"Are you paying attention, Lucius!"
An old man slammed his hands on a large desk as a vein nearly popped out from his forehead. Across from him, a sixteen-year-old boy, dressed in a Helios academy uniform, sighed while tapping his finger against the wood of his personal-sized desk.
"Yes, Professor."
The boy's nonchalant demeanor, tied together with his unkempt black hair and wrinkled red uniform, left the professor angrier than he should have been. He had been this boy's private tutor for three years, leaving him quite accustomed to his games.
Standing upright, the professor steadied his glasses and smirked.
"Oh, then please repeat it to me."
Lucius rolled his bright red eyes.
"Oh, you know, just your usual spiel on how I'm a failure of a prince."
"That's not what I was talking about at all!"
Lucius smirked at his professor's outburst. The truth was, his professor was probably the only person inside the Helios kingdom who didn't consider him a failure.
"Can you repeat it for me then, sir?"
Trying to regain his composure, the professor turned his back to Lucius and stabbed a piece of chalk against the board. He scrawled six names in jagged letters: Helios, Nyx, Loki, Gaia, Borea, Phorcys.
"Ah, great. The hit parade," Lucius muttered under his breath.
The professor's hand twitched, but he ignored it and kept going. Long vertical lines stretched beneath each name, followed by smaller horizontal dashes—ten of them, carefully numbered from Stage 1 to 10.
He coughed into his fist. "Since you clearly don't wish to pay attention, we will have to start at the very beginning."
Lucius groaned. "You really don't have to."
But it was already too late. The lecture had begun.
"We were born into the Helios kingdom. That makes us Scions of the Sun God. His blood flows in us, granting the ability to climb through his ten stages—gaining strength, gaining magic."
Lucius leaned back, rocking his chair on two legs. "And in return, we serve him blindly, fight his battles, and die like good little pawns. Yeah, I've heard it."
The professor's chalk squeaked angrily across the board. "Exactly! Each of the six kingdoms serves one of the six Gods, and so the war rages on with centuries of bloodshed!"
The world is rotten, Lucius thought, red eyes narrowing. No one questions the Gods. Just sheep led to slaughter. And me? I've already committed the one sin worse than defiance…
The professor's sudden shout snapped him back.
"And you, my great student, are not just any Scion. You are a dual prince!"
Lucius arched an eyebrow. "What about it?"
The professor spun, scandalized. "What do you mean, what about it? You are a prince of royal blood, and more importantly, God's blood. You can use all six God pathways!"
He jabbed at the chalkboard. "Normally, a Scion can only follow the path of their homeland. A Helios-born? Helios pathway, nothing more. But each kingdom has one prince, one chosen by fate, who carries every God's blood. That is you!"
Lucius drummed his fingers on the desk. "Congratulations to me, then. Shall we throw a parade?"
The professor's face went red. "Do you not understand? A pathway is the only way to gain strength. Stage after stage, you grow faster, stronger, and unlock greater abilities! To be a Scion of every pathway means you are the most precious warrior alive. A prince!"
He raised a hand dramatically. "Which is why—"
"Which is why I'm a failure," Lucius cut him off.
The professor nearly dropped the chalk, waving his hands. "No, no! I didn't say that. I have no doubt you will be a wonderful prince, Lucius. You just need…" He searched for the word, sweating. "…motivation."
A long silence stretched between them.
"What stage are you in the Helios pathway?" his professor asked.
Lucius smiled brightly, and a tiny flame flickered in his palm.
"Bronze, Stage 2."
Bronze, silver, and gold were the ranks of each stage. A bronze rank was the weakest rank of a Stage.
Sweat poured down his professor's bald head as he collapsed and melted into his black chair.
"I'm going to be so fired."
Lucius only laughed. He couldn't blame his professor for his sadness.
Because he was a dual-blooded prince, his royal family had given him a ton of resources in hopes that he would progress through the stages quickly. The Helios kingdom needed its prince to be strong and reliable.
At 16, only being at Bronze Stage 2 was terrible. In two weeks, his classmates will at the bare minimum graduate from the academy in the Silver rank of the same stage. And they had not been given extra resources to level up faster.
His underperformance was what earned him the nickname:
"The Shitty Prince."
"Don't call yourself that!" his teacher roared.
However, Lucius did not care about his nickname, his classmates, the academy, or Helios, for that matter. That is what led him to commit the greatest sin a prince could commit: leveling up another pathway before unlocking Stage 5 in the Helios pathway.
Currently, in the Loki pathway, he was Gold, Stage 3—nearly a Stage 4 Loki Scion, which he desperately wanted to become. At Stage 4, a Loki Scion could create clones that looked identical to the original.
Hehe. I won't have to go to any more classes or family dinners for a long time.
But he could not tell anyone this. If anyone discovered he had forsaken leveling up the Helios pathway, it would be grounds for execution, even if he were a prince.
Suddenly, Lucius stood from his desk and bowed.
"Thank you for your time, Professor. I have to go to a family dinner, so I must take my leave now."
His professor was staring at the ceiling fan as it spun in circles. After a few seconds, he looked over at Lucius.
"Oh, what? Yes. No problem, my boy, have a great time at dinner."
Lucius turned and walked toward the exit of the classroom. As he reached the door, his professor called out,
"Don't forget you have combat class in the morning, so don't be late."
Jokingly, Lucius threw a hand over his shoulder and waved.
"I'm never late."
Ignoring his professor's scream, he opened the door and left.
"You're always late!"