Seed of Titan

"Wait… aren't we forgetting something?" Jian suddenly exclaimed.

"What?" Drai asked.

"Our party name! We should decide on it now!" Jian shouted rather excitedly, inviting curious glances from the other party sitting nearby.

"Oh. No need to bother. I've already decided on our name," Christo calmly stated as he started to walk away.

"Hey! You can't decide it by yourself, Christo!" Jian argued.

"Yeah! Why are you doing this?" Auri chimed in, feeling unsatisfied with this one-sided decision. She even started to wonder if Christo actually preferred being dictator.

"Okay then," Christo said with a sigh as he stopped in his tracks and faced the objectors. "Tell me what name you guys have in mind."

"Hahaha! I have just the perfect name. 'Everlasting Glade of the Pristine Masters'!" Jian confidently proposed.

"Pristine your ass! That name's so pretentious it makes me wanna puke!" Auri immediately rejected Jian's idea.

"What the f**k, Auri!? Don't talk shit if you don't have a better idea!" Jian said angrily.

"Of course I do," Auri stated proudly. "Our name represents ourselves, so it must be classy and meaningful. Let me present you: 'Gracefully Virtuous Buddings'."

"Buahaha! Your naming sense is shit! It's sounds like something a monk would come up with! What's next? Are you gonna tell us to wear robes and shave our heads bald? Can't blame you though coz I bet you'll look cuter then," Jian instantly rebuked.

"You're really asking for it, aren't you?" Auri remarked as she prepared her spells as indicated by the swirling mana around her hands. At this point, all the new members in the room were looking at the two with a sense of anticipation. After all, public duels rarely happened due to the strict policies of the academy.

"Order, please," a familiar low voice suddenly interjected. Out of nowhere, a projectile slammed into the ground between Jian and Auri, alarming the two. They both looked toward the source and realized that it was the doing of Maxwell, whose presence here was kind of forgotten by the bunch. His right hand could be seen stretching toward a corner of his desk which was slightly smoking with a small chunk of it missing.

Seeing this, Jian and Auri immediately sat down and behaved themselves while the people from the other group went back to their business. Flo was scared shitless while Natalia didn't seem to be affected by the commotion. Meanwhile, Drai was holding his laughter; by this point, he's already accustomed to his friends' antics and he often found them amusing instead of baffling.

"What about you, Drai?" Christo calmly continued. He probably had already expected such a thing would happen.

"Hmm… How about 'The Strong and Steady?'"

"No," Auri immediately rejected.

"'Tough is Triumph?'" Drai proposed once more.

"No." It was Jian who spoke up this time.

"Okay then. I guess 'Pain and Gain' is really the best," Drai said.

"No!" shouted Jian and Auri at the same time. The two glanced at each other before nodding in agreement. Apparently Drai's horrible proposals were enough to make them call a truce.

Having been rejected three times, Drai could only shrug in resignation. He didn't know why Jian and Auri seemed so opposed to those names; they sounded pretty cool to Drai.

"Flo?" Christo continued asking.

"I-I don't know… Maybe 'Advent of the Saviors' or 'Amalgamation of the Wondrous Wills?'" Flo hesitatingly proposed.

Hearing Flo's suggestions, the group became silent and stared blankly at the small girl whose eyes were anxiously darting around to avoid the stares. It wasn't until a couple dozens of seconds had passed that Jian finally broke the silence.

"Hahaha! You're a weirdo too!"

Hearing Jian's remark, Flo's face turned red and she immediately buried her face into her arms. Meanwhile, the others couldn't help but burst into laughter. Somehow, they agree with Jian's remark.

After the commotion died down, Christo glanced at Natalia before saying, "From the looks of it, you're abstaining."

Natalia merely nodded without saying a word. There was a slight awkwardness before Christo spoke once again.

"Then I guess that's it. If only you guys hadn't doubted me, we would've avoided this hassle," Christo said with a sigh before heading to the door.

"Hey! You haven't told us the name!" Jian shouted from his seat.

Without stopping his steps, Christo slightly looked back and put his index finger on his lips and said with a wink, "It's a secret."

Drai's group could only watch as their party leader disappeared behind the doorway. They looked at one another in bafflement before eventually reaching the same conclusion; Christo seemed to be kind of a weirdo too.

***

Drai and Natalia were sitting at a table in one of the coffeehouses on the campus. Natalia had asked Drai to accompany her here after their party meeting. As for the others, they had decided to wait for Christo while taking the opportunity to get to know the other VV members at the HQ.

Drai was currently enjoying the aroma from the cup of decaf coffee that Natalia had ordered for him. He wasn't accustomed to the beverage nor the setting, so they were quite intriguing for him.

Sitting opposite to him, Natalia was sipping her coffee slowly, allowing the beverage to calm her mind. After a few minutes of silence, she finally put her cup down and looked at Drai.

"Do you resent me for getting into a fight with Christo and hurting Jian in the process, Drai?"

Drai didn't immediately answer Natalia. He inhaled the coffee scent deeply before letting out a long breath that sounded like a heavy sigh. He then took a sip before answering her.

"Resentment is a bit too far-fetched, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't bothered by the matter. It would be nice if you'd let me understand, Natalia."

Regardless of Drai's words, Natalia actually felt quite terrible due to her earlier tantrum. Having calmed down, she was able to put herself into Drai's shoes and realized that he must have felt shocked and worried.

"I'm sorry for making you worry, Drai. I owe you an explanation, so I'll tell you everything you need to know about the whole matter," she said.

"Due to my father's position, I was privy of various matters, including those that aren't generally known to the public and even various secrets. Some were intentionally shared with me while others were obtained by myself, either by coincidence or through my own means. These kinds of information serve to protect and guide me because being the daughter of a Great General comes with a certain amount of risk.

"Anyway, one of the things I've come to know of is the matter regarding Christo. I assume you only know little about Christo's background, don't you, Drai?"

Drai thought about it shortly before nodding in agreement as he truly didn't know much about his roommates' origin. Drai wasn't an inquisitive person, so he wouldn't go out of his way to ask about or dig up someone's background. There was barely any conversation involving background, family, hometown, and the like among Drai and his roommates. Most of their talks were centered around campus activities.

Seeing Drai's acknowledgement, Natalia continued. "So among these information is one that concerns your roommate, Christo. I admit I was being rather impulsive with my earlier outburst. But unsurprisingly, he recognized me and reacted just as I had expected."

Drai pondered upon Natalia's words for a few seconds before asking, "So what's this information about Christo that made you act like that?"

"I don't have the whole picture, but he basically comes from a faction that's technically the opposition of my father's faction, or at least he's suspected as so. And his agitation earlier further solidifies my belief that the suspected information is true, or at least true to some extent."

"Wait…" Drai suddenly interjected. "When you said 'your father's faction', do you mean the government?"

"Yeah, but more specifically, a group who support the current government model," Natalia elaborated.

"But I've never heard anything about a faction that opposes the government as a whole and not just the ruling party," Drai added. "Although I'm not really interested in politics, my parents occasionally talk about it during dinner and I don't remember hearing about this kind of faction."

"Well, it's actually pretty understandable that your parents have never mentioned it since the faction isn't really active anymore nowadays," Natalia responded. "I doubt that most people are even aware that the faction still exists. This is one of the things that I've come to know that isn't privy to the masses."

"So are you even allowed to tell me about it? I'm fine with not knowing if it's some kind of forbidden knowledge. I don't want us to get into trouble because of this," Drai worriedly said.

"I think it's fine," Natalia quickly reassured. "I've never been specifically told to keep it a secret. They usually tell me beforehand if something is for my ears only. Although there are indeed some things I've found out by myself that I'm not sure is meant for the public's ears. But I can assure you that this one's okay."

Hearing this, Drai felt relieved. These days, he felt that he couldn't be as careless as he was during his training days prior to entering the academy. After all, he had only recently realized that the world and its people are complicated and every so often dangerous.

"So regarding Christo's origin, he comes from an area called Crown's Passing. Have you ever heard of it?" Natalia asked.

Drai shook his head. He didn't have any recollection of the name at all despite his thinking that such a name would be quite hard to forget, even by his standards.

"I figured so since you don't seem to be that interested in history," Natalia remarked rather amusedly. "Well, in the past, Crown's Passing was a capital city, the capital of Duncan Kingdom to be precise."

"Duncan Kingdom…" Drai muttered. "So, this opposing faction you were speaking of earlier…"

"Yeah. It's a group consisting of sympathizers of the former kingdom, particularly those opposing the existence of the Democratic Republic of Rivideria. They're called the Monos Faction. Some of the members are suspected to be the descendants of abolished aristocratic families while others might have joined the cause for personal or other reasons."

After saying these words, Natalia went silent. Her face slightly contorted, looking simultaneously conflicted and concerned.

Drai looked deeply at his friend, contemplating her words and their implications. He tried putting himself into her shoes but still couldn't fully understand how this information could result in her outburst. Ultimately, Drai was quite lacking in the empathy department, so it truly wasn't an easy task for him to empathize with others—unless the topic of training was somehow involved.

Whilst contemplating, Drai was suddenly reminded of Christo's overwhelming contempt toward war that he once displayed.

'Is it because of his background?' Drai asked himself. 'Christo hates war… On the other hand, Natalia has something against Christo's faction… And why does everybody act so strangely when politics is involved?'

In the end, Drai couldn't figure out anything aside from a few vague guesses. He then returned his attention to Natalia who seemed to be dealing with her own thoughts.

"Natalia… I'm sorry, but after all you've told me I still don't quite get why you acted like you did. Did Christo's origin or faction bother you that much?"

Drai's question forced Natalia to suspend her train of thoughts. She looked at Drai with a complicated expression before replying.

"If I really had to give an excuse, it's probably because seeing him so unexpectedly sort of shocked me, and my lashing out was just a spur-of-the-moment reaction. Basically, it was all my fault regardless of how he responded to it or whether he really conforms to my previous perception of him. You can blame me for it, but I consider it as a byproduct of my upbringing.

"Since I was just a little child, my father and his close associates have been continuously enforcing their beliefs on me, particularly regarding where my allegiance must lie. In other words, I was raised to be a loyal servant of Rivideria just like my father. And with that comes my utter detestation of those that can potentially harm our country, especially those who are fellow countrymen.

"In case you're overthinking it, I totally don't resent this and have willingly accepted my life's purpose. After all, it's not a bad thing, you know? I know what I'll likely end up as and I can make constant progress to reach a certain level of competence that I'll be satisfied with. It's the main reason why I've been studying and training hard all these years—at least relative to my own capabilities," Natalia hurriedly added after realizing that her 'hard' training probably seemed lackluster in the eyes of the abnormality sitting in front of her.

"And due to my upbringing, my mind has established certain values and principles which may affect my behavior toward particular things or people. I haven't really thought about this before, but the incident with Christo made me reflect on this matter. And after gathering my thoughts, I realize that if Christo really isn't quite the despicable person I had imagined him to be, then these preconceived notions of mine are actually quite misleading and perhaps dangerous.

"Maybe tonight's incident was actually a blessing in disguise, Drai. From now on, I will try not to blindly trust my subjective knowledge anymore and instead tread more carefully. It's quite sad that I'm doubting a lot of things that I've been taught or given the implication of, but it is what it is…" Natalia slightly lamented with a rueful smile.

"I'm sorry, Natalia. I didn't know this was such a significant thing that involves your upbringing and beliefs," Drai apologetically said. He felt that his attitude toward Natalia tonight was one the main causes for her current predicament.

"Nah, it's fine, Drai. Like I said, it's a blessing in disguise. I should've known better not to harshly judge things without clear evidence. I actually feel somewhat cathartic," Natalia said as she smiled warmly. However, a look of slight confusion quickly replaced her smiling face. "But thinking about it, there's something that still kind of bothers me…"

"Hm? What thing?" Drai asked.

"If Christo is really that amicable of a guy as you've told me, he should've responded differently to my words when I lashed at him, or at least be less confrontational about it. But when I recall his facial expression and demeanor back then, he seemed to fit the image I have of him in my head; he looked truly forbidding and… cruel."

"Hmm… But wasn't he a lot more friendlier after we went inside?" Drai asked after recalling tonight's events.

"Yeah… you're right. It felt as if he had a change of heart. That's why I was able stay with your group until the very end. His behavioral change was one of the main reasons I started to doubt myself."

"Maybe he's just as shocked as you and reacted weirdly to your outburst. And afterwards, he might have felt guilty so he became less mean but not to the extent of behaving as his usual self due to his embarrassment," Drai reasoned while looking slightly amused.

"Maybe so. Anyway, thanks for putting up with me, Drai. Sorry I had to make you feel bad when it was supposed to be an exciting evening," Natalia apologized.

"No biggie. I just hope you two can become closer just like the others are—well, except for Flo," Drai added as he remembered their new bashful friend.

"I think Flo is adapting rather quickly to the group. She might actually not be as reserved as we assumed her to be. No more relying on preconceived notions, remember?" Natalia remarked with a smile.

Drai smiled back at Natalia as he finally felt a huge release from the predicament he had been enduring tonight. Now he couldn't help but long for the day when his party of friends are out on an adventure, overcoming every obstacle and enjoying themselves to their fullest—preferably while being totally ripped with their glorious bulging muscles glistening under the sunny wilderness sky.

***