2 weeks after Gareth's 18th birthday he reflects on his Academy life. Coming into the Academy where everyone else knew each other for years, he was ostracized. His kingdom was viewed as weak, despite having never lost a war. The strength of the dragon kingdom was well hidden and underestimated. Gareth Coming from a different culture, didn't know the local geography well, or the names of the areas kingdoms, this led to a certain prince to verbally bully him. Anna always stood by his side and defended him, but Rebecca ignored his plight. Although their relationship was amiable, she claimed if she stood up for him, she would also be bullied. One time prince Rufus, who verbally bullies Gareth, tried to physically bully him also. And without hesitation Gareth broke 7 of his bones, and left him in a bleeding mess in the hallway. The school officials tried to discipline him, and he simply replied, "the bully attacked me, since you said you can do nothing to him, you can also do nothing to me." And Gareth left without waiting for their reply.
Now as graduation looks, Gareth learns Rufus' kingdom has declared war on his. He is preparing to leave the Academy 3 weeks before the graduation ceremony and Rebecca approaches. "Why leave before graduation, you won't get a diploma?" Gareth replies. "I am a prince, what good is a diploma, I already leaned what I needed to here, the certificate means nothing. Besides we have to prepare for our wedding." Rebecca hesitated and replied "well, it's too soon for our wedding, we will have to postpone it." Gareth looks surprised and says "what do you mean, the date was set years ago?" Rebecca replies "my family feels it's not the right time, with you at war." Gareth replies "you are our allies, and you claim neutrality, and now you try to postpone the wedding, explain yourself." Before Rebecca can reply, Rufus appears and says "I will marry Rebecca after we destroy your kingdom, her family already agreed haha!" Rebecca stammering says "they only agreed if you win, if not I will still marry Gareth." Gareth simmering in anger says "you dare break our marriage contact? You fools have no idea what you have done, our marriage contact has steep penalties for failure to uphold it." Rebecca replies "i understand your anger, but it's not like you can enforce those clauses, do you really expect us to send 20 members of the royal family and 70% of our royal treasury as compensation? My father told me to tell you, you can either win the war then marry me, or you get nothing." Gareth retorts "so you idiots think your above the contract? Unfortunately for you my family uses magic contracts, and weather you agree or not to the penalties is irrelevant." Gareth invokes the full penalty clauses and a magical script appears to Rebecca, asking her to choose 10 of the 15 royal family members to be enslaved, with a 24 hour countdown.