Desperately

As a young child, my favorite story was the tale of Malitt the Miniscule. After slaying his first dragon at the age of ten, he was offered a knighthood by Bruma XI himself. Shocking the court of the Eleventh Winter Emperor, Malitt turned down the honor, choosing instead to take the path of an unbound adventurer. "'For I, the humble youngest son of a fisherman, can take only the stars as my lord.' Thus announced the hero with his head bowed." It was always young me who would recite this famous line before Mother would continue with a smile: 

"The noblemen hurled their condemnation at Malitt, furious at the nerve of a young boy who dared reject an emperor's favor. But the monarch, a man barely of age himself, simply laughed and commended the hero's deference to the heavens. 'I myself am but a child of the celestial spheres. Go forth, and honor our eternal parents.' And so, giving his regards, Malitt set off on the start of his epic adventure as a daring, resourceful adventurer."

I myself was the youngest son — though of a merchant and not a fisherman — and took strength in the great tales of a champion who impressed a Winter Emperor despite being only ten years old. But the other students at the combat academy could not understand my enjoyment of the relatively recent story of a small adventurer and a befittingly weak emperor. For the boys, it was the old classics of Grara the Great and of Aestiva VII that truly showcased the greatness to which any student of combat should aspire. The few girls at the academy, meanwhile, occupied themselves with stories of Spring and Winter Empresses falling in love with dreamy princes from distant lands. Most of them were only there to learn the basics for self-defense, and had no intentions of becoming warriors themselves.

But there was one exception: a girl one year my junior.