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valtoswife · 4 days

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Julius knew he wasn’t fooling any of the prisoners when he told them he was put in charge of them. Perhaps he should have thought through that part of his plan more, but he was too worried about the first part to really focus on the second. He hadn’t actually expected Jack to agree to let him take over, but then again maybe he should have figured Jack would always take the opportunity to go on any sort of mission that involved fighting unbelievably strong beings, even if it meant neglecting the other parts of his job. But either way, it would’ve been pointless if the prisoners saw through him and he was forced to find someone else to supervise them anyways.

Valtos folded his arms, the chains on his wrists making a soft clinking noise as he did so. “You can’t possibly be a magic knight. You’re too young to even have a grimoire.”

“So I look a bit young for my age.” Julius shrugged. “I assure you, I do have one.”

“Really? Where is it?” Sally tilted her head curiously at him.

Julius froze, thinking of how to respond. He very well couldn’t show these people anything that might give away his identity, but he also had to say or do something, anything that might convince them that he was supposed to be there. “Ah...well, I would show you, but I’m a bit embarrassed to. You see, it’s kinda only one page.”

The third prisoner, Rades, who was at first barely even paying attention to what was going on, suddenly shot up his eyebrow. He turned around to face Julius, trying desperately to suppress the grin on his face and hide the relief of knowing there was someone out there with a grimoire just like his. “Wow, I guess that would be really embarrassing. So you can’t really blame him for not showing his grimoire to us, right?” Julius mentally cheered. He wasn’t even lying when he told them that excuse, and it worked!

Valtos rolled his eyes at Rades before turning back to Julius. “Fine. I don’t know why someone like you would be sent to supervise us, but it’s not my place to question it.”

“Yeah, it’s totally fine as long as you guys do your work and don’t cause trouble!” Julius did his best to give a convincing innocent smile, which was thankfully something he became considerably better at since he got his new form, at least to strangers and acquaintances. However, he couldn’t quite tell if that was the case with the group in front of him right then.

They did not need prompting to clean up the rubble, not even Rades, though he still endlessly grumbled while he did so. Julius watched with great interest as he saw how the three of them worked together, with Sally gathering the harder to reach broken pieces with her Gel Magic, and Rades carrying the endless parts with his Wraith Magic, putting all of them into Valtos’ pitch black portals, who then had even the biggest remains disappear in the blink of an eye.

They managed to work for a good while before Julius ended up interrupting them. He promised himself that all he was going to do was observe, but he couldn’t help himself. He had to take a closer look, to have the countless questions in his mind answered. Gel Magic had so many interesting properties, Spatial Magic was so practical yet so rare, and Wraith Magic was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

“So how do all of your magics work?” Julius stepped between the three of them, his lavender eyes sparkling with curiosity. Sally immediately turned around to respond, and Rades, looking for any chance to stop working, followed suit. Valtos gave a low grunt of annoyance but turned around as well.

“My Gel Magic can carry lots of different things inside of it!” Sally explained. “It’s perfect for collecting samples! Or taking people around too!”

Being with these people and seeing how...casual they all acted made him nearly forget why there were stuck cleaning the capital in the first place, until the memory of Asta, the strong, brave magic knight, trapped by the girl in front of him entered his mind. “Ah, I see,” was all Julius could say. He knew that even if they still wanted to, they wouldn’t be able to create that sort of turmoil to the people of the kingdom again, but their past crimes were still always going to be in the back of his mind when he was with them.

He cleared his throat. Still, that wasn’t going to stop him from wanting to learn more about their powers. “How about you?” he asked Valtos. He was interested to find out just how similar or different his magic might be to his advisor Cob’s.

Valtos shrugged. “My magic’s simple. I open portals and teleport people and objects. I also have a couple of attack spells and a transformation spell. That’s all there is to it, really.”

“Can I see it more closely?”

Valtos opened a black portal beneath a pile of bricks and Julius leaned up to it to look closer as they disappeared.

“I’ve never seen portals like yours, where they open horizontally and whatever’s on it sinks to the other location,” Julius commented. But it made sense, he realized, given how exactly this man had utilized his magic against the magic knights before. Ignoring the tension in his chest again, he added, “There’s another spatial mage I know, whose spells could never work the way yours does, because of the form his portals take. Unless...he could make a trapdoor portal! Ooh...I’m gonna ask him about that.”

“Rades, your turn!” Sally said. “Show him your magic!”

“No!” Rades folded his arms.

“What?” Julius asked.

“I said no! Don’t even tell him what affinity mine is!” Julius knew better than to tell him he was already aware of what it was.

“Oh, come on, Rades!” Sally said. “You’re no fun!”

“What’s the problem?” Valtos asked. “Even I went and showed my magic.”

“Yeah!” Julius nodded. “Don’t worry. It’s just a fun thing to do as a little break from all the work. You won’t get in trouble; I’m the one distracting you guys.”

“How many times do I have to say it?!” Rades pointed at Julius, glaring with his uncovered eye. “I’m sick of countless people like you hearing about my magic and sighing about how it was always inevitable that I ended up here! You know, maybe, just maybe, my magic had absolutely nothing to do with it!”

Julius repeated, “What?”

“Yeah! Maybe it had to do with you guys seeing the nonexistent worst in me before I ever even did anything, and banishing me, ostracizing me, leaving me alone with no one, absolutely no one, except for one person, one person, who used me for his own crimes and goals and threw me away, so now I’m stuck here! You guys are the ones that made it inevitable for me! You just blamed my magic while you did it!”

Julius glanced at Sally and Valtos, but from the looks on their faces, they seemed just as surprised as he was by the outburst. “You don’t have to talk about or show me it. It’s fine.”

“Good,” was all Rades grumbled.

Julius watched as Rades continued to work, recalling what little he knew about Rades’ past. He used to be a Purple Orca before he got exiled from the squad and kingdom. The same squad as Zara. He wondered how much Rades’ status as a commoner might’ve had to do with his banishment, in addition to his magic affinity. As violent and bitter Rades had become, that did not change the fact that he was yet another person the Clover Kingdom forsook for no good reason at first. Another person Julius wasn’t able to help, at first.

The three prisoners kept working for the rest of the day, and before Julius knew it, the area was completely cleared. “Great job, guys! You’ve earned another break!”

“Finally!” Rades did not waste a moment. He immediately made his away over to one corner of the street, sitting on the sidewalk and humming to himself. Valtos went the opposite direction, staring at the sun as it sank behind a cluster of buildings.

“Hey!” Julius didn’t fail to notice Sally right behind him but did not keep her from approaching him. “I figured out why you were so acting so secretive earlier when you told us you were watching us today!”

“Did you now?” Julius looked around, but unfortunately they did too good of a job cleaning the place for him to find anything he could use. There’s that spell I just started working on, but it’s not anywhere near ready for me to cast yet...

“Yeah! Your hair color, your eyes! You’re his spitting image!” Sally grinned, triumphant over her discovery. “It makes sense that anyone related to the wizard king would want to hide their identity from us, after what almost happened to him a couple months ago.”

“Huh?” Julius asked.

“You know, I’ve met him before! He’s cool!” As if just noticing the look on his face, Sally only then said, “Don’t worry! I won’t tell anyone!”

“Glad to hear it.” Julius smiled back. “Because if you do...”

“Ah, there’s no need for threats. I promise I won’t even tell Rades or Valtos,” she assured him.

Julius sighed. “All right.”

“Can I ask you a question though?”

“...What is it?”

“Why did you agree to watch us? I know Valtos said that Patri, our old leader, had nearly killed the wizard king. I mean, I don’t think I would mind too much if I had to spend time with someone who hurt me before, but that’s just me. Do you really not mind we’re from the group that attacked your relative?”

Julius blinked at her. “I...Well, it’s not that I don’t mind. I will admit, it’s hard to be around you guys knowing what you’ve done. But now, everyone needs to work together to help the kingdom recover. As for the reason I’m here in the first place, well, I was just curious. How was this kind of sentence working out for you? I’ve decided it’s fitting; the least you three can do is clean up the mess you’ve helped make.”

“Hm,” Sally thought about his response for a moment. “Well, Rades doesn’t seem to like it, but I think Valtos does, for the same reason you gave. I don’t have a strong opinion about it. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for me to research though.”

“Well, it’s not about how you feel about it,” Julius pointed out.

Sally shrugged. “I was asking about why you’re here because,” she looked down at the ground, “I’ve never really considered that type of thing before. There’s someone who made me a promise, but he hasn’t lived up to that promise yet, even though it’s been months. I’m starting to wonder...did he go back on it because he doesn’t want to be around me?”

“Who made you the promise?” Julius asked.

“A Black Bull. Asta’s his name.” Sally fiddled her hands around glumly. “He promised he’d let me experiment on him, as long as I didn’t hurt him and I helped other people. But that’s what I’ve been doing this whole time here, right? Helping! And if he wants to he could totally use whatever I make out of my research too! So why hasn’t he visited and lived up to his promise yet? Is it because he can’t stand to be around me, after what I’ve done?”

Julius looked at the young prisoner. She had a desperation in her eyes that Julius knew all too well: the desperation to learn. And he had a feeling that Asta was not one to break promises, unless he had a really good reason to. “Well, the Black Bulls have been dealing with a lot lately. He might’ve just not had the chance to fulfill his promise yet. I’ll tell you what. How about I try and see for myself what Asta wants, and if he is still up for it, I’ll set up a date for you two.”

“Really?” Sally’s eyes shimmered, and she shook her hands around, causing her handcuffs to rattle as she was barely able to contain her relief and excitement. “Thank you!”

“No, of course.” Julius nodded at her. “This will be really useful for the kingdom as well.”

He couldn’t help but get his hopes up that such a thing would get to happen. He knew all about the research Sally conducted while in the Eye of the Midnight Sun, everything from her magic items to the bodies she grew for the leaders. It was all morbid and fascinating.

Perhaps with a few...ethical limitations, she can be of great use to the Clover Kingdom. An asset beyond what Julius could possibly imagine at the moment.

He glanced back at Valtos and Rades in the distance. And not just her. Those other two have skills as well that would do numbers for the kingdom. I should try and see if I can set them up with anything else too. But if not now, if anything ever comes up later, I’m sure they can help out a bit too then at least.

Soon, the three prisoners had to go, and so Julius said his goodbyes. Valtos cleared his throat before saying, “I apologize for my initial doubts towards you. I was just worried about what kind of trouble a false guard could bring if anything were to happen. But you’ve more than proven that you are a good, legitimate magic knight and guard, if a little...distractible. So, whatever it’s worth, you have my respect.”

Ignoring the tiniest hint of guilt over all his white lies after what Valtos just said, Julius simply nodded at him. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, I guess it was fun. Better than dealing with Jack, at least,” Rades conceded. Julius nodded at him as well.

“So you’ll really go and see if Asta will still keep his promise for me?” Sally asked.

“Yes,” Julius confirmed.

“Thank you!” she said again, and then shook his hand profusely with both her own.

He took a step back once she was done. “Yeah. No problem. This’ll be really good, if Asta does keep his promise.” He looked up at her. “You’re going to do great things for the Clover Kingdom now, I’m sure.”

#self reblog

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