Azrael, the people of the tribe continued to live a nomadic life.
As Azrael rose to the status of the tribe chief, he embraced the suffering of his tribesmen. While the citizens of the neighbouring nations had enough to eat, a peaceful home to sleep, his people had nothing. Barely enough to eat and houses made up stone which had neither doors nor windows.
Despite the presence of the volcanoes, the winter used to be freezing cold and the summer used to be scorching hot.
Even more people used to die during winter because of the lack of adequate clothes to keep them warm and lack of food to eat.
Despite being the chief of the tribe, Azrael could do nothing more than watch his people die, helpless. Unable to watch the sufferings of his people, he steeled his heart and decided to negotiate with the neighborhood nations for agricultural lands in return for the minerals of the tribe.
Aware of the harsh conditions to mine the minerals, the neighborhood kingdom declined his offer.
But he couldn't simply fold his arm and docilely accept their disapproval. If he did that, then more of his people would die.
Thus, out of desperation he gathered up his tribesmen and decided to fight for their lives. Instead of docilely accepting their oppression and watch his people die, he resolved to fight for their survival.
When he presented his idea of going on war to fight for their survival, the people of the tribes shrugged his idea and even declared him crazy.
But Azrael was determined to fight for his people. Thus, even their denial didn't discourage him from his resolution.
But as more people continued to die because of hunger and cold, the tribesmen eventually realized the intentions of Azrael. Afterall he was thinking for the good of his people.
On a full moon night, they infiltrated the border towns of the empire of Isleka presently known as the Chandra empire.
Unaware of the surprise attack of the tribe of Surya, the empire of Isleka was caught off-guard. They had never anticipated an attack from the tribe of Surya.
Empire of Isleka quickly reacted to the surprise attack of the Surya tribe. Infront of them Surya tribe was nothing more than a bug. A bug they could squash anytime they wished.
But underestimating the tribe of Surya was the most foolish thing they did, which was the reason behind their downfall.