"The power of friendship!" Ken declared loudly, pointing a dramatic finger at the sky. "When I stand behind you, gathering my energy, I am not just charging magic! I am charging the trust we share! I am fueling my beam with the memories we have made! We survived the dark alleys! We conquered the terrible shopping trip! Every time you block a sword for me, my power grows! We are no longer just servants... we are two halves of the same soul, fighting against the darkness of the world!"
Ken dropped to one knee, clutching his chest as if the emotion was just too much to handle.
"They can bring their monsters!" Ken yelled to the heavens. "They can bring their curses! But they will never, ever break the invisible string that connects our hearts! With you as my shield, and me as the sword that takes three minutes to swing... we are absolutely invincible!"
Ken finished his speech by striking one final, dynamic pose, pointing both of his fingers toward the horizon. He held the pose perfectly still, waiting for his teammates to applaud his incredible, inspiring words.
Naomi just stared at him with her mouth slightly open, completely stunned by the sheer level of absolute cringe she had just witnessed.
But Laxmi wasn't looking at Ken. She was looking around the empty courtyard, turning her head from left to right with a deeply confused expression on her face. She tapped her ear with her finger.
"Hey," Laxmi said, her voice sounding totally bewildered. "Is it just me, or... for some reason, I can hear background music right now."
Naomi frowned, listening closely. "Wait... you're right. Do you guys hear flutes? Why is there a choir singing? Where is that coming from?"
They looked around, trying to find the source of the sound, but there were no radios, no instruments, and no musicians anywhere in the courtyard.
But the narrator could easily confirm the truth. Because of Ken’s deep, absolute understanding of "Anime Logic," the universe itself had simply agreed to play along. A highly heroic, triumphant, fast-paced shounen battle theme was indeed magically playing out of nowhere, perfectly fading out into the morning breeze right as Ken’s speech came to an end.
---
"I have looked through three different encyclopedias, two maps of the capital, and an entire book on ancient royal history," Sayma sighed, closing a massive, heavy book with a dull thud. "And I still have absolutely no idea what we are looking for."
The 13th Unit was sitting around the heavy wooden table in the strategy room. The atmosphere was incredibly tense. After Grandmaster Finlay had dropped the news about the surprise race against two other Royal families, the girls had immediately gotten to work. They needed to find the mysterious 'Core of Luminus' before anyone else did, but they had hit a massive brick wall.
They didn't even know what the object was.
Naomi was pacing back and forth behind her chair, tapping her finger against her chin. "This is a ridiculous mission. How are we supposed to win a race if we don't even have a starting point? The file the Emperor gave us is completely blank."
"Maybe it is a weapon," Laxmi suggested, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table. She flicked a tiny orange spark of fire between her fingers. "The word 'Core' makes it sound like a power source. Maybe it is the battery for some giant magical cannon. If it is, we should probably check the military armories in the Inner City."
Zinia shook her head, crossing her strong arms. "That doesn't make any sense. If it was just a military battery, the Imperial Guards would already have it locked up tight. They wouldn't send three Royal teams out into the city to play hide and seek with it. It has to be something wild. Something untamed."
"Like a giant glowing rock?" Luna mumbled lazily. She was resting her head flat on the wooden table, using her arms as a pillow. She looked like she was about to fall asleep right in the middle of the meeting. "Rocks are usually heavy. I really hope we don't have to carry a giant rock all the way back here. My back still hurts from yesterday."
Ira sat perfectly still, her face completely flat and emotionless. She stared straight ahead. "It could be a rare plant. Or a magical beast. The lack of information is highly inefficient. We are just guessing blindly. If we keep guessing, the other teams are going to find it while we are sitting in this room."
Princess Iris sat at the head of the table, listening to her team debate. She looked down at the single piece of paper they had been given. She rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on.
"We need a solid lead," Princess Iris said softly. "The 16th Princess is right next door. Hestia's team is incredibly organized. You can bet they are already forming a proper search grid. And we don't even know who the third Royal team in this race is. We are falling behind."
While the elite girls were stressing out, trying to apply logic and military tactics to the problem, Ken Eliot was doing absolutely nothing helpful.
Ken was completely slouched down in his chair at the far end of the table. His posture was terrible. His dark blue servant shirt was untucked, his tie was loose, and he was currently trying to see how long he could balance a wooden pencil on the tip of his nose. He had his hands resting behind his head, his sleepy eyes completely crossed as he focused on the wobbly pencil.
He listened to the girls argue about armories and military outposts. To him, they were totally overthinking the entire thing. It was actually kind of funny to watch them panic over something so incredibly simple.
"You guys are making this way too complicated," Ken muttered lazily. The pencil fell off his nose and clattered onto the wooden table.
Naomi immediately stopped pacing and glared at him. "Excuse me? We are trying to save our team from a massive point deduction, farm boy. If you aren't going to help, at least sit up straight and pretend you care."
Ken let out a long, dramatic groan. He slowly pushed himself up so he was sitting somewhat normally, though his shoulders were still slouched. He looked around the table at his highly stressed teammates.
"I do care," Ken said, giving them a goofy, entirely relaxed smile. "I care a lot. Because if we lose those five points, you guys are going to be in a terrible mood all week, and that means more morning workouts for me. I am just saying, you are looking at this the wrong way. You are trying to act like real-life soldiers. You need to think about the story."
Sayma pushed her thick glasses up the bridge of her nose. "The story? Ken, this is not a story. This is a real, high-stakes competition."
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter