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"𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑭𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒏." - 𝑼𝒏𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒏

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Alard walks into the arena and glances at you. You've been observing the students train for nearly a month, and he's somewhat grown used to you. However, he doesn't know where you came from or why you're here, other than watching the future soldiers of the Vedia Kingdom - he just knows that you're a noble from some wealthy family.

Alard is a soldier. He has been for at least two years, but he comes to the arena to help or watch the students. He was the top of his class during training, and the top of his class after taking the basics class. He's been to war twice and nearly died both times.

It was the Kitsilu-Human war. The first time, a prince in the Vedia Kingdom killed a Kitsilunian prince out of vengeance for his murdered brother. Later, the king of the Kitsilunian Kingdom, Rune, found out and killed his son's killer in return. The process kept going back and forth before the Vedian King, Apollo, declared war on behalf of some of his subjects being slaughtered.

The second time it was the king's wife, Prince Solaris's mother, Selene. Rune had captured her and interrogated and tortured her until she couldn't take it anymore. Apollo, in a livid rage, had announced another war. Again, the Vedia Kingdom won, and the Kitsilunian Kingdom surrendered and quickly left due to low numbers of soldiers, food, and loss of strength.

He had been in both wars and had nearly been killed by the enemy kingdom's king twice. He wouldn't get over that. He unfortunately had no one to speak to about it, and he refused to see a therapist because - well, who wants to tell a stranger about his problems?

Alard shoves off the memories and walks over to your side, leaning against the wall. "Who are you?" he questions quietly, so as not to drag attention from the nearby nobles and royals. "How did you find the arena? It's only open to the nobles and royals."