The Golden Throne

"So, you didn't do it of your own accord? You only want to save me because you are scared of my brother? And are you even scared of him? I am pretty sure you scared him witless the first time that you met him.", Amelia spoke to Liu Feng, her voice growing more and more louder. Her eyes seemed to be looking for an answer in Liu Feng's own.

"Well, I do need your brother's approval to get your hand right. He will be the future king of Elvan. How could I possibly afford to offend someone like that? If I want to marry you, I have to have his permission, right?", Liu Feng smiled, but inside, he knew that he didn't actually answer the question properly. He merely started a detour, and the real question was yet to be answered.

"Hmph! I don't need my brother's permission to marry some one. I just don't know who that some one is.", Amelia said, pouting.

"Stop chit chatting, and pack up. We will be leaving in five.", Cordelia said, as she passes by the both of them. "Especially you two. Since we began, I saw both of you speaking to each other non stop. Jibber Jabber. Why don't you pay attention to your surroundings to make sure that some beast doesn't come out of nowhere and kill you all."

Liu Feng nodded, and Cordelia left them alone. She went to some other students to talk to them about some thing, but Liu Feng did not care. He looked around once to see what was going on, and then took a magic stone from his bag. He started engraving a magic circle on it with a scalpel that he had in his bad, handy for any time in need.

"Are you crazy? Drawing a magic circle requires a lot of concentration, and any mistake will lead to an explosion. Do you want to kill us all?", Amelia asked, surprised and shocked at Liu Feng's recklessness. 

"Done. I was just trying out a magic circle that I saw someone use. It was that spatial one. I wanted a more convenient way to store my luggage.", Liu Feng took the magic stone, and put the scalpel back from where he took it. "Okay then, now that I have a spatial stone, I can get rid of this stupid burden. It was weighing me down and it is getting really inconvenient." He poured mana into the magic stone, and the bag on his back suddenly disappeared. Then, Liu Feng released some more mana into the stone, and it reappeared back on Liu Feng's back. (Pun intended)

"You, you, you drew a spatial magic circle? Impossible! How did you do that? All the artifacts that have spatial abilities are at least a few thousand years old.", Amelia looked at Liu Feng with widened eyes and an open mouth.

"Close your mouth. We are in the forest, literally the breeding grounds for all flies and pests. You don't want them going into your mouth.", Liu Feng warned her.

"Forget all that! How did you make that spatial stone? And just in a matter of minutes, right in the front of my eyes. And I did not see how you did it. Oh god, if grandmaster Luo hears that I did this, he will personally come here to murder me.", Amelia said with the same shock, but with a louder voice.

"Well, it is what it is. Now don't make a ruckus. Here, give me your luggage, I still have a little space left in my stone. I mean, you do understand the convenience of such a stone, right?"

Amelia said, "I don't need it. I have my own spatial artifact. Who do you think I am? I am the princess of the great kingdom of Elvan. Do you think that I would lack something like a spatial stone? I just chose not to show it off.", Amelia said as she flashed a ring on her finger at Liu Feng's face.

"What? You're married?", Liu Feng laughed.

Not minding his taunt, she put her luggage in the ring that she brought by injecting mana into it. Just like in the spatial stone that Liu Feng had just made, the spatial stone that Amelia had took in all her luggage in an instant, and it was as if it was never there.

"By the way, I can't see the boy who teased me. That boy with that red stripes shirt. Oh god! He angers me so much, I want to kill him myself. But, he is a duke's son! I can't so that even as a princess. So then, where is he? What, did you kill him or something?", Amelia joked, but there was a hint of hesitation in her voice.

"Yup, he died. I put some mana in him and exploded it. Since the monsters came, people thought that the monsters killed him. How did you know though?" Liu Feng said with the same nonchalant attitude.

"You're joking right?", Amelia trembled.

"Of course I am. Why would I kill a human? The monsters killed him.", Liu Feng said half-heartedly. He did not want anyone to know that he actually killed a duke's son. With him pinning the blame on that teacher, everything was going his way. But, if anyone even remotely tied Liu Feng to the death, then he would have all sorts of problems, fore most being the hostility of Glade. Although Liu Feng was sure that Glade would become an enemy in the future, he did not want to fix that in stone without confirming the terrible hypothesis that he had.

"So he's really dead? That's unfortunate.", Amelia said dejectedly.

"There is absolutely nothing unfortunate about his death. Why do you sound so sad? That boy was an first grade bastard. Only good came out of that incident. Did you know that -", Liu Feng spoke when suddenly.

"Stop talking. I already warned you Liu Feng. There won't be another time.", Cordelia snapped.

Liu Feng quickly apologized, as he certainly did not want to offend the top dog on the first few days. Cordelia was the teacher who was in charge of the food, and for that matter, almost anything at all. Liu Feng certainly did not want to go hungry on this trip. He would do his best not to offend Marcus, so although it was very difficult for Liu Feng, he shut his mouth.

The students were all quite exhausted, and hungry. Everyone could hear stomach's grumbling by now. Cordelia smiled and said, "Well,  it is time to eat after all. So, why doesn't everyone who submitted the wood or water line up so that they can get food?"

All the students were stunned. About eight people, including Liu Feng and Amelia, lined up to eat. The other students protested, "How is this fair. There were people dying. We had to run. Why do they get food and we don't?"

"You are being unfair! First, you allow the students to die, and now you are denying us food? What do you think you are doing? We are very important people.", Again, another student pitched in.

"Quiet!", Cordelia shouted, silencing everyone there before the matter blew up once again. "The forest is equally dangerous everywhere. I said before that whoever brings the water or wood will get food, and the rest will not. You should have listened to me then itself. Why quip now? You are all just idiots. You don't listen. When I first gathered all of you in the academy grounds. what did I tell you? Listen to my every command. And did you? Let this be a reminder for next time. These students brought the firewood and water that is needed for cooking. Well, rudimentary cooking, that is."

The students who got the food weren't very happy either.

"What is with the food? There isn't any meat. How will I eat without meat? I need meat!", one of them shouted.

"So then why don't you go hunt a few rabbits for us all? Meat attracts monsters, and makes it too dangerous. We have to stick with plant diets during the trip.", Cordelia reprimanded everyone who was protesting.

Liu Feng and Amelia ate, as everyone watched. Amelia felt pity, and was about to offer the food when Liu Feng held her hand to stop her. 

"If they can watch a boy wrong a girl without doing anything, then watching us eat while on an empty stomach should be fairly easy shouldn't it?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?", Amelia asked Liu Feng.

"Right, you didn't know. That duke's son, he attacked a girl and tried to do certain unspeakable things with her. All these people, they were forming a circle around all of this, as if it were a show, and not one of them stopped it.", Liu Feng said, his voice cold as ice itself.

The arm that reached out to offer food immediately shot back as Amelia looked at all the students with disgust.

All the students looked down in shame.