While Blaze was saying these things, he suddenly felt that the entire training area fell into silence.
"D-dragon's nest?! Why is our vice-captain carrying such an item in his space pouch!" The Blades around asked in shock.
"D-don't tell me that…" They looked at each other with grim looks on their faces.
"No, it can't be…" The others shook their heads in disbelief.
"Our vice-captain is a half-dragon, and there is only one reason for him to carry a nest! That is, he was seeing a she-dragon!" One Blade exclaimed in conclusion.
Dragons are mythical beasts and as long as they are strong enough, they can take the form of a human. But whenever they reproduce, they still have to carry a nest for their offspring.
In Blaze's case, he would have no need to carry a dragon nest if his partner was a human, but if it was a pureblooded she-dragon, then it was absolutely a necessity!
"Our Vice Captain is planning to have a baby!!!"
"No! Look at him. With his demeanor second to our Master's coldness and his fiery hair, which she-dragon would he be seeing?"
"How can you still deny it? How will you explain his enthusiasm in looking after the Little Master then?"
"..." As if they have connected the dots, they looked at Blaze who was now assisting Little Han in carefully putting Wisey's egg into the nest. Suddenly they all felt aggrieved as another person in the brotherhood was discovered to have some love escapades.
"Since when did our vice-captain sneak to see a woman!!! Arggg!!!"
"How about meeee? Will I be a singleton until I grow old? Boohoo!!!"
"Waaaah! Don't curse yourself, or I will feel anxious too!!!"
"Waaaah!!!"
The strong and fierce group of young men become crestfallen as they started to lament like an abused puppy. It became so apparent that Blaze could not help but twitch his brows and asked Baobao to look after Little Han for a while.
When he was near the area where the Blades were gossiping, the overwhelming aura of a vice-captain began to ooze into his body, sending cold shivers to the back of the Blades.
"Are you not busy enough that you started gossiping about your vice-captain?" He said with a cold low voice as he was afraid that if he shouted, Little Han would be scared.
However, his low tone becomes extremely eerie in the ears of the Blades, and so they all hang their heads up in the punishment position and was about to confess their talks.
But before they could do so, Blaze waved his hand with a frown and said, "No need, do you not think that I could not hear what you guys are talking about in that distance?"
"..." They all choked for having nothing to say about his words.
"Anyways, it's not appropriate to talk behind the back of any other people, especially when it is not accurate." Blaze swept a glance at the apologetic young men.
"But vice-captain… we can't help but be curious~~" A more courageous Blade tried to get closure over the issue and asked Blaze.
"..." Blaze eyed the Blades once again with his eyes that resemble the fiery sun and sighed, "That dragon's nest was actually the nest that accompanied me during my infancy period. That nest is where I was hatched."
"!!!" Hearing the truth from Blaze, the curious young men now felt a wave of complicated emotions.
They thought that the story of the dragon nest was actually something joyous but it turns out that it was connected to Blaze's awkward origin.
For the Blades, probably except for Olivier who was of noble birth, it was taboo to talk about their lives before they were rescued by Leon.
For it was a past that they wish to no longer remember. After a few seconds of silence, they all meekly apologized,
"Vice-captain, we sincerely apologize for jumping to conclusions… We did not think that-"
"No bother… Just be careful next time. Also, behave properly so that our Little Master won't catch any bad habits in the barracks." Blaze benevolently answered before turning around to go back to where Little Han and Baobao were.
"Umcle!! See!" When Little Han saw Blaze approaching their spot, he stood up enthusiastically and waved his chubby hand excitedly. Then he pointed at the dragon's nest where Wisey was staying.
"Little Master, what have you been up to?" He asked as he looked at Wisey's egg which was now not only resting on his dragon's nest but was covered with all sorts of warm clothing as if Little Han was afraid that the egg would shiver in cold… on a hot springtime.
"Sisi, hatchie!" Little Han confidently raised his round head as he comfortably sat beside the nest, looking at Blaze adorably.
The young vice-captain held his breath so as to not let his expression break apart. Just looking at the innocent yet lively look from his Little Master's eyes, Blaze's heart was instantly captivated.
In an instant, he had the urge to spoil Little Han whenever he had a chance!
–
Weeks have passed and the family of three has long been used to their current set-up.
Little Han was now used to getting to and fro the Crimson Blade's barracks. During those times, he had already met and played with almost all the blades.
In special circumstances, Leon would bring him to the secret base in the North Mountain Range, where he would meet the equally enthusiastic Roaming Blades. With just a few visits, he totally dominated his father's core forces with his charm!
Eli on the other hand was now starting to become more at ease with training Desmond and Lainie.
Desmond has now improved his left and right-hand technique. He was now working on how he will put depth and intention into his music by carefully analyzing and connecting it to the piece he has to play.
Lainie's progress was also equally optimistic.
As Eli was already comfortable with Lainie before, she was able to closely give her advice and methods to improve her musicality.
Over the time they trained, Eli noticed that Lainie was not only a creative arranger and composer, but she was a sensible musician. She was able to create the mood and imagery exactly how she wanted it in the music sheet.
With the influences and resources, she gave to Lainie that came from the modern earth, she also managed to develop her unique style in each form that she tried.
Today, on the third month of their training, which was less than two weeks before the expected date of arrival of the foreign delegates, the mechanics of the competition for the events under the Academic division arrived.
Queen Tehila, Queen Lucia, Evelyn, Eli, and their respective proteges were now gathered in the Farauld Institute's meeting room to listen to Dean Athena's announcement.
The competition will generally be like the modern earth's sports fest, where each of the subjects will have their own schedule for the competition.
It was a straightforward event where every delegate of whatever instruments would compete who among them was the best player for that said instrument.
But the competition for the composing/arrangement event was different and much harder.
The delegates are required to pick a group of musicians amongst all of the candidates that have ever participated in the tournament.
From them, the student will have to organize an orchestra of their own, and have them perform a piece that would soon be revealed at the commencement of the Grand Tournament.
"Mentor…" Hearing the details of the competition, Lainie nervously looked at Eli as the anxiousness started to overwhelm her.
It was not only her, everyone looked at Eli anxiously, as if whenever they stumble upon something unbearable they would unconsciously seek Eli's assistance on the matter.
It was one thing to gather people for the orchestra, but it is another thing to convince the people who were hostile to the Empire at this moment.
Since there were only four delegates coming from the Farauld Magic Institute, it is certain that Lainie had to go and convince the other foreign delegates to join her orchestra.
Who would be willing to join them when everyone knew that their team was already weak in the first place?
It was known that whatever the results of the symphony competition would be added to the individual scores of the musicians to their own events.
So, how could she convince the others to join a losing band?
Eli placed her hands on Lainie's trembling shoulders as she tried to calm them down.
"Lainie… do not think of such unnecessary things."
"If it comes to that point where no one joins, then let no one join!"
"Prepare yourself on both sides! Whether to arrange for an orchestra or a piano quartet, it should not stop you to show how good your arrangements were!"
She also looked at the four musicians who were feeling anxious not only for Lainie but for themselves.
"This also applies to all of you."
