In the final day of his training -- or his judgement day to whether he passes or not, Joseph, awfully nervous about his upcoming exams for the royal knights knowing he might fail to achieve the essential demand to join the royal academy.
"This is just so nerve wrecking, i really hope there's no written exams coming up on the test..." nervously talking to himself.
As he walks towards the academy he accidentally fell while bumping into one of the noble students of the academy.
"Hey peasant! You ruined my breakfast! How are you going to pay for this!?" One of the noble students exclaimed shouting at him.
A young girl notices this and she reprimanded the students and told them to be on their way. "Tsk, you lucky bastard! I'll get you this!" One of the student said while storming off towards the academy all annoyed and mad.
The young girl looks back to Joseph "Hey, are you ok? Did they push you around too much?" She looks at him all worriedly. "No, I'm fine princess Sulpha. I didn't get hurt that much I just fell down" he said to her whilst scratching the back of his head trying to reassure her.
"Shh, keep your voice down! No one knows i left the castle to take a walk." She whispered as she loses her composure whilst trying to collect herself.
While she does this — a guard suddenly comes up to them, "why are you two on the ground? Please get up." The princess tries to cover up her face but to no avail she was noticed by the guard, the princess noticed this and runs as fast as possible while the guard chases her after he realized who she was, "Princess! Please come back to the castle! The king's worried sick about you!" He says while chasing her.
Joseph looks back as the princess and guard run away, "I hope you forgive me for involving you princess..." Thinking to himself, he suddenly remembers he has to attend an exam, "I'm going to be late! I need to go now!" As he runs towards the academy, he finally made it through before the guard closes the door. While running to the entrance exam, he bumps into a girl "I'm very sorry" he helps her get the books from the floor before continuing to run.
She looks at him in disbelief mixed with a bit of annoyance as he run "he should've been more careful" she said talking to herself.
As Joseph arrives he was scolded by the teacher, "Why are you late? We had already informed you the time a week early!" The teacher said in an annoyed tone. "I'm very sorry sir, I-" he replied before the teachers cuts him off and says "No reasons! Go sit to your assigned desks and we'll talk about this later in my office." Joseph replied with "Yes sir" before going to his desk and begins answering his exams.
A couple hours pass by and recess starts, joseph goes to the cafeteria and buys food. After buying he hear someone call for him, "Hey! Seph! Come sit with us!" He yells calling for Joseph, he hears this and continues to walk towards their table then sits.
"So Seph, were already hearing news about you, not exactly good one though" his friend says sheepishly trying to tease him, "Shut up Kraff, I'm already in a bad mood from being late" Joseph replied to his friend, "Oh? So not just that but you were late as well? You're really giving off bad impression" he says so while laughing it off as a joke.
"Aswell? What are you talking about? What else have I done that I didn't notice?" He asked Kraff all confused.
"You haven't heard? You were running so fast you bumped into the vice president of the school's student council!" Kraff replied to Joseph.
"What!?" Joseph was in shock by what he heard from Kraff, he hurriedly finished his food then returned to class to avoid getting caught by anyone who has heard the rumor.
As the exams finally is about to end, his teacher called him in to talk. "Joseph, have you known why I've called you here?" The teacher asked Joseph, "No sir, why have you called me here?" He answered.
"This was supposed to be a talk about you getting late but it seems that you've gotten yourself in trouble before even getting to class." His teacher said.
"Trouble? What could it be..." Joseph thinks to himself wondering what he could've done wrong. "Could it be about the early morning!? I might be in deeper trouble than I thought."
The teacher speaks breaking his focus. "This letter came from the school's student council, I haven't read the contents yet but it is probably bad news to you." The teacher hands him a letter before sighing to himself.
"You haven't even been accepted into the academy yet and you've already got the attention of your superiors." The said as he sighs in disbelief and looks at him with worry.
"This could be very bad for me." He says to himself as he looks at the letter on his hands.
He looks back at the teacher and says, "Thank you very much sir, i really appreciate you handing this out to me." He says as he thanks his teacher, "Alright kid, go home now it's getting late, careful on your way home." The teacher replied, "Thank you again sir."
As he walks out his teacher's office and proceeds to walk home. While on the way home he was unexpectedly dragged into a corner by a group of people where nobody could see them. "So kid, it's time for payback for what you did earlier this morning" the person in front of him says.
Joseph looks up and sees the person and recognizes him as the person he bumped into earlier in the morning. "W-what..? I-I'll pay it back i swear!". Joseph stuttered.
"Well you see, we're in need of the money so if you don't pay it now we'll just have to beat you senseless... Understood!?" The student replied.
"I-I don't have the money on me right now! I swear!" Joseph shouted at them. "Kid... Lower your voice down a bit will you? Or this'll happen!" He beats and kicks him multiple times and only was stopped by his boss.
"Kid, return the money back for how much his outfit was worth got it?" Lifting his head up before smacking it back to the ground. "Don't even try to rat us out on anyone or we'll kill you instead." One of the lackey's commented.
After they left Joseph soon passed out a bit but soon wakes up almost close to midnight, he stood and tried to walk home but he barely could. After covering some distance an unknown person comes up to him, but he couldn't tell who it was as his vision begins to get blurry and passes out from exhaustion
Morning had already risen as soon as he woke up, he looks around seeing himself covered in bandages but notices something else. "Huh? What's this?" He unravelled the bedsheets. "How did I get here? Why am I here?" He asked himself.
He suddenly remembered what happened last night, "Outfit... If I remembered correctly it was his breakfast that I had to pay for..." He thinks to himself curiously. "Did he lie about it!? That-" before getting cut off by the door slamming open.
"Joseph!! You're awake!! What happened to you? Why were you unconscious and bruised on the sidewalk? Who did that to you? Please tell me!" The unknown girl who suddenly barged in asked him continuously.
Joseph recognized the voice then realized it was Sulpha, "Sulpha? How did I get here?" He asked her in a weak voice.
"Don't mind that for now! Rest as much as you can because father does not know of you being here and he'll blow up if he finds out you're here." She replied to him.
"O-ok, I'll leave as soon as I've rested up" Joseph replied to her. "We have a lot to talk about but let's save that for another time" she said in annoyance as she storms off the room.
"What did I do..." He said before looking at the window. "What a bunch of unexpected events..." He thinks to his self.