Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Ray took a deep breath before continuing "As you know one must accumulate so many points in order to gain a promotion within the guild. This system has been in place since the guild first opened. We do this to keep the riff raff at the lower ranks while the hard workers get promoted easily. But in some cases because of a mission's difficulty more points will be added based on difficulty. With that said, Alicia! Rose! Starla! Congratulations, you have all been promoted! Rose and Starla have been promoted to C rank adventurers and Alicia since you went above and beyond the call of the mission, you have been promoted to a B rank adventurer. Now that that is done I won't keep you ladies any longer. Julia!" 

At Ray's call, the receptionist who Alicia had talked to earlier came in with a tray that had Alicia's and the rests' guild card on it. But when Julia came in she frowned when she saw that the four young ladies were jogging in place sweating from head to toe. "Guild Master! I had no idea you were a demon in disguise!" 

Julia's outburst startled Ray and it took him a  minute to figure out why he was being yelled at. "Wait Julia this is not what it looks like. They have to do this be..." 

"Excuses! Quick girls grab your guild cards and get out of here before he makes you do some other weird things!" Julia glared at Ray and quickly shoved the guild cards into the girls' hands ushering them out the door.

"Wait! Alicia, explain to Julia that this is not what it seems!" Alicia could only hear Ray's pleas for help but since she was already pushed out of the room and the door closed behind them so there was nothing she could do. 

Alicia and the rest all exited the guild and continued their laps back and forth between the house and the guild. It was only a few minutes before Starla couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing. "Did you see Mr. Sullan's face when we left!?"

"I feel bad for him, maybe we should head back real quick and tell Julia it was a misunderstanding." Alicia said as she turned to look back at the guild. 

"Young Miss just let him suffer a little bit since he made us suffer for so long with all his talking." Rose seemed to feel a little bit of punishment was needed for having to bear the weights while Ray talked about random stuff.

"It's not like he knew until we told him. When we lap back I will go in and tell Julia myself." Alicia said as she continued to run.

"Young Miss is really too kind… Remember Young Miss, if someone asks you for candy do not follow them!" Claire chimed in. She really had the feeling that their Young Miss will be kidnapped one day!

"Claire I know! I am not a kid!" Alicia tried to defend herself. But all three replied at the same time "Yes you are!"

Alicia only humphed and then looked at Starla and said: "If you all say I am a kid then so is Starla!" After saying this Alicia stuck her tongue out at Starla before picking up her pace.

"Hey! I'm the big sister here! Plus I am almost thirteen!" Starla yelled out as she quickly gave chase.

Training did not end after their third lap. They ended up needing to do an extra lap since Berlin was able to tell that they had stopped for a little while which ended up getting them punished. After they finished their running all four girls had to fight dummies of various difficulties. These dummies were ten times more complex than the ones at the Adventurer's Guild. The way they reacted and attacked was ten times faster and unpredictable.  They also trained their magic casting and defense. The magic defense part was the hardest of all the training. That was because Berlin was the one firing magic at them while drinking a cup of tea and reading a book. But even though he was doing many other things at a time he had no issues bombarding the girls with many different kinds of attacks. If someone was injured he would even toss them a heal to make it so they couldn't use an injury as a means of not participating in the training. The four girls only had one word for Berlin at the end of the day. "Demon!" 

This training continued for two months…

"Alright, today you girls are now allowed to go on another mission. I want you to take a hunting mission for the barren lands. With your current guild ranks, you should be able to take one of these missions out." Berlin's eyes swept over the four girls and the look on their faces seemed to jump for joy. Mainly because to them if they were going on a mission they could take the weights off. But unfortunately, things did not plan out as they had hoped because the next words out of Berlin's mouth was like a bucket of cold water being dumped on them. "You will continue to wear the weights for this mission! No one is allowed to take them off!"

All four of the girls' faces sank hearing this. They really wanted to cry out injustice but they knew it would not matter what they said since Berlin would just ignore them anyway. It did have to be said that these four girls had benefited a lot from this training. They had each stepped up their attack and defense quite a bit during the past few weeks. With the squire test right around the corner, it was really worth the hardships. 

During this time Claire had also gotten her guild identification and became an F rank adventurer. It was also decided that both Claire and Rose would be following Alicia to become a knight as well. Berlin had already planned out the training course for Alicia once she became a squire. This would allow her to stay with her current members and also give Berlin a bit of reassurance that Alicia was in good hands.

Berlin saw the dejected looks in the girls' eyes and only let out a light laugh before saying. "What are you girls standing around for? Quickly go to the guild and get a Mission!"

Startled, all four girls quickly responded: "Yes!" before running off towards the guild. Only Alicia paused her steps for a moment before running back and giving Berlin a hug.

"Master, will you be here when I come back from this mission?" Alicia asked. To her Berlin was the only parental figure she had in this world. If it was not for him she would not know where she would be right now.

"Of course! I will be around until after you take your test. Now quickly go! They are waiting for you." Berlin said with a warm smile on her face. He patted the top of Alicia's head before sending her off.  Once Alicia was out of sight Berlin let out a sigh. "Blake, I still want you to look after her for me. Whether you stay out of sight or if you stay by her side just please allow her to come back to me safe and sound." 

"You have my word." Blake gave a small bow before running off after Alicia.

Berlin did not turn to walk back into the house until Alicia was out of sight. Slowly his appearance once again changed to that of a middle aged man. Alfred Stood by his side and asked: "Your Majesty, should I have Charles send over all the backed up documents?"

"Yeah, I will be working from here for a while." Berlin answered before disappearing into the house.

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